Untitled - 24grammata.com

INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 413affected by it, ought to have been here laid aside ;in aword, the whole evil should have been now rooted out.But history no where affords a more striking instance ofthe truth, that largeconventions are generally fruitless, nay,often in the highest degree prejudicial, unless they are directed by great men, who know how to raise themselvesabove petty passions, and to view and treat every question,whether great or small, with strict regard to its merits andproportions.The voices of the arbitrators swelled the noteof discord which was raised about the most trivial circumstance ;the passions were not calmed, but excited from thefirst ;and the congresscould scarcely have terminated otherwise than it did, even if other circumstances had not intervened to dissolve it.It ismelancholy to observe how much the politics ofalmost the whole of Europe were, at that time, determinedby the proposed, though ineffectually proposed, marriage ofa child; and how little was wanting to renew the flamesof a general war. A Spanish princess,, then just twelvemonths old, was fixed upon by the quadruple alliance, forthe consort of Lewis XV. 5and had been sent to Paris, whereshs was brought up. The Duke of Bourbon, the minister ofFrance, had, however, private grounds for wishing a speedyconsummation of the marriage of the young prince, which,owing to the age of the princess, could scarcely have beenbrought about in less than ten years.He was, therefore,anxious to procure for Lewis a consort of a marriageableage, which he found in the daughter of the ex-king of Poland, Stanislaus Lescinsky and the ; Spanish princess wassent back. This event, which could, under no circumstances,be otherwise than mortifying, produced the highest degreeof rancour and resentment in the haughty mind of Elizabeth,1who felt herself insulted, both as a mother and a queen.Yet, owing to the friendly connexion between France andEngland, it would have been the height of rashness to hazardsElizabeth of Parma was, as is well known, the second consort of MugPhilip V., having become so In 1715, and the legitimate heiress of the Spanishthrone. Her first object was to secure the succession, which properly belonged to the sons of the first marriage, to her own children in j consequenceof which Spain was precipitated into more than one war. The prospect ofseeing her daughter on the French throne was a principal part of her plan,which was now frustrated.