was not worth the life of one British grenadier. The time had not come
when even a great minister might venture {25} to look at an
international quarrel from such a point of view. Walpole temporized,
delayed, endeavored to bring about a reconciliation of claims;
endeavored to get at something like a mediation; carried on prolonged
negotiations with the Government of the Netherlands to induce the
States General to join with England in an offer of mediation. The
Emperor was all the time sending despatches to England, in which he
bitterly complained that he had been deceived and deserted. He laid
all the blame on Walpole's head. Pages of denunciation of Walpole and
all Walpole's family are to be found in these imperial despatches.
Walpole remained firm to his purpose. He would not go to war, but it
did not suit him to proclaim his determination. He kept up his
appearance of active negotiation, and he trusted to time to settle the
question one way or the other before King George should get too
restive, and should insist on plunging into the war. He had many an
uneasy hour, but his policy succeeded in the end.

The controversy out of which the war began was complicated by other
questions and made formidable by the rival pursuit of other ends than
those to be acknowledged in public treaty. It would be unjust and even
absurd to suppose that Walpole's opponents believed England had a
direct interest in the question of the Polish succession, or that they
would have shed the blood of English grenadiers merely in order that
this candidate and not that should be on the throne of Poland. What
the Opposition contended was that the alliance of France and Spain was
in reality directed quite as much against England as against the
Emperor. In this they were perfectly right. It was directed as much
against England as against the Emperor. Little more than forty years
ago a collection of treaties and engagements entered into by the
Spanish branch of the Bourbon family found its way to the light of day
in Madrid. The publication was the means of pouring a very flood of
light on some events which perplexed and distracted the outer world in
the days at {26} which, in the course of this history, we have now
arrived. We speak especially of the Polish war of succession and the
policy pursued with regard to it by France and Spain. The collection
of documents contained a copy of a treaty or arrangement entered into
between the Kin