Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	great_a	lord_n	3,227	5	3.8203	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36748	A letter from Monsieur de Cros (who was an embassador at the Treaty of Nimeguen and a resident in England in K. Ch. the Second's reign) which may serve for an answer to the impostures of Sir. Wm. Temple, heretofore ambassador from England at the Hague and at Nimeguen ... : together with some remarks upon his memoirs, to make appear how grosly he is mistaken in the greatest part of the most important matters he relates concerning what passed from the year 1672 until the year 1679.; Lettre de Monsieur Du Cros à Mylord **** afin de servir de réponse aux impostures de Monsieur le Chevalier Temple. English	Du Cros, Simon, 17th cent.	1693 (1693)	Wing D2436; ESTC R20449	18,902	38

A LETTER FROM Monsieur de CROS Who was an Embassador at the Treaty of Nimeguen and a Resident in England in K. Ch. the Second's Reign Which may serve for an Answer to the Impostures of Sir W m Temple heretofore Ambassador from England at the Hague and at Nimeguen Till such time as a more ample and particular Relation be made of the Business in hand Together with some REMARKS Upon his MEMOIRS To make appear how grosly he is mistaken in the greatest part of the most important matters he relates concerning what passed from the Year 1672 until the Year 1679. LONDON Printed in the Year 1693. A LETTER from Mons de Cros c. My Lord I Have been informed of the Calumnies that Sir W. T. hath caused to be Printed against me I know very well that Sir W. is of great Worth and deserves well and that he hath been a long time employed and that too upon important occasions but I am as certain that he had but a small share in the Secrecy of the late King Charles's Designs in the greatest part of the Affairs for which he was employed from 72 till 79 which is the main Subject of his Work This Consideration alone might not perhaps have given me the curiosity or at least any great earnestness to read his Memoirs and I might have very well judged that I could draw from them no sufficient light and insight for the discovery of so many Intrigues Nay besides I might have doubted whether or no these Memoirs might not have been his own Panegyrick upon himself and the diminution and undervaluing of the real Worth and Glory of several Persons of Quality and distinguished by their Merit whose Fortune and Reputation Sir W. T. hath so much envied for I am particularly acquainted with Sir W's Pride He looks upon himself to have the greatest Reach to be the wisest and ablest Politician of his Time and a man may perceive abundance of Satyrical Reflexions scattered here and there in his Work against most illustrious Persons and that he hath stuffed his Memoirs with his own Praise and the fond over-weening Opinion he hath of himself Without doubt this is quite different from that Sincerity and Modesty which reigns throughout the Memoirs of Villeroy in the Negotiations and Transactions of Jeanin in the Letters of Card. Dossat those mighty and truly eminent Persons esteemed as such by the greatest Princes of their Age and even still are to this day by the ablest Politicians with much more Justice and Glory than Sir W's Book-Seller stiles him One of the Greatest Men of this Age. It had been Sir W's duty to have regulated himself according to their most excellent Pattern I shall at present only quote one Passage which I accidentally light on at the first opening his Book whereby one may easily guess at the greatness of his presumption in a shorttime My Lord I shall give you occasion to observe many others The Negotiations saith he that I managed and transacted at the Hague at Brussels at Aix la Chapelle which saved Flanders from the French Clutches in 68. made People believe I had some Credit and Reputation amongst the Spaniards as well as in Holland 'T was a Piece of strange Ingratitude of the Hollanders and Spaniards as well as of his own dear Country-men so much concern'd for the preservation of Flanders not to rear him a Statue which he saith some-where else Mr. Godolphin had promised him Could Sir W. T. have done any thing to deserve it more or was there any thing more worthy of Triumph than to have preserved Flanders a Country so important to the Spaniard and the only Bulwark of Holland and England But Sir W. was apt to believe he could not find any one who was better able to hammer out his own Glory than himself and he flattered himself with the Opinion that he should erect himself as many Statues as there are places in his Memoirs crouded with intolerable and ridiculous Vain-glory. It was not the Negotiations my Lord that Sir W. tells us he managed at the Hague Brussels and at Aix la Chappelle which saved Flanders from the hands of the French in 1668. The French published that they were beholding to the most Christian Kings Moderation for that Peace who was willing to put a stop to the progress and course of his victorious Arms. But the truth of it is they most justly ascribed all the Merit and all the Glory of the Peace and of the Triple League to the generous resolution and stedfastness of the States-General They made use upon this occasion of a Minister of State far beyond Sir W. in Prudence Experience and Capacity one who was in the Opinion even of his Enemies the most able Manager of Affairs of his Age. I shall not undertake my Lord in this place strictly to examine Sir W. Temple's Memoirs I will do it shortly if God spare me with Life nay and I promise you a Volume of Remarks at least as large as his Book If like him I had the Vanity to procure the printing of Memoirs during my life-time I could now have a fair pretence so to do and without all question I should publish more just and solid ones than his are Not that I have the presumption to judge my self more capable to do it but in several places he relates some things falsly whereof I am much better informed The only Hero of my piece shall be Truth without Complaisance or Flattery without Passion no not so much as against him So that I shall do him the satisfaction and kindness to instruct him better even touching divers Matters which he performed and executed without knowing so much as the reason why he was made to act so It is not likewise because I have been one of the Council of the King his Master yet I have had the Happiness during some Years to partake in the Confidence of a Minister of State who was in several important weighty Occasions as it were the Primum Mobile of that Conduct and Management that surprized all the World You know my Lord what Credit he had and of what nature his Intelligences were Sir W. may well imagine that I did not ill improve this able Ministers Confidence when Sir W. tells us That I had wholly devoted my self to him Men are not ignorant likewise that oftentimes I have had some access to the King's Ministers of State and even near to the King himself it did more especially appear in the business for which I took my Journey to Nimeguen and it would be a great shame that a Man more cunning and subtil than them all according to the King 's own Testimony as Sir W. relates it should not have had considering so much freedom of access and easiness the address and cunning to dive into the most hidden Springs of Deliberations and Resolutions wherein the Swede and my Master had so great an Interest Be therefore assured my Lord that

and at Nimeguen which he was confident would be the Theatre of his Glory they made him act a disgraceful ridiculous part He imagines I am partly the cause of it either because that my Voyage to Nimeguen might have been the effect of my Negotiation which he might have gathered by the Kings answer or because I might have done nothing in Holland but administer cause of Suspicions and Umbrages that hasten'd on the Peace in spite of his Teeth and Reverst the Treaty he had but lately concluded at the Hague My Lord If I be not mistaken here is another occasion of Sir W. T. being vext at me There was a Treaty a foot between England and Spain for which purpose Sir W. was employ'd without any other design in reference to England but to abase the Parliament and no other on the Spaniards side but only to add a little more reputation to their Affairs Now the Parliament got nothing by it and the greatest advantage accrued to the Spaniard who upon this occasion made him really believe it and so took him for a Cully A sad acknowledgment for having alone saved Flanders for Spain I ridiculed this Treaty I made observations thereon that were published in Holland and men judged that the observations were well grounded After that and after the business of Nimeguen I was not to expec● any Encomiums from so unjust a person as Sir W. T. but still he might have writ more like a Gentleman and have spoken of me without ever loosing the respect which he owed to my Master without doing so great an injury in my person both to my Name and Family out of a merry humour for in whatsoever past I performed the duty of a Minister both zealous and most faithful Nay and I did nothing but even by concurrance and good likeing of the King of England I beseech you My Lord conserve for me the honour of your gracious favour and be fully perswaded that I shall be all my life long with much respect Your most humble c. FINIS AN ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the Foregoing Letter IT is now some Months ago since the Foreign Journals gave us to understand that Monsieur de Cross the Ingenious Author of the foregoing Treatise was meditating an Answer to Sir William Temple's Memoirs As nothing more sensibly touches us than to have our Reputation wounded by those Persons whom we never injured We are not to admire that our Author who thought himself unjustly attacked in these Memoirs took the first opportunity to justifie his proceedings to the World and if he sometimes falls out into severe or indecent Language it is to be remembred that he was not the first Agressor but that his Adversary taught him the way How well M. de Cross has acquitted himself in this Affair I will by no means take upon me to determine Let the Reader without prejudice or partiality confider what both Parties say and then let him judge for himself When these Memoirs first appeared in publick I remember the Criticks in Town were much divided in their Sentiments about them some found fault with the Stile as too Iuscious and affected others censured the Digressions as Foreign to the Business in hand and particularly the Story of Prince Maurice's Parrot that to use Sir William's own Expression p. 58. spoke and asked and answered common Questions ●ike a reasonable Creature Lastly ●he Graver sort of People were scandalized to see several Persons eminent both for their Station and Quality and some of them still Living treated with so much Freedom and with so little Ceremony adding that the Author every where appeared too full of himself which I find is the very Character which the French Relator of the Negotiation at Nimeguen has been pleased to bestow upon him Indeed as for the Language of the Memoirs a Man needs but turn over half a dozen Pages to be convinced that the first Objection is just and reasonable Every Leaf almost stands charged with Gallicisms more or less and indeed 't is odd enough to see a Man of Sir William Temples's Constitution who all along declares such an invincible Aversion to the French Nation so fondly doting upon their Expressions even where he had no necessity to use them But at the same time I confess I am of opinion that his Digressions are not so faulty it being not amiss in a just History but especially in Memoirs to relieve a serious Scene now and then with something that is diverting and agreeable As for the last Objection I have nothing to say to it at present since it is not improbable but that the following Book of Monsieur de Cross may prevail with him to attempt his own Justification FINIS