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Show - [ 10 3 they .muft make War on t)lis, Frontier; -?f whkh you may judge by what I have ~a1d, in my firlt Letter o£ the Sp;u~ijh _yvar, wh1ch, , with little Alteration, will hold ,here. But there is no need of faying more, to lbew you. how ridiculous 'tis to pretend any; Fears of the Allies, if thefe Towns fhou'd be , put into their fianqs; the fuppot;ting of Spain has colt France too ,dear, not to know the low Conditioq it is in, oand11that nothing cou'd be greater niadnefs in King Ch'!r/eJ ?r his Allies, than not to fit down qmetly 10 peace the m_inute tb_at Kingdo~l- is reduc'd to his Obedience, Without feekwg for new Pretences, to -continue the War ,l)ee~l~fiy. _ Notbing therefore can be thougl]t, to b~ the true ReJfon, why the King of Fr.:mce ~ejeCl: ed tbis Expedient, but that he never 111- · tended the Allies fhou'd obtain the End for which 'twas ask'd; as you will frill fee more plainly in what follows. , On the Side of .A/face, nothing was propos'd that l know of but Thionville, a Place of great Confeqdence to France, were they in any danger from the Empire; but confidering the feeble · low Condition of that enervated exhaufted Body, one can't but think the ftrong Places on that Side are of no other ufe but to enable- the Fr;ncb to invade the Empire, and not to fecure 'em againlt Invafions from it And what fhou'd be depofited only as' a Pledge~ w~u'd be, to _be_ rcftor'<!, _l~ng before the Emp1re cou d be 1n ~ Cond~tlOAl to make any ufe of ir, that wou d be enher unjufl: in it H:lf, or troublefom to France. _ J:lut hanr:e never intending to fulfil the Condition 0!1 . [ 11 J on which the Caution fhou'd be refror'd1 this. Propofal was'rejected upon the fame Pretences as the.former. - - ' Nothing n'ow was left, but to feek for an B»pedi~n~ in Fhmdm; which was what the French offh'd from the firft, and a\1 along pr,efs'd, as it they were very much in E;trneft: ~ut had theY: been fo, 'tis very hard to give a go?d Reafon, -why, ap J):xpedie12t fhou'd be look d for here, rather than in any other Part. The Allies, tho they were Jenfible whatever cou'd be given on this Side, was but a poor, Expedient at belt ; yet they were fo fincerely di[jtos'd to put' an end to the War, that they wou'd not abfolutely rejeCl: it. Whatever Towns France cou'd put into the Hands of the Allies on this fide, if they were not fuch as lie nearefl: to thofe that are to be given up by the Preliminarys, t heir Tenure wou'd be very precHious, and it wou'd be very difficult to keep them, when France had a mind to have them again. This you may eafily judg of, by the Jmpoflibility the Allies were under lafl: Campaign to make the Siege of ArraJ,_ while they left Douay behind them; and the difficulty YpreJ gave them in the Siege of A ir e. But if thefe cautionary Towns were to be of thofe that lie nearefi:, they cou'd not he of fo much Importance to France, as that they fhou'd not be willing to part with them t? keep Spain, Iince this wou'd only be rna~ ktng a l ittle farther addition to the Barrier of the Netherland!, as l hinted in my !aft ; which: wou'd fecure them more from France. Bnt as bad an Equivalent as this was at the bell:, ' C 2 the |