ething under four
hundred thousand dollars, probably nearly equal to a million in the
present day, besides five hundred cases of sugar. The privateering
company cleared about ninety-two per cent on their venture. As two of
the ships-of-the-line were never heard from after sailing on the
return voyage, the king's profits were probably small.

While the War of the Spanish Succession was engaging all western
Europe, a strife which might have had a profound influence upon its
issue was going on in the east. Sweden and Russia were at war, the
Hungarians had revolted against Austria, and Turkey was finally drawn
in, though not till the end of the year 1710. Had Turkey helped the
Hungarians, she would have made a powerful diversion, not for the
first time in history, in favor of France. The English historian
suggests that she was deterred by fear of the English fleet; at all
events she did not move, and Hungary was reduced to obedience. The war
between Sweden and Russia was to result in the preponderance of the
latter upon the Baltic, the subsidence of Sweden, the old ally of
France, into a second-rate State, and the entrance of Russia
definitively into European politics.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] Martin: History of France.

[76] Lapeyrouse-Bonfils: Hist. de la Marine Francaise.

[77] Campbell: Lives of the Admirals.

[78] Martin: History of France.

[79] Campbell: Lives of the Admirals.

CHAPTER VI.

THE REGENCY IN FRANCE.--ALBERONI IN SPAIN.--POLICIES OF WALPOLE
AND FLEURI.--WAR OF THE POLISH SUCCESSION.--ENGLISH CONTRABAND
TRADE IN SPANISH AMERICA.--GREAT BRITAIN DECLARES WAR AGAINST
SPAIN.--1715-1739.

The Peace of Utrecht was soon followed by the deaths of the rulers of
the two countries which had played the foremost part in the War of the
Spanish Succession. Queen Anne died August 1, 1714; Louis XIV. on the
1st of September, 1715.

The successor to the English throne, the German George I., though
undoubtedly the choice of the English people, was far from being their
favorite, and was rather endured as a necessary evil, giving them a
Protestant instead of a Roman Catholic king. Along with the coldness
and dislike of his own partisans, he found a very considerable body of
disaffected men, who wished to see the son of James II. on the throne.
There was therefore a lack of solidity, more apparent than real, but
still real, in his position. In France, on the contrary, the
succession to the thro