Mary Antoinette, was the only child of the Emperor Leopold by his
first wife Margaret, a younger sister of the Queen of Lewis the
Fourteenth. Prince Joseph was, therefore, nearer in blood to the
Spanish throne than his grandfather the Emperor, or than the sons
whom the Emperor had by his second wife. The Infanta Margaret had
indeed, at the time of her marriage, renounced her rights to the
kingdom of her forefathers. But the renunciation wanted many
formalities which had been observed in her sister's case, and
might be considered as cancelled by the will of Philip the
Fourth, which had declared that, failing his issue male, Margaret
and her posterity would be entitled to inherit his Crown. The
partisans of France held that the Bavarian claim was better than
the Austrian claim; the partisans of Austria held that the
Bavarian claim was better than the French claim. But that which
really constituted the strength of the Bavarian claim was the
weakness of the Bavarian government. The Electoral Prince was the
only candidate whose success would alarm nobody; would not make
it necessary for any power to raise another regiment, to man
another frigate, to have in store another barrel of gunpowder. He
was therefore the favourite candidate of prudent and peaceable
men in every country.

Thus all Europe was divided into the French, the Austrian, and
the Bavarian factions. The contests of these factions were daily
renewed in every place where men congregated, from Stockholm to
Malta, and from Lisbon to Smyrna. But the fiercest and most
obstinate conflict was that which raged in the palace of the
Catholic King. Much depended on him. For, though it was not
pretended that he was competent to alter by his sole authority
the law which regulated the descent of the Crown, yet, in a case