It was to confer on this affair that Grotius made a visit to Boutillier, Superintendant of the Finances. The Swedish Ambassador represented, that the Treaty ought not to be in force till Sweden's ratification of it, which could not be expected, as it made void the Treaty of Hailbron. This was not what the Cardinal wanted: he commissioned Father Joseph to employ all his address to bring Grotius into his measures. The Capuchin was the Cardinal's confident, and it was then thought that he was destined to succeed him in the Ministry in case of the Cardinal's death. March 14, the Superintendant sent to acquaint Grotius that he purposed to make him a visit with Father Joseph; but as the Father was taken ill he asked him to go with him to the Convent of the Capuchins; that he ought to have no reluctance to this, since the Cardinal himself had lately visited Father Joseph there when he was ill. Grotius went to the convent, and was conducted from thence to the Garden of the Thuilleries, where he found Boutillier and Father Joseph. After the usual compliments, the Capuchin shewed that the late treaty at Paris was made in consequence of a full power given the Ministers of the German Princes, and concluded and signed without any stipulation concerning the necessity of ratifying it. Grotius replied, that the High Chancellor himself had said the contrary; that the towns who approved of the treaty owned the necessity of its being ratified; that a ratification was so necessary to give a treaty the force of a law, that that which was concluded at Ratisbon, in 1630, by Father Joseph himself, had not its full execution because the King did not think proper to ratify it; that the Swedes only asked what was just, and would consent that some addition should be made to the treaty of Hailbron, if that were proper. Grotius was asked, which article of the late treaty Sweden complained of? he first mentioned that of the Subsidies, the disposition of which was left to the four circles of Germany, though it was on the express condition of receiving them that Sweden had engaged in the war: he added, that it was unjust to take Benfield from the Swedes without giving them an equivalent, since the Germans had given them that place as a pledge. The two French Ministers, unable to make Grotius approve of the treaty of Paris, had recourse to menaces and caresses: they imagined that his instructions bore that he might ratify it provided it was not till the last extremity. Grotius saw through their design, and told them they deceived themselves. They said, they would write to Sweden to complain of the High Chancellor; that the King would no longer treat with Grotius as Ambassador; that orders would be sent to the Marquis de Feuquieres to complain to Oxenstiern himself of his contempt of a signed treaty, and want of due regard to the King. Grotius answered, that the Marquis de Feuquieres had already made representations to the High