The balance of power in Europe in the eighteenth century was destroying itself

In the late 17th century, particularly for Louis XIV, the wars were primarily fought for gloire, prestige and renown gained through victory, gaining territory was not a necessity, except to show that the state had won.[[John A. Lynn, The Wars of Louis XIV: 1667 – 1714, Longman, London, 1999, pp.30-32.]] However by the late 18th century this had changed; territorial gains were judged in terms of geopolitics, economics and population.[[Michael Hochedlinger, Austria’s Wars or Emergence: 1683-1797, Longman, London, 2003, p360]] This created the principle of ‘compensation’ in which a gain made by one state should be matched by gains for competing states.[[Evan Luard, The Balance of Power: The System of international relations, 1648-1815, Macmillian, Basingstoke, 1992, p.201.]] Similarly there was a principle of indemnities, the loser should pay the victors costs and allies should pay for any aid they received leading to grandiose partition schemes. This meant that the balance of power was as much the problem in international relations as a solution.[[Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763-1848, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), pp.6-7.]]

A major consequence of these principles was the elimination of smaller powers in Europe; they were given away as compensation.[[Luard, Balance, p.202.]] The main weak factors in the system were, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, The Holy Roman Empire and to a lesser extent Italy. The main change at the end of the 18th Century was the extent of compensation, as represented by the division of Poland. The polish partition was the first partition not to be the result of either defeat in war or extinction of a ruling house.[[Hochedlinger, Emergence, p.356.]] Frederick seized upon a minor Austrian occupation: “If we thus look at the realities of the position, the question is no longer one of keeping Poland intact, since the Austrians want to truncate it, but of preventing this dismemberment from upsetting that balance”1[[Frederick to Privy Councillor of Legation Count von Solms at St Peatersburg, 20/2/1771, C.A. Macartney, The Habsburg and Hohenzollern Dynasties in the seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Macmillan, London, 1970, p.357.]]

Austria had already realised the dangers to itself of preying on weaker powers, Poland and other intermediary bodies were needed for stability. The 2nd partition of Poland destroyed Poland’s value for Austria by creating a direct border with Russia.[[Schroeder, Transformation, pp.77, 122]] “The partition that erased it [Poland] from among the nations was the prelude to, in part the cause of, and perhaps to some extent the excuse for, these upheavals to which Europe has been prey.”[[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Letter to Metternich, 19/12/1814, ‘Mémoires, documents et écrits divers laissés par le Prince de Metternich, Paris 1880-4. pp524-9, extract in wright, pp.98-104, p.101.]] Once France recovered, Germany was almost certain to become the scene of partitions. Alternatively the Holy Roman Empire would be destroyed by war as the other buffer states disappeared the stability in the system would be lost creating structural wars.

“If might is right, if convenience is a title, what security will other states henceforth enjoy? A new combination is supplanting that system of general equilibrium. Three powers [Austria, Prussia, Russia] endeavour to establish a particular one; they found it on the equality of their usurpations. Thus they cause the balance of power to lean strongly in their favour. There is no reason to think that their avarice is yet fully satisfied”[[Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, Memoir of M. de Vergennes at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI, in 1774, ‘Œuvres completes de M. le Comte de Ségur, Politique des cabinets de l’Europe’, Paris 1825. pp.146-58. extract from wright, pp.81-86, pp.81,83.]] Under the normal rules of the system Vergennes’ France would also want compensation that would most likely have had to come out of Germany or Italy, however France had been weakened too much by the seven years war to take part in a possible war in Poland.[[Schroeder, Transformation, p15]] Vergennes also realised the likelihood of partitions continuing and that “The second- and third-rate powers are without support, and likely to find themselves engulfed by those now predominant, when the latter see fit to partition them.”[[Vergennes, p.84]] The problem that the system faced was a continuing cycle of partitions.

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not necessarily; where there are philosophes there is an argument:
Johann H. G. Justi attacked the whole idea of a balance of power arguing that it rested upon the axiom that power could in some way be compared. Quite the contrary he argued that there was various sorts of power and that these could not be measured against each other, further even the same types of power were difficult to compare. Thus shown to be based upon a false premise he went on to point out how it should be made obsolete. He argued a state could accrue great additional strength without territorial expansion through internal reform, the ration of the less enlightened would be to try and set this back thus the balance of power would operate contrary to the spirit of Human progress. [[Per Maurseth, ‘Balance of Power thinking from the Renaissance to the French revolution’ Journal of Peace Research, Vol.1, No.2. (1964) pp.120-136: pp.131-2]]
Similarly, Immanuel Kant asked ‘the restoration of freedom to certain states’ thus requiring the partitioning powers to disgorge their gains even after the fact.
[[Immanuel Kant, ‘On the Common Saying: ‘This May be True in Theory, but it does not Apply in Practice’ pp.61-92 in Political Writings, Reiss, Hans (ed.) and Nisbet, H. R. (trans.) (Cambridge, 1991) p.92]]
It is notable that both were writing after Vattel.