Barclay's Apology at the Peace Conference at Aix La Chapelle, 1748

BARCLAY'S APOLOGY AT AIX LA CHAPELLE, 1748 85 Plomer ("Booksellers and Printers, 1641-1667, London, 1907."), was one of the chief printers of London. In 1654 he printed John Milton's Second Defence of the English People ("Pro populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda). In 1668 he had three presses, a proof press, one apprentice, seven compositors and five pressman, evidently having one of the largest printing houses in London. He died 1681. The paper is in excellent preservation, and is valuable and interesting as throwing light on the period, and as furnishing contemporary evidence as to matters of historic interest. BARCLAY'S APOLOGY AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT AIX LA CHAPELLE, 1748. INTRODUCTION. One of the most active and useful organizations in the Society is the "Meeting for Sufferings," of London Yearly Meeting .* That its efforts at the present time are confined by no narrow limits is well known to all Friends, but the following paper indicates that it was no less broad in its scope in the Eighteenth Century. The meeting of the Ambassadors at Aix La Chapelle, in 1748, was to try to end formally the desolating and, with the exception of Prussia, fruitless war, known as the War of the Austrian Succession—a conflict only brought to a conclusion by the exhaustion of the belligerents. The Meeting of Sufferings appears to have thought the coming together of so many prominent public men, from all over Europe, a favorable opportunity to attempt to influence them, and also to bring the real ?For those who are not familiar with the organization of the Friends, the following definition, taken from "Christian Discipline of the Society of Friends" (vol. II, p. 59), is given: "The Meeting for Sufferings (socalled from the nature of its original object) is a standing representative committee of the Yearly Meeting, and is entrusted with a general care of whatever may arise during the intervals of the Yearly Meeting affecting the Society." Ih most of the American Yearly Meetings the analogous body is called "The Permanent Board." 86BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY character and doctrines of Friends before the sovereigns of Europe. To carry out their purpose, we gather from the paper that they employed Jan Wanderwerf, one of the few Friends of Amsterdam, Holland, to present to each representative at Aix La Chapelle two copies of Barclay's Apology in the language with which any given ambassador might be most familiar, accompanied by a letter (probably of explanation). That the Friends were not mistaken in their own ambassador is very clear from his naive account before us. It is scarcely likely that any apparent effect was produced by this piece of mission work, yet the interest shown by London Friends and the effort made are worthy of great praise. Barclay's Apology was doubtless far better suited to the minds of the Eighteenth Century than it is to the minds of the Twentieth Century. One can hardly imagine the London Meeting for Sufferings sending copies of Barclay's Apology to the Russian and Japanese conferees at Portsmouth, 1905, or to the members of the Berlin Conference in 1878, a gathering more nearly analogous to that of Aix La Chapelle. The paper herewith printed has been taken from what appears to be a contemporary copy which is in the collections of the late Charles Roberts of Philadelphia. The document is in a very dilapidated condition, but legible. Whether it has been printed before or not is unknown to the writer. It seems, however , to be worthy of preservation in a more permanent shape. It would be interesting to have a copy of the letter which accompanied each present. Probably this would be found in the Records of the Meeting for Sufferings.A. C. T. Occurences which happened in delivering Barclay's appologies at the request of the meeting for Sufferings in London to the following Ambassadors met to conclude a Peace at Aix La Chappelle in the months 7ber and 8ber, 1748 by me Ian Wanderwerf of Amsterdam. N[ew] S[tyle]. 1748, 7ber 2. With the Imperial Ambassador Count Caunitz. delivered three Books High Dutch, one for the Emperor one for the Empress Queen, and one...