and State of E u r o p e.

Let. 7.

was declared. France , you fee, appeared thecommon friend of liberty, the defender of it inthe Low Countries againft the king of Spain , andin Germany againft the emperor, as well as theprotestor of the princes of the empire, many ofwhofe eftates had been illegally invaded, andwhofe perfons were no longer fafe from violenceeven in their own palaces. All thefe appearanceswere kept up in the negociations at Munfter,where Mazarin reaped what Richelieu hadfowed. The demands that France made forherfelf were very great; but the conjuncture wasfavorable, and fhe improved it to the utmoft. Nofigure could be more flattering than her’s, at thehead of thefe negociations; nor more mortifyingthan the emperor’s through the whole courfe ofthe treaty. The princes and flates of the empirehad been treated as vaffals by the emperor:France determined them to treat with him on thisoccafxon as fovereigns, and fupported them in thisdetermination. Whilft Sweden feemed concernedfor the proteftant intereft alone, and fhowed noother regard, as Ihe had no other alliance; France affetted to be impartial alike to the proteftant andto the papift, and to have no intereft at heart butthe common intereft of the Germanic body. Herdemands were exceffive, but they were to befatisfied principally out of the emperors patrimo-nial dominions. It had been the art of herminifters to eftablifh this general maxim on manyparticular experiences , that the grandeur of France Was a real, and would be a conftant fecurity to