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 fhe had carried on; by the little regard she had fhewn to public faith, and by the airs of authority fhe had affumed twenty years together: fo was the fpirit 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 states who had neglected or favoured 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 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 penfi

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penfioner. But the crime was not nati→ onal. On the contrary, the nation had cried out loudly against it, even whilst it was committing and as foon as ever the abdication 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 caufe of Europe, to reduce the exorbitant power of France, to prevent her future and to revenge her past attempts; for even a fpirit of revenge prevailed, and the war was a war anger as well as of interest.

of

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 thoufand fix hundred 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

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treaties of Ryfwic were far from anfwering the ends propofed and the engagements taken by the first grand alliance. The power of France, with refpect to extent of dominions and strength of barrier, was not reduced to the terms of the Pyrenean treaty, no not to those of the treaty of Nimeghen. Lorrain was reftored indeed with very confiderable referves, and the places taken or ufurped on the other fide of the Rhine: but then Strasbourg 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 fhe had faved at Nimeghen before. All thefe conceffions however, as well as the acknowledgement of king WILLIAM; and others. made by LEWIS the fourteenth after he had taken Ath and Barcelona, even during

the course of the negotiations, compared with the loffes and repeated defeats of the allies and the ill ftate of the confederacy, furprized the generality of mankind, who had not been accustomed to fo much moderation and generofity on the part of this prince. But the pretenfions of the house of Bourbon, on the Spanish fucceffion, remained the fame. Nothing had been done to weaken them; nothing was prepared to oppose them: and the opening of this fucceffion was vifibly at hand; for CHARLES the second had been in immediate danger of dying about this time. His death could not be a remote event: and all the good queen's endeavours to be got with child had proved ineffectual. The league diffolved, all the forces of the confederates difperfed, and many difbanded; France continuing armed, her forces by fea and land increased and held in readiness to act on all fides, it was plain that the confederates had failed in the first object of the grand

alliance,

alliance, that of reducing the power of France; by fucceeding in which alone they could have been able to keep the fecond engagement, that of fecuring the fucceffion of Spain to the house of Austria.

AFTER this peace what remained to be done? In the whole nature of things there remained but three. To abandon all care of the Spanish fucceffion was one; to compound with France upon this fucceffion was another; and to prepare, like her, during the interval of peace to make an advantageous war whenever CHARLES the second should die, was a third. Now the first of these was to leave Spain, and in leaving Spain, to leave all Europe in some fort at the mercy of France: fince whatever difpofition the Spaniards should make of their crown, they were quite unable to fupport it against France: fince the emperor could do little without his allies; and fince Bavaria, the third pre