Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	war_n	4,472	5	6.2395	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49987	An explanation of the Lord Treasurer's letter to Mr. Montagu, the Kings late embassador in France, March 25th, 1678 together vvith the said letter and the two letters of Mr. Montagu, which were read in the House of Commons.	Leeds, Thomas Osborne, Duke of, 1631-1712.; Montagu, Ralph Montagu, Duke of, 1638?-1709.	1679 (1679)	Wing L923; ESTC R12400	7,303	11

AN EXPLANATION OF The Lord Treasurer's LETTER TO Mr. Montagu THE KINGS Late Embassador in FRANCE March 25 th 1678. Together vvith the said Letter AND The TWO LETTERS of Mr. MONTAGV Which were read in the House of Commons Printed in the Year 1679. AN EXPLANATION OF The Lord Treasurer's LETTER to Mr. Montagu I Find so many misconstructions made of the Earl of Danby's Letter to Mr. Montague the King 's late Embassadour in France dated the 25 th of March 1678 that I could not but in common Justice give the World those true Explanations of it which must needs satisfie the Minds of any who have no other than publique designs that there could be no ill-meaning to the Nation by that Letter had it not been written by the King's Command upon the Subject of Peace and Warre wherein his Majesty alone is at all times Sole Judge and ought to be obeyed not only by any of his Ministers of State but by all his Subjects In the first place the Letter shows That what was sent by the Earl was but a Copy of those Proposals which were consented to on the part of the Confederates and sent at the same time by Mr. Secretary Coventry so that it appears the subject matter of the Proposals was not onely known to the Secretaries but approved by the rest of the Council and the Letter also shows the reason why full direction was not then given by the Secretary to conclude upon them because although his Maiestie at that time knew by Mr. Godolphin that those were the Propositions upon which the Confederates would make the Peace if they could yet the formal Powers were not then come from them which should inable the Embassadour in France to perfect the Treaty if the French King should accept it At the same time when this intimation was given to His Majestie of the Confederates desiring the Peace upon those Conditions and as the only means left to Save Holland and the Interest of the Prince of Orange there it was also desired of his Majestie That whilest such formal Powers were preparing to conclude such a Peace his Majestie would please in their behalf to find by some private means the Humour of the French King Whether it were likely he would accept those Propositions when they should be offered to Him as believing it might be some disadvantage to the Confederates to propose them if they should be refused And this was the Motive at their Request and at a time when both Ghent and Ipres were newly taken and Holland under the utmost consternation that His Majesty to comply with them in a Matter which so highly concerned their Safety did think fit for the Secrecy of it according to their desires to have the King of France his Mind known privately and with all the speed possible that He might let the Confederates know the French King's Intentions before they exposed themselves to a Publique Offer of what might be refused This is the true meaning of what is said about feeling the King of France's Pulse and making one Answer to be showed to the Secretary and another to the King himself who endeavoured to send an account into Holland of the French King's Answer as privately and speedily as was possible and unless the Peace had been fully compleated the advantagious terms whereof would have answered for themselves his Majesty thought it might be ill resented by the Parliament who could not presently know either the earnest Request of the Confederates for the Peace their Necessity of obtaining it their Countries being in a readiness for a Revolt nor the goodness of those Conditions which were demanded and which made them unlikely to be granted as is afterwards expressed in the said Letter As to that part of the Letter which sayes In case the Conditions of Peace shall be accepted the King expects to have Six Millions of Livres Yearly for three Years from the time that this Agreement shall be signed between His Majesty and the King of France because it will be two or three Years before be can hope to find his Parliament in humor to give him Supplies after the having made any Peace with France it is so presently followed with this Clause If you find the Peace will not be accepted you are not to mention the Money at all And so soon after that with this farther Clause That you believe this will be the last time that you shall receive any Propositions of a Peace if these be rejected as you believe they will that it cannot be thought to have any dangerous meaning in it nor any great hopes of getting the Money but that it may be the more fully understood you will find by Mr. Montagu's Letter of the 18th of Jan. 1677 1678 which was read in the House of Commons and for which cause I have added the said Letter viz. If the King is for a Warre you know what to do if he hearkens to their Money be pleased to let me know what they offer and I dare answer to get our Master as much again for Barrillon 's Orders are to make the Market as low as he can Now as Offers of Money had often been made both by Mr. Montagu and Monsieur Barrillon for a Peace upon French Conditions and Six Millions of Livres had been offered by Monsieur Barrillon for one Year so Mr. Montagu having informed the King that whatever Monsieur Barrillon should offer he could get as much again his Majesty was resolved to try Mr. Montagu's power in case the French would consent to the Confederates Conditions and in addition to Mr. Montagu's own Interest in moving the French King to give the Six Millions for more Years than one his Majesty thought it might be a good Motive without prejudice to the Parliament or Nation which would have saved their own Money thereby to say it would be two or three Years before he could hope to find his Parliament in humor to give him Supplies after having made any Peace with France The reason why nothing was to be said to the Secretary concerning the Money was because Mr. Montagu in a former Letter to the King himself had desired that he would acquaint no body but the Earl of Danby with the business of the Money so that he found that imployment for the Earl of which he thought fit after to accuse him As I hope I have sufficiently explained those parts of the Letter which are liable to misconstruction viz. The Reasons for the Privacy of the Negotiation for the sake of the Confederates The Grounds upon which the Money was expected The Reason why the Earl of Danby was imployed in that business of the Money and why no mention was to be made of it to the Secretary and the Reasons why his Majesty would not have his Parliament to know it until the Conditions had been perfected of which his Majesty would have then been able to have given a very good account or being broken quite off

never needed to have been known at all I say having spoke to all those Particulars I must likewise crave liberty to observe to you those Parts of the same Letter which do sufficiently show that his Majesty was not in the least to be drawn from the Interest of the Confederates for any private gain of Money to himself For you see the Embassadour had agreed to the Summe but not for so long a time and no man can imagine why Six Millions of Livres should have been refused if either his Majesty had had any ill design at home or would have deserted the Confederates but on the contrary you see his Majesty would make no Proposals but what they desired nor even those without being prest by them to it nor would he have any motion of Money to the French King unless he accepted those very Conditions so desired by the Confederates and if the Confederates could have obtained such a Peace as they desired and his Majesty a good Summe of Money towards defraying those Charges he had been at without taxing of his People I conceive it ought to have been esteemed good Policy as it hath been in the former times of H. 7th H. 8th rather than made a pretence of Treason but how the not doing any of those things excepted against in that Letter and that plainly by reason of the King 's great Integrity to the Confederate Interest which He so evidently prefer'd before His own Personal Advantage should become Treason is beyond my comprehension I hear it is made a great aggravation of this Letter that it is dated five dayes after an Act past to raise Money for an Actual Warre with France But surely every man knowes That an Act to raise Money for a Warre is no Declaration of the Warre That his Majesty hath alwayes the Sole Power of Peace and War in his own hands That His Ministers were never recalled from Treating the Peace at Nimiguen and besides our then ill prepared Condition for a War that of the Confederates was then so low that it was not above a Week after that the French Propositions were made at Nimiguen upon which the Peace was concluded and after which Propositions although far worse ones than what had been Offered by his Majesty but ten dayes before the Dutch would never think of supporting the Warre any longer and so far was his Majesty from agreeing to that Peace which was then made that his Majestie 's Ministers at Nimiguen did not only refuse to sign it but his Majesty used all possible means to engage the Dutch with Him in the Offensive Treaty against France and though He could not procure them to do so He sent an Army so soon as it was in readiness to March to their assistance and thereby had it been possible he endeavoured to have encouraged them to continue the Warre Though a great deal more is to be said upon this Subject I think this enough to convince any man that as this Letter did no harm nor hindred one step of the Preparations for Warre against France so that it intended nothing of ill either to the Kingdom or the Cause of the Confederates and therefore the writer of it can deserve no blame from this Letter if it had not been written by the King's Command and Direction As I have wondred much at those strained constructions I have found upon this Letter so I confess I have not been able to give my self a reason how this Letter should only find the hard fate of being loaded with such Crimes and yet nothing said to those Letters of Mr. Montagu's the Originals of which were also read in the House of Commons which do so manifestly give his Majesty the invitations to expect great Sums from France if he would endeavour it and which does acknowledg this Earl to be so great an Enemy to France above all other men That it was grown a Maxim to the States-men there by one who very well understood the state of this Kingdom That they must destroy his Credit with our King before they could hope to do any good in England And I pray God it be not found too true The Lord Treasurer's Letter to Mr. Montagu the King 's late Embassadour in France March 25 th 1678. My Lord SInce my Writing to you by Mr. Brisbon the Resolves have been altered as to the sending you Instructions as yet for the proposing any thing to the French King for the Particulars which will be consented to on the part of the Confederates and of which this is a Copy will be communicated to you by Mr. Secretary Coventry but you will have no other direction from him about them but onely thereby to be enabled to find the Pulse of the King or his Ministers at least against the time that you shall receive Orders to make the Proposals to him That you may know from whence the nicety of that affair proceeds it is necessary to inform you that for fear of its being ill resented by the Parliament here the King will not make any proposal at all of Peace unless he shall be prest to it by the Confederates And altho by Mr. Godolphin he is sufficiently informed that they desire a Peace upon the Articles sent you by the Secretary yet not having received that desire formally the Council will not Advise his Majesty to let his Embassador propose that which he is not formally impowred to make good and so by staying for that formal Power which by Letter his Majesty is sufficiently inabled to propose the time will be lost for effecting the Peace if at all it can be had To supply this defect then and to prevent the King 's sending again into Holland before he know the mind of France I am commanded by His Majestie to let you know That you are to make the Propositions inclosed to the King of France and to tell him The King will undertake for the seeing them made good on the part of Spain and Holland in case they shall be accepted by him And in your answers you must write the same things to the Secretaries by way only of having felt the King of France's Pulse which you must do to the King as a full answer from the King of France and such an one as his Majestie may depend upon whatever that shall be For the more dextrous management of this Affair the King is advised to show these Propositions to Monsieur Barrillon but not to give him a Copy so that by the strength of his Memory it is expected he shall write to his Master and by that means only are we to hope for an answer to a matter of this vast Importance And consequently you may imagine what a satisfaction we are like to reap from it when it comes I doubt not but by your Conduct it will be brought to a speedy Issue which is of as great Importance as the thing it self there being no condition worse for his Majestie then this