ances, to furnish a considerable detachment for the purpose. But there was so evident a backwardness in the duke's movements, that the Dutch deputies complained vehemently to the English plenipotentiaries at Utrecht of his refusal to act in earnest against the enemy. Thereupon Robinson, the bishop, took high ground, and retorted that the States-General had met the queen's proposals for peace so strangely, that her majesty now felt herself released from any further obligation to maintain the treaties and engagements betwixt herself and them. This roused the States to great and indignant activity. They entered into communication with the electors of Hanover, of Hesse-Cassel, and other princes of the empire, regarding the effective service of their troops in the pay of Great Britain. They sent off warm remonstrances to the queen of England, and the queen was obliged to summon a council, in which it was agreed that Ormonde should appear as much as possible to concur with Eugene in the siege. The subject was brought to the knowledge of the whigs by the ambassadors of the allies, who presented letters from prince Eugene, and on the 7th of June that party took up the subject in the house of lords. The earl of Halifax moved for the production of the orders given to Ormonde, and that fresh commands should be issued to him to co-operate cordially with the prince. The lord treasurer declared that the orders could not be produced without mischief to the treaty pending; that Ormonde was only acting a prudent part in avoiding any serious engagement, which might have the effect to entirely defeat all the efforts at an honourable peace, and especially with such a monarch as Louis XIV., who was so apt to break his word. Lord Wharton replied that the king of France's disregard of his word was a strong reason for keeping no measures with him; and the duke of Marlborough, on Oxford saying that, notwithstanding, lord Ormonde had had orders to co-operate with the allies in the siege, asked how they were to carry on a siege and yet avoid a battle, in case the enemy should endeavour to relieve the place, unless the English were shamefully to abandon their posts. The duke of Argyll, to annoy Marlborough, declared that there had not been such a captain as Eugene since Julius Cæsar, yet as the house of Austria had motives for war very different to any which England had, it might not be prudent to trust him with the chief command, lest he should render peace impossible. He threw out reproaches against Marlborough for not having taken Arras and Cambray two years ago, instead of wasting time on such petty places as Aire, Bethune, and St. Venant. But lord Paulet went further in invective against the great English general, and said that no one could doubt of the courage of the duke of Ormonde; but that he was not like a certain general, who led troops to the slaughter, and caused a great number of officers to be knocked on the head, that he might fill his pockets by disposing of their commissions. This murderous accusation was not likely to pass unnoticed by Marlborough. He suppressed his resentment in the house, but he immediately afterwards sent lord Mohun with a challenge to Paulet, who was much more valiant in speech than in action. He let his wife know of the challenge, so that the affair was quickly communicated to the secretary of state, who placed a couple of sentries at lord Paulet's door, and informed him that he was under arrest, whilst the earl of Dartmouth carried her majesty's command to Marlborough, that the affair should go no further, which Marlborough assured her should be punctually obeyed.
After the attack in the house of lords on Marlborough, the debate became very warm, but Oxford protested that there was no intention whatever of making a separate peace without the allies; that such a peace would be so base, so knavish, so villanous, that every one who served the queen knew that they must answer it with their heads to the nation. He contended that the nation would find that the peace intended would be a glorious peace, much more to the honour and interest of the nation than the first preliminaries insisted on by the allies: a most daring and unfounded assertion, the surrender of Spain being in the demands of the allies, but not in the treaty. The earl of Strafford, who had come over from Holland, asserted that the Dutch had made private offers at the conference at Gertruydenburg, which were kept from the knowledge of the allies, and should be the last to complain, and moved that the papers relating to the negotiations at the Hague and Gertruydenburg should be laid on the table, as they would show that the Dutch offered to make over Naples and Sicily to Philip, showing that they even then admitted the impossibility of regaining the whole Spanish monarchy. The motion of Halifax was negatived by a majority of sixty-eight to forty, but twenty-five peers entered a protest against it.
The same question was debated in the commons on the motion of Mr. Pulteney, and ministers were accused of carrying on clandestine and dishonourable negotiations with France independent of the allies. To this St. John replied in a high strain and in a very arrogant tone, trusting that it was not treachery to act for the good and advantage of Great Britain; that he gloried in his share of the proceedings, and that, whatever censure he might endure, he should feel a comfort his whole life in acting in it as he had done. The house called also for a copy of the transactions at the Hague and Gertruydenburg, and voted that the house had confidence in her majesty's promise to communicate to it the terms of peace before it should be concluded.
Accordingly, on the 6th of June, the queen proceeded to the house of lords, and stated in a long speech the terms on which it was proposed to make the peace with France—namely, that Louis XIV. should acknowledge the protestant succession and remove the pretender out of France; that Philip should renounce the crown of Spain, should it devolve on him; and that the kings of both France and Spain should make solemn engagements for themselves and their heirs that the two kingdoms should never be united under one crown; that Newfoundland, with Piacentia, Hudson's Bay, Nova Scotia, or Acadia, as it was then termed by the French, as well as Gibraltar, Port Mahon, and the whole island of Minorca, should be ceded to England; that the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Sardinia, the duchy of Milan, and the places on the Tuscan coast, formerly belonging to Spain, should be yielded to Austria, the appropriation of Sicily being not so far determined; that France would make the Rhine the barrier of the empire, yielding up all places beyond it, and razing the fortresses on the German
