Let.
191
very fuccefsful againft the Turks. This fuccefs , aswell as the troubles that followed upon it in theOttoman armies, and at the Porte, gave a reafon-able expedation of concluding a peace on thatfide : and, this peace concluded, the emperor, andthe empire, and the king of Spain would havebeen in a much better pofture to treat with France .With thefe views, that were wife and juft, theleague of Augfburgh was made between the emperor,the kings of Spain and Sweden as princes of theempire, and the other circles and princes. Thisleague was purely defenfive. An exprefs articledeclared it to be fo: and as it had no other regard,it was not only conformable to the laws and con-ftitutions of the empire, and to the practice of allnations, but even to the terms of the ad of trucefo lately concluded. This pretence therefore forbreaking the truce feizing the electorate of Cologne,invading the Palatinate , befieging Philipfburgh,and carrying unexpeded and undeclared war intothe empire , could not be fupported : nor is itpoftible to read the reafons publilhed by France at this time, and drawn from her fears of theimperial power, without laughter. As little pretencewas there to complain, that the emperor refufedto convert at once the. truce into a definitivetreaty; fince, if he had done fo, he would haveconfirmed in a lump, and without any difcuffion,all the arbitrary decrees of thofe chambers, orcourts, that France had ereded to cover her ufurp*ations ; aud would have given up almoft a fixthpart of the provinces of the empire, that France