[Footnote 1:  Dumont, 79.  Thurloe, vol. ii. iii.  Vaughan, i. 9, 11.  La Deduction, or Defence of the States in Holland, in Le Clerc, i. 345, and Basnage, i. 342.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1653.]

asked whether the king of Spain would consent to a free trade to the West Indies, would omit the clause respecting the Inquisition, reduce to an equality the duties on foreign merchandise, and give to the English merchant the pre-emption of the Spanish wool.  He replied, that his master would as soon lose his eyes as suffer the interference of any foreign power on the two first questions; as to the others, satisfactory adjustments might easily be made; This was sufficient for the present.  Cromwell affected to consider the treaty at an end; though the real fact was, that he meditated a very different project in his own mind, and was careful not to be precluded by premature arrangements.[1]

The French ambassador, though he commenced his negotiation under less propitious auspices, had the address or good fortune to conduct it to a more favourable issue.  That the royal family of France, from its relationship to that of England, was ill-disposed towards the commonwealth, there could be no doubt; but its inclinations were controlled by the internal feuds which distracted, and the external war which demanded, the attention of the government.  The first proof of hostility was supposed to be given before the death of the king, by a royal arret[a] prohibiting the importation into France of English woollens and silks; and this was afterwards met by an order of parliament[b] equally prohibiting the importation into England of French woollens, silks, and wines.  The alleged infraction of these commercial

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 705, 759, 760.  Dumont, v. part ii. p. 106.  The clause respecting the Inquisition was one which secured the English traders from being molested by that court, on condition that they gave no scandal,—­modo ne dent scandalum.  This condition Cromwell wished to be withdrawn.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1648.  Oct. 21.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1649.  August 23.]

regulations led to the arrest and subsequent condemnation of vessels belonging to both nations; each government issued letters-of-marque to the sufferers among its subjects; and the naval commanders received instructions to seek that compensation for the individuals aggrieved which the latter were unable to obtain of themselves.[1] Thus the maritime trade of both countries was exposed to the depredations of private and national cruisers, while their respective governments were considered as remaining at peace.  But in 1651, when the Cardinal Mazarin had been banished from France, it was resolved by Cromwell, who had recently won the battle of Worcester, to tempt the fidelity of d’Estrades, the governor of Dunkirk and a dependant on the exiled minister.  An officer of the lord-general’s regiment made to d’Estrades the offer of a considerable