join with me therein. I drew up the order to be made by the advice and assistance of the Master of the Rolls, adding the Usher to the same regulations as the Masters' were, and prescribing his fees. Sent it by the Attorney-General to the Master, then at Belbar. The Attorney-General brought back the order amended, or agreed to by the Master of the Rolls; but at the same time he told me that, since he came from him, he understood the Usher had been with him, and that he now wrote to him to desire me to suspend the order about the Usher. I told him this was an indefinite suspension. I thought the order was necessary for the Master and the Usher together; but inasmuch as the Usher was of his nomination, if he would give it me under his hand, that he was his officer, and it was his business to look after him, so that he would take it upon him to see that office duly executed, I might suspend it for some time, till further consideration could be had thereof. This was about the 26th or 27th of August, on one of which days I went to Ockham, and did not return to London till Wednesday night, the 8th of September. Thursday morning, the 9th of September, Mr Floyd, his Secretary, delivered me a letter from him, dated at Belbar, 1st of September, 1725, whereby he declares that he will prevent as much as he can the Usher submitting to any such order.

Sept. 7th. Tuesday night a messenger came to me from Mr Delafaye, with ten instruments from Hanover, with the King's warrant, countersigned by Lord Townshend, to fix the Great Seal to them; five of the instruments were,-1st, the treaty entered into by the Kings of England, France, and Prussia; 2nd, the first separate article; 3rd, the second separate article; 4th, a third separate article; 5th, a secret article. The other five instruments were duplicates of the same to be executed by the King of France. I returned back word by the messenger that I was coming to town, and would there do what was necessary.

8th.-Wednesday, at night, I came to town. The Duke of Somerset came to me, and I asked him, when he was in the Regency, and the King abroad, as had happened in King William's time, and the King made a treaty abroad, whether this were communicated to the Regency or Council here? or whether, upon the King's warrant from beyond the sea, the Great Seal was affixed to them here? He said it was always the custom, on the King's warrant, for the Chancellor to affix the Great Seal. The next day, Mr Delafaye told me this was always the custom, and that it would be absurd to lay them before the Regency, because the King had agreed and signed them already. I therefore put the Great Seal to them, September 9th, in the evening.

9th.—In the morning, the Duke of Newcastle came to me, and showed me a letter from Lord Townshend, that the King and people there were very apprehensive that the Spaniards were about to

strike a blow against us, and that they intended to seize our merchants' effects, and therefore desired that he would speak to me, and such other of the King's ministers as he and Sir Robert Walpole should think fit, to consider how to be ready against such an occasion. He suggested that it would be proper to have fifteen or sixteen men-of-war ready, with bombs, boats, &c. &c., so that if we had our merchants' goods seized, immediately to go and demand, and in case of refusal, to compel restitution; to do as had been done in Wingfield's case in Portugal; and on this he desired me, after the Regency was over, to dine at Sir Robert Walpole's: and accordingly there dined there with Sir Robert Walpole, the Duke of Newcastle, Earl of Berkeley, Earl Godolphin, myself, and Mr Delafaye. The occasion of this, the apprehension of Lord Townshend, that it appeared plainly that the Emperor was at the bottom of all this management of Spain; that when the Emperor and Spain made their private treaty, the Emperor proposed to us to accede to that treaty, which the King refused, it being made without his participation; and, in truth, it was so, guaranteeing an unknown succession to the House of Austria. The Emperor, at the same time, offered his mediation to make up all differences between the King and Spain. The King thanked him, but told him he knew of no differences but such as, considering the friendship then between them, might be terminated among themselves, without the intervention of any other Prince. Some short time after, the Queen of Spain let Mr Stanhope, our envoy there, know that the King of Spain expected that Gibraltar and Minorca should be delivered up; and the like was repeated in another interview between him and the King and the Queen of Spain. He then asked whether, if this were not done, the friendship between them was to be determined? They said, No, but hoped that the King, considering the advantages he had by trade and otherwise from Spain, would make no scruple of it. A little after he was gone from the King and Queen, the Secretary of State, the Marquis de Grimaldi, let him know by letter, that whatever friendship the King and Queen had exhibited to Great Britain, it was still to be taken with the condition that Gibraltar was restored. Some time after, Stanhope went to Court, to desire an explanation of this letter, and when it was they expected the restoration? The Queen said presto, bien tốt bien vite. Stanhope said that was impossible, it could not be done till the Parliament met, which could not be held during the King's absence. She replied that the King might go over on purpose to hold the Parliament, that the Parliament would be all for it. He told her that she would find herself deceived in such information, and that his orders were, to declare positively that the King of England thought those places were secured to him by treaty, and that neither he nor the Parliament would give them up. This, we afterwards found, was set on

foot by the Emperor, who had prevailed over the passion of the Queen of Spain, on her disappointment in France, and on promise to marry Dan Carlos to one of his daughters. Things running thus so high, occasioned the speculations of Lord Townshend in his letter. But this morning, the Duke of Newcastle received a letter from Mr Stanhope, wherein the Queen of Spain expressed herself now in another manner, and that she did not mean that the restitution should be done instantly, but hoped the King, in friendship, would find out some way to restore it to the throne of Spain. That he told her it was impossible ever to hope England would give up Gibraltar, at least not without some satisfaction: she asked what satisfaction? he said he had no orders to offer any such thing, or any instruction about it; but possibly, if they would offer the free cutting of logwood in the bay of Campeachy, some advantages for the South Sea Company in point of trade, the continuance of the Assciento, it might be considered of. We all now present thought that Mr Stanhope had gone too far. But, however, it appeared that Spain began now to explain away those demands, which might possibly arise from the apprehension of their inability to go into a war with England and France. However, we all were of opinion that there should not be any present preparation made of any ships, because that would alarm our own people here at home too much; that it was very probable this would blow over, but that if it did not, and if any seizure should be made of our merchants' ships, the Earl of Berkley said he would engage to have fifteen men-of-war well manned immediately, when there should be occasion: and we were of opinion that on any act of hostility commenced by Spain, we should immediately, without more ado, make reprisals.

The reason of this triple alliance between Great Britain, France, and Prussia was, as I take it, this. The Emperor, without the knowledge of the Kings of France or Great Britain, who were the mediators at Cambray, unknown to them, clapped up a peace with Spain, the general contents of which peace were to settle the succession of Tuscany, Parma, &c., in Dan Carlos, according to the quadruple alliance, to secure the succession of the hereditary countries of the Empire in his daughters. We understood that there

were secret articles relating to the Ostend company, to give them a privilege of sending ships to the South Sea, and that the Emperor would take upon him to mediate all differences between the Courts of Spain and Great Britain. By which was understood, the Emperor's interposing to obtain the restitution to Spain of Gibraltar and Minorca; and the Queen of Spain was promised by the Emperor that Don Carlos should marry the eldest daughter of the Emperor, and that he should be sent to Vienna, to be there educated in the German manner. By this method there was a prospect of bringing the three greatest monarchies of Europe and Italy into one

hand. Don Carlos would, by this means, have Italy, and by his marriage the Asturian hereditary dominions-whosoever had these would be fair for the Empire. The Prince of Asturias is hectical, and if he should drop Don Carlos would have Spain. If the present King of France should die without issue, Don Carlos, likewise, then would have title to France; and if all or two of these governments should unite in one person, it would be formidable to Europe. The Queen of Spain, being under great resentment for sending back the Infanta Queen, was worked upon by the Emperor, under the view of this marriage of Don Carlos, to do whatever the Emperor desired. The Emperor, as we understood, put the Spaniards on demanding Gibraltar and Minorca, and promised to manage it so as that they should accomplish the obtaining it.

When Count Staremberg notified this peace to the King, and offered the Emperor's mediation to make up the differences between Great Britain and Spain, the King told him he was very glad that the peace was made between them, especially since the terms for the main were the same as the mediator Kings had proposed at Cambray, but that as for any differences between him and Spain he knew of none, and so there was no need of any mediation.

In the mean time Mr Stanhope, our envoy at Madrid, was given to understand, both by the King and Queen, that they expected the King should give up Gibraltar and Minorca, and do it speedily. And when he remonstrated to them that the King could not do it without his Parliament, and a Parliament could not now be called the King being beyond sea, the Queen said that it was worth the King's while to come over on purpose to hold a Parliament; that she was sure, as soon as it was proposed, the Parliament would unanimously give it up, rather than lose the advantages of trade they now enjoyed from Spain. Mr Stanhope told her she was misinformed, and that the King could not give it up.

The Emperor's ministers were exceedingly elated upon this peace, and could not forbear publicly declaring that now, having established peace with Spain, and made their alliance, they should be able to manage the Protestants in Germany, and get the Empire and other princes to guarantee this succession. This obliged the Kings of Great Britain, France, and Prussia, to enter into this treaty, with liberty to other princes to accede.

Thursday, March 10, 1726.-At the desire of Lord Townshend I was this evening at the Duke of Devonshire's, with the said Lord and Duke, the Dukes of Argyle and Newcastle, and Sir Robert Walpole, where the Lord Townshend acquainted us, that when he came from Hanover with the King, as he was at Helvoetslues, Major-General Diemar, agent from the Landgrave of Hesse, had made a proposition to him in writing to furnish the King with 8000 foot and 4000 horse, upon certain terms in the said writing con

tained; but inasmuch as he had not then the express direction of the Landgrave of Hesse, he expressed it so in the writing, and that these terms were subject to the approbation of the Landgrave; that since the King came over, the Landgrave had sent a ratification in form, which was then produced, and that the King thought it reasonable to accept this proposal. None present could declare an opinion to the contrary, but agreed it to be reasonable, because the King being by the treaty at Hanover obliged, in case of an attack on any of the allies, to furnish 8000 foot and 4000 horse, here they would by this means be ready, and would be a satisfaction to the King of Prussia and to Holland, who were both desirous to know where these men would be in case of a rupture. Then the method of the ratification, or acceptance of this declaration of the Landgrave was proposed to me, because Lord Townshend had brought the draught of a warrant under the sign manual, countersigned by himself as secretary, purporting the proposition of Diemar, and the ratification by the Landgrave; after which followed the King's approbation and ratification under the Great Seal. This I thought was not the usual and legal form, because there was no minister of the King's to treat with Diemar, and so would be in effect a treaty made by the Great Seal only. Lord Townshend said that this was only a declaration under the Landgrave's seal, and that after he had ratified no minister could set his hand to it, because that would put the minister on an equality with a Sovereign Prince; and therefore the other Prince only must ratify: and that this was not properly a treaty, but only a declaration by the Landgrave, on what terms he would furnish the King with so many soldiers, and that there was nothing more to do than for the King to show his approbation by a ratification under the Great Seal. I thought that the form of this instrument made no alteration in the substance, and that this was really nothing else than a treaty, and that there was no instance where ever the Great Seal made a treaty by itself, or ratified a treaty which was not first agreed to by some minister or commissioner. And thereupon it was agreed that inquiry should be made in the Secretary's office, whether there had been anything of this nature before; and, on inquiry the next day, it being found there was none such, it was agreed that Diemar and Lord Townshend should both mutually sign the agreement by way of treaty, and that after such signing, the ratification should pass according to the usual forms. And I having hinted to Lord Townshend that, when I was to be concerned in the conclusion of an affair, it was but reasonable that I should know the beginning and the progress, he did the 12th of March send to me inclosed the copy of this matter, drawn up in form of a treaty between him and Diemar.

Thursday in Easter week, 14th April, I was at Ockham, where the Duke of Newcastle sent me by a messenger the copies of Ad