Prince Charles Edward, a refugee in France, refused to quit the hospitable soil which had but lately offered so magnificent an asylum to the unfortunates of his house: he was, however, carried off, whilst at the Opera, forced into a carriage, and conveyed far from the frontier.

"As stupid as the peace!" was the bitter saying in the streets of Paris.
[Illustration: Arrest of Charles Edward----166] The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had a graver defect than that of fruitlessness; it was not and could not be durable.

England was excited, ambitious of that complete empire of the sea which she had begun to build up upon the ruins of the French navy and the decay of Holland, and greedy of distant conquests over colonies which the French could not manage to defend.

In proportion as the old influence of Richelieu and of Louis XIV.

over European politics grew weaker and weaker, English influence, founded upon the growing power of a free country and a free government, went on increasing in strength.