Carlyle,
Frederic
the Great.
Thomas Carlyle
At which point, Karl would have
been wise to give-up his Titular Kingship in Spain;
for he never got, nor will get, anything but futile
labour from hanging to it. He did hang to it never-
theless; and still, at this date of George's visit and long
afterwards, hangs, -- with notable obstinacy. To the
woe of men and nations: punishment doubtless of his
sins and theirs! --
Kaiser Karl shrieked mere amazement and indigna-
tion, when the English tired of fighting for him and it.
When the English said to their great Marlborough:
"Enough, you sorry Marlborough! You have beaten
Louis XIV. to the suppleness of washleather, at our
bidding; that is true, and that may have had its diffi-
culties: but, after all, we prefer to have the thing pre-
cisely as it would have been without any fighting,
? J7th April U>>,
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? CHAP, n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 297
1723-1726.
You, therefore, what is the good of you? You are a--
person whom we fling-out like sweepings, now that our
eyesight returns, and accuse of common stealing. Go
and be--! " --
Nothing ever had so disgusted and astonished Kai-
ser Karl as this treatment, -- not of Marlborough,
whom he regarded only as he would have done a pair
of military boots or a holster-pistol of superior ex-
cellence, for the uses that were in him, -- but of the
Kaiser Karl his own sublime self, the heart and focus
of Political Nature; left in this manner, now when the
sordid English and Dutch declined spending blood and
money for him farther. "Ungrateful, sordid, incon-
ceivable souls," answered Karl, "was there ever, since
the early Christian times, such a martyr as you have
now made of me! " So answered Karl, in diplomatic
groans and shrieks, to all ends of Europe. But the
sulky English and Allies, thoroughly tired of paying
and bleeding, did not heed him; made their Peace
of Utrecht* with Louis XIV. , who was now beaten
supple; and Karl, after a year of indignant protests,
and futile attempts to fight Louis on his own score,
was obliged to do the like. He has lost the Spanish
crown; but still holds by the shadow of it; will not
quit that, if he can help it. He hunts much, digests
well; is a sublime Kaiser though internally rather
poor, carrying his head high; and seems to himself, on
some sides of his life, a martyred much-enduring man.
? Peace of Utrecht, 11th April 1713; Peace of Rastadt (following npon
(he Preliminaries of Baden), 6th March 1714,
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? 298 DOUBLE-MARKIAGE PROJECT STAKTED. [bOOKV.
Imperial Majesty has got happily wedded.
Kaiser Karl, soon after the time of going to Spain,
Lad decided that a Wife would be necessary. He
applied to Caroline of Anspach, now English Princess
of Wales, but at that time an orphaned Brandenburg-
Anspach Princess, very beautiful, graceful, gifted, and
altogether unprovided-for; living at Berlin, under the
guardianship of Friedrich the first King. Her young
Mother had married again, -- high enough match (to
Kur-Sachsen, elder Brother of August the Strong, Au-
gust at that time without prospects of the Electorate);
-- but it lasted short while: Caroline's Mother and
Saxon Stepfather were both now, long since, dead.
So she lived at Berlin, brilliant though unportioned;
-- with the rough cub Friedrich Wilhelm much follow-
ing her about, and passionately loyal to her, as the
Beast was to Beauty; whom she did not mind, except
as a cub loyal to her; being five years older than
he. * Indigent bright Caroline, a young lady of fine
aquiline features and spirit, was applied-for to be
Queen of Spain; wooer a handsome man, who might
even be Kaiser by and by. Indigent bright Caro-
line at once answered, No. She was never very
orthodox in Protestant theology; but could not think
of taking-up Papistry for lucre's and ambition's sake:
be that always remembered on Caroline's behalf.
The Spanish Majesty next applied at Brunswick
? Fiirster, i. 107.
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 299
1723-1720.
Wolfenbiittel; no lack of Princesses there: Princess
Elizabeth, for instance; Protestant she too, but perhaps
not so squeamish? Old Anton Ulrich, whom some
readers know for the idle Books, longwinded Novels
chiefly, which he wrote, was the Grandfather of this
favoured Princess; a goodnatured old gentleman, of the
idle ornamental species, in whose head most things, it
is likely, were reduced to vocables, scribble and sen-
timentality; and only a steady internal gravitation
towards praise and pudding was traceable as very real
in him. Anton Ulrich, affronted more or less by the
immense advancement of Gentleman Ernst and the
Hanoverian or Younger Brunswick Line, was extremely
glad of the Imperial offer; and persuaded his timid
Granddaughter, ambitious too, but rather conscience-
stricken, That the change from Protestant to Catholic,
the essentials being so perfectly identical in both, was
a mere trifle; that he himself, old as he was, would
readily change along with her, so easy was it. Where-
upon the young Lady made the big leap; abjured her
religion;* -- went to Spain as Queen (with sad injury
to her complexion, but otherwise successfully more or
less); -- and sits now as Empress beside her Karl VI. ,
in a grand enough, probably rather dull, but not sin-
gularly unhappy manner.
She, a Brunswick Princess, with Nephews and
Nieces who may concern us, is Kaiserinn to Kaiser
Karl: for aught I know of her, a kindly simple Wife,
and unexceptionable Sovereign Majesty, of the sort
? 1st May 1707, at Bamberg.
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1723-1726.
wanted; -- whom let us remember, if we meet her
again one day. I add only of this poor Lady, distin-
guished to me by a Daughter she had, that her mind
still had some misgivings about the big leap she had
made in the Protestant-Papist way. Finding Anton
Ulrich still continue Protestant, she wrote to him out
of Spain: -- "Why, O honoured Grandpapa, have you
not done as you promised? Ah, there must be a taint
of mortal sin in it, after all! " Upon which the ab-
surdly situated old Gentleman did change his religion;
and is marked as a Convert in all manner of Genea-
logies and Histories; -- truly an old literary gentleman
ducal and serene, restored to the bosom of the Church
in a somewhat peculiarly ridiculous manner. * -- But
to return.
Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of Spain.
Ever after the Peace of Utrecht, when England
and Holland declined to bleed for him farther, espe-
cially ever since his own Peace of Rastadt made with
Louis the year after, Kaiser Karl had utterly lost hold
of the Crown of Spain; and had not the least chance
to clutch that bright substance again. But he held by
the shadow of it, with a deadly Hapsburg tenacity;
refused for twenty years, under all pressures, to part
with the shadow: "The Spanish Hapsburg Branch is
dead; whereupon do not I, of the Austrian Branch, sole
* MUbaelU, 1. 181,
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? CHAP, n. 1 A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 301
1723-1726.
representative of Kaiser Karl the Fifth, claim, by the
law of Heaven, whatever he possessed in Spain, by-
law of ditto? Battles of Blenheim, of Malplaquet,
Court-intrigues of Mrs. Masham and the Duchess: these
may bring Treaties of Utrecht, and what you are
pleased to call laws of Earth; -- but a Hapsburg
Kaiser knows higher laws, if you would do a thousand
Utrechts; and by these, Spain is his! "
Poor Kaiser Karl: he had a high thought in him
really, though a most misguided one. Titular King of
Men; but much bewildered into mere indolent fatuity,
inane solemnity, high-sniffing pride grounded on nothing
at all; a Kaiser much sunk in the sediments of his
muddy Epoch. Sure enough, he was a proud lofty
solemn Kaiser, infinitely the gentleman in air and
humour; Spanish gravities, ceremonials, reticences; --
and could, in a better scene, have distinguished himself
by better than mere statuesque immovability of posture,
dignified endurance of ennui, and Hapsburg tenacity in
holding the grip. It was not till 1735, after tussellings
and wrenchings beyond calculation, that he would con-
sent to quit the Shadow of the Crown of Spain; and
let Europe be at peace on that score.
The essence of what is called the European History
of this Period, such History as a Period sunk dead in
spirit, and alive only in stomach, can have, turns all
on Kaiser Karl, and these his clutchings at shadows.
Which makes a very sad, surprising History indeed;
more worthy to be called Phenomena of Putrid Fer-
mentation, than Struggles of Human Heroism to vindi-
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? 302 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. fBOOK v.
1723-1726.
cate itself in this Planet, which latter alone are worthy
of recording as "History" by mankind.
On the throne of Spain, beside Philip V. the me-
lancholic new Bourbon, Louis XTV. 's Grandson, sat
Elizabeth Farnese; a termagant tenacious woman, whose
ambitious cupidities were not inferior in obstinacy to
Kaiser Karl's, and proved not quite so shadowy as his.
Elizabeth also wanted several things: renunciation of
your (Kaiser Karl's) shadowy claims; nay of sundry
real usurpations you and your Treaties have made on
the actual possessions of Spain, -- Kingdom of Sicily,
for instance; Netherlands, for instance; Gibraltar, for
instance. But there is one thing which, we observe, is
indispensable throughout to Elizabeth Farnese: the
future settlement of her dear Boy Carlos. Carlos,
whom as Spanish Philip's second Wife she had given
to Spain and the world, as Second or supplementary
Infant there, -- a troublesome gift to Spain and others.
"This dear Boy, surely he must have his Italian
Apanages, which you have provided for him; Duchies
of Parma and Piacenza, which will fall heirless soon.
Security for these Italian Apanages, such as will satisfy
a Mother: Let us introduce Spanish garrisons into
Parma and Piacenza at once! How else can we be
certain of getting those indispensable Apanages, when
they fall vacant? " On this point Elizabeth Farnese
was positive, maternally vehement; would take no
subterfuge, denial or delay: "Let me perceive that I
shall have these Duchies: that, first of all; or else not
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? DHAP. II. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 303
1723-1726.
that only, but numerous other things will be demanded
of you! "
Upon which point the Kaiser too, who loved his
Duchies, and hoped yet to keep them by some turn of
the game, never could decide to comply. Whereupon
Elizabeth grew more and more termagant; listened to
wild counsels; took-up an Alberoni, a Ripperda, any
wandering diplomatic bull-dog that offered; and let
them loose upon the Kaiser and her other gainsayers.
To the terror of mankind, lest universal war should
supervene. She held the Kaiser well at bay, mankind
well in panic; and continually there came on all Eu-
rope, for about twenty years, a terror that war was
just about to break-out, and the whole world to take
fire. The History so-called of Europe went canting
from side to side; heeling at a huge rate, according to
the passes and lunges these two giant figures, Imperial
Majesty and the Termagant of Spain, made at one
another, -- for a twenty years or more, till once the
duel was decided between them.
There came next to no war, after all; sputterings
of war twice over, -- 1718, Byng at Messina, as we
saw; and then, in 1727, a second sputter, as we are to
see: -- but the neighbours always ran with buckets,
and got it quenched. No war to speak-of; but such
negociating, diplomatising, universal hope, universal
fear, and infinite ado about nothing, as were seldom
heard of before. For except Friedrich Wilhelm drilling
his 50,000 soldiers (80,000 gradually, and gradually
even twice that number), I see no Crowned Head in
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1723-1726.
Europe that is not, with immeasurable apparatus, simply
doing zero. Alas, in an age of universal infidelity to
Heaven, where the Heavenly Sun has sunk, there occur
strange Spectre-huntings. "Which is a fact worth laying
to heart. -- Duel of Twenty Years with Elizabeth
Earnese, about the eventualities of Parma and Pia-
cenza, and the Shadow of the lost Crown of Spain;
this was the first grand Spectrality of Kaiser Karl's
existence; but this was not the whole of them.
Imperial Majesty's Pragmatic Sanction.
Kaiser Karl meanwhile was rather short of heirs;
which formed another of his real troubles, and involved
him in much shadow-hunting. His Wife, the serene
Brunswick Empress whom we spoke-of above, did at
length bring him children, brought him a boy even;
but the boy died within the year; and, on the whole,
there remained nothing but two Daughters; Maria
Theresa the elder of them, born 1717, -- the prettiest
little maiden in the world; -- no son to inherit Kaiser
Karl. Under which circumstances Kaiser Karl pro-
duced now, in the year 1724, a Document which he
had executed privately as long ago as 1713, only his
Privy Councillors and other Official witnesses knowing
of it then;* and solemnly publishes it to the world, as
a thing all men are to take notice of. All men had
notice enough of this Imperial bit of Sheepskin, before
? 19th April 1718 (Stenzcl, lii. S22).
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? CHAp. n. J A KAISEB HUNTING SHADOWS. 305
1723-1726.
they got done with it, five-and-twenty years hence. *
A very famous Pragmatic Sanction; now published for
the world's comfort!
By which Document, Kaiser Karl had formally
settled, and fixed according to the power he has, in
the shape of what they call a Pragmatic Sanction, or
unalterable Ordinance in his Imperial House, "That,
"failing Heirs-male, his Daughters, his Eldest Daughter,
"should succeed him; failing Daughters, his Nieces;
"and in short, that Heirs-female ranking from their
"kinship to Kaiser Karl, and not to any prior Kaiser,
"should be as good as Heirs-male of Karl's body would
"have been. " A Pragmatic Sanction is the high name
he gives this Document, or the Act it represents;
"Pragmatic Sanction" being, in the Imperial Chancery
and some others, the received title for Ordinances of a
very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes, in
affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons
his own rights. **
This Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl's, executed
19th April 1713, was promulgated, "gradually," now
here now there, from 1720 to 1724,*** -- in which later
year it became universally public; and was transmitted
to all Courts and Sovereignties, as an unalterable law
? Peace of Alx-la-Chapelle, 1748.
? ? A rare kind of Deed, it would seem; and all the more solemn. In
1438, Charles VI. of France, conceding the Gallican Church its Liberties,
does it by "Sanction Pragmatique;" Carlos III. of Spain (in 1759, "settling
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on his third son") does the like, -- which
is the last instance of "Pragmatic Sanction" in this world.
? ? ? Stenzel, pp. 622, 528.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. M, 20
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1723-1726.
of Things Imperial. Thereby the good man hopes his
beautiful little Theresa, now seven years old, may
succeed him, all as a son would have done, in the
Austrian States and Dignities; and incalculable da-
mages, wars, and chances of war, be prevented, for his
House and for all the world.
The world, incredulous of tomorrow, in its lazy
way, was not sufficiently attentive to this new law of
things. Some who were personally interested, as the
Saxon Sovereignty, and the Bavarian, denied that it
was just: reminded Kaiser Karl that he was not the
Noah or Adam of Kaisers; and that the case of Heirs
female was not quite a new idea on sheepskin. No;
there are older Pragmatic Sanctions and settlements, by
prior Kaisers of blessed memory; under which, if
Daughters are to come in, we, descended from Imperial
Daughters of older standing, shall have a word to say!
-- To this Kaiser Karl answers steadily, with endless
argument, That every Kaiser is a Patriarch, and First
Man, in such matters; and that so it has been pragma-
tically sanctioned by him, and that so it shall and must
irrevocably be. To the other Powers, and indolent
impartial Sovereigns of the world, he was lavish in
embassies, in ardent representations; and spared no
pains in convincing them that tomorrow would surely
come, and that then it would be a blessedness to have
accepted this Pragmatic Sanction, and see it lying for
you as a Law of Nature to go by, and avoid incal-
culable controversies.
This was another vast Shadow, or confused high-
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 307
1723-1726.
piled continent of shadows, to which our poor Kaiser
held with his customary tenacity. To procure ad-
herences and assurances to this dear Pragmatic Sanc-
tion, was, even more than the shadow of the Spanish
Crown, and above all after he had quitted that, the
one grand business of Ids Life henceforth. With which
he kept all Europe in perpetual travail and diplomacy;
raying-out ambassadors, and less ostensible agents, with
bribes, and with entreaties and proposals, into every
high Sovereign Court and every low; negociating un-
weariedly by all methods, with all men. For it was
his evening-song and his morning-prayer; the grand
meaning of Life to him, till Life ended. You would
have said, the first question he asks of every creature
is, "Will you covenant for my Pragmatic Sanction
with me? O, agree to it; accept that new Law of
Nature: when the morrow comes, it will be salutary
for you! "
Most of the Foreign Potentates idly accepted the
thing, -- as things of a distant contingent kind are ac-
cepted; -- made Treaty on it, since the Kaiser seemed
so extremely anxious. Only Bavaria, having heritable
claims, never would. Saxony too (August the Strong),
being in the like case, or a better, flatly refused for a
long time; would not, at all, -- except for a conside-
ration. Bright little Prince Eugene, who dictated
square miles of Letters and Diplomacies on the subject
(Letters of a steady depth of dulness, which at last
grows almost sublime), was wont to tell his Majesty:
"Treatying, your Majesty? A well-trained Army and
20*
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1723-1726.
a fall Treasury; that is the only Treaty that will make
this Pragmatic Sanction valid! " But his Majesty never
would believe. So the bright old Eugene dictated, --
or, we hope and guess, he only gave his clerks some
key-word, and signed his name (in three languages,
"Eugenio von Savoye") to these square miles of dull
epistolary matter, -- probably taking Spanish snuff
when he had done. For he wears it in both waistcoat-
pockets; -- has (as his Portraits still tell us) given-up
breathing by the nose. The bright little soul, with a
flash in him as of Heaven's own lightning; but now
growing very old and snuffy.
Shadow of Pragmatic Sanction, shadow of the
Spanish Crown, -- it was such shadow-huntings of the
Kaiser in Vienna, it was this of the Pragmatic Sanction
most of all, that thwarted our Prussian Double-Marriage,
which lay so far away from it. This it was that pretty
nearly broke the hearts of Friedrich, Wilhelmina, and
their Mother and Father. For there never was such
negociating; not for admittance to the Kingdom of
Heaven, in the pious times. And the open goings-forth
of it, still more the secret minings and mole-courses of
it, were into all places. Above ground and below, no
Sovereign mortal could say he was safe from it, let him
agree or not. Friedrich Wilhelm had cheerfully, and
with all his heart, agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction;
this above-ground, in sight of the sun; and rashly
fancied he had then done with it. Till, to his horror,
he found the Imperial moles, by way of keeping as-
surance doubly sure, had been under the foundations
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? CHAF. n. j A KAISEB HUNTING SHADOWS. 309
1723-1726.
of his very house for long years past, and had all-
bat brought it down about him in the most hideous
manner! --
Third Shadow: Imperial Majesty's Ostend Company.
Another object which Kaiser Karl pursued with
some diligence in these times, and which likewise proved
a shadow, much disturbance as it gave mankind, was
his "Ostend East-India Company. " The Kaiser had
seen impoverished Spain, rich England, rich Holland;
he had taken-up a creditable notion about commerce
and its advantages. He said to himself, Why should
not my Netherlands trade to the East, as well as these
English and Dutch, and grow opulent like them? He
instituted (octroya) an "Ostend East-India Company,"
under due Patents and Imperial Sheepskins, of date
17th December 1722,* gave it what freedom he could
to trade to the East. "Impossible! " answered the
Dutch, with distraction in their aspect: "Impossible, we
say; contrary to Treaty of Westphalia, to Utrecht, to
Barrier Treaty; and destructive to the best interests of
mankind, especially to us and our trade-profits! We
shall have to capture your ships, if you ever send
any. "
To which the Kaiser counterpleaded, earnestly, di-
ligently, for the space of seven years, -- to no effect.
"We will capture your ships if you ever send any,"
? Buohholz, i. 88; Pfcffel, Abrigi Chronoloqique ie VHistoire d'Alle-
magna (Paris, 1776), it. 522.
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answered the Dutch and English. What ships ever
could have been sent from Ostend to the East, or what
ill they could have done there, remains a mystery,
owing to the monopolising Maritime Powers.
The Kaiser's laudable zeal for commerce had to
expend itself in his Adriatic Territories, -- giving pri-
vileges to the Ports of Trieste and Fiume;* making
roads through the Dalmatian Hill-Countries, which are
useful to this day; -- but could not operate on the
Netherlands in the way proposed. The Kaiser's Im-
perial Ostend East-India Company, which convulsed
the Diplomatic mind for seven years to come, and made
Europe lurch from side to side in a terrific manner,
proved a mere paper Company; never sent any ships,
only produced Diplomacies, and "had the honour to
be. " This was the third grand Shadow which the
Kaiser chased, shaking all the world, poor crank world,
as he strode after it; and this also ended in zero, and
several tons of diplomatic correspondence, carried once
by breathless estafettes, and now silent, gravitating
towards Acheron all of them, and interesting to the
spiders only.
Poor good Kaiser: they say he was a humane stately
gentleman, stately though shortish; fond of pardoning
criminals where he could; very polite to Muratori and
the Antiquaries, even to English Rymer, in opening
his Archives to them, -- and made roads in the Dal-
matian Hill-Country, which remain to this day. I do
? Hormayr: (Esterreichischer Plutarch, x. 101.
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISEK HUNTING SHADOWS. 311
1723-1726.
not wonder he grew more and more saturnine, and
addicted to solid taciturn field-sports. His Political
"Perforce-Hunt (Parforce Jagd)," with so many two-
footed terriers, and legationary beagles, distressing all
the world by their baying and their burrowing, had
proved to be of Shadows; and melted into thin air, to
a very singular degree!
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1723-1726.
CHAPTER ffl.
THE SEVEN CRISES OR EUROPEAN TRAVAIL-THROES.
In process of this so terrific Duel with Elizabeth
Farnese, and general combat of the Shadows, which
then made Europe quake, at every new lunge and pass
of it, and which now makes Europe yawn to hear the
least mention of it, there came two sputterings of actual
War. Byng's sea-victory at Messina, 1718; Spanish
"Siege of Gibraltar," 1727, are the main phenomena
of these two Wars, -- England, as its wont is, taking
a shot in both, though it has now forgotten both. And,
on the whole, there came, so far as I can count, Seven
grand diplomatic Spasms or Crises, -- desperate general
European Treatyings hither and then thither, solemn
Congresses two of them, with endless supplementary
adhesions by the minor Powers. Seven grand mother- ?
treaties, not to mention the daughters, or supplemen-
tary adhesions they had; all Europe rising spasmodically
seven times, and doing its very uttermost to quell this
terrible incubus; all Europe changing colour seven
times, like a lobster boiling, for twenty years. Seven
diplomatic Crises, we say, marked changings of colour
in the long-suffering lobster; and two so-called Wars,
-- before this enormous zero could be settled. Which
high Treaties and Transactions, human nature, after
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? CHAP, in. ] THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 313
1723-1726.
much study of them, grudges to enumerate. Apanage
for Baby Carlos, ghost of a Pragmatic Sanction; these
were a pair of causes for mankind! Be no word spoken
of them, except with regret and on evident compulsion.
For the reader's convenience we must note the
salient points; but grudge to do it. Salient points,
now mostly wrapt in Orcus, and terrestrially in-
teresting only to the spiders, -- except on an occa-
sion of this kind, when part of them happens to
stick to the history of a memorable man. To us they
are mere bubblings-up of the general putrid fermenta-
tion of the then Political World; and are too unlovely
to be dwelt on longer than indispensable. Triple Al-
liance, Quadruple Alliance, Congress of Cambrai, Con-
gress of Soissons; Conference of Pardo, Treaty of
Hanover, Treaty of Wusterhausen, what are they?
Echo answers, What? Ripperda and the Queen of
Spain, Kaiser Karl and his Pragmatic Sanction, are
fallen dim to every mind. The Troubles of Thorn (sad
enough Papist-Protestant tragedy in their time), -- who
now cares to know of them? It is much if we find a
hearing for the poor Salzburg Emigrants when they get
into Preussen itself. Afflicted human nature ought to
be, at last, delivered from the palpably superfluous;
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 Uni-
versal Putrid Fermentation, so far as they concern us.
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? 314 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
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"* was, we may
say, when Prance, England, Holland laboriously sorted-
out terms of agreement between Kaiser and Termagant:
"Quadruple"** 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 conse-
quence. 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 success-
? 4th January 1717. -- 18th July 1718.
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? CHAP, nt. ] the SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 315
1723-1726.
"fill, -- Lord Cobham leading; -- and made much noise
"among mankind. Pilled 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.
been wise to give-up his Titular Kingship in Spain;
for he never got, nor will get, anything but futile
labour from hanging to it. He did hang to it never-
theless; and still, at this date of George's visit and long
afterwards, hangs, -- with notable obstinacy. To the
woe of men and nations: punishment doubtless of his
sins and theirs! --
Kaiser Karl shrieked mere amazement and indigna-
tion, when the English tired of fighting for him and it.
When the English said to their great Marlborough:
"Enough, you sorry Marlborough! You have beaten
Louis XIV. to the suppleness of washleather, at our
bidding; that is true, and that may have had its diffi-
culties: but, after all, we prefer to have the thing pre-
cisely as it would have been without any fighting,
? J7th April U>>,
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? CHAP, n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 297
1723-1726.
You, therefore, what is the good of you? You are a--
person whom we fling-out like sweepings, now that our
eyesight returns, and accuse of common stealing. Go
and be--! " --
Nothing ever had so disgusted and astonished Kai-
ser Karl as this treatment, -- not of Marlborough,
whom he regarded only as he would have done a pair
of military boots or a holster-pistol of superior ex-
cellence, for the uses that were in him, -- but of the
Kaiser Karl his own sublime self, the heart and focus
of Political Nature; left in this manner, now when the
sordid English and Dutch declined spending blood and
money for him farther. "Ungrateful, sordid, incon-
ceivable souls," answered Karl, "was there ever, since
the early Christian times, such a martyr as you have
now made of me! " So answered Karl, in diplomatic
groans and shrieks, to all ends of Europe. But the
sulky English and Allies, thoroughly tired of paying
and bleeding, did not heed him; made their Peace
of Utrecht* with Louis XIV. , who was now beaten
supple; and Karl, after a year of indignant protests,
and futile attempts to fight Louis on his own score,
was obliged to do the like. He has lost the Spanish
crown; but still holds by the shadow of it; will not
quit that, if he can help it. He hunts much, digests
well; is a sublime Kaiser though internally rather
poor, carrying his head high; and seems to himself, on
some sides of his life, a martyred much-enduring man.
? Peace of Utrecht, 11th April 1713; Peace of Rastadt (following npon
(he Preliminaries of Baden), 6th March 1714,
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? 298 DOUBLE-MARKIAGE PROJECT STAKTED. [bOOKV.
Imperial Majesty has got happily wedded.
Kaiser Karl, soon after the time of going to Spain,
Lad decided that a Wife would be necessary. He
applied to Caroline of Anspach, now English Princess
of Wales, but at that time an orphaned Brandenburg-
Anspach Princess, very beautiful, graceful, gifted, and
altogether unprovided-for; living at Berlin, under the
guardianship of Friedrich the first King. Her young
Mother had married again, -- high enough match (to
Kur-Sachsen, elder Brother of August the Strong, Au-
gust at that time without prospects of the Electorate);
-- but it lasted short while: Caroline's Mother and
Saxon Stepfather were both now, long since, dead.
So she lived at Berlin, brilliant though unportioned;
-- with the rough cub Friedrich Wilhelm much follow-
ing her about, and passionately loyal to her, as the
Beast was to Beauty; whom she did not mind, except
as a cub loyal to her; being five years older than
he. * Indigent bright Caroline, a young lady of fine
aquiline features and spirit, was applied-for to be
Queen of Spain; wooer a handsome man, who might
even be Kaiser by and by. Indigent bright Caro-
line at once answered, No. She was never very
orthodox in Protestant theology; but could not think
of taking-up Papistry for lucre's and ambition's sake:
be that always remembered on Caroline's behalf.
The Spanish Majesty next applied at Brunswick
? Fiirster, i. 107.
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 299
1723-1720.
Wolfenbiittel; no lack of Princesses there: Princess
Elizabeth, for instance; Protestant she too, but perhaps
not so squeamish? Old Anton Ulrich, whom some
readers know for the idle Books, longwinded Novels
chiefly, which he wrote, was the Grandfather of this
favoured Princess; a goodnatured old gentleman, of the
idle ornamental species, in whose head most things, it
is likely, were reduced to vocables, scribble and sen-
timentality; and only a steady internal gravitation
towards praise and pudding was traceable as very real
in him. Anton Ulrich, affronted more or less by the
immense advancement of Gentleman Ernst and the
Hanoverian or Younger Brunswick Line, was extremely
glad of the Imperial offer; and persuaded his timid
Granddaughter, ambitious too, but rather conscience-
stricken, That the change from Protestant to Catholic,
the essentials being so perfectly identical in both, was
a mere trifle; that he himself, old as he was, would
readily change along with her, so easy was it. Where-
upon the young Lady made the big leap; abjured her
religion;* -- went to Spain as Queen (with sad injury
to her complexion, but otherwise successfully more or
less); -- and sits now as Empress beside her Karl VI. ,
in a grand enough, probably rather dull, but not sin-
gularly unhappy manner.
She, a Brunswick Princess, with Nephews and
Nieces who may concern us, is Kaiserinn to Kaiser
Karl: for aught I know of her, a kindly simple Wife,
and unexceptionable Sovereign Majesty, of the sort
? 1st May 1707, at Bamberg.
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? 300 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [boOKY.
1723-1726.
wanted; -- whom let us remember, if we meet her
again one day. I add only of this poor Lady, distin-
guished to me by a Daughter she had, that her mind
still had some misgivings about the big leap she had
made in the Protestant-Papist way. Finding Anton
Ulrich still continue Protestant, she wrote to him out
of Spain: -- "Why, O honoured Grandpapa, have you
not done as you promised? Ah, there must be a taint
of mortal sin in it, after all! " Upon which the ab-
surdly situated old Gentleman did change his religion;
and is marked as a Convert in all manner of Genea-
logies and Histories; -- truly an old literary gentleman
ducal and serene, restored to the bosom of the Church
in a somewhat peculiarly ridiculous manner. * -- But
to return.
Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of Spain.
Ever after the Peace of Utrecht, when England
and Holland declined to bleed for him farther, espe-
cially ever since his own Peace of Rastadt made with
Louis the year after, Kaiser Karl had utterly lost hold
of the Crown of Spain; and had not the least chance
to clutch that bright substance again. But he held by
the shadow of it, with a deadly Hapsburg tenacity;
refused for twenty years, under all pressures, to part
with the shadow: "The Spanish Hapsburg Branch is
dead; whereupon do not I, of the Austrian Branch, sole
* MUbaelU, 1. 181,
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? CHAP, n. 1 A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 301
1723-1726.
representative of Kaiser Karl the Fifth, claim, by the
law of Heaven, whatever he possessed in Spain, by-
law of ditto? Battles of Blenheim, of Malplaquet,
Court-intrigues of Mrs. Masham and the Duchess: these
may bring Treaties of Utrecht, and what you are
pleased to call laws of Earth; -- but a Hapsburg
Kaiser knows higher laws, if you would do a thousand
Utrechts; and by these, Spain is his! "
Poor Kaiser Karl: he had a high thought in him
really, though a most misguided one. Titular King of
Men; but much bewildered into mere indolent fatuity,
inane solemnity, high-sniffing pride grounded on nothing
at all; a Kaiser much sunk in the sediments of his
muddy Epoch. Sure enough, he was a proud lofty
solemn Kaiser, infinitely the gentleman in air and
humour; Spanish gravities, ceremonials, reticences; --
and could, in a better scene, have distinguished himself
by better than mere statuesque immovability of posture,
dignified endurance of ennui, and Hapsburg tenacity in
holding the grip. It was not till 1735, after tussellings
and wrenchings beyond calculation, that he would con-
sent to quit the Shadow of the Crown of Spain; and
let Europe be at peace on that score.
The essence of what is called the European History
of this Period, such History as a Period sunk dead in
spirit, and alive only in stomach, can have, turns all
on Kaiser Karl, and these his clutchings at shadows.
Which makes a very sad, surprising History indeed;
more worthy to be called Phenomena of Putrid Fer-
mentation, than Struggles of Human Heroism to vindi-
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? 302 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. fBOOK v.
1723-1726.
cate itself in this Planet, which latter alone are worthy
of recording as "History" by mankind.
On the throne of Spain, beside Philip V. the me-
lancholic new Bourbon, Louis XTV. 's Grandson, sat
Elizabeth Farnese; a termagant tenacious woman, whose
ambitious cupidities were not inferior in obstinacy to
Kaiser Karl's, and proved not quite so shadowy as his.
Elizabeth also wanted several things: renunciation of
your (Kaiser Karl's) shadowy claims; nay of sundry
real usurpations you and your Treaties have made on
the actual possessions of Spain, -- Kingdom of Sicily,
for instance; Netherlands, for instance; Gibraltar, for
instance. But there is one thing which, we observe, is
indispensable throughout to Elizabeth Farnese: the
future settlement of her dear Boy Carlos. Carlos,
whom as Spanish Philip's second Wife she had given
to Spain and the world, as Second or supplementary
Infant there, -- a troublesome gift to Spain and others.
"This dear Boy, surely he must have his Italian
Apanages, which you have provided for him; Duchies
of Parma and Piacenza, which will fall heirless soon.
Security for these Italian Apanages, such as will satisfy
a Mother: Let us introduce Spanish garrisons into
Parma and Piacenza at once! How else can we be
certain of getting those indispensable Apanages, when
they fall vacant? " On this point Elizabeth Farnese
was positive, maternally vehement; would take no
subterfuge, denial or delay: "Let me perceive that I
shall have these Duchies: that, first of all; or else not
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? DHAP. II. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 303
1723-1726.
that only, but numerous other things will be demanded
of you! "
Upon which point the Kaiser too, who loved his
Duchies, and hoped yet to keep them by some turn of
the game, never could decide to comply. Whereupon
Elizabeth grew more and more termagant; listened to
wild counsels; took-up an Alberoni, a Ripperda, any
wandering diplomatic bull-dog that offered; and let
them loose upon the Kaiser and her other gainsayers.
To the terror of mankind, lest universal war should
supervene. She held the Kaiser well at bay, mankind
well in panic; and continually there came on all Eu-
rope, for about twenty years, a terror that war was
just about to break-out, and the whole world to take
fire. The History so-called of Europe went canting
from side to side; heeling at a huge rate, according to
the passes and lunges these two giant figures, Imperial
Majesty and the Termagant of Spain, made at one
another, -- for a twenty years or more, till once the
duel was decided between them.
There came next to no war, after all; sputterings
of war twice over, -- 1718, Byng at Messina, as we
saw; and then, in 1727, a second sputter, as we are to
see: -- but the neighbours always ran with buckets,
and got it quenched. No war to speak-of; but such
negociating, diplomatising, universal hope, universal
fear, and infinite ado about nothing, as were seldom
heard of before. For except Friedrich Wilhelm drilling
his 50,000 soldiers (80,000 gradually, and gradually
even twice that number), I see no Crowned Head in
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1723-1726.
Europe that is not, with immeasurable apparatus, simply
doing zero. Alas, in an age of universal infidelity to
Heaven, where the Heavenly Sun has sunk, there occur
strange Spectre-huntings. "Which is a fact worth laying
to heart. -- Duel of Twenty Years with Elizabeth
Earnese, about the eventualities of Parma and Pia-
cenza, and the Shadow of the lost Crown of Spain;
this was the first grand Spectrality of Kaiser Karl's
existence; but this was not the whole of them.
Imperial Majesty's Pragmatic Sanction.
Kaiser Karl meanwhile was rather short of heirs;
which formed another of his real troubles, and involved
him in much shadow-hunting. His Wife, the serene
Brunswick Empress whom we spoke-of above, did at
length bring him children, brought him a boy even;
but the boy died within the year; and, on the whole,
there remained nothing but two Daughters; Maria
Theresa the elder of them, born 1717, -- the prettiest
little maiden in the world; -- no son to inherit Kaiser
Karl. Under which circumstances Kaiser Karl pro-
duced now, in the year 1724, a Document which he
had executed privately as long ago as 1713, only his
Privy Councillors and other Official witnesses knowing
of it then;* and solemnly publishes it to the world, as
a thing all men are to take notice of. All men had
notice enough of this Imperial bit of Sheepskin, before
? 19th April 1718 (Stenzcl, lii. S22).
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? CHAp. n. J A KAISEB HUNTING SHADOWS. 305
1723-1726.
they got done with it, five-and-twenty years hence. *
A very famous Pragmatic Sanction; now published for
the world's comfort!
By which Document, Kaiser Karl had formally
settled, and fixed according to the power he has, in
the shape of what they call a Pragmatic Sanction, or
unalterable Ordinance in his Imperial House, "That,
"failing Heirs-male, his Daughters, his Eldest Daughter,
"should succeed him; failing Daughters, his Nieces;
"and in short, that Heirs-female ranking from their
"kinship to Kaiser Karl, and not to any prior Kaiser,
"should be as good as Heirs-male of Karl's body would
"have been. " A Pragmatic Sanction is the high name
he gives this Document, or the Act it represents;
"Pragmatic Sanction" being, in the Imperial Chancery
and some others, the received title for Ordinances of a
very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes, in
affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons
his own rights. **
This Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl's, executed
19th April 1713, was promulgated, "gradually," now
here now there, from 1720 to 1724,*** -- in which later
year it became universally public; and was transmitted
to all Courts and Sovereignties, as an unalterable law
? Peace of Alx-la-Chapelle, 1748.
? ? A rare kind of Deed, it would seem; and all the more solemn. In
1438, Charles VI. of France, conceding the Gallican Church its Liberties,
does it by "Sanction Pragmatique;" Carlos III. of Spain (in 1759, "settling
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on his third son") does the like, -- which
is the last instance of "Pragmatic Sanction" in this world.
? ? ? Stenzel, pp. 622, 528.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. M, 20
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? 306 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [bOOKv.
1723-1726.
of Things Imperial. Thereby the good man hopes his
beautiful little Theresa, now seven years old, may
succeed him, all as a son would have done, in the
Austrian States and Dignities; and incalculable da-
mages, wars, and chances of war, be prevented, for his
House and for all the world.
The world, incredulous of tomorrow, in its lazy
way, was not sufficiently attentive to this new law of
things. Some who were personally interested, as the
Saxon Sovereignty, and the Bavarian, denied that it
was just: reminded Kaiser Karl that he was not the
Noah or Adam of Kaisers; and that the case of Heirs
female was not quite a new idea on sheepskin. No;
there are older Pragmatic Sanctions and settlements, by
prior Kaisers of blessed memory; under which, if
Daughters are to come in, we, descended from Imperial
Daughters of older standing, shall have a word to say!
-- To this Kaiser Karl answers steadily, with endless
argument, That every Kaiser is a Patriarch, and First
Man, in such matters; and that so it has been pragma-
tically sanctioned by him, and that so it shall and must
irrevocably be. To the other Powers, and indolent
impartial Sovereigns of the world, he was lavish in
embassies, in ardent representations; and spared no
pains in convincing them that tomorrow would surely
come, and that then it would be a blessedness to have
accepted this Pragmatic Sanction, and see it lying for
you as a Law of Nature to go by, and avoid incal-
culable controversies.
This was another vast Shadow, or confused high-
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 307
1723-1726.
piled continent of shadows, to which our poor Kaiser
held with his customary tenacity. To procure ad-
herences and assurances to this dear Pragmatic Sanc-
tion, was, even more than the shadow of the Spanish
Crown, and above all after he had quitted that, the
one grand business of Ids Life henceforth. With which
he kept all Europe in perpetual travail and diplomacy;
raying-out ambassadors, and less ostensible agents, with
bribes, and with entreaties and proposals, into every
high Sovereign Court and every low; negociating un-
weariedly by all methods, with all men. For it was
his evening-song and his morning-prayer; the grand
meaning of Life to him, till Life ended. You would
have said, the first question he asks of every creature
is, "Will you covenant for my Pragmatic Sanction
with me? O, agree to it; accept that new Law of
Nature: when the morrow comes, it will be salutary
for you! "
Most of the Foreign Potentates idly accepted the
thing, -- as things of a distant contingent kind are ac-
cepted; -- made Treaty on it, since the Kaiser seemed
so extremely anxious. Only Bavaria, having heritable
claims, never would. Saxony too (August the Strong),
being in the like case, or a better, flatly refused for a
long time; would not, at all, -- except for a conside-
ration. Bright little Prince Eugene, who dictated
square miles of Letters and Diplomacies on the subject
(Letters of a steady depth of dulness, which at last
grows almost sublime), was wont to tell his Majesty:
"Treatying, your Majesty? A well-trained Army and
20*
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? 308 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book V.
1723-1726.
a fall Treasury; that is the only Treaty that will make
this Pragmatic Sanction valid! " But his Majesty never
would believe. So the bright old Eugene dictated, --
or, we hope and guess, he only gave his clerks some
key-word, and signed his name (in three languages,
"Eugenio von Savoye") to these square miles of dull
epistolary matter, -- probably taking Spanish snuff
when he had done. For he wears it in both waistcoat-
pockets; -- has (as his Portraits still tell us) given-up
breathing by the nose. The bright little soul, with a
flash in him as of Heaven's own lightning; but now
growing very old and snuffy.
Shadow of Pragmatic Sanction, shadow of the
Spanish Crown, -- it was such shadow-huntings of the
Kaiser in Vienna, it was this of the Pragmatic Sanction
most of all, that thwarted our Prussian Double-Marriage,
which lay so far away from it. This it was that pretty
nearly broke the hearts of Friedrich, Wilhelmina, and
their Mother and Father. For there never was such
negociating; not for admittance to the Kingdom of
Heaven, in the pious times. And the open goings-forth
of it, still more the secret minings and mole-courses of
it, were into all places. Above ground and below, no
Sovereign mortal could say he was safe from it, let him
agree or not. Friedrich Wilhelm had cheerfully, and
with all his heart, agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction;
this above-ground, in sight of the sun; and rashly
fancied he had then done with it. Till, to his horror,
he found the Imperial moles, by way of keeping as-
surance doubly sure, had been under the foundations
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? CHAF. n. j A KAISEB HUNTING SHADOWS. 309
1723-1726.
of his very house for long years past, and had all-
bat brought it down about him in the most hideous
manner! --
Third Shadow: Imperial Majesty's Ostend Company.
Another object which Kaiser Karl pursued with
some diligence in these times, and which likewise proved
a shadow, much disturbance as it gave mankind, was
his "Ostend East-India Company. " The Kaiser had
seen impoverished Spain, rich England, rich Holland;
he had taken-up a creditable notion about commerce
and its advantages. He said to himself, Why should
not my Netherlands trade to the East, as well as these
English and Dutch, and grow opulent like them? He
instituted (octroya) an "Ostend East-India Company,"
under due Patents and Imperial Sheepskins, of date
17th December 1722,* gave it what freedom he could
to trade to the East. "Impossible! " answered the
Dutch, with distraction in their aspect: "Impossible, we
say; contrary to Treaty of Westphalia, to Utrecht, to
Barrier Treaty; and destructive to the best interests of
mankind, especially to us and our trade-profits! We
shall have to capture your ships, if you ever send
any. "
To which the Kaiser counterpleaded, earnestly, di-
ligently, for the space of seven years, -- to no effect.
"We will capture your ships if you ever send any,"
? Buohholz, i. 88; Pfcffel, Abrigi Chronoloqique ie VHistoire d'Alle-
magna (Paris, 1776), it. 522.
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? 310 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [nOOKv.
1723-1726.
answered the Dutch and English. What ships ever
could have been sent from Ostend to the East, or what
ill they could have done there, remains a mystery,
owing to the monopolising Maritime Powers.
The Kaiser's laudable zeal for commerce had to
expend itself in his Adriatic Territories, -- giving pri-
vileges to the Ports of Trieste and Fiume;* making
roads through the Dalmatian Hill-Countries, which are
useful to this day; -- but could not operate on the
Netherlands in the way proposed. The Kaiser's Im-
perial Ostend East-India Company, which convulsed
the Diplomatic mind for seven years to come, and made
Europe lurch from side to side in a terrific manner,
proved a mere paper Company; never sent any ships,
only produced Diplomacies, and "had the honour to
be. " This was the third grand Shadow which the
Kaiser chased, shaking all the world, poor crank world,
as he strode after it; and this also ended in zero, and
several tons of diplomatic correspondence, carried once
by breathless estafettes, and now silent, gravitating
towards Acheron all of them, and interesting to the
spiders only.
Poor good Kaiser: they say he was a humane stately
gentleman, stately though shortish; fond of pardoning
criminals where he could; very polite to Muratori and
the Antiquaries, even to English Rymer, in opening
his Archives to them, -- and made roads in the Dal-
matian Hill-Country, which remain to this day. I do
? Hormayr: (Esterreichischer Plutarch, x. 101.
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? CHAP. n. ] A KAISEK HUNTING SHADOWS. 311
1723-1726.
not wonder he grew more and more saturnine, and
addicted to solid taciturn field-sports. His Political
"Perforce-Hunt (Parforce Jagd)," with so many two-
footed terriers, and legationary beagles, distressing all
the world by their baying and their burrowing, had
proved to be of Shadows; and melted into thin air, to
a very singular degree!
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? S12 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PKOJECT STARTED. [bOOKv.
1723-1726.
CHAPTER ffl.
THE SEVEN CRISES OR EUROPEAN TRAVAIL-THROES.
In process of this so terrific Duel with Elizabeth
Farnese, and general combat of the Shadows, which
then made Europe quake, at every new lunge and pass
of it, and which now makes Europe yawn to hear the
least mention of it, there came two sputterings of actual
War. Byng's sea-victory at Messina, 1718; Spanish
"Siege of Gibraltar," 1727, are the main phenomena
of these two Wars, -- England, as its wont is, taking
a shot in both, though it has now forgotten both. And,
on the whole, there came, so far as I can count, Seven
grand diplomatic Spasms or Crises, -- desperate general
European Treatyings hither and then thither, solemn
Congresses two of them, with endless supplementary
adhesions by the minor Powers. Seven grand mother- ?
treaties, not to mention the daughters, or supplemen-
tary adhesions they had; all Europe rising spasmodically
seven times, and doing its very uttermost to quell this
terrible incubus; all Europe changing colour seven
times, like a lobster boiling, for twenty years. Seven
diplomatic Crises, we say, marked changings of colour
in the long-suffering lobster; and two so-called Wars,
-- before this enormous zero could be settled. Which
high Treaties and Transactions, human nature, after
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:13 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7g Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, in. ] THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 313
1723-1726.
much study of them, grudges to enumerate. Apanage
for Baby Carlos, ghost of a Pragmatic Sanction; these
were a pair of causes for mankind! Be no word spoken
of them, except with regret and on evident compulsion.
For the reader's convenience we must note the
salient points; but grudge to do it. Salient points,
now mostly wrapt in Orcus, and terrestrially in-
teresting only to the spiders, -- except on an occa-
sion of this kind, when part of them happens to
stick to the history of a memorable man. To us they
are mere bubblings-up of the general putrid fermenta-
tion of the then Political World; and are too unlovely
to be dwelt on longer than indispensable. Triple Al-
liance, Quadruple Alliance, Congress of Cambrai, Con-
gress of Soissons; Conference of Pardo, Treaty of
Hanover, Treaty of Wusterhausen, what are they?
Echo answers, What? Ripperda and the Queen of
Spain, Kaiser Karl and his Pragmatic Sanction, are
fallen dim to every mind. The Troubles of Thorn (sad
enough Papist-Protestant tragedy in their time), -- who
now cares to know of them? It is much if we find a
hearing for the poor Salzburg Emigrants when they get
into Preussen itself. Afflicted human nature ought to
be, at last, delivered from the palpably superfluous;
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 Uni-
versal Putrid Fermentation, so far as they concern us.
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? 314 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
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"* was, we may
say, when Prance, England, Holland laboriously sorted-
out terms of agreement between Kaiser and Termagant:
"Quadruple"** 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 conse-
quence. 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 success-
? 4th January 1717. -- 18th July 1718.
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? CHAP, nt. ] the SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 315
1723-1726.
"fill, -- Lord Cobham leading; -- and made much noise
"among mankind. Pilled 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.
