Duke of rough de parts for nent. BOOK VI. At the end of the autumn, the duke of Marl1713. borough, weary probably of politics, and the object of incessant calumny and persecution, embarked for the continent, and proceeded by the Conti- way of Antwerp and Aix-la-Chapelle, accompanied by his duchess, to visit his principality of Mindelheim, being every where received with the highest honours. This was regarded as a sort of compromise with the ministry, for on his departure from England, the prosecutions instituted against him as a public defaulter and delinquent, were stayed by the queen's order, as was also a suit at law commenced against him for arrears due to the builders of Blenheim-house, the contracts for which had been made in the queen's He resided abroad during the remainder name. of this reign. About the close of the year the British plenipotentiaries at Utrecht signified to the States, that if they would sign the preliminaries of peace in conjunction with England, Tournay should be added to their barrier. Their high mightinesses acceding, not without great opposition from the states of Holland, to this proposition, a new barrier treaty was concluded, differing from the former, so much inveighed against, only or chiefly Death of by its inferiority of strength and security. The the King of king of Prussia, who had been for some time indisposed, died on the 25th of February, 1713, Prussia. He was a man frivolous, weak, and vain. He BOOK VI. and his false grandeur were buried together. His 1713. son Frederic William succeeded, who was in almost all respects, of a genius and character opposite to his father. Empty show was henceforth discarded, and the kingdom of Prussia acquired, with her new monarch, a fresh accession of strength and stability. This event occasioned some delay, and it was not till the month of April 1713, that the British plenipotentiaries declared to the ministers of Holland and the emperor, that they were ready, with the ministers of Prussia, Portugal, and Savoy, to sign their respective treaties. The imperial ambassadors replied, that neither they nor the ministers of the empire were ready to sign, nor would they hearken to peace without the restitution of Strasburg: and they entered a formal protestation against the treaty. But the Dutch thought proper to comply, equally proof against the menaces and entreaties of the dissentient parties; and on the 11th of April 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was Treaty of completed. By this famous treaty the protest- signed. ant succession was recognised by France, and the Pretender compelled to depart that kingdom: the union of the two monarchies of France and Spain was provided against by mutual and solemn renunciations; the harbour of Dunkirk was demolished, and the fortifications razed; Aca Utrecht BOOK VI. die, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, and St. Chris1713. topher's, ceded in full right to England. Naples, Milan, Sardinia, and the Spanish Netherlands, were yielded to the emperor*, together with Landau, Brisac, and fort Kehl, on the side of Germany. Sicily, by the particular and partial interposition of the queen of England, was forcibly disjoined from Naples, and transferred to the duke of Savoy, with the regal title; the eventual succession to the crown of Spain being also in default of descendents from the reigning monarch, ́vested in the house of Savoy. The extreme solicitude of the queen to obtain terms of advantage for the duke of Savoy, is strikingly apparent throughout the negociation. She considered him as a prince of the blood royal of England; and, the Pretender excepted, he was indubitably next in the ancient order of succession to the English crown. "Ce prince," to use the words of M. de Torcy, "étoit l'allié chéri de l'Angleterre, et "celui que ce ministère avoit le plus à cœur de "favoriser." [Vol. iii. p. 267.] "I know," says lord Bolingbroke to the count de Maffei," that *The elector of Bavaria was however allowed to retain the duchy of Luxemburgh and the county of Namur, till he and the elector of Cologne, his brother, were re-established in their electorates. For Spain had ceded those two sovereignties to the duke of Bavaria, as an indemnity for his losses, and the allies had neither conquered Namur or Luxemburg. in exciting the lords plenipotentiaries to espouse the interests of the house of Savoy, I make my court to the queen my mistress ;" and he declares "that there was not a single proposition transmitted from the duke to which the queen had not given her consent." Some of these propositions, nevertheless, were so palpably unreasonable, particularly that which required a cession of part of the ancient domain of France, as to be peremptorily and indignantly rejected by the court of Versailles, which granted not without reluctance to Savoy, the fortresses of Exilles, Fenestrelles, and the valley of Pragelas, with a considerable tract of country beyond mount Genevre. After all, the duke of Savoy, who had flattered himself with the idea of succeeding to the entire monarchy of Spain, discovered small symptoms of gratitude to the court of London for the extraordinary attention paid to his interests. The earl of Peterborough, in a letter from Venice, dated January 28, 1712, says, "the idle reports that Spain and the Indies are to remain with the duke of Anjou are not agreeable to the duke of Savoy." And M. de Torcy affirms, "that the demand of Sicily, on his behalf, was made without the knowledge of the duke, and that he was much chagrined when informed of it*." * Vide Bolingbroke's Correspondence, Somerville's Appendix, Torcy's Memoirs. BOOK VI 1713. BOOK VI. In addition to the places anciently possessed 1713. by the Dutch, Luxemburg, Namur, Charleroi, Dutch Barrier Ypres, and Neuport, were assigned to the States strength as a perpetual barrier. His imperial majesty ened. Parliament was allowed to the first of June to declare his acceptance or non-acceptance of the terms proposed. * No sooner had this important intelligence reached London than the parliament was assemSession of bled, after no less than seven prorogations since the month of January; and the substance of the treaty being laid before them, an address of congratulation was presented by the two houses, whose example was followed by most of the corporate bodies, accompanied by great public rejoicings. The proclamation of peace was published on the 4th of May, exactly eleven years subsequent to the declaration of war. In a few weeks Mr. Benson, chancellor of the exchequer, offered to the house of commons copies of the treaty of peace with France, as also of commerce; by which the manufactures of each kingdom were admitted into the other upon the payment of very low ad valorem duties. Political artifice and commercial prejudice being combined in opposition to this wise measure, the bill for rendering the treaty of commerce effectual was, after violent debates, rejected by a majority of 194 to 185 voices. |