202).

"Bolingbroke avoit conseille a la Reine sa maitresse de preferer une paix particuliere a la suspension d'armes, et d'assurer au plus tot a ses sujets la jouissance de toutes les conditions dont le Roi etoit convenu en faveur de l'Angleterre." [T.S.]] [Footnote 19: There is a long letter from Lord Bolingbroke to Mr.Prior, on the subject of this negotiation, printed in Scott's edition of Swift, vol.xv., pp.

524-529.

[W.S.J.]] In the mean time the general conferences at Utrecht, which for several weeks had been let fall, since the delivery of Dunkirk, were now resumed.

But the Dutch still declaring against a suspension of arms, and refusing to accept the Queen's speech as a plan to negotiate upon, there was no progress made for some time in the great work of the peace.
Whereupon the British plenipotentiaries told those of the States, "That if the Queen's endeavours could not procure more than the contents of her speech, or if the French should ever fall short of what was there offered, the Dutch could blame none but themselves, who, by their conduct, had rendered things difficult, that would otherwise have been easy." However, Her Majesty thought it prudent to keep the States still in hopes of her good offices, to prevent them from taking the desperate course of leaving themselves wholly at the mercy of France; which was an expedient they formerly practised, and which a party among them was now inclined to advise.
Whilst the congress at Utrecht remained in this inactive state, the Queen proceeded to perfect that important article for preventing the union of France and Spain.