164 A Sketch of the History Let. 7.

domeftic quiet is preferved and any tolerable admi-niftration of government prevails, fhe muft growrich at the expenfe of thofe who trade, andeven of thofe who do not open a trade, with her.Her baubles, her modes, the follies and extra-vagancies of her luxury, coft England, about thetime we are fpeaking of, little lefs than eighthundred thoufand pounds fierlinga year, and other.nations in their proportions. Colbert made Lhcinoft of all thefe advantageous cirtmnftances, andwhilft he filled the national fpunge, he taught hisfucceffors how to fqueeze it; a fecret that herepented having difeovered, they lay, when hefaw the immenfe fums that were neceffary tofupply the growing magnificence of his mailer.

This was the character of Lewis the fourteenth,and this was the ftate of his kingdom at the begin-ning of the prefent period. If his power was great,his pretentions were Hill greater. He had renounced,and, the Infanta with his confent had renounced,all right to the fucceflion of Spain , in the ftrongeftterms that the precaution of the councils of Madrid could contrive. No matter; he confented to theferenunciations , but your lord/bip will find by theletters of MazariN, and by other memorials, thathe acted on the contrary principle, from the fir ft,which he avowed foon afterwards. Such a power,and fuch pretenfions, fliould have given, onewould think, an immediate alarm to the reft ofEurope . Philip the fourth was brokenand decayed,like the monarchy he governed. One of his fonsdied, as I remember, during the negociations that