o." [_Memoirs of Laurence Sterne, written by
himself for his Daughter (see Annual Register,_ Year 1775, pp. 50-52).]

In short, the French and even the English invaded Spain; English Byng
and others sank Spanish ships: Termagant was obliged to pack away her
Alberoni, and give in. She had to accede to "Quadruple Alliance," after
all; making it, so to speak, a Quintuple one; making Peace, in fact,
[17th February, 1720.]--general Congress to be held at Cambrai and
settle the details.

Congress of Cambrai met accordingly; in 1722,--"in the course of the
year," Delegates slowly raining in,--date not fixable to a day or month.
Congress was "sat," as we said,--or, alas, was only still endeavoring to
get seated, and wandering about among the chairs,--when George I. came
to Charlottenburg that evening, October, 1723, and surveyed Wilhelmina
with a candle. More inane Congress never met in this world, nor will
meet. Settlement proved so difficult; all the more, as neither of
the quarrelling parties wished it. Kaiser and Termagant, fallen as if
exhausted, had not the least disposition to agree; lay diplomatically
gnashing their teeth at one another, ready to fight again should
strength return. Difficult for third parties to settle on behalf of such
a pair. Nay at length the Kaiser's Ostend Company came to light: what
will third parties, Dutch and English especially, make of that?

This poor Congress---let the reader fancy it--spent two years in
"arguments about precedencies," in mere beatings of the air; could not
get seated at all, but wandered among the chairs, till "February, 1724."
Nor did it manage to accomplish any work whatever, even then; the most
inane of Human Congresses; and memorable on that account, if on no
other. There, in old stagnant Cambrai, through the third year and into
the fourth, were Delegates, Spanish, Austrian, English, Dutch, French,
of solemn outfit, with a big tail to each,--"Lord Whitworth" whom I do
not know, "Lord Polwarth" (Earl of Marchmont that will be, a friend of
Pope's), were the English Principals: [Scholl, ii. 197.]--there, for
about four years, were these poor fellow-creatures busied, baling out
water with sieves. Seen through the Horn-Gate of Dreams, the figure of
them rises almost grand on the mind.

A certain bright young Frenchman, Francois Arouet,--spoiled for a solid
law-career, but whose OEDIPE we saw triumphing in the Theatres, and
who will, under the new name of VOLTAIRE, become