emperor, the king of Spain, and the king of Sicily,
and undertook to compel Philip and the Savoyard to submit to such
conditions as they had concerted with his Imperial majesty. These powers
were allowed only three months to consider the articles, and declare
whether they would reject them, or acquiesce in the partition. Nothing
could be more contradictory to the true interests of Great Britain than
this treaty, which destroyed the balance in Italy, by throwing such
an accession of power into the hands of the house of Austria. It
interrupted the commerce with Spain; involved the kingdom in an
immediate war with that monarchy; and gave rise to all the quarrels and
disputes which have arisen between England and Spain in the sequel. The
states-general did not approve of such violent measures, and for some
time kept aloof; but at length they acceded to the quadruple alliance,
which indeed was no other than a very expensive compliment to the
emperor, who was desirous of adding Sicily to his other Italian
dominions.

{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}

ADMIRAL BYNG SAILS.

The king of England had used some endeavours to compromise the
difference between his Imperial majesty and the Spanish branch of the
house of Bourbon. Lord Stanhope had been sent to Madrid with a plan of
pacification, which being rejected by Philip as partial and iniquitous,
the king determined to support his mediation by force of arms. Sir
George Byng sailed from Spithead on the fourth day of June, with
twenty ships of the line, two fire-ships, two bomb-vessels, and ample
instructions how to act on all emergencies. He arrived off Cape St.
Vincent on the thirtieth day of the month, and despatched his secretary
to Cadiz, with a letter to colonel Stanhope, the British minister
at Madrid, desiring him to inform his most catholic majesty of the
admiral's arrival in those parts, and lay before him this article of his
instructions: "You are to make instances with both parties to cease from
using any further acts of hostility: but in case the Spaniards do still
insist, with their ships of war and forces, to attack the kingdom of
Naples, or other the territories of the emperor in Italy, or to land
in any part of Italy, which can only be with a design to invade the
emperor's dominions, against whom only they have declared war by
invading Sardinia; or, if they should endeavour to make themselves
masters of the kingdom of Sicily, which must be with a design to invade
t