he ambition of the house of
Austria. In the spring of 1744 an Austrian army marched upon Naples,
with the purpose of transferring it after its conquest to the Bavarian
Emperor, whose hereditary dominions in Bavaria were to pass in return to
Maria Theresa. Its march at once forced the Prussian king into a fresh
attitude of hostility. If Frederick had withdrawn from the war on the
cession of Silesia, he was resolute to take up arms again rather than
suffer so great an aggrandizement of the House of Austria in Germany.
His sudden alliance with France failed at first to change the course of
the war; for though he was successful in seizing Prague and drawing the
Austrian army from the Rhine, Frederick was driven from Bohemia, while
the death of the Emperor forced Bavaria to lay down its arms and to ally
itself with Maria Theresa. So high were the Queen's hopes at this moment
that she formed a secret alliance with Russia for the division of the
Prussian monarchy. But in 1745 the tide turned, and the fatal results of
Carteret's weakness in assenting to a change in the character of the
struggle which transformed it from a war of defence into one of attack
became manifest. The young French king, Lewis the Fifteenth, himself led
an army into the Netherlands; and the refusal of Holland to act against
him left their defence wholly in the hands of England. The general anger
at this widening of the war proved fatal to Carteret, or as he now
became, Earl Granville. His imperious temper had rendered him odious to
his colleagues, and he was driven from office by the Pelhams, who not
only forced George against his will to dismiss him, but foiled the
king's attempt to construct a new administration with Granville at its
head.

[Sidenote: The Pelham Ministry.]

Of the reconstituted ministry which followed Henry Pelham became the
head. His temper as well as a consciousness of his own mediocrity
disposed him to a policy of conciliation which reunited the Whigs.
Chesterfield and the Whigs in opposition, with Pitt and "the Boys," all
found room in the new administration; and even a few Tories, who had
given help to Pelham's party, found admittance. Their entry was the
first breach in the system of purely party government established on the
accession of George the First, though it was more than compensated by
the new strength and unity of the Whigs. But the chief significance of
Carteret's fall lay in its bearing on foreign policy. The rivalry