In the meantime, as if to show how long a great nation can carry on itself without any Government, there were no Ministers, even in the midst of a formidable war, but those baby politicians, the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Holderness: the former with much importance declaring, that he would retain the Treasury but till some new system should be completed: yet he was delighted with the plaything of power, and wished his holidays might be protracted. For the King himself, his very office seemed annihilated. While the three factions were caballing, he had not even an option. Whatever Administration should be settled, he was to receive when presented to him. Lord Mansfield held the Seals of the Exchequer _pro tempore_; and the House of Commons was so devoid of a Minister, that the office of proposing the Ways and Means devolved on Nugent, one of the Lords of the Treasury. The House of Lords were employed on the militia. Lord Hardwicke opposed, but would not divide against it. The Duke of Bedford and Lord Temple joined to support it; and it passed at last by 64 to 48. While this ridiculous scene was acting at home, our foreign affairs wore a more respectable aspect. Count Rantzau, the Danish Minister, mentioned to Lady Yarmouth, on the part of France, a neutrality for Hanover. She discreetly refused to meddle in it. He then, in concert with the Minister of the Empress-Queen, proposed it in form, but the terms[2] were so humiliating, that the King rejected them with dignity and scorn. In truth, as Elector, his situation deserved compassion. At this instant, the French had seized in their own name the county of Bentheim, a purchase his Majesty had made himself: the rest of his territories they pretended to hold for the Empress-Queen. Under this depression, news came of a great victory obtained by the King of Prussia over the Austrians. He had planned his measures with such intelligence, that he previously ventured to send the King word, that he should make four attacks at once on the quarters of the enemy, and expected to find them unprepared. He confirmed his designs by success, carried every attack, possessed himself of their magazines, and when he dispatched the courier, was within thirty miles of Prague, hoping to be master of Bohemia by the 15th of the month, and to be able to detach a body of twenty-five thousand men to support the Duke of Cumberland. The Austrian Generals disagreed; their Foot behaved ill: in general, their troops thought the Prussians irresistible.