rapidly. This great movement, wholly
spontaneous, and even looked on with distrust by the government, was
personified in two men, Dupleix and La Bourdonnais; who, the former at
Chandernagore and the latter at the Isle of France, pointed out and
led the way in all these undertakings, which were building up the
power and renown of the French in the Eastern seas. The movement was
begun which, after making France the rival of England in the Hindustan
peninsula, and giving her for a moment the promise of that great
empire which has bestowed a new title on the Queen of Great Britain,
was destined finally to falter and perish before the sea power of
England. The extent of this expansion of French trade, consequent upon
peace and the removal of restrictions, and not due in any sense to
government protection, is evidenced by the growth of French merchant
shipping from only three hundred vessels at the death of Louis XIV.,
to eighteen hundred, twenty years later. This, a French historian
claims, refutes "the deplorable prejudices, born of our misfortunes,
that France is not fitted for sea commerce, the only commerce that
indefinitely extends the power of a nation with its sphere of
activity."[83]

This free and happy movement of the people was far from acceptable to
Fleuri, who seems to have seen it with the distrust of a hen that has
hatched ducklings. Walpole and himself were agreed to love peace; but
Walpole was obliged to reckon with the English people, and these were
prompt to resent rivalry upon the sea and in trade, however obtained.
Moreover, Fleuri had inherited the unfortunate policy of Louis XIV.;
his eyes were fixed on the continent. He did not indeed wish to follow
the course of the regency in quarrelling with Spain, but rather to
draw near to her; and although he was not able for a time to do so
without sacrificing his peace policy, because of Spain's restless
enmity to England, yet his mind was chiefly bent upon strengthening
the position of France on the land, by establishing Bourbon princes
where he could, and drawing them together by family alliances. The
navy was allowed to decay more and more. "The French government
abandoned the sea at the very moment that the nation, through the
activity of private individuals, was making an effort to regain it."
The material force fell to fifty-four ships-of-the-line and frigates,
mostly in bad condition; and even when war with England had been
imminent for five years, Fr