Vol. IV. col. 514.) Upon which Hume remarks: "The Dutch were long
at a loss what to make of this article, till it was discovered
that a portrait of Cornelius de Witt, brother to the Pensionary,
painted by order of certain magistrates of Dort, and hung up in a
chamber of the Town-House, had given occasion to the complaint. In
the perspective of this portrait the painter had drawn some ships
on fire in a harbor. This was construed to be Chatham, where De
Witt had really distinguished himself," during the previous war,
in the way here indicated,----"the disgrace" of which, says
Lingard, "sunk deep into the heart of the King and the hearts of
his subjects." History of England, Vol. IX. Ch. III., June 13,
1667.]. The England of Charles the Second was hardly less
sensitive than the France of Louis Napoleon, while in each was
similar indifference to consequences. But France has precedents of
her own. From the remarkable correspondence of the Princess
Palatine, Duchess of Orleans, we learn that the first war with
Holland under Louis the Fourteenth was brought on by the Minister,
De Lionne, to injure a petty German prince who had made him
jealous of his wife.[Footnote: Briefe der Prinzessin Elisabeth
Charlotte von Orleans an die Gaugraefin Louise, 1676-1722, herausg.
von W. Menzel, (Stuttgart, 1843,)---Paris, 3) Mertz, 1718, s.
288.] The communicative and exuberant Saint-Simon tells us twice
over how Louvois, another Minister of Louis the Fourteenth, being
overruled by his master with regard to the dimensions of a window
at Versailles, was filled with the idea that "on account of a few
inches in a window," as he expressed it, all his services would be
forgotten, and therefore, to save his place, excited a foreign war
that would make him necessary to the King. The flames in the
Palatinate, devouring the works of man, attested his continuing
power. The war became general, but, according to the chronicler,