LETTER V L

The famé subjeót contìmied srom the year onethoufand six hundred and eighty-eîght.

ì OUR lordship wi.il fmd, that the obiccts pro-posed by the alliance of one thoufand six hnruiredand eighty-nine between the emperor and theStates, to which England acceded. and whichWas the foundarion ot the whole confederacy thenformed, were no léss than to restore ail things tothe terms of the Weílphalian and Pyrenean treaties,by the war ; and to préserve them in that state,aster the war, by a defenfive alliance and guarantyof the lame confederate powers against France *The pardcular as well as général meaning of thisengagement was plain enough: and if ìt had notbeen so, the sense of it would hâve been sufficientlydetermined, by that separate article, in whichEngland and Holland obliged themselves to affistthe “ house of Austrìa , in taking and keeping.** poíTeísion of the Spaniíli monarchy, whenever“ the case should happen of the death of Charles** the second, without lawful heirs.” This engage-ment was double, and thereby relative to thewhole political fy stem of Europe alike affedìed bythe power and pretensions of France . Hitherto the'

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