ï66

A Sketch oí the H13 t o r y Let. 7 .

France , and neglected that of England. Thealliance between our nation and the Dutch wasrenewed, I think, in one thousand six hundredand sixty-two; but thelatterhad made a défensiveleague with France a little before, on the supposi-tion principally of a war with England. The warbeeame inévitable very soon. Cromwell hadçhastised them for their usurpations in trade, andthe outrages and cruelties they had committed;but he had not cured them. The famé spirit con-tinued in the Dutch , the famé resentments in theEngliíh ; and the pique of merchants beeame thepique of nations. France entered into the war onthe lìde of Holland ; but the little assistance lliegave the Dutch fhowed plainly enough that herintention was to make these two powers wastetheir strerig'h against one another, whilst ílie exterid-ed her conquests in the Spaniíh Low Countries,Her invasion of these provinces obliged De WlTto change his conduct. Hitherto he had beenattached to France in the closes! manner. hadled hisrepublic to serve ail the purposes of France ,and had renewed with the maríhal D’Fstrades aproject of dividing the Spanilli Netherlands betweenFrance and Holland , that had been taken up for-merly, when Richelieu made use of it to flattertheir ambition, and to engage them to prolongthe war against Spain . A project not unlike tothat which was held out to them by the famouspreliminaries, and the extravagant barier-treaty,in one thousand seven hundred and nine ; and whichengaged them to continue a war on the principle