sunt nisi dedecus sibi at que illis gloriam peperêre And those Princes who use such rigorous Methods do a far greater Injury to their own Reputation than to the Author of the piece that offends them The Book runs through all Hands and People are curious to know the Reason that procur'd the Author so severe a Treatment Judge then how great the curiosity of our Posterity will be and how eagerly they will examine those bitter Reflexions of the Dutch Gazettier which incensed the greatest Monarch in the World to such a degree that because he could not punish the Author he marched himself at the Head of a Hundred Thousand Men to destroy the Countrey where these Satyrs were Printed The Inhabitants of Antioch having broken to pieces the Statue of the Emperor Theodosius he resolv'd to raze that ungrateful and seditious City Immediatly the Bishop Flavian went to appease the incens'd Mind of that Prince whose indignation was far more just than that of Lewis the Great against the States General of the United Provinces * Chrysostom homil 4. ad popul Antloch The glory of Monarchs my Lord said the Prelate to Theodosius consists not so much in beating their Enemies as in subduing their Passions Victory is not wholly your own for your Officers and Soldiers claim a part of it but in an Action of Wisdom and Goodness you have no Companions and that is a Trophy to which none but your self has a Right to pretend 'T is not enough that you have Conquer'd the Barbarians if you do not also Conquer your own Anger Show those Infidels that no Power on Earth is able to stand in opposition to Jesus Christ Glorifie your Sovereign Master by pardoning the Faults of your Brethren that at the great and terrible Day of the Lord he may look upon your Errors with the Eye of a Father rather then of a Judge and that you may receive the same Forgiveness from him that you have granted to others Why do not those whose Dignity and Function oblige them to inform the King of His Duty speak to him with equal Freedom Theodosius had more Reason to be ill satisfied with the insolency of his own Subjects than His Majesty had to be Angry with the States The overthrowing of a Statue was a far more provoking Injury than the reverse of a Medal coin'd by strangers or the Jests of a disown'd Gazettier Theodosius design'd to destroy a Seditious City Lewis endeavoured to ruine entire Provinces Ought not the managers of his Conscience to have represented to him that so cruel a Revenge would not fail to fill the Hearts of Christians with Horror and give occasion of scandal to the Infidels Nevertheless instead of Offering him such good Advice the Bishops and Preachers employed all their Eloquence either in magnifying his Victories or in demonstrating even to himself that he was the greatest and most glorious Monarch in the Universe Do not tell me that the King undertook the War against a Protestant State a People who make it their boast to be the Protectors of Heresy in Europe and spread it through the other parts of the World For besides that a Christian ought to forgive Hereticks and even Infidels as well as Catholicks I dare assure you that a Zeal for Religion was not the motive of that War No sooner had Germany declar'd War against us but we detested those very Cities whose Churches Cardinal de Bouillon had blest and reconcil'd with so much Pomp and Ceremony I know not whether it was a sentiment of Devotion that made the Mareschal de Belfonds delay the Execution of the Orders that were sent to him to leave those places where the Catholick Religion was re-established but I am assur'd that the Court was very much dissatisfied with him for it Thus Sir we see that the Pretext for the Dutch War was even less specious than that which was formerly made use of for the War with Spain One of my Friends was so throughly convinc'd of the unjustness of this War that he left the Service Do not fancy that he was a Huguenot you know him he is a good Catholick And you may remember that at the same time the Mareschal de Scomberg and other Protestant Gentlemen were in the Army I had the curiosity to ask my Friend what made him leave a good Post at a time when Employments were so much courted by others He told me that his Conscience would not permit him to serve the King in a manifestly unjust War Why do you trouble your self with those things reply'd I 't is the King's business and that of his Ministers to examine that Controversy and Obedience is the Subject's only part You tell me nothing said he but what I believ'd before I had Read Grotius de jure belli pacis who has convinc'd me that I ought not to serve my Prince in a War which I know to be unjust Read that Book added he and you will be of the same opinion At that time I was taken up with other Matters and contented my self with doing what I saw others do before me But after the Peace of Nimeghen I began to reflect upon what my Friend said to me and resolv'd to consult the Book that he recommended to me No sooner had I cast my Eyes upon it but I observ'd with pleasure that it was dedicated to the late King Lewis XIII The moderation of that Learned Man is acknowledged by all the World and 't is also well known that he was a great Friend to the Soveraign Authority of Kings And yet in the first place he maintains that * Si aut ad deliberationem adhibentur aut libera ipsis optiodatur militandi aut quiescendi easdem regulas sequi debent quas illi qui suopte arbitrio pro se pro aliis bella suscipiunt Grotius de jure belli pacis lib. 2 cap. 26. when a Prince asks the Advice of his Subjects concerning a War which he desigus to undertake or gives them Liberty to chuse whether they will serve in his Armies or stay at home in Peace 't is their Duty to follow the same Maxims which their Sovereign ought to observe before he begin the War That is that they ought not to advise him to undertake the War without just and and indispensible Reasons and if he persist in his resolution they cannot without a crime offer him their assistance to shed innocent Blood What can there be alledged against so clear a Decision And indeed it makes me tremble as oft as I think of it not for the King's Ministers since these Gentlemen are not wont to consult either the light of Reason or Rules of the Gospel but for an infinite number of People who put themselves into His Majesty's Service without considering what they do and oftentimes even against the Dictates of their Conscience which tells them that the War is unjust But perhaps the Nobility who never march but when
common and so full of Glory that it will be the greatest Embellishment of the History of this Age and the admiration of all that shall succeed it Lewis the Great took Forty Cities and made himself Master of Maestricht after a Siege of Thirteen Days but what was the fruit of all his Victories and what did he retain of so many Conquests but an exhausted Kingdom Peopled with Beggars Is not this the only instance of a Prince that was Honoured with Triumphal Arches for ruining his own Subjects The taking of Valenciennes Ypres and Cambray were Actions that had a juster Title to the proud name of Conquests The Empire Spain and the States General of the United Provinces had form'd a Confederacy against the King and had often alarm'd him with Potent Armies Let us do justice to the Merit and Experience of the late Prince and of the Mareschal de Turenne who were only able to preserve us in such an Extremity They alone merited the Honour of Statues and Triumphal Arches and to have their Names inscrib'd on our Medals The pretended Glory of Lewis the Great is only a reflected Splendor which he ows to the Valour and Experience of his ill rewarded Generals and to the Skill and Dexterity of his Two Ministers one of which made it his business to find out ways to squeeze Money out of miserable Wretches while the other provided well-stor'd Magazines that the King's Army might be in a condition to enter upon Action before that of the Enemies could be drawn out of their Winter-quarters It was certainly a very prudent Advice that of M. de Turenne to keep all things in a readiness for the early opening of the Campagn And 't was by a careful observance of this Maxim that France broke the measures of the Confederates and obtain'd an advantageous Peace But I maintain that a Prince who aggrandizes himself meerly by such Politicks does not deserve the name of a Conqueror The Alexanders Scipios Pompeys and Caesars of those celebrated Glories of Antiquity took other Methods to acquire Honour than those that are now in fashion among our Heroes of all Seasons This is one of those splendid Titles that the Sappho of our Age bestows on the King And you know this thought was esteem'd very ingenious and fine Did ever any of those Summer Heroes which are plac'd so far beneath the Heroes of all Seasons content themselves with seizing on a Town that could not be reliev'd did ever any of them forsake their Arms immediatly after such an inglorious Expedition or Post back to their Mistresses as soon as the Enemies began to appear and leave the care of engaging with them to others Let the Gentlemen of the French-Academy rack their mercenary Fancies to embellish their fulsom Panegyricks with new Hyberboles it will be for ever acknowledg'd by those who are willing to do Justice to true Merit that the Duke of Orleans acquir'd more solid Glory of the Siege of St. Omer and the Battel of Cassel than the King by the taking of Cambray Ypres and Valenciennes and if you please to add Mons and Namur By coming out of his Lines meeting the Enemy gaining a Battle and afterwards taking the Besieg'd Town he merited far greater Honour than the King by all that he perform'd before Mons and Namur Instead of advancing to meet the Confederate Forces that appear'd towards the end of the Siege of Mons which they could not possibly relieve the King with all his jolly Troop made haste back to his dear Verfailles and arriv'd there with Men and Horses that were as fresh and unfatigu'd as those that had not begun to march The taking of this important Place was a Blessing from Heaven on the Providence of M. Louvois and skill of M. de Vauban rather than on the Valour of the King or the Justice of his Arms. The next Year he took Namur in sight of the Confederate Army but he was cover'd by an Army greater than theirs during the Siege of the Castle which was an advantage that the Duke of Orleans had not at the Siege of St. Omer He was forced to come out of his Lines and Fight the Enemy An instance that cannot be pararel'd in all the glorious Life of Lewis the Great Where shall we find a Homer to celebrate our new Achilles But we may trust that care to himself he will not suffer future Ages to lose so great an Example he has hir'd his Chroniclers already and carries them always about with him that they may be Eye-witnesses of all his Glorious Exploits But all in vain our Posterity will easily discover the Truth and pull of the disguising Vizard of Flattery And perhaps some Historian may luck in a Garret that will inform them after what manner Lewis the Great took so many Towns and gain'd all his Victories And even I am very much afraid that they will Read the Histories of the King as we Read the Books of those infamous flatterers who prais'd Tiberius and Nero and that they will have the same regard to all our Medals and Triumphal Arches that we have to those which remain of certain Ptinces whose Vanity we mock and despise I have not time to send you my Reflexions on the present Was but you may expect them by the next occasion Adieu Paris Jan. 23 1695. FINIS
Queen might have declar'd that she would not renounce her Right to Hainault Brabant and the rest of her Father's Dominions and he would have taken care to Marry her to such a Husband and in such a manner as might have been most conducive to the Interest of the Spanish Monarchy and to the Peace and Tranquility of Europe But the Infanta chose rather to be Queen of a great Nation than to be Countess of Hainault and Dutchess of Brabant or to preserve a claim to a succession which she was not sure to enjoy as indeed she never did And with what Reason then could she complain of Injustice or Constraint Thus 't is plain that the King had not any lawful Reason to break the Pyrenean Treaty And it must be acknowledged that the States General of the United Provinces acted a very Wise and Honourable part when they negotiated the Tripple-League to stop the Progress of his Majesty's Arms in the Spanish Netherlands It was their Duty to defend a King who was their Neighbour and Ally against the unjust Attacks of a Potent Enemy that threatned to dispossess him according to the Maxim of an * Qui non repellit Injuriam a socio si potest tam est in vitjo quam ille qui facit lib. 1. Offic. cap. 36. ancient Father of the Church Besides Prudence oblig'd them to keep at a distance from their Frontiers an ambitious Prince who assum'd a right to interpret Treaties to his own advantage and who they might reasonably suppose would not fail sooner or later to make the same use of the House of Burgundy to claim the United Provinces as he then did of the Queen 's Right to Hainault and Brabant And did he not afterwards in effect revive the pretensions of the House of Austria to Strasburgh and the rest of those places that depend upon Alsatia I confess that it is not just to make War upon a Neighbour who-is grown too powerful under pretext that 't is our Interest to weaken him lest he should be one Day in a condition to hurt us But it has been always esteem'd lawful to oppose a Neighbour that aggrandizes himself unjustly or who having at the best but a controverted Right to certain Provinces that are in the possession of another Prince chuses rather to have recourse to an open War than to refer the difference to the Judgment of their common Allies or other disinteressed States * Justum bellum quibus necessarium pia arma quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur spes Liv. lib. 10. A Prince that is truly just and merciful never makes War but when the necessity of his Circumstances renders it unavoidable or when there are are no other means lest to preserve or put himself in possession of that which properly belongs to him * Clementia alieno Sanguini tanquam suo parcit scit homini non esse homine prodigé utendum Seneca Epist 87. He is as tender of the Blood of others as of his own and he is sensible that a Man ought not lightly to hazard the Lives of his Fellow Creatures But these Maxims of equitable Heathens are utterly unknown at the Court of the most Christian King Nor are they better acquainted there with the Commandment that Christ left us to forgive Injuries Would any Prince that had the least sense of Christianity have presum'd in the face of all Europe to declare War against the Hollanders under the pretext of I know not what ill satisfaction that they had given him For what had they done to provoke his Anger If it proceeded from the care which they took to negotiate the Tripple-League it was certainly very unjust since the States acted in that Affair like Wise and Christian Politicians Or was it the above mentioned Medal that occasioned all this ill satisfaction Was there any thing in it that was not exactly true or that could give him the least cause of Offence But suppose that it had been injurious to him * Magni animi est injurias in summâ potentia pati nec quicquam est gloriosius Principe impuné laeso Senec. de clem l. 1. cap. 20. True magnanimity says a Pagan Philosopher consists in suffering Injuries even when we are in the height of Prosperity And a Prince is never more truly great and glorious than when he leaves these unpunish'd who have most highly offended him Besides the King was further oblig'd to forgive that pretended Injury because the States were not only sorry that their Medal had displeas'd him but took all possible care to suppress it in so much that it is no where extant but in the Cabinets of some curious Persons The Court of France is not so observant of the Rules of Decency For though the Proud and Insolent Inscriptions on the Gates of St. Denis and St. Martin had given offence to the greatest Sovereigns in Europe they were so far from offering them satisfaction that they suffer'd a Courtier who would have certainly past for the greatest Fool in the World if he had not been too well acquainted with the weak side of his Prince to out do the grossest flatteries of the Provost of the Merchants and Echevins of Paris He was even recompensed for erecting a Statue at the Feet of which the King 's pretended Enemies were represented in so unworthy a manner that 't is impossible to look upon it without Horrour And the most celebrated Wits of the French Academy were excited in emulation of one another to make Inscriptions for that ridiculous Statue which never any reasonable Person could Read without Indignation Or was it the Dutch Gazettiers Wit that gave the King this ill satisfaction We are assur'd by certain Authors whose Books were Printed at Paris with His Majesty's Priviledge that this did not a little contribute to the Declaration of War 'T is strange that such able Ministers as M. le Tellier and M. Colbert should not have represented to the King * Tulere ista reliquere haud facile dixerim moderatione magis an Sapientia Tacitus Annal. 4. that the Wisdom as well as the Moderation of Julius and Augustus Caesar never appear'd with more Lustre than by neglecting those that writ against them You know Sir that Works of that nature are * Spreta exolescunt si irascare agnita videntur wont to fall of themselves when they are neglected but when he whom they Attack grows Angry at their Insolence he gives the World occasion to believe that there is too much Truth in the reproaches that are fasten'd upon him Tacitus has a judicious Remark to this purpose which ought to moderate the Heat of those who meditate Revenge against an Author of a biting Jest or an ingenious Satyr * Punitis ingeniis gliscit authoritas The most probable way to advance the credit of such a Book is to cause it to be burnt or to chastise its Author * Qui saevitiâ usi