Strickland, the former envoy, should be appointed
ambassadors extraordinary to the States General. St. John, with the fate
of Ascham before his eyes, sought to escape this dangerous mission; he
alleged[d] the infirmity of his health and the insalubrity of the climate;
but the parliament derided his timidity, and his petition was dismissed on
a division by a considerable majority.[2]

Among the numerous projects which the English leaders cherished under the
intoxication of success, was that of forming, by the incorporation of the

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 112, 113, 114, 124.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, 1651, Jan. 21, 23, 28.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Dec. 8.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Nov. 6.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Nov. 14.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. Jan. 28.]

United Provinces with the commonwealth, a great and powerful republic,
capable of striking terror into all the crowned heads of Europe. But so
many difficulties were foreseen, so many objections raised, that the
ambassadors received instructions to confine themselves to the more sober
proposal of "a strict and intimate alliance and union, which might give to
each a mutual and intrinsical interest" in the prosperity of the other.
They made their public entry into the Hague[a] with a parade and retinue
becoming the representatives of a powerful nation; but external splendour
did not check the popular feeling, which expressed itself by groans
and hisses, nor intimidate the royalists, who sought every occasion of
insulting "the things called ambassadors."[1] The States had not forgotten
the offensive delay of the parliament to answer their embassy of
intercession for the life of Charles I.; nor did they brook the superiority
which it now assumed, by prescribing a certain term within which the
negotiation should be concluded. Pride was met with equal pride; the
ambassadors were compelled to solicit a prolongation of their powers,[b]
and the treaty began to proceed with greater rapidity. The English
proposed[c] a confederacy for the preservation of the liberties of each
nation against all the enemies

[Footnote 1: Thus they are perpetually called in the correspondence of the
royalists.--Carte's Letters, i. 447, 469; ii. 11. Strickland's servants
were attacked at his door by six cavaliers with drawn swords; an attempt
was made to break into St. John's bedchamber; Edward, son to the queen of
Bohemia, publicly called the ambassadors rogues and dogs; and the young
duke of