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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48635	Observations on the letter written by the Duke of Buckingham to Sir Thomas Osborn, upon the reading of a book called The present interest of England stated written in a letter to a friend.	Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.; Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680.; Leeds, Thomas Osborne, Duke of, 1631-1712.; Lisola, François Paul, baron de, 1613-1674.	1689 (1689)	Wing L2374; ESTC R37612	25,658	54

and deny to the Dutch the like Power by theirs as if they had a right to deal as they please towards other Nations and yet none to do towards them by way of Retaliation any more than they shall think fit to give them leave to do an overweening opinion of their own Greatness which all Princes and States ought to be Jealous of as not knowing where their Ambition will end And besides these things thus instanced in we have great cause to take notice that as the effect of the implacable Hatred of the French to our Nation they cannot forbear in their Writings to express their Inveterate Malice against us as that Book called Le Politique de France writ in the year 1669. and Dedicated to the French King is a pregnant Testimony where no better Epithets are allowed us than being without Friends without Faith without Religion without Honesty without any Justice of defying or provoking Natures light or unconstant to the highest degree Cruel Impatient Gluttons Proud Audacious and Covetous proper for ready Execution and Assaults but uncapable of managing a War with judgment With other such-like opprobrious and reproachful Expressions besides a Method propounded to be observed in order to the Conquest of England Page 158 159 160 161. enough to raise a lawful Indignation in all true English-men against such Insolent Slanderers who by their Impudence endeavour to impose their own Characters upon us contrary to the known experience of the rest of the World. And now Sir I have no more to add than all Circumstances considered my Agreement with the Pamphlet in this Principle that while France is so Great as at present it can in no kind be for the Safety of England to subvert Holland and Zealand c. which are properly called their Out-guards or Works against all Invasions and cannot be demolished or in the hands of the French without laying England Naked or at least the more open to that Nation and that nothing is more demonstrable than that since the United Provinces cannot signifie much without Freedom they will under their own Government be of most use to all Christendom save France who only wants them as a Qualification for threatning instead of courting their Neighbours in maintaining the general Ballance of Europe even as it was great Wisdom in the long Parliament for the wickedest of men may have Worldly Prudence to joyn with Holland in the preserving of Denmark as necessary for the Ballancing of Sweden when Cromwel in his time in revenge of manifest Affronts and hatred had designed the ruine of the Dane And thus Sir having in Obedience to your Commands given you freely my sense of the Pamphlet and Letter without varying from the matter in either as it is in them respectively stated I hope you will pardon any thing wherein I may differ with you in Judgment or Opinion for I have this for my Buckler that what I have writ is Truth and that I aim at nothing in it but the true Interest of the King and Kingdom of England and Protestant Religion denying that any can have more Cordial Affection for them than my self who am c. April 17. Anno 1669. According to the Printed Copy IN Obedience to an Order of Council of the 16th present requiring my opinion what is fit to be done for relief of Sir Francis Toppe and Company I do humbly certifie that I have perused their Case and find that they complain of great Losses and Damages sustained in the Year 1644. whilst they lived in St. Malo from the French by seizing their Goods in a time of Peace in the very Harbours of France whither they had brought those Goods in a way of Trading and where by several Treaties then in force and by the very Law of Nations which gives a Security to the Persons and Estates of all who reside Peaceably within the Dominions of any Prince or State they ought to have been Safe and Free from all Arrests the Owners not having done any thing whereby to Forfeit their Interest in them which Course if suffered must needs be the Destruction of all Trade and Commerce between the two Kingdoms as it is also very Dishonourable and Injurious to his Majesty that the Publick Faith should be broken to his Subjects who Trade under his Protection by vertue of the Treaties made between the two Crowns and it is much to be feared that the Proceedings in France may become very prejudicial in this kind to the whole Trading of the English Nation in that Kingdom if nothing be done to stop this growing mischief In regard this is not the single Case where this course hath been put in practice the like having been done several times to English Merchants at Rouen who are not yet free of the trouble for a Capture at Sea whether real or pretended to have been made in 1616. by an English Privateer of a French Ship belonging to one Delauziay valued but at six thousand Livers And whilst I had the Honour to serve his Majesty as his Ambassador in France two English Ships coming into Harbour at Marseille when they had Landed their Goods and paid all Duties were seized upon Ships and Goods and notwithstanding all my Solicitations would not be discharged But some Months after the War breaking out were given to the East-India Company there they pretending some Ships of theirs to have been formerly taken by the English And now as I hear at St. John de Liez the same Vsage is threatned if not already begun to our Merchants there for the Reparation of the Widow de Lazin for some Goods of her late Husbands taken from her by the Parliament in 1643. So as all this makes me fearful it may come to be a constant Custom if not prevented I do therefore offer it as my humble Opinion that all care should be taken for the prevention of it And for this particular Case of Sir Francis Toppe's and Company that in the first place a fair Application may be made to the French King as well by his Ambassador here as by his Majesties Ambassador at Paris for the just Satisfaction of the Petitioners which may be hoped will prove effectual and should it not it will then be time for his Majesty to consider what is further to be done for the Vindication of his own Honour and the Protection of his Subjects HOLLIS THE WORLDS MISTAKE IN Oliver Cromwel OR A Short Political Discourse SHEWING That CROMWELL's Mal-administration during his Four Years and Nine Months pretended Protectorship laid the Foundation of our present Condition in the Decay of TRADE LONDON Printed in the Year 1689. THE WORLDS MISTAKE IN Oliver Cromwell c. OF all the Sins that the Children of Men are guilty of there is none that our corrupt Natures are more inclinable unto than that of Idolatry a Sin that may be towards Men so well as other Creatures and things For as that which a Man unmeasurably relies and sets his

altogether inconsistent with and Enemies to Trade and Commerce will always cause Traders to change Bondage for Liberty or at least in hopes of better Entertainment one Country for another as did the Subversion of the Florentine Government in that Country and as they were preparing to do the like in Holland when they feared the late Prince of Orange's overturning that State for the Antipathy betwixt Merchants and Souldiers is such that all Monarchs of Trading Countries have ever held it their Interest to keep their great Trading Towns free from a Mercenary Militia and it is exceeding difficult if not Morally impossible for a Prince to advance Trade to any great height where the People are under the awe of a standing Military Power and the French King seems to own the truth of this in that finding the benefit of Commerce he is even in France content that his Trading Cities should be freed from Souldiers and more gently used than the rest of his Country for so far as the Nature of his Arbitrary Government will permit he studieth all manner of ways to advance Trade As First By totally prohibiting such Foreign Commodities and Manufactures as his People are capable of making sufficient to serve his Country as Train-Oyl c. Secondly By burthening others with high Customs and Impositions to the end to incourage his own Artisans and Seamen thereby making the Trade of England thither very prejudicial to us our Transportations hence being inconsiderable to our Importations thence and as they improve in any Faculty so they either Prohibit or Increase their Impositions upon the Importation of the Foreign-made Commodities of that Faculty And Thirdly As an Incouragement to Trade the French King hath lately declared the Exercise of Commerce in a Gentleman to be no prejudice to his Quality having also erected an Academy for breeding his Nobility to Sea Affairs and teaching them the Art of Navigation c. All which may well Alarm England to a Jealousie of their Designs as most dangerous to it and to look upon the French as those Rivals whom if hatred be lawful as the Letter in this Case seems to make it we ought most to hate for should they once come to Vie with us in Trade or Naval strength we should find them to exceed all that ever went before them in Insolency Injustice and Selfishness And whether the second part of this Notion hath a good Foundation which asserts That should England get but the Sea Towns alone leaving the rest of the States Dominions to the French we should have no cause to repent our Bargain I will not presume to judge yet this I think considerable in the Case that should the Inlands of the United Provinces and with them all the Conquered places fall to the share of the French as by the late published Proposals in Dutch if true they seem to pretend unto the Letter then having thereby the command of the Rivers of Rhine and Mase c. together with Sluce and the other Garrisons which shut up the Trade of Flanders and Brabant they will have it in their Power to render all the parts of the Seventeen Provinces which will remain to the Kings of England and Spain of no more use to them than they please to allow of First Because the Sea-Towns of the United Netherlands cannot be divided from the Inlands from which they receive their nourishment nor deprived of the use of their Rivers by which they drive their Trades without utter ruine to them and making them thereby an intolerable Burthen to their Masters Secondly Because the Spanish Netherlands will thereby be so invironed or rather beleaguered by the French Garrisons and Forces on all sides as well towards Germany Holland and Zealand c. as towards France that having no means left them for forming or maintaining an Army as any that know those Countries must confess they will always be at the French King's Devotion and when assaulted by him without possibility of contributing any considerable assistance to their own Deliverance or to make the Triple League of any use to them Thirdly Because such will be the enervated condition of the Spanish Netherlands that the King of Spain will be necessitated as not being able to maintain them longer than the French will permit him either to quit them voluntarily or if he can obtain so much Favour to make an exchange or Sale of them to the French King who then having Flanders and Brabant which he hath so long thirsted after and all the Rivers belonging to them in his own hands will assuredly for the advantage of himself and his own Countries even in times of Peace so obstruct and hinder the Trade of the Maritime Towns of Holland Zealand and Friezland if in the possession of any but himself and in times of War totally shut them up by Land as will restore Flanders and Brabant to their ancient Trade and make a new Holland of them which being in the hands of the French will probably prove abundantly worse to England than the old if large experience of Injuries and Injustices committed in Trade by them against this Nation may warrant a Conclusion as by the Certificate under the Lord Ambassador Hollis his hand which I send you here inclosed given upon an order of his Majesties Privy-Council Dated the 17th of April 1667. in the Case of Sir Francis Toppe and Company doth for one instance sufficiently appear Nay such is the envious care of the French that no Nation should Get or Thrive by them that as Mr. Samuel Fortrey one of the Gentlemen of his Majesties Privy-Chamber reporteth in his Book Printed 1663. and Dedicated to King Charles the Second not many years ago they suspecting through mistakes that England had an advantage of them in their Trade for France they were upon Counsels for Prohibiting all Trade with England until upon a strict examination they found that whereas England vented of their Commodities into France not to above the value of Ten hundred thousand pounds per Annum France vented of theirs to the English Six and twenty hundred thousand Pounds and then finding that they had Sixteen hundred thousand Pounds advantage in the Ballance they soon let fall their design though yet not without burthening English Manufactures with New Impositions in such manner as might much hinder the vent of them in their Country Mr. Fortrey in the aforementioned Book doth not only recite the very Ballance of Trade it self which he affirms was presented to the French King to shew the advantage they have in their Trade with England but also adds further that hereby it may appear how insensibly our Treasure will be Exhausted and the Nation Beggered whilst we carelesly neglect our own Interest and Strangers abroad are diligent to make their advantage by us And it is of no little consideration that the French should so far Overvalue themselves as to increase their Impositions upon Dutch Commodities to a degree of Prohibiting them

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LETTER Written by the Duke of Buckingham TO Sir THOMAS OSBORN Upon the Reading of a Book CALLED The Present Interest OF ENGLAND STATED Written in a Letter to a Friend LONDON Printed in the Year 1689. Observations on the Letter Written by the Duke of Buckingham to Sir Thomas Osborn c. SIR SO soon as some indispensible Occasions would permit I did at your instance strictly peruse the Pamphlet called The Present Interest of England Stated As also the Letter directed to Sir Thomas Osborn in answer to it and at your request shall now give you my Sense of both I find no Cause by the Scope of the Letter to believe otherwise of the Author than according to his own Professions that he really designs the Honour Greatness and Prosperity of this Nation An Honest and Honourable undertaking the perfect discovery whereof I wish may be pursued by Men of leasure and put in practice by those of Power I understand the Letter to agree fully with the Pamphlet in all its Maxims relating to our Domestick Interest not differing neither from our Foreign in any thing save what relates to Holland and therein likewise not in all but only in some Particulars but in several of them I observe also the Author of the Pamphlet to be by the Letter exceedingly mistaken for whereas it renders him so Byassed with Affection to the Dutch as makes him overlook the usefulness of Foreign Alliances I cannot judge but he grounds all he writes concerning Holland upon the Safety and Benefit of England insomuch as it seems strange to me how a Person of that Candor and Ingenuity as the Author of the Letter is should be so far mistaken as to insinuate to the World that the Pamphlet he answereth pleadeth First For allowing all the Injuries and Wrongs done by the Hollanders to this Nation Page 5. Secondly For studying of their Interests and loving of them because they are Traders though by being so they take our Trade from us Page 5 6. And Thirdly That their Parsimony is no good Reason for dislike of them Page 6. As if all these were Arguments made use of by express words in that Book when I do not find any Expressions relating to any of these Particulars that do either in words say so much or will in the least admit of any such Inferences or Conclusions although as to this Third if there were any word to that purpose it might be defended For all the Arguments made use of by the Pamphlet against the destroying of the Hollanders are either upon the account of Justice and Righteousness which establisheth a Nation or clearly in reference to the Safety and Utility of this Kingdom both in Church and State and not in the least upon any particular Affection to the People of that Country as the Letter doth insinuate the Pamphlet being no otherwise concerned for them than as it is for preserving the Ballance of Christendom in opposition of Popery and Slavery I find the Pamphlets commending the Dutch for their Morals compared with the French c. to be answered by objecting that if the Author had lain but one night in any Inn of theirs he would have been convinced of the contrary which implieth that he had never done it or at least never told the World he had and yet the Book justifies his opinion of them in affirming his experience from having travelled their Countries Interest of England Page 30. and truly by his general knowledge of the Netherlands he may well be supposed to have throughly done it and granting so much it consequently follows that he must then have experienced their Inns but if from Cousening and Cheating in Inns Ale-houses and Taverns the measures of a Peoples Morals must be Calculated I fear some other Countries by high Reckonings false Measures in Bottles Pots and Cans exceeding them and tacitly allowed of c. will be found as faulty as they and to lye at least equally with them under the burden of that uncharitable Synecdoche of blaming the whole for a part for I can my self by experience so far joyn with the Pamphlet in justifying of it as to aver That I never travelled in all my Life in any Country so cheap as in theirs and that no private Person doth otherwise but either voluntarily by being profuse or carelesly in spending more than he needeth in not keeping to his Ordinaries but living at large for their Rates by Land or Water are so certain that none can pay one more than another and the like is in their Inns for Ordinaries and Lodgings insomuch that I have often wondred their great Trade and Populousness which in all other places makes things dear considered I found living there so cheap as I did But as no Number or Society of men can be said to be perfectly good or altogether evil so the most just and certain Rule for applauding or condemning any Country is not from a few Instances of a small part of it but by way of Comparison with other Countries and by that Standard Holland cannot be found by much so bad as Popish Countries where the Doctrines of the Jesuits which hath more or less an influence upon most of their Religion of good Intentions Probability and Necessity c. and of their whole Church of keeping no Faith with Hereticks c. is inconsistent with honest Conversation rendring them unfit even for one anothers Society there being no Fence against such Principles The Cruelty at Amboina is I confess to be had by all in Abhorrence but since it was before we were born that it was acted but by a few and disowned and not justified at home That King James of Happy Memory and his wise and excellent Council and Favourites thought therefore not fit to revenge it and that it hath since by several Treaties been buried and put in Oblivion I question whether we ought still to remember it but provided that the constant Trade that the Popish Nations have in all Ages down to our times driven in Massacres and Cruel Torterings and that with the applause and approbation of their chief Bishop and Church as Italy Savoy France and Ireland do witness may be remembred I can be well pleased that that single Act at Amboina committed by a few Protestants condemned by the rest and which is abhorred by the Principles of their Religion may not be forgotten and thereupon the whole designs of the Pamphlet and Letter each severally considered I cannot observe that they differ in any Material Circumstance but that both aim at the same end the Honour Greatness Prosperity and Safety of this Nation unless the first is too straight laced in the Rules of Honesty and Justice believing that though Interest rightly understood or mistaken governs all the World yet that that Precept of doing to others as we would have them to do to us gives no latitude to any Country to destroy another to the end to increase their