s the Queen and the States took care to
understand each other, and to act with as little reserve as became two
powers, so nearly allied in interest; which rule, on the part of
Britain, should be inviolably observed. It was signified likewise to the
Pensionary, that the Duke of Marlborough had no communication of this
affair from England, and that it was supposed he would have none from
The Hague.

After these proposals had been considered in Holland, the ambassador was
directed to send back the opinion of the Dutch ministers upon them. The
court here was, indeed, apprehensive, that the Pensionary would be
alarmed at the whole frame of Monsieur de Torcy's paper, and
particularly at these expressions, "That the English shall have real
securities for their trade, &c." and "that the barrier for the
States-General shall be such as England shall agree upon and approve."
It was natural to think, that the fear which the Dutch would conceive of
our obtaining advantageous terms for Britain, might put them upon trying
underhand for themselves, and endeavouring to overreach us in the
management of the peace, as they had hitherto done in that of the war:
the ambassador was therefore cautioned to be very watchful in
discovering any workings, which might tend that way.

When the Lord Raby was first sent to The Hague, the Duke of Marlborough,
and Lord Townshend, had, for very obvious reasons, used their utmost
endeavours to involve him in as many difficulties as they could; upon
which, and other accounts, needless to mention, it was thought proper,
that his Grace, then in Flanders, should not be let into the secret of
this affair.

The proposal of Aix or Liege for a place of treaty, was only a farther
mark of their old discontent against Holland, to shew they would not
name any town which belonged to the States.

The Pensionary having consulted those who had been formerly employed in
the negotiations of peace, and enjoined them the utmost secrecy, to
avoid the jealousy of the foreign ministers there, desired the
ambassador to return Her Majesty thanks, for the obliging manner of
communicating the French overtures, for the confidence she placed in the
States, and for her promise of making no step towards a peace, but in
concert with them, assuring her of the like on their part: that although
the States endeavoured to hide it from the enemy, they were as weary of
the war as we, and very heartily desirous of a good and lasting peace,