Let. 8.
si?
their whole monarchy to a prince of the lioufe ofBourbon. As much as may have been faid con-cerning the negociations of France to obtain a willin her favor, and yet to keep in referve the ad-vantages ftipulated for her by the partition-treatiesif fuch a will could not be obtained, and thoughI am perfuaded that the marfhal ofHARCOURT,who helped to procure this will, made his courtto Lewis the fourteenth as much as the marfhalofTALLARD, who negociated the partitionsyetit is certain, that the acceptation of the will wasnot a meafure definitively taken at Verfailles whenthe king of Spain died. The alternative dividedthiofe councils , and, without entering at this timeinto the arguments urged on each fide, adheringto the partitions feemed the caufe of France ,accepting the will that of the houfe of Bourbon.
It has been laid by men of great weight in thecouncils of Spain , and was faid at that time bymen as little fond of the houfe of Bourbon, or ofthe French nation, as their fathers had been; thatif England and Holland had not formed a confe-deracy and begun a war, they would have madePhilip the fifth as good a Spaniard as any of thepreceding Philips, and not have endured the in-fluence of French councils in the adminiftration oftheir government: but that we threw them entire-ly into the hands of France when we began thewar, becaufe the fleets and armies of this crownbeing neceffary to their defence, they could notavoid fubmitting to this influence as long as thefame neceility continued; and , in fact, \ye have,