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■which -religion occafioned; and fupporting theproteftant party in France would have kept thatcrown under reftraints, and under inabilities, infome meafure equal to thofe which were occafionedanciently by the vaft alienations of its demefnes,and by the exorbitant power of its vaffals. ButJames the firft was incapable of thinking with fenfe,or ading with fpirit. Charles the firft had animperfect glimpfe of his true intereft, but hisuxorious temper, and the extravagancy of thatmadman Buckingham, gave Richelieu time tofinifli a great part of his projed: and the miferies,that followed in England, gave Mazarin timeand opportunity to complete the fyftem. The laftgreat ad of this cardinal’s adminiftration was thePyrenean treaty.

Here I would begin, by reprefenting the faceof Europe fuch as it was at that epocha, theinterefts and the condud of England, France ,Spain , Holland , and the empire. A fummaryrecapitulation Ihould follow of all the fteps takenby France , during more than twenty years, toarrive at the great objed fihe had propofed to herfelfin making this treaty: the moft folemn article ofwhich the minifter, who negociated it, defignedfliould be violated; as appears by his letters, writfrom the Bland of Pheafants, if I miftake not.After this, another draught of Europe Ihould haveit’s place according to the relations , which thefeveral powers flood in, one towards another, inone thoufand fix hundred and eighty-eight: andthe alterations which the revolution in England

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