y method of
pacificating Germany: That his Britannic Majesty should firmly button
his breeches-pocket, 'Not one sixpence more, Madam!'--and go home to his
bed, if he find no business waiting him at home. Has not he always the
EAR-OF-JENKINS Question, and the Cause of Liberty in that succinct form.
But, in Germany, sinews of war being cut, law of gravitation would at
once act; and exorbitant Hungarian Majesty, tired France, and all else,
would in a brief space of time lapse into equilibrium, probably of the
more stable kind. 2. Or, if you want to save the Cause of Liberty on
there are those HANAU CONFERENCES,--Carteret's magnificent scheme:
A united Teutschland (England inspiring it), to rush on the throat of
France, for 'Compensation,' for universal salving of sores. This second
method, Diana having intervened, is gone to water, and even to poisoned
water. So that, 3". There was nothing left for poor Carteret but a TR
WORMS (concerning which, something more explicit by and by): A
Teutschland (the English, doubly and trebly inspiring it, as surely they
will now need!) to rush as aforesaid, in the DISunited and indeed nearly
internecine state. Which third method--unless Carteret can conquer
Naples for the Kaiser, stuff the Kaiser into some satisfactory
'Netherlands' or the like, and miraculously do the unfeasible (Fortune
perhaps favoring the brave)--may be called the unlikely one! As poor
Carteret probably guesses, or dreads;--had he now any choice left. But
it was love's last shift! And, by aid of Diana and otherwise, that is
the posture in which, at Mainz, 11th October, 1743, we leave the German
Question."

"Compensation," from France in particular, is not to be had gratis, it
appears. Somewhere or other it must be had! Complaining once, as she
very often does, to her Supreme Jove, Hungarian Majesty had written:
"Why, oh, why did you force me to give up Silesia!"--Supreme Jove
answers (at what date I never knew, though Friedrich knows it, and "has
copy of the Letter"): "Madam, what was good to give is good to take back
(CC QUI EST BON A PRENDRE EST BON A RENDRE)!" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
iii. 27.]

Chapter VI.--VOLTAIRE VISITS FRIEDRICH FOR THE FOURTH TIME.

In the last days of August, there appears at Berlin M. de Voltaire,
on his Fourth Visit:--thrice and four times welcome; though this time,
privately, in a somewhat unexpected capacity. Come to try his hand
in the diplomatic line; to sound Friedrich a l