i6g A Sketch of the History Let. 7. I £ '"

felling was once taken, to whom could the fale be <!"*'

made? To the Dutch ? No. This meafure would ^ 0I

have been at leaft as impolitic, and, in that mo^ment, perhaps more odious than the other. To theSpaniards ? They were unable to buy : and, aslow as their power was funk, the principle of c01

Oppofing it flill prevailed. I have fometimes ®P

thought that the Spaniards, who were forced tomake peace with Portugal , and to renounce all ^

claim to that crown, four or five years afterwards, ^

might have been induced to take this refoludon ccs

then , if the regaining Dunkirk without anyexpenfe had been a condition propofed to them; ^

and that the Portuguefe, who, notwithftanding "'I

their alliance with England and the indirect fuc- 3111

cours that France afforded them, were little able,after the treaty efpecially, to fupport a war again ft 1 J "

Spain , might have been induced to pay the price $p;

of Dunkirk, for fo great an advantage as imme- B'

diate peace with Spain , and the extinction of all A

foreign pretences on their crown. But this fpecu- £o

lation concerning events fo long ago paffed is not Ei

much to the purpofe here. I proceed therefore to it;

obferve , that notwithftanding the file of Dunkirk, nc

and the fecret leanings of our court to that of re

France , yet England was firft to take the alarm, as

when Lewis the fourteenth invaded the Spanifh If

Netherlands in one thoufand fix hundred and fixty- tl:

feven : and the triple alliance was the work of an to

Englilb minifter. It was time to take this alarm; m

for from the moment that the king of France v

claimed a right to the county of Burgundy, the fi