"That Walpole did nothing they all used to say, So I'll do enough, but I'll make the dogs pay; Great-fleets I'll provide, and great armies engage, Whate'er debts we make, or whate'er wars we wage! "With cordials like these the monarch's new guest Reviv'd his sunk spirits, and gladdened his breast; Till in rapture he cried, 'My dear Lord, you shall do Whatever you will--give me troops to review.'" In 1743, King George II. actually tried to engage this country, by a private agreement, to pay £300,000 a year to the Queen of Hungary, "as long as war should continue, or the necessity of her affairs should require." #The King, being in Hanover, sent over the treaty to England, with a warrant directing the Lords Justices to "ratify and confirm it," which, however, they refused to do. On hearing that the Lord Chancellor refused to sanction the arrangement, King George H. threatened, through Earl Granvillie, to affix the Great Seal with his own hand. Ultimately the £300,000 per annum was agreed to be paid so long as the war lasted, but this sum was in more than one instance exceeded. Although George II. had induced the country to vote such large sums to Maria Therese, the Empress-Queen, he nevertheless abandoned her in a most cowardly manner when he thought his Hanoverian dominions in danger, and actually treated with France without the knowledge or consent of his ministry. A rhyming squib, in which the King is termed the "Balancing Captain," from which we present the following extracts, will serve to show the feeling widely manifested in England at that time:-- "I'll tell you a story as strange as 'tis new, Which all who're concerned will allow to be true, Of a Balancing Captain, well known hereabouts, Returned home (God save him) a mere king of clouts. "This Captain he takes in a _gold_ ballasted ship, Each summer to _terra damnosa_ a trip, For which he begs, borrows, scrapes all he can get, And runs his poor _owners_ most vilely in debt. "The last time he set out for this blessed place, He met them, and told them a most piteous case, Of a sister of his, who, though bred up at court, Was ready to perish for want of support. "This _Hung'ry_ sister he then did pretend, Would be to his owners a notable friend, If they would at that critical juncture supply her; They did--but, alas! all the fat's in the fire!" The ballad then suggests that the King, having got all the money possible, made a peace with the enemies of the Queen of Hungary, described in the ballad as the sister:-- "He then turns his sister adrift, and declares Her most mortal foes were her father's right heirs: 'G--d z--ds!' cries the world, 'such a step was ne'er taken!' 'Oh, oh!' says Moll Bluff, 'I have saved my own bacon.