ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε

STUDY and USE

OF

HISTORY.

By the late RIGHT HONORABLE

HENRY ST. JOHN,

LORD VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

Printed for A. MILLAR, in the Strand.

MDCCLII.

LETTER VIII.

The fame fubject continued from the year one thousand fix bundred eighty eight.

You

OUR lordship will find, that the objects proposed by the alliance of one thousand fix hundred 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 Westphalian and Pyrenean treaties, by the war; and to preserve them in that state after the war, by a defenfive alliance and guarranty 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

not been fo, the sense of it would have been fufficiently determined, by that separate article, in which England and Holland obliged themselves to affift the • house of Austria, in taking and keeping * poffeffion of the Spanish monarchy, ' whenever the cafe fhould happen of the "death of CHARLES the fecond, without

lawful heirs.' This engagement 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 seemed to have been forgot: or to what purpose should they have been remembered, whilst Europe was fo unhappily conftituted, that the states at whofe expence she increased 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 refuse confirming prefent, were little likely to take

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 shewn 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 ftooped to be her B 2 penfi