ley) fully instructed to open her designs, and show his highness the real interest of Britain in the present conjuncture." Mr. Harley was to give the elector a true account of what had passed in England, during the first part of this session of parliament; to expose to his highness the weakness of those with whom his minister had consulted, and under whose directions he had acted; to convince him how much lower that faction must become when a peace should be concluded, and when the natural strength of the kingdom, disencumbered from the burden of the war, should be at liberty to exert itself: to show him how his interest in the succession was sacrificed to that of a party: "That his highness had been hitherto a friend to both sides, but that the measures taken by his ministers, had tended only to set him at the head of one, in opposition to the other:" To explain to the elector, how fully the safety of Europe was provided for by the plan of peace in her majesty's speech: and how little reason those would appear to have, who complained the loudest of this plan, if it were compared either with our engagements to them when we began the war, or with their performances in the course of it.
Upon this occasion, Mr. Harley was to observe to the elector, "That it should rather be wondered at, how the queen had brought France to offer so much, than yet to offer no more; because, as soon as ever it appeared that her majesty would be at the head of this treaty, and that the interests of Britain were to be provided for, such endeavours were used to break off the negotiation, as are hardly to be paralleled; and the disunion
