The hard task of dissimulation and constraint, he had been obliged to practise during the last years of the deceased King, the gloomy and austere form his own religion had assumed, the noise of theological controversy which was perpetually disturbing him, together with his propensity to a life of ease and pleasure, gave him a taste for the religious and civil liberty which prevailed in England.*

His prime favourite and adviser l'Abbé Dubois, afterwards Cardinal, who had been some time in this country during the preceding reign, and had formed many connections here, seconded by his influence the partiality of the Regent.

England, on its side, closed with these dispositions. The popular cry was to support the housė of Austria against France: but the ministers justly considered there was no object of so much importance, as to counteract the designs of the Pre

He used to take great pleasure in relating an anecdote of a French nobleman, who came over to London in the reign of Charles II. The nobleman fell in love with one of the King's mistresses; and all the King could do, he could not hinder him from making parade of his competition. The King forbade him the court: but the nobleman did not mind that; he followed the lady to the playhouse and all public places. Charles had no expedient to get rid of a triumphant rival, but to request Lewis XIV. to recall him. Lewis effected in London, over one of his subjects, what the King of England could not do. The nobleman returned to tremble at Versailles.

tender, and his adherents. In this point of view, they had little to hope or fear from Austria: but France was the quarter to which the Jacobites, both at home and abroad, principally looked for assistance. An alliance with the French government would effectually confound their hopes, particularly if one of the conditions was to be, that the Pretender should be sent out of the French territories.

Yet so deeply is the maxim impressed on the French counsels, that the invariable policy of France is to annoy and weaken England, that not the concurrence of all these circumstances, the political interests of the Regent, the private bias of his mind, the overtures of the English ministry, could prevail against it.

As soon as the Duke of Orleans was invested with the full authority of Regent, he was far from shewing any zealous friendship for the English government, but, on the contrary, connived at preparations which the Pretender was carrying on in the French ports for the invasion of England.

It was not till the complete failure of this attempt, that the ambassador of George I. was treated with cordiality, or even with respect by the French ministry.*

* A la cour on est tout étonné ;-les plus sages commencent à traiter le chevalier de St. George de prétendant. Il y a deux jours qu'il étoit le roi d'Angleterre par tout, et tout le

There was a party in France particularly hostile to the alliance with England, -the politicians trained up in the maxims of the late reign. These would have broken off all connection with the house of Hanover, and declared decidedly in favour of the Pretender. The clamour and intrigues of this party had no small effect in producing the coldness and wavering of the Regent.

The rebellion, which was but recently suppressed, the hopes of the Jacobites not yet extinguished, created anxiety in the British ministry. This anxiety was increased by the preparations which appeared in the ports of Spain, as the bigoted disposition of the King was well known. They were led to strengthen themselves by alliances.

monde avoit levé le masque. Il n'y avoit plus un seul François, quasi personne de la cour, qui mettoit le pied chez moi, -Lord Stair's Journal.

* The Duke declared to Mr. Stanhope, that his Catholic Majesty was so earnest for the extirpation of the protestant religion, that in several letters that had passed between the King of Spain and the Emperor upon this subject, the King proposes, in case of necessity, to sell the domains of his crown to the highest bidder, and dispose of all the employments for life in the Indies to the best purchaser, for promoting this scheme: and particularly, in one of his letters he made use of this extraordinary expression, Je vendrai même ma chemise.

Benjamin Keene to the Duke of Newcastle, giving a confidential account of the discoveries made by Ripperda. Papers published by Mr. Coxe, annexed to his Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole.

An alliance with France had appeared the best security against the Pretender; but the sudden coldness of the Regent, as long as the exiled family had any prospect of success, had excited doubts as to his real dispositions. The court of London therefore thought it expedient to enter into a closer union with the Emperor, who on his side readily closed with any overtures of this kind, apprehending the preparations of Spain had his dominions for their object. A treaty was concluded between this Prince and the King of England in May, 1716, in which the contracting parties guaranteed each other's possessions without restriction, and agreed upon the succours to be mutually afforded in case either was attacked.

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The coldness however of the Regent lasted no longer, than an opinion prevailed in the French court of the insecurity of the family of Hanover, This being now firmly established, he, notwithstanding the murmurs of the old court party, and the studied delays interposed by those who secretly favoured them, by the zealous agency of l'Abbé Dubois, concluded a treaty with England in 1717, to which the States-General became parties, and which therefore received the name of the triple alliance.

In this, the possession of the King of England was fully guaranteed, and the eventual claims of the Regent were guaranteed in return.

The Pretender was to withdraw beyond the

Alps. The state of things established by the treaties of Utrecht and Radstat, was to be maintained undisturbed,

England and France appeared thus united against the disturbers of the public peace.

Holland was a party to the treaty, concurring in the same views. She was indissolubly bound to the protestant interest of England.

The leaning of the Italian states was the other way; but the only one of them that could carry any weight into any contest that might arise, was the Duke of Savoy, whom the treaty of Utrecht had created King of Sicily.

This Prince, besides the common motives of religion, had particular reasons for regarding the settlement of the family of Hanover with sentiments of hostility. He was married to a granddaughter of Charles I. and a possibility existed, which he could not forget, of a claim arising from that circumstance to the crown of England.

As however he valued himself on the singular artifice and refinement of his politics, it was often not easy to distinguish to which side he inclined. When the attack of the Spaniards brought on a war between the Emperor and King of Spain, he negociated with the two courts, making offers to both, and listening to proposals from them in his turn. He was very eager to deceive, and exposed himself to the hazard of being deceived himself.