proposition contrary to the
preliminary articles; but were willing to deliver in a project of
peace in order to shorten the negotiations, and the Spanish ambassadors
consented to this expedient. During these transactions the earl of
Portland held a conference with mareschal Boufflers near Halle, in
sight of the two opposite armies, which was continued in five successive
meetings. On the second day of August they retired together to a house
in the suburbs of Halle, and mutually signed a paper, in which
the principal articles of the peace between France and England were
adjusted. Next day king William quitted the camp, and retired to his
house at Loo, confident of having taken such measures for a pacification
as could not be disappointed. The subject of this field negotiation is
said to have turned upon the interest of king James, which the French
monarch promised to abandon; others however suppose that the first
foundation of the partition treaty was laid in this conference. But in
all probability, William's sole aim was to put an end to an expensive
and unsuccessful war, which had rendered him very unpopular in his own
dominions, and to obtain from the court of France an acknowledgment
of his title, which had since the queen's death become the subject of
dispute. He perceived the emperor's backwardness towards a pacification,
and foresaw numberless difficulties in discussing such a complication
of interests by the common method of treating; he therefore chose such
a step as he thought would alarm the jealousy of the allies, and quicken
the negotiation at Ryswick. Before the congress was opened, king James
had published two manifestoes, addressed to the catholic and protestant
princes of the confederacy, representing his wrongs, and craving
redress; but his remonstrances being altogether disregarded, he
afterwards issued a third declaration, solemnly protesting against all
that might or should be negotiated, regulated, or stipulated with
the usurper of his realms, as being void of all rightful and lawful
authority. On the twentieth day, of July the French ambassadors produced
their project of a general peace, declaring at the same time that should
it not be accepted before the last day of August, France would not
hold herself bound for the conditions she now offered; but Caunitz,
the emperor's plenipotentiary, protested he would pay no regard to this
limitation. On the thirtieth of August, however, he delivered to the
me