From what I have hitherto deduced, the reader sees the plan which the queen thought the most effectual for advancing a peace. As the conferences were to begin upon the general preliminaries, the queen was to be empowered by France, to offer separately to the allies, what might be reasonable for each to accept; and her own interests being previously settled, she was to act as a general mediator; a figure that became her best, from the part she had in the war, and more useful to the great end at which she aimed, of giving a safe and honourable peace to Europe.
Besides, it was absolutely necessary for the interests of Britain, that the queen should be at the head of the negotiation; without which, her majesty could find no expedient to redress the injuries her kingdoms were sure to suffer by the Barrier-treaty. In order to settle this point with the States, the ministers here had a conference with mons. Buys, a few days before the parliament met. He was told, "How necessary it was, by a previous concert between the emperor, the queen, and the States, to prevent any difference which might arise in the course of the treaty at Utrecht: That under pretence of a barrier for the States General, as their security against France, infinite prejudice might arise to the trade of Britain in the Spanish Netherlands; for, by the fifteenth article of the Barrier-treaty, in consequence of what was stipulated by that of Munster, the queen was brought to engage that commerce shall not be rendered more easy, in point of duties, by the sea-ports of Flanders, than it is by the river Scheld, and by the canals on the side of the Seven Provinces; which, as
