From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she
became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth
herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by
Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure
the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France.
Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth
century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and
defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It
mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to
plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia,
Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend
her empire were defeated by England. Pondicherry was the only East
Indian possession which the genius of Clive allowed her to retain. By
the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, she was compelled to relinquish Canada in
order to regain her West Indian islands conquered by England.[4]
Vainly, under good or bad, weak or potent sovereigns, did France
attempt the enlargement of her empire or an increase of national power.
England, on one pretence or another, always confronted her, and by
successful war, or unscrupulous diplomacy, baffled her designs.
The English mind was cultivated throughout the eighteenth century into
the belief that every accession to France was a menace and an injury to
England.
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