Cromwell
listened, but gave no answer; he appointed commissioners to discuss the
proposal, but forbade them to make any promise, or to hold out any hope
of his acquiescence. When Don Alonzo communicated to them the draft of a
treaty which he had all but concluded with the deputies appointed by the
late parliament, he was
[Footnote 1: Dumont, 79. Thurloe, vol. ii. iii. Vaughan, i. 9, 11. La
Deduction, or Defence of the States in Holland, in Le Clerc, i. 345, and
Basnage, i. 342.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653.]
asked whether the king of Spain would consent to a free trade to the West
Indies, would omit the clause respecting the Inquisition, reduce to an
equality the duties on foreign merchandise, and give to the English
merchant the pre-emption of the Spanish wool. He replied, that his master
would as soon lose his eyes as suffer the interference of any foreign power
on the two first questions; as to the others, satisfactory adjustments
might easily be made; This was sufficient for the present. Cromwell
affected to consider the treaty at an end; though the real fact was, that
he meditated a very different project in his own mind, and was careful not
to be precluded by premature arrangements.[1]
The French ambassador, though he commenced his negotiation under less
propitious auspices, had the address or good fortune to conduct it to
a more favourable issue.
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