e a close union between the Courts of Versailles and
Kensington. One event only seemed likely to raise new troubles. If the
Catholic King should die before it had been settled who should succeed
to his immense dominions, there was but too much reason to fear that the
nations, which were just beginning to breathe after an exhausting and
devastating struggle of nine years, would be again in arms. His Most
Christian Majesty was therefore desirous to employ the short interval
which might remain, in concerting with the King of England the means of
preserving the tranquillity of the world.

Portland made a courteous but guarded answer. He could not, he said,
presume to say exactly what William's sentiments were; but this he
knew, that it was not solely or chiefly by the sentiments of the King
of England that the policy of England on a great occasion would
be regulated. The islanders must and would have their government
administered according to certain maxims which they held sacred; and of
those maxims they held none more sacred than this, that every increase
of the power of France ought to be viewed with extreme jealousy.

Pomponne and Torcy answered that their master was most desirous to
avoid every thing which could excite the jealousy of which Portland had
spoken. But was it of France alone that a nation so enlightened as the
English must be jealous? Was it forgotten that the House of Austria had
once aspired to universal dominion? And would it be wise in the princes
and commonwealths of Europe to lend their aid for the purpose of
reconstructing the gigantic monarchy which, in the sixteenth century,
had seemed likely to overwhelm them all?

Portland answered that, on this subject, he must be understood to
express only the opinions of a private man. He had however now lived,
during some years, among the English, and believed himself to be pretty
well acquainted with their temper. They would not, he thought, be much
alarmed by any augmentation of power which the Emperor might obtain.
The sea was their element. Traffic by sea was the great source of their
wealth; ascendency on the sea the great object of their ambition. Of the
Emperor they had no fear. Extensive as was the area which he governed,
he had not a frigate on the water; and they cared nothing for his
Pandours and Croatians. But France had a great navy. The balance of
maritime power was what would be anxiously watched in London; and the
balance of maritime power