and if a few things memorable are to be
remembered, millions of things unmemorable must first be honestly
buried and forgotten! But to our affair,--that of marking the chief
bubblings-up in the above-said Universal Putrid Fermentation, so far as
they concern us.

CONGRESS OF CAMBRAI.

We already saw Byng sea fighting in the Straits of Messina; that was
part of Crisis Second,--sequel, in powder-and-ball, of Crisis First,
which had been in paper till then. The Powers had interfered, by Triple,
by Quadruple Alliance, to quench the Spanish-Austrian Duel (about
Apanage for Baby Carlos, and a quantity of other Shadows): "Triple
Alliance" [4th January, 1717.] was, we may say, when France, England,
Holland laboriously sorted out terms of agreement between Kaiser and
Termagant: "Quadruple" [18th July, 1718.] was when Kaiser, after much
coaxing, acceded, as fourth party; and said gloomily, "Yes, then."
Byng's Sea-fight was when Termagant said, "No, by--the Plots of
Alberoni! Never will I, for my part, accede to such terms!" and attacked
the poor Kaiser in his Sicilies and elsewhere. Byng's Sea-fight, in aid
of a suffering Kaiser and his Sicilies, in consequence. Furthermore,
the French invaded Spain, till Messina were retaken; nay the English, by
land too, made a dash at Spain, "Descent on Vigo" as they call it,--in
reference to which take the following stray Note:--

"That same year [1719, year after Byng's Sea-fight, Messina just
about recaptured], there took effect, planned by the vigorous Colonel
Stanhope, our Minister at Madrid, who took personal share in the thing,
a 'Descent on Vigo,' sudden swoop-down upon Town and shipping in those
Gallician, north-west regions. Which was perfectly successful,--Lord
Cobham leading;--and made much noise among mankind. Filled all Gazettes
at that time;--but now, again, is all fallen silent for us,--except this
one thrice-insignificant point, That there was in it, 'in Handyside's
Regiment,' a Lieutenant of Foot, by name STERNE, who had left, with his
poor Wife at Plymouth, a very remarkable Boy called Lorry, or LAWRENCE;
known since that to all mankind. When Lorry in his LIFE writes, 'my
Father went on the Vigo expedition,' readers may understand this was it.
Strange enough: that poor Lieutenant of Foot is now pretty much all
that is left of this sublime enterprise upon Vigo, in the memory of
mankind;--hanging there, as if by a single hair, till poor TRISTRAM
SHANDY be forgotten to