their refentments against him, could not be mollified; the latter, either foured by disappointment, or incited by ambition, only wished his removal. To thefe, therefore, Walpole applied, and was willing to grant them that power they aimed at, in return for which he only demanded impunity. The offer was accepted with pleafure; their Tory friends were inftantly abandoned; and a breach thus enfuing, the fame oppofition ftill continued against the new ministry, that had prevailed against the old.

The place of chancellor of the Exchequer was bestowed on Mr. Sandys, who was likewife appointed a lord of the treafury. Lord Harrington was declared president of the council; and in his room lord Carteret became fecretary of state. Mr. Pulteney was fworn of the privy-council, and afterwards created earl of Bath. The reconciliation between the king and the prince of Wales took place foon after; and the change in the miniftry was celebrated by rejoicings over the whole

nation.

But this tranfport was of fhort duration; it foon appeared that those who declaimed moft loudly for the liberties of the people, had adopted new measures with their new employments. The new converts were branded as betrayers of the interests of their country; but particularly the refentment of the people fell upon the earl of Bath, who had long declaimed against that very conduct he now feemed earnestly to purfue. He had been the idol of the people, and confidered as one of the most illuftrious champions that had ever defended the caufe of freedom; but allured perhaps with the hope of governing in Walpole's place, he was contented to give up his popularity for ambition. The king, however, treated him with that neglect which he merited; he was laid aside for life, and

continued a wretched furvivor of all his former importance.

The war with Spain had now continued for feveral years, and was attended with but indifferent fortune. Some unfuccefsful expeditions had been carried on in the Weft-Indies, under admiral Vernon, commodore Knowles, and others; and the failure of these was ftill more aggravated by the political writers of the day; a clafs of beings that had rifen up during this and the preceding administration, at firft employed against Walpole, and afterwards taken into pay by him. Dull, and without principle, they made themselves agreeable to the public by impudence and abuse, embarrassed every operation, and embittered every misfortune. Thefe had for fome time difgufted the nation of their operations by fea, and taught them to wish for better fortune on land. The people became ripe for renewing their victories in Flanders, and the king defired nothing with fo much ardour. It was refolved, therefore, to fend a powerful body. of men into the Netherlands to join in the quarrels that were beginning on the continent; and immenfe triumphs were expected from fuch an undertaking, which the king refolved to conduct in perfon.

An army of fixteen thousand men was therefore fhipped over into Flanders, and the war with Spain became but an object of secondary confideration.

T

CHA P. XLVII.

GEORGE

II. (Continued.)

O have a clear, yet concife idea of the origin of the troubles on the continent, it will be neceffary to go back for fome years, and trace the

measures

measures of the European republic from that period where we left them in our former narrative. After the duke of Orleans, who had been regent of France, died, cardinal Fleury undertook to fettle the great confufion in which that luxurious prince had left the kingdom. His moderation and prudence were equally confpicuous; he was fincere, frugal, modeft, and fimple: under him, therefore, France repaired her loffes, and enriched herself by commerce; he only left the state to its own natural methods of thriving, and he faw is every day affuming its former health and vigour.

During the long interval of peace, which this minifter's councils had procured for Europe, two powers, till now unregarded, began to attract the notice and jealoufy of the neighbouring nations, Peter the Great had already civilized Ruffia, and this new created extenfive empire began to influence the councils of other nations, and to give laws to the north. The other power that came into notice, was that of the king of Pruffia, whose dominions were compact and populous, and whose forces were well maintained and ready for action.

The other states were but little improved for the purposes of renewing the war. The empire remained under the government of Charles the fixth, who had been placed upon the throne by the treaty of Utrecht. Sweden continued to languifh, being not yet recovered from the deftructive projects of her darling monarch, Charles the twelfth. Denmark was powerful enough, but inclined to peace; and part of Italy ftill remained fubject to those princes who had been impofed upon it by foreign treaties.

All these states, however, continued to enjoy a profound peace, until the death of Auguftus, king of Poland, by which a general flame was once more kindled in Europe. The emperor, affifted

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by.

by the arms of Ruffia, declared for the elector of Saxony, fon to the deceased king. On the other hand, France declared for Stanislaus, who long fince had been nominated king of the Poles by Charles of Sweden, and whofe daughter the king? of France had fince married. In order to drive forward his pretenfions, Stanislaus repaired to Dantzic, where the people very gladly received him. But his triumph was fhort; ten thousand Ruffians appearing before the place, the Polifh nobility.difperfed, and Stanislaus was befieged by this fmall body of forces. But though the city was taken, the king efcaped with fome difficulty by night; and fifteen hundred men, that were fent to his affiftance, were made prifoners of war. France, however, refolved to continue her affiftance to him, and this it was fuppofed would be moft effectually done by diftreffing the house of Auftria.

The views of France. were feconded by Spain and Sardinia, both having hopes to grow more powerful by a divifion of the fpoils of Auftria. A French army, therefore, foon over-ran the empire, under the conduct of old mar fhal Villars; while the duke of Montemar, the general of Spain, was equally victorious in the kingdom of Naples. Thus the emperor had the mortification to fee his own dominions ravaged, and a great part of Italy torn from him, only for having attempted to give a king to Poland,

These rapid fucceffes of France and its allies, foon compelled the emperor to demand a peace. It was accordingly granted him; but Stanislaus, upon whofe account the war was begun, was neglected in the treaty. It was ftipulated that he should renounce all claim to the crown of Poland, for which the emperor gratified France with the dutchy of Lorrain, and fome other valuable territories.

The

The emperor dying in the year 1740, the French began to think this a favourable opportunity for exerting their ambition once more. Regardless of treaties, particularly that called the pragmatic fanction, by which the reverfion of all the late emperor's dominions was fettled upon his daughter, they caufed the elector of Bavaria to be crowned emperor. Thus the queen of Hungary, daughter of Charles the fixth, defcended from an illuftrious line of emperors, faw herself ftripped of her inheritance, and left for a whole year deferted by all Europe, and without any hopes of fuccour. She had fcarce closed her father's eyes, when the loft Silefia, by an irruption of the young king of Pruffia, who feized the opportunity of her defenceless state to renew his ancient pretenfions to thas province, of which it must be owned his ancestors had been unjustly deprived. France, Saxony, and Bavaria, attacked the reft of her dominions; England was the only ally that feemed willing to espouse her helpless condition. Sardinia, and Holland foon after came to her affiftance, and laft of all Ruffia acceded to the union in her favour.

It may now be demanded, what caufe Britain had to intermeddle in thefe continental fchemes. It can only be answered, that the interests of Hanover, and the fecurity of that electorate, depended upon the nicely balancing the different interefts of the empire; and the English miniftry were willing to gratify the king. Lord Carteret, who had now taken up that place in the royal confidence which had formerly been poffeffed by Walpole, by pursuing these measures foothed the wifhes of his mafter, and opened a more extenfive field for his own ambition. He expected to receive honour from victories which he feemed certain of obtaining; and defired to engage in meafures

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