NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE INEFFECTUAL.

The French king was by this time reduced to such a state of humiliation by the losses of the last campaign, and a severe winter, which completed the misery of his subjects, that he resolved to sacrifice all the considerations of pride and ambition, as well as the interest of his grandson, to his desire of peace, which was now become so necessary and indispensable. He despatched the president Rouillé privately to Holland, with general proposals of peace, and the offer of a good barrier to the states-general, still entertaining hopes of being able to detach them from the confederacy. This minister conferred in secret with Buys and Vanderdussen, the pensionaries of Amsterdam and Gouda, at Moerdyke, from whence he was permitted to proceed to Woerden, between Leyden and Utrecht. The states immediately communicated his proposals to the courts of Vienna and Great Britain. Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough arrived at the Hague in April, and conferred with the grand pensionary Heinsius, Buys, and Vanderdussen, on the subject of the French proposals, which were deemed unsatisfactory. Rouillé immediately despatched a courier to Paris, for further instructions; and the duke of Marlborough returned to England, to make the queen acquainted with the progress of the negotiation. Louis, in order to convince the states of his sincerity, sent the marquis de Torcy, his secretary for foreign affairs, to the Hague, with fresh offers, to which the deputies would make no answer until they knew the sentiments of the queen of Great Britain. The duke of Marlborough crossed the seas a second time accompanied by the lord Townshend, as ambassador-extraordinary and joint plenipotentiary; prince Eugene being likewise at the Hague, the conferences were begun. The French minister declared that his master would consent to the demolition of Dunkirk; that he would abandon the pretender, and dismiss him from his dominions; that he would acknowledge the queen’s title and the protestant succession; that he would renounce all pretensions to the Spanish monarchy, and cede the places in the Netherlands which the states-general demanded for their barrier; that he would treat with the emperor on the footing of the treaty concluded at Rys-wick, and even demolish the fortifications of Strasburgh. The ministers of the allies, rendered proud and wanton by success, and seeing their own private interest in the continuation of the war, insisted upon the restitution of the Upper and Lower Alsace to the empire; upon the French monarch’s restoring Strasburgh in its present condition; upon his ceding the town and castellany of Lisle, demolishing Dunkirk, New Brisac, Fort-Louis, and Hunningen. In a word, their demands were so insolent, that Louis would not have suffered them to be mentioned in his hearing, had not he been reduced to the last degree of distress. One can hardly read them without feeling a sentiment of compassion for that monarch, who had once given law to Europe, and been so long accustomed to victory and conquest. Notwithstanding the discouraging despatches he had received from the president Rouillé, after his first conferences with the deputies, he could not believe that the Dutch would be so blind to their own interest, as to reject the advantages in commerce, and the barrier which he had offered. He could not conceive that they would choose to bear the burden of excessive taxes in prosecuting a war, the events of which would always be uncertain, rather than enjoy the blessings of peace, security, and advantageous commerce: he flattered himself that the allies would not so far deviate from their purposed aim of establishing a balance of power, as to throw such an enormous weight into the scale of the house of Austria, which cherished all the dangerous ambition and arbitrary principles, without the liberality of sentiment peculiar to the house of Bourbon. In proportion as they rose in their demands, Louis fell in his condescension. His secretary of state, the marquis de Torcy, posted in disguise to Holland, on the faith of a common blank passport. He solicited, he soothed, he supplicated, and made concessions in the name of his sovereign. He found the states were wholly guided by the influence of prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough. He found these generals elated, haughty, overbearing, and implacable. He in private attacked the duke of Marlborough on his weakest side: he offered to that nobleman a large sum of money, provided he would effect a peace on certain conditions. The proposal was rejected. The duke found his enemies in England increasing, and his credit at court in the wane; and he knew that nothing but a continuation of the war, and new victories, could support his influence in England. Torcy was sensible that his country was utterly exhausted, that Louis dreaded nothing so much as the opening of the campaign; and he agreed to those articles upon which they insisted as preliminaries. The French king was confounded at these proposals; he felt the complicated pangs of grief, shame, and indignation. He rejected the preliminaries with disdain. He even deigned to submit his conduct to the judgment of his subjects. His offers were published, together with the demands of the allies. His people interested themselves in the glory of their monarch. They exclaimed against the cruelty and arrogance of his enemies. Though impoverished and half-starved by the war, they resolved to expend their whole substance in his support; and rather to fight his battles without pay, than leave him in the dire necessity of complying with such dishonourable terms. Animated by these sentiments, they made such efforts as amazed the whole world. The preliminaries being rejected by the French king, Rouillé was ordered to quit Holland in four-and-twenty hours; and the generals of the confederates resolved to open the campaign without further hesitation.