Table of contents

1712.0901.Fa

Paris Sep:^r 1. NS:
1712

My Lords¹

I send this by the Common post, since
yo:^r Excell:^cyes will haue known that
the treaty of Armistice was signed
here the 19. Aug. NS: between my
L:^d Bolinbroke and Mons:^r de Torcy
which We hope is a good ground-work
for you to follow; in order to obtain
What We all desire: yo:^r Excell^cies
will hear from England that I
haue the honour to be left here,
and till I hear from thence, (w^ch I
expect about 5 days from hence)
I haue nothing in particular
with w^ch I ought to trouble
yo^r Excell:^cies but my²
my desire that you will correspond w^th
Me while I haue the honour to be
here in her Maj:^ties Service: but of
this you will know more from the t'other
side.

L:^d~3 Bolingbroke went from hence on
Sunday Morn:^~ the 28^th NS: he was
last Night, I presume, so weary
of Dunkirk (w^ch he took in his
way home) as to haue embarked
this Morning for England: vpon
his return I expect those orders
w:^ch may enable Me to corres­
­pond with yo:^r Excell:^cies, and
particularly the Cypher without
w.^ch I can hardly say more than
that I find this Court very
well disposed to agree w^th Her Maj^ty
in all that may contribute to the genẽr[?l]⁴
good,

I haue had the honour to see w^t: your
Ex:^ces~ haue writ concerning the
affair of the C:^t de Recteren ⁵ and
m^~ Mesnager: it appears here
beyond any thing that has been
known; and of what neither Grotius
nor Wickfort⁶ can giue any reason­
­able acc:^t as I haue said before
that I know nothing from England
to w^ch place I hear this affair is
referred, so neither can I say
more of it than that I wish the
Count de⁷ Reckteren were in the
right!⁸
it causes great Speculation here and as
I vnderstand it, his most C: M:^ty
will protect the honour of his
Ambass:^r coute qu'il coute.⁹

In fiue days from this time that
I haue the honour to write to
yo:^r Ex:^ces I shall hear fro^~
Eng:^d and (I beleiue) be empowered
to correspond w:^th yo.^r Excell:^cyes
this coming only par avance to
desire your commands in every
thing that may contribute to
the public good, and desiring
that you may look on Me as vpon

(My Lords,)
yo:^r Ex:^ces most ob^t &
humble Sert:

MPrior

2.

Endorsed:
Letter from M.^r
Prior Sep.^t 1.^st 1712

Notes
1.
Although the original manuscript lacks an address, it is preserved among Prior's letters to Robinson and Strafford, the Plenipotentiaries at Utrecht; and the PRO copy, SP 105/278: 115, is labeled "M.^r Prior to y^e Lords Plenipot:^ries".
2.
It is not clear from the placement of this word (in line with the rest of the sentence) whether Prior intended it to be a catchword or the repetition of it on the next page was inadvertent.
3.
The use of a tilde with the abbreviation for Lord is not Prior's usual contraction for this word. He may have written a superscript t and corrected it to the d without cancelling any part of the original character.
4.
The character that completes this word has been partially cropped. We interpret the tilde as standing for a and therefore assume the cropped letter was an l. The extract in PRO SP 105/266 ends here.
5.
Probably Joachim von Rechteren (d. 1715) (<http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/womeninpower/Womeninpower1700.htm>, accessed 15 July 2008)
6.
Abraham de Wicquefort, 1606-1682, author of L'Ambassadeur et Ses Fonctions [...], originally published 1679 (Gordon A. Craig, "On the Pleasure of Reading Diplomatic Correspondence," Journal of Contemporary History, 26 [Sep., 1991]: 383n4, stable URL: <http://www.jstor.org/stable/260651> accessed 15 July 2008)
7.
Prior may have first written "le" and then added a bowl to correct the l to a d.
8.
Prior started a new page at this point even though "right", placed at the left-hand margin, is the only word on this line. What follows on the next page we interpret as part of this paragraph, and that view is supported by the miniscule i of "it", the first word on the next page.
9.
The underscoring here and below is Prior's. The correct spelling of this phrase is coûte que coûte.

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