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made in the politics of Europe . A summaryaccount íhould follovv ot the events of the warthatended in one thousand six hundred and ninety-stven. with the diffèrent vievvs of king Williamthe third and Lewis the fourteenth, iu makingthe peace of Ryswic ; which matter has been much 'canvaíled, and is little underítood. Then thedispositions niade by the partition-treaties, andthe influences and conséquences of these treaties ;and a third draught of the fìate of Europe at thedeath of CHARLES the second of Spain . Ail thiswould make t lie iubjedt of one or two books and.would be the moss proper introduction imaginableto a hiflory of that war with which our centurybegan, and of the peace which followed.

1 his war, foreseen for above hais a century,had been. dnring ail' that pme, the gréât andconfiant object of the counciìs of Europe . Thepnzr to be courended for was the riches! that everhad been staked, fin ce those of the Persi-n andRoman empires. The union of two powers, wliichfeparately, and m oppolition, had aimcd at universalmonarchy, was apprehendcd. i he consederatestherefore engaged in ít, to maintain a balancebetween the two bouses of Austria and Bourbon,in order to préservé their security, and to asserttheir independence But with the su c cels of thewar they changed their views: and, if ambitionbegan it on the fìde of Erance, ambition continuedit on the other. The battles, the sieges, the fur-prising révolutions, which happened in the courseof this war, are notto be paralleled in an y period