ide whether the exertions which his ambition naturally, perhaps
properly, prompted should take the direction which, while imposing
great efforts, did nothing to sustain but rather hindered the natural
activities of his people, and broke down commerce by making control of
the sea uncertain; or whether he should launch out in pursuits which,
while involving expense, would keep peace on his borders, lead to the
control of the sea, and by the impulse given to trade, and all upon
which trade depends, would bring in money nearly if not quite equal
to that which the State spent. This is not a fanciful picture; by his
attitude toward Holland, and its consequences, Louis gave the first
impulse to England upon the path which realized to her, within his own
day, the results which Colbert and Leibnitz had hoped for France. He
drove the Dutch carrying-trade into the ships of England; allowed her
to settle peacefully Pennsylvania and Carolina, and to seize New York
and New Jersey; and he sacrificed, to gain her neutrality, the growing
commerce of France. Not all at once, but very rapidly, England pressed
into the front place as a sea power; and however great her sufferings
and the sufferings of individual Englishmen, it remained true of her
that even in war her prosperity was great. Doubtless France could not
forget her continental position, nor wholly keep free from continental
wars; but it may be believed that if she had chosen the path of sea
power, she might both have escaped many conflicts and borne those that
were unavoidable with greater ease. At the Peace of Nimeguen the
injuries were not irreparable, but "the agricultural classes,
commerce, manufactures, and the colonies had alike been smitten by the
war; and the conditions of peace, so advantageous to the territorial
and military power of France, were much less so to manufactures, the
protective tariffs having been lowered in favor of England and
Holland,"[63] the two sea powers. The merchant shipping was stricken,
and the splendid growth of the royal navy, that excited the jealousy
of England, was like a tree without roots; it soon withered away under
the blast of war.

Before finally quitting this war with Holland, a short notice of the
Comte d'Estrees, to whom Louis committed the charge of the French
contingent of the allied fleet, and who commanded it at Solebay and
the Texel, will throw some light upon the qualifications of the French
naval officers of the day before e