第50章 LETTER 7(5)

So dangerous a contingency,therefore,as the union of the two monarchies of France and Spain,being in view forty years together;one would imagine,that the principal powers of Europe had the means of presenting it constantly in view during the same time.But it was otherwise.France acted very systematically from the year one thousand six hundred and sixty,to the death of king Charles the Second of Spain.She never lost sight of her great object,the succession to the whole Spanish monarchy;and she accepted the will of the king of Spain in favor of the Duke of Anjou.As she never lost sight of her great object during this time,so she lost no opportunity of increasing her power,while she waited for that of succeeding in her pretensions.The two branches of Austria were in no condition of making a considerable opposition to her designs and attempts.Holland,who of all other powers was the most concerned to oppose them,was at that time under two influences that hindered her from pursuing her true interest.Her true interest was to have used her utmost endeavors to unite closely and intimately with England on the restoration of king Charles.She did the very contrary.John de Wit,at the head of the Louvestein faction,governed.The interest of his party was to keep the house of Orange down:he courted therefore the friendship of France,and neglected that of England.The alliance between our nation and the Dutch was renewed,I think,in one thousand six hundred and sixty-two;but the latter had made a defensive league with France a little before,on the supposition principally of a war with England.The war became inevitable very soon.Cromwell had chastised them for their usurpations in trade,and the outrages and cruelties they had committed;but he had not cured them.The same spirit continued in the Dutch,the same resentments in the English:and the pique of merchants became the pique of nations.France entered into the war on the side of Holland;but the little assistance she gave the Dutch showed plainly enough that her intention was to make these two powers waste their strength against one another;whilst she extended her conquests in the Spanish Low Countries.Her invasion in these provinces obliged De Wit to change his conduct.Hitherto he had been attached to France in the closest manner,had led his republic to serve all the purposes of France,and had renewed with th marshal d'Estrades a project of dividing the Spanish Netherlands between France and Holland,that had been taken up formerly,when Richelieu made use of it to flatter their ambition,and to engage them to prolong the war against Spain.A project not unlike to that which was held out to them by the famous preliminaries,and the extravagant barrier-treaty,in one thousand seven hundred and nine;and which engaged them to continue a war on the principle of ambition,into which they had entered with more reasonable and more moderate views.

As the private interests of the two De Wits hindered that commonwealth from being on her guard,as early as she ought to have been,against France,so the mistaken policy of the court of England,and the short views,and the profuse temper of the prince who governed,gave great advantages to Louis the Fourteenth in the pursuit of his designs.He bought Dunkirk:and your lordship knows how great a clamor was raised on that occasion against your noble ancestor;as if he alone had been answerable for the measure,and his interest had been concerned in it.I have heard our late friend Mr.George Clarke quote a witness,who was quite unexceptionable,but I cannot recall his name at present,who,many years after all these transactions,and the death of my lord Clarendon,affirmed,that the earl of Sandwich had owned to him,that he himself gave his opinion,among many others,officers,and ministers,for selling Dunkirk.Their reasons could not be good,I presume to say;but several,that might be plausible at that time,are easily guessed.

A prince like king Charles,who would have made as many bad bargains as any young spendthrift,for money,finding himself thus backed,we may assure ourselves,was peremptorily determined to sell:and whatever your great grandfather's opinion was,this I am able to pronounce upon my own experience,that his treaty for the sale is no proof he was of opinion to sell.When the resolution of selling was once taken,to whom could the sale be made?To the Dutch;No.This measure would have been at least as impolitic,and,in that moment,perhaps more odious than the other.To the Spaniards?They were unable to buy:and,as low as their power was sunk,the principle of opposing it still prevailed.I have sometimes thought that the Spaniards,who were forced to make peace with Portugal,and to renounce all claim to that crown,four or five years afterwards,might have been induced to take this resolution then;if the regaining Dunkirk without any expense had been a condition proposed to them;and that the Portuguese,who,notwithstanding their alliance with England and the indirect succors that France afforded them,were little able,after the treaty especially,to support a war against Spain,might have been induced to pay the price of Dunkirk,for so great an advantage as immediate peace with Spain,and the extinction of all foreign pretences on their crown.