NEGOTIATION BETWEEN THE COURTS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

For some time the negotiation for peace had been carried on between the court of France and the new ministers, who had a double aim in this measure; namely, to mortify the whigs and the Dutch, whom they detested, and to free their country from a ruinous war, which had all the appearance of becoming habitual to the constitution. They foresaw the risk they would run by entering into such measures, should ever the opposite faction regain the ascendency; they knew the whigs would employ all their art and influence, which was very powerful, in obstructing the peace, and in raising o popular clamour against the treaty. But their motives for treating were such as prompted them to undervalue all those difficulties and dangers. They hoped to obtain such advantages in point of commerce for the subject? of Great Britain, as would silence all detraction. They did not doubt of being able to maintain the superiority which they had acquired in parliament; and perhaps some of them cherished views in favour of the pretender, whose succession to the crown would have effectually established their dominion over the opposite party. The earl of Jersey, who acted in concert with Oxford, sent a private message to the court of France, importing the queen’s desire of peace, representing the impossibility of a private negotiation, as the ministry was obliged to act with the utmost circumspection, and desiring that Louis would propose to the Dutch a renewal of the conferences, in which case the English plenipotentiaries should have such instructions that it would be impossible for the states-general to prevent the conclusion of the treaty. This intimation was delivered by one Gualtier, an obscure priest, who acted as chaplain to count Gallas the Imperial ambassador, and had been employed as a spy by the French ministry, since the commencement of hostilities. His connexion with lord Jersey was by means of that nobleman’s lady, who professed the Roman catholic religion. His message was extremely agreeable to the court of Versailles. He returned to London with a letter of compliment from the marquis de Torcy to the earl of Jersey, in which that minister assured him of his master’s sincere inclination for peace, though he was averse to a renewal of the conferences with the states-general. Gualtier wrote a letter to Versailles, desiring, in the name of the English ministry, that his most christain majesty would communicate to them his proposals for a general peace, which they would communicate to the states-general, that they might negotiate in concert with their allies. A general answer being made to this intimation, Gualtier made a second journey to Versailles, and brought over a memorial, which was immediately transmitted to Holland. In the meantime, the pensionary endeavoured to renew the conferences in Holland. Petkum wrote to the French ministry, that if his majesty would resume the negotiation, in concert with the queen of Great Britain, he should certainly have reason to be satisfied with the conduct of the Dutch deputies. This proposal Louis declined, at the desire of the English ministers.

The states-general having perused the memorial, assured queen Anne that they were ready to join with her in contributing to the conclusion of a durable peace; but they expressed a desire that the French king would communicate a more particular plan for securing the interest of the allied powers, and for settling the repose of Europe. Gualtier was once more sent to Versailles, accompanied by Mr. Prior, who had resided in France as secretary to the embassies of the earls of Portland and Jersey. This gentleman had acquired some reputation by his poetical talents; was a man of uncommon ability, and insinuating address, and perfectly devoted to the tory interest. He was empowered to communicate the preliminary demands of the English; to receive the answer of the French king; and demand whether or not king Philip had transmitted a power of treating to his grandfather. He arrived incognito at Fontainbleau, and presented the queen’s memorial, in which she demanded a barrier for the Dutch in the Netherlands, and another on the Rhine for the empire; a security for the Dutch commerce, and a general satisfaction to all her allies. She required that the strong places taken from the duke of Savoy should be restored; and that he should possess such towns and districts in Italy as had been ceded to him in treaties between him and his allies: that Louis should acknowledge queen Anne and the protestant succession; demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk; and agree to a new treaty of commerce; that Gibraltar and Port Mahon should be yielded to the crown of England; that the negro trade in America, at that time carried on by the French, should be ceded to the English, together with some towns on that continent, where the slaves might be refreshed. She expected security that her subjects trading to Spain should enjoy all advantages granted by that crown to the most favoured nation; that she should be put in possession of Newfoundland and Hudson’s Bay, either by way of restitution or cession; and that both nations should continue to enjoy whatever territories they might be possessed of in North America at the ratification of the treaties. She likewise insisted upon a security that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united on the same head. Her majesty no longer insisted upon Philip’s being expelled from the throne of Spain by the arms of his own grandfather. She now perceived that the exorbitant power of the house of Austria would be as dangerous to the liberty of Europe as ever that of the family of Bourbon had been, in the zenith of its glory. She might have remembered the excessive power, the insolence, the ambition of Charles V. and Philip II. who had enslaved so many countries, and embroiled all Europe. She was sincerely desirous of peace, from motives of humanity and compassion to her subjects and fellow-creatures; she was eagerly bent upon procuring such advantages to her people as would enable them to discharge the heavy load of debt under which they laboured, and recompense them in some measure for the blood and treasure they had so lavishly expended in the prosecution of the war. These were the sentiments of a christian princess; of an amiable and pious sovereign, who bore a share in the grievances of her subjects, and looked upon them with the eyes of maternal affection. She thought she had the better title to insist upon those advantages, as they had been already granted to her subjects in a private treaty with king Charles.