Austria and England were now prepared to mature their plans for the dismemberment of France.  The commissioners met at Hanau, a small fortified town, a few miles east of Frankfort.  They met, however, only to quarrel fiercely.  Austrian and English pride clashed in instant collision.  Lord Stair, imperious and irritable, regarded the Austrians as outside barbarians whom England was feeding, clothing and protecting.  The Austrian officers regarded the English as remote islanders from whom they had hired money and men.  The Austrians were amazed at the impudence of the English in assuming the direction of affairs.  The British officers were equally astounded that the Austrians should presume to take the lead.  No plan of cooeperation could be agreed upon, and the conference broke up in confusion,

The queen, whose heart was still fixed upon the elevation of her husband to the throne of the empire, was anxious to depose the emperor.  But England was no more willing to see Austria dominant over Europe than to see France thus powerful.  Maria Theresa was now in possession of all her vast ancestral domains, and England judged that it would endanger the balance of power to place upon the brow of her husband the imperial crown.  The British cabinet consequently espoused the cause of the Elector of Bavaria, and entered into a private arrangement with him, agreeing to acknowledge him as emperor, and to give him an annual pension that he might suitably support the dignity of his station.  The wealth of England seems to have been inexhaustible, for half the monarchs of Europe have, at one time or other, been fed and clothed from her treasury.  George II. contracted to pay the emperor, within forty days, three hundred thousand dollars, and to do all in his power to constrain the queen of Austria to acknowledge his title.

Maria Theresa had promised the King of Sardinia large accessions of territory in Italy, as the price for his cooeperation.  But now, having acquired those Italian territories, she was exceedingly reluctant to part with any one of them, and very dishonorably evaded, by every possible pretense, the fulfillment of her agreement.  The queen considered herself now so strong that she was not anxious to preserve the alliance of Sardinia.  She thought her Italian possessions secure, even in case of the defection of the Sardinian king.  Sardinia appealed to England, as one of the allies, to interpose for the execution of the treaty.  To the remonstrance of England the queen peevishly replied,

“It is the policy of England to lead me from one sacrifice to another.  I am expected to expose my troops for no other end than voluntarily to strip myself of my possessions.  Should the cession of the Italian provinces, which the King of Sardinia claims, be extorted from me, what remains in Italy will not be worth defending, and the only alternative left is that of being stripped either by England or France.”