ring,
intriguing creature (and always with such moneys to distribute); had
victorious hopes now and then,--which one and all proved fatuous.
["June, 1750," Hanbury for Berlin (Britannic Majesty much anxious
Hanbury were there): Hanbury to Warsaw next (hiring Polish Majesty
there); at Dresden, does make victorious Treaty, September, 1751; at
Vienna, 1753 (still on the aawe quest). Coxe's--Pelham,--ii. 339, 196,
469.] In 1751 and 1752, the darling Project met cross tides, foul winds,
political whirlpools ("Such a set are those German Princes!")--and swam,
indomitable, though near desperate, as Project seldom did; till happily,
in 1753, it sank drowned:--and left his Grace of Newcastle asking,
"Well-a-day! And is not England drowned too?" We hope not.

"Owing mainly to Friedrich's opposition!" exclaimed Noodle and the
Political Circles. Which--(though it was not the fact; Friedrich's
opposition, once that Reichs-Guarantee of his own was got, being mostly
passive, "Push it through the stolid element, then, YOU stolid fellows,
if you can!")--awoke considerable outcry in England. Lively suspicion
there, of treasonous intentions to the Cause of Liberty, on his Prussian
Majesty's part; and--coupled with other causes that had risen--a
great deal of ill-nature, in very dark condition, against his Prussian
Majesty. And it was not Friedrich's blame, chiefly or at all. If indeed
Friedrich would have forwarded the Enterprise:--but he merely did not;
and the element was viscous, stolid. Austria itself had wished the
thing; but with nothing like such enthusiasm as King George;--to whom
the refusal, by Friedrich and Fate, was a bitter disappointment. Poor
Britannic Majesty: Archduke Joseph came to be King of the Romans, in due
course; right enough. And long before that event (almost before George
had ended his vain effort to hasten it), Austria turned on its pivot;
and had clasped, not England to its bosom, but France (thanks to that
exquisite Kaunitz); and was in arms AGAINST England, dear Hanover, and
the Cause of Liberty! Vain to look too far ahead,--especially with those
fish-eyes. Smelfungus has a Note on Kaunitz; readable, though far too
irreverent of that superlative Diplomatist, and unjust to the real human
merits he had.

"The struggles of Britannic George to get a King of the Romans elected
were many. Friedrich never would bite at this salutary scheme for
strengthening the House of Austria: 'A bad man, is not he?' And all the