at time,
however, and with regard to that object, in my opinion, Great Britain
and France had a common interest.

[Sidenote: Possible project of the Emperor and king of Prussia.]

But the position of Germany is not like that of Poland, with regard to
France, either for good or for evil. If a conjunction between Prussia
and the Emperor should be formed for the purpose of secularizing and
rendering hereditary the Ecclesiastical Electorates and the Bishopric of
Muenster, for settling two of them on the children of the Emperor, and
uniting Cologne and Muenster to the dominions of the king of Prussia on
the Rhine, or if any other project of mutual aggrandizement should be in
prospect, and that, to facilitate such a scheme, the modern French
should be permitted and encouraged to shake the internal and external
security of these Ecclesiastical Electorates, Great Britain is so
situated that she could not with any effect set herself in opposition to
such a design. Her principal arm, her marine, could here be of no sort
of use.

[Sidenote: To be resisted only by France.]

France, the author of the Treaty of Westphalia, is the natural guardian
of the independence and balance of Germany. Great Britain (to say
nothing of the king's concern as one of that august body) has a serious
interest in preserving it; but, except through the power of France,
_acting upon the common old principles of state policy_, in the case we
have supposed, she has no sort of means of supporting that interest. It
is always the interest of Great Britain that the power of France should
be kept within the bounds of moderation. It is not her interest that
that power should be wholly annihilated in the system of Europe. Though
at one time through France the independence of Europe was endangered, it
is, and ever was, through her alone that the common liberty of Germany
can be secured against the single or the combined ambition of any other
power. In truth, within this century the aggrandizement of other
sovereign houses has been such that there has been a great change in the
whole state of Europe; and other nations as well as France may become
objects of jealousy and apprehension.

[Sidenote: New principles of alliance.]

In this state of things, a new principle of alliances and wars is
opened. The Treaty of Westphalia is, with France, an antiquated fable.
The rights and liberties she was bound to maintain are now a system of
wrong and tyranny which she is