408 



Strictures on Hume, 



[June \, 



unheard-of proceeding will surprise 

 you as much as it did me. We must 

 confess we are dupes, but if one's word 

 and faith are not to be kept, it is easy 

 to cheat any man. If I had followed 

 jay own inclination aud opinion, 1 

 should have sent to all courts to incite 

 them to vigour ; but it is not becoming 

 as I cannot set a good example." And 

 Nov. 19(h, " My chief anxiety is to 

 prevent the Spanish Netherlands from 

 falling into the hand of France. You 

 will easily conceive how this business 

 goes to my heart, I pray God to direct 

 for our good." 



In the despatch of the Earl of Maa- 

 chester, ambassador at Paris, by which 

 this intelligence was communicated, 

 that nobleman had hazarded an opinion 

 " that he could not see, but we must 

 acquiesce." But Secretary Vernon re- 

 plied, " that he had no commands to 

 write from the king, who must be al- 

 lowed to consider.^'' The English na- 

 tion was at this time, as Lewis XIV. 

 well knew, averse from war, and Count 

 Wrattislau, the imperial ambassador, 

 who arrived in London in December, 

 was very cooly received by the minis- 

 ters, and even by the monarch, till the 

 decisive step was taken by Lewis (Fe- 

 bruary I7OI) of expelling the Dutch 

 garrisons from the barrier fortresses, 

 and introducing French troops, v/hich 

 William regarde<l as a virtual transfer 

 of the Netherlands to France. Then, 

 and not till then, he began to hearken 

 to the overtures of the imperial court, 

 not with the view of dethroning the 

 King of Spain, but of securing Holland 

 from the lawless ambition of Lewis the 

 Fourteenth. 



" When I took notice," says the 

 Earl of Manchester, Feb. 1.5, to M. de 

 Torcy, " that I thought they would 

 have deferred any thing of this nature 

 till they h;«l seen what success M. 

 D' Avaux might have had, he owned to 

 me that they would have done it, liad 

 they not had notice that endeavours 

 would be used to procure Flanders for 

 the Archduke; and it was necessary to 

 prevent such a pioceeding; since the 

 will of the late king was in order to 

 keep the whole monarchy entire." 

 Also at an audience which M. Tallard, 

 as ambassador from France, had of K. 

 William, that Monarch, in reply to the 

 general common-place assurances of 

 amity, asked " if he had nothing in 

 particular to propose in relation to the 

 public security?" To which Tallard 

 answered in the negative. The quar- 

 rel thus became very serious. 



Before the end of Februaiy the States 

 general, who had hitherto been likewise 

 considering, recognized the Duke of 

 Anjou as King of Spain, " reserving, 

 nevertheless, to themselves to stipulate 

 in the negociation ready to begin, the 

 necessary conditions to secure the peace 

 of Europe." The seizure of the barrier 

 fortresses caused a great sensation in 

 England, as well as in Holland. A vote 

 for 30,000 seamen passed the House of 

 Commons; and the king, in conjunc- 

 tion with the States, made a formal de- 

 mand, not only of the evacuation of 

 those fortresses, but of the actual deli- 

 very of divers of tliese places, or others 

 of equal value, as cautionaiy towns. 

 This being peremptorily rejected, the 

 king declared to the parliament " that 

 negociation seemed at an end." Yet 

 even Tinder these circumstances, K. 

 William resolved to acknowledge the 

 Duke of Anjou in his regal capacity, 

 which was accordingly done in an ex- 

 cellent letter under his own hand, 

 dated April 17, 1701. But that he was 

 at the same time secretly forming al- 

 liances to dethrone him, OR that he 

 aftei-wards refused the title of king 

 to Philip V. are assertions hazarded in 

 daring defiance of truth. 



The negociations between France 

 and the maritime powers, though in 

 fact hopeless, still conlinuetl, till at 

 length Mr. Stanhope, Envoy at the 

 Hague, was ordered to acquaint M. 

 D'Avaux (July 1701,) " that a provi- 

 sion having been made in the partition 

 treaty for the satisfaction of the Em- 

 peror, he had instructionsfromhis mas- 

 ter not to proceed in the conferences 

 unless such satisfaction was given ;" 

 upon which M. D'Avaux received or- 

 ders to retnrn to France. 



On the 7th Sep. I7OI, was signed that 

 famous treaty, which from the acces- 

 sion of almost all the powers of Chris- 

 tendom, afterwards obtained the ap- 

 pellation of " the Grand Alliance." 

 Hitherto peace might have been estab- 

 lished by the i-estoration of the barrier 

 fortresses to Holland, and the tem- 

 porary occupation of a few cautionary 

 towns by England, with the cession of 

 the Duchy of Milan as an appanage to 

 the Archduke Charles. But by the 

 fiftii and sixth articles of the Grand 

 Alliance, the low countries were to be 

 recovered from Spain as a barrier to 

 the United Provinces, without specify- 

 ing to whom the sovereignty should be 

 ultimately assigned, and the whole of 

 the Italian dominions of Spain were 

 allotted to the Emperor. In 



