We had materials in our hands to have constructed that security in such a manner as never to be shaken.

But how did the virtuous and able men of our author labor for this great end?
They took no one step towards it.

On the contrary they countenanced, and, indeed, as far as it depended on them, recognized it in all its parts; for our plenipotentiary treated with those who acted for the two crowns, as if they had been different ministers of the same monarch.

The Spanish minister received his instructions, not from Madrid, but from Versailles.
This was not hid from our ministers at home; and the discovery ought to have alarmed them, if the good of their country had been the object of their anxiety.

They could not but have seen that the whole Spanish monarchy was melted down into the cabinet of Versailles.