, if you shall think fit to employ
him in the future treaty of commerce, it will be of consequence that he
has been a party concerned in concluding that convention, which must be
the rule of this treaty."

The assembly of this important night was, in some degree, clandestine,
the design of treating not being yet openly declared, and, when the
whigs returned to power, was aggravated to a charge of high treason;
though, as Prior remarks in his imperfect answer to the report of the
committee of secrecy, no treaty ever was made without private interviews
and preliminary discussions.

My business is not the history of the peace, but the life of Prior. The
conferences began at Utrecht on the 1st of January, 1711-12, and the
English plenipotentiaries arrived on the 15th. The ministers of the
different potentates conferred and conferred; but the peace advanced so
slowly that speedier methods were found necessary; and Bolingbroke was
sent to Paris to adjust differences with less formality; Prior either
accompanied him or followed him, and, after his departure, had the
appointments and authority of an ambassador, though no publick
character.

By some mistake of the queen's orders, the court of France had been
disgusted; and Bolingbroke says in his letter, "Dear Mat, hide the
nakedness of thy country, and give the best turn thy fertile brain will
furnish thee with to the blunders of thy countrymen, who are not much
better politicians than the French are poets."

Soon after, the duke of Shrewsbury went on a formal embassy to Paris. It
is related by Boyer, that the intention was to have joined Prior in the
same commission, but that Shrewsbury refused to be associated with a man
so meanly born. Prior, therefore, continued to act without a title, till
the duke returned, next year, to England, and then he assumed the style
and dignity of ambassador.

But, while he continued in appearance a private man, he was treated with
confidence by Lewis, who sent him with a letter to the queen, written in
favour of the elector of Bavaria. "I shall expect," says he, "with
impatience, the return of Mr. Prior, whose conduct is very agreeable to
me." And while the duke of Shrewsbury was still at Paris, Bolingbroke
wrote to Prior thus: "Monsieur de Torcy has a confidence in you; make
use of it, once for all, upon this occasion, and convince him
thoroughly, that we must give a different turn to our parliament and our
people, according to their res