olled as the great French fleets disappeared." The results of the
war of 1689-1697 do not therefore vitiate the general conclusion that
"a cruising, commerce-destroying warfare, to be destructive, must be
seconded by a squadron warfare, and by divisions of ships-of-the-line;
which, forcing the enemy to unite his forces, permit the cruisers to
make fortunate attempts upon his trade. Without such backing the
result will be simply the capture of the cruisers." Toward the end of
this war the real tendency was becoming manifest, and was still more
plainly seen in the next, when the French navy had sunk to a yet lower
state of weakness.

Notwithstanding their losses, the sea nations made good their cause.
The war, which began with the French taking the offensive, ended by
reducing them everywhere to the defensive, and forced Louis to do
violence at once to his strongest prejudices and his most reasonable
political wishes, by recognizing as king of England him whom he looked
upon as a usurper as well as his own inveterate enemy. On its
surface, and taken as a whole, this war will appear almost wholly a
land struggle, extending from the Spanish Netherlands down the line of
the Rhine, to Savoy in Italy and Catalonia in Spain. The sea fights in
the Channel, the Irish struggle receding in the distance, look like
mere episodes; while the underlying action of trade and commerce is
wholly disregarded, or noticed only as their outcries tell of their
sufferings. Yet trade and shipping not only bore the burden of
suffering, but in the main paid the armies that were fighting the
French; and this turning of the stream of wealth from both sea nations
into the coffers of their allies was perhaps determined, certainly
hastened, by the misdirection of that naval supremacy with which
France began the war. It was then possible, as it will usually be
possible, for a really fine military navy of superior force to strike
an overwhelming blow at a less ready rival; but the opportunity was
allowed to slip, and the essentially stronger, better founded sea
power of the allies had time to assert itself.

The peace signed at Ryswick in 1697 was most disadvantageous to
France; she lost all that had been gained since the Peace of Nimeguen,
nineteen years before, with the single important exception of
Strasburg. All that Louis XIV. had gained by trick or force during the
years of peace was given up. Immense restitutions were made to Germany
and to Spain.