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A Sketch of the H i s T o R Y Let. 8.

Dutch had nothing in theirs, but to break, atany rate, and at any riík, the négociations thatwere begun, and to reduce Gréât Britain to theneceílity of continuing, what slie hád been toolong, a province of the confederacy. A provinceindeed, and not one of the best treated; since theconfederates aífumed a right of obliging her tokeep her pacts with them, and of dispensing witlitheir obligations to her, of exhausting her, withoutrule, or proportion, or measure, in the supportof a war, to which ílie alone contributed morethan ail of them, and in which she had no longeran immédiate interest, nor even any remote interdisthat was not common, or, with refpedi to her,very dubious; and, aster ail this, of complainingthat the Queen prefumed to hearken to overturesof peace, and to set a négociation on foot, whilfltheir humor and ambition required that the waríhould be prolonged for an indesinite time, andfor apurpofe that was either bad or indeterminate.

The suspension of arms, that began in the LowCountries, was continued, and extended afterwardsby the act I signed at Fontainebleau. The fortuneof the war turned at the famé time: and ail thaïedisgrâces followed, which obliged the Dutch totreat, and to désiré the aflìílance of the Queen,whoin they had set at défiance fo la tel y. Thisassistance they had, as effectually as it could begiven in the circumstances, to which they hadreduced themfelves, and the whole alliance: andthe peace of Gréât Britain, Portugal , Savoy,Pruísia, and the States General, was ma de, without

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