al college. In order to render the king of Poland, elector of
Saxony, propitious to this design, he was accommodated with the loan
of a very considerable sum, upon the mortgage of certain bailiwicks
and lordships belonging to the Saxon dominions. Thus a majority of the
electors was secured, and such foundations were laid for the success of
this project, that it was generally believed it would be accomplished
in his Britannic majesty's next visit to his German dominions. Hopes, it
was said, were given to the king of Sweden, that his concurrence would
be gratified by erecting the house of Hesse-Cassel, of which he was
head, into a tenth electorate. Arguments of an interesting nature
were used with the king of Prussia, and the elector-palatine, that
if possible, the diet might unanimously approve of this measure, so
necessary for establishing the peace of the empire, and preventing such
troubles as arose from a disputed succession at the death of Charles the
Sixth. These endeavours, however, did not succeed in their full extent.
The king of Prussia, as elector of Brandenburgh, opposed the election
as unnecessary and improper, on account of the health and vigour of the
reigning emperor, and the tender years of the archduke. This monarch had
set himself up as a balance to the power of the house of Austria,
which had long aspired to absolute dominion over its co-estates, and
endeavoured to establish an hereditary right of succession to the
empire; he therefore employed all his influence to frustrate the measure
proposed, either actuated by a spirit of pure patriotism, or inspired
with designs which he had not yet thought proper to declare. The
opposition was joined by the elector-palatine, and countenanced by the
French king; who protested, that, for the sake of peace, he would not
oppose this election, though contrary to the Golden Bull, provided it
should be confirmed by the unanimous consent of the electoral college;
but should any one member signify his dissent, and he or any state of
the empire claim the protection and assistance of his most christian
majesty, he could not dispense with granting both, in consequence of his
being guarantee of the treaty of Westphalia; an engagement by which he
was obliged to succour those princes and states of the empire who might
have recourse to him, in case of any grievance they suffered contrary to
what was stipulated in that constitution. This declaration co-operating
with the known ch