The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great
prudence and goodness. He knows, that, in the actual state of things,
not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very
existence, depends on a reasonable frugality. It is very certain that
not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of
his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to
venture on a new imposition to relieve himself. Without abandoning
wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted
his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors,
so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the
state in which the Seven Years' War had left Saxony. Saxony, during the
whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an
exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity,
was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the
intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country
were not better treated.
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