Her majesty no longer insisted upon Philip's being expelled from the throne of Spain by the arms of his own grandfather.

She now perceived that the exorbitant power of the house of Austria would be as dangerous to the liberty of Europe as ever that of the family of Bourbon had been, in the zenith of its glory.

She might have remembered the excessive power, the insolence, the ambition of Charles V.and Philip II.

who had enslaved so many countries, and embroiled all Europe.

She was sincerely desirous of peace, from motives of humanity and compassion to her subjects and fellow-creatures; she was eagerly bent upon procuring such advantages to her people as would enable them to discharge the heavy load of debt under which they laboured, and recompense them in some measure for the blood and treasure they had so lavishly expended in the prosecution of the war.