s gradation of exorbitant claims and oppressive measures, have
they at length arrived, my lords, at the summit of insolence; by these
steps have they ascended once more the towering throne of universal
monarchy; nor was any thing wanting to complete their plan, but that
their ancient rival, the German empire, should be reduced to
acknowledge their sovereignty, and that the supreme dignity of Europe
should be the gift of the French bounty.

The death of the late emperour, without sons, furnished them with an
opportunity of executing their design, too favourable to be neglected.
They now imagined it in their power, not only to dispose of the
imperial dignity, but to divide the dominions of the house of Austria
into many petty sovereignties, incapable singly of opposing them, and
unlikely to unite in any common cause, or to preserve a confederacy
unbroken, if they should by accident agree to form it.

They, therefore, sent their armies into Germany, to superintend the
approaching election, and by hovering over the territories of princes
unable to resist them, extorted voices in favour of their ally; a
prince, whose dominions must, by their situation, always oblige him to
compliance with the demands, and to concurrence in the schemes of his
protectors, and who will rather act as the substitute of France, than
the emperour of Germany.

But it was to no purpose that they had graced their dependant with
titular honours and ensigns of sovereignty, if the house of Austria
still retained its hereditary dominions, and preserved its strength
when it had lost its dignity. They well knew that armies were equally
formidable, whether commanded by an emperour or an inferiour
sovereign; and that a mere alteration of names, though it might afford
a slight and transient gratification to vanity, would produce no real
increase or diminution of power.

They, therefore, thought it necessary to improve the present time of
confusion, and excite all the princes of the empire to revive their
ancient claims upon the Austrian territories; claims, which how long
soever they had been forgotten, howsoever abrogated by long
prescription, or annulled by subsequent treaties, were now again to
become valid, and to be decided by the arbitration of France.

But this project being defeated by the heroick constancy of the queen
of Hungary, whose wisdom and resolution, which will equal her name in
future histories with those of the most successful conquero