Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/549

 1920 DUTCH MISSIONS TO ENGLAND IN 1689 541 the saying, so often quoted, that ' a forgotten burgher is best '. But there was also much in the state of affairs in England that made it difficult to carry out satisfactorily the business of arranging the alliance. When the three deputies came over, the revolution was barely finished and the settlement of the English constitution barely begun. The same politicians who had to work out the lines of the Dutch alliance were busy at the same time in an intricate manipulation of parties, a mass of thorny legal and ecclesiastical problems and an administrative chaos. Some of the delays might have been avoided, for instance that of the day when the ambassadors journeyed out to Hampton Court to settle their one remaining difference with the English, only to find when they got there that nothing could be done because the king was out hunting ; ^ but some could not, such as those caused in the summer by the dangerous and urgent state of affairs in Scotland,^ and by the difficulties of Halifax and Notting- ham, two of the English commissioners, with the parliament.^ A paper has been preserved which shows well how difficult it was for the secretary of state for the northern department to get the Dutch negotiation under way. It is amongst the papers of Edward Southwell, afterwards a clerk of the privy council, but it Seems to refer to the ofifice of the secretary of state, and it is headed for ' Lord N.', presumably Lord Nottingham.* The date is 6/16 March, three days before the fii'st conference with the deputies. Not only is the minister new to his work, but he has to arrange for a complete overhauling of the machinery of the department. An inquiry is to be made ' by the procurement of some friend ' from the ministers of foreign states as to the position of England's foreign relations, and a scheme is to be drafted of points to be driven at home and abroad. ' The case of Holland must more particularly be obtained, both in reference to sea and land.' It is necessary to think also of spys and intelligence, when needfull abroad, and in the like manner more specially at home. . . and to this purpose to have some substantiall merchants of each trade,^ to inform not only how things go among them at home, but in the several countries where they correspond. To have the treatys now in force with our allys. And to know from each merchant aforesaid, which are the articles of most moment between us as to commerce. Even the provision of clerks who knew the French, Dutch, and Latin languages needs attention. This is almost like starting » Dispatch of 9/19 April.
 * Secret dispatch, 6/16 August.
 * Witsen to Heinsius, 11/21 August (Papers of Heinsius, I a).
 * Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 38861, fo. 47.
 * That is, of each geographical trade-route.