tentiaries to whichever of those towns the States should approve."
If the Imperial ministers, or those of the other allies, should object against the preliminaries as no sufficient ground for opening the conferences, and insist that France should consent to such articles as were signed on the part of the allies in the year 1709; the earl of Stratford was, in answer, directed to insinuate, "That the French might have probably been brought to explain themselves more particularly, had they not perceived the uneasiness, impatience, and jealousy among the allies, during our transactions with that court." However, he should declare to them, in the queen's name, "That, if they were determined to accept of peace upon no terms inferiour to what was formerly demanded, her majesty was ready to concur with them; but would no longer bear those disproportions of expense yearly increased upon her, nor the deficiency of the confederates in every part of the war: That it was therefore incumbent upon them to furnish, for the future, such quotas of ships and forces as they were now wanting in, and to increase their expense, while her majesty reduced hers to a reasonable and just proportion."
That, if the ministers of Vienna and Holland should urge their inability upon this head, the queen insisted, "They ought to comply with her in war or in peace; her majesty desiring nothing as to the first, but what they ought to perform, and what is absolutely necessary: and as to the latter, that she had done, and would continue to do, the
