Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/101

Rh utmost in her power towards obtaining such a peace, as might be to the satisfaction of all her allies."

Some days after the earl of Strafford's departure to Holland, mons. Buys, pensionary of Amsterdam, arrived here from thence, with instructions from his masters, to treat upon the subject of the French preliminaries, and the methods for carrying on the war. In his first conference with a committee of council, he objected against all the articles, as too general and uncertain; and against some of them, as prejudicial. He said, "The French promising that trade should be reestablished and maintained for the future, was meant in order to deprive the Dutch of their tariff of 1604; for the plenipotentiaries of that crown would certainly expound the word rétablir, to signify no more than restoring the trade of the States to the condition it was in immediately before the commencement of the present war." He said, "That in the article of Dunkirk, the destruction of the harbour was not mentioned; and that the fortifications were only to be razed upon condition of an equivalent, which might occasion a difference between her majesty and the States; since Holland would think it hard to have a town less in their barrier for the demolition of Dunkirk; and England would complain, to have this thorn continue in their side, for the sake of giving one town more to the Dutch."

Lastly, he objected, "That where the French promised effectual methods should be taken to prevent the union of France and Spain under the same king, they offered nothing at all for the " cession