2,4 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. parable ; if be furnished a great force, sufficientixvi. to subdue the nation, there was little reason to1S74. trust his generosity, with regard to the use,

which he would make of this advantage.

In all its other parts , the plan of the Cabal,it must be confessed, appears equally absurd andincongruous. If the war with Holland wereattended with great success, and involved thesubjection of the republic; such an accession offorce must fall to Lewis, not to Charles: Andwhat hopes afterwards of resisting by the greatestunanimity so mighty a monarch? How dangerous,or rather how ruinous to depend upon his assistanceagainst domestic discontents? If the Dutch, bytheir own vigor, and the assistance of allies, wereable to defend themselves, and could bring thewar to an equality, the French arms would beso employed abroad , that no considerable rein-forcement could thence be expected to secondthe king’s enterprises in England. And might notthe project of over-awing or subduing the peoplebe esteemed, of itself, sufficiently odious, withoutthe aggravation of sacrificing that State, whichthey regarded as their best ally, and with which,on many accounts, they were desirous of main-taining the greatest concord and strictest con-federacy ?

Whatever views likewise might be enter-tained os promoting by these measures the catholicreligion; they could only tend to render all theother schemes abortive, and make them fall withinevitable ruin upon the projectors. The catholic