Gottin, see, your Majesty!--George does nothing rashly. Far from
it: indeed, except it be paying money, he becomes again a miracle
of cunctations; and staggers about for years to come, like the--
Shall we say, like the White Hanover Horse amid half a dozen sieves
of beans? Alas, no, like the Hanover Horse with the shadows of half
a dozen Damocles'-swords dangling into the eyes of it;--enough to
drive any Horse to its wit's end!--

"To do, to dare," thinks the Britannic Majesty;--yes, and of daring
there is a plenty: but, "In which direction? What, How?" these are
questions for a fussy little gentleman called to take the world on
his shoulders. We suppose it was by Walpole's advice that he gave
her Hungarian Majesty that 200,000 pounds of Secret-Service Money;
--advice sufficiently Walpolean: "Russian Partition-Treaties;
horrible to think of;--beware of these again! Give her Majesty that
cash; can be done; it will keep matters afloat, and spoil nothing!"
That, till the late Subsidy payable within year and day hence, was
all of tangible his Majesty had yet done;--truly that is all her
Hungarian Majesty has yet got by hawking the world, Pragmatic
Sanction in hand. And if that were the bit of generosity which
enabled Neipperg to climb the Mountains and be beaten at Mollwitz,
that has helped little! Very big generosities, to a frightful
cipher of Millions Sterling through the coming years, will go the
same road; and amount also to zero, even for the receiving party,
not to speak of the giving! For men and kings are wise creatures.

But wise or unwise, how great are his Britannic Majesty's
activities in this Pragmatic Business! We may say, they are
prodigious, incessant, ubiquitous. They are forgotten now, fallen
wholly to the spiders and the dust-bins;--though Friedrich himself