in the seventh article of the Barrier-treaty, where it is said, 'The States shall have power, in case of an apparent attack, to put as many troops as they please into all the places of the Netherlands,' without specifying an attack from the side of France, as ought to have been done; otherwise, the queen might justly think they were preparing themselves for a rupture with Britain. Her majesty likewise consented, that the States should keep Nieuport, Dendermond, and the castle of Ghent, as an addition to their barrier, although she were sensible how injurious those concessions would be to the trade of her subjects; and would wave the demand of Ostend being delivered into her hands, which she might with justice insist on. In return for all this, that the queen only desired the ministers of the States would enter into a close correspondence with her's; and settle between them some plan of a general peace, which might give reasonable content to all her allies, and which her majesty would endeavour to bring France to consent to. She desired the trade of her kingdoms to the Netherlands, and to the towns of their barrier, might be upon as good a foot as it was before the war began: That the Dutch would not insist to have a share in the assiento, to which they had not the least pretensions; and that they would no longer encourage the intrigues of a faction against her government. Her majesty assured them, in plain terms, That her own future measures, and the conduct of her plenipotentiaries should be wholly governed by their behaviour in these points; and that her offers
