The Pretender was not yet gone out of France, upon some difficulties alleged by the French, about procuring him a safe conduct to Bar-le-duc, in the Duke of Lorraine's dominions, where it was then proposed he should reside. The Queen, altogether bent upon quieting the minds of her subjects, declared, she would not sign the peace till that person were removed; although several wise men believed he could be no where less dangerous to Britain, than in the place where he was. The argument which most prevailed on the States to sign the new Treaty of Barrier and Succession with Britain, was Her Majesty's promise to procure Tournay for them from France; after which, no more differences remained between us and that republic, and consequently they had no farther temptations to any separate transactions with the French, who thereupon began to renew their litigious and haughty manner of treating with the Dutch. The satisfaction they extorted for the affront given by Count Rechteren to Mons. Mesnager, although somewhat softened by the British ministers at Utrecht, was yet so rigorous, that Her Majesty could not forbear signifying her resentment of it to the Most Christian King. Mons. Mesnager, who seemed to have more the genius of a merchant than a minister, began, in his conferences with the plenipotentiaries of the States, to raise new disputes upon points which both we and they had reckoned upon as wholly settled. The Abbé de Polignac, a most accomplished person, of great generosity and universal understanding, was gone to France to receive the cardinal's cap; and the Maréchal d'Uxelles was wholly guided by his colleague, Mons. Mesnager, who kept up those brangles, that for a time obstructed the peace; some of which were against all justice, and others of small importance, both of very little advantage to his country, and less to the reputation of his master or himself. This low talent in business, which the Cardinal de Polignac used, in contempt, to call a "spirit of negotiating," made it impossible for the two lords plenipotentiaries, with all their abilities and experience, to bring Mesnager to reason, in several points both with us and the States: his concessions were few and constrained, serving only to render him more tenacious of what he refused. In several of the towns, which the States were to keep, he insisted that France should retain the chatellanies, or extent of country depending on them, particularly that of Tournay; a demand the more unjustifiable, because he knew his master had not only proceeded directly contrary, but had erected a court in his kingdom, where his own judges extended the territories about those towns he had taken, as far as he pleased to direct them. Mons. Mesnager showed equal obstinacy in what his master expected for the Elector of Bavaria, and in refusing the tariff of one thousand six hundred and sixty-four: so that the Queen's plenipotentiaries represented these difficulties as what might be of