Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/258

246 we saw it three years ago at the Hague and Gertruydenberg. The marshal D'Uxilles and Mesnager, two of the French plenipotentiaries, were wholly inclined to have begun by the Dutch; but the third, abbé de Polignac, who has most credit with monsieur Torcy, was for beginning by England.

There was a great faction in France by this proceeding; and it was a mere personal resentment, in the French king and monsieur Torcy, against the States, which hindered them from sending the first overture there. And I believe your grace will be convinced, by considering that the demands of Holland might be much more easily satisfied, than those of Britain. The States were very indifferent about the article of Spain being in the Bourbon family, as monsieur Buys publickly owned when he was here, and among others to myself. They valued not the demolition of Dunkirk, the frontier of Portugal, nor the security of Savoy. They abhorred the thoughts of our having Gibraltar and Minorca, nor cared what became of our dominions in North America. All they had at heart was the sovereignty of Flanders, under the name of a barrier, and to stipulate what they could for the emperor, to make him easy under their encroachments. I can farther assure your grace, before any proposals were sent here from France, and ever since, until within these few months, the Dutch have been endeavouring constantly, by private intrigues with that court, to undermine us, and put themselves at the head of a treaty of peace; which is a truth that perhaps the world may soon be informed in, with several others that are little known. Besides, my lord, I doubt whether you have ently