The Reign of Queen Anne Author:Justin McCarthy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER in WHAT THE QUEEN CAME TO—ABROAD Queen Anne came in for an inheritance of Continental war. The sovereignty created by William the Third had been bo... more »rn in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion. The political principles of his time had not allowed William to settle steadily down to the work of keeping his own kingdom safe and strong against any efforts which might be made by the dethroned Stuarts. Even so great a soldier and statesman as he might have found it hard business enough to make efficient preparation against all such attempts and possibilities, and at the same time to foster and watch over the internal prosperity of his new kingdom. It was his fate to have to take part in a great Continental war which may be said to have involved the whole of the European States at one time or another in the long struggle. That war, of which we shall have to speak more fully a little later, was not one which, according to the ideas of the present day, had any direct bearing on the interests of England. Some impulse was undoubtedly given to the war spirit in England by the utterly unwise provocation which came from the TCing of France when he recognised the son of theexiled James the Second as the legitimate sovereign of England. But even if no such provocation had been given, it may be regarded as almost certain that, under the conditions of the times, England would have been drawn into the great struggle which was then convulsing the Continent for the maintenance of what was called the balance of power. That was the struggle which Queen Anne inherited, and she assumed it to be a necessary part of her duty and her business to carry it on. It had divided itself into two great military and political chapters, one of which came to an end before William's death, but the second cha...« less