Come we next to the French king. We are told, that not the French king only, but even the whole French nation, are wonderfully forward to acknowledge the obligation they are under to the justice and favour which they have received from her majesty, in the putting an end to the war; a war which lay heavy upon them, and threatened the very name of the French nation with ruin, and much more threatened the glory of the French court, and of their great monarch, with an entire overthrow, a total eclipse. A war which, by their own confession, it was impossible for them long to have supported the expenses of, and which, by the great superiority of the allies, became dreadful to them, and that every campaign more than the other; a war which they were in such pain to see the end of, that they tried all the powers and courts in Christendom, who were the least neutral, to engage a mediation in order to a treaty, and all in vain; and a war which, if her majesty had not inclined to put an end to, must have ended perhaps to the disadvantage and confusion of both France and Spain, if not of all Christendom. The obligations the French are under for the bringing this war to so just and honourable a conclusion are not at all concealed. Nay, the French themselves have not been backward to make them public. The declarations made by the French king of his sincerity in the overtures made for a general peace, the protestations of his being resolved to enter into an entire confidence, and a league offensive and defensive with the queen's majesty for the preservation of the peace of Christendom, his recognition of her majesty's just right to the crown, his entering into articles to preserve the union, acknowledging the ninth electorate in favour of the house of Hanover, and joining in the great affair of the protestant succession. As these all convince the world of the necessity his affairs were reduced to, and the great advantages accruing to him by a peace, so they seem to be so many arguments against our fears of the French entering into any engagements against the crown of Britain, much less any against the possession of the queen during her life. Not that the honour and sincerity of the king of France is a foundation fit for her majesty or her people to have any dependence upon; and the fraction of former treaties by that court, when the glory of that monarch, or his particular views of things has dictated such opportunity to him as he thought fit to close with, are due cautions to us all not to have any dependence of that kind. But the state of his affairs, and the condition the war has reduced him to, may give us some ground to think ourselves safe on that side. He knows what power he has taken off from his enemies in making peace with her majesty; he knows very well with what loss he sits down, how his affairs are weakened, and what need he has to take breath after so terrible a war; besides the flame such an action would kindle again in Europe; how it would animate this whole British nation against him, in such a manner, and endanger bringing in a new war, and perhaps a new confederacy upon him so violently, and that before he would be in a condition to match them, that no one can reasonably suppose the French king will run the hazard of it. And these things may tend to make some people easier than ordinary in the affair of the succession, believing that the French king stands in too much need of the favour of the queen of Great Britain, whose power it well behoves him to keep in friendship with him, and whose nation he will be very cautious of provoking a third time, as he has already done twice, to his fatal experience. All these things, we say, may seem pretty well to assure us that nothing is to be feared on that side so long as her majesty lives to sit upon the British throne. But all leaves our grand question unanswered; and though we may argue strongly for the French king's conduct while the present reign continues, yet few will say, What he will do if the queen should die?
Nay, we may even mention the pretender himself, if he has any about him whose councils are fit to be depended upon, and
can direct him to make a wise and prudent judgment of his own affairs; if he acts by any scope of policy, and can take his measures with any foresight; most easy is it for them to see that it must be in vain for him to think of making any attempt in Britain during the life of the queen, or to expect to depose her majesty, and set himself up. The French power, upon which he has already in vain depended, as it has not hitherto been able to serve him, or his father, but that their exile has continued now above twenty-four years, so much less can he be able to assist him now, while he has been brought as it were to kneel to the British court to put an end for him to this cruel destructive war; the reason is just spoken to, viz., that this would be to rekindle that flame which he has gotten so lately quenched, and which cost him so much art, so much management, so much submission to the allies, to endeavour the quenching of before. To attack the queen of Great Britain now in behalf of the pretender, would not only be in the highest degree ungrateful, perfidious, and dishonourable, but would for ever make the British court, as well as the whole nation, his violent and implacable enemies; but would also involve him again in a new war with all Europe, who would very gladly fall in again with Britain to pull down more effectually the French power, which has so long been a terror to its neighbours; so that the pretender can expect no help from the king of France. As to what the pope, the Spaniard, and a few petty popish powers, who might pretend upon a religious prospect to assist him, and with whose aid, and the assistance of his party here, he may think fit to hazard an attempt here for the crown, it is evident, and his own friends will agree in it, that while the queen lives, it is nonsense, and ridiculous for them to attempt it; that it would immediately arm the whole nation against them, as one man; and in human probability it would, like as his supposed father was served at the revolution, be the ruin of his whole interest, and blow him at once quite out of the nation. I believe that there are very few who alarm themselves much with the fears of the pretender, from the apprehension of his own strength from abroad, or from his own party and friends at home here, were they once sure that he should receive no assistance from the king of France. If then the king of France cannot be reasonably supposed either to be inclined, or be in a condition to appear for him, or act in his behalf, during the life of the queen, neither can the pretender, say some, unless he is resolved to ruin all his friends, and at last to ruin himself, make any attempt of that kind during her majesty's life. But what if the queen should die?