-matters was
merely continued. (2) _Relations with Foreign Powers_. In this
matter the rule of the new Government was a very simple one. It was
to withdraw, as speedily as possible, from all foreign entanglements.
No longer now could Charles Gustavus of Sweden calculate on help from
England. Montague's Fleet, indeed, was still in the Baltic; Meadows
was re-commissioned as envoy-in-ordinary to the Kings of Denmark and
Sweden; envoys from Sweden had audiences in London; and at length,
early in July, the importance of the Baltic business was fully
recognised by the despatch of Algernon Sidney and Sir Robert
Honeywood, two of the members of the Council of State, and Mr. Boone,
a member of the House, to act as plenipotentiaries with Montague for
the settlement of the differences between Sweden and Denmark and
between Sweden and the Dutch. The instructions, however, were to
compel the Swedish King to a pacification, and to co-operate with the
Dutch and the Danes in that interest. As regarded the Dutch
themselves, among whom Downing was grudgingly continued as Resident,
there was the most studious care for a friendly intercourse. There
was no revival now of that imperious project of the old Commonwealth
Government for a union of the two Republics which had alarmed the
Dutch and led to the great naval war with them. It was enough that
the English should mind their own affairs, and the Dutch theirs. But
the determination to have no more of Cromwell's "spirited foreign
policy" was most signally manifested in the business of the French
alliance and the war with Spain. That peace should be made with Spain
was a foregone conclusion, and circumstances were favourable. The
Spaniards, crippled by their losses in Flanders, had for some time
been making overtures of peace to the French Court; these had been
received the more willingly at last because of the uncertainties in
which Louis XIV. and Mazarin were left by Cromwell's death;
negotiations had been cleverly on foot since the beginning of the
year for a treaty between the two Catholic Powers, to include the
marriage of Louis XIV. with the Spanish Infanta, Maria Theresa; and,
though the treaty had not been concluded, preliminaries had been so
far arranged that, since May 1659, there had been a cessation of
hostilities. Thus relieved already from the trouble of carrying on
military operations in Flanders, the Restored Rumpers took steps to
get themselves included in the Treaty in prog