Meanwhile the continent was much disturbed by the "War of the Polish Succession" (1733-1735), in which Austria fought unsuccessfully against Spain, France, and Turkey. But Walpole would not interfere to aid our old ally, and saw her lose Naples and Sicily without stirring a hand. Much was to be said in favour of keeping England out of foreign wars in which she had no direct interest; but the new union of France and Spain boded ill for England. Already these two powers had secretly formed a union, afterwards known as the "Family Compact," by which the uncle and nephew, Philip V. and Lewis XV., bound themselves to do their best to put an end to England's naval supremacy, and to crush her commercial greatness (1733).

Commercial hostility of Spain.

This treaty was carefully kept dark, but the spirit which had inspired it could not be concealed. The Spanish government began to redouble its vexatious pretensions to a monopoly of the trade of South America, and to interfere with the commercial rights which England possessed under the treaty of Utrecht. The governors of the Spanish colonies and their custom-house officials waxed more and more tyrannous and insolent to the English merchants who endeavoured to carry on a trade with America. The state of public feeling in England grew very bitter over this matter—all the more so because Walpole refused to listen to any complaints, or to remonstrate with the Spaniards.

The case of Captain Jenkins.

At last the case of a merchant captain named Jenkins brought the national anger to boiling-point. His vessel had been boarded, and he himself maltreated by a Spanish guarda-costa. He asserted that the officer who searched his ship had cut off his ear, and told him to take it back and show it to his masters. And he certainly produced the severed ear in a box, and exhibited it freely. His story may have been exaggerated, but it was universally believed, and Walpole was attacked on all sides for his tame submission to Spanish insults.

War with Spain declared.

Determined to keep himself in power at all costs, the prime minister demanded reparation from Spain, and, on failing to obtain it, reluctantly declared war. The public joy on the news of the rupture was unbounded. Only Walpole was sad at the end of twenty years of peace and prosperity that his inglorious rule had given to the land. "Ring your bells now," he is reported to have said when he heard the rejoicings of London, "but you will soon be wringing your hands."

Thus England embarked on the first of four great continental wars, which were to cover the greater part of the eighteenth century.

THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.

George I.
1714-1727 =
Sophia of Celle.
George II.
1727-1760 =
Caroline of Anspach.
Frederic,
Prince of Wales =
Augusta of
Saxe Gotha.		William,
Duke of Cumberland.
George III.
1760-1820 =
Charlotte of
Mecklenburg Strelitz.
George IV.
1820-1830. =
Caroline
of Brunswick.		Frederic,
Duke of York
and Albany.		William IV.
1830-1837.		Edward, Duke
of Kent =
Victoria
of Saxe Coburg.		Ernest, Duke of
Cumberland;
King of Hanover
1830-1851.
Princess
Charlotte
died 1816 =
Leopold of
Saxe Coburg-
Gotha.		 Victoria
1837 =
Albert
of Saxe
Coburg-Gotha.