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other occasion, when he had been importuned for money: “itis impossible that the States General and England can bear the ■charge of the army on the Rhine, of the army in Piedmont, andof the whole defence of Flanders, to say nothing of the im-mense cost of the naval war. If our allies can do nothing forthemselves, the sooner the alliance goes to pieces the better.”*But, after every short fit of despondency and ill humour, hecalled up all the force of his mind, and put a strong curb on histemper. Weak, mean, false, selfish, as too many of the con-federates were, it was only by their help that he could accom-plish what he had from his youth up considered as his mission.If they abandoned him, France would be dominant without arival in Europe. Well as they deserved to be punished, hewould not, to punish them, acquiesce in the subjugation of thewhole civilised world. He set himself therefore to surmountsome difficulties and to evade others. The Scandinavian powershe conciliated by waiving, reluctantly indeed, and not withouta hard internal struggle, some of his maritime rights.** AtHome his influence, though indirectly exercised, balancedthat of the Pope himself. Lewis and James found that theyhad not a friend at the Vatican except Innocent; and Innocent,whose nature was gentle and irresolute, shrank from taking acourse directly opposed to the sentiments of all who surroundedhim. In private conversations with Jacobite agents he declaredhimself devoted to the interest of the House of Stuart: but inhis public acts he observed a strict neutrality. He sent twentythousand crowns to Saint Germains: but he excused himself tothe enemies of Franco by protesting that this was not a subsidyfor any political purpose, but merely an alms to be distributedamong poor British Catholics. He permitted prayers for thegood cause to he read in the English College at Rome: hut he

CHAP.

XIX.

161 ) 2 .

* William to Heinsius, Jan. 1692.

** His letters to Heinsius are full of this subject.