were brought
into order; a naval power created; his armies increased and disciplined;
magazines and military stores provided; and though the magnificence of
his court was supported beyond all former example; so regular was the
economy observed, and so willingly did the people, now enriched by arts
and commerce, submit to multiplied taxes, that his military force
much exceeded what in any preceding age had ever been employed by any
European monarch.

The sudden decline, and almost total fall of the Spanish monarchy,
opened an inviting field to so enterprising a prince, and seemed to
promise him easy and extensive conquests*[**missing period] The other
nations of Europe, feeble or ill governed, were astonished at the
greatness of his rising empire; and all of them cast their eyes towards
England, as the only power which could save them from that subjection
with which they seemed to be so nearly threatened.

The animosity which had anciently subsisted between the English and
French nations, and which had been suspended for above a century by the
jealousy of Spanish greatness, began to revive and to exert itself. The
glory of preserving the balance of Europe, a glory so much founded on
justice and humanity, flattered the ambition of England; and the people
were eager to provide for their own future security, by opposing the
progress of so hated a rival. The prospect of embracing such measures
had contributed, among other reasons, to render the peace of Breda so
universally acceptable to the nation. By the death of Philip IV., king
of Spain, an inviting opportunity, and some very slender pretences, had
been afforded to call forth the ambition of Lewis.

At the treaty of the Pyrenees, when Lewis espoused the Spanish princess,
he had renounced every title of succession to every part of the Spanish
monarchy; and this renunciation had been couched in the most accurate
and most precise terms that language could afford. But on the death of
his father-in-law, he retracted his renunciation, and pretended
that natural rights, depending on blood and succession, could not be
annihilated by any extorted deed or contract. Philip had left a son,
Charles II. of Spain; but as the queen of France was of a former
marriage, she laid claim to a considerable province of the Spanish
monarchy, even to the exclusion of her brother. By the customs of some
parts of Brabant, a female of a first marriage was preferred to a male
of a second, in the