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Subsequent accounts affirm that five French ships of the line were lost by the engagement, including M. Gabaret's, admiral of the blue squadron, of ninety guns. No ship struck her colours, but they appear to have been evacuated by the enemy, and destroyed during the night. Very glorious supplements to the account of Admiral Russel were furnished by the vice admirals Delaval and Rooke: the first of whom burnt, off Cherburg, the Soleil Royal, M. Tourville's own ship, with the Admirable of 102 guns, and the Conquerant of 80, with three smaller vessels-"Greater zeal and greater bravery," says this gallant commander in his official dispatch, “I ́ never saw." Admiral Rooke met with still more splen did success, burning and destroying no less than thirteen of the enemy's great ships, stranded at La Hogue, by extraordinary exertions of naval skill and valor; besides store-ships and transports. Mr. Rooke in person commanded the boats, being, as was observed of him on this occasion, "not only first in command but first also in danger," And the chief glory of this ever-memorable action, which has rendered the name of La Hogue famous in naval history, the concurring voice of posterity has justly awarded to admiral sir George Rooke; that officer receiving from the king the well-earned reward of a knighthood and a pension for this great service,

NEGOTIATIONS

RELATIVE TO THE

SECOND TREATY OF PARTITION.

A. D. 1700.

THE first treaty of partition between Great Britain, France, and Holland-conformably to which Spain and the Indies, with the Low Countries, were allotted to the electoral prince of Bavaria, and the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, were annexed to the monarchy of France, was signed at Loo, October 11, 1698. But the king of Spain, previously apprized of the negotiations carried on by the kings of France and England, and in the highest degree offended at the presumption of these foreign potentates, had made a will in the preceding month of June, by which he appointed the prince of Bavaria sole heir of his vast donions.

In this disposition it is probable, notwithstanding the existing treaty, that the contending powers of Austria and France might have ultimately, however reluctantly, acquiesced; but unfortunately, the prince, an infant of seven years of age, died in the month of February 1699. A second treaty was then set on foot and concluded March 19th, 1700, by the former high contracting par-" ties, agreeably to which Spain and the Indies, with the Low Countries and Sardinia, were consigned to the archduke Charles, second son of the emperor, and the Sicilies, &c. ceded in full right to the dauphin. But in the month of June in the same year, his catholic ma

jesty, highly indignant at this new insult, signed a se cond will in favor of the archduke, constituting him his universal heir. This will was transmitted to Vienna, and it immediately determined the emperor to resist the solicitations of France and the maritime powers to accede to the treaty of partition. On the 30th July 1700, count Harrach, in the name of his imperial majesty, informed M. de Villars, "that the emperor, considering the king of Spain to be in good health, and of such an age that he might very well, with the blessing of God, hope for issue of his own, did not think it becoming, especially for him that was his uncle, to make a division of his succession. That he hoped this answer would not interrupt the good intelligence between himself and his most christian majesty, and that he would not proceed to the nomination of a third, which would but embroil matters the more. That when the succession happened to fail, he, the emperor, thought it justly belonged to him, and that after the extinction of the male line of the house of Austria it belonged to the house of Savoy." A similar declaration was made to Mr. Sutton and Mr. Hope, the English and Dutch ministers at the court of Vienna.

Notwithstanding the settlement, which the partiality of the king of Spain to the house of Austria had thus induced him to make, the views of the nation at large, and of the leading persons concerned in the administration of affairs, were manifestly fixed upon the duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin, as successor to the reigning monarch. Various causes concurred to produce this unexpected and extraordinary preference. The chief of these was the dread, approaching to horror, universally entertaiued by the Spaniards of all ranks

from the grandee to the peasant, of a dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy, and the opinion almost as universally prevalent that the power of France alone could avert this fatal catastrophe*. A second cause was the apprehension that the catholic religion would be endangered should the archduke be compelled to solicit the protection of the heretical powers of England and Holland. The third cause of the rising ascendency of the French interest originated in the secret intrigues, bribes, promises, and caresses of the marquis de Harcourt, the ambassador of France at Madrid, a negotiator of the most consummate art and address.

In the result a third will was made, and signed October 2, 1700, by which the king of Spain constituted the duke of Anjou his sole and universal heir: and on the 1st November following that monarch breathed his last. No sooner was this interesting intelligence announced at the court of Versailles than a grand council was held, and a resolution finally taken to accept the will in derogation of the treaty of partition actually existing between the most christian king and the maritime powers. The grounds on which France rested her vindication of

* "Le marquis de Balbasez de la maison de Spincla Conseiller d'Etat parla le premier (A. D. 1693) au marquis d'Harcourt. Peu a peu d'autres grands officiers principaux virent Harcourt, & chacun d'eux fit quelque confidence pour succéder au Roi leur maître, espérant qu'il maintiendroit la monarchie d'Espagne en son entier, sans souffrir le moindre demembrement des Etats dont elle etoit composée. Elle etoit alors incapable de les conserver & de se défendre par elle-même épuisée d'argent, dénuée de troupes & de vaisseaux; c'étoit un corps sans ame que la France devoit animer & soutenir à ses dépens dans l'ancien & le nouveau monde."-Memoires de M. de Torcy, vol. i. p. 20---22.

this flagrant violation of public faith are thus related in a letter from the earl of Manchester, ambassador at Pa+ ris, to lord Jersey, secretary of state:

Paris, November 12th, 1700.

THIS morning I was with M. de Torcy, who began with saying, that he did not doubt but I was sensible that, since they had an account of the king of Spain's death, and the disposition he had made by his will, great difficulties must have arisen; that the king had well considered the occasion and the intent of the late treaty with England, &c. which was to prevent a war in Europe; that the emperor not having signed, and the duke of Savoy actually refusing to accept of Naples and Sicily; that there having appeared discontent both in England and Holland against the French being mas ters of those two kingdoms in relation to the trade of the Levant, besides that none of the princes that the treaty had been communicated to had promised more than a neutrality, the king could not but think, there was a necessity of accepting what the king of Spain declared in favour of the duke of Anjou. Then he read me the mo tives which he had drawn up, that I might the better

* The duke of Savoy being by the will of Philip IV. declared next in succession to the house of Austria, refused to accede to the treaty of partition without an indemnification for his eventual claim to the crown of Spain. As it was of the last importance to secure the assent of this prince, several expedients were proposed for this purpose. And at length the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were offered him in lieu of Savoy and Piedmont, to be thenceforth united to the monarchy of France. But this splendid temptation was rejected, the duke insisting upon the cession of the dutchy of Milan in addition to the dominions he already possessed.

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