1710. ing any expedient, but brought a paper that seemed to set aside the preliminaries: yet it set forth, that the king was willing to treat on the foundation of the concessions made in them to the allies; and that the execution of all the articles should begin after the ratification. This destroyed all that had been hitherto done; and the distinction the king had formerly made, between the spirit and the letter of the Partition Treaty, shewed how little he was to be relied on so the States resolved to insist both on the preliminaries, and on the execution of them, before a general treaty should be opened. By this message all thoughts of a treaty were at a full stand. In the beginning of February another project was sent, which was an amplification of that brought by Pettecum; only the restoring the two electors was insisted on as a preliminary, as also the restoring the upper palatinate to the elector of Bavaria; but the allies still insisted on the former preliminaries. The court of France seeing that the States were not to be wrought on to go off from the preliminaries, sent another message to them, that the king agreed to all the preliminaries, except the thirty seventh; and if they would consent that his ministers should come and confer with them upon that article, he did not doubt but what should be proposed from him would be to their satisfaction. This seemed to give some hopes; so the States resolved to send the passports; but they foresaw the ill effects of suffering the French ministers to come into their country, 551 who, by their agents, were every where stirring up the people against the government, as if they were prolonging the war without necessity; so they appointed Gertruydenburg to be the place to which the French ministers were to come, to treat with 1710. the deputies they should send to meet them. ces at Ger burg. The ministers sent by France, were the marquess Conferend'Uxelles and the abbot de Polignac; and those truydenfrom the States, were Buys and Vanderdussen: the conferences began in March. The French proposed, that the dominions in Italy, with the islands, should be given to one of the competitors for the Spanish monarchy, without naming which; but it was understood, that they meant king Philip: the deputies did not absolutely reject this; but shewed, that the emperor would never consent to parting with Naples, nor giving the French such footing in Italy; the French seemed to be sensible of this: the first conference ended upon the return of the courier, whom they sent to Versailles. They moved for another conference; and upon several propositions, there were several conferences renewed. The king of France desisted from the demand of Naples, but insisted on that of the places on the coast of Tuscany at last they desisted from that too, and insisted only on Sicily and Sardinia: so now the partition seemed as it were settled. Upon which, the deputies of the States pressed the ministers of France to give them solid assurances of king Philip's quitting Spain and the West Indies; to this (upon advertisement given to the court of France) they answered, that the king would enter into measures with them to force it. Many difficulties were started, about the troops to be employed, what their number should be, and who should command them; all which shewed the execution would prove impracticable. Then they talked of a sum of money to be paid annually, during the war; and here new : 1710. difficulties arose, both in settling the sum, and in securing the payment: they offered the bankers of Paris; but these must all break, whensoever the king had a mind they should: so it plainly appeared, all was intended only to divide the allies, by this offer of a partition, to which the States consented; and at which the French hoped the house of Austria would have been provoked against them. The French asked an assurance of the deputies, that no other articles should be insisted on but those in the preliminaries; this the deputies positively refused; for they had, by one of the preliminaries, reserved a power to all the allies to make farther demands, when a general treaty should be opened; they said, they themselves would demand no more, but they could not limit the rest from their just demands. 552 This was another artifice, to provoke the empire, and the duke of Savoy, as if the States intended to force them to accept of such a peace as they should prescribe in another conference, the States rejected the offer of a sum of money for carrying on the war in Spain, and therefore demanded, that the French would explain themselves upon the subject of evacuating Spain and the West Indies in favour of king Charles, before they could declare their intentions with relation to the partition; and added, that all further conferences would be to no purpose, till that was done. All came to no conclusion. The French were now resolved to break off the negotiation; and so they were pleased to call this demand of the States, a formal rupture of the treaty ; and upon the return of an express that they sent to Versailles, they wrote a long letter to the pensioner, in the form of a manifesto; and so returned back to France, in the end of July. This is the account, 1710. that both our ministers here and the States have published of that affair: the French have published nothing; for they would not own to the Spaniards, that they ever entered upon any treaty for a partition of their monarchy, much less for evacuating Spain. Whether France did ever design any thing by all this negotiation, but to quiet their own people, and to amuse and divide the allies, is yet to us à secret; but if they ever intended a peace, the reason of their going off from it, must have been the account they then had of our distractions in England; which might make them conclude, that we could not be in a condition to carry on the war. of the mi England. The queen's intentions to make a change in her A change ministry now began to break out; in June she dis-nistry in missed the earl of Sunderland from being secretary of state, without pretending any maleversation in him, and gave the seals to the lord Dartmouth b. a There was a minute of a cabinet council amongst lord Somers's papers, in which the breaking of these conferences was the subject under debate. Lord Somers gave his opinion very strongly for the continuance of the war, till the restitution of Spain and the West Indies; and intimated that nothing could have encouraged the French ministers to hold that insolent language in their manifesto, but the intrigues that were carrying on at home. The dukes of Shrewsbury and -Somerset, who were both at this cabinet, appeared to have been of another opinion, and to have disapproved the conduct of the allies at Gertrudenburg. I think lord Godolphin and lord Sun- The queen said, lord Sun- 1710. This gave the alarm, both at home and abroad; but the queen, to lessen that, said to her subjects here, in particular to the governors of the bank of England, and wrote to her ministers abroad, that they should assure her allies, that she would make no other changes; and said this herself to the minister whom the States had here: all these concurred to express their joy in this resolution, and joined to it their advice, that she would not dissolve the parliament. This was represented by those who had never been versed in the negotiations of princes in an alliance, as a bold intruding into the queen's councils; though nothing is more common than for princes to offer mutual advices in such cases c. Two should succeed him; the queen lord Sunderland, they were very < But when they found their remonstrance had no effect, their envoy, Mr. Van Boorsel, came to me, to assure me their high mightinesses had the utmost respect and value for me, and had always esteemed me as one zealously affected to the common cause; but were obliged to act in the manner they had done, (which he owned was a wrong step,) in gratitude to the late ministers, from whom they had received many obligations: therefore hoped I would not have any resentments upon that ac |