of his masters' mind, and pretended he
had no power to conclude upon any thing.[1] Her Majesty's minister
proposed to him an alliance between the two nations, to subsist after a
peace. To this he hearkened very readily, and offered to take the matter
_ad referendum_, having authority to do no more. His intention was, that
he might appear to negotiate, in order to gain time to pick out, if
possible, the whole secret of the transactions between Britain and
France; to disclose nothing himself, nor bind his masters to any
conditions; to seek delays till the Parliament met, and then observe
what turn it took, and what would be the issue of those frequent cabals
between himself and some other foreign ministers, in conjunction with
the chief leaders of the discontented faction.

[Footnote 1: Buys's mission seemed to have been to act on behalf of the
States General for the purpose of preventing England obtaining any
commercial advantage which the States did not share, and for causing
delays. He certainly had no powers to treat definitely, and Swift's
remark is emphasized by the statement in the Bolingbroke Correspondence
(vol. ii. p. 25) about him, he could "only speak as Monsieur Buys."
[T.S.]]

The Dutch hoped, that the clamours raised against the proceedings of the
Queen's ministers towards a peace, would make the Parliament disapprove
what had been done; whereby the States would be at the head of the
negotiation, which the Queen did not think fit to have any more in their
hands, where it had miscarried twice already; although Prince Eugene
himself owned, "that France was then disposed to conclude a peace upon
such conditions, as it was not worth the life of a grenadier to refuse
them." As to insisting upon specific preliminaries, Her Majesty thought
her own method much better, for each ally, in the course of the
negotiation, to advance and manage his own pretensions, wherein she
would support and assist them, rather than for two ministers of one ally
to treat solely with the enemy, and report what they pleased to the
rest, as was practised by the Dutch at Gertruydenberg.

One part of Mons. Buys's instructions was to desire the Queen not to be
so far amused by a treaty of peace, as to neglect her preparation for
war against the next campaign. Her Majesty, who was firmly resolved
against submitting any longer to that unequal burthen of expense she had
hitherto lain under, commanded Mr. Secretary St. John to debate the
mat