famous in the world for your Traffick must become Higlers and petty Chapmen under him Your Men of War which are now a Terrour to your Neighbours will be of no use to you but to make your Slavery the greater Your gallant Commanders and Sea-men as the Romans served the Britans when they had conquered them will be sent into foreign Dominions to advance their Empire And if he shall suffer any of you by his favour to grow rich and full it 's onely like Spunges to be squeezed You must like the Camel down upon your knees and receive what burthens he shall please to lay upon your backs You are now a flourishing and well Crested People you have your Liberty and Freedoms which you ought to value above a Crown but if you come within the power of France you will be such Slaves as you will not be capable of a Jubile Suppose the Most Christian King should be so kind and merciful unto you as to observe his Alliance with you tell he hath reduced all other Princes and States under his Obedience yet you cannot but expect Poliphemus Curtesie to be the last which shall be eaten up Whereas if we all associate and unite and act potently against that aspiring Prince we are freed of all fears and jealousies and it 's not possible for him to be other than the French King And then instead of an Universal Monarchy which is the desigue of France there will be established in Europe an Universal Peace of which his Majesty of Great Britain will have the honour for by the power of his Arms it 's onely to be effected A timely War is less dangerous than an uncertain Peace and such is your condition with France A War will fall upon you and it 's a great oversight to have been so modest as to abide the taking of the first blow Wisdom teacheth us that in Warlike actions the having of the start and to strike first is a great advantage it puts the Enemy to the defensive which is no other than fighting for his own stake The Romans as long as they were Defendants were miserable and Antiochus refusing Hannibal's counsel to invade Italy was put to the defensive wherein he lost his Life and Crown The charge of the invading Prince is certainly known if he like not the Attempt he may desist at pleasure Whereas the invaded is not onely at the charge to maintain Armies but his Territories are instantly impoverished his Revenues deminished Trade and Commerce laid aside his good Subjects with fear amazed the Ill-affected who desirous of change apt to run to the Enemy and many other Mischiefs will fall upon you whereof you cannot be eased but at the pleasure of the Invader Besides the Money to be disbursed for the War offensive especial with you in Great Britain where Victuals Arms Shipping and other Habiliments for the War abound runs into the Subjects purse and the Realm is little or nothing impoverished by it But to forbid and attend the descents of the Invader if we be on the defensive part your Fleet must necessarily be divided the consequence whereof considering the Potency of their Naval power I am afraid will prove that you will be too weak in either Squadrons of your shattered Navy I should be sorry to see Great Britain become a Province to the French Monarchy and be made a Theatre where the Tragedy of Monieurs perseention shall be acted and the good Protestants there suffer the same Calamities Banishment and Miseries for the Liberty of their Conscience as the poor Hugonots have done in France for the exercise of their Religion I do assure you Sir you cannot expect better terms than the Hugonots now have in France With what Infelicities pressures in Gonscience and inquietude of Mind and how precariously they do possess but not enjoy their Estates gotten with Sweat and kept by Care I need not tell you It was not the method of Christ to force Belief by Slaughters or instruct mens Consciences by the Sword yet these are the Arguments which they apply to convince those unhappy Souls Sir there is no safety in depending upon the Charity of France I must tell you again the onely security of all Christian Princes and States in Europe is their impuissance to do hurt The end of War is Peace but a Peace with France seems to me to be the beginning of War And though War be a great Evil yet from all appearances I dread the consequences of a Peace more If the Most Christian King shall disband his Forces it 's far from being any security since he may raise them again at his pleasure nor is it to be imagined that he will so do since that were to give his People an opportunity of rebelling for which he is sensible they are sufficiently prepared and onely want Domestick Heads and Partisans or foreign Assistance to rescue them from Tyranny and Oppression And whiles so potent a Monarch is in Arms all Princes and States will be obliged for their own safety to keep up standing Armies which Charges will assuredly undo them for it 's a declared Maxime in their Counsels That there is no better way to ruine the Princes and States of Europe than to oblige them to keep Armies on Foot For those require great expences which will impoverish them and by consequence precipitate their Ruine Just Fears are a just cause of War and a preventive War is a true defensive as well as a War upon an actual Invasion though offensively acted Hence the Lacedemonians as Thucydides tell us armed against the Athenians by reason of their over-growing Greatness And Antiochus upon this principle invited Prussias King of Bithinia at that time in League with the Romans to joyn with him in War against them setting before him a just fear of the over-spreading Greatness of the Romans and that their designe was to reduce all Kings and Princes under their Obedience and to make the State of Rome an Universal Monarchy that Philip and Nabis were already ruinated and it was his turn to be assaulted next So that those Princes or States which do desire too great Monarchies and seek to enlarge their Dominions do give a just fear to their Neighbours That War is just which is necessary and then Arms are deemed pious when they are the last Refuge of those which use them In elder time it passed for an Oracle of Wisdom Decreseat Hispania non Crescat Gallia If we do make a War against that great Disturber of the Peace of Europe as it 's our Safety so it is Prudence to make it speedily and powerfully for if we do not make it powerfully we shall be like the poor woman who bought Coals sufficient to roast her Pig but laying them on one by one her Coals were wasted and her Pig unroasted And if we do not make it speedily we shall imitate that Emperick who gave Physick to a dead man The Latines prayed in aid of the
Sea Gyant be not timely destroyed but suffered like the Crocadile yearly to grow in Magnitude it will devour all Europe and with it it's Trade Traffick and Commerce Therefore it's Europe's Interest as well as England's Safety to destroy the Naval Power of France which with the conjunction of our Allies may be effected who being once brought down there their Commerce will wax feeble and by consequence their Power at Land will soon abate For we have observed that until the Spaniards lost his Maratine Forces he maintained his designes for the Vniversal Monarchy very vigorously and never sunk till then The French King of late is become so potent at Sea that if he should be pleased to give trouble to you or to any other Prince we mâ—st be at his discretion how kindly he will deal with us And Sir it 's no wisdom in any Prince to depend upon the discretion of another That Prince or State which is Master at Sea may make a descent at what place they please unless they be hindered by a Fleet of equal strength and except every Creek Port and sandy Bay had a powerful Army to make opposition If we have an Army in one place as in all places we cannot have then they may by reason of their Fleet transport their Army to another place and so take ransack burn and consume the Country round about as Agathocles did who being besieged by the Carthagenians in Syracuse put his Army into his Fleet and transported it into Africa and the Carthagenians for security of Carthage and their own Dominions were forced to raise their Seige and follow with their Army Methinks the Miseries Devastations and Infelicities England heretofore suffered by the Naval power of the Danes might teach you wisdom for the future Sir to deal plainly with you it 's impossible for any Mavitine Country as England is though the Coasts thereof be never so well fortified to defend it self against a powerful Enemy that is Master at Sea for a good Fleet of Men of War under a wise and judicious conduct need not fear to pass by the best appointed Fort in Europe though never so many great Artillery are planted in it with the help of a good Tyde and leading gale of Wind. The Duke of Parma besieged Antwerp and finding no possibility to master it otherwise than by Famine laid his Cannon on the bank of the River so well to purpose and so even with the face of the water that he thought it impossible for the least Boat to pass by yet the Hollanders and Zelanders to sell their Butter and Cheese at Antwerp where it was dear passed in their Boats by the mouth of the Duke's Cannon in despight of it when a strong Westerly wind and a Tyde of flood favoured them as also with a contrary wind and ebbing water they turned back again In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Denmark and Sweden were at war our Eastland Fleet bound for Liefland was forbidden by the King of Denmark to trade with the Subjects of his Enemies and he threatned to sink their Ships if they came through the Streights of Elsenore Yet our Merchants having a Ship of her Majesties called the Minion to defend them made their adventure and sustained some Vollies of shot but kept on their course The King made all the provisions he could to stop or sink them at their return but the Minion leading the way did not onely pass without loss but did beat down with their Artillery a great part of the Fort of Elsenore and the Fleet of Merchants which followed went thorough without any wound received Sir Imperator Maris est Dominus Terrae When Augustus and Mark Anthony at Actium fought by Sea for the Empire of the World Mark Anthony's Fleet being defeated all the People and the Souldiers submitted to Augustus well knowing they could never effect any thing by Land as long as Augustus continued Master at Sea Aladine a poor Fisherman but famous for his great Actions at Sea Abraham King of Achen in Sumatra preferred him to be his Lord-Lieutenant and married him to one of his Kindswomen and gave him the care and protection of his Son and Heir Aladine having the Naval power at his command he murthered the Son and Heir and usurped the Kingdom to himself there being no resistance to be made against him because of his great power at Sea The State of Genoa by the advantage of their Naval power beat the Pisans out of Sardinia Corsica and the Baleares in the Mediterranean and having vanquished the Venetian Fleet they took the Island of Chioggia not far from Venice But the Genoesses being disabled in their Naval power by the oversight of Peter Doria their Admiral they lost their Islands in the Mediterranean to the King of Aragon Capha and Pera and the Islands of Lesbos and Chio with some other Islands in the Greek Sea to the Grand Seignior and most of their Holds in Tuscany whereof they had a good part to the Florentines and had nothing left them but Liguria and the Isle of Corsica and were enforced to put themselves into the protection of the Spaniard to preserve the same Therefore Sir you may please to observe how highly England being an Island is concerned in point of interest and safety to advance their own Naval power and to abate that of others There are three great Naval powers in Europe England France and those of the Vnited Provinces if the King of England joyn with one of them they will give Law to the third But what if France and the Vnited Provinces should joyn against England as you have great reason to fear they will if by his Majesties transcendent Wisdom and happy Conduct they be not prevented then you can expect nothing but Confusion and Ruine to fall upon you Therefore it will be the very test of Prudence in this juncture to retrench the power of France by Sea that being done from his Land-forces there can be no great danger to you At Land the Ballance is indifferently even but at Sea which ought to be your care there is no counterpoize The fighting and destroying of his Land-Armies doth not weaken him at Sea but when his new Conquests shall be taken from him or a Peace concluded if he should put an Army into his Navy no Prince in Europe is able to hinder his Attempts and those vast sums of money which he raiseth out of his Subjects if they should be employed in Traffick he being so potent at Sea all States and Princes especially England would be undone To strike the French King at Sea where his strength lieth is to cut his Sampsons locks it 's un Coup de Maistre a Master blow a War in his bowels To give him some light hurt is dangerous to us and to give our selves an incurable wound as the Horse did who falling out with the Lion bruised him with his heel but not long after his Carcass became food for
down sometimes Francis the First Anno 1522. at Cambray he settled all Europe in quiet when it was much turmoiled and Italy in security therefore he was stiled Protector of the Clementine League the Instrument whereof doth still remain in the Treasury at Westminster sealed with gold And Clement the Seventh being cooped up by Charles the Fifth in the Castle of St. Angelo was freed by the means of Henry of England and therefore by the whole Consistory of Rome he was called Liberator Orbis Charles the Fifth An. 1521. was by him made Emperour as he doth acknowledge in two Letters to Henry of England and indeed he was the great Arbitrator of all the Assairs of Europe in his time If Henry the Eighth was so much celebrated for keeping the ballance in aequilibrio what Glory and Renown will his now Sacred Majesty of Great Britain have by putting a Batricado to the Ambition of the French Empire and reintegrating all Princes and States in their ancient Liberties and just Rights and setling the Peace of all Europe upon a solid Basis which onely by his Wisdom and Power is to be effected An Act certainly so full of Grandeur that it will tread upon the grave of History bury Monuments see the Worlds funeral Time laid in the dust and stand up with Eternity The glory of Soveraignty consists not in a Chair of State but in such Acts as are well-becoming a Prince Private men may direct their Counsels to such things as they think may be prositable to them but the Actions of Princes must tend to Grandeur and the attaining of Honour and Fame For want of due observation of this prime and Alphabetical Maxime of England the French King of late hath risen up to that Greatness and is arrived to that Pyramid of Grandeur that Europe begins to bow to his Power Universal Empire was first attempted by Charles the Fifth designed by Henry the Great but will be effected if not timely prevented by Lewis the Potent And how great a Progress he hath made towards so vast a Designe it well becomes your great Judgment to consider He hath gotten Brisac and Friburg to enter Germany the French Comte to a we the Switzers Pignoral to enter Italy Perpignan to enter Spain and almost all Flanders to enter England Besides he hath impatronized himself of the Countries of Rousillon and Catalonia the Dutchies of Lorrain and Barr Alsatia Burgundy The French Comte all the Spanish Netherlands are in his Talons and he hath a hovering possession of the remainder as a Hobby hath over a Lark The Italian Garison in Avignion is casheer'd and he is Master of that place though it was part of St. Peter's possession three hundred years The Garison of Foreign Souldiers which were in Orange is dismissed and the Castle is dismantled which was in the bowels of one of his Provinces What will he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he hath gotten the Accession of Germany and all the Low Countries to that already too boundless Power by which he hath inslaved his own people and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Can England and the rest of Europe expect better terms than he hath given to his own Subjects 'T is well if he allow them Canvas and Salowes By Sea he is become so potent that I question if he were but furnished with Mariners and experienced Commanders suitable to the goodness of his Ships if he might not contrast the power of all Europe and make the Sea between Callis and Dover as a Ferry to pass over what Armies he pleased into England In the beginning of the year 1665. he was not able to put to Sea twenty Ships of War now he hath two hundred and upwards and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more Is it not then necessary for England the Vnited Netherlands and all Europe to look about them and to secure their Necks against the Yoke of Slavery with which he threatens them If some timely Expedient be not applied from this Naval Power of France the destruction of Europe may take its date before we be much older It will much concern England in point of Interest to consider if Ireland by the Scheme of their designes may not be looked upon as a Country which may procure France the absolute dominion of the Sea of Trade and the Conquest of the West Indies which have been their antient Project For he being so potent at Sea they may from Brest transmit an Army into Ireland they having many of the Irish Nation in their service and those discontented if they should seize upon Kingsale or Waterford and keep a good Squadron of Ships there which they may do having such numbers of Men of War And though it should not prove the loss of that Nation yet it would obstruct and debar all Trade upon those Seas And if you have any Ship pass there it must be by their favour and paying what Tribute they please to impose Be assured Sir the French Cabal have some notable Designe against England either to engage you in a Civil War by disseminating of Divisions amongst you thereby to put a disability upon his Majesty of Great Britain to give any Assistance or contribute any Aid to the relief of the Spanish or Vnited Netherlands in case by his Arms he should attack them as without dispute he will in case there be not a stop put to his Career Or peradventure the French King if the Capricio shall take him may by his Arms give disturbance to England it self For he cannot think it safe to proceed in his Conquest on the Continent whiles he hath so dangerous an Enemy as England at his reer He well knows the Courage and Gallantry of the English and your Talbots and Bedfords are not by them forgotten They are setting up an Vniversal Monarchy of Commerce and to make France the Staple of Trade and to that purpose do labour to get what Ports they can into their power After the Pyrenean Peace they immediately entred into a League Offensive and Defensive with Portugal though contrary to the Faith of that Treaty and all the Harbours and Ports which the Portugal should take in Spain either upon the one or other Sea were to be put into the power of France No sooner was Dunkirk in the French King's hands but he made it a free Port. And that he might want no Seamen of his own he hath by all imaginable Encouragements established a mighty Navigation in France and thereby will lay the foundation of a greater Empire than ever was in Charlemain For one trading Ship twenty years since there are now forty For this purpose he hath propagated the Fishery in Newfound Land which is the Propriety of the Crown of England and where they formerly till now of late never fished but by License and paying a Tribute to the Kings of England and besides hath yearly educated supernumerary Seamen on board
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