les then the Vniversal Empire and that how formidable soever he were yet they not onely maintained their pretensions but with uninterrupted prosperitie and succesfulnesse advanced their trade and spread their conquests in all the foure parts of the world Rome it self though most famous and victorious yet could not as is believed in so short a time do what by this Commonwealth hath bin effected In India and Affrica they soon forced the Spaniard and Portugeses to yeeld to them most of their trade and posessions And tho England put in for a share yet they were a long while vigourously opposed by the Dutch and to this hour have enough to do to keep what they have gotten so that in lesse then an hundred years this Commonwealth by their industrie and art in trading are becom so excessive rich and potent that they began to insult and would needs be Arbitraters to their neighbouring Princes and States and encroach upon their Territories and Dominions This drew upon them that fatal war before mentioned by which they were sorely weakned and brought so low that except God by a more then ordinarie Providence had protected and appeared for them they had certainly bin ruinated and never able to recover themselves again however their pride hereby was much abated And as Luxurie and lasciviousnes are the sad effects of prosperitie as wel as Pride so such vices in a bodie Politick and Common-wealth as do corrupt the radical humors by abating the vigour of the Vital parts doe insensiblie tend to the consumption and decay of the whole That this Commonwealth hath much recovered its strength may clearly appeare if we consider what great things they have effected since the little time they have enjoyed peace They have in lesse then 7 yeares built about 40 gallant ships of war They have laid out vast sums of treasure in refortifying Narden Mastricht Breda the Grave and many other places They have payd vast sums of money to their Allies for their auxiliarie troopes as also 200000 pound sterling to the King of England to Enjoy their peace with him And besides all this their Encrease in Riches and power may be guest at by the many stately houses built within these 5 years in Amsterdam Rotterdam and other places to all which we may ad to what excessive hight the Actions of the East and West-Indie Companie are risen and the obligations from the Sates are so esteemed as to securitie that they Can get as much money as they please at 2 Per cent not to speak of the Exceeding encrease of their subjects occasioned by the French Kings tyrannie against the distressed Protestants in France Alsace and other parts of his Conquests neither wil we speak of other signes of the encrease of this Commonwealth as not Judging it convenient to commit them to paper but wil now proceed to shew the Method of Living and travelling in the Dominions and places of the States which if you do wel consider you May see how happie and easie the Government of England is above that of other Nations The Brill in Holland is the Usual place where the Packet and Kings pleasure boats bring on such as come for to see the United Provinces here be sure to furnish your self wel with money From hence you take a boat to Maseland Sluce or Rotterdam which if you goe in Companie with others wil only cost you 5 stivers but if you take one for your self wil cost 25. stivers for Maseland Sluce and a Ducaton to Rotterdam The Fifth part of which goes to the States for a tax they call Passagie Gelt and the other 4 parts are for the boat Men or Shippers who also out of their gaines must Pay a tax to the States so that by computation you pay a fift pennie to the States for your travelling either in boats by water or in waggons by land As you passe by Maseland Sluce you 'l see a verie faire fishing village to which belong near two hundred Herring Buisses but if you goe by the way of Rotterdam you sail by two old Townes Called Flardin and Schiedam yet let me advise you before you depart from the Bril to take a serious view of it as beeing the citie which in Queen Elisabeths time was one of the Cautionarie Townes pawned to England The Brill had a voyce among the States but by reason Rotterdam hath got away their Trade by which having lost its former lustre is now become afishing town onely Rotterdam is the second Citie for trade in Holland and by some is caled little London as having vast traffick with England in so much that many of the citisens speak good English There are in this citie two considerable Churches of English and Scotch and how great a trade they drive with the King of Englands subjects is evident for in the yeare 1674 at the opening of the waters after a great frost there departed out of Rotterdam 300 Sail of Englesh Scotch and Irish Ships at once with an Easterly wind And if a reason should be demanded how it coms to passe that so many English Ships should frequently com to that haven It is easilie answered because they can ordinarily Load and unload and make returns to England from Rotterdam before a Ship can get clear from Amsterdam and the Texel And therfore your English Merchants find it Cheaper and more commodious for trade that after their goods are arrived at Rotterdam to send their goods in boats Landward in to Amsterdam This citie is famous as beeing the place where Great Erasmus was born whose Statue of Brasse stands erected in the Market place And although the buldings here are not so superb as those of Amsterdam Leyden or Harlem yet the places worth the seeing are first the Great Church where Several Admirals Lay Stately Entombed here you see their Admiralitie East Indie and Stathouses together with that caled het Gemeen Lands Huis From Rotterdam you may for 5 strivers have a boat to bring you to Delph but before you com thither you passe thro a faire village called Overschie where the French and English youths are trayned up in litterautre as to the Latin and Dutch tongue Booke keeping c from thence in the same boat you com to Delph which is famous for making of Porceline to that degree that it much resembles the China but onely it is not transparent In Delph is the great Magasin of Arms for the whole Province of Holland Their churches are verie large in one of which are Tombs of the Princes of Orange Admiral Tromp and General Morgans Ladie and in the Cloyster over against the Church you have an Inscription in a Pillar of Brasse shewing after what manner William the 1 that famous Prince of Orange was Shot to death by a miscreant Jesuist with his deserved punishment Delph hath the 3 d voyce in the States of Holland and sends its Deputies unto the Colledge of the States General and to all other colledges
his place This custome is Religiously observed by all his highnesses garrisons whilest he himself with his Children being five sons two Daughters and two Daughters in law goe constantly to the Calvinist Church adjoyning to the Court. Amongst other acts of publick pietie and charitie this Prince hath established and endowed some Religious houses or Nunneries for Protestant young ladies where they may live virtuously and spend their time in devotion as long as they please or otherwise marry if they think fit but then they lose the benefit of the Monastery There is one of these at Herford in Westphalia where I was and had the honour to wait upon the Lady Abbess the Princess Elisabeth eldest sister of the Elector Palatine and Prince Rupert who is since dead Notwithstanding the late wars with Sweden and that by the prevalency of France in that hasty treaty of peace concluded at Nimwegen his Electorall Highness was obliged to give back what he had Justly taken from that crown yet his subjects flourish in wealth and trade his highness having encouraged manufactures of all sorts by inviting Artizans into his dominions and estalished a Company of tradeing Merchants to the West-Indies which will much advance navigation amongst his subjects And in all humane probabilitie they are like to continue in a happy condition seing by the alliances his highness hath made with the Protestant Princes of the Empire and especially the house of Lunenbourg they are in no danger of being disturbed by their neighbours I told you before that the Prince of Brandenbourg was married to the Daughter of the duke of Hanover so that so long as that alliance holds the families of Brandenbourg and Lunenbourg will be in a condition to cast the ballance of the Empire they both together being able to bring into the field 80000 as good men as any are in Europe When I parted from Berlin I made a turn back to Lunenbourg in my way to Swedland where I found severall of my Countrey men Officers in the garison who shew'd mee what was most remarkeable in the city as the Saltworks which bring in considerable summes of money to the duke of Lunenbourg the Stathouse and Churches in one of which I saw a communion table of pure ducat gold From thence I went into the Province of of Holstein and at a small sea port called Termond of which I spake before I embarked for Sweden He that hath read in the histories of this last age the great exploits of Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes perhaps may have a fancy that it must be an excellent Countrey which hath bredsuch warriours but if he approach it he will soon find himself undeceived Entering into Sweedland at a place called Landsort wee sailed forwards amongst high rocks having no other prospect from Land but mountains till wee came to Dollers which is about four Swedish that is twenty four English miles from Stockholm the capitall citie of the Kingdome upon my comeing a shore I confess I was a litle surprised to see the poverty of the people and the litle wooden houses they lived in not unlike Soldiers huts in a leaguer but much more when I discovered litle else in the Countrey but mountanous rocks and standing lakes of water The Reader will excuse mee I hope if I remarke not all that I may have taken notice of in this Countrey seing by what I have already written he may perceive that my designe is rather to observe the manner of the inhabitants living then to give a full description of every thing that may be seen in the Countrey they live in However I shall say somewhat of that too having premised once for all that the ordinary people are wretchedly poor yet not so much occasioned by the Publick taxes as the barrenness of their Countrey and the oppression of the nobles their Landlords and immediate superiours who till the present King put a stop to their violences tyrannically domineered over the lives and fortunes of the poor peasants From Dollers I took waggon to Stockholm changing horses three times by the way by reason of the badness of the rode on all hands environed with rocks that hardly open so much as here and there to leave a shred of plain ground At two miles distance upon that rode the citie of Stockholme looks great becaus of the Kings palace the houses of Noblemen and some Churches which are seated upon rocks and indeed the whole citie and suburbs stand upon rocks unless it be some few houses built upon ground gained from the rivers that run throw the town Stockholme has its name from a stock or logg of wood which three brothers threw into the water five miles above the city making a vow that where ever that stock should stop they would build a castle to dwell in The stock stopt at the Holme or rock where the palace of the King now stands and the brothers to be as good as their word there built their castle which invited others to doe the like so that in process of time the other rocks or holmes were covered with buildings which at length became the capital citie of the Kingdome It is now embellished with a great many Stately houses and much emproved from what it was 4â—0 yeares agoe as indeed most cities are for the Stathouse then built is so contemtible and low that in Holland or England it would not be suffered to stand to disgrace the nation The Council Chamber where the Burgemaster and Raedt sit is two rooms cast into one not above nine foot high and the two rooms where the sheriffs and the Erve colledge which is a Judicature like to the Doctors Commons in England sit are not above eight foot and a halfe high The Kings Palace is a large square of stone building in some places very high but an old and irregular fabrick without a sufficient quantitie of ground about it for gardens and walks It was anciently surrounded with water but some yeares since part of it was filled up to make a way from the castlegate down into the old town In this Palace there are large rooms but the lodgings of the King Queen and Royall familie are three pair of stairs high the rooms in the first and second story 's being destin'd for the Senat Chamber and other courts of Judicature The Kings library is four pair of stairs high being a room about fourty six foot square with a closet adjoyning to it not half the dimensions When I considered the appartments and furniture of this Court I began to think that the French Author wrote truth who in his Remarks upon Swedland sayes that when Queen Christina resigned the Crown to Carolus Gustaphus the father of this present King she disposed of the best of the furniture of the Court and gave away a large share of the Crown lands to her favorites in so much that the King considering the poor condition she had left the Kingdome in and seeing the Court
so meanely furnished said that had he know'n before he accepted the Crown what then he did he would have taken other measures There are many other Stately palaces in Stockholme belonging to the nobilitie but many of them for want of repairs and not being inhabited run to ruine severall of the nobles who lived in them formerly having lost the estates that maintained their ancient splendour as wee shall see hereafter being retired unto a Countrey life There are also some other magnificent structures begun but not finished as that Stately building intended for a Parliament house for the nobles and two or three Churches but what I most wonder at is the vault wherein the late King lies buried is not as yet covered but with boards for it is to he observed that the Kings of Sweeden have no tombs and monuments as in England and other Countries but are put into copper coffins with inscriptions on them and placed one by another in vaults adjoyning to the Gray Friers Church These vaults are about Eight in number having turets over them with vains of Copper gilt carved into the ciphers of the severall Kings who give them their names by being the first that are interred in them The vault of the late King is not yet finished no more then the fabricks above mentioned which perhaps may be imputed to the late troubles of Swedland The number of the inhabitants of Stockholme are also much decreased within these few yeares partly by reason of the removal of the Court of Admiraltie and the Kings Ships from that citie to Charles-crown a new haven lately made about 200 English miles from thence which hath draw'n many families belonging to the fleet and Admiralitie from Stockholme to live there and partly becaus many of the nobilitie gentry and those that depended on them are as I said before withdraw'n from Stockholme to a retired life in the Countrey Nevertheless the ordinary sort of Bourghers who still remain are extreamly poor seing the women are fain to worke like horses drawing carts and as labourers in England serving masons and bricklayers with stone bricks and mortar and unloading vessells that bring those materials some of the poor creatures in the summertime toyling in their smocks without either shoes or stockings They performe also the part of watermen and for a small matter will row passengers 40 miles or more if they please The Court here is very thin and silent the King living frugally seldome dining in publick He eats commonly with the two Queens his mother and consort who is a virtuous Princess sister to the King of Denmark She is the mother of five Children three sons and two daughters with whom she spends most of her time in retirement The King is a goodly Prince whom God hath blessed and endowed with accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his education wherein he was extreamly abused being taught litle more than his mother tongue He is gracious Just and valiant constant at his devotion and utterly averse from all kind of debauchery and the unfashionable vanities of other courts in playes and danceing His Sports are hunting and exerciseing of his guards and he rarely appeares publickly or gives audience to strangers which is imputed to his sense of the neglect of his education He is a Prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the world which hath many times proved fortunate to great men and indeed if wee consider all the circumstances of his early misfortunes how he was slighted and neglected by his nobles who would hardly vouchsafe to pay him a visit when he was among them in the Countrey or to doe him homage for the lands they held of the Crown and how by the Pernicious councels of the French and the weakeness or treachery of his governours he was misled into a war that almost cost him his Crown having lost the best of his territories in Germany and Schonen and most of his forces both by sea and land If I say these things be considered it will probably appeare that hardly any Prince before him hath in a shorter time or more fully setled the Authority and prerogative of the Crown then he hath done in Sweden for which he stands no wayes obliged to France as he was for the restauration of what he lost during the war. He is now as absolute as the French King and makes Edicts which have the force of Laws with out the concurrence of the Estates of the Kingdome He hath erected two Iudicatures the one called the colledge of Reduction and the other of inspections the first of which hath put his Majesty in possession again of all lands alienated from the Crown and the other called to account all persons even the heires and executors of those who had cheated the Crown and made them refound what they or their predecessors had appropriated to their own use of the Publick revenue These two necessary constitutions as they have reduced many great families to a pinch who formerly lived splendidly upon the Crown lands and revenues and obliged them to live at home upon their ancient and private Patrimonie in the Countrey which is one great cause that the Court of Sweden is at present so unfrequented so have they enabled his Majestie without burdening of his subjects to support the Charges of the government and to maintain 64000 men in pay The truth is his other Renues are but small seing Queen Christina enjoys the best of his territories as her allowance and that what arises from the Copper and Iron mines one Silver mine the Pitch and Tar the customes and excise amounts to no extraordinary summ of money the land tax in so barren a Countrey scarcely deserving to be named The customes and excise I confess are very high and the rigorous manner of exacting them pernicious to trade as for instance Iâ— a ship come to Stockholme from London with a hundred severall sorts of goods and those goods assigned to fifty several men more or less if any of those fifty doe not pay the custome of what belongs to him though it be for a barrel of Beer the Ship shall not be unladen nor no man have his goods out though he hath fully payed the customes for them till this last man hath payed his There are severall other silly customes in Swedland that discourages men from tradeing there as if any stranger die there a third of his Estate must goe to the city or town where he traded No forreigne Merchant in Stockholm can travell into any Countrey where there is a faire without a passport and at present seing there is no treaty of trade betwixt England and Sweden though the English bring as considerable a trade to that Kingdome as any other Countrey whatsoever yet they are very unkindly used by the Officers of the custome house whereas the Dutch in Lubeck and other cities have new and greater Priviledges allowed them Nor would I Counsel an Englishman
contemptible that the libraries of many Grammar Schools and of privat men in England or Holland are far better stored with books then it is Upon viewing of it and that of the Kings Palace I called to mind the saying of a French man upon the like occasion That Swedland came behind France and England in the knowledge of men and things at least 800 yeares yet some Swedes have been so conceited of the antiquity of their Countrey as to bragg that Paradice was seated in Sweden that the Countrey was turned into such heaps of rocks for the rebellion of our first parents and that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel in a Countrey three Swedish miles distant from Vpsall A French man standing by and hearing this Romantick story as I was told fitted him with the like telling him that when the world was made in six days at the end of the creation all the Rubbish that remained was throw'n together into a corner which made up Sweden and Norway And indeed the French seeme to have no great likeing to the Countrey what ever kindness they may have for the people for a French Ambassadour as an author of that Countrey relates being by order of Queen Christina treated in a Countrey house 4 Swedish miles from Stockholme and upon the rode goeing and comeing with all the varieties and pleasures that the Countrey could affoard on purpose to make him have a good opinion of the same made answere to the Queen who asked him upon his return what he thought of Sweden that were he master of the whole Countrey he would presently sell it buy a farme in France or England which under favour I think was a litle tart and sawcy Having stayed a considerable time in Swedland and most part at Stockholme I set out from thence to goe to Elsenbourg by land and went a litle out of my way to see a small city called Eubrone famous for a coat of Arms which it got in this manner A certain Masculine Queen of Denmark who had conquered a great part of Sweden comeing to this city asked the Magistrates what was the Arms of their city who having told her that they had none she plucked up her coats and squatting upon the Snow bid them take the marke she left there for their Arms It 's pity she did not give them a suitable motto to it also What that figure is called in blazonerie I know not but to this day the city uses it in their Armes and for marking their commodities This Queen came purposely into Sweden to pay a visit to a brave woman that opposed a King of Swedland who in a time of famine would have put to death all the men and women in his Countrey above sixty years of age The Countrey all the way I travelled in Swedland is much of the same qualitie of the land about Stockholme untill I came neare the Province of Schonen which is called the store house and Kitchin of Sweden where the Countrey is far better It was formerly very dangerous to travell in this Province of Schonen becaus of the Snaphances who were a kind of bloody robbers now utterly destroyed by the King so that it is safe enough travelling there Entering into Schonen I saw twenty nine of these rogues upon wheeles and elsewhere in the Countrey ten and twenty at severall places The King used great severitie in destroying of them some he caused to be broken upon the wheele others speeted in at the fundament and out at the shoulders many had the flesh pinched off of there breasts and so were fastened to stakes till they died and others again had their noses and both hands cut off and being seared with a hot Iron were let goe to acquaint their camerades how they had been served The King is very severe against Highway-men and duellers In above a hundred miles travelling wee found not a house where there was either French wine or brandie which made mee tell a Swede of our Company who was travelling to Denmark that I would undertake to shew any man 500 houses wherein a traveller might have wine and other good accommodation in the space of an hundred miles upon any rode from London There are severall small towns and fertile land in this Countrey of Schonen lying upon the Sound at the narrowest part whereof lies Elsenbourg burnt down by the Danes in the last war Here I crost over to Elsenore the passage being but a league broad The King of Denmark has a castle at Elsenore which commands the narrow passage of the Sound where all Ships that enter into or come out of the Baltick sea must pay toll Having visited this castle and stai'd about a fortnight with the English Consul and Sr. John Paul late resident at the Court of Swedland I went to the danish Court at Coppenhaguen Copenhaguen is the capitall city of Zeeland Jutland or Denmark and place of residence of the King It stands on a flat encompassed with a pleasant and delightfull Countrey much resembling England The streets of the city are kept very neat and cleane with lights in the night time for the convenience and safetie of those who are then abroad a custome not as yet introduced into Stockholme where it is dangerous to be abroad when it is dark The Kings men of war lye here very conveniently being orderly ranged betwixt Booms after the manner of Amsterdam and neare the Admiralty house which is a large pile of building well furnished with stores and Magazines secured by a citadell that not onely commands the city but also the Haven and entrey into it The Court of Denmark is splendid and makes a far greater figure in the world then that of Sweden tho not many yeares agoe in the time of Carolus Gustaphus the father of the present King of Swedland it was almost reduced to its last when the walls of Copenhagen saved that Crown and Kingdome That siege was famous caried on with great vigour by the Swede and as bravely maintained by the Danes The monuments whereof are to be seen in the canon bullets gilt that still remain in the walls of some houses and in the steeple of the great Church of the town The Royall palace in Copenhaguen is but small and a very ancient building but his Majesties house Fredenburg is a stately fabrick of Modern Architecture and very richly furnished Denmark is at present a flourishing Kingdome and the King who hath now made it hereditary surpasses most of his predecessours in power and wealth He hath much enlarged his dominions aswell as Authority and by his personall and Royall virtues no less then the eminent qualities of a great many able ministers of State he hath gained the universall love of his subjects and the esteeme of all forreigne Princes and States The Court if much frequented every day but especially on Sundays where about eleven of the clock in the morning the Nobility forreigne Ministers and Officers of the Army
wonders now and than Here lyes a Lawyer an honestman And trully old Ben was in the right for in my tyme I have observed some Gentlemen of that profession that have not Acted like St. Evona or Justice Randal I wil say no more of them but wish them as great fees and as much encouragement as the Lawyers have in Switserland I now come to speake some thing of the three Taxes I mentioned in the former part of my remarques on Taxes of which the first ought rather to be called an usefull and publique invention like to that of the Insurance Office in London then a publick Tax seeing no man needs contribute to it unless they please and find his profit by it but the other may be called Taxes because the subjects are obliged to submit to them but then they are so easy that what the Publick gets thereby not only lessons Extraordinary subsidies which many tymes occasions clamour when because of their raritie and the urgencie of occasions they must needs be great Yet it is sufficently compensated by the advantage and securitie in the Estates which private persons who are obliged to pay it reape thereby dayly I am confident that if the King and Parlement thought fit to introduce some or all three of these taxes into England the publick charge of Goverment might be defrayed with more ease and with less repining and clamour then when it must be done by new and high Impositions how ever our Governers are the proper Judges of that The first then is an House called the merchants Bank which is governed by diverse Commissioners Clarks and Booke keepers likewise a Essaymaster who Judgeth of the Gould and Silver that at any tyme is brought into the Bank uncoyned the security given for preservation thereof are the States and Magistrates of Amsterdam Now if you have a mind to put money into the Bank suppose a 1000 L. less or more you must goe to the Clarks and ask a folio for your name and then pay in your money at three or foure per cent according as the rate of the Bank money is high or low or you may buy it of those called Cashiers or Broakers then get the Clarks to set downe in the folio what you bring in haveing done so you may draw this summe or sell it in what parcels you please but then if you let your money lye seven yeares in the Bank you receive no Intrest for the same If you aske where then is the advantage for the Merchants I answer first you have your money ready at all tymes for answering bills of Exchange and making other payments you are at no charge for baggs or portage at no loss by false tale or bad money in no danger of Thieves or unfaithfull servants or fire and above all you have the accounts of your cash most punctually and Justly kept without any trouble or runing the risk of Gouldsmith or Cashieres breaking in your Debt for such is their care that twice a yeare or some tymes oftner they shut up the Bank for 14 dayes and then all that have concerns therein must bring in their accounts to the Clarkes who a few dayes after haveing viewed the Bookes aquaint such as have brought in wrong accounts with their mistakes desiring them to returne to their bookes and rectifie their Error not telling them wherein the mistake lyes so that I have knowne Merchants in my tyme sent back three or foure tymes with their wrong accounts but if they begin to grow Impatient and say that they will stand to their accounts then they pay a mulct to the Clarkes upon their Covincing them of their mistakes either by chargeing to much upon the Bank or forgetting or omitting what was their due I knew two Merchants who haveing forgott the one 750 L. and the other 220 L. in their accounts were honestly rectified by the Clarkes so that they susstained no loss besides this care of the Clarkes in keeping and Stating the accounts the bank is obliged for five L. a yeare to send to every Merchant that desires it their accounts every morning before Exchange tyme of the moneyes written of by them in the Bank the day before upon any Merchants account and what summes are written of by others upon their accounts so that the Merchants may compare the Banks notes with their bookes and so save much of the charges of Booke kee Now if it be objected that though this be an advantage to the Merchants yet what can the Publick gaine thereby seeing the Charges of paying Officers Clarks c. must needs be very considerable I answer that indeed it is a mystery to those who understand not the thing but if it were once known and practised the advantage of it would appeare For among other things which might be said The Magistrates of the Citty take out of the Merchants Bank a Sufficent stock of money to supply the Lumbert a Banck that Lends out money and is Governed by 4 Commissioners chosen out of the Magistrates who sitt in Court every day in the Lumbert which is a large pile of Building 300 foot long containing several Chambers and magazines under one Roof in these several Chambers the Commissioners have Officers sitting tolend money upon all sorts of Goods even from a paires of shooes to the richest Jewell c. This is a great convenicence for Poore people yea for Merchants also who some tymes may want money to pay a bill of Exchange and prevents the Cheatting and Extraordinary Extortion used by the Pawne brokers in England France and other Countryes And besides the Poore have their Pawns safely and well preserved neither are they punctually sould when the yeare is out or denied under the pretext of being mislaid as the Poore are often tymes served by the wicked Pawn broakers There is also another convenience in this Lumbert viz an Exellent way they have of discovering Thieves and the stollen goods They publish two generall open sales of the Goods pawnd twice a yeare that such as will may redeeme their goods and paying the Intrest may have them although the time be relapsed Thus much as to the Lumbert I was once according to my duty to waite upon our present King at the Bank of Merchants where shewing his Majestie the way of keeping the Journall Book of the Bank which is of a prodigious bigness his Majestie was Extreamly pleased with the Contrivance of preserveing it from fire saying that the course they tooke might be of great use for the preserving Patents and the deeds of Noblemens Estates This contrivance which perhaps may be thought usefull or imitable I shall therefore discribe it It is a large firestone shaped like a Chest and set upright in a stone wall having a large brass doore of a Vast thicknes with flops to fall over and Cover the Lock and Hinges into this chest the Booke is drawn upon Rouls it being of such a Bulk and waight as cannot be handed in by a
and cloaks in the night but if in the Jesuits Schools there be any rich Burgemasters sons who have parts they are sure to be snapt up and adopted into the societie Formerly before the matter was otherwise adjusted in the diet of Ratisbonne there have been designs of voteing Protestant Magistrats into the government again but so soon as the Jesuits come to discover who of the Magistrats were for that they immediately preferred their sons or daughters and made them chanons abbots or chanonesses and so diverted them by interest It 's pity to see a city so famous for traffike in former times now brought to so great a decay that were it not for the trade of Rhenish wine it would be utterly forsaken and left wholy to the Church men The continuall alarms the Magistrats have had by forreign designs upon their liberty and the jealousies fomented among themselfs as it is thought by the Agents and favourers of France and especially the Bishop of Strasbourg have for severall yeares kept them in continuall disquiet and necessitated them to raise great taxes which hath not a litle contributed to the impoverishing of the people especially the boars round about who tho the Countrey they live in be one of the most pleasant and fertile plains of Germany yet are so wretchedly poor that canvas cloaths wooden shoes and straw to sleep on in the same room with their beasts is the greatest worldly happiness that most of them can attain unto The Elector of Cologne is a venerable old man Bishop of four great bishopricks viz Cologne Liege Munster and Heldershime He divides his time betwixt his devotion and experimental studies being punctuall in saying of mass every morning and constant in his Elaboratory in the afternoon for he is much addicted to chymistry and leaves the administration of Government to his Cozen the Bishop of Strasbourg To speak of all the miracles of the three Kings of Cologne and the vast number of saints who were removed out of England and interred there would be but tedious and perhaps incredible to the reader aswell as wide of my designe I shall therefore proceed From Cologne I took water on the Rhine and advanced to the citie of Bon and so forward to Coblints the residence of the Elector of Trier over against this city on the other side of the Rhine stands that impregnable fort called Herminshine built on a high rocky hill as high again as Windforcastle and on the north side of it the River Mosel falls into the Rhine over which there is a Stately stone bridge This Prince governs his subjects as the other Spirituall Electors doe that is both by temporall and spirituall authority which in that Country is pretty absolute The chiefe trade of this Countrey is in wine corn wood and Iron The next Countrey I came to was that of the Elector of Mayence who is likewise both a secular and Ecclesiasticall Prince and governs his subjects accordingly He is reckoned to be wholely for the Interests of the French King who notwithstanding of that pretends a title to the citadel of Mayence As I was upon my Journey to Mayence by land I made a turn down the Rhin to visit the famous litle city of Backrack and some towns belonging to the Landgrave of Hessen but especially Backrack because Travellers say it much resembles Jerusalem in its scituation and manner of buildings The Burgemaster of this city told mee that the whole Country about Backrack does not yield above 200 fouders of wine a year And yet the Merchants of Dort by an art of multiplication which they have used some years furnish England with severall thousande of fouders Here I shall take the liberty to relate a strange story which I found recorded in this Countrey tho I know it to be mentioned in History There was a certain cruel and inhumane Bisshop of Mayence who in a year of great scarcity and famine when a great number of Poor people came to his gates begging for bread caused the Poor wretches men women and children to be put into a barn under pretext of relieving their necessities but so soon as they were got in caused the barn doors to be shut fire set to it and so burnt them all alive And whil'st the poor wretches cried and shreeked out for horrour and pain the Barbarous miscreant said to those that were about him harke how the Rats and mice doe crie But the just Judgement of God suffered not the fact to pass unpunished for not long after the cruel Bishop was so haunted with Rats and mice that all the guards he kept about him could not secure him from them neither at table nor in bed At length he resolved to flee for safetie into a tower that stood in the middle of the Rhine but the Rats pursued him got into his chamber and devoured him alive so that the Justice of the Almighty made him a prey to vermine who had inhumanely reckoned his fellow Christians to be such The tower which I saw to this day is called the Rats-tower and the story is upon record in the city of Mayence On my Journey from thence I came to the litle village of Hockom not far distant famous for our Hockomore wine of which though the place does not produce above 150 fouders a year yet the Ingenions Hollanders of Dort make some thousand fouders of it goe of in England and the Indies From Hockom I proceeded to Francfort a pleasant city upon the river of Maine called formerlâ—y Teutoburgum and Helenopolis and since Francfort becaus here the Franconians who came out of the Province of Franconia foarded over when they went upon their expedition into Gallia which they conquered and named it France and I thought it might very well deserve the name of Petty-London because of its Priviledges and the humour of the citizens It is a Hansiatick and Imperiall town and Common-wealth the Magistrats being Lutherans which is the publick established Religion though the Cathedrall church belongs to the Roman Catholicks who also have severall monasteries there The citie is populous and frequented by all sorts of Merchants from most parts of Europe part of Asia also becaus of the two great faires that are yearely kept there Many Jews live in this city and the richest Merchants are Calvinists who are not suffered to have a Church in the town but half an houres journey out of it at a place called Bucknam where I have told seventy four Coaches at a time all belonging to Merchants of the city It was in ancient times much enriched by Charle le maigne and hath been since by the constitution of the Golden bull amongst other honours Priviledges its appointed to be the place of the Emperours Election where many of the ornaments belonging to that August ceremonie are to be seen It is strongly fortified having a stately stone bridge over the Maine that joynes it to Saxe-housen the quarter of the great master of the
fifty yards in the length and but fifteen in breadth over it there is a Roome where the skins of five Lions which the Burghers killed at the city gates in the year 1252 are kept stuft The great market place is very large where a monumentall stone is to be seen on which one of their Burgemasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a sea engagement The people here spend much time in their Churches at devotion which consists chiefely in singing The women are beautifull but disfigured with a kind of Antick dress they wearing cloaks like men It is cheap living in this town for one may hire a palace for a matter of 20 〈◊〉 a year and have provisions at very reasonable rates besides the air and water is very good the city being supplied with fountains of Excellent fresh water which Hambourg wants and good ground for cellerage there being cellars here fourty or fifty foot deep I had the curiosity to goe from Lubeck to see the Ancient city of Magdeburg but found it so ruined and decayed by the Swedish war that I had no encouragement to stay there I therefore hastened to Berlin the chiefe residence of the Elector of Brandenbourg at whose Court I mett with a very Ingenuous French Merchant who tould me that he and divers other Merchants were designed to have lived in England but were discouraged by a letter sent from London by a French man that was removeing from thence to Amsterdam for these following reason which I coppied out of his Letter First because the Reformed Religion is persecuted in England as it is in France the which I tould him was a great untruth for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted and received into his Majesties Dominions without interruption allowed the free exercise of their owne forme of worship according to the Doctrine discipline of the Churches of France nor can they who converse with the French Ministers either in France or Holland be Ignorant that the chiefest part if not all those Ministers are willing to complye with the Church of England and it is Evident that most of the Dutch and French Protestants so called in Holland make use of Organs in their Churches A second thing was that both the bank of London and the Bankers Gouldsmiths were all broak the which I tould this Frenchman was not true altogether for there are many able Bankers whome I named as Alderman Fowles Alderman Hornbey Alderman Duncomb Alderman Founs Mr. Thomas Cook Mr. Rob Vyner Mr. Childe Mr. Endes Mr. Evans and others well known to the world by their solid dealling neyther was the Bank as he called the Chamber of London broak only it had been under the management of a bad Person whose designe was to bring it into disgrace besides there is the East-India Company an unquestionable securitie for those as have money to dispose of together with another undeniable securitie which is Land. Thirdly he saith that in England there is no Register and therefore many frauds in purchases morgages which begett teadious suites and renders both dangerous to trust Fourtly that if a man would purchase land he cannot being an Alien untill Naturalized Fiftly that in England there are so many plots and Confusions in Government that the Kingdome is hardly quiet twenty yeares together Sixtly that false wittnesses were so common in England and the crime of perjury so slightly punished that no man could be safe in life or Estate if he chanced to be in trouble Lastly he said that the English are so restless and quarrelesome that they not only foment and cherish Animosities amongst one another but are Every foot contriving and plotting against their lawfull soveraign and the Government By such surmises and insinuations as these the French and Germans are scared from trusting themselves and fortunes in England and therefore settle in Amsterdam Hamburg and other Cittyes where there are Banks and Registers This I say is one cause why there are now to be seene at Amsterdam such vast numbers of French and Germans who have much inriched that Citty and raised the rents of the houses 20 parcent and the silkeweavers grow also verie rich keeping so many Almes Children to doe their work and having all their labour without any charge only for the teaching them their trades which hath lessened the revenues of the French crown and will in tyme greately increase the number of the States subjects and advance ther publick Incomes To say the truth the inconstancy and wantonnesse of the English nation especially of late tymes when no other cause could be given for it but to much ease and plenty is not only wondered at but reflected upon by foreigners yet I am morally certaine that could the people of England be once againe united in love and affection as they are bound to be in duty and Interest and would they be as willing to contribute to their own hapines as heaven hath been kind and liberal in bestowing the meanes of it with a good and gratious Prince solicitous for preserveing the same to them could wee be so blest as wee have great reason to Expect wee may under the Auspicious reigne of him whose royall Virtues are dreaded by none either at home or a broad but such as are the disturbers of publick and lawfull Authoritie Having made this digression I return to Berlin It is a city lately enlarged with fair streets and palaces The Magistrates of the place are Lutherans which is the publick established Religion in all the Electors dominions though he himself and his Children be Calvinists He is lookt upon to be so true to that persuasion that he is reckoned the Protector of the Calvinists and indeed he sollicited the Emperour very hard for a toleration of the Protestants in Hungary His chaplains as most of the Lutheran ministers also endeavour to imitate the English in their way of preaching and his highness is so much taken with English divinity that he entertains divines for translating English books into the German tongue as the whole duty of man and severall others He has a large and Srately palace at Berlin and therein a copious library enriched with many manuscripts medalls and rarities of Antiquity He may compare with most Princes for handsome guards being all of them proper well bodied men and most part Officers who ride in his guards of horse As he is know'n in the world to be a valiant and warlick Prince so he maintains in pay an Army of 36000 men besides five or six thousand horsmen who in time of war are modelled into troopes with which body during the late war with Sweden his highness in Person beat the Swedes out of his Countrey Hee keeps his forces in strickt Discipline obliging all the Officers if Protestants on Sundays and holy days to march their severall Companies in order to Church but if a superiour Officer be of a contrary persuasion then the next in commission supplies
to goe to law with a Swedish Burgher in Sweden especially if he be a Whiggish Scot who hath got his freedome in Stockholme for those are a kind of skrapers whom I have observed to be more inveterate against the English then the native Sweeds Of all the Swedish army of 64000 men the King keeps but 12 Companies of 200 men a peece with some few horse guards in Stockholme who are not upon duty as sentinels at the Court gates as at the Courts of other Princes The rest are dispersed into quarters and garrisons upon the fronteers which are so far distant in that large compass of land which his territories take up that it would require a hard and tedious worck to bring them together to a generall muster They are however kept under very strick discipline and those that lye neare often viewed by the King. They have od sorts of punishments for the Souldiers and Officers of all degrees for example if a Serjeant or Corporall be drunk or negligent on duty they are put into armour and with three muskets tied under each arm made to walke two hours before the Court of guard yet for all the severitie of discipline used against the Soldiers they commit many abuses in the night time robbing and sometimes killing men upon the streets in Stockholme where they have no lights nor guards as in Coppenhaguen Informer times there have been at one time thirty five Collonels besides Generall Officers in the Swedish Army all the subjects of the King of great Britain but at present there are few or none unless it be the sons of some Scottish Officers deceased nor did I ever see an Englishmen in the Kings guards horse or foot but one and the son of Sr. Eduard wood who hath since quitted the service The King hath exceedingly won the hearts of the common people not onely by exempting them from the tyrannical Jurisdiction of the nobilitie and gentry who formerly would by their own private authority punish and put to death the peasants at their pleasure which makes the Countries very willing to quarter the Kings Soldiers but by his exactness in punishing duels murder and robberies Perjury is death here also as in Holland which makes the Magistrates in some ports of this Kings territories enjoyns strange kinds of oaths to deter men from being forsworn As for instance in some places the witness is set with a staff in his hand upon some peeble stones and charcoale where he is to imprecate and pray that if what he sweareth be not true his land may become as barren as those stones and his substance be consumed to ashes like the coals he stands on which as soon as he steps down are set on fire This manner of swearing so terrifies the people that they commonly tremble when they come to take their oath The Religion of the dominions of the King of Sweden as of those of the King of Denmark and of other Princes and states whom wee have named is Lutheran who are more rigid to Roman Catholicks and Calvinists than the Protestanrs of Germany There is no tolleration allowed here to Calvinist ministers and they take an effectuall course to keep the Countrey clear of priests and Jesuits by guelding them whether they be young or old In commemoration of the great losses and desolation iustained in the late war the Swedes strictly keep four fasting days in the months of April May June and July on which days all men are prohibited by Authority to kindle fire in their houses or to eat till after Evening service is don which in the winter time could not be endured They delight much in singing in their Churches which they constantly performe twice every day morning and evening In their maryings Christenings and buryings they are so prodigally extravagant that if all three happen in one yeare to a man of a competent estate it is enough to breake him The clergy of Sweden are neither so rich nor learned as those of Germany wanting both the opportunities of study and of conversing with learned men that those of other Countreys enjoy though there be some learned men amongst them A Bishoprick in Sweden is no great benefice if compared with some Personages in England for the Archbishop and Metropolitan hath not above 400 L. per ann and some of the rest are not worth above 150 or 200 L. a yeare The inferiour Clergy are not so regular in their lives and conversation in the Countries distant from Stockholme as they are neare the court and the reason is partly becaus they entertain travellers that pass the Countrey there being no Ins in most places for the accommodation of persons of any qualitie and so are obliged to drink with their guests and partly becaus at buryings and Christenings where there is commonly high drinking the Pape or Parson is master of the Ceremonies And here give mee leave to tell a short story of one of them A Pape comeing to Christen a Child in a Church and finding a Scottish man to be Godfather was so transported either with Zeal or his cups that when he came to exorcise the Child which is a rite used in their Office of Administring that Sacrament He neglected the forme prescribed by the liturgie and in an extemporary prayer begg'd that the devill might depart out of the Child and enter into that Scottish Heretick for so they call the Presbyterians of that nation The prayer of the Pape so incensed the Scot that he vowed revenge and watched the Pape with a good cudgell next day as he crossed the Church yard where he beat him and left him all in blood lying on the ground and crying out murder For this fact the Scot was had before the Justice who asking him how he durst be so bold as to lay his profane hands upon the man of God He who knew very well what use to make of the devill he had got foaming at the mouth and cunningly acting the demoniack made answer that the Pape might thank himself for what he had met with for since he had conjured the devill into him he spared no body neither wife nor Children nor would he spare the Justice himself and with that sell a mangling and tearing the Magistrat that he was fain to betake himself to his heeles crying out O! the devill save mee and so the Scot marched home no man daring to lay hold on him for fear of being torn to peeces by the devill But the Justice recollecting himself sent for the Pape told him that the Scot was a cunning rogue and bid him goe home get a plaister for his head and be silent least if the matter came to the Bishops ears he might be censured for goeing against the rubrick of the liturgie The famous Universitie where their Clergy are bred is Vpsall eight Swedish miles from Stockholme There are commonly 150 or 200 Students there but no endowed colledges as in other Countries The library is so meane and