A PLAN

FOR A

General History of EUROPE.

I

LETTER I.

SHALL take the liberty of writing to you a little oftener than the three or four times a year, which, you tell me, are all you can allow yourself to write to those you like best: and yet I declare to you with great truth, that you never knew me fo bufy in your life, as I am at prefent. You must not imagine from hence, that I am writing memoirs of myself. The fubject is too flight to defcend to pofterity, in any other manner, than by that occafional mention which may be made of any little actor in the history of our age. Sylla, Cæfar, and others of that rank, were, whilft they lived, at the head of mankind: their story was in fome fort the ftory of the world, and as fuch might very properly be tranfmitted under their names to future generations. But for those who have acted much inferiour parts, if they publish the piece, and call it after their own names, they are impertinent; if they publish only their own fhare in it, they inform mankind

by

by halves, and neither give much instruction, nor create much attention. France abounds with writers of this fort, and, I think, we fall into the other extreme. Let me tell you, on this occafion,

what has fometimes come into my thoughts.

There is hardly any century in history which began by opening fo great a scene, as the century wherein we live, and fhall, I fuppofe, die. Compare it with others, even the most famous, and you will think fo. I will sketch the two laft, to help

your memory.

The lofs of that balance which Laurence of Medicis had preferved, during his time, in Italy; the expedition of Charles the Eight to Naples; the intrigues of the Duke of Milan, who fpun, with all the refinements of art, that net wherein he was taken at last himself; the fuccefsful dexterity of Ferdinand the Catholic, who built one pillar of the Austrian greatness in Spain, in Italy, and in the Indies; as the fucceffion of the house of Burgundy, joined to the Imperial dignity and the hereditary countries, established another in the Upper and Lower Germany: thefe caufes, and many others, combined to form a very extraordinary conjuncture; and, by their confequences, to render the fixteenth century fruitful of great events, and of astonishing revolutions.

The beginning of the feventeenth opened fill a greater and more important fcene. The Spanish yoke was well-nigh impofed on Italy by the famous triumvirate, Toledo at Milan, Offuna at Naples, and La Cueva at Venice. The diftractions of France, as well as the ftate policy of the Queen

mother,

mother, feduced by Rome, and amufed by Spain; the despicable character of our James the First, the rafhnefs of the Elector-Palatine, the bad intelligence of the princes and states of the league in Germany, the mercenary temper of John George of Saxony, and the great qualities of Maximilian of Bavaria, raised Ferninand the Second to the Imperial throne; when, the males of the elder branch of the Auftrian family in Germany being extinguished at the death of Matthias, nothing was more defirable, nor perhaps more practicable, than to throw the empire into another house. Germany ran the fame risk as Italy had done: Ferdinand feemed more likely, even than Charles the Fifth had been, to become abfolute master; and, if France had not furnished the greateft minifter, and the North the greateft captain, of that age, in the fame point of time, Vienna and Madrid would have given the law to the western world.

As the Auftrian fcale funk, that of Bourbon rofe. The true date of the rife of that power, which has made the kings of France fo confiderable in Europe, goes up as high as Charles the Seventh, and Lewis the Eleventh. The weakness of our Henry the Sixth, the loofe conduct of Edward the Fourth, and perhaps the overfights of Henry the Seventh, helped very much to knit that monarchy together, as well as to enlarge it. Advantage might have been taken of the divifions which religion occafioned; and fupporting the proteftant party in France would have kept that crown under reftraints, and under inabilities, in fome measure equal to those which were occafioned anciently by the vaft alienations of its deVOL. 1. mefnes,

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mefnes, and by the exorbitant power of its vaffals. But James the Firft was incapable of thinking with fenfe, or acting with fpirit. Charles the First had an imperfect glimpfe of his true intereft, but his uxorious temper, and the extravagancy of that madman Buckingham, gave Richlicu time to finish a great part of his project: and the miferies, that followed in England, gave Mazarin time and opportunity to complete the fyftem. The last great act of this Cardinal's adminiftration was the Pyrenean treaty.

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Here I would begin, by reprefenting the face of Europe fuch as it was at that epocha, the interefts and the conduct of England, France, Spain, Holland, and the Empire. A fummary recapitulation fhould follow of all the fteps taken by France, during more than twenty years, to arrive at the great object she had propofed to herfelf in making this treaty the most folemn article of which the minifter, who negotiated it, defigned fhould be violated; as appears by his letters, writ from the Island of Pheasants, if I mistake not. After this, another draught of Europe fhould have its place, according to the relations, which the feveral powers stood in, one towards another, in one thoufand fix hundred and eighty-eight: and the alterations which the Revolution in England made in the politics of Europe. A fummary account fhould follow of the events of the war that ended in one thousand fix hundred and ninety-feven, with the different views of King William the Third, and Lewis the Fourteenth, in making the peace of Ryfwic; which matter has been much canvassed, and is little understood. Then the difpofitions

difpofitions made by the partition-treaties, and the influences and confequences of these treaties; and a third draught of the state of Europe at the death of Charles the Second of Spain. All this would make the fubject of one or two books, and would be the most proper introduction imaginable to an hi ftory of that war with which our century, began, and of the peace which followed.

This war, forefeen for above half a century, had been, during all that time, the great and conftant object of the councils of Europe. The prize

to be contended for was the richest that ever had been ftaked, fince thofe of the Perfian and Roman empires. The union of two powers, which feparately, and in oppofition, had aimed at univerfal monarchy, was apprehended. The confederates therefore engaged in it, to maintain a balance between the two houfes of Auftria and Bourbon, in order to preferve their fecurity, and to affert their independence. But with the fuccefs of the war they changed their views: and, if ambition began it on the fide of France, ambition continued it on the other. The battles, the fieges, the furprising revolutions, which happened in the courfe of this war, are not to be paralleled in any period of the fame compafs. The motives, and the meafures, by which it was protracted, the true reafons why it ended in a manner which appeared not proportionable to it's fuccefs, and the new political state, into which Europe was thrown by the treaty of Utrecht and Baden, are fubjects on which few perfons have the neceffary informations, and yet every one fpeaks with affurance, and even with paffion. I think

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