Treaties and in case of a refusal by an authentick and general Decree recall their Forces and with those very Troops that are so well Disciplin'd and those they have already go themselves and execute that which France refuses them and pull down those stone Tables which he has set up Besides let the Lords of that Republick consider that the more Souldiers they lend to France the more Men they lose whose hearts are insensibly alienated from their own Country by Death by Offices by Pensions by Mariages and some by the Change of Religion and these last are young Vipers which will one day gnaw their own Mothers bowels I know that the Switzers with divers others have some years since fear'd the Forces which France has to make it self dreaded allways kept in readiness after Peace and after the Truce also which Forces made it to speak with Confidence and required nothing but with threatnings being the only Prince in Europe that did see himself in a Condition to Undertake and to Act before others were in a Condition to Defend themselves which made him to be fear'd by his Neighbours and procur'd him Alliances but particularly that of King James with which he thought himself sufficiently strong to overcome all Europe beginning as I have already said by the United Provinces I doubt not but all these Considerations might have a great influence over the Cantons and oblige the Switzers to grant to France that which perhaps they had not done at any other time but now the storm is blown over the Cause of that Pride with which the King did threaten being vanish'd into smoak the fear ought to cease also and there ought not to remain any consideration capable to retain the Switzers under the Rod of Lewis the XIVth Let them return to their pristine Liberty and to their right Interest Let those Gentlemen know that Kings are Great no longer than they are happy and that they are fear'd no longer than their good fortune lasts I therefore maintain that that Imperiousness with which France was us'd to draw advantages from the Cantons is at an end now that it finds it self over-whelm'd from all sides that all its Alliances on which it founded all its new Usurpations are vanish'd and that at this present he has almost as many Enemies as there are Princes in Europe If they have not yet all declar'd they will not stay long they only wait to see the Dance begin to joyn themselves with the Allies as we have lately seen the Republick of Liege which has scorn'd its threatnings and embrac'd that Party which it apprehended to be the most advantageous and the most necessary for its State. Which sufficiently shews the small regard that it had at present for the French King who is no longer in a Condition of doing any great Damage in an open War since England has turn'd the Muzzle of her Cannons against him and that the Prince on whose Alliance he so strongly built his hopes is no longer in a Condition to do any good or hurt to Europe for in lieu of succouring his Allie he himself stands in need of him he drains France the Calf in time will kill the Cow with drawing her too hard it is a new Charge to Lewis the XIV and that Unfortunate Prince sees himself on the brink of a Precipice which by a special Grace from Heaven he may yet avoid by retiring into some Convent The Laudable Cantons ought to make other Reflections and have other Considerations at present than they formerly had they should too lift up their Eyes towards England and behold His Britanick Majesty William the IIId as their Friend and Allie professing the same Religion and who during His Reign will make it a point of Generosity and of Honour to Succour them against all the Assaults of the French King. If they declare themselves both through the Tye of Communion and that of Esteem which that Great Prince has for them even His great and generous Designs ought to serve to make them return to their ancient Rights and Liberties cause their aincent Limits to be made good again for greater security but then they ought not to remain quiet all the while with their arms folded but labour with all their power and assist to bring about so great a good and advantange which the Heavens offers them To that purpose they should Exemplarily punish all those Mercinary Persons whose hands and their Honours have been defiled with the French Money Incessantly cause their Forces to return which are in the French Service in case of disobedience declare them Rebels and Confiscate their Means oblige those Fathers who have Children there to call them home on great Mulcts never to admit to any Employ nor Dignity either in Church or State all such as shall contradict these Orders and never cease 'till the Fortresses are demolish'd and Burgundy the French County Alsace and Lorain restor'd to their ancient Masters and Soveraigns that they may be as so many Bulwarks to the Cantons all which they can easily do in this Conjuncture which at this present so favourably offers it self and which they ought not to let slip seeing there is at this present between the Protestant and the Catholick Cantons so good a Harmony and firm Union that the Pope is wholly inclin'd to cause those of his Party to keep it strictly as a neecessary good for the quiet of Christendom and the safety of Europe as well as to abate the Pride of France All this will happen in Declaring for the Emperor and Empire I come now to Spain formerly their Soveraigns Govern'd from within their Closets a good part of the World but since Philip the IId its great Power has began to decay and that of the Kings of France to increase at the same time that that of the Catholick Kings decreased I shall not seek after the Causes of it because that is beside my Subject I shall only say by the by that the Liberty of Conscience in France has much contributed to its Elevation and that contrary-wise the privation of it in Spain has caus'd there great Evils and the loss of Trade which is the Soul of States and Kingdoms The Marriages which the Kings of Spain have Contracted with France have been so many Levens of Discord and of War which have always prov'd very hurtful to Spain and not to go back any further than to the late Queen who was a French Woman as much by inclination as she was by Birth who by the subtle and dextrous Counsel of the King her Uncle's Ambassadors had always some new business to propose to the King her Husband who most tenderly lov'd her By those means that Princess had acquir'd a great ascendent over the King's mind sometimes prejudicial to the good of his Kingdom for whose prosperity she had not all the Consideration she ought to have had for having no Children to Succeed to it and still in fears that remaining
are as honest as themselves so that it will not be difficult for the French to impose upon them but as to Europe we are now in a time that no Prince will have any Alliance with France much less with any of its Princesses as Wives seeing there is general complaint of them for having caus'd Disorders in all the States they came to The United Provinces are highly concern'd to keep low the French King to take from him all desires of molesting them nor to go so far towards them as the Conquest of the Netherlands of Spain It was always the aim of Lewis the Great according to the advice of Mounsieur de Sulli formerly Ambassador of France into England in the time of Henry the IV. who gave him to observe that the conjunction of the United Provinces with France was the only means to restore it to its ancient Grandeur and to render it Superior to all the rest of Christendom Formerly the French Kings had their folly fix'd on Italy believing in imitation of the ancient Romans that it was the Gate they were to pass through to attain to the Universal Monarchy but having found that way too Thorny and that Country having frequently been the Church-yard of the French they have grown weary of it and have turn'd themselves towards the Low-Countries where hitherto Lewis the XIV has succeeded better and he had found out a means to continue there his Progress if the Heavens had not prevented it by the change in England I know that the United Provinces had had nothing to fear if the Netherlands of Spain had been in a condition to maintain themselves with their own strength or if the late Kings of England had had the same Sentiments which Queen Elizabeth had and if Charles and James the Seconds had said to Monsieur Barillon that which that Queen said to Monsieur of Sulli That neither France nor England nor any other Prince had any thing to pretend to the Netherlands that she should not suffer that the King his Master should have any thoughts that way Perhaps the Lewis D'Ors were not currant in those Days in that Great Princesses Court as they have since been and that that Princess did better understand her own true Interest than divers Kings who have succeeded her have done But thanks to Heaven those Kings are pass'd and God has at this present seated on the Throne a King who understands very well his Interest and that of the Nation much better than did his Predecessor and who following the Traces of that Great Princess was no sooner got to the Government but he sent back Monsieur Barillon to tell his Master that he had nothing to do in the Netherlands and that he would prevent him from any further Usurpation in those parts The Elevation of that Great Prince on the Throne of England is a fatal Blow to the greatness of Lewis the XIV we must have so much Charity as to confess it but at the same time it produces the Quiet and Repose of all Europe it is a Bit clapp'd in the French Kings Mouth which retains him from a running so far as to the United Provinces and that shelters them from all his Insultations and from all his Threatnings and furnishes them at the same time with Means to resist him vigorously and to clip his Wings so short that he may not fly any more beyond his just bounds it is a bitter Pill which he is forc'd to swallow and which will make him to disgorge and to re-establish those bounds which he had remov'd during his Neighbours weaknesses in a profound and universal Peace The United Provinces as well as divers other States find themselves deliver'd now from that danger that threatned them and it is now their turn to speak aloud finding themselves assisted by so powerful an Allie as England they may demand the Restitution of all the Places of the Spanish Netherlands which have been taken from them since the Peace of the Pireneans because those places serve to preserve them and as bars that puts a large Territory betwixt them and so dangerous a Prince besides that the damage they have sustain'd in their Trade is very considerable and gives them cause of great pretensions France has supplanted and deceiv'd them in divers occasions and it has endeavour'd to lull them asleep especially in the last place by the Count d'Avaux its Ambassador through vain promises which Father Limojou the French King's Almoner call'd Illusory and in which there was no sincerity nor good Faith as we have seen in all his Proceedings after the Peace of Nimeguen and that it has been but a continual Usurpation That this King might the longer and with more safety enjoy those Places that he had Usurped a Truce was patch'd up for Twenty Years during a full Peace which he likewise broke in few Years after After he had Fortified those Conquer'd Places made his Alliance with James the II. and destroy'd by an unheard of Cruelty which is natural to him the Protestants in his own Kingdom as he assures by his Declaration of the revocation of the Edict of Nants that he had made that Truce but in order to destroy them notwithstanding all the Protestations to the contrary which the Count d'Avaux had made to obtain it and to deceive with more ease in the opinion that after he had made an end with those Protestants whom he accus'd of having Dutch Hearts and Intelligences with them 't was to that end that the seisure tended which was made of all the Books and Papers belonging to their Consistories throughout the whole Kingdom to know the Sums they had sent into Holland during the War and seconded by the King of England then Reigning he should over-run the United Provinces and leave for a time those of the Spaniards considering them always the only ones that could cross his Designs and hinder him from making his great Conquests over Europe But now Fortune has turn'd her back to him and by the event we find that he has not cast up right and that his Most Christian Majesty had not reckon'd on the Elevation of the Prince of Orange to the Crown of England by that fall of his Ally who has broken all his Measures and destroy'd his Alliances open'd a way to the States to attack him in his own Hold and to reduce him to Guard his own Kingdom no longer to think but to defend himself it is no longer now the time of the Peace of Nimeguen which was made upon its consideration but through the Treachery of France as the baseness with which it has observ'd it as well as the Treatises of Trade shew us sufficiently and that the King had quite another aim than the States-General had propos'd to themselves at the conclusion of that Peace and afterwards of the Truce Seeing that the King has violated all Trading and declar'd War to the United Provinces on the frivolous pretence and on the account of
at least permit the raising in their Territories a like number of Men by the Emperor and his Allies it being pre-suppos'd that a State can never be counted Neuter so long as it furnishes Forces to one of the Parties that are in Wars together besides such a Neutrality is of evil consequence to the others that pretend to the same There are but very few States that are not glad to see their Neighbours weaken'd that they may draw advantage from their Disorders and get to themselves the Trade and to see them from a secure place ruine one another while their Neuter Subjects enrich themselves and improve by the spoil as the Archbishop of Mentz did think to do if he had not been cheated by France to his great sorrow he has made tryal of Lewis the XIVth's Maxims who has no sooner laid his finger on a place but that he endeavours to thrust in his whole body and to drive from thenee the Lawful Lord. Though all has known this yet divers hitherto have been surpris'd with it they call out for help when they thiink themselves lost as we have seen in divers little States which he has appropriated to himself and he had done the like to Geneva had not the Laudable Cantons oppos'd themselves to it The Switz perceiving that his most Christian Majesty did by that design to smooth a Path for himself into their Country and into the States of the Duke of Savoy if they durst but have stirr'd never so little after that Conquest I now pass to the Cantons of the Switzers by reason of their Proximity to the Empire and Alliance with the Emperor they have no cause of being better satisfied than many others are of Lewis the Great if they would but return from that blindness wherein they are and make some Reflections on what has pass'd only since his Reign how that he amuses them on the one side while he is undermining of their Union on the other together with their Liberty and their Power incompassing them so close on all sides as if he would so girt them in that they should not be able to stir themselves His Design is to make them Tributary not of Money but of divers thousands of Men when he has occasion for them and when they should be of most use to him to that particularly tends the Usurpation of the French County which was formerly their Barr the Fortresses of Hunning and of Crensack and so many other Forts and Bridges which the King has caus'd of late to be built round their Countrey It is that way do the Lewis d'Ors tend which the French Ambassador does so freely scatter about in the Cantons and so many fair promises and French Compliments with which the Lords are fed to rock them asleep but in the mean time I humbly desire that those Gentlemen would make a serious Reflection on the ill Treatment and Contempt lately put on their Ambassadors and by that they shall judge whether they have any great cause to reckon on and to trust to the Friendship and Promises of that King and let them not flatter themselves if the King could have made them submit to the French Yoak long since had he done that business because he well knows the need he has of them that the Cantons can supply him with a great number of good Souldiers and that he can build and reckon on their Alliance I know that in Switzerland as well as elsewhere there are Mercenary Spirits that would willingly Sacrifice their Country to their proper Interests who promise much to France without considering well what they do and if the King had enter'd into Germany as he had purpos'd to do as I have before mention'd the Cantons had had great cause to fear that divers Towns whose Magistrates had been brib'd had follow'd the fatal Example of Strasbourg To this purpose the King has always endeavour'd to divide them in their hearts as well as in their Religion But some will say that Things have not happen'd so and that they are still in a good Condition I grant that and I answer that the pass'd danger ought to render us wise for the future the Swallows know their times why should Men neglect theirs Wherefore above all the Switzers ought not to let slip so fair an Occasion by which they may set themselves at rest for ever I Conjure them to it by that which they hold most dear in the World their Liberty Religion their Children and their own Preservation let them remember they are born free that they depend but on God alone and on their Valour and that they ought to maintain themselves in those fair Priviledges which their Ancestors have acquir'd to them by their Swords and their blood being arriv'd at the moment in which they may preserve them they ought not to fall asleep at the sound of the French Gold it is not with this as with the Tide which returns every day and it may be that England shall never again be Govern'd by a King replenish'd with such good Sentiments and that shall be so well fix'd to the General Interests of all Christendom as is that Prince who Reigns there at this present It is a good fortune which must be taken hold of by the foretop for fear she flyes away It is not to be doubted but that at this very present the French Ambassador does indefatigably Labour with the Cantons and that he offers much more than his Master designs to perform and he fails not to tender also the Arrears due to them provided the Cantons will permit the raising of new Forces or only accept of a Neutrality As if the King did offer them any thing more than their own which he ought to have pay'd them long since I very well know that divers Persons whose eyes this Reimbursement causes to be open would willingly grant what the King requires of them in the belief that they might observe a Neutrality with that just as if the Emperor had granted it and at the same time permit Forces should be given to his Enemy which would be two things very incompatible and which no Monarch would ever endure if he were in any Condition to prevent it Wherefore I once more repeat that the Cantons ought to make serious Reflections on the present State of France in particular and on that of Europe in general and rouse up from that dullness and Mercenary humour in which they are kept in the fear the French King has that the Switzers should awaken on the sudden and open their eyes to their true Interest It lyes at present but on a strong and generous Resolution to get out of all dangers prevent ever relapsing into them again and set themselves in a Condition to depend on none but themselves To this purpose they ought to joyn themselves to the Empire and then require from the King that he should demolish those Fortresses which he has caus'd to be built contrary to former