. and Richelieu; the destruction of the former was a
direct blow to the pride and interest of France. What Choiseul would
have done had he been in office, cannot be known; but if the result of
the Seven Years' War had been different, France might have interfered
to some purpose.

On the 10th of May, 1774, Louis XV. died, at the time when the
troubles in the North American colonies were fast coming to a head.
Under his youthful successor, Louis XVI., the policy of peace on the
continent, of friendly alliance with Spain, and of building up the
navy in numbers and efficiency, was continued. This was the foreign
policy of Choiseul, directed against the sea power of England as the
chief enemy, and toward the sea power of France as the chief support,
of the nation. The instructions which, according to a French naval
author, the new king gave to his ministers show the spirit with which
his reign up to the Revolution was inspired, whether or not they
originated with the king himself:--

"To watch all indications of approaching danger; to observe by
cruisers the approaches to our islands and the entrance to the
Gulf of Mexico; to keep track of what was passing on the banks
of Newfoundland, and to follow the tendencies of English
commerce; to observe in England the state of the troops and
armaments, the public credit and the ministry; to meddle
adroitly in the affairs of the British colonies; to give the
insurgent colonists the means of obtaining supplies of war,
while maintaining the strictest neutrality; to develop actively,
but noiselessly, the navy; to repair our ships of war; to fill
our storehouses and to keep on hand the means for rapidly
equipping a fleet at Brest and at Toulon, while Spain should be
fitting one at Ferrol; finally, at the first serious fear of
rupture, to assemble numerous troops upon the shores of Brittany
and Normandy, and get everything ready for an invasion of
England, so as to force her to concentrate her forces, and thus
restrict her means of resistance at the extremities of the
empire."[115]

Such instructions, whether given all at once as a symmetrical,
well-thought-out plan, or from time to time, as occasion arose, showed
that an accurate forecast of the situation had been made, and breathed
a conviction which, if earlier felt, would have greatly modified the
history of the two countries. The execution was less thorough t