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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.There isprobably no other example of a rivalry betweentwo civilized nations in which somany causes of jealousyare to be found, as those upon which that between Englandand France was founded. The interests of independence,of religion,and of commerce, were involved in an extraordinary manner with those of the sovereigns themselves. Isit then to be wondered at, that such a rivalry should becomeat the same time both violent and lasting? But it is time tofollow out the consequences which it had on the subsequentcontinental interests of Britain ;we shall thus trace theformation of many of the threads on which was wrought thewhole web of the subsequent politics of Europe.Alliances on the continent were, under the existingcircumstances, absolutely necessary to England.It was astruggle with a pow r er which at sea was about equal to herin strength, but which on land was infinitely superior and;which necessarily remained superioruntil it was discoveredthat an addition to the standing army was not at the sametime a diminution of national freedom. England thereforedared not enter into a contest with France alone ;and whenthis idea had once gained ground,it continued even intimes when its justice might well have been disputed, andthus became the governing principleof the continentalpolicy of Great Britain.An alliance therefore with that state which asa militarypower maintained the next rank to France, was an unavoidable consequence; and hence arose the close connexionbetween England and Austria, a connexion which may beconsidered as the true foundation of the British continentalinterests, and which, although for a time dissolved, was soonagain renewed, and will probably be from time to time renewed as long as the rivalry between England and Francecontinues to exist. As long as a branch of the house ofHapsburg reigned in Spain, this connexion could not butlead to an alliance with that country, and this the rather asthe plans of Lewis were constantly directed againsttheSpanish Netherlands. But yet more important was the influence of the British policy upon the United Netherlands,now that their hereditary stadtholder was at the same timeking of England; and hence arose the greatalliance ofVienna, (1689 3) in which Englandfor the first time dis-