not only incited the
neighbouring princes to assert their claim by promises of assistance,
but poured numerous armies into the empire, not only to procure by
force, and without the least regard to equity, an election in favour
of the duke of Bavaria, but to assist him in the invasion of the
Austrian dominions, of which the settlement had been ratified by their
concurrence, purchased at a price which might justly have been thought
too great, even though they had observed their stipulations.

The pleas which they advanced in vindication of their conduct, it is
not necessary to relate; since, however artfully they may be formed,
the common sense of mankind must perceive them to be false. It is to
no purpose, that they declare themselves not to have receded from
their promise, because they enter the empire only as auxiliaries, and
their troops act under the command of the elector of Bavaria; since he
that furnishes troops for the invasion of those territories which he
is obliged to protect, may very justly be considered as an invader; as
he who assists a thief, partakes the guilt of theft.

All contracts, sir, whether between states or private persons, are to
be understood according to the known intention of the two parties; and
I suppose it will not be pretended, by the most hardened advocate for
the conduct of the French, that the late emperour would have
purchased, at so dear a rate, their accession to the Pragmatick
sanction, if he had supposed, that they still thought themselves at
liberty to employ all their treasure and their force in assisting
others to violate it.

It is well known, that an unsuccessful war, which the French are
likewise suspected of assisting, had, a short time before the death of
the emperour, weakened his forces, and exhausted his revenues; and
that, therefore, when he was surprised by death, he left his family
impoverished and defenceless; so that his daughter being without money
or armies, and pressed by enemies on every side of her dominions, was
immediately reduced to such distress as, perhaps, she only was able to
support, and such difficulties as no other would have entertained the
least hope of being able to surmount.

In the first crush of her calamities, when she was driven by the
torrent of invasion from fortress to fortress, and from kingdom to
kingdom, it is not to be denied, that most of the guarantees of the
Pragmatick sanction stood at gaze, without attempting that relief
wh