Folio 33: Jefferyes to Stanhope. Not yet having received the last resolution from...

Folio 33: Jefferyes to Stanhope. Not yet having received the last resolution from the Czar which Weber and I were promised by Safirov I warn that you have nothing to hope for from this court. Their manner of acting is so contrary to the good disposition they pretend to have that they never prevent themselves from showing their bad intentions. Taking our vessels and the violence done to his Majesty's subjects are certain proofs. Yesterday a favourite of the Czar said that the Congress at Aland must continue and that if the Swedes pretend to amuse themselves as in the past, they are quite capable by their own strength of pulling off a peace as they wish. He advances at the same time the question bought up for discussion at the last court to consider the necessity of intimidating the Swedesand to prevent the others from the North from allying in a peace made with this clown. There are divergent views, one side believing they must carry the flame of war into the Swedish capital, by attacking on one side by a raid across the Gulf of Bothnia and on the other by an army of 20,000 who could enter the realm alongside the Gulf; others have voted that they must hold themselves on the defensive, seeking only to defend the conquests, to remove all communication from the Swedes in the Baltic, by cutting off provisions and, by reducing her to famine, making her agree to the conditions of peace that the Czar imposes on her. To that end he must send a good squadron to sea and must take all other necessary precautions now. In the meantime they could change their minds on the recall of the plenipotentiaries from Aland, leaving all to chance in order to be able to restart negotiations if the Swedes should be so inclined. The big change in Sweden augments the mistrust of this court, since the faction opposed to that of Gortz is suspected to be in our interest. Dated St Petersburg, 12 Jan 1718/9. French.