Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A49823
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A French conquest neither desirable nor practicable dedicated to the King of England.
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Lawton, Charlwood, 1660-1721.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing L739; ESTC R20684
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28,805
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32
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I believe if the King of France should promise to protect the Protestant Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal People subject to him justly to establish equal Laws and to see them duly executed we should not take his Word nor would his own Subjects be well pleased It is King William only that is allowed to have a Religion for his several Dominions that may be a Synod-of-Dort-Presbyterian in Holland an Episcopalian in England of the Kirk in Scotland and a downright Favourer of Popery in Ireland as is apparent by the Limerick Treaty and the Pamphlet put out by the Irish Gentlemen concerning the Proceedings of their late Parliament and the Depositiâ—â—â— that are before the House of Lords I have told over our former Conquests somewhat tediously and will add very little about them however I desire the Reader will reflect That the Neighboring Princes because they did not animadvert how much Greatness consisted in Naval Preparations and Trade and because we had not begun to make a Figure in either never thought themselves so much concerned as all the Potentates of Europe will now what becomes of us None of our Neighbors ever help'd Us formerly some of 'em did our Invaders Let the Reader farther reflect that it was not necessary for any of our former Invaders to make such a total Subversion of all our Laws as it will now be for the French King and consequently Composition and Treaties more easily succeeded Battles The former Alterations rather meliorated than overthrew our Constitution They bundled up and refin'd our By-Laws into National Statutes and introduced Forms where the Methods of Justice seemed less articulate And lastly Let it be considered though there are great Divisions amongst us some few for keeping the Prince of Orange others for restoring the King and several for something that they have not yet licked into Form yet all Persons that make the respective Parties of these Divisions will all of 'em joyn together to obstruct a French Conquest There will be such Divisions whenever Men will commit Violence upon the natural and ancient Constitution and I must confess these Divisions are the most fatal Symtom that attends our distemper'd State and may and will certainly subject us though not to a French Conquest to great Calamities and Devastations unless we restore the King I suppose I have sufficiently prov'd a French Conquest to be neither Desirable nor Practicable yet God knows what infinite Mischiefs we may have brought upon our selves by reviving a sort of Quarrel which by the Mercy of God has been so long extinguished A Dispute for Title which has in the days of our Forefathers had so fatal an Effect which has so dismally wounded our State and is left bleeding in the Histories of so many Reigns Because you shall not think I aggravate the Calamities that were occasioned by the Contention of the Two Roses I will only transribe some Passages out of Trussel who is a chast and cautelous Writer and it cannot be supposed his History was written to serve a Jacobite-Turn Page 257. he says There were in the Quarrel of the Two Roses Fourscore Princes of the Blood destroyed and twice as many Natives slain as were lost in the Two Conquests of France Pag. 260. he says In the Battle of Townton there were killed Thirty five thousand ninety and one English-men and of Strangers One thousand seven hundred forty five beside Two hundred and thirty slain the Day before at Ferry-bridge In his last Page his Words are these The total of private Soldiers that perished in these Civil Wars and suffered Punishment of immature Death for taking part of the one side or the other was Fourscore thousand nine hundred ninety and eight Persons besides Kings 2. Prince 1. Dukes 10. Marquesses 2. Earls 21. Viscounts 2. Lords 27. Lord Prior 1. Judge 1. Knights 139. Esquires 441. The Number of the Gentry is uncertainly reported and therefore Trussel omits them but says That for the most part they are included in the Number of private Soldiers set down to be slain to which he says you must add the Number of Six hundred and thirty and eight the total of all the Persons not therein accounted and then there appeareth in all to be slain Fourscore five thousand six hundred twenty eight Christians and most of this Nation not to be repeated says the Historian without grief nor remembred without Deprecation that the like may never happen more He concludes his History with this Saying Pan una Triumphis innumeris potior The whole History of that Quarrel sets before us such apposite Lessons for our Times that I wish all who love England would seriously read and ponder it It is time to draw to a Conclusion I am not willing to prophecy the Destruction of my Countrey and I beseech God Almighty to incline our Hearts to the Things that belong unto our Peace to our Peace in this World and to our everlasting Peace in the World to come I beseech God to incline the Prince of Orange not to forfeit an eternal weight of Glory for a momentary Crown which has nothing of good in it if it is not got by the Acts of Goodness God grant that he may consider it as a more valuable Character to be a Virtuous and a Christian Prince than a Romantick Heroe and God grant that he may be so Wise that his Days may not end in Tragedy I wish he would review his own Declaration and the Memorial of the States and that he would pursue those excellent Ends for which he came for which the States said they lent their Ships and which King James would have comply'd with and is ready to comply with still The King is willing to secure the Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and had not the Confederates made their Quarrel â—â—â—ult by giving way to an unnatural Ambition in the Prince of Orange and dispossessing King James whilst they pretended they formed this Confederacy to repair the Injuries done to them by the French K. JAMES the injured King JAMES would have checked the Growth of France and kept Namur and Mons. He was far from a French League and would have perform'd the part of a true Guarrantee for either the King would have prevented France coming before them by reminding their King of the Treaty of Nâ—miguen or our Arms would have had doubtless success when we had Justice on our side and the Wishes and Prayers of all English-men joyned with the undertaking of our rightful indisputed King How far he was from a French League how unwilling to think ill of the Pr. of Orange and how unwilling to be too much beholding to France his disbelief of all the Advices of d'Avaux and of many of his Friends his Answer to Bonrepos and his refusal to the last of any French Assistance sufficiently witness and as much as he has been beholding to France during his Troubles I am satisfied that