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A28883
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The bounds set to France by the Pyrenean treaty and the interest of the confederates not to accept of the offers of peace made at this time by the French King. To which are added some short reflections; shewing, how far England is concern'd in the restitution of that treaty. Together with a list of the towns and countries that the French have taken since that time.
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1694
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Wing B3834A; ESTC R223870
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54,475
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121
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Custody and Preservation of one of these Places is entrusted with the Spaniards and for that Luxemburg has had too much experience of the Bravery of the Hollanders 't is not his Opinion that his Majesty should adventure his Fame and Reputation upon a Siege where he must fight against whole Armies of which the Garisons are Compos'd So that his Majesty in all likelyhood will be contented with taking a Journey into Flanders to give his Ladies a little fresh Air and if he finds no probability of doing any thing considerable he will return by the way of Dinant under pretence of some Indisposition of Body If the Marshals of Luxemburg de Lorge Catinat and Bouflers are to be believ'd there will be some set-Battles this Year and therefore it was not thought convenient to undertake any this last Winter for fear of Tyring out the Soldiers considering the need of Fresh Men to support so many great Actions Only the French could wish their Cavalry were a little more Numerous and that they could be suppli'd with the Horses which the Jews of Metz engag'd to procure ' em But the strict Order taken by the Confederates was an Invincible Obstacle which they never expected Thus you see what famous Exploits were design'd in the Cabinet at Versailles But if the Confederate Princes do their Duty and act by concert 't is in a manner certain that France will only Triumph in Imagination and that she runs a great hazard of seeing her self in as bad or worse Condition in the end of the Campaign as she was at the Beginning The Confederates with much more reason hope to Ruin her by prolonging the War and to enforce her in despight of all her Flourishes and Bravado's to Surrender back all her Usurpations 'T is a good Omen for the Confederates that France begins the first of all to talke of Peace and that she offers to restore some part of her Conquests 'T is a sign she is weary of the War and that her Conscience upbraids her with Perfidiousness and at the same time ordains her to make restitution of her Usurpations if she intends to be Reconcil'd with her Enemies As for the Confederates who are without Reproach in that Particular they are not yet so Harrass'd by the incumbent Necessities and fatal Exigencies attending a long War but that with far less Prejudice they can still maintain their Resolutions of never hearkning to a Treaty unless that France submit to surrender whatever she has possess'd her self of by Invasion since the Pyrenean Peace ADDENDA THAT it is the general Interest of Europe to have the Pyrenean Treaty restor'd to its full Force has been shewn at large in the foregoing Discourses but how particularly England is concern'd in that Restitution is what will appear by the following Reflections wherein I intend to shew that it is particularly both the Interest and Honour of this Nation never to consent to a Peace till the Affairs of Europe be reduc'd to the same condition as they were when the Treaty we speak of was concluded 'T is agreed on all hands That the Peace of Christendom cannot be lasting and firm unless there be an Equilibrium between the two Greatest Powers For when at any Time one prevails over the other Ambition never wants a Pretence to make War which in its consequence tho at first began only between them Two yet in the end sets all the States of Christendom together by the Ears and involves them in all the Miseries that attends a most barbarous and unmerciful War So long as the Spaniards were at the Top of the Wheel what Troubles Wars and Misfortunes did they not occasion in Christendom by their foolish and immoderate Ambition to Lord it over all the World besides And since the French have succeeded them in their Fortunes and Designs what Barbarities desolations and Cruelties have we not seen and felt This therefore sheweth the absolute necessity of an Equilibrum between France and the House of Austria but the Question is how to come at it Whosoever will be at the pains to consider well what has bin said before must agree That there is no other way left to balance those two Powers but to revive the Pyrenean Treaty which put such reasonable Bounds to those two contending Empires that I dare say it would be very easy to preserve Peace in Christendom did the Christians but mind their own true Interest But perhaps some will say against this How can you affirm that that Treaty did set the Scales even between those two Crowns seeing the French are grown so powerful since that time and the Spaniards on the other Hand have suffer'd such considerable Losses This is a great Objection I confess indeed and that which seems at first a Demonstration that that Treaty was too advantagious to France yet when it is throughly enquir'd into it will appear to be very trivial and of no force at all as I hope to shew before I have done And the better to clear this Difficulty I say first That to pretend to set such an exact Equilibrium between France and the House of Austria as may infallibly secure the Peace of Europe without the concurrence of the other States is a foolish and an idle Speculation and indeed an Impossibility 2. That all that we can reasonably expect is to set France and the House of Austria in such a condition that whenever one of them shall venture to disturb the Peace of Europe it might be in the power of another State to turn the Scales and command them to be quiet And 3. I say That the Treaty concluded at the Pyrenees left France and the House of Austria in such a condition Now to prove this I have nothing else to do but to shew That there was then such a Power in being as was able to keep both the French and Spaniards in Peace and that was England But to set this truth in its full Light I shall only put the Reader in mind of the Causes of the Growth of France in which the Author of the foregoing Treatise is in my Opinion very defective For tho' the great Ability of their Ministers of State the good use of their Mony and the Arbitrary Power of their King may have contributed very much to these Conquests yet after all they owe more to say not all to the kindness of King Charles II. and to the supine carelesness of the English This will appear the more visible if we consider the happy Circumstances that King Charles was in upon his Restoration The Effeminacy Luxury and other Vices which have bin since so common amonst us were then unknown to the English for Cromwel had left him a true sober and warlike Nation Our Seamen having curbed the Dutch they defied and that with Justice all the Powers of the World to contend with them for the Empire of the Sea We were Masters of Dunkirk a very considerable Place and which lying between the French
THE Bounds set to FRANCE BY THE Pyrenean Treaty And the Interest of the CONFEDERATES Not to accept of the Offers of Peace Made at this Time by the FRENCH KING To which are added Some short Reflections shewing How far England is concern'd in the Restitution of that Treaty Together with a List of the Towns and Countries that the French have taken since that Time LONDON Printed for R. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1694. THE BOUNDS OF France c. FOUR Things have contributed to render France so Potent and Formidable as we behold her at this day In the first Place the ill observance of her Word in reference to Treaties of Peace or Truces concluded with other Soveraign States and which she has violated in a little time after the Exchange of the Ratifications which has been the Original of all the terrible Misfortunes that have turmoil'd Europe for above these Thirty Years and which perhaps will hardly end but with the Princes Reign that first began the fatal Disturbance The second Cause of the Grandeur of France was the easiness she met with to give her Ambition its full Swinge by pushing forward to the utmost of their Extent her Exorbitant Pretensions to the Territories and Dominions of her Neighbours with a Resolution to confine 'em within no other Bounds then those of all Europe unless a greater Force oppos'd her The third Cause of her Grandeur is the Arbitrary Power and the Soveraign Authority which the Reigning Price has made himself Master of by degrees by encroaching upon the Liberties of the People and the Authority of Parlaments And the fourth is the extraordinary Means she makes use of to encrease her Teasury and the good use she makes of it through the good Conduct of those who are entrusted with the management of it As to the first of these Causes which is The Violation of Treaties and which we have made choice of for the Subject of this Discourse All the World knows the Condition to which France was reduc'd before the Conclusion of the Pyrenean Peace or to descend a little lower during the King's Minority She could hardly then bring an Army of above thirty thousand Men into the Field and â—ind Mony proportionable to pay ' em For proof of which the Queen Mother has been often heard to say talking Face to Face with her prime Minister Mazarin Good God! where shall we find Men to continue the War and Mony to supply so many pressing Necessities And a little while after did we not see M. de Turenne reduc'd to melt down his Plate and as it were strip himself to the last Farthing to keep his Army from Perishing So hard a thing it was to get Mony from the Court for that many times the Chequer was quire drain'd and utterly unable to pay the Soldiers It may be said that the French Monarchy was supported then by the Cunning and Policy of her Ministers rather then by her own Forces Witness what Mazarin said one day to the King Sir said he in respect of the Treasure Your Majesties Conquests in your Cabinet are without all Contradiction far the greater Number then those of your Armies In a word the Negotiations and Alliances which were made during Mazarin's Ministry and afterwards under the Marquiss of Louvais contributed more to the Aggrandizing France and extending her Limits then the Force of her Arms. France then having extreamly suffer'd during the space of several Years that the War with Spain lasted she was reduced to a lamentable condition by reason of her Teasure's being exhausted and the oppression of her Subjects and it may be said that notwithstanding all the Polities of Mazarin the King was fain to put a good Face upon a bad Matter which is a thing frequently practis'd among the French Tho' at the same time she made a bouncing shew of nothing less then of being inclin'd to Peace a Conduct quite opposite to what she observes at this day And yet the Proceedings of Mazarin made it plainly appear that France had a greater Inclination to it then Spain In a word that Minister had hardly time to bid the Queen adieu so earnest he was to be upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom But some will object against this the Pains that Don Antonio Piemontel took at Paris to perswade Mazarin to hearken to the Propositions of Peace The great number of Conferences which the Cardinal had with Don Lewis de Haro the Delays and Difficulties that occurr'd before the Points of that Peace could be agreed to all which things manifestly prove the contrary and that France was not so low as I represent her to be But I answer that this was only a Master-piece of Mazarin's fine-spun Politicks who made use of all the Shifts and cunning Artifices imaginable to incline Don Lewis and Don Piemontel the Spanish Plenipotentiaries to grant him all those Advantages which he look'd for In a word Experience shews us that he was not deceiv'd since the Project which he had drawn up at Court was follow'd point by point and every way to the Advantage of France The greatest Fault that Spain at that time committed was that she did not make choice of a Plenipotentiary more sharp-sighted and more nimble-witted then Lewis de Haro who was mifinform'd of the Rights which the Princes had who were most remarkably concern'd in that Peace Don Lewis made a World of Oversights in that Negotiation and had committed many more but for the Assistance of M. d' Aigremont whom the Prince of Conde sent away Post out of Flanders to instruct him in many things of which he was ignorant It was to have bin wish'd that for the good and repose of all Europe and for the particular Interests of the House of Austria that Spain had been more circumspect in an Affair of that great Importance wherein the high Dispute was not only about concluding a solid and lasting Peace but the Marriage of the Infanta And I am persuaded that if the King of Spain had had any Idea of good Policy he would have taken juster Measures then he did since it was impossible but he must have foreseen that by that Alliance he went about to lay the foundation of the utter Ruin of the House of Austria Nor did he want any other Example then that of Lewis XIII to teach him that the Matches of the Infanta's of Spain with the Kings of France had bin always fatal to the Spaniards It must be acknowldg'd that the Spanish Court at that time labour'd under a most terrible Blindness that while they were moyling at the Negotiation of Peace and the Marriage of the Infanta one of the two young Infant Princes happening to die there remain'd no more then the Reigning Price to suceed to the Crown and he so young and so sickly that 't was much question'd whether he would out-live the third Year of his Age. Nevertheless the Tidings of that young Prince's death which ought to