born to yet after all he allows a very great point, for which I contend, confeffing in plain words, that the burthen of the war hath chiefly lain upon us; and thinks it fufficient for the Dutch, that next to England they have borne the greatest share. And is not this the great grievance of which the whole kingdom complains? I am inclined to think, that my intelligence was at least as good as his; and fome of it, I can affure him, came from perfons of his own party, although perhaps not altogether fo inflamed. Hitherto therefore the matter is pretty equal, and the world may believe him or me as they please. But I think the great point of controverfy between us is, Whether the effects and confequences of things follow better from his premiffes or mine? And there I will not be fatisfied, unlefs he will allow the whole advantage to be on my fide. Here is a flourishing kingdom brought to the brink of ruin by a moft fuccefsful and glorious war of ten years, under an able, diligent, and loyal ministry, a moft faithful, juft, and generous commander, and in conjunction with the moft hearty, reasonable, and fincere allies. This is the cafe, as that author reprefents it. I have heard a ftory, I think it was of the Duke of ***, who playingat hazard at the Groom-porter's in much company, held in a great many hands together, and drew a huge heap of gold; but in the heat of play never obferved a sharper who came once or twice under his arm, and fwept a great Ideal of it into his hat; the company thought it had been one of his fervants. When the Duke's hand was out, they were talking how much he had won. Yes, faid he, I held in very long; yet methinks I have won but very little. They told him his fervant had got the reft in his hat; and then he found he was cheated.

And

It hath been my good fortune to fee the most important facts that I have advanced juftified by the public voice; which, let this author do what he can, will incline the world to believe, that I may be right in the reft. I folemnly declare, that I have not wilfully committed the leaft mistake. I ftopt the fecond edition, and made all poffible inquiries among those who I thought could best inform me, in order to correct any error I could hear of ; I did the faine to the third and fourth editions, and then left the printer to his liberty. This I take for a more

effectual

effectual anfwer to all cavils, than an hundred pages of controverfy...

But what difgufts me from having any thing to do with this race of anfwer-jobbers, is, that they have no fort of confcience in their dealings. To give one inftance in this gentleman's third part, which I have been lately looking into: When I talk of the most petty princes, he fays that I mean crowned heads; when I fay the foldiers of thofe petty princes are ready to rob or starve at home, lie fays I call kings and crowned heads robbers and highwaymen. This is what the Whigs call answering a book.

I cannot omit one particular concerning this author, who is fo pofitive in afferting his own facts and contradicting mine; he affirms, that the bufinefs of Thoulon was difcovered by the clerk of a certain great man, who was then fecretary of state. It is neither wife nor for the credit of his party to put us in mind of that fecretary, or of that clerk; however, fo it happens, that nothing relating to the affair of Thoulon did ever pafs through that fecretary's office: which I here affirm with great phlegm, leaving the epithets of falfe, fcandalous, villanous, and the reft, to the author and his fellows.

But to leave this author: Let us confider the confequence of our triumphs, upon which some fet fo great a value as to think, that nothing less than the crown can be a fufficient reward for the merit of the general. We have not enlarged our dominions by one foot of land: our trade, which made us confiderable in the world, is either given up by treaties, or clogged with duties, which interrupt and daily leffen it. We fee the whole nation groaning under exceffive taxes of all forts to raife three millions of money for payment of the intereft of those debts we have contracted." Let us look upon the reverse of the medal;, we fhall fec our neighbours, who in their utmost distress called for our affiftance, become by this treaty, even in time of peace, masters of a more confiderable country than, their own; in a condition to strike terror into us, with fifty thoufand veterans ready to invade us from that country, which we have conquered for them; and to commit infolent hoftilities upon us in all ether parts, as they have lately done in the East Indies. THE

03

THE BARRIER-TREATY BETWEEN HER MAJESTY AND THE STATES-GENERAL,

HER

ER Majefty the QUEEN of Great Britain, and the Lords the States-General of the United Provinces, having confidered how much it concerns the quiet and fecurity of their kingdoms and states, and the public tran quillity, to maintain and to fecure on one fide, the fucceffion to the crown of Great Britain in fuch manner as it is now established by the laws of the kingdom; and on the other fide, that the States-General of the United Provinces fhould have a strong and fufficient barrier against France and others who would surprise or attack them: and her Majefty and the faid States-General apprehending with just reafon the troubles and the mischiefs which may happenin relation to this fucceffion, if at any time there fhould be any perfon, or any power, who should call it in question; and that the countries and fates of the faid Lords the States-General were not furnished with fuch a barrier: For thefe faid reafons her faid Majefty the QUEEN of Great Britain, although in the vigour of her age, and enjoying perfect health (in which may God preserve her many years), out of an effect of her ufual prudence and piety, has thought fit to enter with the Lords the StatesGeneral of the United Provinces into a particular alliance and confederacy; the principal end and only aim of which shall be the public quiet and tranquillity; and to prevent, by meafures taken in time, all the events, which might one day excite new war, It is with this view, that her British Majefty has given her full power to agree upon fome articles of a treaty, in addition to the treaties and alliances that he hath already with the Lords the States-General of the United Provinces, to her ambaffador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, Charles Viscount Townend, Baron of Lyne-Regis, Frivy Counfelior to her British Majefty, Captain of her faid Majefty's Yeomen of the Guard, and her Lieutenant in the County of Norfolk; and the Lords the Sates-Ceneral of the United Frovinces, the Sieurs John de Weideren Lord of Valburgh, Great Bailiff of the Lower Betewe, of the body

;

body of the nobility of the province of Guelder; Frederic Baron of Reede, Lord of Lier, St Anthony, and T'er Lee, of the order of the nobility of the province of Holland and Weft Friezeland; Anthony Heinfius, Counfelior-Penfionary of the province of Holland and Weft Friezeland, Keeper of the Great Seal, and Superintendant of the fiefs of the Jame province; Cornelius Van Gheet, Lord of Spranbrook, Bulkefteyn, &c. Gedeon Hoeuft, Canon of the chapter of the church of St Peter at Utrecht, and elected Counsellor in the ftates of the province of Utrecht; Haffel Van Sminia, Secretary of the chamber of the accounts of the province of Friezeland; Erneft Itterfum, Lord of Ofterbof, of the body of the nobility of the province of Overyffel; and Wicher Wichers, Senator of the city of Groningen; all deputies to the affembly of the faid Lords the States-General on the one part, refpectively of the provinces of Guel der, Holland, Weft Friezeland, Zeland, Utrecht, Friezeland, Overyfel, and Groningen, and Ommelands; who, by virtue of their full powers, have agreed upon the following articles.

THE

HE treaties of peace, friendship, alliance, and confederacy between her Britannic Majesty and the States-General of the United Provinces fhall be approved and confirmed by the present treaty, and shall remain in their former force and vigour as if they were inferted word for word.

The fucceffion to the crown of England having been fettled by an act of parliament, paffed the twelfth year of the reign of his late Majefty K. William III. the title of which is, An act for the further limitation of the crown, and better fecuring the rights and liberties of the_fubject and lately, in the firth year of the reign of her prefent Majefty, this fucceffion having been again eftablished and confirmed by another act made for the greater fecurity of her Majefty's perfon and governinent, and the fucceffion to the crown of Great Britain, &c. in the fine

of

of the Moft Serene houfe of Hanover, and in the perfon of the Princefs Sophia, and of her heirs, fucceffors, and defcendents, male and female, already born or to be born: and although no power hath any right to oppofe the laws made upon this fubject by the crown and parliament of Great Britain; if it fhall happen nevertheless, that under any pretence, or by any caufe whatever, any perfon or any power or ftate may pretend to difpute the cftablishment which the parliament hath made of the aforefaid fucceffion in the Moft Serene houfe of Hanover, to oppofe the faid fucceffion, to affift or favour thofe who may oppofe it, whether directly or indirectly, by open war, or by fomenting feditions and confpiracies againft her or him to whom the crown of Great Britain shall defcend, according to the acts aforefaid; the States-General engage and promife to affift and maintain, in the fid fucceffion, her or him to whom it fhall belong, by virtue of the faid acts of parliament, to affift them in taking poffeffion, if they fhould not be in actual poffeffion, and to oppofe thofe who would disturb them in the taking fuch poffeflion, or in the actual poffcifion of the aforelaid fucceffion.

ARTICLE III.

Her faid Majefty and the States-General, in confequence of the fifth article of the alliance concluded between the Emperor, the late King of Great Britain, and the StatesGeneral, the 7th of September 1701, will employ all their force to recover the rest of the Spanish Low Countries.

ARTICLE IV.

And further, they will endeavour to conquer as many towns and forts as they can, in order to their being a barrier and fecurity to the faid States.

And whereas, according to the ninth article of the fid alliance, it is to be agreed, amongst other matters, how and in what manner the States fhall be made fafe by means of this barrier, the QUEEN of Great Britain will

ufe