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advantageous war whenever Chari.es the secondíliould dis, was a third. Now the first of thesewas to leave Spain , and, in leaving Spain , toleave ail Europe in some sort at the mercy ofFrance ; fines vvhatever disposition the Spaniardsíliould rnake of their crown, they vvere quiteunable to support it against France ; smee theemperor could do little without his alliance: andsince Bavaria , the third pretender, could do ílillléss, and might fìnd, in such a case, his accountperhaps better in treating with the house of Bour-bon than with that of Austria . More needs not besaid on this head; but on the other two, which1 íliall consider together, several facts are properto be mentiòned, and several reflections necelTaryto be ruade.

We might hâve counter-worked, no doubt, intheir own methods of policy, the councils ofFrance , vvho made peace to dissolve the confede-racy, and gréât concessions, with very suspicionsgenerosity, to gain the Spaniards : we might hâvevvaited, like them, that is in arms, the death ofCharles the second, and hâve fortifìed in the meantime the dispositions of the king, the court, andpeople of Spain , against the pretensions of France :we might hâve made the peace, which was madefume time aster that, between the emperor andthe Turks, and hâve obliged the former at anyrate to hâve secured the peace of Hungary and tohâve prepared, by these and other expédients, forthe war that would inevitably break out on thedeath of the king of Spain .

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