LORD SOMERS. (After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.)

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Spain and Germany, therefore, were averse from peace. William and Louis were the only parties, each for his own purposes, really anxious for it. Louis, early in the spring, had made overtures to Dykvelt through Cailleres, which were really surprising. They were no less than to relinquish all the conquests made by him during the war, to restore Lorraine to its duke, Luxemburg to Spain, Strasburg to the Empire, and to acknowledge William's title to the crown of England without condition or reserve. Such terms the Allies never could have expected. They were a renunciation by the ambitious Louis of all that he had been fighting for during so many years—of all that he had drained his kingdom of its life and wealth to accomplish. That he contemplated maintaining the peace any longer than till he had secured Spain and Poland is not to be supposed. If he obtained peace now, these objects would become more feasible, and he knew that William, his most formidable enemy, would have disbanded his army, and would have to create a new one and a new alliance before he could take the field again to oppose him.

These undoubtedly were Louis's notions, and it was plausibly urged by Spain and Austria that it was better now to press him as he was sinking till he was perfectly prostrate, and then bind him effectually. But, on the other hand, William felt that England and Holland had to bear the brunt of the war; that it was all very well for Spain and Germany to cry "Keep on," but the fact was, they did little or nothing towards keeping on. The Germans had no union, and, therefore, no strength. They sent excuses instead of their contingents and instead of money to pay their share of the cost of the war. When they did rise, they were nearly always behind their time and divided in their counsels. As for Spain, it literally did nothing to defend its own territories. The whole of Flanders would have been lost but for William and his Dutch and English troops. Catalonia would have been lost but for Russell and his fleet. Moreover, without consulting the Allies, Spain had joined in a treaty with Savoy and France to save its Milanese territory, and to the extreme prejudice of the Allies, it had, by releasing the French armies from Italy, increased the force in Flanders. William was greatly incensed by the endeavours of these Powers to continue the war; and Louis, as the best spur to their backwardness, determined to seize Brussels, and conduct himself as if bent on active aggression.

Catinat, relieved from his command in Savoy, had now joined Villeroi and Boufflers in Flanders, and these generals determined to surprise Brussels. They first advanced on the little town of Ath, and William, who was but just recovering from an attack of illness, uniting his forces with those of the Elector of Bavaria, endeavoured to prevent them. He was, however, too late; but he marched hastily towards Brussels to defend it against Villeroi and Boufflers. He passed over the very ground on which the battle of Waterloo was long afterwards fought, and posted himself on the height whence Villeroi had bombarded the city two years before. Neither side, however, was anxious to engage and incur all the miseries of a great battle, with the prospect of a near peace. They therefore entrenched themselves and continued to lie there for the rest of the summer, awaiting the course of events. Louis, however, assailed the King of Spain in another quarter—Catalonia. There Vendôme attacked the viceroy and defeated him, and invested Barcelona, which, though bravely defended by the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, was obliged to capitulate. At the same time came the news of another blow. Louis had sent out a squadron under Admiral Pointes to attack the Spanish settlements in the West Indies, and he had sacked and plundered the town of Carthagena, and carried home an immense treasure. These disasters made Spain as eager for peace as she had before been averse, and the Emperor of Germany was obliged to cease talking of returning to the position of the Treaty of Westphalia—a state of things totally out of the power of the Allies to restore.

The Plenipotentiaries of the different Powers now at last were ordered to meet; the only question was, Where? The Emperor proposed Aix-la-Chapelle or Frankfort, but Louis objected to any German town, but was willing that the place should be the Hague. It was at length settled to be the Hague. The Ambassadors of the Allies were to occupy the Hague itself; and the French, Delft, about five miles distant. Midway between these towns lies the village of Ryswick, and close to it a palace belonging then to William, called Neubourg House. There it was determined that the Plenipotentiaries should meet for business. The palace was admirably adapted, by its different entrances and alleys, for the approach of the different bodies of diplomatists without any confusion, and there was a fine, large, central hall for their deliberations. There appeared for England the Earl of Pembroke, the Viscount Villiers, Sir Joseph Williamson, and Matthew Prior, the poet, as their secretary. For the Emperor, the gruff Kaunitz, the celebrated Imperial Minister, was at the head of the German referees. For France came Harlay, Crecy, and Cailleres. Don Quiros was the Minister of Spain, and there were whole throngs of the representatives of the lesser Powers. The Minister of Sweden, Count Lilienroth, was appointed mediator, and, after various arrangements regarding precedence, on the 9th of May the Plenipotentiaries met; but, it seemed, only to entangle themselves in a multitude of absurd difficulties regarding their respective ranks and titles. The Ambassadors of Spain and of the Emperor were the most ridiculous in their punctilios. Then came the news of the death of the King of Sweden (Charles XI.), and the waiting of the mediator for a renewal of his powers, and for putting himself into mourning, and it was the middle of June before any real business had been done. William grew out of patience, and determined to take a shorter cut to the object in view. He empowered Portland to arrange with Boufflers, with whom he had become acquainted at the time of the latter's arrest at Namur, the preliminaries of a peace between France, England, and Holland. Portland and Boufflers met at a country house near Hal, about ten miles from Brussels on the road to Mons, and within sight of the hostile armies. The questions to be settled between these two plain and straightforward negotiators were these:—William demanded that Louis should bind himself not to assist James, directly or indirectly, in any attempt on the throne of England, and that James should no longer be permitted to reside in France. These demands being sent by express to Paris, Louis at once agreed to the first requisition, that he should engage never to assist James in any attempt on England; but as to the second, he replied that he could not, from honour and hospitality, banish James from France, but he would undertake to induce him to remove to Avignon, if he did not voluntarily prefer going to Italy. William accepted this modified acquiescence. On the other hand, Louis demanded from William that he should give an amnesty to all the Jacobites, and should allow Mary of Modena her jointure of fifty thousand pounds a year.

William peremptorily refused to grant the amnesty—that was an interference with the prerogative of his crown which he could permit to no foreign Power. The jointure he was willing to pay, on condition that the money should not be employed in designs against his crown or life, and that James, his queen, and Court, should remove to Avignon and continue to reside there. Neither the residence of the exiled family nor the matter of the jointure was to be mentioned in the treaty, but William authorised his Plenipotentiaries at the Congress to say that Mary of Modena should have everything which on examination should be found to be lawfully her due. This, indeed, may be considered an ambiguous phrase, for Mary, as well as James, being deposed, all her legal rights connected with the Crown had lapsed. William was afterwards much blamed for the non-payment of this jointure; but those who charged him with breach of faith knew very well that the jointure was only conditionally offered, and that the conditions were altogether disregarded.

The ceremonious and do-nothing Plenipotentiaries were greatly startled by the news that Portland and Boufflers were continually meeting, and were supposed to be actually making a treaty without them. A thing so irregular, so undiplomatic, was unheard of; but William was a man of business, and, in spite of forms and ceremonies, pushed on the treaty and concluded it. Spain, which had arranged a separate treaty in Savoy, was especially scandalised. But still more was James alarmed and incensed. He addressed two memorials to the princes of the confederacy—one to the Catholic Princes, entreating them to unite with him against England for his rights, reminding them that his case was theirs, and that the English revolution was setting a fatal precedent for them; the other was to the princes at large, warning them against infringing his inalienable rights by entering into any agreement with the usurper to transfer his crown and dignity to him. These producing no effect, he issued a third, protesting against any engagements they might enter into to his prejudice, or the prejudice of his son; and declaring that he should himself never feel bound by any of them.

If Louis was not moved by his entreaties and remonstrances, it was not likely that the princes who had for eight years been fighting in alliance with his rival would. Perhaps, however, James felt it only his duty to put in his disclaimer. The negotiations went on. Besides the terms offered by France to William and his Allies being accepted by all except the Emperor, it was agreed that Commissioners should meet in London from France to settle the respective pretensions of France and England to the territories of Hudson's Bay. The Dutch made a separate treaty of commerce with France. France surrendered all conquests made since the Treaty of Nimeguen, and placed the chief fortresses in the Low Countries in the hands of Dutch garrisons; except eighty towns and villages, which the French claimed from longer possession, and the right to which was to be determined by commissioners, with a power of appeal to the States-General. A demand of toleration was made on behalf of the French Protestants, but was refused on the same ground as William refused the amnesty to the Jacobites—interference with the prerogative of Louis. On the 10th of July the representatives of the Emperor were asked by the French to sign, but, on declining, the 21st of August was fixed as the last day on which France would be bound by its offer. William and the rest of the Allies were greatly exasperated at this refusal of the Emperor. The 21st arrived, and, the Commissioners not signing, the representatives of France declared his most Christian Majesty had now withdrawn Strasburg from his offer, and would annex it for ever to his realm; and, moreover, if the treaty were not signed on or before the 10th of September, he should not hold himself bound by the rest of his engagements.