Parliament and of his people. In his Parliament there were agents
of France, who, though few, had obtained so much influence by
clamouring against standing armies, profuse grants, and Dutch
favourites, that they were often blindly followed by the
majority; and his people, distracted by domestic factions,
unaccustomed to busy themselves about continental politics, and
remembering with bitterness the disasters and burdens of the last
war, the carnage of Landen, the loss of the Smyrna fleet, the
land tax at four shillings in the pound, hesitated about engaging
in another contest, and would probably continue to hesitate while
he continued to live. He could not live long. It had, indeed,
often been prophesied that his death was at hand; and the
prophets had hitherto been mistaken. But there was now no
possibility of mistake. His cough was more violent than ever; his
legs were swollen; his eyes, once bright and clear as those of a
falcon, had grown dim; he who, on the day of the Boyne, had been
sixteen hours on the backs of different horses, could now with
great difficulty creep into his state coach.22 The vigorous
intellect, and the intrepid spirit, remained; but on the body
fifty years had done the work of ninety. In a few months the
vaults of Westminster would receive the emaciated and shattered
frame which was animated by the most far-sighted, the most
daring, the most commanding of souls. In a few months the British
throne would be filled by a woman whose understanding was well
known to be feeble, and who was believed to lean towards the
party which was averse from war. To get over those few months
without an open and violent rupture should have been the first
object of the French government. Every engagement should have
been punctually fulfilled; every occasion of quarrel should have
been studiously avoided. Nothing should have been spared which