instanc'd in History I must confess the Character and Account that Learned Gentleman gives of the King meets so close with those Transactions of his Life that has hapned since that one would be almost tempted to think the Book had either been written or at least lick'd over again after this late Revolution in England was brought about But so far was it from being so that it 's committed now to the Press just as it came from the Author's Pen several years before this Revolution was either thought upon or the least occasion for it and that without his Knowledg or Review or the least Alteration Addition or Deduction of any one single sentence through the whole In reading these Curious Memoirs and the part His Majesty has in them it brought to my mind a Book of Monsieur Aubery's printed at Paris in French Twelve Years ago with Approbation of the French King entituled Memoirs pour servir a l'Histoire de Holland Memoirs to give light to the History of Holland In which there is a Character given of the present King in a few words that rather outdoes than falls short of Sir William Temple's And because Monsieur Aubery is both an Author of great account and much more that the very Design of the Book it self is mighty unfavourable to the Family of Orange and he as much an Enemy to the present King as can well consist with the Temper of an Historian I beg leave to do the ungrateful part of a Translator as to some Passages in it Let us hear therefore what a French-man a Roman-Catholick an Enemy of the then Prince of Orange and of his House and an Idolater of the present French King tells us of the Affairs of Holland during the last War and His Majesty's part therein and withal let us pardon an Air of Vanity that naturally attends a French Author when he writes of his King In Page 300 of these Memoirs he has these words as near as I can give them in English This young Prince meaning the present King then Prince of Orange has from his Infancy given the greatest Marks of his Reservedness and Moderation His Prudence augments as he grows up in years And all that pretend to know any thing of Merit that are acquainted with him do agree in this That never Prince has given the world greater hopes of himself He endured with the profoundest Dissimulation pardon the Expression from an Enemy the Injuries of the Barnevalt Faction restored in the Persons of the two De Wits waiting with a Patience and Taciturnity even beyond that of his Great Grandfather Prince William of Orange the Advantages of Time and a favourable occasion for his own Re-establishment for being deprived by a solemn Edict of all the great Employments of his Family after the sudden Death of his Father he came to be re-established in them by a contrary Edict the beginning of this War He was obliged for his Restoration to France which having about seven years ago made the greatest Conquests that has been heard of in so short a time the most part of the Frontier Towns of the Vnited Provinces and many of their Capitals Utrecht and Zutphen among others rendred themselves at the first view of our Troops Tho those Places were provided of great Garisons yet being composed of Officers and Soldiers without skill the King meaning the French saw himself Master of above Forty Places in less than Two Months time and found himself so overwhelm'd with Success not only above his Hopes but Wishes that he might say with Caesar Veni Vidi Vici I came I saw I overcame These Thunderclaps that presag'd yet others worse to come and which put the Hollanders to the greatest Consternation gave occasion to the People to complain of the ill Conduct of the De Witts and furnished a just Cause for the Friends of the House of Orange to say That there was none capable to sustain their Tottering State nor to defend them against that Powerful Enemy but the Princes of that Family And that as they had protected them before against the Tyranny of Spain there was no others able to save them from the Thunder of France The Grandmother of the present Prince a Woman of a Masculine Courage that had endured with the greatest impatience the low Ebb of that House which she had once seen in the greatest Splendour took pains to gather together all the best Friends and Dependants of the Name of Nassau which were very numerous These People displeased at their being turned out of all the Employments in their State and to see them in the hands of the Children of the Burgomasters and being back'd with the Fury of all the rest that lov'd their Countrey and saw themselves under the hazard of present Destruction by a Victorious Army in the bowels of their Countrey they came as to their last Sanctuary to restore the present Prince to the Possession of all the Dignities his Ancestors had enjoyed that is of Captain and Admiral General and Stadtholder whicb were thereupon entail'd on his Family for ever by a Solemn and Vnanimous Decree This same Author comes afterwards to tell us that before this re-establishment of the Prince of Orange The Holland Troops were such sort of creatures that places wherein there were Five Thousand Foot and Eight Hundred Horse in Garison would render themselves Prisoners of War at the first approach of the French without making the least Resistance And that Fifty Reisters of Munster would put ordinarily to Flight Three Hundred of the Dutch Horse that fled before them as so many Sheep before a Wolf But Page 311. Returning to speak of the present King and his Part in the War after his Re-establishment he expresses himself thus The Prince of Orange saw himself at the Age of Twenty One Years at the head of an Army as his Great Grandfather William of Orange had been at the same Age under the Emperor Charles the 5th And in the whole course of this War he made appear to the World so much Conduct and so much Bravery in a great many Rancounters Battels and Seiges as certainly far surmount the Actions of his Renowned Ancestors who had set a Copy for Two Hundred Years together for the greatest Captains to imitate If he had not had the unhappiness to be born in the Age of Lewis le Grand whose Power Genius and Fortune admits of no stop This Young Hero continued He with a few Troops hastily Levied and but ill Disciplin'd had the Courage to make head against this great Monarch in the height of his Fortune And his Conduct and Personal Valour in Battel made Victory for some hours incline to his scale till at last he had the consolation not to have Yielded but to the Greatest Prince on Eartb And it may be justly said of him tho an Enemy That nothing but so Glorious a Sun could lessen the Rays of this Rising Star Thus far Monsieur Aubrey and
this Book abounds with and which so many Thousands of People yet alive know to be so And yet the Author is a person of a passing good Character in France and the Book is dedicated to no less a man than the Learned Bishop of Meaux and passes among the most of the Nations abroad for a True History I am of opinion there is not in this whole pretended History one single Page without some one or two gross mistakes if not wilful Errors and to name them all were to Copy over the whole Book Only to give a hint of the rest from these few the Author will needs have Cromwell to have been a Prebendary and of Bishop William's Faction against Laud which Faction he says arose on the debate betwixt the two Archbishops for Precedence an affair some Ages older than Cromwell In short there is not one single Syncronisme right in the whole Book from the beginning to the end witness one for all He makes Duke Hamilton's Expedition into England to have fallen out in the Year 1644. and King Charles the First to have rendred himself to the Scots Three Years after I would not have mentioned this Book if I thought it not conducing to the Common-wealth of Letters but especially to Strangers to know this late practice of the French Writers that thereby they may not swallow all they write upon Trust Being upon this subject of Counterfeiting Dispatches and Papers I could instance a great many Remarkable Events that have been owing to that kind of Artifice both in Ancient and Modern Times from the knowledg of which it seems the French are the more imboldened to try the Experiment But there hapned one of the signallest effects in Britain of an Artifice of this nature some Fifty years ago that tho it be quite foreign to the purpose yet the Strangeness of it the mighty Consequences that attended it and it 's lying hitherto among the Secrets of our History will obtain me the Reader 's Fardon to give the Story of it in short Every body I believe is acquainted with the Rise of those unhappy Commotions that shook this Island during the Reign of King Charles the First and knows where to lodg them Both Nations were discontented and the Flame rose in Scotland which propagated it self at last to England and our Historians have taken care to give us all the Publick Steps of those unhappy Transactions but not without Partiality on some one side or another But there was one Secret Hindge on which the Scotch Second Invasion moved that has never to this day been committed to Print and which is a notable demonstration upon how small and unseen Springs the greatest Revolutions in the Affairs of the World do oftentimes turn When King Charles was induced to enter into Terms of Treaty with the Scots at RÃppon some of the English Nobility that had been very Instrumental to bring the King to an Accommodation and thereby deserved well of the Scots found a great Coolness and Uneasiness in the Scotch Commissioners towards them notwithstanding they had deserved so well of that Countrey The Treaty being at last concluded and the Scots fully pleased with the Terms one of the English Noblemen being very desirous to know the Reason of that Coolness that had during the whole Course of the Treaty appeared in the Scots was resolved if possible to find it out To this end having invited the Earl of Rothes and the rest of the Scotch Noblemen that had managed the Treaty to Dinner he fell upon the matter of Their coming into England and how happily the Differences betwixt the King and Them had been made up and withal how happy he thought himself in promoting so good an Agreement At length he concluded with the uneasiness he was in on the account of the Coolness he had always found in the Scotch Noblemen towards him notwithstanding of his great Zeal and Success in serving them with the King and in the whole course of the Treaty The Earl of Rothes answered He thank'd his Lordship for the good Offices he and the rest of the English Commissioners had done his Countreymen both with the King and in the Treaty But he was astonished to hear his Lordship inquire the ground of his and his Collegues Coolness towards him and some of the English Peers there present For says he it was your Lordship and They that Invited us at first into England and promised to join with us as soon as we were on English Ground and yet notwithstanding your Lordship and They were so far from making good your promise that you appear'd in Arms against us The English Noblemen being surprised at this answer at length the Earl of Rothes pull'd out of his pocket a Letter signed by Seven or Eight of the chief of the English Nobility directed to him the Earl of Rothes in name of the rest of his Countreymen Inviting them into England and promising to come in to them upon their entring this Kingdom Which Letter was yet a matter of greater astonishment when it was found a Counterfeit one and that a certain English Nobleman then present who is dead and his Family extinct long ago confess'd himself to have done it This Letter has had the luck to be oftner than once printed in several Histories of that time for a true one and I believe I am the first that have publickly advanc'd it to have been false Being safe in what I have said about it from the knowledge of two or three Noblemen yet alive whose Hands are at it and who are much better acquainted with the whole Story than I possibly can To leave so long a digression and put an end to this Appendix I shall only add a few words concerning two Passages in the foregoing Observators that has made a great noise in the World and which both Honour and Justice obliges me to clear The first is about what I wrote of a Book printed in French some fourteen Months ago if I mistake not the time Intituled Avis aux Refugès sur leur prochain Retour en France An Advice to the French Refugees upon their expected return to France This Book has occasion'd a great many others by way of Answers and Replies betwixt two of the Learnedst Men of the French Nation Monsieur Jurieu and Monsieur Bale And therein the Consistory of the French Church at Rotterdam has been oblig'd to concern themselves Monsieur Jurieu has positively accus'd Monsieur Bale of being the Author of this Book and to have written it of concert with a Cabal of other French Pensioners set a work by the Court of France I shall not meddle in the Debate betwixt those two Great Men any further than concerns my self In one of my Observators I mention'd this Book which has occasion'd so much heat and said It was concerted by the French Court and that I knew the Author This was long before there was the least word of Contest betwixt Monsieur
Jurieu and Monsieur Bale But some months thereafter the Debate growing hot betwixt them the one affirming the other denying with equal passion It fell out that Monsieur Bale among other Arguments brought by him to prove his Innocence adduced that Passage in the New Observator wherein the Author gave a hint of the Advis aux Refugés being concerted with the French Court and of his saying He knew the Author of it And thence concluded That since the Author of the Observator knew the Author of the Avis aux Refugeés and that Monsieur Bale and the Author of the Observator was not acquainted together Therefore Monsieur Bale was not the Author of the Avis aux Refugeés This Argument of Monsieur Bale's and some Papers written since by Monsieur Jurieu obliges me to give here a true Account of what I know of this Affair leaving these two learned Persons to make what use of it on either side they think fit And this I do the more willingly that Monsieur Jurieu has been pleased in several Letters to Persons of Note in England to signify his grief for some mistaken Expressions he had us'd towards me in one of his late Books on that score This Book Avis aux Refugeés had scarce appeared in France and was not yet seen in England when from a Worthy and Noble Person in France since in Chains for his Religion I had an account both of the Book it self of its being concerted with the French Court and that every body in Paris looked upon Monsieur Pellison as the Author of it In return of a letter of mine in answer to his my Friend told me That according to my desire he had employed one that was intimately acquainted with Monsieur Pellison to inquire of him the truth of that common report And that Monsieur Pellison was pleas'd to allow the Person that spoke to him to think him the Author though he would not positively confess he was so adding that it was not fit for him or for the King's service to acknowledge that Book publickly to be his though he were the Author of it In short this Worthy Gentleman gave me both his own and the universally received opinion at Paris That Monsieur Pellison was the Author of the Avis aux Refugées and backed it with a great many probable arguments needless here to be mentioned The Book it self appearing here in London a little after I took occasion to mention what my Friend told me about it and withal upon his Information said I believe I knew the Author meaning Monsieur Pellison with whom I was a little acquainted at Paris Nine Years ago In one word I was the first that ever mentioned in Print That that Book was concerted with the French Court or that it was written by a French Emissary And was very glad to find so Learned and Fam'd a Man as Monsieur Jeurieu to Print a Book some Months thereafter designedly to prove at length what I had but hinted at in an Observator though at the same time was sorry that any French Protestant much more one of Monsieur Bale's parts should be accused for it And this is all I know of an affair that has employed the Press in Holland for near a Year together The other Passage I think my self obliged to clear is about a Letter from King James the First to Doctor Abbot concerning the Canons of Bishop Overals Convocation of which Letter I publish'd an exact Copy in one of the Observators That Learned Dr. Sherlock's late Book of The Case of the Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers Stated and Resolved c. that laid such weight on this Convocation-Book was the occasion of my making some Reflections both upon the Convocation it self and the reasons of its being call'd of its medling with so nice points as the Rights of Kings and why the Canons made therein were never inforc'd with the Royal Assent Several Pamphlets written against Dr. Sherlock since that time has endeavour'd to lessen the Credit of this Letter to Dr. Abbot And some have been so good-natur'd as to question both the truth of it and the veracity of the Author that has oblig'd the World with so important a Paper Though I owe no kindness to some People that have importun'd me on this score Nor shall take any other notice of a personal reflection against me in one of their Papers of my being forc'd to flee my Countrey in the last Reign than to confess it was true and that I glory in having chose to be overwhelm'd in the ruins of my Countrey rather than to have any share in the Causes of them Tho at the same time I must tell that Gentleman I had as great offers from the Late King as any of my quality ever had if I would have accepted them And that I came not to serve the present King out of meer necessity notwithstanding of my being ruin'd in the two last Reigns Since my good Fortune rather than my Merit procured me about the same time an honourable Call from a Crown'd Head abroad to one of the best Posts that a person of my Profession could wish For which so undeserved a favour I shall ever retain the profoundest Veneration and Gratitude to that Generous Prince that offer'd it me However love to truth and the desires of some Eminent Persons both in Church and State to whom I have caus'd it to be shewn has prevail'd with me to leave the Original Letter with Mr. Baldwin for ten Days time together just after the Publishing of this Paper in order to be seen in his hands by all that please to call for it This is one trouble more that for the sake of the Publick must be put upon a Man that has in all times been firm to the interest of England and that has suffered more since this Revolution for Printing Books he thought was written for the Government than all the Booksellers in London have done for Books written against it Thus have I done with this Appendix having written it in a hurry of business and under the dismal apprehensions of the greatest disaster that can befall me on earth And tho I trouble the World with no more Observators yet I promise from time to time in some other way and under some other Title to serve my King and Countrey with my Pen when any emergency falls out that requires it FINIS BOOKS Sold by Richard Baldwin THE First Second Third and Fourth Volumes of Mercurius Reformatus Or the New Observator Containing Reflections upon the most Remarkable Events falling out from time to time in Europe and more particularly in England Christianissimus Christianandus Or Reason for the Reduction of France to a more Christian State in Europe By Marchimam Needham A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammer whereby the Learner may attain in few Months to Speak and Write French Correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is Dark Superfluous and Deficient in other Grammers is Plain Short and methodically supplied Also very useful to Strangers that are desirous to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is added a Short but very Exact English Grammar By Peter Berault Mathematical Magick Or The Wonders that may be perform'd by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning Mechanical Powers Motions Being one of the most Easie Pleasant Useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks Not before Treated of in this Language By J. Wilkins late L. Bishop of Chester The Devout Christian's Preparation for holy Dying Consisting of Ejaculations Prayers Meditations and Hymns adapted to the several States and Conditions of this Life and on the four last Things viz Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Vtrum Horum Or God's Ways of Disposing Kingdoms and some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of them The Royal Flight Or the Conquest of Ireland A New Farce The Folly of Priest-Craft A New Comedy Passive Obedience in Actual Resistance Or Remarks upon a Paper fix'd up in the Cathedral Church of Worcester by Dr. Hicks With Reflections on the present Behaviour of the Rest of the Family The Great Bastard Protector of the Little one Done out of French And for which a Proclamation with a Reward of 5000 Lewedores to discover the Author was publish'd
persuade themselves and others from what happen'd in the last War when the Hollanders made up a separate Peace with France But though it were a just standard of Reasoning to judge of what will be for what has been as it is not yet even as to this former Conduct of the Hollanders These Gentlemen are mightily out And their hopes are laid not only upon the weakest but upon the falsest Foundation Which will appear if they be at the pains to consider the Circumstances that oblig'd the States to enter into that Separate Peace The joint Declaration of War against them by the English and French in the year 1672. was a Thunderclap they least of all suspected and were least of all provided against The House of Orange which had for some Generations together been the Tutelary Genius of their State was now under an Eclipse And through the unlucky Conduct of a contrary Faction the Corner-stone of the Belgick Government I mean the Office of Statholder was abolish'd This paramount-Error brought in a thousand more And their Military Assairs at Land were never in so miserable a condition for want of both Officers and Soldiers that knew any thing in War It was no wonder then that People under this circumstance should rather incline to run the Ship ashore at any rate than to venture to keep her out at Sea in so ill hands But upon their returning back to their true Basis in Restoring the young Prince of Orange to the place his Ancestors had possessed with so much glory and upon their committing to him the shatter'd Relicks of ther Armies they bore up the War with heart enough especially being steel'd with the Prince's admirable Conduct and was so far from patching up a Peace with France though they had wisely done it both for them and Us with England that they continued it without interruption from the year 1672 inclusive till the year 1679. being near seven years Even then the Hollanders had notwithstanding continued the War longer if three unhappy things had not interven'd 1st They were fain to lose their Trade and the rather that the English their Rivals in it was at peace with all the Nations about them And when once Trade quits its wonted Channel for another they consider'd how hard a difficulty it is to bring it back again 2dly The Authority of the Prince of Orange was but in its Infancy and the Seeds of Jealousie that had been sowing by the Emissaries of France for the tract of several years were not yet quite rooted out Thence it was the Peace betwixt them and France was rather from the hot instances of the Populace set a work by the Prince's secret Enemies than the effect of a sedate inclination in the Members that compos'd the States-General But there was a 3d Reason that I believe prevail'd more with the Hollanders to make up that Separate Peace than all the rest and that was The unsteady and suspected measures of England during the whole course of that Affair King Charles they knew too well to believe he would ever heartily espouse the Common Interest against that of France And yet they again and again declared to his Ambassador at the Hague That if he would give them such assurances as they could rely on of his Declaring immediately against France as his Parliament would have had him to do they would continue the War cost what it would It was then King Charles's fault rather than that of the Hollanders that they made up that separate Peace And yet at their making it they made such provisions for Spain and the other Confederates that naturally made way for a general one which followed upon it If we take a view of the circumstances that the Hollanders are in at present especially with an eye to these three Motives which induced them to put an end to the last War by a separate Peace we shall find there is not the least imaginable ground to fear they will fall upon such Measures in this War as they did in the former For First Though by the continuance of this War their Trade must needs be impair'd yet they are in no hazard as they were during the last War of losing it after a general Peace comes once to be concluded Considering that the English who are the only Rivals they have reason to suspect on that head are in the same Circumstances with themselves 2dly The King of England's Interest in Holland as their Statholder was never so great as it is at this very moment The contrary Faction that oppos'd him in the progress of the last War is either now changed for him or become so insignificant as not to be able to counterballance the hundredth part of the other Scale And 3dly That fatal discouragement which attended all the former steps made for the Liberty of Europe from the temper and management of King Charles the 2d is now out of doors And the jealousies the Hollanders entertain'd of that Prince notwithstanding of all his Protestations to the contrary are now buried with him in his Grave By all that I have said and by a great many other things I have not time to say It may appear to any body of common sence that the Hollanders are in no hazard of wearying in this War so soon as some Ill-affected Persons would imagine And no People have given greater proofs of their zeal to the common Safety of Christendom nor taken truer and juster methods to that end than they have done all along But there is one demonstration that shews the hearty Affection and Zeal of the Hollanders to carry on this War and which ought perhaps to put some other People that are as much concern'd as they to the Blush They do at this very moment give to the maintenance of this VVar three times more in proportion to what we do in England as to Imposts on their Trade and Chattels And as to Taxes on their Lands and Houses they pay willingly in some Provinces above the real value and in most about three parts of four Notwithstanding of all which there is no uneasiness to be seen or felt among them upon that score and which is the more wonderful that they depend on Trade for their necessary sustentation which we do not in England But I am afraid to have said too much on this subject of the carriage of King Charles and the Hollanders in the last War Considering how lately that Excellent Person Sir William Temple has given us an Account thereof in his Memoirs A Book upon which we can never place a sufficient Value whether we consider the Matter or the Stile And wherein together with the many secret Hindges on which Affairs of that time did move VVe have the exactest and justest Idea of the present King set forth to the life and such an Idea as agrees with the whole matters of fact and that renders him a Prince of the greatest Justice Honour and Foresight that can be