he hates him mortally; that he is fenfible of the juft caufe of the pretender; that he wishes for nothing more than a conjuncture, in which he may be able to restore him to his dominions; that the czar, having the advantage wholly on his fide, cannot make the first step; but, if the king would make the leaft advance, there would be very foon an accommodation between them. The pretender has fent to defire baron Sparre to procure him leave to retire to Stockholm. M. Sparre has returned anfwer, that, as this would be the fame thing as declaring war by found of trumpet, it would abfolutely fpoil the business in hand.'

In this letter, M. Guftavus Gyllenburg inclofed the copy of another letter from baron Gortz to baron Sparre, dated Novemb. 12, 1716, as follows: I ftill look upon the fending M.Lench as very uncertain, because, I am perfuaded, that France will not take any step, that may give the least fufpicion, or by which they may difguft England, before they had finished the treaty of alliance, that is now depending. Yet methinks they might venture to intimate to the court of England, that they have a mind to fend a perfon to the king, to found his Majefty's intentions more thoroughly touching a reconciliation, and in order to qualify themfelves the better to do good offices.

As to the affair of England, and the duke of Ormond's letter to me, of which you have fent

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me a copy, I cannot forbear telling you frankly, Sir, that, if my fcheme upon it be not approved and complied with, I cannot enter at all into that affair. It is upon the foundation of my scheme, that I have actually opened the matter to the king; and it would be directly to fpoil all to make me depart from it. Any reasonable man will eafily comprehend the impoffibility, in this cafe, of fettling a treaty in form. Doubtlefs it would be running too great a hazard on both fides to depend upon its being kept secret. The best way is, to prepare on each fide the materials neceffary for the work before us. When all is ready for execution, it will then be time enough to make treaties, if it be judged requifite.

I do not know, even whether it would be right to do what is defired under the name of lending affiftance; and I am very much inclined to think, that it would be better to avow openly our own intereft, and the concern we have for maintaining the English liberties.

Your friends must place fo much confidence in us, as to furnish us with what we want, to put ourselves into a condition of becoming ufeful to them. The fum required is not exorbitant: Three hundred thousand crowns may fatisfy us at prefent, for we want nothing but to augment our naval force at Gottenburg.

I do not fee what hazards your

your friends can run in this. I will give them fufficient fecurity; and, from the humour all the world knows the king to be of, they may very fately conclude, that if his majetty fhould not be able to fatisfy this loan by a real affiftance, he would do all he poffibly could to reimburse our friends, the rather, because his majesty would not have it known, that he had touched any money for fuch a purpose as this is lent.

Thefe gentlemen might, however, the more to engage the king's affection, give their offer the turnexpreffed in my fcheme; though, for my part, I will not accept it, on any conditions, that may diftinguish it from a common loan. But all depends upon their determining speedily, and beginning forthwith, by furnishing the three hundred thoufand crowns for the men of war, without which they must not flatter themselves that any thing can be done. I am upon the fcent of getting a fourth hundred thousand even in England.

France cannot reproach us with this agreement, while no treaty or convention can be produced to prove it. What 1 faid above of the cautious behaviour of the court of France towards England, is no doubt applicable likewife to the nego tiating of an accommodation with the czar. It is probable, the court of France would not proceed in a negotiation of that kind, but by concert with Eng.

land; and you will grant me, that this would not by any means fuit our intereft, This reflec tion leads me into an opinion, that the canal of France is not at prefent the most commodious for us It may fuffice therefore to have offered to make ufe of that canal without preffing the matter further Nor can M. Lench be the manager of this negotiation. For going to, and coming from Sweden at the feason of the year we are now in, requires time; and, if we come to any agreement with the czar, we ought to conclude it within three months at the very fartheft. The canal of my lord Mar feems to be alike inconvenient and impracticable, because of the length of time, which that circulation of correfpondence would unavoidably take up. Yet I cannot but think, that, by the canal of the favourite physician, the good difpofitions of the czar might be improved, if they are indeed fuch as have been reprefented. If the czar comes hither, and one can get a private converfation with the favourite, we might certainly carry things on far, fuppofing, as I said, that what the favourite has written be well founded. In the mean while I am contriving some other way.

If we fix upon a project, that is in any tolerable degree promifing, I fhall not be withheld by the difficulties and hardships of the voyage from being the bearer of it myself.

If in the mean time your friends

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friends would enter into my scheme, I should be the more fure of bringing the king to a thoro' good liking of their bufinefs. But I will not venture to convey any thing of this to his majesty, otherwife than by word of mouth. It is fatisfaction enough to me to know originally, that I am in no danger of giving offence to Sweden by the part I take upon me to act in this affair. The fancy of the pretender's retiring to Stockholm surprises me: It would be blazing abroad our fecret intelligence by found of trumpet.'

On the of November, 1716, baron Gortz wrote from the Hague the following letter to count Gyllenburg: I told you in my letter of Friday, that I deferred an wering yours of the 13th, which I am now going to do. You fay, Sir, that, as to the affair you are prefied about, it would be neceflary to go roundly to work with the principals. I am intirely of the fame opinion. The bufinefs then is to speak plainly. I believe, Sir, it will be thought a fufficient proof of our franknefs, to declare, as you may do, that nothing is more natural, nor more fweet, than to revenge an affront one has received; but that, in point of prudence, it ought to be maturely confidered, whether the pallion of revenge can produce the defired effect. If your people do but make the leaft reflection upon this rule, they will undoubtedly perceive, that it is intirely their bufinefs

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to make the fuccefs of the enterprife, which they defire, appear probable to us. After that it will be likewife proper, that they fhould help us in fettling the neceffary points, that is, that they should affift us with money. As I run no rifque with you, Sir, I make no fcruple of telling you in confidence, that the bufinefs in hand has for fome time been part of my correfpondence with ambaffador Sparre.

1716-17.

The principal members of the prefent court of Avignon offer on part of their mafter 60,000l. fterling, to engage the king's affection I remonftrated thereupon, that the delicacy of the conjuncture ought to caution us against clofing too haftily with this offer; but that I proposed to treat upon the foot of a common loan; and that in that cafe, being furnished with the king's full power to negotiate money for his majesty's fervice, I might accept it, giving them affurances on the king's part for repayment, that, if at the fame time they would communicate to me a plan of the principal affair, I would not fail to fend it to the king; and that, in cafe his majefty fhould be unwilling to enter into the defign in queftion, he would at least pique himself upon taking care, that the fum, which I fhould have borrowed in his name, fhould be punctually discharged; fo that the lenders would run no rifque of their money, but that, on the contrary, they would have put it out to a good advantage, and that,

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in fhort, the offer being made upon the foot beforementioned, without ftipulating any other conditions than being reimburfed, the king might be more effectually wrought upon by that mark of their good will, than by directly folliciting the fuccours they defire. I added to all thefe intimations, that, in cafe the king relifhed the project of a revolution to be brought about in England, it might perhaps do better to give this enterprise the turn of its being intended to revenge the unworthy proceedings of the king of England, and to maintain the English liberties. You have herewith, Sir, the copy of a pecuniary contract, which I have juft now fettled with fome private perfons in this country. You will find by it, that there is a confiderable advantage to be made, which it was neceffary to allow to ftrangers, fince no body in Sweden had courage enough for it. If your people had a mind to engage in it abftractedly from the grand affair, I would admit them forthwith as far as the fum of three hundred thousand crowns. The king's printed patent, whereof you have herewith a copy, fufficiently fecures every individual perfon from all frauds with regard to the States bonds, upon which the money is advanced.

But they must determine fpeedily, or lay afide all hopes, as I have just now observed to ambaffador Sparre, in a poftfcript, which I communicate to you.

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If the thing be taken upon the foot beforementioned, it may go on; but otherwise nothing can be done. In a word, we must have money, and, after that, we muft know what they are in a condition to do in England, and what part they expect the king should take, to put this defign into motion, and to fup port it.'

In anfwer to baron Gortz, count Gyllenburg wrote to him the following very remarkable letter, dated at London, Decemb. 4, 1716: 'As foon as I had received your excelleucy's letter of the 23d paft, I went to one of the principals at his own house, with whom I have had a long and intimate friendship. I fhewed him your excellency's letter, which I inforced the beft I could. Whereupon he asked me, Whether I had spoke of it to any one of his party? And, I telling him I had not, he defired me, for the love of God, not to do it. We were made to believe from Avignon, faid he, that all went on currently: That baron Gortz had accepted our offer, and had given pofitive affurances on the part of the king of Sweden, of his affiftance. We have been preffed on the affair of the money, and to form a scheme; and we have actually applied ourselves to both the one and the other. In the midft of all this, here are three pofts arrived from Avignon, and no farther figns are fhewn of fo much hate. This change has very much perplexed us, we not knowing to what to impute it,

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unlefs to the prin ce's indifpofition. But all is now become clear. They were too fure of their point at Avignon; they reckoned immediately on the affiftance of the king of Sweden; and now they are afraid, on one hand, of damping our courage, by owning frankly, that they had deceived themfelves; and, on the other, they dare not, upon an uncertainty, engage to fupply them with money, being fenfible, it is the laft that we fhall give them, if we fhould find it employed to any other purpose than we defigned; and without direct affurances first given of our having the fuccours we need. You fee, therefore, (continued he) of what confequence it is, if you with us well, that you do not make known, to any perfon, what I fee our court of Avignon conceals with fo much care. If you act otherwife, you will deftroy the credit of the chevalier de St. George here, which perhaps will be of neceffary ufe to you, and you will make his adherents your implacable enemies; for, if their defign fail, they will be regardlefs, whether Sweden perifhes or not; and yet you know, that it is they, who have hitherto defended your caufe, as well in the country, as in the parliament of England, and who have obliged your enemies to act with more caution and referve, than they would otherwife have done. You will still have occation for their affiftance in the next feffion of the parliament of EngVe L. XIX.

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land, which your enemies are preparing to incenfe terribly againft you, as well by pamphlets, which are already actually in the prefs, as by petitions of the merchants, who have loft their flips, and who now meet twice a week to confult. Now (faid he) to return to baron Gortz's letter, give me leave to tell you freely, that, if the question was explicitly and fimply, Whether we fhould affift the king of Sweden, and we confented, it might then be worth while to afk, Whet fecurity we required, and what gain we infifted on? But that is not the cafe at prefent, nor ever will be. For I must own to you ingenuously, that there are very few amongst us, who have any concern for the interefts of foreign princes, any longer than while they affect our own, and that even very palpably: Manus noftræ oculatæ funt ; credunt quod vident: Our eyes are in our hands; what they fee we believe.' So that for you to flatter yourfelves, that, out of refpect or friendship, we fhould part with our money to any whatfoever, would be to know nothing of us. You can never alter our minds on that article; fo you must just take us as we arc. As for gain, Can we hope for greater in any country, than what we have at home, without rifquing our money Do not we make feven or eight per cent. by the public funds; and this upon the fecurity of the parliament of England, and are

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