As the Queen was determined to alter her measures in making war, so she thought nothing would so much convince the States of the necessity of a peace, as to have them frequently put in mind of this resolution, which her ambassador Strafford, then at The Hague, was accordingly directed to do:  and if they should object, of what ill consequence it would be for the enemy to know Her Majesty designed to lessen her expenses, he might answer, “That the ministers here were sorry for it; but the Dutch could only blame themselves, for forcing into such a necessity a princess, to whose friendship they owed the preservation and grandeur of their republic, and choosing to lean on a broken faction, rather than place their confidence in the Queen.”

It was Her Majesty’s earnest desire, that there should be a perfect agreement at this treaty between the ministers of all the allies, than which nothing could be more effectual to make France comply with their just demands:  above all, she directed her plenipotentiaries to enter into the strictest confidence with those of Holland; and that, after the States had consented to explain the Barrier Treaty to her reasonable satisfaction, both powers should form between them a plan of general peace, from which they would not recede, and such as might secure the quiet of Europe, as well as the particular interests of each confederate.

The Dutch were accordingly pressed, before the congress opened, to come to some temperament upon that famous treaty; because the ministers here expected it would be soon laid before the House of Commons, by which the resentment of the nation would probably appear against those who had been actors and advisers in it:  but Mons. Buys, who usually spoke for his colleagues, was full of opposition, began to expostulate upon the advantages Britain had stipulated with France; and to insist, that his masters ought to share equally in them all, but especially the Assiento contract:  so that no progress was made in fixing a previous good correspondence between Britain and the States, which Her Majesty had so earnestly recommended.

Certain regulations having been agreed upon, for avoiding of ceremony and other inconveniencies, the conferences began at Utrecht, upon the twenty-ninth of January, N.S. one thousand seven hundred and eleven-twelve, at ten in the morning.  The ministers of the allies going into the town-house at one door, and those of France, at the same instant, at another, they all took their seats without distinction; and the Bishop of Bristol, lord privy seal, first plenipotentiary of Britain, opened the assembly with a short speech, directed to the ministers of France, in words to the following effect: 

“MESSIEURS,