“We are here to meet to-day, in the name of God, to enter upon a treaty of general peace, between the high allies and the King your master.  We bring sincere intentions, and express orders from our superiors, to concur, on their part, with whatever may advance and perfect so salutary and Christian a work.  On the other side, we hope you have the same disposition; and that your orders will be so full, as to be able, without loss of time, to answer the expectation of the high allies, by explaining yourselves clearly and roundly upon the points we shall have to settle in these conferences; and that you will perform this in so plain and specific a manner, as every prince and state in the confederacy may find a just and reasonable satisfaction.”

The French began, by promising to explain the overtures which Mons. Mesnager had delivered to the Queen some months before, and to give in a specific project of what their master would yield, provided the allies would each give a specific answer, by making their several demands; which method, after many difficulties, and affected delays in the Dutch, was at length agreed to.

But the States, who had, with the utmost discontent, seen Her Majesty at the head of this negotiation, where they intended to have placed themselves, began to discover their ill-humour upon every occasion; they raised endless difficulties about settling the Barrier Treaty, as the Queen desired; and in one of the first general conferences, they would not suffer the British secretary to take the minutes, but nominated some Dutch professor for that office, which the Queen refused, and resented their behaviour as an useless cavil, intended only to shew their want of respect.  The British plenipotentiaries had great reason to suspect, that the Dutch were, at this time, privately endeavouring to engage in some separate measures with France, by the intervention of one Molo, a busy factious agent at Amsterdam, who had been often employed in such intrigues:  that this was the cause which made them so litigious and slow in all their steps, in hopes to break the congress, and find better terms for their trade and barrier, from the French, than we ever could think fit to allow them.  The Dutch ministers did also apply themselves with industry, to cultivate the imperial plenipotentiary’s favour, in order to secure all advantages of commerce with Spain and the West Indies, in case those dominions could be procured for the Emperor:  for this reason they avoided settling any general plan of peace, in concert with the plenipotentiaries of Britain, which Her Majesty desired; and Mons. Buys plainly told their lordships, that it was a point, which neither he nor his colleagues could consent to, before the States were admitted equal sharers with Britain in the trade of Spain.