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A Sketch of the History Let. 7.

to this caufe, which was brought about by therevolution of one thcufand fix hundred and eighty-eight, might have made amends, and more thanamends , one would think , for this defect, andhave thrown fuperiority of power and of fuccefson the fide of the confederates, with whom fhetook part againlt France . This, I fay, might beimagined , without over-rating the power of Eng-land , or undervaluing that of France ; and it wasimagined at that time. How it proved otherwifein the event; how France came triumphant out ofthe war that ended by the treaty of Ryfwic, andthough fhe gave up a great deal, yet prefervedthe greateft and the belt part of her conqueftsand acquifitions made fince the treaties of Weft-phalia, and the Pyrenees ; how file acquired, bythe gift of Spain , that whole monarchy for oneof her princes, though file had no reafon to expedthe leaft part of it without a war at one time,nor the great lot of it even by a war at any time;in fhort, how fhe wound up advantageoufly theambitious fyftem fhe iiad been fifty years in weav-ing ; how (he concluded a war, in which fhe wasdefeated on every fide, and wholly exhaufled,with little diminution of the provinces and barriersacquired to France , and with the quiet poffeflionof Spain and the Indies to a prince of the houfeof Bourbon : all this, my lord, will be the fubjedof your refearches, when you come down to thelatter part of the laft period of modem hiflory.