Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 42. (1992)
BLACK, Jeremy: British policy towards Austria, 1780–1793
JEREMY BLACK BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS AUSTRIA, 1780-93* ‘That Britain emerged from isolation in the late ’eighties as the ally of Prussia rather than of Austria seems to have been due to the chapter of accidents.’ David Horn** 1) ‘I am persuaded that His Imperial Majesty if left to himself would have seized opportunities, which once lost, are never to be recovered; would have shown a real concern for the interests of Great Britain; and paved the way for the return of that system which can alone give Austria the weight she ought to have in the general scale; but Prince Kaunitz has changed all this, and confined his new Sovereign to that little paltry line of policy which he marked out for the Empress Queen. The consequence will be, that the Emperor with every advantage of situation and circumstances, with distinguished talents, great activity of mind and body, spirit of enterprize, large views and ambition equal to the means of attainment, with all this which might have made him one of the greatest Princes that ever filled the Imperial throne, he will sink into a secondary character, disappoint the expectation he had raised, and lose the time for action in little internal regulations and preparations for that which will never come, and his reign which might have been one continued scene of glory will be marked with nothing but attention to inferior objects, subserviency to the House of Bourbon; jealousy of Prussia, and little attempts, in concert with Russia, against the Ottoman Empire, either by open war, or perhaps by a partition similar to that of Poland.’ Viscount Stormont, Secretary of State for the Northern Department, 17812). British policy towards Austria in the period 1780-93 is a subject that has received very little attention. There is nothing for this period comparable to the doctoral theses by Hamish Scott and Michael Duffy on the * I would like to thank the Wolfson Foundation and the British Academy for assistance with my research. Folio numbers are given only for foliated volumes. 1) David Horn Great Britain and Europe in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford 1967) 139-140. 2) Stormont to Robert Murray Keith, British envoy in Vienna, 14 Sept. 1781: Public Record Office London Foreign Office Papers (hereafter PRO London FO) 7/3. 188
