The matter formed, afterwards, the chief article in the impeachment of Bolingbroke, and an important article in the impeachment of Oxford.
According to the "Report of the Committee of Secrecy," and the Earl of Oxford's answer to this charge in his impeachment, it seems as if St.
John had instructed Ormonde so to act, without in any way consulting the council, and apparently purposely concealing the fact from his colleagues.

Mr.Walter Sichel, however, in a note on p.

380 of his "Bolingbroke and his Times," clearly traces the order to the desire of the Queen herself, and in his text lays on the Queen the blame that was visited on the heads of her ministers.

See also note on p.156.

[T.S.]] The courier sent with the alternative to Spain was now returned, with an account that Philip had chosen to renounce France for himself and his posterity, whereof the Queen having received notice, Her Majesty, upon the sixth of June, in a long speech to both Houses of Parliament, laid before them the terms of a general peace, stipulated between her and France.