The Virginia Gazette

Sept. 18. They write from the Hague, that the Marquis de St. Gilles, over and above what he hath heretofore declared to the States General, having been lately informed by the Spanish Minister at the Court of Great Britain, of the Particulars of the Propositions of Accommodation between his Court and that of London, has communicated the same to the Members of the Government, and assured them, That in the Accommodation which was now upon the Tapis, the King his Master has had, and always will have, a particular Regard for the Interests of their High Mightinesses: That his Majesty was far from being insensible of the great Prudence by which the States General had conducted themselves in respect to their Misunderstandings between the Court of Great Britain and that of Spain: and that his Catholick Majesty was very desirous to regulate every Thing with the Republick in so effectual a Manner, as to avoid for the future all Occasions of Complaint; the King of Spain judging that the surest Means of obtaining so valuable an End would be to form a new Convention for Commerce and Navigation on one Part, as well as the other; and that their High Mightinesses would send the necessary Instructions upon this Subject to M. Vander Meer their Ambassador at Madrid. These obliging Assurances appear to have a great deal more Sincerity in them than those formerly made upon the same Subject; for which their High Mightinesses are more obliged to the warlike Preparations of the Court of Great Britain than to their own passive Conduct, which would never have caused so remarkable a Change in the Behaviour of the Spanish Court, which not long before the Arrival of the British Squadron in the Mediterranean talked in a quite different dignified Strain, as well in regard to Great Britain as to the States General.