1678, an offensive and defensive alliance was entered into between England and Holland, the first 12 articles in which were identical with the first 12 in the Franco-Dutch treaty of 1662—mutually guaranteeing their European possessions. And in 1716, at the Peace of Utrecht, both these treaties, 1674 and 1678, were renewed in so far as not contrary to each other.
But I must observe here that the offensive and defensive alliance of 1678 deprived the clause about the neutral flag in the commercial treaty of 1674 of all significance; because, as it stipulated that England and Holland should have the same enemies, Holland could not profit by it as a neutral; and this state of things, in fact, continued for 80 years, and when in the middle of the subsequent century, during the war of 1756, Holland, on a technical interpretation of the treaty of 1678, declined to aid England when attacked by France, and wished to remain neutral and profit by this clause about the neutral flag, England declared
