Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A27543
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The present interest of England stated by a lover of his king and countrey.
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Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing B2072; ESTC R5304
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27,311
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42
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keep Magazines of goods ready for transportation to other Countries according to the encouragement of Markets abroad are great increasers of Trade and Navigation and so of riches as appears not only by Holland which is a Commonwealth but also by St. Mallows under the Monarchy of France and Leghorne under that of Tuskanie the first for its bigness which contains but thirty six Acres of ground being the richest City in France and the latter all the places in that Princes Dominions which compared to former times can truly be said to flourish Eleventhly Making business at the several Offices for Custome and Excise and in all other places as easie and as little vexatious as may be in employing such persons of honesty integrity and discretion as will not abuse their trusts no more in insolency than falseness is a great encouragement to Traders as also making passing in and out of the country by Strangers and Travellers untroublesome is a motive and inducement to them to satisfie their curiosity in visiting the Kingdome and spending their money in it For to object that the incivilities travellers meet with in going in and coming out of France hinders no resort thither is more than can be proved besides that admit it is not yet the like usage in any other country would be a prejudice to it and would be surely so to France were it not the humour at present of this giddy age to run a madding after them and certainly the facility that is in doing business in Holland and the unmolested egress and regress that Strangers and Travellers meets with there is a great benefit to them Twelfthly Would the Trading Corporations choose after the example of London and according to their own Interests and reason of their institution their members for Parliament out of themselves the Interest of Trade would probably be better understood and faithfullier prosecuted than it is and it cannot but be a prejudice to Commerce that they generally send Courtiers Country Gentlemen or their Recorders to Parliament who will be sure to prefer their particular Interests before that of Trade it being natural to all men to seek their own profit before that of others Thirteenthly As England hath some beneficial Customes which other Countries are strangers unto so it hath others as prejudicial not known to Forein Governments as the great expences of Corporations undoing many Citizens and Townsmen a Freeman of York or Southampton not being able to go through all their Offices according to Custome and expectation in the first under seven or eight hundred pound and the latter six or seven hundred which may well be judged one cause why York is so poor and the other thrives no better and the like observation may be made of the most of the other Corporations The great charge of Sheriffs of the Counties hath decayed if not ruined many Families and the expence of Barristers at their Readings is a provocation to them to increase their sharking and growing upon the people all which bad effects are to be wished were remedied so far as taking away these unnecessary expences will do it for I am not of their opinion who think popular feastings and good fellowship called Hospitality to be the Interest of the Nation because it consumes the growth of the Countrey but on the contrary that it is altogether against it For besides the provoking of the Judgments of God by such inordinate living Excess weakens mens bodies spends vainly their time dulls their wits and makes them unfit for action and business which is the chief advancer of any Government and to supply the want of people in any Land by a riotous wasting the growth of it is at best but a bad effect of a bad cause and against that rule which forbids doing evil that good may come of it and therefore the true Interest of any Country is by immunities priviledges and libertie of Conscience so to encourage and encrease the number of people as they may rather be in a sober way of living too many than to few for their provisions and we do find that in former times when Hospitality was in England much greater than at present and that merely in the expence of their own provisions without French dishes or much of either Spanish or French Wines the Country was poor to what it now is and that it hath been the encrease of the Trade and People of that Nation by Liberty and Priviledges indulging tender Consciences that hath advanced them And as to the retrenching of expences this seems to be agreeable to the principles of that wise and great States-man Sir Walter Rawleigh who saith that taking away all superfluous charges and expences as well in Hospitality as in lessening the fees allowances and wages of Ministers of little necessitie as also of pensions rewards entertainments and donaries to be a laudable parsimony used by the Romans and other well-governed States But fourteenthly imposing upon Conscience in matters of Religion is a mischief unto Trade transcending all others whatsoever for if the Traders and Manufacturers be forced to flye their Countries or withdraw their stocks by vexatious prosecutions the having Natural Commodities in a Countrey or no great impositions upon them will signifie little to the Prince or People And Liberty of Conscience is not only the Common Interest of all the Nation but especially of his Majesty in that First By it he obligeth all his Subjects equally to him no man having just cause to be offended at another mans liberty since he enjoyes the same himself and more particularly he obligeth all the Non-consormists to him who can have no other Interest than his that in grace and favour gives them Liberty securing thereby in an especial manner all the several perswasions from agreeing upon any thing to the prejudice of their Common friend whereas the Papists have as others may have other Interests And although a Prince arrived to that height which is above Envy and all sear from abroad may sometimes adventure in imposing in matters of Religion it is not in any kind excusable in them that are not in such a condition but that stands in need in reference to the potency of their Neighbours of the hearts of all their people especially in this age when the large experience the world hath had of the insuccessfulness and evil of it hath made even in the greatest Potentates a general abatement therein and now when it is too late they grow weary of their rigour The last Pope as is affirmed having disswaded the French King from attempting Geneva when he thought to have obliged the Church of Rome by reducing of it And oh that England whilst they have time would be warned by the miseries of others to avoid the rock they have split upon Had the former Kings of Spain used in any degree the lenity that that Crown at present practiseth in their Netherlands where now a known protestant may obtain his freedome of several
the same in hitting upon his true Forein Interest in that triple League of which he was the Author and into which he hath with so much wisdome and prudence lately entered for opposing all growing greatness by Sea or Land in the French they being already too potent for their bordering Neighbours so constantly and effectually to adhere thereunto in joyning with all others to that end and particularly with Spain with whom England hath a much more profitable Trade than with France is according to present affairs the same For should France by the acquisition of those convenient Provinces and ports of the Netherlands become Competitors with England in Trade to say no worse of them they would in a short time make good Sir Walter Rawleighs Character of them in being false insolent and covetous neighbours Secondly As England and the Vnited Netherlands which are in ordinary discourse understood by the name of Holland that Province by way of eminence giving denomination unto the whole are the two great Masters of Naval strength and seated with such advantages for assisting each other that whilst a true intelligence is preserved betwixt them it is not in nature for all their enemies combining together to prejudice either of them so it is the true Interest of England to maintain a firm and perpetual friendship and union with them and that First Because as the Netherlands are naturally strong so they are above all other Countries fitted by situation for the use of England to give check to any aspiring Prince and be as invincible bulwarks against the all devouring designs of the French King in being able at any time with the countenance of England to destroy him at Sea who being brought down there and so in his Commerce will soon abate of his power at Land and surely nothing can be more for the security of Europe than to reduce the Naval strength of that threatning King within former bounds for the world found that untill the Spaniard lost his Maritime force in the year 1639. which he never after recovered he maintained his design for the Universal Monarchy very vigorously and never sunk till then Secondly Because it is equally their Interest with England in reference to their Navigation to keep the ballance betwixt the Northern Kings and Sovereigns not suffering any of them to engross that Sea because Naval Commodities coming thence neither of them can be safe longer than the Sea remains divided among several Princes and States whose general Interest it can never be to deny them necessaries for their shipping the chief walls of their several Countries or a general Trade with them as a Monarch he being sole Master of the whole would peradventure in some cases judge it his and presume to refuse them all accommodations and this principle the States of Holland have wisely in our dayes several times owned as in the years 1643. in siding with the Crown of Sweeden when the Danes would had not the States assistance been in the way have run them down at Sea as also on the contrary in the year 1658 in taking part with the Danes when the Swedes had otherwise done the like by them by which means both the Crowns are preserved and kept within tolerable limits and bounds Thirdly Because that as Providence seems to have placed them with conveniencies for joyning with England in keeping all other Maritime Princes or Powers in order so without any capacity of being dangerous to their Neigh-Neighbours their Constitution being such as will not well admit of any further acquists Fourthly Because as England and Holland are of one and the same Religion save in some Ceremonies so it would be of great incouragement and countenance to all the Protestant Countries to have a firm League betwixt two such for midable Powers of their own belief and as great a trouble and disturbance to all the Popish Counsels Fifthly Because the world having had such large experience of the happy success of their Conduct in being principal Instruments in preventing the House of Austria in their grand design for the universal Monarchy and consequently in the propagation of the reformed Religion as well as at several times in preventing both Dane and Sweed from either of them devouring the other it were surely high impolity as well as in some degree ingratitude to suffer such useful instruments and allies to whom this Generation is so much obliged for their wise and excellent management of the general Interest of these parts of Europe to be destroyed These States I know have many enemies some envying their Trade and Riches others their revolt from the King of Spain as of bad example and the Church of Rome their established National Religion as that which is past shaking but because none of these arguments can be plausibly made use of against them by the Papists who dreads the conjunction of England with them nor by those Princes and States who assisted them in their revolt the grand reason for subducing of them is made the greatness of their Trade which being destroyed would be divided amongst their Neighbours loading them sometimes untruly with accusations of unjust dealings exactions and falseness to which I shall only answer this that although I have no cause to become an Advocate for them from any advantages or benefit received yet having travelled their Countries observed their Manners and read their Disputes and Transactions with other Nations I think it but an Act of Justice to acknowledge that in the generality of their Morals they are a reproach to some Nations and particularly in so little using that art of over-valuing their Commodities in their selling to France who so shamefully use and practise it and as to their Treaties and Alliances after which I have been inquisitive I have sometimes found them wrongfully charged with breach of Articles and do not find cause to accuse them of having been in the observance of Treaties less candid or faithful than other Countries and I cannot think their Trade or Wealth although I believe that Holland singly taken is the richest spot of ground for its bigness that ever was since the Creation to be a good or honest foundation of a quarrel for their Commerce being alone the effects of Industry and Ingenuity it is no reason for any to be angry with others because they exceed them in these Virtues but besides that the destroying of the Netherlands would be the shaking the safety of these Northern Regions the increase of Trade to other Countries so much promised by some in their destruction would surely fail for were Trade ruined in Holland as less cannot be the effects of Conquest and Slavery the example and emulation of their Trade which hath been the great increase of it in other Countries being taken away and Trade fallen to a sort of people of less concern for it men would grow lazy and weary of Commerce every one thinking they did well so long as they were upon equal