THE FIRST DUTCH WAR 385 



ambassadors themselves were openly jeered at, and threatened 

 by Prince Edward, son of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia ; and 

 though the States - General received them with ostentatious 

 courtesy, and prompt measures were taken to suppress the 

 disorders and insults, the conditions of their surroundings 

 produced irritation and impatience in their minds, with import- 

 ant results in the sequel. 1 The principal object of the Parlia- 

 ment was to make use of the Dutch Republic to help them to 

 maintain the Commonwealth, and to resist any attempt to 

 place Charles II. on the throne. In return they were willing 

 to aid the Republic against the House of Orange or any other 

 inclined to disturb it. 



St John had with him two series of propositions, one relat- 

 ing to a strict alliance and union ; the other, private and never 

 fully disclosed, included a novel scheme for the coalescence and 

 fusion of the two states and peoples, on the lines propounded 

 by the Council of State in the following year. He brought 

 out his propositions one by one, requiring categorical accept- 

 ance of each before dealing with the next, the design being 

 to lead step by step to the proposals for coalescence and fusion. 

 His first proposition was in substance for "a more strict and 

 intimate alliance and union " than any before, by which there 

 might be "a more intrinsical and mutual interest of each in 

 other" for the good of both. 2 After some fencing and much 

 hesitation and delay the Dutch preferring a qualified accept- 

 ance, which the ambassadors rejected a guarded assent was 



1 Geddes, op. cit., 157, 159, 165. Gardiner, op. tit., 359. The Nicholas Papers, 

 i. 230. 



2 " Wee doe tender the ffriendshipp of the Coffionwealth of England unto the 

 High and Mighty Lords the States Generall of the Vnited Provinces, and doe pro- 

 pound that the Amitye, and good Correspondency which hath aunciently beene 

 betweene the English Nation and the Vnited Provinces, be not only renewed, and 

 preserved inviolably, But that a more strict, and intimate Allyance, and Vniou, 

 be entred into by them, whereby there may be a more intrinsicall, and mutuall 

 interest of each in other then hath hitherto beene for the good of both." Sub- 

 mitted 2 ^ A*"/*' " A briefe Narrative of the Treatie at the Hague betweene the 

 honoble Oliver St John, Lord Chiefe Justice of the Court of Cofnon Pleas, and Walter 

 Strickland, Esq., Embassado" extraordinary of the Parliament of the Coffionwealth 

 of England, to the great Assembly of the States Generall of the Vnited Provinces 

 begun upon the 20th of March 1651 and continued vntill the 20th of June 1651 and 

 then broke of re infectd." State Papers, Poreiyn, Treaty Papers (Holland), No. 46, 

 1651. 



2 B 



