snatched the Scepter from the right Owners and Proprietors thereof Nay to such a degree was the Inhospitability of France grown at that time though his Father were thus execrably Murthered before the eyes of the French our King 's own Cozen-german refused him a Retreat that might be secure for his own Person Therefore 't is fit that the English should be disabused once for all by being better informed since France is so far from being assisting or useful unto us upon this Conjuncture that in truth they do seek only to increase our Divisions and Troubles For 't is both their Interest and Maxim so to do which Conduct hath been exactly and hereditarily observed in their Counsels for many Ages together and newly in the last Civil War here since all the Baits which they do present unto us are but so many Apples of Discord which the French Emissaries cast up and down among us purposely to embroil us with our Neighbours or else with one another Next let us consider at present whether we shall find our Accompt better with Spain 'T is evident that solid Reason of State doth totally incline us to leave that other way and you cannot but all acknowledge this to be our true Fundamental Maxim whereby we may keep the Balance in aequilibrio and that our Safety doth most consist in such an aequilibrium why then should we swerve from thence out of vain hopes or quit the Body for the Shadow The Interest of Commerce no way invites us to take part with France and this Truth is so notorious to all the people of England that there is no Eloquence able to perswade them contrary to their own Experience therein The Cause is just and favorable A young * The KING of SPAIN Pupil unworthily oppressed a Peace so solemnly and picusly established as lightly violated by a Process of Cavils and Legerdemain by a Proceeding thereupon full of Surprisals and Violence as well as Pretensions unjustly revived after an Authentick * Vide The Buckler of State and Justice Article 4. Renunciation are so many voices which speak to the Root of our Consciences to call us to that which we owe to Justice Pity good Neighbourhood the Publick Cause of Christendom and our Selves For in this matter is concerned no less than the Case of Royal Successions which France will needs have submitted to the Customs of ordinary Citizens and the Conservation of that Bulwark which is common to all these parts of Europe against this Torrent which threatens the whole Vicinity with a great Inundation and the assuring the Tranquillity of the Christian Republick against an unquiet Nation that will never desist from disturbing of it until their Insolence shall be abated The Foundation then being so solid because we shall in this Opposition have to treat with a Nation that makes profession of Honour and Generosity which hath never yet been accused to be guilty of having violated any publick Treaty and that would rather * The remarkable Integrity of Spain hazzard the loss of their Monarchy than their Reputation the Advantage is both secure and considerable whereas on the account of France we shall appear but as little Accessories and the French will carry us on as the First Motion only according to the rapidness of their Progress by applying us meerly in the course of their Game to their own Ends and thus shall we become the Ministers of their Ambition and be made use of like a pair of Stairs on which they do mean to tread in order to their obtaining the Vniversal Monarchy In fine their Interests if that we are still predestinated to be thus grosly deluded must be the Rule of ours and our future Conduct too and Operations But in taking part with Spain we shall be the Arbitrators of Peace and War and enabled to give the whole weight unto the Resolutions of each Party Then will France consider us with terrour and the apprehension of what our Arms may do and Spain by the addition of our Succours If we do desire Conquests we cannot hope for more lawful ones nor easier Victories than to re-unite by this means our ancient Dominion in France which have formerly been dismembred from the Crown of England But if we shall limit our Designs to the sole establishment of a Peace we may find the Accompt both of Glory and Safety likewise therein since it appears by authentick Letters of Monsieur de Lionn's writing that France is resolved to be content with Reason as soon as ever they do see England fixed to joyn with Spain and the States of the Vnited Provinces So that 't is in our choice whether to make an advantagious War or procure an honest Peace at the first appearance of our preparations in Arms. Whereas on the contrary 't is evident by the Interception of the aforesaid Dispatches that they will despise all manner of Offices and Mediations that are not Armed but rather pursue vigourously their Course whither Fortune shall drive it on so long as they do meet with no powerful Obstacles in the way Therefore because you seem to believe that Spain is reduced to so low a Condition that our Relief would be altogether unuseful to them and serve for nothing but to bring down the Vengeance of France exasperated upon us for God's sake cure your self of this Pannick fear as soon as you can 'T is France endeavours to erect a formidable Power if she finds no Opposition in the approaches thereunto and Spain probably must sink under the burthen unless that Crown be succoured though it is as true also that the Mischief is easily to be prevented if Remedies be applied thereunto in due time and before that the Inconvenience root it self too deep All the Advantage which France hath gained in this last Campaign is no more than an effect of their Address and the over-grown Credulity of Spain rather than of their Valour and Power All the Places which they have conquered in Flanders are but great Countrey-Towns where the People being ever the strongest he that is Master of the Field carries always the Keys of them at his Girdle to enter when he pleases and the winning of one Battel recovers them back again France hath constantly yielded in every thing where she hath found a real Resistence without gaining any thing beyond what the fright of an incommodated Multitude hath holpen them to acquire by such a Surprizing Invasion Spain hath yet great resorts to recur unto provided only they can gain time and the means of making them meet together and thus recover their Spirits We know that she hath made Contracts for considerable sums of Mony and that the Spaniards are now about to put themselves in a way to be able shortly to withstand the strongest Shocks of this War and by the litle Diversion of the Forces of France which we may make without any prejudice to England we can certainly put Spain into a Condition of attaquing
the rest Because thus the French will shut us quite out of the whole Traffick of the Low Countries and will be alwayes in a Condition to drive the English away from thence unless we do resolve continually to keep a Fleet at Sea for the conserving of them If this Design be hollow and visionary it is not less shameful than Airy and full of Injustice We have no manner of Pretension on the Monarchy of Spain nor is it our Genius to whet our spirits to form Castles in the Clouds of Chimaerical Rights What Glory can it be to our Arms to help to oppress a King in Minority of six years old by surprize only because we find him now to be rudely attacqued and unprovided on a frivolous pretext immediately after the French had given the Queen his Mother and his principal Ministers of State at Madrid such solemn Assurances to the contrary as well as at Paris touching the inviolable continuation of a good Peace and a sincere Friendship The manner which Spain hath held and acted with us newly in relation to England when we were assaulted by three powerful Enemies at one time ought to oblige us at least to be deaf to the artificial Allurements of France For although the French have tryed by all the wayes imaginable and with Offers incomparably more advantagious than those which they do make to us at present to the end that so they might have gained the Forces of Spain to unite with them to our inevitable Oppression yet was it never in their power to shake the unalterable Amity which the Spanish Nation have for us by a kind of natural Sympathy which one knows not how better to express than by the Immutability of it whether we do oblige or disoblige them Would it not then be an Ingratitude totally inconsistent with the Honour and the Hospitality of the English temper so soon to forget this Kindness since at the same instant that Spain was the deepliest engaged against Portugal they did notwithstanding openly oppose the Designs of France which seemed to the prejudice of England by refusing them in contemplation of us firmly and with great resolution Passage for those Troups of theirs which they sent to ruine the Bishop of Munster our Ally and Confederate then We cannot complain of any Injurie or Attempt wherein the Spaniards have tampered against England No League nor ancient Treaty doth oblige us to second the Designs of France and we cannot conclude new Alliances with the French to this purpose without directly contravening that Treaty which we have lately ratified with Spain Let us see then what the Herald is to say to the Spaniards that shall be sent to denounce War unto them on this occasion from England or with what Reasons we shall be able to fill a Manifesto which we would offer to the Publick whereby to justifie the Causes of this Rupture Wherefore I leave the Care my Lord to you being that you seem to be the Author of this Counsel to found it well in the point of Justice But pray see that you perform it better and with more grace than the Writer of the Queen of France's Pretensions hath done I say farther yet That this Design is both prejudicial and destructive and that it carries along with it most pernicious Consequences as well in the present time as the time to come For from the very moment that we do break with Spain our Commerce will cease with the effects of all those great Advantages which the Spaniards have * By the Treaty last ratified at Madrid by the Earle of Sandwich His Majestie 's Embassadour there newly granted unto us and the Merchants of this Realm who trade there will justly be confiscated since all the Profit that we draw from thence must on these terms infallibly redound in favour of the Hollanders whilst our Arms do busie the Spaniards in the Low Countreys and the French as they do their utmost against Spain at the same instant will seize their principal Ports into their power and thus become absolute Masters of the Commerce by putting themselves into a Posture to erect a Dominion over the Sea which we can never afterwards be able to resist Not above three years ago France was hardly able to set forth Twenty Ships that is to say Men of War now they have Sixty large Vessels ready furnished and well armed and do apply all their industry and pains in every part to augment the number Could the Ghost of Queen Elizabeth return back into the World again she would justly reproach us who are the Ministers of State here in England for having abandoned her good Maxims by tamely suffering before our eyes a Maritime Power to increase which she so diligently kept down throughout the whole course of her Reign Whereas you are so far from opposing the Growth of this Power that you rather seem to desire England should facilitate the wayes to make it grow the faster and render it yet more formidable than it is by the Acquisition of the Sea-Ports which in conclusion must infallibly bring France to be Mistress of the Commerce of the Indies All the World knows the vast quantity of Money and Arms which the French have accumulated to that End alone out of the richest Purses of that Kingdom I agree to what hath been said before very prudently in this Conference that our Power and Greatness doth principally consist in the matter of Commerce and therefore I conclude even from thence by an unerrable Consequence that Commerce ought to be the chief Object of our Jealousie and that we are bound to be as tender of the Conservation of this Benefit as of the Apples of our Eyes But then we must look far off how to prevent whatsoever may hinder the Progress of Trade or diminish the abundance of this Commerce We have nothing to fear in this particular on the accompt of Spain which applies little towards Traffick and leaveth almost all the Advantages thereof freely to the English in their own proper Ports But if this Interest should fall into the power of an industrious and active Nation and a People covetous of Gain as the French are we are not to expect any share of the Utility or to partake with France therein but rather that they will prescribe the Law of Commerce unto the English according to their own will and pleasure As soon as ever 't is known that we do treat of Conjunction with France one of these two things must necessarily happen either that Spain finding it self uncapable to resist the Union of both Forces will send a Blank to the French King to make such Conditions with them as he thinks best by conceding unto him all their Portion in the Low Countreys or that all the rest of the Powers of Europe justly apprehending so terrible an Union will joyn with Spain to stop the Torrent of our Designs In the first state of the Case then we shall quickly find our selves
the French as well as of defending it self and so shall we reduce France into a necessity of demanding peace Spain is not unprovided of Friends nor Allies The Emperour doth already make a great step in favour of the Circle of Burgundie by taking of it intirely under his protection as a Member of his Body The States of the Vnited-Provinces are not asleep neither as to their own proper Interests upon this Conjuncture and after having tried in vain the sweeter waies of appeasing the Tempest they will not abandon themselves on so pressing an Occasion being that they do see well enough their Safetie depends absolutely upon their Resolution We know that they desire a sincere Alliance with us and that they would make all the progresses necessary towards it could they but discern in us any real disposition not to reject the Offer Sweden which is weary to serve but as an Instrument to the Interests of France to the prejudice of their own Affairs will nodoubt also follow our Motions and the most part whom rather Fear than Love doth tie unto the Motions of France will questionless take off the Mask as soon as ever they shall see a considerable Power on foot to Protect them France is a Body replete with ill humours which will easily degenerate into an universal Corruption when the French are never so little shaken The Jealousie alone which our Fleet will give them must needs oblige them to employ the better part of their Troops to furnish their Maritime Coasts and consequently render them the weaker every-where else Besides it is plain that in this last Campaign in which they thought to swallow all up at a bit they made all the Force that they were able and yet were not able notwithstanding to bring into the Field above Fourty thousand men after having drawn out of their Garrisons and the Provision of their Towns all the Strength almost that they had there whereby their Frontiers were left naked Judge then to what point they 'l be reduced when they 'l be put both to furnish their Places on all sides and divide their Troups too in Alsatia Italy the County of * or Catalonia Rossillon and Flanders and that in all these Countries they 'l meet with Enemies to fight against as well as a multitude of Male-contents at home no less formidable within the Center of their own proper Bowels For thus they can build no longer upon the strength of their Army which is destroyed very near already by Labour Sickness Diseases and want of Pay Wherefore they must begin anew and with fresh charges raise more men because the ill usage which their Troups have received doth render them so barren of Souldiers that they are compelled to seek Recruits and as it were beg Supplies with vast sums of Money from other States And this Imaginary Fountain of Treasure of theirs which here is thought to be unexhaustible will be found to have a bottom when our Fleet doth disturb their Commerce the Credit which till then they may get with the Partisans by means of oppressing * Which is the same thing as our Banquer Farmers of the Customes the people with Tax upon Tax will fail The men of business and the Natives being pressed to unsupportable extremities will quickly either cast off the yoke or sink under the burthen and the weight of those Impositions Their incapacity to hold out any longer is well enough seen by the impossibility wherein they now find themselves to make good what they have promised the Portugueses whose Friendship hath been formerly so necessary unto them And if Spain as 't is hoped that it may do once shall take a resolution to be delivered of this intestine War with Portugal by some Accommodation the Spaniards will soon be in a condition of being useful to their Allies feared by their Enemies But if we do suffer the Designs of France to pass by undiscovered impunitively to permit them to conquerthe Low Countreys towards the total oppression of Spain then I cannot but avow that France thus will be most terrible unto us And in case at present we are afraid of drawing their Revenge on our heads then shall we have much juster cause to apprehend the future effects of their Ambition Wherefore at the Bottom of all these Reasons it seems to me that by the same Principle of apprehension which you have of the French we are obliged to oppose these Progresses of theirs which if not stopped would yet render them more redoubtable If so be that we do fear them in the Field having so many Friends that do tender their Alliance unto us our fear were much more justifiable if after the rejecting of all those Offers we alone were exposed to their mercy or that our moderation could exempt us from their out rages but on the contrary rather give the French better Conveniencies of putting these Violences in Execution should such an insipid Counsel prevail for they 'l never consider us farther than we do make our selves Considerable They have Printed Books of their Pretensions to England Experience teaches us even to this day that 't is enough with them to ground a War without giving them any other cause of Hostilitie That we have * Scotland and Irleand Kingdoms belonging to this Monarchy which may very well fit their Designs which is enough to invite the French to attaque them whil'st England is weak History likwise doth shew us how that all our Alliances with the house of Burgundie have still been glorious and useful and all those with France unfortunate prejudicial 'T is ever more dangerous to go out of the beaten Road to travel through By-lanes unknown and dark untried Paths You 'l easily agree with me that the Union of the Vnited Provinces with France is the thing of all others which we ought the most to apprehend as fatal to our Crown and therefore by consequence nothing can be more safe for England than to disunite them Heaven furnishes us now with an occasion of doing that which we shall never be able to recover again should it be neglected if we do suffer it to slip away we shall bring that Republick into a necessity of tying this fatal Knot with France stronglier than ever it was fastned before This Union therefore above all others must be the Object of our Care as it hath of late demonstratively been the cause of our misfortunes I conclude then upon solid Foundations without hesitating That in the first place we must necessarily take part in this War either with Spain or France and next that we must not engage blind-fold without taking right Measures with those who have the same Interest that England hath in the Case thirdly that we must knit our Party firmly together and get all the Advantages we can in this Treaty with Spain as well as all the Security possible with other States without yet exacting from Spain things which are intolerable unto them whom the loss of the Low-Countries for fear of being reduced by the Exorbitancy of our Demands may plunge into a necessity of according to whatever France shall require This Discourse being ended I observed by their Countenances that the two Persons who spake first applauded this Opinion and that the third man was much shaken They had some farther speech together but so softly that I cannot well collect the sense of it after which all the Company embraced and gave one another their hands with a reciprocal promise of secrecy as welâ—â—s an Union in the same Design And thus they separated each a several way with evidence of great satisfaction friendship And as soon as ever theywere gon I slipped back insensibly again into the former obscurity near the Bed without being seen by any of the Domesticks And thus whilst these particulars werefresh in memory I did set them down in Paper and all that I could remember of their Discourse only to satisfie my own Curiosity and the Cariousness of my Friends THE END