ne was undisputed; but the heir was a child of
five years, and there was much jealousy as to the possession of the
regency, a power more absolute than that of the King of England. The
regency was obtained and exercised by the next in succession to the
throne, Philip, Duke of Orleans; but he had to apprehend, not only
attempts on the part of rivals in France to shake his hold, but also
the active enmity of the Bourbon king of Spain, Philip V.,--an enmity
which seems to have dated from an intrigue of Orleans, during the late
war, to supplant Philip on the Spanish throne. There was therefore a
feeling of instability, of apprehension, in the governments of England
and France, which influenced the policy of both. As regards the
relations of France and Spain, the mutual hatred of the actual rulers
stood for a while in the way of the friendly accord Louis XIV. had
hoped from family ties, and was injurious to the true interests of
both nations.

The Regent Orleans, under the advice of the most able and celebrated
French statesman of that day, the Abbe Dubois, made overtures of
alliance to the King of Great Britain. He began first by commercial
concessions of the kind generally acceptable to the English,
forbidding French shipping to trade to the South Seas under penalty of
death, and lowering the duties on the importation of English coal.
England at first received these advances warily; but the regent would
not be discouraged, and offered, further, to compel the Pretender,
James III., to withdraw beyond the Alps. He also undertook to fill up
the port at Mardyck, a new excavation by which the French government
was trying to indemnify itself for the loss of Dunkirk. These
concessions, all of which but one, it will be noted, were at the
expense of the sea power or commercial interests of France, induced
England to sign a treaty by which the two countries mutually
guaranteed the execution of the treaties of Utrecht as far as their
respective interests were concerned; especially the clause by which
the House of Orleans was to succeed to the French throne, if Louis XV.
died childless. The Protestant succession in England was likewise
guaranteed. Holland, exhausted by the war, was unwilling to enter upon
new engagements, but was at last brought over to this by the remission
of certain dues on her merchandise entering France. The treaty, signed
in January, 1717, was known as the Triple Alliance, and bound France
to England for some ye