Treaty of Breda

“ Art. ii.
870 In the negotiation of subsequent treaties, controversy was usually occasioned about the wording of these articles relating to the date of cessation of hostilities on the sea, the United Provinces or France pointing to the treaty of Breda as a precedent, while the English took their stand on Cromwell’s treaty of 1654. In the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, between the United Provinces and France, the term “British Channel” was employed in conjunction with the Baltic and North Sea (Art. ii.) ”

“ In 1646 he was named ambassador extraordinary to Holland, and took part in the conferences at Münster. Sent in 1661 to England, he obtained in 1662 the restitution of Dunkirk. In 1667 he negotiated the treaty of Breda with the king of Denmark, and in 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen, which ended the war with Holland. ”

“ In 1637 Breda was recaptured by Frederick Henry of Orange after a four months’ siege, and in 1648 it was finally ceded to Holland by the treaty of Westphalia. During the wars of the French Revolution, it was taken by Dumouriez in 1793, evacuated soon after and retaken by Pichegru in 1795, after the whole of Holland had already succumbed to the French. In 1813, a sally being made by the French garrison on an advance-guard of the Russians under Benckendorff, the citizens of Breda again made themselves masters of the town. ”

“ Commerce had already joined hands over the empire. In 1667 Britain, France, Holland, and Denmark, signed a treaty of common cause at Breda that was practically a league against the Pagan and the Portuguese. A few years previously the island and town of Bombay had been ceded to England as part of the dower of Catherine of Braganza, and had become thereby so much an integral part of Great Britain that every native in it, every child born there, had the right to claim every privilege of a British subject. ”

“ The arms of Great Britain are wrongly quartered, those 45 of Scotland being in the 1st and 4th quarters. The same mistake occurs on No. 218.
222. Proclamation of Treaty of Breda, 1667. Obv. Neptune, in sea-chariot drawn by horses, staying with his trident the progress of a naval engagement. SIC CVNCTUS PELAGI CECIDIT FRAGOR. (Virg. Aen. I, 158.) Rev. View of Breda: above, genii with shields of Denmark, France, England and Holland, with Sweden in centre; beneath, BREDA Den 17 Sept. 1667, G. POOL. NULLA SALUS BELLO, PACEM TE POSCIMUS OMNES. Silver. ”

“ That very day we landed at Camphier, Lothian and Libbertoun propounded, that letters might be wrote by the commissioners, to duke Hamiltoun, the earl of Lauderdale, and some other malignants, at the Hague, to come to Breda, to help forward the treaty. This was not agreed to, but the propounding was no good prelage of a blessing, and shewed what sort of men some were minded to make use of. ”

“ They roamed the country in bands, large and small, stripped it of what war had spared, and left famine behind them. At length, in 1360, terms of peace were agreed upon, in a treaty signed at Bretigny, and fighting ceased, except in Brittany, where the war went on for four years more. By the treaty, all French claims upon Aquitaine and the dependencies were given up, and Edward acquired full sovereignty there, no longer owing homage, as a vassal, to the king of France. ”

“ Notwithstanding that the objections, which he submitted to Brooke in regard to [356] Article 7 of the treaty, were well founded, he ought not to have entered upon such a discussion, and much less to have particularized it in such a way: he ought to have protested against the treaty as a whole, and to have declared it null, as made without the consent of Spain, which holds not only a protectorate, but sovereignty or dominion over the territory. ”

“ The idea of a balance of (p. 350) power was the leading principle which animated all the diplomatic transactions of Europe for more than a century.
By the treaty of Breslau, (1742,) Maria Theresa yielded up to Frederic the province of Silesia, and Europe might have remained at peace. But as England and France were both involved in the contest, their old spirit of rivalry returned; and, from auxiliaries, they became principals in the war, and soon renewed it. The theatre of strife was changed from Germany to Holland, and the arms of France were triumphant. ”

“ Germany’s necessity, of which her own Kaiser, statesmen, diplomatists, and generals are the best judges, knows no law. Every treaty, every obligation, every duty has to vanish before it: the Treaty of Bucharest, establishing equilibrium in the Balkans, as well as the Treaty of 1839, safeguarding the neutrality of Belgium. Hence nobody conversant with the nature, growth, and spread of this new militant race-worship was in the least surprised at the Chancellor’s contempt for the scrap of paper and for the simple-minded statesmen who proclaimed its binding force. ”

“ The King of the Belgians has declined to act, but I am not as yet advised of the action of the King of Spain. As we have certain interests in the disputed territory which are protected by our treaty engagements with one of the parties, it is important that the arbitration should not without our consent affect our rights, and this Government has accordingly thought proper to make its views known to the parties to the agreement, as well as to intimate them to the Belgian and Spanish Governments. ”

“ As between the Allied and Associated Powers or their nationals on the one hand and Bulgaria or her nationals on the other hand, all the exceptional war measures, or measures of transfer, put into operation by the Allied and Associated Powers, or acts done or to be done in execution of such measures as defined in paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Annex hereto, shall be considered as final and binding upon all persons except as regards the reservations laid down in the present Treaty. ”

“ Mr Eduard Beneš, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mr Stephen Osusky, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Czecho-Slovak Republic at London; Bulgaria: Mr Alexander Stamboliiski, President of the Council of Ministers, Minister of War; Who having communicated their full powers found in good and due form have agreed as follows:
From the coming into force of the present Treaty the state of war will terminate.
From that moment, and subject to the provisions of this Treaty, official relations will exist between the Allied and Associated Powers and Bulgaria. ”

“ Sir Charles's aim throughout all these frontier negotiations was to support the claims of Greece, left indefinite by the Berlin Treaty. At Great Britain's instance, the Greeks had refrained from attacking Turkey when Turkey was engaged with Russia; but the Treaty of Berlin had only promised to Greece in general terms "a rectification of frontier." On the other hand, the Treaty had awarded to Montenegro certain districts of Albania, which, as already stated; showed great repugnance to accept Montenegrin rule. ”

“ The ministers at Brussels affected to say that the Emperor required sailors for his fleet, [Pg 318] and, until it had sailed on its mysterious errand, no other vessels could leave the harbours. The ambassador refused to accept a reply so insolent and unsatisfactory; he insisted on an interview with the regent herself, and pointing to the clause in the commercial treaty between England and Flanders, which stipulated, on behalf of the ships of both nations, for free egress and ingress, he required an explanation of the infringement. ”

“ Austria-Hungary took Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Prussia and Germany have a long list, including Silesia, Poland, Hanover, and Alsace-Lorraine. Austria-Hungary tears up the Berlin treaty; France, Germany, and Spain tear up the Algeciras treaty; Italy tears up the treaty of Paris; and it is part of the game that we should all hold up our hands, avert our faces, and thank God that we are not as other men are, when these things are done. ”

“ War was declared, and Turkey was decisively defeated, and then the trouble began. Serbia and Bulgaria had been particularly anxious for an outlet to the sea, and in the treaty between them it had been arranged that Serbia should have an outlet on the Adriatic, while Bulgaria was to obtain an outlet on the AEgean. The Triple Alliance positively refused Serbia its share of the Adriatic coast. Serbia insisted, therefore, on a revision of the treaty, which would enable her to have a seaport on the AEgean. ”

“ A fresh treaty was accordingly made by your government. Now, if no treaties have any binding force for you unless they have been made with the authority of your senate or by order of your Assembly, we, on our side, cannot possibly be bound by Hasdrubal's treaty, which he made without our knowledge. Drop all allusions to Saguntum and the Ebro, and speak out plainly what has long been secretly hatching in your minds." Then the Roman, gathering up his toga, said, "Here we bring you war and peace, take which you please." ”

“ In April 1915, as we learnt later, the Powers who had guaranteed Albania's independence, bought Italy's intervention by promising her Albania's best port, Valona, and by the same secret Treaty bound her over not to object should "France, Russia, and Great Britain desire to distribute among Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece the northern and southern portions of Albania." The Powers who rushed to war over the violation of the Belgian Treaty, thus themselves tore up their Treaty with Albania. Secrets usually leak out. ”

“ In such a treaty, binding in the first instance for thirty years, the petition affirms that the three northern kingdoms will have an efficient moral support when there is occasion to with [Pg 17] stand the efforts of the great powers to entice or to threaten any of them to take part in war as allies on one side or the other. Such a treaty will, therefore, in great measure serve to preserve the neutrality of the northern kingdoms, and thereby their lasting independence. ”

“ Just before his death Frederick Henry had negotiated with Spain a treaty at Münster, finally ratified in January 1648, by which Spain and the United Provinces agreed to unite together in defence of the Spanish Netherlands against French aggression, on condition that Spain closed the Scheldt to trading vessels and acknowledged the independence of the republic. A more favourable treaty to the United Provinces cannot be imagined, for by it they obtained a barrier between their own territories and those of France, and secured the trade monopoly of Amsterdam. ”

“ The Consuls went up to Atua, they went down to Aána; the oarsmen toiled, the talking men pleaded; they are said to have met with threats in Atua, and to have yielded to them—at 399 least, in but a few days’ time they came home to us with a new treaty of pacification. Of course, and as before, the Government troops were whitewashed; the Savaii ruffians had been stripping women and killing cats in the interests of the Berlin Treaty; there was to be no punishment and no inquiry; let them retire to Savaii with their booty and their dead. ”

“ Napoleon I. imposed by the Peace Treaty of Tilsit of 1807 upon Prussia the restriction not to keep more than 42,000 men under arms. Again, article 29 of the Treaty of Berlin of 1878 imposed upon Montenegro the restriction not to possess a navy. [205] There is hardly a State in existence which is not in one point or another restricted in its territorial supremacy by treaties with foreign Powers. ”

“ A new war by Bulgaria alone in her weakened military condition and with her empty treasury, to drive once more the Turks back south of the Enos-Midia line, was impossible. Bulgaria appealed to the chancelleries of Europe to help her in taking possession of the Thracian territory ceded to her at London. The Powers made one of their futile overtures to Turkey, requesting that she accept the treaty which she had signed a few months before. ”

“ His grief on this occasion was poignant, and, as his excellent judgment furnished him with expedients under all his difficulties, he resolved to endeavour to bring about a peace. Accordingly he despatched a gentleman to the King with his advice to accede to terms, offering to undertake the treaty himself. His design in offering himself as negotiator was to prevent the treaty being drawn out to too great a length, as might be the case if confided to others. ”

“ As he had fought many enemies in the field he had to make treaties with many, and they were concluded in such an honorable and skilful manner that Frederick was once more in possession of Silesia, and the county of Glatz did not lose a foot of its old possessions. The treaty was signed February 15, 1763, and caused unbounded enthusiasm in city and country. Those who have not experienced the horrors of war have little idea of the true significance of the word “peace.” ”

“ For this reason, the common manner of disposing of territories of a defeated enemy, when the recipient of the territory is agreed to by all concerned, is by cession in a treaty of peace (see, e.g., Italian Treaty of 1947, Arts. 6, 11, 14; Hungarian Treaty of 1947, Art. 1, Finnish Treaty of 1947, Art. 2) .
Where the recipient is not agreed to by all concerned, a power of disposition, limited or unlimited depending on particular circumstances, is often given by the defeated enemy in the treaty. ”

“ Put into plain language what this means is, that both Holland and Belgium must be incorporated in the German Empire; if by treaty, so much the better for all parties concerned; but if diplomacy should fail to accomplish the desired absorption, then it must be brought about by war. Nor has it been overlooked, that in order to complete the rectification, and to secure the keys of the Baltic, it would be necessary to 'admit' Denmark also into the privileges of the Germanic Empire. ”