th, the father, son, and
grandson, all of that title,[4] dying within the compass of a year,
Mons. Gaultier went to France with letters to the Marquis de Torcy, to
propose Her Majesty's expedient for preventing the union of that kingdom
with Spain; which, as it was the most important article to be settled,
in order to secure peace for Europe, so it was a point that required to
be speedily adjusted under the present circumstances and situation of
the Bourbon family, there being only left a child of two years old to
stand between the Duke of Anjou and his succeeding to the crown of
France.

[Footnote 4: These princes were the grandfather, the father, and the
brother, of Louis XV., who was then Duke of Anjou, and supposed to be at
the point of death. [N.]]

Her Majesty likewise pressed France by the same dispatches, to send full
instructions to their plenipotentiaries, empowering them to offer to the
allies such a plan of peace, as might give reasonable satisfaction to
all her allies.

The Queen's proposal for preventing an union between France and Spain
was, "that Philip should formally renounce the kingdom of France for
himself and his posterity; and that this renunciation should be
confirmed by the Cortes or states of Spain, who, without question, would
heartily concur against such an union, by which their country must
become a province to France." In like manner, the French princes of the
blood were severally to renounce all title to Spain.

The French raised many difficulties upon several particulars of this
expedient; but the Queen persisted to refuse any plan of peace before
this weighty point were settled in the manner she proposed, which was
afterwards submitted to, as in proper place we shall observe. In the
mean time, the negotiation at Utrecht proceeded with a very slow pace;
the Dutch interposing all obstructions they could contrive, refusing to
come to any reasonable temper upon the Barrier Treaty, or to offer a
plan, in concert with the Queen, for a general peace. Nothing less would
satisfy them, than the partaking in those advantages we had stipulated
for ourselves, and which did no ways interfere with their trade or
security. They still expected some turn in England; their friends on
this side had ventured to assure them, that the Queen could not live
many months, which, indeed, from the bad state of Her Majesty's health,
was reasonable to expect. The British plenipotentiaries daily discovered
new end