of the greatness of their King and of their
own loyalty, looked on our struggles against Popery and arbitrary power,
not only without admiration or sympathy, but with strong disapprobation
and disgust. It would therefore be a great error to ascribe the conduct
of Lewis to apprehensions at all resembling those which, in our age,
induced the Holy Alliance to interfere in the internal troubles of
Naples and Spain.

Nevertheless, the propositions made by the court of Whitehall were
most welcome to him. He already meditated gigantic designs, which were
destined to keep Europe in constant fermentation during more than forty
years. He wished to humble the United Provinces, and to annex Belgium,
Franche Comte, and Loraine to his dominions. Nor was this all. The King
of Spain was a sickly child. It was likely that he would die without
issue. His eldest sister was Queen of France. A day would almost
certainly come, and might come very soon, when the House of Bourbon
might lay claim to that vast empire on which the sun never set. The
union of two great monarchies under one head would doubtless be opposed
by a continental coalition. But for any continental coalition France
singlehanded was a match. England could turn the scale. On the course
which, in such a crisis, England might pursue, the destinies of the
world would depend; and it was notorious that the English Parliament
and nation were strongly attached to the policy which had dictated the
Triple Alliance. Nothing, therefore, could be more gratifying to Lewis
than to learn that the princes of the House of Stuart needed his help,
and were willing to purchase that help by unbounded subserviency. He
determined to profit by the opportunity, and laid down for himself a
plan to which, without deviation, he adhered, till the Revolution of
1688 disconcerted all his politics. He professed himself desirous to
promote the designs of the English court. He promised large aid. He from
time to time doled out such aid as might serve to keep hope alive, and
as he could without risk or inconvenience spare. In this way, at an
expense very much less than that which he incurred in building and
decorating Versailles or Marli, he succeeded in making England, during
nearly twenty years, almost as insignificant a member of the political
system of Europe as the republic of San Marino.

His object was not to destroy our constitution, but to keep the various
elements of which it was composed in a perpe