plained to him of these declarations made them by the bishop, all the answer he made was, that he was certainly in a very bad humour when he talked at that rate. On the fifth of June, the queen came to the parliament, and told them on what terms a peace might be had. King Philip was to renounce the succession to the crown of France, if it should devolve on him; and this was to execute itself by putting the next to him into the succession. Sicily was to be separated from Spain, though it was not yet settled who should have it. The protestant succession was to be secured; and he who had pretended to the crown was no more to be supported. Dunkirk was to be demolished, and Newfoundland to be delivered to England. Gibraltar and Port-Mahon were to remain in our hands: we were also to have the assiento, a word importing the furnishing the Spanish West Indies with slaves from Africa. The Dutch were to have their barrier, except two or three places; and due regard would be had to all our allies. Both houses agreed to make addresses of thanks to the queen, for communicating this plan to them, desiring her to finish it. An addition to these last words, "in conjunction with her allies," was moved in both houses, that so there might be a guaranty settled for the maintaining the terms of the treaty; but it was rejected by a great majority in both houses. It was said, in opposition to it, that it would subject the queen and the whole treaty to the pleasure of the allies, who might prove backward and intractable. And since England had borne the greatest share of the burthen of the war, it was reasonable that the queen should be the arbiter of the peace. On the other hand it was said, that if the allies did not enter into a guaranty, we must depend on the faith of the French, and be at their mercy, and so have nothing to trust to but the promises of a court noted, in a course of many years, for a train of perfidy. But many had formed an obstinate resolution to get out of the war on any terms; so nothing that was offered, that seemed to obstruct the arriving speedily at that end, was heard with patience; and no regard was had to the faith of treaties. Yet both houses observed one caution, not to express their being satisfied with the plan of the peace, though it was covertly insinuated. Mention was also made of our treaties with our allies, and of the protestant succession. The lords, who had all along protested against the steps that the court had taken, entered the reasons of their protesting against the negative put on adding the words, "in conjunction with her allies," and on the former vote, concerning the orders sent to the duke of Ormond. These carried in them such just and severe reflections on the ministry, as running the nation into an open breach of all public trust, and putting every thing into the hands of the French, that by the strength of the majority they were expunged. Yet they were printed, and copies of them were sent over the nation; but nothing could break through that insensibility which had stupified the people. A new set of addresses ran about, full of gross flattery, magnifying the present conduct, with severe reflections on the former ministry, which some carried back to king William's reign. Some of these addresses mentioned the protestant succession and the house of Hanover with zeal; others did it more coldly; and some made no mention at all of it. And it was universally believed that no addresses were so acceptable to the ministers as those of the last sort. About the middle of June, the session of parliament came to an end. The queen, in her speech, said she was glad to find they approved of her scheme of peace, though that was in none of the addresses; many who intended to merit by their officious zeal had indeed magnified it in both houses, but it was not in either of their addresses. The earl of Strafford was again sent over, to induce the States to accept the offers that the French were making, and to consent to a cessation of arms. Prince Eugene ordered Quesnoy to be besieged; and he, in conjunction with the duke of Ormond, covered the siege; but, when the place was so straitened that it could not hold out above two or three days, the duke of Ormond sent prince Eugene word that he had orders to proclaim a cessation of arms for two months. Prince Eugene disagreeing to this, he signified his orders to all the German troops that were in the queen's pay. But the States and the emperor had foreseen that this might happen, and had negociated so effectually with the princes to whom these troops belonged, that they had sent orders to their generals to continue with prince Eugene, and to obey his command. This they represented to the duke of Ormond; and he upon that told them they should have neither bread nor pay, nor their arrears, if they refused to obey his orders. This last seemed unjust, since they had served hitherto according to agreement; so that their arrears could not be detained with any colour of justice. Quesnoy capitulated, and the garrison were made prisoners of war. It was said that the court of France had promised to put Dunkirk in the queen's hands, as a sure pledge of performing all that they had stipulated, in order to a general peace. This was executed in the beginning of July, and a body of our troops, with a squadron of ships, were sent to take possession of the place. The duke of Ormond made a second attempt on the generals of the German troops, to see if they would agree to the cessation of arms; but they excused themselves upon the orders they had received from their masters. So he proclaimed the cessation at the head of the English troops: upon which he separated himself from prince Eugene's army, and retired to Ghent and Bruges, possessing himself of them. The fortified places near the frontier had orders to let the officers pass through, but not to suffer the troops to possess themselves of them. The withdrawing the English forces in this manner from the confederate army was censured, not only as a manifest breach of faith and of treaties, but as treacherous in the highest and basest degree. The duke of Ormond had given the States such assurances of his going along with them through the whole campaign, that he was let into the secrets of all their counsels, which by that confidence were all known to the French. And, if the auxiliary German troops had not been prepared to disobey his orders, it was believed he, in conjunction with the French army, would have forced the States to come into the new measures. But that was happily prevented. Yet all this conduct of our general was applauded at home as great, just, and wise; and our people were led to think it a kind of triumph upon Dunkirk's being put into our hands; not considering that we had more truly put ourselves into the hands of the French by this open breach of faith; after which the confederates could no longer trust or depend on us. Nor was this only the act of the court and ministry, but it became the act of the nation, which by a general voice did not only anprove of it, but applaud it. Prince Eugene's next attempt was upon Landrecy, in which it seemed probable that he would succeed; but this prospect, and indeed the whole campaign, had a fatal reverse. There was a body of eight thousand or ten thousand men posted at Denain, on the Scheld, commanded by the earl of Albemarle, to secure the conveying bread and ammunition to the army and to the siege. Villars made a motion as if he designed to give prince Eugene battle, but, after a feint that way, he turned quick upon this body that lay on both sides of the river, with only one bridge of pontoons; the rest had been sent to the siege of Landrecy, and there was not a supply of more brought. That bridge, with the weight that was on it, broke, so the bodies could not be joined. But military men assured me that, if it had not been for that misfortune, Villars's attempt might have turned fatally on himself, and to the ruin of his whole army. But, in conclusion, he gave them a total defeat, and so made himself master of those posts, which they were to defend. This opened a new scene: it not only forced the raising the siege of Landrecy, but gave Villars an occasion to seize on Marchiennes and some other places, where he found great stores of artillery and ammunition, and furnished him likewise with an opportunity of sitting down before Douay. What errors were committed, either in the counsels or orders, or in the execution of them, and at whose door these ought to be laid, is far above my understanding in military matters: but, be that as it will, this misfortune served not a little to raise the duke of Marlborough's character, under whose command no such thing had ever happened. The effects of this disgrace were great; Douay was taken, after a long and brave defence; prince Eugene tried to raise the siege, but did not succeed in it. Indeed the States would not put things to so great a venture, after such a loss: the garrison were made prisoners of war. Quesnoy was next besieged: the great artillery that had been employed in the siege were left in the place. The garrison improved that advantage; so that the taking it cost the enemy very dear. These losses created a great distraction in the counsels at the Hague; many were inclined to accept of a cessation; the emperor and the princes of the empire made great offers to the States, to persuade them to continue the war; at the same time, the French grew very insolent upon their successes, and took occasion, from a quarrel between the footmen of one of the Dutch plenipotentiaries and one of theirs, to demand an extravagant reparation; which the Dutch not complying with, a full stop was put to all proceedings at Utrecht for some months. Our court took some pains to remove that obstruction; but the French king's pride being now again in exaltation, he was intractable. St. John, being made viscount Bolingbroke, was sent over with secret instructions to the court of France; where, as it was believed, the peace was fully concluded. But all that was published upon his return was a a new cessation of arms, both by sea and land, for four months longer. Duke Hamilton was named to go ambassador to France, and lord Lexington to Spain. The earl of Strafford continued to press the States to come into the queen's measures, which it was said he managed with great imperiousness. The States resolved to offer their plan to the queen, in which they pressed the restoring Strasburg to the empire, to have Valenciennes demolished, and Condé added to their barrier, and that the old tariff for trade should be again restored. The lord Lexington went first to Spain, where the cortes were summoned, in which that king did solemnly renounce, for himself and his heirs, the right of succession to the crown of France; and limited the succession to the crown of Spain, after his own posterity, to the house of Savoy. The like renunciation was made some months after that by the princes of France to the crown of Spain. And Philip was declared incapable of succeeding to the crown of France. It was something strange to see so much weight laid on these renunciations, since the king of France had so often and so solemnly declared (upon his claiming, in the right of his queen, the Spanish Netherlands, when the renunciation made by his queen before the marriage, pursuant to the treaty of the Pyrenees, of all rights of succession to her father's dominions, was objected to him) that no renunciation, which was but a civil act, could destroy the rights of blood, founded on the laws of nature. But this was now forgotten, or very little considered. At this time, the order of the garter had nine vacant stalls; so six knights were at one time promoted, the dukes of Beaufort, Hamilton, and Kent, and the earls of Oxford, Powlet, and Strafford. The duke of Hamilton's being appointed to go to the court of France gave melancholy speculations to those who thought him much in the pretender's interest: he was considered, not only in Scotland, but here in England, as the head of his party: but a dismal accident put an end to his life a few days before he intended to have set out on his embassy. He and the lord Mohun were engaged in some suits of law, and a violent hatred was kindled between them; so that, upon a very high provocation, the lord Mohun had sent him a challenge, which he tried to decline; but both being hurried by those false points of honour, they fatally went out to Hyde Park, in the middle of November, and fought with so violent an animosity, that, neglecting the rules of art, they seemed to run on one another, as if they tried who should kill first; in which they were both so unhappily successful, that the lord Mohun was killed outright, and duke Hamilton died in a few minutes after. I will add no character of him; I am sorry I cannot say so much good of him as I could wish, and I had too much kindness for him to say any evil without necessity. Nor shall I make any reflections on the deplorable effect of those unchristian and barbarous maxims, which have prevailed so universally, that there is little hope left of seeing them rooted out of the minds of men; the false notions of honour and courage being too strong to be weighed down by prudent or religious considerations. The duke of Shrewsbury was, upon duke Hamilton's death, named for the embassy to France, and went over in the end of December. The same yacht that carried him to Calais, brought over the duke d'Aumont, the French ambassador, who was a good-natured and generous man, of profuse expense, throwing handfuls of money often out of his coach as he went about the streets. He was not thought a man of business, and seemed to employ himself chiefly in maintaining the dignity of his character and making himself acceptable to the nation. I turn next to foreign affairs. The war in Pomerania went on but slowly, though the czar and the kings of Denmark and Poland joined their forces; upon which it was thought the interest of Sweden must have sunk in those parts; but the feebleness of one or other of those princes lost them great advantages. Steinbock, the Swedish general, seeing the Danes were separated from their allies, made a quick march towards them; and though the Saxons had joined them before he came up, yet he attacked them. The action was hot, and lasted some hours; but it ended in a complete victory on the Swedish side. At the same time the Swedes were animated by reports from Constantinople, which gave them hopes of the war between the Turks and the czar being likely to break out again, which the king of Sweden continued to solicit, and in which he had all the assistance that the French could give him. This gave the emperor great apprehensions that disorders in Hungary might follow upon it, which would defeat the measures he had taken to settle matters in that kingdom, so that being safe on that side he might turn his whole force against France, and by that means encourage the States to continue the war. Those in Holland who pressed the accepting the offers that France made them, represented that as a thing not possible to be supported. The promises of the emperor and the princes of the empire had so often failed them, that they said they could not be relied on: and the distractions in the North made them apprehend that those princes might be obliged to recal their troops, which were in the service of the States. : The earl of Strafford was sent back to the Hague with the French plan, which came to be called the queen's plan: but to draw them in the more, he was ordered to enter upon a new barrier treaty with them, by which the former was to be set aside. By it the States were to maintain the succession to the crown, when required to it by the queen, but not otherwise. This gave still new occasions for jealousy for whereas, by the former treaty, they were strictly bound to maintain the succession, so that they were obliged to oppose any attempts they saw made against it, they were by this treaty obliged to stay until they were sent to; and if our ministers should come to entertain ill designs that way, they would take care no notice should be given to the States. The barrier for the Dutch came far short of the former. The States wrote another letter to the queen, desiring her to interpose for restoring Strasburg to the empire, for adding Condé to their barrier, and for settling the commerce on the foot of the ancient tariff; as also for obtaining more reasonable terms for the emperor. But things were so fixed between the court of France and ours, that there was no room for intercession. The earl of Godolphin died of the stone in September. He was the man of the clearest head, the calmest temper, and the most incorrupt of all the ministers of state I have ever known. After having been thirty years in the treasury, and during nine of those lord treasurer, as he was never once suspected of corruption, or of suffering his servants to grow rich under him, so in all that time his estate was not increased by him to the value of 40007. He served the queen with such a particular affection and zeal, that he studied to possess all people with great personal esteem for her and she herself seemed to be so sensible of this for many years, that if courts were not different from all other places in the world, it might have been thought that his wise management at home, and the duke of Marlborough's glorious conduct abroad, would have fixed them in their posts, above the little practices of an artful favourite, and the cunning of a man who has not hitherto showed any token of a great genius, and is only eminent in the arts of deluding those that hearken to him. : Upon the earl of Godolphin's death, the duke of Marlborough resolved to go and live beyond sea he executed it in the end of November, and his duchess followed him in the beginning of February. This was variously censured: some pretended it was the giving up and abandoning the concerns of his country, and they represented it as the effect of fear, with too anxious a care to secure himself; others were glad he was safe out of ill hands, whereby if we should fall into the convulsions of a civil war, he would be able to assist the elector of Hanover, as being so entirely beloved and confided in by all our military men: whereas if he had stayed in England, it was not to be doubted but, upon the least shadow of suspicion, he would have been immediately secured; whereas now he would be at liberty, being beyond sea, to act as there might be occasion for it. There were two suits begun against him: the one was for the two and a half per cent. that the foreign princes were content should be deducted for contingencies, of which an account was formerly given; the other was, for arrears due to the builders of Blenheimn house. The queen had given orders for building it with great magnificence; all the bargains with the workmen were made in her name, and by authority from her; and in the preambles of the acts of parliament, that confirmed the grant of Woodstock to him and his heirs, it was said the queen built the house for him: yet now, that the tradesmen were let run into an arrear of 30,0007., the queen refused to pay any more; and set them upon suing the duke of Marlborough for it, though he had never contracted with any of them upon his going beyond sea, both those suits were stayed, which gave occasion to people to imagine, that the ministry, being disturbed to see so much public respect put on a man, whom they had used so ill, had set these prosecutions on foot, only to render his stay in England uneasy to him. Our army continued this winter about Ghent and Bruges; and we kept a sort of garrison in Dunkirk; but that was so ill supplied with artillery and ammunition, that it was visible they were not in a condition to keep the place, any longer than the French were willing to let them stay in it. And during that time, they were neither allowed to have a place to worship God, nor to bury their dead in, though by a mortality that raged there, some thousands died. Our ministers continued still to press the States and the emperor to come into the queen's measures; the emperor, on some occasions, talked in a very positive strain, as if he was resolved to put all to hazard, rather than submit to such hard conditions; but the apprehensions of a war in the neighbourhood of Hungary, and the low state of his treasure, forced him to come down from that height, and engage the States to procure better terms for him the demand of Strasburg was rejected by the French, with so positive an air, that our court did not move in it more; nor did it appear that we obtained any one condition of the French, but what was offered in their own project. : In conclusion, the States were forced to yield in every particular; and then our ministers, to give some seeming content to the nation, and to bring the States into some confidence with them, ordered the new barrier treaty to be signed; and it was given out by their creatures, that the French were highly offended at their signing this; making it previous to a general peace, and a sort of guaranty for it. Thus, after all the declamations that were made on the first barrier treaty, the ministers came into a new one, which though not so secure as the former, yet was liable to all the objections that were made against that. The French, as we were assured, in the progress of the treaty, used all that course of chicane, for which they have been so long famous; and, after all the steps our court had made, to get them a treaty of their own projecting, we were not at last able to gain any one point upon them they seemed to reckon, that now we had put ourselves in their hands, and that they might use us as they pleased. : A proclamation was set out in the end of November, giving notice that the session of parliament would be opened on the thirteenth of January; but though the proroguing the parliament, after such a proclamation, was without a precedent, yet we were put off by seven prorogations, some for a fortnight, and some for three weeks: it was said, we were daily expecting a sudden conclusion of the treaty; and until all was finished, the ministers could not know what aids were to be demanded. What occasioned all these delays is yet a secret to me; so I can write nothing of it. Many expresses were sent to Vienna, and the returns to those could not come quick. The demands for restoring the electors of Bavaria and Cologne, together with a compensation for their losses, were insisted on. The emperor could not do the former of these without the diet, by whose authority they were put under the imperial ban: but neither the emperor nor diet could answer the other demand, it rose so high. While we were at home uneasy at the many prorogations and delays, the news from beyond sea opened a new scene. The Swedes broke into Holstein, but were so closely followed by the Danes and Muscovites, that their retreat by land was cut off, and the Danish ships shut them from the Baltic sea; they made great waste in the king of Denmark's share of Holstein, and burnt Altena, a great and rich village, within a mile of Hamburg, which being an open place, in no sort fortified, the burning it was thought contrary to the laws of war. The king of Prussia died in February; he was in his own person a virtuous man, and |