keeping a General Ballance of Power among Princes comes to be the Question and the Histories of all Ages and Nations give Instances to Prove it as well as this Having thus run thro' the Reasons of this League of Partition the Question is answered of course that if the Emperor shou'd refuse to come into the Partition and push for the whole then the King of France is not thereby at Liberty to possess the whole if he can for that wou'd overthro ' all the Measures upon which the League of Partition is built The Emperor is not so weak a Prince to refuse the Kingdom of Spain with all its c's in the Ocean Flanders and America but upon some Expectation to get more the Confederates therefore are to preserve that part which is Design'd him free and then effectually to put it out of his power to obtain the rest and with all not to admit him into the part Reserv'd for him till he agrees to accept it on the Terms proposed if he shou'd absolutely refuse it which is a ridiculous Supposition there are other Heirs of that Line to have recourse too there 's no doubt the Crown of Spain need not go a begging for an Heir It may be answered if it be thus it is the Emperor's best Course to lay his Measures for the whole and if he cannot carry it he may accept of the Partition at last That 's more than the Objector may be able prove how far the Confederates may think fit to bestow the remainder if the Emperor after a War shou'd be reduc'd to accept of it is more than any one can Answer and more than the Emperor will try if he be not infatuated worse than ever a certain King was who if he had not might ha' been a King still The Second Branch of the Answer is supposing the King of France shou'd so far forget himself as to quit the League of Partition and claim the Crown of Spain for his Grandson l'Duk d' Anjou by Virtue of the Will of the King Defunct It must certainly then be the Interest of England and Holland first to put themselves in such a Posture as may prevent the French King seizing of Spain it self and Flanders in Particular And upon the First Invasion of the Territories of Spain by the French King to Declare War against him in the Name of the whole Confederacy as an Infringer of the Grand Peace at Reswick And then by appearing on the Frontiers in such a formidable manner as shall give him diversion enough that he not be able to enter Spain with any considerable Forces The First of these things is to be done immediately by fitting out a good Fleet which should so Scour the Mediteranean that the French wou'd not be able to do much on the side of Catalonia for Experience has told us a Fleet at Sea will make their War in Catalonia very uneasie to them and by landing a small Force of about Eight or Ten Thousand Men at Fonterabia which should be sufficient to Defend that side of the Country from the Invasions of the French But this Pamphlet is not wrote to direct Methods but to Argue the general Point The Conclusion of the Argument must come to that sort of People who have appeared Champions for our English Liberty as to Damn all kind of force as useless burthensom to the Kingdom and Badges of slavery and all Arguments to be only pretences for supporting Arbitrary Designs If the French shou'd attack Spain I am far from saying I am glad they will be convinc'd but I must say I am sorry the people of England have been deluded by their specious pretences For if the French carry the Spanish Monarchy for want of our being in a Condition to prevent it I am bold to tell those Gentlemen God Almighty must be put to the trouble of working another Miracle to save us or we are reduc'd to a very dangerous Condition But say they we have a great Fleet and in that we are safe it is true Gentlemen so we are from Invasion I believe we need not fear all the World but what is England without its Trade without its Plantation Trade Turky Trade and Spanish Trade and where will that be when a French Garrison is planted at Cadiz and the French Fleet brings home the Plate from Havana What will the Virginia Collony be worth when the French come to be strong in the Lakes of and have a free Commerce from Quebeck to Mexico behind ye what will our Northern Trade be worth in a War when the the ports of Ostend and Neuport are as full of pirates as Dunkirk and St. Malo A wise Man cannot patiently reflect upon the formidable power of France with the Addition of the Spanish Dominion and should he at last annex it to the Crown of France who can consider without Horrour that all the ports from Sluce in Flanders to the Faro Messina in Sicily should be in the Hands of the French which is a Coast of near 3000 Miles Portugal Genoua and Leghorn excepted and how long they will hold out is easie to imagine I know God can prevent Humane Contrivances and I belive he has plac'd King William on the English Throne on purpose to disappoint this Invincible Monarch in these vast Designs but no Thanks to our Gentlemen that have so weakned both his Hands and his Interest at home as to make him less able to perform for us what is our own Advantange than His Majesty wou'd be and than the Case requir'd As to Ways and Means I meddle not with them I leave them to the wise Heads of the Nation but with Submission to their Judgment this I am positive in let our Measures be what they will if we do not keep the Enemy the French I mean out of Spain we are undone In all the Histories of Times and Wars I never read of a General who would not chuse to be Master of the Field and able to fight his Enemy rather than to be coop'd up and bound to defend the Walls of a Town If the French get the Spanish Crown we are beaten out of the Field as to Trade and are besieged in our own Island and never let us flatter our selves with our Safety consisting so much in our Fleet for this I presume to lay down as a fundamental Axiom at least as the Wars go of late 't is not the longest Sword but the longest Purse that conquers If the French get Spain they get the greatest Trade in the World in their Hands they that have the most Trade will have the most Money and they that have the most Money will have the most Ships the best Fleet and the best Armies and if once the French master us at Sea where are we then And though I would not lessen our Fleet which I believe is now the best in the World yet he that looks back to the French Fleet before their Misfortune will tell you that all our English was not able to look them in the Face if we had no Dutch on our side and hardly with the Dutch and us together I am Answer'd by some that if the French shou'd have Spain we shall Trade thither still they cannot do without our Manufactures To this I Answer time was France could not Trade without our Manufactures Now they are fallen into them to such a Degree that they only want Wooll and they have Hands enough to supply all the World with Manufactures and they are so supplied with that from one Place or another that they Buy none of our Goods now or but a trifle and if the Ports of Spain come to be filled with French they will fill every Place with their Goods as well as People Besides the Laws of Trade when Masters of the Ports will bring all Nations to Trade under-foot with them and with gaeat disadvantages and hardships which will in the end ruin all that Trade that does not run thro' their own Hands The Present King of France likâ— a wise Governor puts his People upon all manner of Improvements tho' the Spaniards are a flothful Nation if the French Diligence comes once to thrive in Spain he knows little of Spain that does not know they are capable of Improvements several ways to the disadvantage of the English Trade I 'll give but one Instance Spain is a very hot Country and yet such is the Constancy of the Spaniard to the Old ridiculous Custom that they wear their Cloaks of course black English Bays should the French King when he is Master of Spain forbid the Spaniards the wearing of Bays and introduce some antick French Druget or other thin Stuff such as they make in Normandy it wou'd at once destroy our Trade of Bays which is the noblest Manufacture in many respects that we have in England and send Forty Thousand People who depend on that Trade to beg their Bread or seek other Work which other Work must of Consequence lessen the Employment of other Poor Families which it maintained before I cou'd give many Instances of the like Nature as for one more should they Prohibit the Exportation of Spanish Wooll and Manufacture it among themselves or into France let the West-Country Clothiers speak for themselves and say what strange work it wou'd make among them or our Hambrough Merchants give an Account what their Trade wou'd come to where they are outdone already in course Cloth and wou'd ha' no fine over to send to Market I know not but I may present the World with a short Account by it self of all the Sensible Losses our Trade will come under if the Kingdom of Spain should fall into the Hands of the French tho' methinks it should be needless to run thro' it the meanest Understanding being capable to know that the greatest Part of the Wealth of this Nation has been and is still rais'd by the Gainful Trade we have with the Spaniards FINIS
to be debated under another Head I 'll now suppose that which to me seems very unlikely That the King of France should accept of this Legacy and claim the Crown of Spain for his Grandson the Duke D'Anjou and attempt to set up that Ridiculous Title of a Last Will and Testament as the Foundation of his Pretension Let us Calmly consider the Consequences 1. He inevitably renews the War with the whole Confederacy that Peace which cost Him so much to procure is immediately broken upon the first Invasion He makes on the Territories of Spain who are a Branch of the Confederacy 2. He renews the War under insuperable Disadvantages such as are infinitely greater than He lay under before and such as loudly tell the World He never will venture to fight the whole Confederacy again Viz. The Multitude of strong Towns and Cities which he surrendred to the Confederates which are a sufficient Guarantee of the Peace and the Different Case of the Emperor who is more than ' twice what he was the last War by his Peace with the Turks 3. If He should make the Duke D'Anjou King France would really get nothing by the Bargain for in One Age the Race would be all Spaniards again Nay in a few Years Property wou'd prevail and he wou'd no more let his Brother the Duke of Burgundy when King of France encroach upon him than the late King of Spain wou'd the present King of France We do not want Instances in the World that Interest banishes all the Ties of Nation and Kindred when the Duke D'Anjou had been King of Spain some time he would look upon Spain to be his Own his Native his Peculiar and be as far from subjecting himself to France because he was born there as if he had never seen it Possibly he might be willing to join Interest with France and it may be join Forces upon Occasion but it must be where the Interest of the two Nations did not clash then and that is almost no where but if ever France encroach upon him she wou'd find him King of Spain not Duke D'Anjou So that all the King of France cou'd get by accepting the Crown of Spain would be a little present Satisfaction to see a Son of the House of Bourbon on the Spanish Throne but as King of France he wou'd not be One Farthing the beter for it But this would not be all as is before noted but whenever the present Duke of Burgundy comes to Enjoy the Crown of France it will in all Probability be an Eternal Cause of Contention between them For if the Family of France has any Title to Spain 't is in the Eldest Son of the Family and there can be no Colour of a Title in the Second Son while the Eldest is alive but what is founded either in the Gift of the One King or the Other As to the Gift of the Dauphin to his Second Son the first being alive it cannot be valid for he has no Power to give away what is his Son 's by Inheritance nor can no more give the Crown of Spain from him than the Crown of France if Gift could be pleaded the Grandfather gave it away from them all before they were born Nay If the Duke of Burgundy should consent to it His Children if ever he has any will declare he had nothing to do to give away their Right any more than the present King of France had Power to give away the Right of the Dauphin for since the Deficiency of that Action in its own Nature is the whole Ground of the Dauphin's Title now it will directly destroy the Title of the Duke D'Anjou for what is a good Argument for him cannot be a bad One against him As to the Gift of the Defunct King of Spain I see nothing in it to build a Pretence of Right on If He had bequeath'd it to the Right Heir I presume he wou'd not have thought his Title one jot the better for it And if he had bequeath'd it to the Grand Seignior the King of France wou'd not have thought his Title the worse for it So that it signifies just nothing at all We come now to the grand Question proposed Quest. 2. What Measures the English ought to take in this Juncture The Answer must be in Two Parts 1. Supposing the French King adheres to the Partition agreed upon by the League before-mentioned 2. Supposing the French King for Reasons which we know not should think fit to quit the Treaty and push for the whole on the Pretence of a Will made by the King of Spain 'T is confess'd England since her Troops are broke and her People more divided in Temper than 't was hop'd they wou'd have been under so mild and gentle a Government makes but a very mean Figure abroad and were any King at the Head of her Councils as well as Forces but King William hardly any Nation would trouble their Heads to confederate with her But all the World does not yet see our weak Side and the Reputation of the King makes us more formidable a great deal than we really are But we are to act according to the Knowledge we have of what our Circumstances really are not what other Nations may believe them lest we let them know our Weakness at the Price of our Destruction However I 'll for the present suppose what all good Men wish That we were in the same good Posture as the War left us united in Council and ready for Action and willing to preserve the Character we had then in the World And First Supposing the King of France adheres to the Partition of the Spanish Monarchy If so without Question England ought to put her self into such a posture as to be able in Conjunction with the Dutch to force the Emperor and Princes of Italy to comply with the Conditions At the same time so to maintain the Ballance in the Partition as to oblige the King of France to accept of and rest contented with the Particulars stipulated in their respective Leagues without farther Encroachment and to make themselves Trustees for the rest in Behalf of the Heir It is already started as a Query what if the King of France does accept of the Partition and the Emperor shou'd continue to stand out the King of France is then at Liberty to take the whole if he can get it No such Matter I do not pretend to have been privy to the Debates or of the Council in the contriving this League nor to be acquainted with what Provision is made in case the Emperor refuses to come in but in order to give a Judgment as near as can be done without Doors as we call it I shall briefly state the Reasons which in my Opinion should move the English and Dutch to form this League And the great Reason which as I conceive gave Birth to the first Project of this League setting aside private Reasons of State was the
maintaining the Ballance of Power in Europe This has been the Foundation of all the Wars in our Age against the French and in the last Ages against the Spaniard and the Emperor A just Ballance of Power is the Life of Peace I question whether it be in the Humane Nature to set Bounds to its own Ambition and whether the best Man on Earth wou'd not be King over all the rest if he could Every King in the World would be the Universal Monarch if he might and nothing restrains but the Power of Neighbours and if one Neighbour is not strong enough for another he gets another Neighbour to join with him and all the little ones will join to keep the great one from suppressing them Hence comes Leagues and Confederacies thus the German Protestants call'd in the Assistance of Gustavus Adolphus to match the Power of the Emperor Ferdinand the 2. and founded the famous League call'd the Conclusions of Leipsick which brought the Imperial Power to the due Ballance which it now stands at on the Foot of the Treaty of Westphalia so the French and the English assisted the Dutch to bring the Spanish Power to a Ballance in the time of Philip the II. when the Spanish Greatness began to be terrible to Europe which Ballance was established in the Peace of Aix la Chappel So the Power of France was brought to a Ballance but not so equal as it might have been had King Charles II. stood to his own Proposals at the Treaty of Nimeguen the Defects of which Peace were in a great Measure the Occasion of this late War which has been the longest most chargeable and most bloody that ever the French Nation has been engaged in since the Days of Francis the I. their own civil Wars excepted This War has brought the power of France to a Ballance she had fortified her Frontiers with a continued Rampart a Line of strong Cities from Hunninghen on the Confines of the Swiss down the Rhine the Mosell and the Maes to the very Sea-side the greatest whereof she has been oblig'd to part with to enable her Enemies to be their own Guarantees by which in some places she is left so naked that she is fain to build new Cities or fortifie old ones to supply the Vacancy as at Brisack and in other she lyes wholly open as at Pigneroll she has stoop'd to such a peace as has made her far less formidable than before Now the precarious Life of the King of Spain gave the King of England just Umbrage that this Ballance in which our Safety so much consists should receive a Shock to the prejudice of the Protestant Interest by the Addition of the Spanish Dominion to that of France And here I place the Original of the Project as a probable Conjecture at least drawn from the Nature of things according to rational Conclusions from probable premises when better Grounds are made publick I shall own my self mistaken When the pretenders to the Spanish Succession are considered they are found to be the Emperor and the King of France the Prince of Bavaria being dead before To let the Emperor possess the Spanish Dominions would be the overthrowing the Ballance made at the Westphalia Treaty by which the House of Austria already strengthened by the Conquest of Hungaria and the peace with the Turks would be too potent for the princes of Germany nor wou'd the French like well that the Emperor the Eternal Competitor of France upon the Rhine shou'd be strengthen'd with such an addition by which he wou'd ha' been Lord of almost half the World To let the French possess the Spanish Dominions would overthrow the Ballance Purchas'd in this War with so much Blood and Treasure and render fruitless the Treaty of Reswick Twou'd especially ha' been Fatal to the English and Dutch by the encrease of Wealth from the Mass of Money returning Yearly from the Empires of Mexico and Peru which the French wou'd be better Husbands of than the Spaniards by their encrease of Shipping which wou'd make them too strong for all the World at Sea and by their ruining the Spanish Trade which is the greatest and most profitable in Europe 't would immediately unhinge all the Settlement of our Merchants and Factories and turn the whole Channel of Trade for the ports of Spain being free to the French as Subjects all our Negoce that way wou'd be destroy'd then their Neighbourhood in Flanders and in the West-Indies would be intollerable and insupportable O 't would fill a Volume to set down the Inconveniencies which England and Holland must expect to feel in Case the French were Masters of the Spanish Monarchy the Streights-Mouth would be like the Sound and all our Ships should pay Toll at Gibralter as they do at Elseneur your Fishing Trade from new-New-England and Newfoundland wou'd perish for the French from the Banks of Newfoundland should go free and you Pay 23 per Cent. c. We must erect an Admiralty in the West-Indies or mantain a Fleet there or our Plantations wou'd be always at his Mercy our Collonies of Virginia and new-New-England would easily be destroy'd while the French would lye on their backs quite thro' their Country from Canada to the City of Mexico These are some of the lesser Inconveniencies which as I presume were the first Motives to the Treaty The Confederats therefore not being willing the French shou'd have Spain and the French being resolv'd the Emperor should not have it a Medium is proposed that since it was not convenient for Europe that either of them should have it all and both of them had a Title to it it should therefore be divided between them in Manner and Form as aforesaid This is the short History of this League which really has more of Pollicy than Right in it for strictly Considered the Right of Succession can devolve but upon one Person let that one be who it will is not the present Business But publick good the Peace of Kingdoms the General quiet of Europe prevails to set aside the Point of nice Justice and determine in favour of the Publick Tranquility And I crave leave to make Two Observations here First Our Iacobites-Protestant-Brethren whose Understandings are so blind that they cannot see the Interest of their Native Country have here fairly represented to them the Condition England had now been in and Europe in General if a Papist and Confederate with France had been on the English Throne if England had not had a King who cou'd so far Influence the Ambition of the powerful Prince as to prevent his seizing that Monarchy of Spain which none but England cou'd hinder him from Secondly Our Non-jurants who hold the right Lines of Princes such Sacred things may also see that even among Hereditary Princes themselves the Rights of Succession are oftentimes infringed and the private Interest of Princes and Families set aside when the publick Interest of Nations the Preservation of Peace and the