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1709. Lewis XIV was tempting us with the hopes of Spain and to Weft-Indies, that king, by a letter to the pope, offered

Savoy's troops, at the very time he was in alliance with them. I need fay nothing of our own country, that France could have no reason to fear any perfidioufnefs from home. The charac. ter of her majefty is too well known to give the French grounds for any fuch fufpicion; and, had we a prince of less renown on the throne, France would have little to fear from him, unless he were fupported by his people; which no fovereign of England has even been, when they have thought the war he made unjust. But it is not enough to fay, the allies would not be falfe, nor act against the intentions of a public treaty; I think I may affirm, they cannot be fo. A fingle potentate is mafter of his own will, and can aft without controul; but a confederacy can do nothing without a concurrence of all parts; which, in fo unjust a caufe as this, there would be no reason to apprehend. When all the moft just and neceffary caufes of a war concur, it is very hard to keep a confederacy long together; much lefs can it be imagined it fhould be kept up to opprefs a prince, who has done all he can to fatisfy the demands of all parties. Either honefty or intereft will certainly difarm fome of them. No ally, when he has gained all he can hope for by the war, will be willing to continue the expence of it in compliment to any of the reft, especially when the cause is manifeftly unjuft. No; were it ever fo juft, this is hardly to be hoped for. When a

the

confederacy is successful, jealotfies naturally arise among them felves; and they are more concerned, that one part should not be too great gainers, and have too much to their fhare, than that any other fhould not have enough. Of which we fee an inftance, though a very foolish one, among ourselves; our préfent mafters of politics, to rehder the very fucceffes of the war odious, alarm us with new fears, which no body before ever thought of, and tell us, the Dutch will have by this treaty a better country than our own. And, if a certain correfpondence by way of Calais, has been continued, France might be affured, that no advantage would be taken of the thirty-feventh article, though Spain was not relinquifhed in the time stipulated; and that therefore they might fafely fign the preliminaries; for that the war could not be renewed, fince they might depend on it, that England would never confent to ufe in fo barbarous a manner, a prince, whom fo great a party among them have always had fo much refpect for: and, without England, they know the rest of the allies could do nothing.

But whether it was more reafonable for the allies to truft France, or France the allies, was not left at this time to general reflections. What was doing at this very juncture in Spain, gave the allies abundant cause to fufpect the fincerity of France, that they meant nothing less than the reftitution of that monarchy. No

body,

the dominions in Italy to king Charles. But, as the parlia- 1709. ment had always declared the ground of the war to be the restoring

ble. But what gave the allies a greater jealousy than all this, was the caufing the prince of Afturias to be acknowledged prefumptive heir of Spain by all the ftates of the kingdom; which ceremony was performed with the greateft magnificence the 7th of April, that is, about a month after M. Rouillé had been in Holland; which proceeding, you may remember, every body was then alarmed at; fuch a fep being plainly taken for no other end, but to lay in matter for a new war; or rather it was a declaration, that an end could not be put to this, as long as the reftitution of Spain was made one condition of a peace. The French minifters had but one ieply to this, that their master was not answerable for what the duke of Anjou had done; but that, for his own part, he was fincere, and would do whatever depended upon him, and that therefore, if a peace was not concluded, it could not lie at his door. The allies, though they could not think what was urged, had any truth in it, yet, to fhew how far they were from defigning to impofe upon the king impoffible conditions, thought of an expedient, which could not be refufed, without difcovering that France meant nothing by this treaty, but to make peace for themselves, and to leave the allies involved in a war with Spain. If it was not in the king's power to oblige his grandfon to retire out of Spain, they declared they would be content with his doing what eviK

body, that looks into the accounts of that time, and fees how thick expreffes went one upon another between France and Spain, can doubt, whether the king and his grandson did not perfectly well agree: and not only the news of that time, but the facts themfelves fhew, that the king gave him all poffible affurances, that he would not abandon him, though it was neceffary for his affairs to promife it. This, I fay, is very plain, from what was at that time doing in Spain; for, though the marquis de Torcy told the allies, he did not know but king Philip might be at Paris before him, there was not the leaft fign of any intention to relinquish Spain; but, on the contrary, there were on the part of the duke of Anjou all the appearances, that could be of a prince that thought of nothing less. For the war was preffed with the utmost vigour in all parts; Alicant was befieged at a vaft expence, and other places in Valencia were reduced with all diligence; preparations were made for the fiege of Gironne, and the army was put into the best condition it could be to invade Catalonia; and, at the fame time, the marquis de Bay advanced close to the Portuguese in Eftremadura, with a defign to give them battle; in which, against the opinion of my lord Galway, they unhappily prevented him. This did not look like a defign to quit Spain to king Charles; but, on the contrary, fhewed a refolution to drive him out of it, if poffiVOL. XVII.

dently

1709. restoring the whole Spanish monarchy to the house of Auftria (which indeed the ftates-general had never done) fo

dently was in his power; which was to deliver up to them fuch places in the Spanish dominions, as were garrifoned by his own troops. But this expedient was rejected; and the marquis de Torcy, thinking, I fuppofe, that the allies infifting upon the duke of Anjou's being recalled, was a more fpecious handle to break off the treaty upon, than the refufal of the expedient they propofed inftead of it, he agreed at lat to let the thirty-feventh article ftand as it is now worded; which is perfectly agreeable to the main defign of the treaty, and to the tenour of the other articles; but with a reserve, as before, to know the king's pleafure, without whofe further inftructions he could not fign. And thus the conferences held to fettle thefe preliminaries ended the 28th of May, and were the fame day figned by the allies. The marquis de Torcy immediately fet cut for Verfailles, leaving monfieur Rouillé behind, to whom he promifed to return the king's answer by the 4th of June at fartheit; which, from the neceflity of the king's affairs, the point the treaty was carried to, the marquis's rank and character, and perfonal merit, and the great proteftations he made of his mafter's fincerity, was hoped would be favourable; but most of all from his defire to the allies at parting, that they would haften the ratifications of thefe articles with all the dispatch they could.

The hopes the marquis left with the allies, and the near

the

profpect of a good peace, filled all people with a joy that is not to be expreffed. They waited with great impatience for the 4th of June: it was the next day before the anfwer came, upon the receipt of which, monfieur Rouillé acquainted the allies, that the king could not agree to these preliminaries. The articles excepted against were the fame that the marquis had before disputed, thofe relating to the emperor and the duke of Savoy, and the thirty-feventh. The allies were not a little furprized at this anfwer, and more at the haughty air, with which monfieur Rouillé, in a long conference on this fubject, prefied his objections; a behaviour very different from what either he or the marquis had fhewn before; which, there being no visible cause for, they thought it was in great meafure gafconade; that it meant nothing elfe but to make what advantage he could of the inclinations the allies had without difguile fhewn to peace; and that he would at laft recede from his pretenfions, when he faw they would not; and that in all events they could not, on their part, give up articles fo reasonable in themfelves, and which they had fo unanimoufly agreed to, as ab-, folutely neceflary to make a good and lafting peace. And what they fufpected did in good mea fure prove to be the cafe, at least it feemed fo; for, after having infilted with fo much stiffness upon the objections he had in the king's name made, when he perceived it had no effect on the

allies,

the duke of Marlborough could not hearken to this. He 1709. convinced the states of the treacherous defigns of the court

allies, his departure being fixed for the ninth. The feventh in the evening, or early the next morning, he waited on the penfioner; and, as an inftance of his great fincerity and concern, that the treaty might not be broke off, communicated to him his inftructions, by which it ap→ peared, that he was impowered to recede from all the other points he had before infifted on, excepting that of the thirty-feventh article, which feems to have been a mafter-piece of French artifice. For, if the treaty must be broke, it is as effectually done by infifting upon one article, as upon twenty; and, which ever part the allies took, the French would find their account: for, if they could be perfuaded to give up that, which, in appearance, was but one article, but in effect was the fubftance of all, or at least of the most important ones, then it was in the power of the French to make peace, without obliging the duke of Anjou to quit Spain. And if the allies could not be brought to this, the point they should break upon was fo fpecious, that the French minifters hoped for a double good effect of it; that it would incenfe the populace in these provinces against their minifters, and fet the king right in the affections of his people, which, through the continued misfortunes of the war, he began to lofe. And, in this laft point, they fucceeded perfectly well there were no efforts the French were not willing to make, to fupport a prince, who feemed

of

to prefer their fafety to his own glory, and to think no facrifice too great to procure his people a good peace: but their other point they were much mistaken in; and the breaking of the treaty had no other effect upon the fubjects of the itates, though it be a popular government, than to fill them with the utmost indignation against the French, and loud refentments of their conftant injuftice and perfidioufnefs.

But to return to monfieur Rouillé, when he had fhewn his inftructions to the penfioner, which discovered fo much more than he would own before, he took his leave of him, without propofing any accommodation cr expedient, in lieu of this important article; and whether the truth were all out, and there was not fome fecret inft. uctions still behind, was more than any body could tell. And, though this was his language the 8th in the morning, they did not know but he might alter it before night, when he found the allies were not to be moved, or that he might make a longer ftay; he and the marquis de Torcy both having often fixed days for their departure; but, when the time came, thought fit to change their minds. And what made this the more probable was, that monfieur Petkum, who had all along, without authority or character, gone between the minifters of the allies and France, did that morning propose to some of the allies, that France fhould give to them two or three towns

1709.

of France in this offer, and it was not entertained. The court of Vienna (as hath been faid) was fo alarmed at the inclinations,

as an equivalent for the thirtyfeventh article, to be kept by them, till Spain fhould be quitted to king Charles. But fince monfieur Petkum made this motion, as of his own head, without any commiffion from monfieur Rouillé, who lodged with him; and the propofal was indeterminate, without either the names, or fixed numbers of the towns, that should be given, the allies could not take any notice of it. Befides, had the offer been never fo diftinct, and made with full authority, to give two or three cautionary towns,. was to evade and not to fatisfy the intention of the article, and was in effect nothing elfe, but to offer a little better barrier to the Dutch, in exchange for Spain and the Indies. In the mean time, monfieur Rouillé fpent the day in making vifits of leave, as defigning to fet out in earnest for Verfailles next morning. When night was come, and there was no room to hope for any further step being made on his part, here the man, who is accused of proJonging the war, interpofed, and thewed how little he deferves fuch a cenfure. The duke of Marlborough fent to the penfionary, and the other minifters, to defire a meeting, to try once more if any thing could be done to fave the treaty. But this meeting being difappointed, there was an extraordinary congrefs of all the minifters the next morning, in which the deputies of the flates having acquainted

them of what had paffed, and affured them of their refolution to prefs the war with the utmoft vigour, till France was forced to confent to a good peace, count Zinzendorf thanked the flates in the name of the emperor and king Charles, for the firmnefs they had fhewn on this occafion. The duke of Marlborough did the fame on the part of the queen; which was followed with like expreffions of fatisfaction by all the other minifters that were prefent, with very particular marks of efteem to the penfionary, whom I have often thought the Godolphin of the fates, for his wife and prudent conduct thro' the whole negotiation. I need not fay more to let you know, that he is a plain, grave, wife man, of great judgment and abilitics, quiet, unpopular, and un

corrupt.

All thoughts of peace being now in appearance over, and monfieur Rouillé gone, the duke of Marlborough, who was extremely mortified at this change of things, refolved to follow in the afternoon, and would not give over all hopes of having ftill one interview more with him; to which end he got to Bruffels, as foon almoft as monfieur Rouille, and fent word before to prince Eugene (who had been there fome days to give the neceffary orders for affembling the army) but monfieur Rouillé was gone, before either the duke or prince could fee him: and nothing was now left to the gene

rals,

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