i6o a Sketch of the History Let. 7.

to a concert taken between them and the Dutch,and in purfuance of a treaty for dividing theSpanifh Low Countries , which Richelieu hadnegociated. Cromwell either did not difcernthis turn of the bdance of power, long afterwardswhen it was much more vifible; or, difcerning it,lie was induced by reafons of private intereft toa<ft againft the general intereft of Europe . Crom-well joined with France againft Spain , andthough he got Jamaica and Dunkirk , he drovethe Spaniards into a neceffity of making a peacewith France , that has difturbed the peace of theworld almoftfourfcore years, and the confequencesof which have well-nigh beggared in our times thenation he enflaved in his. There is a tradition, Ihave heard it from perfons who lived in thofedays, and I believe it came from Thurloe , thatCROMWELL was in treaty with Spain , and readyto turn his arms againft France when he died. Ifthat fact was certain, as little as I honor his memo-ry , I fliould have fome regret that he died fofoon. But whatever his intentions were, we muftcharge the Pyrenean treaty , and the fatal confe-quences of it in great meafure to his account. TheSpaniards abhorred the thought of marrying theirInfanta to Lewis the fourteenth. It was on thispoint that they broke the negociation L10MNE hadbegun: and your lordlhip will perceive, that ifthey refumed it afterwards, and offered the mar-riage they had before rejedted, Cromwell’s leaguewith France was a principal inducement to thisalteration of their refolutions.

The