presidency in the meetings of the Estates, and offered to pay 100,000
fl. in compensation to the heir of the Nassaus. William refused to
receive it, saying that either the marquisate did not belong to him, in
which case he could not accept money for it, or it did belong to him and
was not for sale. William's position was advanced by his marriage in
1734 to Anne, eldest daughter of George II. Thus for the third time a
Princess Royal of England became Princess of Orange. The reception of
the newly married pair at Amsterdam and the Hague was, however, cool
though polite; and despite the representatives of Gelderland, who
urged that the falling credit and bad state of the Republic required the
appointment of an "eminent head," Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland and
Overyssel remained obdurate in their refusal to change the form of
government. William had to content himself with the measure of power he
had obtained and to await events. He showed much patience, for he had
many slights and rebuffs to put up with. His partisans would have urged
him to more vigorous action, but this he steadily refused to take.

The Republic kept drifting meanwhile on the downward path. Its
foreign policy was in nerveless hands; jobbery was rampant; trade
and industry declined; the dividends of the East India Company
fell year by year through the incompetence and greed of officials
appointed by family influence; the West India Company was
practically bankrupt. Such was the state of the country in 1740,
when the outbreak of the Austrian Succession War found the
Republic without leadership, hopelessly undecided what course of
action it should take, and only seeking to evade its responsibilities.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXII

THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION WAR. WILLIAM IV, 1740-1751

The death of the Emperor Charles VI in October, 1740, was the signal for
the outbreak of another European war. All Charles' efforts on behalf of
the Pragmatic Sanction proved to have been labour spent in vain. Great
Britain, the United Provinces, Spain, Saxony, Poland, Russia, Sardinia,
Prussia, most of the smaller German States, and finally France, had
agreed to support (1738) the Pragmatic Sanction. The assent of Spain had
been bought by the cession of the two Sicilies; of France by that of
Lorraine, whose Duke Francis Stephen had married Maria Theresa and was
compensated by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for the loss of his ancestral
domain. Th