embled at Ferrol, and the
reinforcement prevented the English from attacking.[86] "Still, Fleuri
made explanations to Walpole and hoped for compromise,--an ill-founded
hope, which had disastrous results for our sea interests, and
prevented measures which would have given France, from the beginning
of the war, the superiority in eastern seas." But "upon Walpole's
overthrow," says another Frenchman, "Fleuri perceived his mistake in
letting the navy decay. Its importance had lately struck him. He knew
that the kings of Naples and Sardinia forsook the French alliance
merely because an English squadron threatened to bombard Naples and
Genoa and to bring an army into Italy. For lack of this element of
greatness, France silently swallowed the greatest humiliations, and
could only complain of the violence of English cruisers, which
pillaged our commerce, in violation of the law of nations,"[87] during
the years of nominal peace that elapsed between the time when the
French fleet was confined to protecting the Spanish against the
English and the outbreak of formal war. The explanation of these
differing views seems not very hard. The two ministers had tacitly
agreed to follow lines which apparently could not cross. France was
left free to expand by land, provided she did not excite the jealousy
of the English people, and Walpole's own sense of English interests,
by rivalry at sea. This course suited Fleuri's views and wishes. The
one sought power by sea, the other by land. Which had been wiser, war
was to show; for, with Spain as an ally to one party, war had to come,
and that on the sea. Neither minister lived to see the result of his
policy. Walpole was driven from power in 1742, and died in March,
1745. Fleuri died in office, January 29, 1743.

FOOTNOTES:

[80] Afterward Lord Torrington; father of Admiral John Byng, shot in
1757.

[81] Campbell: Lives of the Admirals; quoted by Lord Mahon in his
History of England.

[82] Lives of the Admirals

[83] Martin: History of France.

[84] Burrows: Life of Lord Hawke.

[85] Martin: History of France.

[86] The peculiar political relation which France bore toward England
between 1739 and 1744, while the latter country was at war with Spain,
needs to be explained, as it depended upon views of international
duties which are practically obsolete. By her defensive alliance with
Spain, France had bound herself to furnish a contingent of specified
force to the Spanish fleet when