Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/452

444 as that the land belonging to the States is extremely narrow there; so that in some places the territory of Spanish Flanders extends itself to the fortifications, and under the cannon of the places, towns, and forts of the States, which occasions many inconveniences, as has been seen by an example a little before the beginning of the present war, when a fort was designed to have been built under the cannon of the Sas Van Gand, under pretence that it was upon the territory of Spain: and as it is necessary, for avoiding these and other sorts of inconveniences, that the lands of the States upon the confines of Flanders should be enlarged, and that the places, towns, and forts should by that means be better covered: her British majesty, entering into the just motives of the said lords the States-general in this respect, promises and engages herself by this separate article, that in the convention which the said lords the States-general are to make with his majesty king Charles the third, she will assist them, as that it may be agreed, that by the cession to the said lords the States-general of the property of an extent of land necessary to obviate such like and other inconveniences, their limits in Flanders shall be enlarged more conveniently for their security; and those of the Spanish Flanders removed farther from their towns, places and forts, to the end that these may not be so exposed any more. In testimony whereof, the underwritten ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of her British majesty, and deputies of the lords the States-general, have signed the present separate article, and have affixed their seals thereunto. At