rned mainly upon Holland, in which from the necessities of her
position he recognized his most steadfast opponent. For the time,
however, he seemed to yield; the more readily because of the probable
approaching failure of the Spanish royal line, and the ambition he had
of getting more than merely the territory lying to the east of France,
when the throne became vacant. But, though he dissembled and yielded,
from that time he set his mind upon the destruction of the republic.
This policy was directly contrary to that laid down by Richelieu, and
to the true welfare of France. It was to England's interest, at least
just then, that the United Provinces should not be trodden down by
France; but it was much more to the interest of France that they
should not be subjected to England. England, free from the continent,
might stand alone upon the seas contending with France; but France,
hampered by her continental politics, could not hope to wrest the
control of the seas from England without an ally. This ally Louis
proposed to destroy, and he asked England to help him. The final
result is already known, but the outlines of the contest must now be
followed.

Before the royal purpose had passed into action, and while there was
still time to turn the energies of France into another channel, a
different course was proposed to the king. This was the project of
Leibnitz, before spoken of, which has special interest for our subject
because, in proposing to reverse the lines which Louis then laid down,
to make continental expansion secondary and growth beyond the sea the
primary object of France, the tendency avowedly and necessarily was to
base the greatness of the country upon the control of the sea and of
commerce. The immediate object offered to the France of that day, with
the attainment of which, however, she could not have stopped short,
was the conquest of Egypt; that country which, facing both the
Mediterranean and Eastern seas, gave control of the great commercial
route which in our own day has been completed by the Suez Canal. That
route had lost much of its value by the discovery of the way round the
Cape of Good Hope, and yet more by the unsettled and piratical
conditions of the seas through which it lay; but with a really strong
naval power occupying the key of the position it might have been
largely restored. Such a power posted in Egypt would, in the already
decaying condition of the Ottoman Empire, have controlled the t