1735--Compact between the Houses of Bourbon]

This first family compact is the key to all the subsequent history of
European wars down to the days of the French Revolution. The object of
one set of men was to maintain and add to the advantages secured to
them by the Treaty of Utrecht; the object of another set of men was to
shake themselves free from the disadvantages and disqualifications
which that treaty imposed on them. The Bourbon family were possessed
with the determination to maintain the position in Spain which the will
of Charles the Second had bequeathed to them, and which after so many
years of war and blood had been ratified by the Treaty of Utrecht.
They wanted to maintain their position in Spain; but they wanted not
that alone. They wanted much more. They wanted to plant a firm foot
in Italy; they wanted to annex border provinces to France; they saw
that their great enemy was England, and they wanted to weaken and to
damage her. No reasonable Englishman can find fault with the Kings of
Spain for their desire to recover Gibraltar. An English sovereign
would have conspired with any foreign State for the recovery of Dover
Castle and rock if these were held by a Spanish invader too strong to
be driven out by England single-handed. Many Englishmen were of
opinion then, some are of opinion now, that it would be an act of wise
and generous policy to give Gibraltar back to the Spanish people. But
no Englishman could possibly doubt that if England were determined to
keep Gibraltar she must {28} hold it her duty to watch with the keenest
attention every movement which indicated an alliance between France and
Spain.

Spain had at one time sought security for her interests, and a new
chance for her ambitions, by alliance with the Emperor. Of late she
had found that the Emperor generally got all the subsidies and all the
other advantages of the alliance, and that Spain was left rather worse
off after each successive settlement than she was before it. The
family compact between the two Houses of Bourbon was one result of her
experience in this way. Of course, when we talk of France and Spain,
we are talking merely of the Courts and the families. The people of
France and Spain were never consulted, and, indeed, were never thought
of, in these imperial and regal engagements. Nor at this particular
juncture had the King of Spain much more to do with the matter than the
humblest of his people. King Philip th