g, you say? Nevertheless the contiguous parts of Hanover
have rights upon it. Some 'eight cart-loads of hay,' worth say almost 5
pounds or 10 pounds sterling: who is to mow that grass, I wonder?"--

Friedrich Wilhelm feels that all this is a pettifogging vexatious course
of procedure; and that his little Cousin the COMODIANT is not treating
him very like a gentleman. "Is he, your Majesty!" suggests the Smoking
Parliament.--About the middle of March, Dubourgay hears Borck, an
Official not of the Grumkow party, sulkily commenting on "the
constant hostility of the Hanover Ministry to us" in all manner of
points;---inquires withal, Could not Mecklenburg be somehow settled, his
Prussian Majesty being somewhat anxious upon it? [Despatch, 17th March,
1729.] Anxious, yes: his poor Majesty, intensely meditative of such a
matter in the night-watches, is capable of springing out of bed, with an
"Eureka! I have found what will do!" and demanding writing materials.
He writes or dictates in his shirt, the good anxious Majesty; despatches
his Eureka by estafette on the wings of the wind: and your Townshend,
your UNmeditative George, receives it with curt official negative, and a
polite sneer. [Dubourgay, 12th-14th April, 1729; and the Answer from St.
James's.]

A few weeks farther on, this is what the Newspapers report of
Mecklenburg, in spite of his Prussian Majesty's desire to have some
mercy shown the poor infatuated Duke: "The Elector of Hanover and the
Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel," his Britannic Majesty and Squire in
that sad business, "REFUSE to withdraw their forces out of Mecklenburg,
or part with the Chest of the Revenues thereof, until an entire
satisfaction be given them for the arrears of the Charges they have been
at in putting the Sentence of the Aulic Council [Kaiser's REICHSHOFRATH
and rusty thunder] into execution against the said Duke." [Salmon's
_Chronological Historian_ (London, 1748,--a Book never to be quoted
without caution), ii. 216;--date (translated into new style), 10th July,
1729.]

Matters grew greatly worse when George paid his first Visit to Hanover
in character of King, early in the Summer of 1729. Part of his road lies
through Prussian Territory: "Shall he have free post-horses, as his late
Majesty was wont?" asks the Prussian Official person. "If he write to
request them, yes," answers Friedrich Wilhelm; "if he don't write, no."
George does not write; pays for his post-horses;--flourishes along t