other Members of the Grand Alliance; the Backwardness which we have fhewn upon that head cannot be look'd upon as a Contravention of our Engagements, and therefore cannot ferve to difengage your Majefty from yours with respect to Us: fince we are verily perfuaded that we have truly anfwer'd all our Treaties, and all our Alliances, both with your Majefty, and with the High Allies in general; and that we have done more in this prefent War, than could in Juftice and Equity have been expected from Us. All the difference betwixt your Majefty and Us in this point, is no more, if rightly confider'd, than a Difparity of Sentiments.

In truth, Malam, if for fuch a caufe betwixt Potentates ally'd and united together by the ftrongeft and ftri&teft Ties of Alliance, Intereft and Religion, any one of those Potentates could quit all their Engagements, and difengage themfelves from all their Obligations; there's no Tie fo ftrong which mayn't be broke at any time, and we know of no Engagements that could be rely'd on for time to come.

We affure our felves, that when your Majefty confiders the Confequences, you will not perfift in the Declaration which the Bishop of Bristol has made: We befeech you with all the Refpect and all the Earnestness of which we are capable, that you would not; and alfo that you would be pleas'd to revoke the Order given to the Duke of Ormond, if it be not revok'd already, and that you would authorize him to act according to Occurrences, and as the Reafon of the War and the Advancement of the Common Caufe fhall require.

We also requeft you, Madam, to communicate to Us the Refult of the Conferences betwixt your Minifters and those of the Enemy, or at leaft your Thoughts upon the Peace; and we will endeavour to give your Majefty all imaginable Proofs of our Deference for your Sentiments, and of our fincere Defire to preferve your valuable Friendship as much as we can, without acting contrary to the Faith of the Engagements into which we have enter'd by Treaties and Alliances with your Majefty and other Potentates.

We are firmly perfuaded, that it is not your Majefty's In tention in any manner to break them; fince you have always been of the fame Opinion with Us and the other Allies, That a good Union betwixt the Allies, not only during the prefent War, but also after the Peace fhall be concluded, is and always will be the moft folid, and even the only Method to preferve the Liberty and Independency of All together, and of every one in particular, against the Great Power of France.

We expect alfo, that after having given fuch great and fignal Proofs of your Wifdom, of your Firmness, and of your "Zeal for the Support of the Common Caufe, your Majefty will not now take fuch Refolutions, as may be prejudicial to

Us

Us and to the other Allies; but that to obtain an honourable, fure and general Peace, you will purfue the fame Methods, and keep to the fame Maxims which you formerly held, and which the good God hath bleffed in fo remarkable a manner by Victories and great Events, which will make the Glory of your Majefty's Reign immortal.

We again renew to your Majefty the Affurances of our high and perfect Efteem for your Perfon and Friendship, as alfo of our Intentions and fincere Defires, to entertain with your Majefty the fame good Correfpondence, Harmony, and Union, as before, and to cultivate the fame betwixt the two Nations, as far as it fhall lie in our power: and we pray your Majefty, to preferve likewife for Us and our Republick your former Affection. We refer, for the reft, to what the Sieur van Borfelle, our Envoy Extraordinary, has further to fay to your Majefty on this Subject: And pray the Almighty, &c.

The Treaty of the Sufpenfion of Arms between France and England, concluded at Paris the 19th of Auguft, 1712.

HERE being ground to hope for a happy Iffue of

Tthe

the Conferences begun at Utrecht, by the Care of their moft Chriftian and Britannick Majefties, for reftoring a General Peace, and they having judg'd it neceffary to prevent all the Events of War which might difturb the prefent Negotiation; their faid Majefties, regardful of the Welfare of Chrijlendom, have agreed upon a Sufpenfion of Arms, as the moft certain Means for procuring that general Welfare which they propofe. And tho hitherto her Britannick Majefty has not been able to perfuade her Allies to enter into the fame Sentiments; yet their Refufal fo to do not being a fufficient Reason to withhold his moft Chriftian Majefty from fhewing, by actual Proofs, the Defire he has to re-eftablish, as foon as poffible, a perfect Friendship and fincere Correfpondence between him and the Queen of Great Britain, their Majefty's Kingdoms, Territories and Subjects: his faid moft Chrif tian Majelty, after having trufted to the English Troops the keeping of the Town, Citadel and Forts of Dunkirk, as a Mark of his good Faith, confents and promifes, as the Queen of Great Britain promifes like wife on her part:

I. That there fhall be a general Sufpenfion of all Enterpri zes and Deeds of Arms, and generally of all Acts of Hoftili

ty

ty between the Armies, Troops, Fleets, Squadrons and Ships. of their moft Chriftian and Britannick Majefties, during the Term of four Months, from the 22d of this present Month of Auguft, to the 22d of the Month of December next.

II. The fame Sufpenfion fhall be eftablish'd between the Garifons and the Soldiers which their Majefties keep for the Defence and Guard of their Places, in all Parts where their Arms act, or may act, as well by Land as by Sea, or on other Waters, fo that if it fhould happen that during the Time of the Sufpenfion it fhould be broken on one fide or other, by the taking of one or more Places, either by Attack, Surprize or fecret Intelligence, in any part of the World whatever, that Prisoners be taken, or fome other Acts of Hoftility done, by fome unforeseen Accident, of the nature of those which cannot be prevented, contrary to the prefent Ceffation of Arms; fuch Contravention fhall be made good on either fide, bona fide, without Delay or Difficulty, by reftoring, without any Diminution, what shall have been taken, and setting the Prisoners at liberty, without demanding any thing for their Ranfom, or for their Expence.

III. To prevent likewife all Caufe of Complaints and Contefts, which may arife on occafion of Ships, Merchandize or other Effects, which may be taken at Sea during the time of the Sufpenfion, 'tis mutually agreed, that the faid Ships, Merchandizes and Effects, which may be taken in the Channel and in the North Seas, after the space of twelve Days, to be reckon❜d from the figning of the abovefaid Sufpenfion, fhall be reftor'd on both fides reciprocally.

That the Term fhall be fix Weeks for the Prizes taken from the Channel, the British Seas and the North Seas, to as far as Cape St. Vincent.

And alfo fix Weeks, from and beyond that Cape to the Line, whether in the Ocean, or in the Mediterranean.

Laftly, Six Months beyond the Line, and in all other Parts of the World, without any Exception, or other more particular Defcription of Time and Place.

IV. As the fame Sufpenfion fhall be obferv'd between the Kingdoms of Great Britain. and Spain, her Britannick Majefty promifes, That none of her Ships of War or Merchant-Ships, Barks or other Veffels belonging to her Britannick Majefty, or her Subjects, fhall hereafter be imploy'd to tranfport or convoy to Portugal, Catalonia, or to any other of the Places where the War is now made, Troops, Horfes, Arms, Clothes, and generally all Ammunitions of War and Provifions.

V. Notwithstanding which, it fhall be free for her Britannick Majefty to caufe Troops, Ammunition and Provisions, and other Neceffaries, to be tranfported to the Places of Gi

braltar

braltar and of Port Mahone, actually poffefs'd by her Arms, and which poffeffion is to be left to her by the Treaty of Peace, as alfo to withdraw from Spain the English Troops, and generally all the Effects which belong to her in that Kingdom, either to fend them to the Island of Minorca, or to have them brought to Great Britain; fuch Tranfports not being to be deem'd contrary to the Sufpenfion.

VI. The Queen of Great Britain may likewise, without infringing the Sufpenfion, lend her Ships to tranfport to Portugal the Troops of that Nation which are actually in Catalonia, and to transport to Italy the German Troops which are likewife in the fame Province.

VII. Immediately after the prefent Treaty of Sufpenfion fhall be declar'd in Spain, the King makes no doubt that the Blockade of Gibraltar will be rais'd, and that the English Garifon, as well as the Merchants who fhall be in that Place, may in all Freedom live, deal and traffick with the Spaniards.

VIII. The Ratifications of the present Treaty fhall be exchang'd on both fides within fifteen Days, or fooner, if it can be done.

In Teftimony of which, and by virtue of thofe Orders and Powers which we the underwritten have receiv'd from the moft Chriftian King, and from the Queen of Great Britain, our Mafter and Miftrefs, we have fign'd thefe Presents, and caus'd the Seals of our Arms to be affix'd thereto. Done at Paris the 19th of August, 1712.

Colbert de Torcy.

Bolingbroke.

King Philip the Fifth's Renunciation of the Crown of France, for himself and his Pofterity, 1712.

D

ON Philip, by the Grace of God, King of Caftile, Leon, Arragon, both Sicilies, Jerufalem, Navarre, Gra nada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Majorca, Seville, Sardi nia, Cordova, Jaen, the Algarves, Algizare, Gibraltar, the Ca-. nary Islands, the East and West Indies, and Terra Firma of the Ocean Sea, Archduke of Auftria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant and Milan, Count of Hapsburg, Flanders, Tirol and Barcelona, Lord of Biscay and Molina, &c. For the Evidence and Publi cation of this Inftrument and Writing of Renunciation and quitting Claim, and to preserve the Memory thereof for ever,

I do

I do hereby notify and declare to all Kings, Princes, Poten. tates, Commonwealths, Communities, and Private Persons that now are, and shall be in future Ages: That whereas one of the chief Intentions of the Treaties of Peace now depending between the Crowns of Spain, France and England, is the Prefervation of the Balance of Powers in Europe, in such manner, that too many being united together, this defir'd Balance and Equality may not be loft, to the Advantage of one of them, and to the Peril and endangering of the reft, and for the facilitating of a General Peace which may be firm and durable: It was propos'd and infifted on by England, and agreed to on my part, and that of the King my Grandfather, that to avoid, in all future times, the Union of this Monarchy with that of France; and that it may not happen in any Cafe, reciprocal Renunciations fhould be made on my part, and that of my Pofterity, to any poffibility of fucceeding to the Monarchy of France, and on the part of those Princes, and all their Defcendants prefent and to come, to any poffible Succeffion to this Monarchy, by framing a diftinct Narrative of the Abdication to be made by the two Royal Crowns of each Monarchy, of all the Rights they might claim of fucceeding reciprocally to each other, feparating by the lawful Means of my Renunciation my Branch from the Royal Stem of France, and all the French Branches from any Communication which might be deriv'd to them by Alliance of Blood with the Royal Stem of Spain. But at the fame time, that for the above mention'd Reafons care is taken that the Monarchy of France is never to be join'd to that of Spain, we muft fteddily pursue the fundamental and conftant Maxim from which we are not in any cafe to depart, viz. the Prefervation of a Balance of Power; therefore the Inconveniences are likewife to be avoided that would arife, if upon failure of my Iffue this Monarchy fhould again devolve to the House of Auftria, which by the addition of fo confiderable a Dominion to that of the Empire and Hereditary Countries, would become very formidable; which Confideration was thought fufficient in former Times for difmembring the Hereditary Dominions of the House of Auftria from the Body of the Spanish Monarchy. It being for this purpofe ftipulated and agreed by England with me and the King my Grandfather, that upon failure of me and my Iffue, this Monarchy fhall fall to the Houfe of Savoy, which being defcended from the Infanta Donna Catherina, Daughter of King Philip the Second, and having never departed from that Claim, has an evident and known Right, that Friendship and perpetual Alliance being premis'd, which is to be fought and brought about, between the Duke of Savoy and his Pofterity, and this Crown; fince one ought

to