Treaties can be reckoned which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmed by Oaths and Sacraments and contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Tyes of Bloud and Marriage Before a Breach complained of or a War declared they invaded the Territories of an Infant King Have they not by Addresses and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavoured to corrupt most of the Ministers of State in Europe How well they have kept the Articles of Peace concluded at Westphalia and Nimmeguen the Emperour King of Spain and Princes of Germany can tell you And can you prudently hope that the future Practices of the Most Christian King will be more just than his former He that hath broken thorow so many Obligations Alliances and Treaties will he not do so again Be assured Sir you cannot anchor any faith or confidence in the Alliance or Friendship of France for France is a floating Island and no Terra firma It 's prudence to keep an Enemy at the Swords point and not to suffer him to come within you The Spanish Dominions are the Fountain from whence you draw a great part of your Traffick and by consequence your Riches The Netherlands are the Out works of England if they are taken you are weak and dismantled And let me tell you Sir the day of the Ruine of Flanders is the eve of the Subversion of England If the Vnited Provinces should be brought under the subjection of France it would be a thing of that dreadful consequence that the very thoughts of it must needs raise the bloud of all true English men They are so scituated that several of the greatest Rivers in Europe not onely run thorow their Country but disembogue into the Ocean within their Precincts If the French make themselves Masters of the Rivers as it 's their designe and endeavour will they not in a short time bring all the Havens and all the Inhabitants bordering upon the Sea under the same subjection The Sea-ports without the Rivers and the Rivers without the Sea-ports being altogether useless if they be reduced under the Obedience of the French their Country will be the Nursery of his Sea-men and in all other respects the support of his Naval strength If they must be Slaves will it not be some satisfaction to them to lend a helping hand to bring their Neighbours and in truth all Europe into the same condition with themselves The conquering of the Vnited Provinces is not onely a fair step but it 's the best part of the way to the Universal Monarchy They being conquered the Spanish Netherlands will of course fall into their hands being the Key which opens the door to the Throne of that Monarchy And if you do not act vigorously with the rest of the Confederates the Most Catholick King will be enforced to take new Measures and break with you I need not use many words to make all England sensible of the sad consequence of a Spanish War 1. The seizure of all your Merchants Estates amounting in the whole to a vast sum 2. The loss of your Trade with them which of all others is the most beneficial to England and without which your Woollen draperies must lie upon your hands and half of your Weavers and Spinners c. go a begging 3. The interruption of your Levant and Plantation-trade which cannot in case of a Breach be secured by ordinary Convoys With what encouragement or safety can your Traders venture abroad when the Seas come to be infested with Ostenders Biscainers Majorcans and Minorcans Did not those very men without any help take above 1500 Ships from you in the late Spanish War when Spain was at the lowest and fought alone against England and France I could offer many other reasons but I am unwilling to be troublesome When the French King suffered the Duke of Alenson his Brother to take upon him the Title of Duke of Brabant and defence of those Countries he sent an Embassadour into Spain to excuse his Brother's going thither and signifie unto the Spanish King that which was done was done without his privity or consent The Spanish King was highly displeased with the Message and answered the Embassadour That he had rather have the French King his professed Enemy than a dissembling Friend And whether England ought not to have the same Sentiments I pray consider The French have no kindness for England but an inlaid and hereditary Malice against them When Lewis of France sent an Army into England to the assistance of the Barons there against King John their Soveraign Prince he vowed utterly to extinguish the English Nation whom he held vile unjust perfidious and never to be trusted as it was declared with much compunction by Viscount Melun a French Gentleman lying at the point of death And I can easily believe that the same Rancor doth yet run in the veins of the French I pray Sir who contrived and encouraged the Distempers of the Scots against King Charles the First was it not France And the Peace at Rippon Anno 1639. being concluded between the two Nations but much against their will did not France stir them up to break that Peace and to make a second attempt by their Arms on England Which they durst never have done if they had not received countenance and encouragement from France By their Emissaries they formed a Rebellion in England and underhand supported it and his Majesties Forces being defeated and broken France look'd on till that great King was sacrificed to the Tyranny of his worst Enemies His now most Sacred Majesty England being hang'd all with Blacks and the best of his Subjects weeping over the Kingdoms funeral for the safety of his person retired into France where he might have expected protection from so near a Relation and comfort as a distressed Prince but found none for by virtue of an execrable Treaty made with the then Usurper he was forced to forsake that Kingdom or else would have been resigned up to Cromwel For the chief Article of that Alliance was That his Majesty the Dukes of York and Gloucester with all their Relations and Friends should be expelled out of and no more admitted into the Kingdom of France If the French King had had the least trillo or touch of Honour in him he would never have yielded to such a Condition as to banish out of his Kingdom those who came to him for succour and relief in the utmost extremity that ever Princes were put to and they his nearest Relations being his Sisters Children And what could be more unbecoming so great a Prince than to make a League Offensive with him who had murdered their Father and expelled them out of their Dominions What was this but the owning of that Murder and aggravating their Oppressions instead of relieving of them Such practices as these amongst private Christians would be abominable and much more amongst any Kings not stiled the Most Christian
the Lion Great Potentates are not at all to be touched but if they be they must be made sure from taking Revenge Some considerate Princes have begun a War rather with the Sword than with a Trumpet So delt the Aragonoies with the French in Naples Henry the second of France with the Imperialists when he went to Brisac to surprize as many places as he could before the War broke out Don John with the Netherlands and Philip the second of Spain with the English when in the great Imbargo he took all your Ships and Goods in his Ports And may not the French King if the Capritio shall take him before any denunciation or indiction of War set upon your Fleets of Merchants Ships at Sea he having such powerful Squadrons of Men of War in all parts that no Fleet of Merchants with their Convoys are able to make any opposition but they must be sunk or taken As it was the oversight of the Kings and Princes of Europe if you please to pardon the expression to suffer France to grow up to that Potency and Magnitude of Power at Sea so it will be their wisdom and interest to act in consort till they have destroyed it Methods and Arts TO Retrench the Potency OF FRANCE BY LAND and SEA And to Confine that Ambitious Monarch Within his Antient DOMINIONS and TERRITORIES Humbly submitted to the grave Consideration of the KINGS and PRINCES of Europe 1. ALL Kings Princes and States to associate and vigorously to act in concert against him and to make France the seat of the War if not by his Contributions and the oppression of his Armies by which he maintains his own Forces they will all be ruinated their Countries wasted and themselves must be submitted to his power Whereas by making France the seat of the War the Souldiers will be inriched with the Spoils support themselves at the cost and charges of France and the French King will be necessitated to draw his Souldiers out of his new Acquests for the defence of his ancient Dominions and so they will revert 2. All Princes and States to call home their Subjects which are in the French service and by that means his Infantry will be weak and inconsiderable For from the slavery of that people such is their unfitness for War that whenever they shall be confined to home for Souldiers they will be constrained as well as contented to live in peace with their Neighbours 3. No Prince or State to suffer any Levies of Men or Horse to be made in any of their Dominions or Territories as they have done to the great recruits of the French Armies and to the ruine of themselves and Countries 4. To interdict all Trade and Commerce with France is a good Expedient for their Trade being obstructed their power at Land will soon become feeble and weak the first giving life to the latter and if he shall lay Taxes upon his people their Trade being taken away it may hazard the Obedience of his Subjects and his Souldiers will mutiny for want of Pay 5. The three Estates General of that Kingdom must be re-established with their Priviledges There being fourscore and ten thousand Gentlemen in France if they will draw their Swords and joyn with the honest Commonalty there and with the Confederate Princes which are now in War against France which will be a generous and heroick act in them they may deliver their own necks from that Yoke of Slavery which now oppresses them and all Europe from destruction For whiles the French King can exercise the despotical power over his Slaves rather than Subjects and without controul levy what sums of Money he pleases from them they must never expect to enjoy their just Rights and Liberties or any the Kings Princes or States his Neighbours to live in Peace or Tranquility 6. France must be opposed in all its endeavours for farther addition and engreatning his Dominions especially on his designs upon the Spanish and Vnited Netherlands for should he gain the Harbours and Ports there he would be formidable and an over Match for all Europe Therefore if the Crown of Spain had no Dominions in the Low-Countries it 's their interest and in true policy they ought to preserve the Vnited Provinces entire and they ought to venture all their Kingdoms and to the very last of their men to prevent if it be possible so formidable Accession of Naval power to the French After which no Plate-Fleet or Gallions could never come safe nor consequently their Monarchy stand much longer And the King of Great Britain ought be it spoken with dew reverence to his person to have the same Sentiments for if the French should become Masters of the Vnited Provinces farewel the Soveraignty of the British Seas farewel all Trade and Commerce of England and his Majesty may bid adieu to the best branch of his Royal Revenue the Customs 7. The King of Great Britain ought to make himself Protector of the Protestant Kings and Princes in Europe and the Cantons of the Switzers and the Grisons are to be invited for their security and because they can give trouble to France into the Association For though formerly with great reason being jealous of the House of Austria because of their pretentions to them they held a good correspondency with France yet now it 's their interest all to be jealous of the growing Greatness of the French King and to be firm to the House of Austria and to hold a true Friendship with them 8. A firm and sincere Friendship is to be established between the King of Great Britain and the Vnited Provinces For they being the two great Naval Powers in Europe are by Providence so seated with admirable advantages and for the security of themselves and of the Spanish Netherlands that when there is a true intelligence preserved between them their greatest Enemies cannot prejudice either but they can give a check to any aspiring Prince and be as an invincible Bulwark against the spreading and ambitious designes of France 9. England must unite within it self and settle a kindness and friendship amongst themselves Concord or Division being the life or death of a State for it 's a Jergon of the French Cabal to disseminate Factions and Divisions amongst them that they may not contribute their Assistance to the relief of oppressed Europe or to obstruct the designes of the French King for the Vniversal Monarchy 10. Firebands are to be sent into France to raise Divisions amongst them as the French Cabal send their Engineers to the disturbance of Europe to make a Combustion in other Princes Dominions that he may with more safety drive on his designes 11. Councils must be adapted to present necessity and it 's imprudence to expose security to apparent danger In great concerns it 's not wisdom to rest in the dull Counsels of what is lawful but to proceed to quick Resolutions of what is safe 12. The Monarchy of France is to
the French Trading-Ships at his own charges He hath engaged most of his Nobility in the East and West Indian Trades and the better to encourage them hath granted many Priviledges to them And without doubt by reason of his great preparations by Sea he hath some great Designe in projection If he shall propose to make himself Master of the Indies I do not see how he can fail in his Attempts if Europe be not more watchful By an Ordinance of the French Privy Council which is the now standing Law of that Kingdom all the Officers and Commanders in the Islands of America are strictly enjoyned and required to secure to the Most Christian King the Soveraignty of those Seas and the French in execution of it have much interrupted the Trade there and have proved very vexatious And having erected the East India Trade he hath attempted to get footing in divers places in the East Indies What his success may be time will shew But if he should unite the Dutch Trade and Strengths in those parts to himself by an Union of the Vnited Provinces and their Navigation to his Empire as he will if some timely Assistance be not given by England how the English Factories there will then preserve themselves from Violation or utter Extirpation it doth well become England to consider For France designes to engross the Trade of the Vniverse And by their irregular course of Trade they will exhaust all Europe of their Money I have heard that England loseth yearly by the French Trade 1500000 l. sterling and I am sure they draw out of the Northern Regions of Europe for Wines 25 Millions of Florens for Salt 10 Millions of Florens for Brandy 5 Millions for Wines Brandy and Salt they yearly exhaust from thence 40 Millions of Florens for Silks Stuffs Toys and Fripparies they spirit out of those Countries yearly 40 Millions of Florens and there is not imported into France of the Commodities of all the North so many as do amount unto 15 Millions of Florens So that France doth yearly drain out of the Northern Regions of Europe 65 Millions of Florens And what great and prodigious sums of money he draweth from the rest of Europe must be left to sober men to consider But no Foreign Commodities can be imported into France but they are clog'd and incumbred with such great Duties and Customs that the return made thereof to the Merchant is without any profit His Most Christian Majesty having for his Royal Revenue Sixty Millions of Florens yearly and France being inriched yearly as abovesaid and being able by his supream power without any check or controul to impose what Taxes he pleases he hath laid such an inexhaustible Fond of Treasure to carry on his designes to the Oppression of all Europe that he can rarely be disappointed or fail in any He can support his Armies when other Princes are enforced to beg for Peace because their Treasures are exhausted He after many years War can engage in a new War and upon occasions by reason of his Treasure have Instruments to execute his Projects By this he purchases the assistance of Foreign Princes and endears their Ministers opens their Cabinets engageth true and close Correspondencies and poysons their Councils By this he can pass unseen through Rampiers and Guards into Cities and Forts and can surprize them without tedious hazards of Guards And many contemplative men think that he hath gained more Territories and Dominions by his Pistols than by his Sword and Cannon So that the Serpent is more serviceable to them than the Dragon as acting with less noise and greater execution Ambition is the Compass whereby they sail and Universal Dominion the Port whereunto their course is directed and as their Ambition hath no Horizon so their Designes have no Latitude Charles the fifth his Motto Plus Vltra and his Son Philip's Non sufficit Orbis discovered their vast Ambition And doth not that of Lewis the eleventh Immensi tremor Oceani and that of Lewis the fourteenth Solus contra Omnes manifest the Designes of France Well if there be not a Retrenchment of the spreading and ambitious Designes of France I am sometimes of the opinion that the Most Christian King may ere long take upon him that jolly humour of the great Cham of Tartary who when he hath dined commands his Trumpeters to sound and make proclamation that now all other Kings and Princes may sit down to dinner It will be worth the while that all Europe may be satisfied of the Conduct of the French Cabal to consider the candor and integrity of their Actions for some years last past and whether they may expect better Principles and Methods from them for the future than they have hitherto had The first Essay of their Ingenuity and Honesty was in their behaviour and carriage in the Pyrenean Treaty and their performance thereof By the Endeavours of the Queen-Mother of France a Peace being promoted between the two Crowns of France and Spain with a Marriage between the French King and the Infanta of Spain the whole Treaty was founded upon two considerable points The one was the forsaking of Portugal the other a Renunciation of the Infanta ratified by the French King of all her present or future pretences titles or claims whatsoever to the Spanish Monarchy and Dominions thereof which if not granted the great work of the Match had never taken effect As to the first the French King did promise and oblige himself upon his Honour and upon the Faith of a King not to give at present or for the future neither in common nor to any person or persons thereof in particular any help or assistance neither publick nor seeret directly or indirectly of Men Munition c. under any pretence whatsoever Yet the Peace was no sooner made but they sent them Supplies of Men Arms and Money and a while after notwithstanding their former Treaty with Spain in the view of the whole world they entred into an Offensive League with that Kingdom against all their Enemies The other was the Renunciation aforementioned And as to this the French King after the death of the late King of Spain claimed notwithstanding the said Renunciation a great part of the Spanish Low Countries as being devolved to him in the Right of his Wife and to take possession thereof invaded the Country contrary to his Engagements and so destructive to the Essence of the Treaty with a powerful Army The Marquiss de la Fuente extraordinary Embassadour from Spain being upon his return into Spain upon the death of the late King his Master his Most Christian Majesty did with all possible Asseverations engage his Faith and his Royal Vow That he would religiously observe and keep the Peace and continue a faithful Friendship both to the Queen of Spain and to her Son And the Archbishop of Ambrun after the French Army was already in the Field and had possessed Charleroy some sive days before