, without delay, and with expedition, granted."

A treaty between Her Majesty and the States, to subsist after a peace,
was now signed, Mons. Buys having received full powers to that purpose.
His masters were desirous to have a private article added, _sub spe
rati_, concerning those terms of peace; without the granting of which,
we should stipulate not to agree with the enemy. But neither the
character of Buys, nor the manner in which he was empowered to treat,
would allow the Queen to enter into such an engagement. The congress
likewise approaching, there was not time to settle a point of so great
importance. Neither, lastly, would Her Majesty be tied down by Holland,
without previous satisfaction upon several articles in the Barrier
Treaty, so inconsistent with her engagements to other powers in the
alliance, and so injurious to her own kingdoms.

The lord privy seal, and the Earl of Stafford, having, about the time
the Parliament met, been appointed Her Majesty's plenipotentiaries for
treating a general peace, I shall here break off the account of any
further progress made in that great affair, until I resume it in the
last book of this History.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

THE HISTORY OF THE FOUR LAST

YEARS OF THE QUEEN.

BOOK III.

The House of Commons seemed resolved, from the beginning of the session,
to inquire strictly not only into all abuses relating to the accounts of
the army, but likewise into the several treaties between us and our
allies, upon what articles and conditions they were first agreed to, and
how these had been since observed. In the first week of their sitting,
they sent an address to the Queen, to desire that the treaty, whereby
Her Majesty was obliged to furnish forty thousand men, to act in
conjunction with the forces of her allies in the Low Countries, might be
laid before the House. To which the secretary of state brought an
answer, "That search had been made, but no footsteps could be found of
any treaty or convention for that purpose." It was this unaccountable
neglect in the former ministry, which first gave a pretence to the
allies for lessening their quotas, so much to the disadvantage of Her
Majesty, her kingdoms, and the common cause, in the course of the war.
It had been stipulated by the Grand Alliance, between the Emperor,
Britain, and the States, that those three powers should assist each
other with their whole force, and that the s