Before this treaty was concluded, a new war had broken out in Italy. Philip V. of Spain, incensed at not being recognized by Karl VI., took possession of Sardinia and Sicily, with the intention of conquering Naples from Austria. England, France, Holland and Austria then formed the "Quadruple Alliance," as it was called, for the purpose of enforcing the Treaty of Utrecht, and Spain was compelled to yield. [Sidenote: 1711. RISE OF PRUSSIA.] The power of Prussia, during these years, was steadily increasing. Frederick I., it is true, was among the imitators of Louis XIV.: he built stately palaces, and spent a great deal of money on showy Court festivals, but he did not completely exhaust the resources of the country, like the Electors of Saxony and the rulers of many smaller States. On the other hand, he founded the University of Halle in 1694, and commissioned the philosopher Leibnitz to draw up a plan for an Academy of Science, which was established in Berlin, in 1711. He was a zealous Protestant, and gave welcome to all who were exiled from other States on account of their faith. As a ruler, however, he was equally careless and despotic, and his government was often entrusted to the hands of unworthy agents. Frederick the Great said of him: "He was great in small matters, and little in great matters." His son, Frederick William I., was a man of an entirely different nature. He disliked show and ceremony: he hated everything French with a heartiness which was often unreasonable, but which was honestly provoked by the enormous, monkey-like affectation of the manners of Versailles by some of his fellow-rulers. While Augustus of Saxony spent six millions of thalers on a single entertainment, he set to work to reduce the expenses of his royal household. While the court of Austria supported 40,000 officials and hangers-on, and half of Vienna was fed from the Imperial kitchen, he was employed in examining the smallest details of the receipts and expenditures of his State, in order to economize and save. He was miserly, fierce, coarse and brutal; he aimed at being a _German_, but he went back almost to the days of Wittekind for his ideas of German culture and character; he was a tyrant of the most savage kind,--but, after all has been said against him, it must be acknowledged that without his hard practical sense in matters of government, his rigid, despotic organization of industry, finance and the army, Frederick the Great would never have possessed the means to maintain himself in that struggle which made Prussia a great power.