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Show [ 30 J all along gave out was as . g~osl a:; made: and every Exprefs that arriv1 ~, the People were made to hope, w9u'd bnng the wel• com~ News, that the Articles y;ere fign'd. Nor were the French content to impofe thus on their own People, their Emiffaries did th.-.e fame thing in Holland; and 'to/'\S Qy their means often very conndently repor~ed, th~t all was agreed, when the States, who had no Intereft in deceiving their People, gav~ them .. felves no occalion for their entertaining fuch falfe Hopes. Bu~ this the French did, to makt them infenfibly grow weary of the War, and !hew thcmfelves out of Humour with their Governors; and that they might havt; the Odium of deceiving them, while thcm1 felves made their Ufes of it : One of. which was, to enable them to find Credit mo,re ealily at .Amjferdam; when; underhand, '~is certain, great Sums o_f Money were n.e~otlated and fent in Specie to France; whiCh an appearance of Peace very much facilitated, by the Hopes it gave 9f good Payment; and in the mean time, there was the Temptation of great lnterefr: and belides all the other Purpofes, thefe reports of Peace ferv'd to, they hop'd it might make the States themfelves lefs forward to fupply the great Ex· pence which a vigorous Siege calls for, an<j. utterly averfe to a Battle, which the French were mofr afraid of; and whenever the Conferences lhou' d end, the greater th~ ExpeCta.: tions had been of Peace, the more People wou'd be diffatisfy'd at its going off; and the Fault wou'd feem to be leafr theirs, who had been loudefr, and talk'd moft for it. Thefe · · Advan~ [ 31 J Advantages the French in faa did make of the fta:Y of th¢ir-.Pienipotentiaries at Gertruj .. · denberg; and .it >f.is before-hand eafy to fee t~ey wou~d,: .~1'"\ t}le Remedy was not fo eafy. And th_e'refore, tj:lo ·.the Stares were fenlible from the fir·fr J Conference, that the wifcfr part they; cou'd take, was to fend them back: immediately, or limit their- fray to a very fhort tim'e ·; they did not only manage their Conferences by Deputies; who, as I have faid, want no Inclination to Peace, but fuffer'd the Frmch to ftay till there was not the leafr Pretence for more Conferences, or the French at leaft wou'd make none, but were themfclves willing to be gone. This the States thought themfelves oblig'd to do, to prevent the Infinuations of the French, which were indufrrioufly fpread by their Emifi"aries, as if the old Miniftry, -the Penlionary, and his Friends, were averfe to Peace,- and had a Delign to perpetuate the War for their own 1-ntereft. This is a Calumny has ·too ' much, Influence 01,1 the Minds of the People in other. Governments, to think, that great Care ought not to be taken to obviate the Force and Mifchief of it in one that is wholly Popular. This was the reafon that detcrmin'd the Dutch Miniftry to let the Plenipotentiaries make fo long a ll:ay; for they too have their Enemies, tho not h.itherto fuccefsful ones. But to come to the Conferences themfclves: The firft was on March the 9th, at Moerdyke; in which, to lhew what might be expeCted from the rell:, the Minill:ers of FrMre, after all Affurl!nces that had been g,iven |
