Let. 7. and State of E u R o P E. 1 159

wealth. The French , who had been, after ourElizabeth , their principal fupport, reproachedthem feverely for this breach of faith. Theyexcufed themfelves in the beft manner , and bythe beft reafons , they could. All this yourlordfhip will find in the monuments of thattime. But I think it not improbable that theyhad a motive you will not find there , andwhich it was not proper to give as a reafon orexcufe to the French . Might not the wife menamongft them confider even then, befides the im-mediate advantages that accrued by this treaty totheir commonwealth , that the imperial power wasfallen ; that the power of Spain was vaftly reduced;that the houfe of Auftria was nothing more thanthe flbadow of a great name , and that the houfe ofBourbon was advancing, by large ftrides, to adegree of power as exorbitant, and as formidableas that of the other family had been in the handsof Charles the fifth, of Philip the fecond, andlately of the two Ferdinands? Might they notforefee, even then, what happened in the courfeof very few years, when they were obliged, fortheir own fecurity, to affift their old enemies theSpaniards againft their old friends the French ? Ithink they might. Our Charles the firft was nogreat politician, and yet he feemed to difcern thatthe balance of power was turning in favor ofFrance , fome years before the treaties of Weftpha-lia. Herefufedto be neuter, and threatened to takepart with Spain , if the French pu. fued the defignof befieging Dunkirk and Graveline , according