Spanish Crown, which would otherwise, according to the rules of fucceffion established in Spain, have indubitably fuperfeded all other claims. The grand object of the ambition, both of the King and Kingdom of Spain, was to fecure, and to which of all the different claimants was apparently a very subordinate confideration, the entire and undivided devolution of the Spanish monarchy; which included not only Spain and the Indies, but the two Sicilies, Milan, Sardinia, and the Low Countries; and which had long been in a state of extreme political debility, bending, as it were, beneath the preffure of its own enormous weight.

King William, however, who had no other end in view than to maintain the balance of power, and to preserve the general tranquillity of Europe, paid little attention to national prejudices originating in pride and folly, or even, as it must be acknowledged, to national rights and privileges, in the measures which he fcrupled not to adopt, for the accomplishment of purposes fo defirable and important. He concluded, therefore, with Louis, a fecret Treaty of Partition, by which, at the decease of the King of Spain, the two Sicilies, and all the poffeffions of Spain eastward of the Pyrenées, were to be for ever united to the French monarchy; the Dutchy of Milan was allotted to the Emperor; and it was agreed, that the Kingdom of Spain, and its remaining appendages, fhould revert to the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, who was defcended from

the fecond daughter of Philip IV. father of the reigning Monarch. This plan, however, being rendered abortive by the death of the young Prince, another treaty was concerted without the knowledge or participation of the Court of Madrid, by which, in addition to her former allotment, France obtained the important Dutchies of Lorraine and Bar, the Dutchy of Milan being ceded to the Duke of Lorraine by way of equivalent; and the Arch-duke, Charles II. fon to the Emperor, was fubftituted as heir to the Monarchy of Spain, in the room of the Electoral Prince. The King of Spain, from whom this treaty could not long remain concealed, exafperated at the conduct of King William, and foftened by the attentive and adulatory court paid to him by Louis, who dexterously contrived to throw the whole odium of this tranfaction upon the King of England, was at length prevailed upon, notwithstanding his former predilection for the Emperor, to make a will, by which he nominated as his fole heir, the Duke of Anjou, fecond fon to the Dauphin; who, fupported by the power of France, would, as the Catholic King was inceffantly and flatteringly told, be able to prevent what he fo much dreaded, the difmemberment of the Spanish monarchy.

The death of that Monarch taking place after a fhort interval, the Court of Verfailles declared its determination of accepting the will, notwith

ftanding

ftanding the formal renunciation of the Infanta Isabella, and the actual existence of the Treaty of Partition; alleging, "that as the object of that treaty was the prefervation of the general tranquillity, and that object could not, in present circumstances, be obtained by a strict adherence to this engagement, a departure from the letter of the treaty was clearly juftifiable, if it arofe folely from a defire of acting in more perfect conformity to the spirit of it."

At the meeting of Parliament, in which the Tory intereft now predominated, the partition treaty was reprobated without any referve, as a measure unjust in its origin, and difgraceful in its iffue. It was ftyled, in the vehemence of debate, "a felonious treaty ;" and fo high did the refentment and indignation of the Commons arife, that the Lords Somers, Halifax, Orford, and Portland, were actually impeached at the Bar of the Houfe of Peers, as the principal advifers and promoters of this treaty, which was in reality the fole project of the King himself, whofe conduct, on this occafion, notwithstanding the rectitude of his motives, must be acknowledged not eafily reconcileable to the dictates either of juftice or policy.

The Nation in general, however, entertained the most alarming apprehenfions at this vaft and unexpected addition to the power of the Houfe of Bourbon; and their fears and jealoufies were kindled

B 3

kindled into rage by the impolitic conduct of Louis, who, on the death of King James, which happened about this time, formally recognized the pretended Prince of Wales as true and lawful Sovereign of Great-Britain. The King, encouraged by the prevailing difpofition of the Nation, entered into an alliance with the Emperor and the United Provinces, in which all Kings, Princes and States were invited to join, in order to obtain fatif faction for the House of Auftria, and ample and permanent fecurity for the prefervation of the common liberties of Europe. The Parliament being diffolved, another was fummoned to meet in December 1701, in which the Whigs again recovered their afcendancy; and the royal speech at the opening of the Seffion, recommending, in very animated and energetic language, unanimity in the profecution of the most vigorous and decifive measures, was received with enthufiaftic and unbounded applaufe. "I promise myself," faid the King, " you are met together full of that just fense of the common danger of Europe, and that refentment of the late proceedings of the French King, which has been fo fully and univerfally expreffed in the loyal and feasonable. addreffes of my people. The eyes of all Europe are upon this Parliament. All matters are at a ftand, till your refolutions are known. Let me conjure you to disappoint the only hopes of

our

our enemies by your unanimity. I have fhewn, and will always fhew, how defirous I am to be the common father of all my people. Do you, in like manner, lay afide parties and divifions. Let there be no other diftinction heard of among us for the future, but of thofe who are for the Proteftant Religion and the prefent Establishment, and of those who mean a Popish Prince and a French Government.-If you do in good earnest defire to fee England hold the balance of Europe, and to be indeed at the head of the Proteftant Intereft, it will appear by your right improving the present oppor tunity." The King, the Parliament, and the Nation, feemed now animated with the same spirit, and in no period of his reign had William attained to fo great a height of popularity as at the prefent crifis; and all Europe, fixing their attention upon this Monarch, and regarding him with grateful and affectionate veneration, as the great affertor of its liberties as the head, heart, and hand of the confederacy-was eager with the expectation of seeing him once more in the field, leading on to battle the armies of that grand alliance, originally projected by him, and now revived with fresh spirit and vigour; and which, in the present exhausted state of France, it was prefumed, could fcarcely fail to be attended with the most fignal and glorious fuccefs. The King, however, B 4 perceived