made; and the rest of these, as well as thofe that he formed against the Turks, might be deferred. But the councils of Vienna judged differently, and infifted even at this critical moment on the most exorbitant terms; on fome of fuch a nature, that the Turks shewed more humanity and a better fense of religion in refufing, than they in asking them. Thus the war went on in Hungary, and proved a conftant diversion in favor of France, during the whole courfe of that which LEWIS the fourteenth began at this time: for the treaty of Carlowitz was pofterior to that of Ryfwic. The Empire, Spain, England, and Holland engaged in the war with France and on them the emperor left the burden of it. In the short war of one thousand fix hundred and fixty feyen, he was not fo much as a party, and instead of affifting the king of SPAIN, which, it must be owned, he was in no good condition of doing, he bargained for dividing that prince's fucceffion, as I have obferved above. In the war of one thoufand fix hundred and feventy two he made fome feeble efforts. In this of one thousand fix hundred and eighty eight he did ftill lefs and in the war which broke out at the beginning of the prefent century he did nothing, at least after the firft campaign in Italy, and after the engagements that England and Holland took by the grand alliance. In a word, from the time that an oppofition to France became a common caufe in Europe, the house of Auftria has been a clog upon it in many inftances, and of confiderable affiftance to it in none. The acceffion of England

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to this caufe, which was brought about by the revolution of one thousand fix hundred and eighty eight, might have made amends, and more than amends, one would think, for this defect, and have thrown fuperiority of power and of fuccefs on the fide of the confederates, with whom she took part against France. This, I say, might be imagined, without over-rating the power of England, or undervaluing that of France; and it was imagined at that time. How it proved otherwise in the event; how France came triumphant out of the war that ended by the treaty of Ryfwic, and though she gave up a great deal, yet preferved the greatest and the best part of her conquests and acquifitions made fince the treaties of Westphalia, and the Pyrenees; how she acquired, by the gift of Spain, that whole monarchy for one of her princes, though she had no reafon to expect the leaft part of it without a war at one time, nor the great lot of it even by a war at any time; in short, how she wound up advantageously the ambitious fyftem she had been fifty years in weaving; how she concluded a war, in which she was defeated on every fide, and wholly exhaufteď, with little diminution of the provinces and barriers acquired to France, and with the quiet poffeffion of Spain and the Indies to a prince of the house of Bourbon: all this, my lord, will be the fubject of your researches, when you come down to the latter part of the last period of modern history.

LETTER VIII

The fame fubject continued from the year one thousand fix hundred and eighty-eight.

YOUR

OUR lordship will find, that the objects propofed by the alliance of one thoufand fix hundred and eighty nine between the emperor and the States, to which England acceded, and which was the foundation of the whole confederacy then formed, were no less than to restore all things to the terms of the Weftphalian and Pyrenean treaties, by the war; and to preferve them in that state, after the war, by a defenfive alliance and guaranty of the fame confederate powers against France. The particular as well as general meaning of this engagement was plain enough: and if it had not been so, the sense of it would have been fufficiently determined, by that feparate article, in which England and Holland obliged themselves to affift thehoufe of Auftria, in taking and keeping

poffeffion of the Spanish monarchy, whenever the cafe should happen of the death of CHARLES the fecond, without lawful heirs." This This engagegement was double, and thereby relative to the whole political fyftem of Europe, alike affected by the power and pretenfions of France. Hitherto the

power of France had been alone regarded, and her pretenfions feemed to have been forgot: or to what purpofe should they have been remembered, whilft Europe was fo unhappily conftituted, that the states, at whofe expence she increafed her power, and their friends and allies, thought that they did enough upon every occafion if they made fome tolerable compofition with her? They who were not in circumstances to refufe confirming prefent, were little likely to take effectual measures against future ufurpations. But now, as the alarm was greater than ever, by the outrages that France had committed, and the intrigues she had carried on; by the little regard she had shewn to public faith, and by the airs of authority she had affumed twenty years together: fo was the spirit against her raised to an higher pitch, and the means of reducing her power, or at least of checking it, were increased. The princes and ftates who had neglected or favored the growth of this power, which all of them had done in their turns, faw their error; faw the neceffity of repairing it, and faw that unless they could check the power of France, by uniting with a power fuperior to her's, it would be impoffible to hinder her from fucceeding in her great defigns on the Spanish fucceffion. The court of England had fubmitted, not many years before, to abet her ufurpations, and the king of England had stooped to be her penfioner. But the crime was not national. On the contrary, the nation had cried out loudly against it, even whilst it was committing: and as foon as ever the abdi

cation of king JAMES, and the elevation of the prince of ORANGE to the throne of England happened, the nation engaged with all imaginable zeal in the common cause of Europe, to reduce the exorbitant power of France, to prevent her future and to revenge her past attempts; for even a spirit of revenge prevailed, and the war was a war of anger as well as of intereft.

UNHAPPILY this zeal was neither well conducted, nor well feconded. It was zeal without fuccefs in the first of the two wars that followed the year one thousand fix hundred and eighty-eight; and zeal without knowledge, in both of them. I enter into no detail concerning the events of these two wars. This only I obferve on the first of them, that the treaties of Ryfwic were far from answering the ends propofed and the engagements taken by the first grand alliance. The power of France, with refpect to extent of dominions and ftrength of barrier, was not reduced to the terms of the Pyrenean treaty, no nor to thofe of the treaty of Nimeghen. Lorraine was restored indeed with very confiderable referves, and the places taken or ufurped on the other fide of the Rhine: but then Strasburg was yielded up abfolutely to France by the emperor, and by the empire. The conceffions to Spain were great, but fo were the conquefts and the encroachments made upon her by France, fince the treaty of Nimeghen: and she got little at Ryfwic, I believe nothing more than she had faved at Nimeghen before. All these conceffions, however, as well as the acknowledgment of king