twithstanding this disposition, a body of Imperial troops
immediately took possession of Parma and Placentia, under the command
of general Stampa, who declared they should conduct themselves with
all possible regularity and moderation, and leave the administration
entirely to the regents whom the duke had appointed. They publicly
proclaimed in the market-place, that they took possession of these
duchies for the infant Don Carlos; and that if the duchess dowager
should not be delivered of a prince, the said infant might receive the
investiture from the emperor whenever he would, provided he should come
without an army. Though these steps seemed to threaten an immediate
war, the king of Great Britain and the states-general interposed their
mediation so effectually with the court of Vienna, that the emperor
desisted from the prosecution of his design; and on the sixteenth day of
March concluded at Vienna a treaty with his Britannic majesty, by which
he consented to withdraw his troops from Parma and Placentia. He agreed,
that the king of Spain might take possession of these places in favour
of his son Don Carlos, according to the treaty of Seville. He likewise
agreed that the Ostend company, which had given such umbrage to the
maritime powers, should be totally dissolved, on condition that the
contracting powers concerned in the treaty of Seville should guarantee
the pragmatic sanction, or succession of the Austrian hereditary
dominion to the heirs female of the emperor, in case he should die
without male issue. The Dutch minister residing at the Imperial court
did not subscribe this treaty, because, by the maxims received in that
republic, and the nature of her government, he could not be vested with
full powers so soon as it would have been necessary: nevertheless
the states-general were, by a separate article, expressly named as a
principal contracting party.

DON CARLOS TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TERRITORIES.

On the twenty-second day of July, a new treaty was signed at Vienna
between the emperor and the kings of Great Britain and Spain, tending to
confirm the former. In August, a treaty of union and defensive alliance
between the electorates of Saxony and Hanover was executed at Dresden.
The court of Spain expressing some doubts with regard to the pregnancy
of the duchess of Parma, she underwent a formal examination by five
midwives of different nations, in presence of the elder duchess dowager,
several ladies of