Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 1

CVIII.
Willem Bentinck aan de gravin van Portland.

Den Haag, 6 April 1745.

You judge of my silence on several things, which it is

[p. 123]

impossible for me to touch en passant, and which I cannot speak out upon. I must tell you that the advice the late Queen¹⁾, you say, gave the Prince of Orange of yielding to being made Lieut: General was no wise piece of advice. I could alledge authoritys more respectable in such matters than that of the Queen, who were then, and are still of a quite contrary opinion......

......I have been reading lately Sir W. Temple's Memoirs. Nothing is more plain than that King William, then Prince of Orange, was the soul that gave life and motion to the whole ligue against France. During the time he had the small-pox, everything was at a stand, and had he dy'd, everything had fallen into confusion - - as it is at present - - and France had been master of Europe. We are now at the beginning of a campaign, without a Ligue formed, without an alliance, making war undeclared etc. etc. etc. And yet bad as all this is, we must go on, for a peace at present would be the worst of all, and no peace, properly speaking......

1) George II's gemalin Carolina, die in Nov. 1737 overleden was. Vgl. over deze kwestie P. Geyl, a.w., blz. 51.