the subject of a special article in “the grand alliance.”  In the year 1707 it was particularly discussed between England and the States, to the great discontent of the emperor, who was far from wishing its definitive settlement.  But it was now become an indispensable item in the total of important measures whose accomplishment was called for by the peace of Utrecht.  Conferences were opened on this sole question at Antwerp in the year 1714; and, after protracted and difficult discussions, the treaty of the Barrier was concluded on the 15th of November, 1715.

This treaty was looked on with an evil eye in the Austrian Netherlands.  The clamor was great and general; jealousy of the commercial prosperity of Holland being the real motive.  Long negotiations took place on the subject of the treaty; and in December, 1718, the republic consented to modify some of the articles.  The Pragmatic Sanction, published at Vienna in 1713 by Charles VI., regulated the succession to all the imperial hereditary possessions; and, among the rest, the provinces of the Netherlands.  But this arrangement, though guaranteed by the chief powers of Europe, was, in the sequel, little respected, and but indifferently executed.

CHAPTER XXI

FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT TO THE INCORPORATION OF BELGIUM WITH THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

A.D. 1713—­1795

During a period of thirty years following the treaty of Utrecht, the republic enjoyed the unaccustomed blessing of profound peace.  While the discontents of the Austrian Netherlands on the subject of the treaty of the Barrier were in debate, the quadruple alliance was formed between Holland, England, France and the emperor, for reciprocal aid against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  It was in virtue of this treaty that the pretender to the English throne received orders to remove from France; and the states-general about the same time arrested the Swedish ambassador, Baron Gortz, whose intrigues excited some suspicion.  The death of Louis XIV. had once more changed the political system of Europe; and the commencement of the eighteenth century was fertile in negotiations and alliances in which we have at present but little direct interest.  The rights of the republic were in all instances respected; and Holland did not cease to be considered as a power of the first distinction and consequence.  The establishment of an East India Company at Ostend, by the emperor Charles VI., in 1722, was the principal cause of disquiet to the United Provinces, and the most likely to lead to a rupture.  But, by the treaty of Hanover in 1726, the rights of Holland resulting from the treaty of Munster were guaranteed; and in consequence the emperor abolished the company of his creation, by the treaty of Seville in 1729, and that of Vienna in 1731.