170

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXIV.

1638 .

without any serious opposition in any quarter. The Em-peror might have complained and threatened; hut hemust have submitted; for what could he do ? He had nofleet; and it was therefore impossible for him even to at-tempt to possess himself of Castile, of Ayragon, of Sicily,of the Indies, in opposition to the united navies of thethree greatest maritime powers in the world. In fact, theonly part of the Spanish empire which he could hope toseize and hold by force against the will of the confederatesof Loo was the Milanese; and the Milanese the confede-rates of Loo had agreed to assign to his family. He wouldscarcely have been so mad as to disturb the peace of theworld when the only thing which he had any chance ofgaining by war was offered him without war. The Casti-lians would doubtless have resented the dismemberment ofthe unwieldy body of which they formed the head. Butthey would have perceived that by resisting they weremuch more likely to lose the Indies than to preserveGuipuscoa. As to Italy, they could no more make warthere than in the moon. Thus the crisis which had seemedlikely to produce an European war of ton years would haveproduced nothing worse than a few angry notes and plain-tive manifestoes..

Both the confederate Kings wished their compact toremain a secret while their brother Charles lived; and itprobably would have remained secret, had it been confidedonly to the English and French Ministers. But the in-stitutions of the United Provinces were not well fitted for