Not by force of arms only was Louis XIV accustomed to meet his enemies; it was one of his maxims to raise up on his own side their natural opponents, internal as well as external. Feeling himself, if not endangered—he was still too strong for that—yet hampered in the execution of his plans, by the alliance between Charles II and the Prince of Orange, he had entered into connexion with their political opponents in both countries.

It is an important event in English history, not only that this should have happened, but, still more, that it should have happened as it did.

As long as Charles II adhered to the French alliance, and Parliament desired an alliance against him, Barrillon had attempted, by managing influential members and sparing no money in so doing, to restrain the impulse of the majority. Now when the King himself drew closer to the majority, we cannot wonder that the ambassador still continued his endeavours. He represented to his court, that any money he might give to such members as would be influenced by it would be very well laid out. Had nothing more been involved in this than the money, we should only have to do with an ordinary human weakness, of which there would be no need to give a detailed account. But the connexions which Barrillon sought to make, and for the most part succeeded in making, have a much wider bearing.