six thousand Spanish troops should at
once occupy the territory of Tuscany and Parma. Walpole argued with
his own people that war would lose them the commercial privileges they
already enjoyed in Spanish dominions; while with Spain he carried on
constant negotiations, seeking concessions and indemnities that might
silence the home clamor. In the midst of this period a war broke out
concerning the succession to the Polish throne. The father-in-law of
the French king was one claimant; Austria supported his opponent. A
common hostility to Austria once more drew France and Spain together,
and they were joined by the King of Sardinia, who hoped through this
alliance to wrest Milan from Austria and add it to his own territory
of Piedmont. The neutrality of England and Holland was secured by a
promise not to attack the Austrian Netherlands, the possession of any
part of which by France was considered to be dangerous to England's
sea power. The allied States declared war against Austria in October,
1733, and their armies entered Italy together; but the Spaniards,
intent on their long-cherished projects against Naples and Sicily,
left the others and turned southward. The two kingdoms were easily and
quickly conquered, the invaders having command of the sea and the
favor of the population. The second son of the King of Spain was
proclaimed king under the title of Carlos III., and the Bourbon
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies thus came into existence. Walpole's
aversion to war, leading him to abandon a long-standing ally, thus
resulted in the transfer of the central Mediterranean to a control
necessarily unfriendly to Great Britain.

But while Walpole thus forsook the emperor, he was himself betrayed by
his friend Fleuri. While making the open alliance with Spain against
Austria, the French government agreed to a secret clause directed
against England. This engagement ran as follows: "Whenever it seems
good to both nations alike, the abuses which have crept into commerce,
especially through the English, shall be abolished; and if the English
make objection, France will ward off their hostility with all its
strength by land and sea." "And this compact was made," as the
biographer of Lord Hawke points out, "during a period of intimate and
ostentatious alliance with England itself."[84] "Thus the policy
against which William III. had called on England and Europe to arm, at
last came into existence." Had Walpole known of this secret agreeme