The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a private Letter from Holland. Sept. 24.

After the States General had taken and digested the Resolution mentioned in a former Paper, to answer the Invitation of the Emperor and the King of France, to accede to the definitive Treaty, they communicated it to Mr. Walpole, who, when he read it, desired the Deputies who were sent with it to engage their High Mightinesses not to deliver the said Resolution to the Ministers of the Emperor and France, till a Courier arrived from London, of which he was in continual Expectation, and by whom he would certainly receive Instructions relating to this Affair: Which Courier accordingly arrived the next Day in the Evening; whereupon Mr. Walpole, an Hour after, repaired to the President of the Week, to communicate to him the Dispatches that he had just received: From thence he went to the
Grand Pensionary, where he likewise met M. Fagel: to whom Mr. Walpole declared, that the King his Master having in Council maturely examin'd the Plan of the definitive Treaty, his Britannick Majesty had found nothing in this Treaty which ought, in the least, to engage his Majesty and the States General to become, in any sort, Parties thereto: That no one Article of this Treaty had any relation directly or indirectly, to the Interests of Great Britain, nor to those of the Republick of the united Provinces : That therefore these Two Powers might, and even ought, to refuse to enter into Engagements contracted without their Concurrence, and whose Consequences might one Day engage them in a War, which could not but be very prejudicial to them. For these important Reasons, his Britannick Majesty has caused to be delivered to the Ministers of the Emperor and France, his definitive Answer, to the following Effect, That his Britannick Majesty could not, without some Reason, either accede to approve of this Treaty, and from the Conformity of the Sentiments that have appeared in the States-General, upon this Occasion to those of his Majesty, has no room to doubt but that the Answer of their High Mightinesses will be conformable to that of his Majesty. After the States-General had heard this Report, which happen'd entirely to concur with the Sentiments of the Prime Ministers of the Republick, their High Mightinesses resolved to make the following Alterations to their Answer, in Regard to the Treaty in Question, and to declare definitively to the Courts of Vienna and France, That the Contents of, and the Schemes formed by this Treaty, not requiring either their Approbation or Accession, their High Mightinesses had determin'd not to engage therein; but they thank'd their Imperial and most Christian Majesties, for the Regard they had Shewn to the Republick, in communicating to it the said Plan, and in leaving it to its Choice to take what Part therein it should think most agreeable. Count d'Uhildt, Envoy Extraordinary of the Emperor, and the Ambassador of France, having been invited by the States-General to a Conference with the Deputies of their High Mightinesses, had separately delivered to each of them the above-mentioned Answer, who at the same Time were ordered to send the same to their respective Courts. Extract of a Letter from the Hague, to a Friend in London, Sept. 24. The Answer which the States-General have given to the pressing Instances of the Imperial and French Ministers, to determine what Part their High Mightinesses would take in the Definitive Treaty, has been generally satisfactory to the Republick; and the more so, as it was made in Conformity to that of the Court of Great-Britain, on the like Occasion. It's worthy of remarking, that not long before this Answer of the States-General was presented to the Marquis de Fenelon, and Count d'Uhldfelt, the former of these Ministers was in Conference with Two Deputies of the State, the Grand Pensionary, and M. Fagel, when he press'd these Gentlemen extremely to engage their High Mightinesses to come to a positive and speedy Determination, upon the Answer that was to be made to the Demand of their acceding to, and approving of the Treaty of Peace. M. Vanderheym undertook to reply to these Instances, by telling the Marquis that the Answer required would soon be given in; but that, however, their High Mightinesses were very desirous before-hand to know the true State of Things relating to this Treaty, especially such as are essentially necessary to be known; as, that whether the interested Parties had entirely consented to all that was contain'd therein, and whether the Treaty itself has been signed and ratified, since their High Mightinesses have been informed, that the King of Spain, the King of Sardinia, and the King of Naples had not acceded thereto, and that this Treaty had nevertheless been signed by their Imperial and most Christian Majesties in May last, and ratified by them Six Weeks after. The Marquis de Fenelon being a little embarrass'd at so close and unexpected a Question, endeavoured to get clear of it by a Sort of Buffoonery, in desiring M. Fagel to let him have, for