The British, during the War of the Spanish Succession, attempted to prevent the kingdom of Spain from uniting with either France or Austria. What is the name given to the condition which the British hoped to attain, or preserve, by preventing such a union?

“well,” he says, “there’s excuse for picks and letting-on, in a case like this; if it warn’t so, i wouldn’t approve of it, nor i wouldn’t stand by and see the rules broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better. it might answer for you to dig jim out with a pick, without any letting-on, because you don’t know no better; but it wouldn’t for me, because i do know better.” the meaning in this excerpt is