they are not Roman Catholics nor of the King's Religion If these Reasons could take Place or that a Prince could break his Promises made to his Subjects and persecute them with Fire and Sword meerly because they are not Christians after his manner what shall hinder him from breaking the Contracts made with his Allies that are of another belief which is different from his 2. If the public Faith engages the Protestants States to restore the Reformed of France it also excites the Catholic Potentates to require Satisfaction for the Injuries done them by that Crown which has omitted no sort of Usurpations increase to it's Grandeur either by unjust Wars or in full Peace Therefore it is but requisite that now for the obtaining of Peace Lewis the XIV should make reparation for all his Neighbours losses of which himself has been the occasion in the last War since the Treaty of Nimeghen and the Breach of the Truce that he restore what he unjustly detains from the Empire from Spain from the King of England from the Vnited Provinces from the Electors the D. of Lorrain the Pope and the Princes of Italy 3. The King of France never failing of Pretences to break the most Sacred Leagues no body that I know would be willing to trust him nor to be Guarantees for the performance of the offers he should make unless it were the Grand Signior with whom he has renew'd and confirm'd his Ancient Alliances And therefore it will be requisite that he surrender up several strong Towns and Garrisons as Pledges for his performance upon condition that they shall remain confiâ—scated to the Parties into whose hands they are surrender'd in case he break the Peace to be concluded Now in regard it is most certain that France will find such Articles very burthensome at least that she will never subscribe or put them in Execution there is no Foundation to be laid upon her promises whence it is clear that to procure the Peace of Europe there is a necessity that she must be constrain'd to it by Attacquing her on several sides This will be no difficult thing to bring to pass if the Empire Spain England Swedeland and the Vnited Provinces confirm their Alliance and if the Confederates create a particular General to the end that their Forces United under one Generalissimo may act by consent and unanimouslyagainst the common Enemy In all times misunderstanding has ruin'd the strongest Leagues of which we have seen frequent and fatal Examples in the last War If France therefore can yet find any means to disunite the Confederates they may assure themselves that the opportunity for pulling down the Power of France will not be long in their hands France will make use of her usual methods by bribing the Governors of Garrisons corrupting the Treasurer's that the Army may stil want either Money or Provision by gaining the cheif Ministers of the several Courts on purpose to make false reports to their Masters or impertinent and unseasonable Orders to the Generals and sowing jealosies between them to make them draw off one from another in the greatest urgency of Affairs And it is very probable that the greatest part of these misfortunes will not fail to happen if the Confederates do not agree to confer the supream command of General upon one Person in whose power it shall be to make the whole Body Act Unanimously and who shall have Reputation and Authority sufficient to restrain the inferior Generals within the bounds of their duty We are verily perswaded that neither Flatteries Promises Pension no Lewis's of Gold will be able to disarm the Protestant Princes Therefore France begins to despair of seducing them that way but gives it out that this is a War for the sake of Religion consequently that the Catholic Potentates ought to unite with her to prevent the Establishing the Reformation all over Europe But it is the ruin of his Matchiavillian Politics which he dreads more then the Establishment of the Reformation In the mean while the pretence is specious because he judges of others by himself and for that the Zeal of the Roman Clergy pushing him on to destroy the pretended Heretics he imagins the Resolutions of the reformed to be the same This is an Error of which it is of great Importance to convince these Gentlemen though it be no difficult thing to undeceive them if they will but take the pains to mind the following Reflections 1. That it is a Fundamental maxim of the Reformation that every Man has a right to examin the Religion he intends to profess to judge of it by his own understanding and to believe nothing but what he is perswaded of the Truth in his Conscience Whence the Protestants infer that no human Authority ought to force Men to exercise a Worship which they believe unlawful or to profess an Opinion which they concieve to be false Clear it is that this Doctrin is directly opposite to the Spirit of Persecution for if it be not lawful for the Pastors to constrain Christians to believe or practise what they hold to be false and forbidden of God much less is it lawful to employ the Power of the secular Arm to the same effect It signifies nothing to say that among us we Excommunicate Heretics or that we have frequently Persecuted Ministers and Private Persons for the same reason For as for Excommunication in respect of Speculative Opinions it is no more of it's self then a bare Declaration that such or such a one has not those Qualities which are requir'd to fit him to be a Member of such or such a Society In which case it is not accompany'd with any mark of Infamy or civil Punishment Suppose for Example that any Minister of the Church of England is perswaded that Episcopacy is no lawful Government that he cannot in conscience preach upon Holy-days or perform other Functions to which the Ministry obliges him and that thereupon he goes to his Diocesan and lays down his Function promising all the rest of his life to live quietly at home or in Communion with the Faithful Sure I am that if they could not undeceive him they would bewayl his Ignorance but yet they would be so far from using him as a Criminal that they would admire his Probity But if the same Divine should make use of the Liberty of his Function to excite the People to contemn the Bishops and to trample their constitutions under foot by shewing them himself an ill example then it would be but just to punish him not as a Person that holds erroneous opinions but as a disturber of the Public Peace This Maxim takes no farther place then to preserve the order and unity of Ecclesiastical Discipline for Politic Toleration is so much in practise among the Protestants that as well the particular Members of their Body as those that are not of the Communion of their Churches have all the liberty to believe and say what they think
Animosities all of a suddain and that each should be willing to make concessions on their own part to Unite more firmly against their mutual Enemies that the differences about the Flagg about Fraight the Herring-Fishery and the Affairs of the East-Indies are too great and recent to be soon made up This is the Language of our Enemies who make us sensible of the mischeif they have done us but conceal the Cause from us on purpose to put us out of hope But let us endeavour to find it out our selves and then it will be easie to apply the Remedy It is a real and undeniable Truth that time out of mind the English and Flemings have liv'd together in perfect Amity and their Antipathy against the French has still been the same and indeed a very slender knowledge of the History of the three Nations will serve to convince any Man of the truth of what is here asserted During the greatest part of the Wars between England and France from the Reigns of Philip the August and Richard Ceur de Lyon till the time of Charles the VII and Henry the VI. the Flemings though Vassals to the French always took part with the Ilanders They were the first who acknowledg'd Edward the III. King of France to the prejudice of Philip de Valois They have several times made War with their Counts because they were too much inclined to the Interest of France And though the House of Burgundy was always so very sparing of their Subjects that they never kept any disciplin'd Forces in constant Pay nor Garrisons in their strong Holds believing that Subjects gently used would be a suffieient Guard of their Country themselves Nevertheless at the time when the English through the Divisions between the Houses of York and Lancaster had almost lost what they possest in France they attempted to rise in Favour of the English against Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy one of the best Princes in the World And the reason which Mezerai alledges for it is very remarkable It was says he not only because the Flmeing were at that time in a close Friendship with England upon the score of Trade but out of the particular hatred which they bare the French The Cittizens of Bourdeaux revolted against Charles the VII for the same Reason having let the English in among them And the same Historian assures us that to keep in Subjection that City which the interests of Commerce and reciprocal Marriages had link'd with England the King was constrain'd to banish Forty Gentlemen and Citizens whom he most suipected and to build two Citadels besides the better to keep the Town in awe Moreover in the Year 1528. Henry the VIII having made an Agreement with Francis I. that the King of England should attack the Emperour Charles the V. in the Low-Countries Mezerai observes that the King perceiving that his Subjects had an Aversion to any War against the Flemings because it would ruin their Trade chose rather to lend his Consederate Thirty Thousand Crowns a Month and for the renewing of Trade negotiated a Truce between the Low-Countries France and England It would be an easie thing to find more examples of this Union in all Ages but to spare our selves the trouble of searching so far off it shall suffice to observe that the Vnited Provinces did not arrive to that high degree of Puissance which renders them now a Terror to their Enemies but by the means of their Trade nor did they begin to Flourish in Trade till they had shaken off the Yoke of Spain and that they came to be strictly in League with England And it was chiefly by means of the succour which Queen Elizabeth sent them that they supported their growing Union against the Formidable Forces of the House of Austria and though James the I. did not second them so Vigorously whether it were that he had too much business at home or that the Valour and Alliances of Prince Maurice supply'd that defect nevertheless it may be said that if England had been their Enemy instead of being their Ally that Valiant Prince would have found it a far more difficult task to have supported himself and defended his Country against Strangers abroad and Factions at home Although Great Britain no way depends upon the Vnited Provinces as being an Island that is able to subsist of its self without borrowing from her Neighbours yet I think she has no wrong done her in averring that the succour which she afforded Holland turn'd to her own profit For as the Hollanders utterly expell'd the Portugueses and Spaniards out of the Indies so the impairing the Power of the latter did not a little contribute to aggrandize the English in America and to cause their Trade to Flourish in Europe It is also very probable that if Philip the II. had not been so embroyl'd as he was with the Vnited Provinces he would have ventur'd a Second Invasion of England Nor would Queen Elizabeth been able to have reform'd and govern'd her Kingdom so peaceably as she did after the Destruction of the Invincible Armada and indeed never was the Trade of the Island in a more flourishing condition then under the Reign of that Queen James the I. confirm'd the Alliance and found the benefit of it as long as he liv'd And Charles the I. was so far from being ignorant of how great consequence it was for the two Nations to continue inseparably United that he gave one of his Daughters to William the II. Father to his present Majesty After all the English have experienc'd the importance of having good Neighbours and indeed according to all outward Appearances had there been no Hollanders nor any Prince of Orange in the World the Religion Laws and Liberties would have run a great hazard of being utterly abolish'd or at least the strugling for them would have cost a vast Effusion of Blood The first that broke the happy Union of these two Nations was the Vsurper Cromwel out of his hatred to the House of the Stewarts The two Brothers Sons of Charles the I. during their Exile suffer'd their heads to be intoxicated with a necessity of Absolute Power looking upon it as the only Remedy to prevent the frequent Revolutions in England Now when this Fancy had taken deep root it was easie to perswade them that the Protestant Religion or New upstart Opinions as the Roman Catholics call them nourish in the People this same Spirit of change and inconstancy For that they who will be troubling their heads to examine whether their Bishops and Pastors do not delude and mislead them will as soon take the same Liberty to enquire into the Actions of their Kings and will not suffer them to invade their Priviledges nor to violate the Conditions of their Coronation-Oath That the only means to bring about their ends upon the English and to free the Crown from depending upon Parliaments was to introduce Popery by degrees into the Island for
of the English and Scotch and the Collonies depending upon Them In these Transactions the Prince not acting as Governour of the Vnited Provinces but as a Private person managing his own proper Affairs he was not oblig'd to make his business known to the States General Nevertheless I make no question but the Principal Head-peices among them were well inform'd from the beginning of the Design which is a thing indeed not to be doubted considering the good Intelligence there has been at the Hague for several Years last past and the unanimous Consent of their High and Mightinessess when the Question was debated whether they should lend their helping hand to carry on the Work 2. Since the Defeat of the D. of Monmouth and the Dragoon Persecutions France and the Court of England never ceas'd to molest and disquiet the Vnited Provinces They Exasperated the Algerines against them who adventur'd to exercise their Pyracies upon the Coast of Holland James the II. set open his Ports to those Corsairs and suffer'd them publicly to sell the Prizes which they had taken from his Allies Lewis the XIV sought an occasion to pick a Quarrel with the Subjects of the States in the Streights of Gibraltar forbid the Sale of their Herrings and their Cloath in his Kingdom and laid Impositions upon all their Merchandizes enter'd in his Ports In a Word since the Design for the repeal of the Tests and the Attempts upon Dr. Burnet there has been nothing but Memoirs Complaints and Murmurings on both sides It was easie for the Hollanders to see that the Two Princes had conspir'd their Ruin so that the least they could do was to Arm and stand on their Defence Therefore they rig out a Fleet to protect themselves from the Algerines and the Threats of France Thereupon out comes the Letter of the Deceas'd Monsieur Fagel that the Court of England was drawn into a Conjunction with France by the force of Intreaties Promises and Menaces repeated one upon the Neck of another The Misunderstanding increases and King James keeps an Army on Foot contrary to the Laws of the Land the Queen is feign'd to be with Child and a Counterfeit Prince of Wales is impos'd upon the Nation The Hollanders reinforce their Army and Navy both by Sea and Land The French redouble their Threats and the English their Murmurs The latter at length present a Memorial to their Royal Highnesses wherein they set forth the Cause of their Complaints and invite the Prince to come over and procure the Calling of a Parliament The Prince condescends to their earnest Supplications the States Consent Assist him with Ships and Souldiers to prevent any Attempt upon his Person The Prince puts to Sea accompany'd with the Blessing of Heaven and the Acclamations of the People and he was recerv'd into England with the same Joy as was seen at his departure out of Holland This was that which was both seen and known to all the Land What can be from hence concluded but that there was a great deal of Patience and Prudence on the one side and Violence and Rashness on the other So that all that the View of this Transaction could encline a rational Person to was only this to have a Compassion for James the II. and a High Esteem for his Competitor But it behoves us to be Candid and to acknowledge that the Fortunate Assemblage of all these Circumstances would not perhaps have been sufficient had they been only favour'd by Persons of less exalted Degree then their Royal Highnesses were They are both of them Protestants not only by Birth and Education but also through Affection and choice of a more Understanding they are of easie Access and Affable their Conversation Civil and Vertuous they keep their words exactly they make it their glory to leave nothing imperfect but to accomplish whatever they take in hand not enduring the repulse of whatsoever dangers they see before them They never Abandon those that serve them faithfully but reward them liberally they are neither sway'd by Humour our nor difficult to Content and willingly forgive Offences not maliciously committed They are endow'd with Wisdom Piety and Vertue Great Eneouragers of Learning and Learned Men and particularly Church-men Such Qualities as these would recommend a Private Person to the highest Dignities but where they meet in Persons of Royal Extraction what wonder if they win upon the Affections of the People The Valour and Vigilance of the Prince his Experience in Military Discipline and his indefatigable Fervency in Combat gain him the Hearts of his Souldiers and Allies his Prudence and peircing Judgment cause him to be esteem'd by Men of the sublimest intellects and his probity and sincerity command the Reverence of good Men. His Reputation is so uncontroulable that the Court of England could never lay any other thing to his Charge but the rigorous Severity of his Military Discipline The Love which the Hollanders have for him is so general that among the vast Number of Writers wish which that State is crowded of which so many take the Liberty to speak their Minds with freedom enough there never was but one that endeavour'd to Calumniate the Princes Expedition into England but the Book had so few Readers and sold so ill thatit presently became wast Paper These were the Reasons of the great Success of Willtam the III. For in regard that all the World had a great Love for him in regard his Designs were equally Just Pious and Beneficial that he went to secure his Country to deliver his Oppress'd Brethern and Neighbours and to Re-establish the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of the Nation every body glory'd in contributing to it no body betray'd him tho he had several Confidents and the States lent him their Helping hand so soon as all things were ready And this was that which made several Strangers believe that this Design till it was ripe for Execution lay deposited in the Breasts of certain faithful Counsellors who then by a more then usual Dexterity engag'd their High and Mightinesses in the Affair But the truth is that several Persons were acquainted with it and that they were sway'd rather by Love then Policy The Secrecy with which the King of France manages his Affairs is greatly wonder'd at and indeed it is a thing much to be commended but it is very rare Tho for ten or twelve Counsellors whose Fortune wholly depends upon the King to be faithful to him and keep his Secrets is no such extraordinary peice of business But for an infinite Number of Bishops and Ministers of Lords Magistrates and Private Persons to keep silence so long and to be so true one to another is that which hardly ever yet was known And therefore the best Counsel that can be given to our Enemies would be speedily to make a Peace with a Prince so well belov'd by his own Subjects and so formidable to his Adversaries For the time will come that he will despise
that under pretence of those insensible changes which Religion would suffer it would be easie to alter the Laws and Form of the Government For the Execution of this Design it was thought expedient or rather necessary 1. To cut off all the most shrew'd and Politic Head-peices in the Nation under various Colours and Pretences 2. To deprive the great Cities one after another of their Charters and ever and anon to break in upon the Priviledges of the Clergy Nobility and People 3. To be always engag'd in some Foreign War thereby to have a specious occasion to keep up a standing Force and set up a Shambles to consume and waste away the most stout and daring of the Nobility and Gentry and to accustom the Subject to new and frequent Taxes and drain their Purses 4. To sow Jealousies between the English and Scots on purpose to make use of one of the Nations to invade the Liberties of the other 5. To foment the Divisions of the Protestants to multiply their Sects and keep them in a kind of Equality by favouring sometimes one and sometimes the other to the end that after several Persecutions the Parliament might be constrain'd to come to a Universal Toleration which would soon open a door to let in Popery into the Government 6. That while the design was carrying on to amuse the English with a Foreign War and at the same time their Destruction was contriving at home the main thing to be consider'd was whether to cuarrel with France or the Vnited Provinces France was altogether Roman Catholic and the place where Arbitrary Power Reign'd in Triumph If you lead the English thither 't is true you gratify'd their natural Inclination but augmented their detestation of Popery and Slavery And then it was to enfeeble a Power by means of which they were to Establish blind Obedience in the Island Therefore it was concluded that all the Force of the three Kingdoms should be turn'd upon Holland for indeed there lay all the provocations of their Malice Reformation was the prevailing Religion of those Fortunate Provinces Liberty was the Pillar that supported them They had been a long time the Sanctuary of Unfortunate Fugitives and Exiles Moreover it was foreseen that while they enclos'd within their own Bosom the two next Heirs of the Crown the English being abus'd and oppress'd would not fail to repair to them Therefore there was no more to be done but absolutely to determin that Carthage was to be utterly destroy'd We must acknowledge that never was any Project better laid but unfortunately for the Contrivers the Impatience of the Jesuits the Courage Union and Piety of the Prince and Princess of Orange spoil'd all Their Royal Highnesses refuse their Consent to repeal the Tests King James is Angry pushes on things to extremity and counterfeits a Prince of Wales The English redouble their Murmurs the Prince Arms without making any Noise Lands in England where all give way the Generality joyn with him while the King abandons all at once both his Kingdom and his Vain Enterprises But that I may no longer tarry upon a Subject that has been now the occasion of so much Writing and which is now God be thanked quite out of Season I shall apply my self at present to observe by what Artifices the Court of England Labour'd to render the War against the Hollanders acceptable to the People This is that which most peculiarly was my Aim and upon which I am apt to believe the Public has not seen any Reflections especially in our Language The Designs of Princes are manag'd at a distance and perhaps it may not be thought an ill Conjecture should I presume to say that the secret Motive which induc'd the setting up of the East Indie and African Companies was to lessen the Power of the Hollanders and to serve for a Pretence to find an occasion of a Quarrel when it should be thought convenient At least there are several Persons who openly maintain that those Societies are meer Monopolies more fit to ruine the Trade of a great Kingdom then to advance it However it be 't is probable that the Court flatter'd the English with the hopes of rendring them absolute Masters of the Sea and Navigation and giving them the possession of those Wealthy Countries which the Vnited Provinces are Masters of in the East Indies Nevertheless they that lookt upon things with a clear sight perceiv'd that it was only a Bait but yet as evident as it was the common People swallow'd it down Charles the II. and the D. of York were then * Members of the 1664. Church of England and no body so much as dreamt at that time that they were then forming a resolution to betray the Party The Protestants are so easie of belief that if James the II. had not bethought himself after the Death of his Brother to Publish a Writing under his Brother's Hand which he assur'd the World contain'd the Real Profession of his Faith no body would ever have imagin'd that a Person of his sublime Wit and so great a Monarch could have persever'd in his Hypocrisie till Death and it is thought even to this day that he was either of the Reformed Religion or that he had none at all The Advantages which the Tyrant Cromwell one of the greatest Captains of the Age had obtain'd over the Hollanders from the Year 1651. to 1654. made the common People of England look upon the Conquest of Holland as an easie undertaking They imagin'd seeing that just after the Conclusion of a Civil War under a Usurper not well settl'd and at a time when the Land was all embroyl'd with Factions they had constrain'd their Enemies to a dishonourable Peace that they should reduce them much lower should they Attack them being well United with all their Forces under their lawful Prince France promis'd to Assist them privately to amuse the Hollanders with hopes of feigned Succour and to powre in upon them so soon as she should find it proper All the World knows the Success of that War which lasted above three Years during which time the two Nations Experienc'd what judicious Historians have already observ'd that they could not vanquish one another being very near of equal strength at Sea and therefore that their Engagements would only contribute to their Mutual Ruine In the Year 1672. Lewis XIV undertook the Conquest of Holland with more Success then Charles II. had done eight Years before At what time the Court of England believing the Hollanders lost beyond recovery at the beginning of the first Campagne openly joyn'd with France And indeed there had been an end of the Vnited Provinces had the English continu'd the War with that Vigor as they did in 1665. But that quicksighted Nation perceiving that the Religion and Liberties of their Neighbours were more aim'd at then their Trade and Riches represented to their King that there was nothing to be gain'd by that War but blows and that
decided the Destiny of Empires that according to the manner of spinning out a War now a days the lives of five or six Kings equally Prosperous would not suffice to Conquer all Europe To which I have another answer to make that the same methods are not taken nor the same ways us'd as formerly to gain the Vniversal Monarchy The People of Europe are so accustom'd to be rul'd by different Princes that there would be little reason to fear a King who should conceive a design to subdue them all and afterwards to govern them by his Lieutenants in regard his design would be no less fantastic then impossible A Vniversal Monarch then at present is quite another thing then an Absolute Prince at home and who has reduc'd his Neighbours so low that they are not able to enterprize any thing against him that they are constrain'd to brook his outrages and injuries and to suffer him to do what he pleases Now is there any Person of good credit that can deny but that France was almost arriv'd at this high Pitch of Grandeur and that in all outward Appearance he had attain'd to what he desir'd had James 11. his faithful Ally kept firm upon his Throne Now let the Confederates consider whether it be not their interest to humble the Pride of France and whether they will ever meet with an opportunity more Favourable Not that I would advise them to the Tryal of an Absolute conquest of France but if they can but regain what she has wrested from them restore the Duke of Lorain to his own and as occasion offers sever the Dukedoms of Normandy Britain and Guyen as formerly they were divided and which is no more then what is long'd for by the inhabitants at this day take advantage of the discontents of the People to re-establish the custom of calling free Assemblies of Estates and in a Word divide that vast Kingdom into several Principalities and reduce it to the same condition wherein it was toward the end of the Second Race and at the beginning of the Third before Philip the August at what time the Kings of France had something else to do then trouble their Brains about disturbing their Neighbours quiet Perhaps some French man will tell me I am a Traytor to my Nation and give that Advice which is enough to embroyl the Kingdom in Civil War But there is nothing of that in my design for I dare protest with a safe conscience that my Principal aim is only to asust my fellow Country-men in the recovery of their liberty Though if they cannot recover it but by a Civil War that may last for some Years is it not infinitely to be prefer'd before an eternal slavery But say my opposers these Petty Princes will be always quarrelling one with another And do not the great ones do the same Let the Counts of Foix and Armagnac fight it out as long as they please the rest of France takes no notice of their brawls But when Lewis the XIV Rendevouzes three hundred thousand Men he drains and depopulates a great Kingdom and strikes such a terror into all his Neighbours that they are compell'd to oppress their People to withstand his Invasions besides a War between two petty Princes can never last long for that in a short time they find themselves both so enfeebl'd that they are constrain'd to agree This is the only means to procure a general Peace and to prevent France from breaking the Treaties that shall be concluded with her THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRINCES DISPOSSESS'D AND OF THE PROTESTANTS EXIL'D is another of the most happy and important consequences of the Union of the Confederates Wars are the Law-suits of Princes Battels and Conquests are their Judges and the mischeif is that these Judges are both blind and inconstant and there is always Appeal from their decrees so soon as the vanquish'd finds himself in a condition to come to a new Tryal And therefore that Christendom may be restor'd to a general and lasting Peace there is a necessity of fixing as far as lies in mortal Power the Fate and destiny of Armed Decisions by bringing the Protestants of Europe to such an equal Ballance that no one may be easily able to oppress the Rest We have sought in vain for this Medium ever since the Pyrenean Treaty for that the strength of Spain decay'd of a suddain and England which was only able to oppose the Progress of the French intended nothing less Now the medal begins to turn Great Britain is at liberty Germany is United the Empire grows powerful and it may be said without any injury to the valour of the rest of the Generals neither to his Highness the Elector of Bavaria that the Emperour is cheifly beholding for the Victories which he has gain'd over the Grand Enemy of the Christian Name since the Seige of Vienna to Duke Charles of Lorain It would be therefore a great peice of injustice if that Noble Prince should not Reap as well the Fruit of his Labours as the Honour of having so many times triumph'd over the Infidels Hangary being reduc'd and the Hereditary Countries of the House of Austria being secured for a long time from the terrour of the Ottoman Arms deserve without doubt that the Empire should do it's utmost to restore it's Preserver to the Inheritance of his Ancestors I dare affirm also that his Atcheivments are of that importance to the Glory and Repose of the Imperial Family that they ought to preserve the memory of this Victorious Champion and testify their acknowledgement to his Posterity if Fate prevent them from returning their Gratitude to himself Interest and Vertue are not always Enemies to one another they agree perfectly well upon this occasion The Conquests of France in the Low-Countries the Invasion of Lorain of Franche Conte and Alsatia have render'd her so potent and so near a Neighbour to the Empire that at length in the last Campaign she took Philipsbourgh and has almost made her self Mistriss of the four Electorats of the Rhine So that if the revolution in England had not hasten'd her to the defence of her own Country 't is very probable that she would have carry'd on her Victories with little or no Obstruction Crown'd the Dauphin King of the Romans and reduc'd in time the Electors of Saxony Brandenburgh and Bavaria the Landgraves of Hess and the rest of the Princes of Germany to the same condition as the Ancient Dukes of Normandy Guyen and Burgundy that is to say to nothing The Roman Catholics may imagin that the Re-establishment of the Exil'd Protestants does not concern them But it more nearly concerns them then they are aware of It is said that one of the Causes which hasten'd the ruin of the Reformed in France was this because the Court was sensible of their discontents and murmurings during the War with the Vnited Provinces They were accus'd of holding Intelligence which the Hollanders and of discovering to