Nederlandse historische bronnen 10

[p. 153]

22

Hague, 15th May 1731 NS

My Dear Lord, I return you my thanks for the favour of your letter of the 7 which I received in due time.

The province of Holland has made its remarks upon the Treaty; to which all the other provinces, will I am persuaded entirely conform themselves, as those of Gueldres and Overyssell have already done. I do not care to send you a copy of them by the post; but I can tell you in generall, that they are but few, and none of them of consequence enough to break off the affair. I sent them last week to Vienna; from whence I hope in about three weeks time we shall receive so satisfactory an answer that we may fall to work here in good earnest, and finish the affair soon after. Our friend Goslinga who is one of the honestest men in the world is likewise one of the most changeable; and it is true that he had like to have stumbled in this great affair; but I help'd him up; and he is now very right.

I have a painful time on't here now, and negotiating with about two hundred sovereigns, is a most laborious task, so that both publick and private considerations make me very impatient to see this affair finish'd⁷⁸.

I don't at all like the aspect of affairs in Spain⁷⁹.

I am with all imaginable zeal and truth, My Dear Lord - - -

78 Chesterfield to Tilson, 27 July 1731, PRO, num. 84/314, f. 13, copy in BL, Add., num. 35424, f. 1. These complaints were not new, Whitworth, envoy in The Hague, to the Earl of Cadogan, British minister, 5 Ap. 1718, BL, Add., num. 37267, f. 302; Whitworth to Tilson, 2 Nov. 1721, PRO, num. 90/15.

79 Spain proved unwilling to accede speedily to the new alliance, Benjamin Keene, minister plenipotentiary in Spain, to Delafaye, 11 May, Keene to Newcastle, 11 May 1731, PRO, num. 94/107. The British ministry feared a Franco-Spanish alliance, Harrington to Robinson, 14 May 1731 OS, PRO, num. 80/74.