res, excited the admiration of
Europe. In Vienna, and throughout all the States of Austria, her
popularity was unbounded. After the battle of Dettingen, in which her
troops gained a decisive victory, as the queen was returning to Vienna
from a water excursion, she found the banks of the Danube, for nine
miles, crowded with her rejoicing subjects. In triumph she was escorted
into the capital, greeted by every demonstration of the most
enthusiastic joy.

Austria and England were now prepared to mature their plans for the
dismemberment of France. The commissioners met at Hanau, a small
fortified town, a few miles east of Frankfort. They met, however, only
to quarrel fiercely. Austrian and English pride clashed in instant
collision. Lord Stair, imperious and irritable, regarded the Austrians
as outside barbarians whom England was feeding, clothing and protecting.
The Austrian officers regarded the English as remote islanders from whom
they had hired money and men. The Austrians were amazed at the impudence
of the English in assuming the direction of affairs. The British
officers were equally astounded that the Austrians should presume to
take the lead. No plan of cooeperation could be agreed upon, and the
conference broke up in confusion,

The queen, whose heart was still fixed upon the elevation of her husband
to the throne of the empire, was anxious to depose the emperor. But
England was no more willing to see Austria dominant over Europe than to
see France thus powerful. Maria Theresa was now in possession of all her
vast ancestral domains, and England judged that it would endanger the
balance of power to place upon the brow of her husband the imperial
crown. The British cabinet consequently espoused the cause of the
Elector of Bavaria, and entered into a private arrangement with him,
agreeing to acknowledge him as emperor, and to give him an annual
pension that he might suitably support the dignity of his station. The
wealth of England seems to have been inexhaustible, for half the
monarchs of Europe have, at one time or other, been fed and clothed from
her treasury. George II. contracted to pay the emperor, within forty
days, three hundred thousand dollars, and to do all in his power to
constrain the queen of Austria to acknowledge his title.

Maria Theresa had promised the King of Sardinia large accessions of
territory in Italy, as the price for his cooeperation. But now, having
acquired those Italian territories,