brought our Nation under such Convulsions that without the help of kind Heaven must end in a total Dissolution Sed futura nesâ—imus I am My Lord Your Constant and Faithful Servant Paris Decemb. 16. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXVI The Opinion of the French Court concerning the five Persons that made up the Cabal in England in the Year 1671 2. My Lord THE Ministers of this Court are not only the most inquisitive Persons in the World into the Affairs of other Courts but even into the Persons that manage them whose Natures Dispositions Religion Natural and Acquired Abilities as well as Respective Infirmities they endeavour to sift out to the quick that so they may use them or shun them as they find occasion and for this reason it is that they make some Remarks upon them in their Minutes as well as upon the Affairs transacted by them And therefore since the Five Persons who made up the Cabal in England a few years ago and who your Lordship may remember were the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale the Earls of Shaftsbury and Arlington and the Lord Treasurer Clifford were very distinguishable for the Stations they were in the Offices they held and the Parts each of them acted in the Government I find this Character given of them For the Duke of Buckingham as he was the Kings Favourite so he really deserved to be so as being very capable to be a Minister of State if his application to business had been answerable to his Talents if his mind which was furnished with excellent Endowments had not been distracted with Libertinism which was in him to an extream degree and by a love to his Pleasures which made one of those Persons in the World that was fittest for great and solid things vain and frivolous Of the Duke of Lauderdale there is little or nothing said but that he is a great and quaint Politian and no question but he has merited that Character at their hand Of my Lord Clifford they are as profuse in their Praises as I doubt they have been too of their Money saying he was a Person who wanted nothing but a Theatre where Vertue and Reason had been much more in use than it was in his Country in the Age wherein he lived for to be superiour to and overtop the rest My Lord of Arlinton they make to be a Person of a meaner Capacity and more limitted Genius than any of the Five but say his Experiences supply the Defect and has acquired him especially a very great knowledge of Forreign Affairs last of all they bring in Anthony Ashley Cooper the Renowned Earl of Shaftsbury of whom they say he was by far the fitter Person of any of them to manage a great Enterprize and so was as the Soul to all the rest being endued with a vast Capacity clear Judgment bold Nature and subtil Wit equally firm and constant in all he undertook a constant Friend but an implacable Enemy with many other Expressions such as his not being terrified neither with the greatness nor the multitude of the Crimes he judges necessary for his own preservation or the destruction of others much to his Lordships dishonour which is a clear Argument he was not for their Interest and for which he is much beholding to them Your Lordship will pardon the freedom I take with You and accept of the sincere endeavours to serve you of My Lord Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVII Of the Methods practised by the French Ministers to corrupt our Embassadors My Lord HAving given your Lordship some account of the opinion the French Court have had of some of our Statesmen it may be it will not be unacceptable to recount to your honour in this place some of those ways they have taken here to corrupt and pervert our Embassadors And I can boldly affirm that there has been hardly any one Embassador sent from our Court hither since the Restoration whom they have not endeavoured to corrupt and to get into a private Intreague to traverse not only what he was to Negotiate but even something of what themselves prest on our Princes by their own private Agents and on some of whom I have named one to your Lordship formerly they have made very great impressions to our Nations detriment for matters of main Consequence were treated of by private Ministers or Messengers between both Kings which were not as much as mentioned to the Embassadors sent in Publick who have been on our side sent only for Parade to Negotiate many times things whereof the contrary had been most commonly agreed upon especially in private only to blind by that piece of Formality the Eyes of our Subjects at home and of our Neighbours abroad or else to treat about matters of meer Complement or of but ordinary concern and tho' what has been privately treated on between the Two Kings or but only proposed was of great Concern to be kept secret and that for that very reason they knew our Embassadors were not made acquainted with it yet such has been their Malice and Treachery to our King and Country as to discover to our Embassadors or Envoys and their Secretaries such parts thereof as they have thought being once known to them would be most proper and effectual to induce our Ministers to enter into a particular Cabal with them for by-ends and many times to affirm things more invidious than ordinary to have been agreed upon between both Courts which were only proposed which kind of Communication of theirs had a very powerful influence by the curiosity that is natural to all Mankind to work upon our Ministers to entertain such a Correspondence with them to the dishonour and detriment of their King and Country for they have told them sometimes that not only the Points proposed by the Dutchess of Orleans but other things of as bad and dangerous consequence for the Subjects and Religion in England were absolutely concluded on between both Crowns unknown unto them and that our King and Duke of York had taken such and such Measures to put themselves into a Condition to do what they pleased and that the King their Master was willing to flatter them in such hopes and feed them with a little Money to keep them from taking part with his Enemies yet that truly at the bottom he had no such Zeal for Religion nor for the Pope of Rome as he had not for the King of England's over great Power and Absoluteness in Rule being things which could not but be prejudicial and very incompatible with his own greatness and therefore he should not fail underhand to favour the People of England in supporting their Liberties and Rights and defending their Religion and confining the Kingly or Regal Power to its own due limits And therefore if they Viz. our Envoys or Ministers would serve him in that design they might assure themselves they should be well gratified for
that on the other side he foresaw such unsurmountable Difficulties in attempting such a Re-establishment that he did not think any Policy no nor the whole Power of France could he Command it all entire without any divertion from other Interested Neighbours too extraordinary a Juncture to be probably expected could be able to carry him through them To which the Princess who saw well enough as well by his Looks and Actions as by his Expressions that she had made more sensible Impressions upon his Spirits than he was willing to acknowledge thinking she had done enough for her part and sufficiently broke the Ice for those that should be designed to push the Point further at more leisure modestly replied That since that was his Majesty's Sence in which he was fixed she would wave all farther Importunities on that Subject and leave it wholly depending between himself and God whom she would continually pray to Inspire his Majesty with Light enough to know and Courage enough to embrace the Truth in his appointed time But however she should be glad to know his Majesty's Sentiments as to the Design against Holland adding that she was confident he could not but think it was at least for his Interest and seasible too Yes Madam answered the King I am Convinced that if crowned with Success it would be enough for the Interest of this Monarchy and of my People too but yet as practicable as it seems to be to you it is likewise not without its Difficulties and those very great ones too for the ill Success of my last War with that Nation the Dissatisfaction of my People thereupon the Tripple League in which I am lately engaged with Holland the Inclination my Subjects have for the Dutch as being a Protestant Nation and the Implacable Avertion they have to the French and their Jealousies of their Power and of their Religion are mighty Obstacles in the way However if my Brother of France can propose me any practicable Expedients to remove them which I much doubt I will as I have said do what I can to comply with him in that Enterprize And so the Princess declaring her self well satisfied with what had been said upon the Subject of her Errand they passed from the Businesses of State to the Divertisements of the Court from which being obliged much sooner to break off than they were willing by the more swift than welcome approach of the time Limitted for her departure with unconceivable Regret and ill-presaging Tears she took her leave of her Royal Brothers tho' little did she or they imagine it to be her last Farewel for soon after her return to France she died not without vehement Suspicion of being Poisoned But that her Husband the Duke of Orleance had any just Cause given him further to foment his Jealousie of her upon this Visit for he certainly was suspitious of her Conduct before any mention of that Journey and so pushed him on to the practice of undue means to accelerate her Fate has been a Matter of much Discourse both in England and France and continues to this Day a Mystery which I will not nor cannot pretend to determine and so begging your Lordship's Pardon for this tedious Epistle I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 3. 1677. N. St. LETTER XVIII Of Mrs. Carewell's coming into England in 1670. and introduced to be the King's Miss My Lord IN one of my Letters to your Lordship concerning Monsieur Le Tellier's Sentiments in regard to the Management of the Affairs of England to the Advantage of the French among other Expedients he proposed the sending over some Choice Female as might be capable to Charm a Prince whose Heart was so susceptible of an Amorous Flame as that of the King of England In Conformity to which Project they made Choice of the Opportunity of the Princess's going over to effect it and therefore she upon her Arrival presented our King her Brother with her Woman known then by the Name of Madam Carewell but much better since by the Title of Dutchess of Portsm to serve the French King as a Heifer afterwards to Plow withal as being such as was not carelesly or fortuitously picked out from among the French Herd but expresly singled out for that purpose And how well she acted her part in time coming will appear in its proper place so that if they failed in their Ends of furnishing the King with a French Wife they were resolved to make it up by supplying of him with a French Whore and this being an Omission in my last and having nothing of greater Moment to write at present to keep my Correspondence with your Lordship I have taken the Opportunity to testifie unto you how ready I am My Lord To Serve You. Paris Feb. 13. 1677. N. St. LETTER XIX The paces made by the Duke of Buckingham and afterward by the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans towards bringing the King over to joyn with the French against the Dutch not fully succeeding according to expectation they resolve upon other methods First by making sure of the Duke of York and then by inciting the Dutch to provoke the King to a War with them My Lord I have given your Lordship an account of the Princess Henrietta's Negotiation in England and of the Kings dilatory Answer in regard to his Conjunction with the French to make War upon the United Provinces which put the French Polititians somewhat to a Nonplus but considering how well inclined the Duke was to the Popish Religion and how he had exprest his thoughts to the Princess the King being present of the advantage and reasonableness of the French Proposals they made an Essay to see what they could do that way and whether the great confidence he had with and Influence over his Brother might not induce him to accept of the offer They found him plyable enough but upon Application he did not find the King so but much more disposed to live at Rest and Pleasure than to engage himself in so much Sollicitude as a War would inevitably bring him to And besides he was much afraid to discontent his People further who were already so ill satisfied with the ill Conduct and Disasters that befel them in the last War and whom he knew so wholly averse to a new one unless the Fresh Water-Gandy-Caps and Feathers especially were dismissed and the Conduct of it wholly left to the Old Tarpolians who so successfully asserted their Cause with those People in the Republican and Oliverian times the happiness of which the late ill Success had much enhaunsed in their Eyes Yet the French Agents continued pressing of him and tampering with his Ministers to compass their ends urging all the specious Motives in the World and sparing neither present Advances of Money nor the most Magnificent Promises of future Acknowledgment but finding still a great Resistance to any such Overtures they at length resolved to play their
sourdene but with instructions after all their industry if they could not succeed in obstructing the peace yet not to fail to elude it which how well they succeeded in the first for a time and when that could not be warded off no longer how much more fortunate success they have had in the latter I shall endeavour to make your Lordship acquainted with at another time when I hope they may be no less grateful to your Honour's gusto from him who desires to approve himself to be My Lord Your Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 9. 1678. LETTER XXXIII Of the Negotiating a Marriage between the Duke of York and the Princess of Inspruck in Germany How that Match came to be broke off and how the French gain'd their Point in Marrying the Princess of Modena to him My Lord THings continuing in the same posture I mentioned in my last to your Lordship between England and France the latter having the full ascendency over our King and Court to keep them from the Peace with Holland and to enter into a War in Conjunction with the rest of the Confederates against them and the Duke of York happening to be a Widower who was entirely as they thought in their Interests at this time which was the year 1673. there was an Intrigue started up and carried on that in all appearance was â—eady to break the Thread of all their Contrivances and irrecoverably to overturn all they had been so long and with so much pains about but another as lucky a hit interposed timely in their Aid which salved all their drooping Interest in our Court again sounder than ever tho' like the Beast in the Apocalypse it seemed to have received its deadly wound For when a Negotiation was now not only set on foot but in a manner concluded for Matching our Duke with a Princess of the Austrian Family an Alliance which would certainly have broke the neck of all Leagues with France and make England once more the Ballance between those two mighty Powers I say just when a Match was concluded with a Princess of the House of Austria and nothing seemed remaining to the accomplishing of it but celebrating the Espousals and bringing over the Lady into England to remain the gage of a close and lasting Alliance between the Royal Stem of England and that Illustrious and Potent House and the Monsieur at biting his Nails for spite to see his Interest there desperate and past retrieval it most luckily happened to him that in that very interim the Empress died and the Emperor coming to want a Confort and finding no other worthy his Choice according to the usuâ—l practice of the Austrian Families whose Branches intermarry frequently with one another he retain'd the Lady for himself and so defeating our Prince of his Spouse and putting of him in a new quest gave the French an opportunity to prosser him a Female who they knew descended from a right Intriguing Breed and would be sure to do their Work throughly and thereby not only renew but make sure against all Events that Alliance that hath since proved so pernicious to all Europe and so vexatious to the one as well as to the other of our Princes This Match they knew might be of great importance to them not only as to the promoting their Ambitious Ends in England but in Italy too and if they could once ensnare the Duke into it would as fixedly tie him to their Interests as it would infallibly lose him every where else and engage not only the Protestant Subjects of these Kingdoms but even all the other Powers of Christendom as well of the Roman Communion as the Reformed to oppose his future Elevation that so he might be wholly dependant upon them She being a Lady not only Italian by Nation but a Relation of the Pope and in that Quality most odious to England and also of the late Cardinal Mazarine and in a word of a Prince Pensionary to the French and an adopted Daughter of France which last Quality they honoured her with to render her compleatly hateful to all the World besides most liberally paying her Portion Pentioning the King and greasing the Ministers to have the Parliament Prorogued that in the interim the Match might be huddled up with all the precipitation imaginable for fear upon the least delay by contrary Sollicitations from the Austrians or any other Potentates abroad or any black and grumbling Clouds at home the unstable King might be over-persuaded or frighted from letting his Brother go on with that destructive Alliance These my Lord were their Contrivances and Precautions upon this Subject and they succeeded so well in their Endeavours that mauger any Reasons the King might have to the contrary or any Opposition made by some few then about him that Match was concluded from which England may in a very great measure date the commencement of her ensuing Grievances and which according to the Parliament's Prediction of it caused such terrible Earthquakes in the three Nations already and God Almighty alone knows what the dire Effects may be and where things will terminate at long run though it may at the same time prove better than our fears For after it was once done they cared not what Storms it produced amongst us for if the endeavours of an Alliance cemented with so charming a Female unwearied in enticements could not allure nor the sugâ—ed Professions of a constant Amity and Protection besides the powerful Spells of continual Supplies of Money engage sufficiently yet they were confident the troubles it would cause would necessitate him for Self-preservation to keep close to their Interests and to be content perhaps for the preservation of the rest to give them part of his Estates whenever it should succeed and make them Executors of his Will or at least at all Adventures keep up such Divisions as by the care they would take to balance the respective Parties concerned in them would both divert and disable the Nation from exerting their Resentment against them to any great purpose These my Lord were the Improvements they proposed to make by this Match and herewith I shall conlude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's very humble Servant Paris Aug. 30. 1678. LETTER XXXIV Of the Peace made between England and Holland in February 1673 4. The Motives to it and the French Methods to elude it by retaining the Irish still in their Service with our Courts connivence My Lord I Have formerly taken notice to your Lordship of the Methods and Precautions the French used to keep our King from making a Peace with the Dutch-States and how they made it their business to dispossess all those and particularly my Lord Shaftsbury of the King's Ear and Favour who were concerned for His and the Nation 's Interest by promoting such a Peace but though they prevailed therein as well as in that of the Duke's Marriage with a Female of their own chusing yet my Lord you know very well
of Spain with the Emperor's Daughter was put by and that with the Duke of Orleans's Daughter effected and that he was going to act mighty things for the French Interest for which he had large Promises made him of their powerful and effectual Assistance to obtain the Crown of Spain for himself after the Decease of the present King upon condition he should quit the Spanish Dominions in the Indies Low-Countries and Italy to the Crown of France for the performance of which they had sufficient Assurances from him I am further to observe to your Lordship from the said Minutes That they have attributed his Death to a Dose of Poison administred by the order and particular prescription of the Queen-Mother and that out of a fear she had he would one day Poison the King her Son and because he had against her Will been the instrument to make the French Match They further add how true the one or the other I will not take upon me to determine That the Queen Mother's hatred to Don John was inveterate that she had attempted once before to have Stab'd him and at another time to Pistol him As for the fore-mentioned Letter from the King of Spain to stop the Don's passage for Messina they say it was sent by the Instigation of the Duke de Medina Celi then in the French Faction with an intent to make him miss that stroke and secure him in their Interests by letting him know that it was by their Intreague he was admitted to Court I could further enlarge upon this subject did I judge it pertinent or agreeable to your Lordship's humour as I am affraid it is not and therefore I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris July 2 1679. N. S. LETTER XL. Of General Instructions given to the French Agents in England to carry on the French Designs upon the Duke of York's Second Marriage My Lord THo' the French Agents in England have had address enough to get the Match with the Duke effected according to their Desires yet foreseeing that even this point could not elude the Peace between England and Holland they endeavoured to make the best advantage they could by making a Counterpoise of it to the said Peace and to a War we might afterward intend against them as having thereby linked the Duke faster to them than ever and laid a sure foundation for such Distractions both in Church and State as would give them large opportunity if not to compass all the Designs they had upon us yet at least to secure themselves from any great inconveniency from us They were not ignorant what good effects several previous Intreagues of theirs had to our disadvantage they saw plainly the second Dutch War had much more impoverished us than the First and the ill conduct of it much more sunk the King's Reputation besides the Divisions in the Fleet and the Jealousies and Factions in the Parliament and among the People about the Duke's Religion produced him great disgusts every day That the shutting up of the Exchequer had ruined his Credit and his Majesty in proclaiming Liberty of Conscience by Virtue of his own Prerogative and his levity afterward in flinching from it so unexpectedly had so disobliged and wounded with Jealousie the Church of England and all Patriots in Parliament tender of their Priviledges who held the Peoples Purse-strings on the one side and so incensed with a fresh Animosity the baffled Dissenters on the other that being over-whelmed with Debts opposed by dangerous and powerful Factions and yet Bankrupt both of Money and Credit too they fairly concluded he could have no other recourse but to them which odious remedy they supposed would but more and more heighten the mutual Jealousies and widen the Breaches till they grew large enough for them to enter by at long-run upon some part of the English Monarchy so famous hitherto for checking theirs above any other in Europe since the Decadency of the Western Empire from rising to the like exorbitant greatness And now this more than Magical Dose these Quacks in Policy had given us began to work every day more and more violently and with Symptoms more visible till almost mortal Convulsions followed The ablest Statesman we had at the Helm the Earl of Shaftsbury was discarded for his vehemency in opposing the said so pernicious Match of which I may give your Lordship an account another time and others of the same Sentiments discountenanced which by the French Agency begat the Prorogation of the Parliament dangerous Factions and pernicious Fractions even among the most zealous Assertors of Monarchy and best affected Friends to the Royal Family so that now imagining this Master-experiment of theirs had made way for them to execute what Projects they pleased on our Court and People for the future to lose no advantage for want of Managers they began to put their Designs in form which before lay somewhat perplext and out of order to which end they sent over their Instructions to some Domestick Agents whom they had chosen and placed on purpose about the New Dutchess and to their other assisting Ministers and Emissaries as they thought in that disposition of both Head 〈◊〉 Body of both Princes and People 〈…〉 could not but succeed and produce in due time the full effects by their Mischief-Brooding and Ambitious Consultations And their Instructions in substance were as follows They were now to make actual use of the several Parties they had as I have hinted already but as yet prepared to make Tools of and to this purpose they were to influence them partly by French Jesuited Instruments partly by French Hugonot Agents and of our own Nation their Instruments were to be I. Atheists and loose principled Men who yet could act rarely well the Zealots for that Religion or Cause which they were to Espouse II. Such Persons as they found to be conceited of their Parts and of Mercenary Spirits III. Hotspurs for Prerogative and the Church of England IV. The fiercest Spirits of the other Factions V. Some Bigots of the Roman Communion that were English and particularly those that had been bred up or had travelled in their Dominions and were well Jesuited VI. The leading Irish Papists in particular VII Men Ambitious of Greatness or Idolizers of Money and that chiefly in Scotland VIII Men disgustful or disabliged IX Men of desperate Fortunes and lost Reputations Of all these they were with great confidence to imploy and highly to oblige and flatter some while they were for their turn and disoblige others and then when they had done with them vice versa to disoblige and cast off those whom they had obliged and seemed to have trusted and court oblige and receive others who were before disoblig'd knowing how to work their Ends by those they disobliged as well as by those obliged But yet none of these except some of the first sort were to know the whole of their Designs nor be informed
Engagement with him that all he can say or do will never convince them of the contrary or induce them to trust him with Money to make War against France for fear he should use it against themselves and not only so but it would make him as suspected among the Confederates that none of them from hence forward would trust him either for an Assistant Allie or Mediator and so would render him of insignificant force to thwart our Designs But the King did for once Trick the Trickers by the care he had taken of the Princess as I shall note elsewhere to your Lordship and by his sudden marrying her to his Highness the Prince of Orange so much to the surprize and disappointment of this Court that I cannot express it and therefore must conclude subscribing my self My LORD Your Lordship 's most humble and most devoted Servant Paris Dece 7. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXIII Of the Popish Plot and Father Kelley's Menaces My LORD THE discourse about the Plot cannot be more in England than 't is here but the Particulars of the prosecution of it your Lordship must know much better than I I do not question but there is Villany enough at the bottom of it but our Ministers are as deep in the sudds as any other whatsoever who by their slights and wicked practises have drawn the English Papists into such Combinations as hath put the Nation into such ferments incurable Jealousies and divisions as hath effectually diverted the English from hunting the French in Flanders by imploying them to hunt the Papists and Jesuits at home as they have been pleased to word it My Lord It may not perhaps be unpleasing to give your Honour an account of some passages that happened between one Father Kelley an Irish Priest and my self in this City lately concerning the King c. I know very well that there were and and perhaps may be still some of that name in England but this same has lived for some years at Paris by St. Jean de Greve and tho' a Priest is a great Banker paying most of the pensions for secret service transmitted to the English Romanists but chiefly to Irish Papists in England and Ireland and who by his discourse upon the late English Fleet and Armies being ready and the War likely to be declared against this Kingdom was pleased then to say somewhat in relation to this Conspiracy that I have little thought on till very lately and that may give your Honour some light into the designs of this Court say'd he the King of France will find him meaning our King work enough by Divisions at home and discovering if needs be his and his Brothers intreagues in France and does not care tho' he expose all the Roman Catholicks in the three Kingdoms to a general and hot persecution so long as like the Turkish Asaphi they serve to blunt the English Men's fury and divert them from thwarting the designs of the potent Catholick Kingdom of France which would afterward set all right again but that he was in hopes by their hunting of Papists they would never leave hunting the King and his Brother too if they proved refractory till they had brought them to take Sanctuary in a stricter Alliance with the French King than ever as their only Safe-guard and that it was in the French King's power to spring up a Plot next day to give the King of England Game enough for his life time for that the Mines and Trains were already lay'd and that there needed only putting fire to them c. I am very sorry I could not have oblieged your Lordship sooner with these passages which yet I hope comes not too late but it may in some measure be grateful from My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1678. N. S. LETTER LXIV Of the Duke of York's being Commanded to retire to Bruxells in the Year 1679 and of the Promises made him by the King before his departure My LORD I Know not how Matters go in England nor what the Sence of the people is in general concern the Duke's retiring to Bruxells but I can assure your Lordship they seem to be mightily allarmed here at it tho' they put a good meen upon it Perhaps your Lordship may know much more of the Secret of this Journey than I can inform you but if what is transmitted hither by the Agents of our Grand Minister be acceptable they give us this account That the Earl of D was the person who advised the King to remove his Royal Highness from his presence and that his Reasons for it were that the Parliament might have no pretence for to complain of his Majesty that he had not taken all the Measures necessary for the Security of their Religion and Liberty but they tell us how true I leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to determine that the Earl by the foresaid Advise did not so much consult the King and Kingdoms true Interest as he did to please the Parliament with whom he was at odds because of the Money received to disband the Army and the French Alliance finding now by Experience that that Artifice of his in bringing the Plot upon the stage in order to amuse them had failed They further inform us that the Duke was mightily surprized at the Message for his departure and made some difficulty to bring himself to resolve to obey it but that at length recollecting a better Temper it gave his fast friends an Opportunity to advise him That though it were at that juncture necessary he should obey the King yet it was no less prudent that he should in so doing take all necessary Precautions not to abandon his Fortune to the discretion of his Enemies that they did not doubt but that the Duke of Monmouth would push hard to get himself declared Legitimate by the ensuing Parliament That the business of the Exclusion would be renewed and that there was room enough to fear least his Retreat might be rather interpreted for the flight of a guilty Person than for the Obedience of a submissive Subject that therefore it was expedient he should get the King first to promise him that he would declare and get it Recorded too in the Courts of Justice that he had never been Married to the Duke of Monmouth's Mother That he would by no means consent to the Exclusion that was now likely to be prest upon him and lastly that he should give him express Order in writing to require his Retirement All which they say he has happily accomplished the truth whereof time must determine whereunto I leave it who am My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Apr. 6. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXV Of the Noise of King Charles's Divorce from Queen Katherine My LORD THE business of the King's Divorce has made a mighty noise on this side and I cannot with any certainty inform your Lordship which way this Court stands affected for I find on the one hand
least pretend to have it and give Orders for Mourning before our English Envoy had any such Notice given so that when he came according to Custom to give them intimation of it all the Court was seen in Mourning before Night and all persons of Note in this City the next day I 'll leave your Lordship to Reflect upon the Transactions and Circumstances of it which tho comprehended in a few words may afford a larger Field for Thought than any thing my mind can at present suggest unto me or my Intelligence reach unto but it puts me in mind of somewhat I think I have writ in my last to your Lordship and so I suppose it may do your Honour if it has not already but I am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 22. 1635. N. S. LETTER I. Of King James when Duke of York his pervertion to the Popish Religion how and when it was done c. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot imagine how over-joy'd both Court and Country are here upon the News of the King 's going Publickly to the Roman Catholick Chappel upon His Assumption of the Crown and many and various Discourses it has occasion'd concerning His first Imbracing the Roman Faith an Account whereof may not perhaps be unpleasing to your Lordship And therefore I shall endeavour to gratifie your Honour therein to the utmost of my power some have been of opinion that the Zeal Example and Exhortations of the Queen His Mother to whom He seemed always to pay the greatest Deference had wrought this Change early in him and that the long Conversation he had had with those of the Roman Communion in France Flanders and other places had fortify'd him in the same Sentiments he had before imbib'd and which at last appear'd in an open Profession but however this has a very great appearance of truth it s utterly deny'd here and averred with great Elogium's upon him that it happened to him as it did to one of the Ancients as Recorded in Holy Writ that he should find in the Gall of a Monster that was about to devour him that wherewith to cure him of his Blindness For that it was in Reading of the History of the Reformation written by a Protestant Author that he came to see the Error wherein his Birth had engag'd him that when he was oblig'd when in Exile to leave the Kingdom of France and to retire to Bruxels and having leasure enough to Read he lighted there upon the History of the Reformation written by Dr. Heylin which he Read with much Attention and notwithstanding the many strained pretences say they which the Protestants made use of to colour the Schism of their Country he clearly saw that their Separation so plainly contrary to the Maxim of Unity which is the Foundation of the Church was nothing else but a meer effect of Humane Passions that it was the Dissolute Life and Incontinency of King Henry the Eighth the Ambition of the Duke of Sommerset the Pollicy of Queen Elizabeth the Avarice of those that were greedy to seize upon the Revenues of the Church had been the Principal Causes of that Change wherein the Spirit of God had no concern that upon reflecting with himself That God of old made use of Prophets of a most Holy Life to be the Guides of his People and to Intimate his will unto them in respect to Religion that upon the change of the Divine Dispensation the Apostles Inspired with Heavenly Vertue and more like to Disimbodyed Angels than Carnal Men Preached the Gospel and that upon Disorders and Irregularities both under the one and the other Testament They were not carnal persons Vindictive Souls Ambitious Spirits that had Preached Reformation but Men full of Moses's Spirit or of Christ's the only Channels worthy to receive the Waters which run from his Living Sources so as that there might be no room left to render them suspected of Corruption or Falsity he from thenceforward became a Roman Catholick in his heart That he had acquainted the King his Brother with it soon after the Restoration who highly Applauded him but engaged him to put that restraint upon himself as to keep it secret But that some years after having by his Conduct given occasion to others to observe his Steps more warily and finding he was not Cordial to the Protestant Religion and Interest they say here the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and two of his Brethren Remonstrated the same to him that he heard them with much Patience and did not decline to Confer with them but that their Conferences and Arguments were so far from Staggering and Seducing of him that they Confirmed him the more in the Faith And they say farther That tho' it was given out in England That the late Dutchess of York's Complaisance to the Duke her Husband had wrought her Conversion to the Romish Church in the Communion of which she dy'd yet it was notoriously false for that she was brought over by a very remarkable event next to a Miracle by Reading the same Book that had Converted the Duke But I shall trouble your Lordship no more with a Matter which I am sure you cannot think of without trouble of Mind and so I remain My Lord Your Honours to serve and Command Paris March 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER II. Of the Duke of Monmouth's being in Holland and King James's Design to seize him there Miscarryed My Lord THE Misfortunes of the Duke of Monmouth in the King his Father's time are beter known to your Lordship then I can pretend to inform you and that when he was forced to quit England for his own safety and that it came to be known he was retir'd into Holland the Duke and French Emissaries never left Importuning the King to send to the States and Prince of Orange to drive him from thence alleadging continually that there were very great Honours done him by the States and especially by the Prince of Orange who had given his Troops Orders to Salute him at their Reviews when-ever he came to see them designing thereby to make that Republick and especially the Prince of Orange more and more obnoxious to the King so that he gave at last Orders to His Embassador Mr. Chudley at the Hague to forbid the English Troops in that Service to shew the Duke any Respects Having gain'd this Point and that they might embroyl the King and Prince of Orange the more Chudley was Instructed to make the Officers of the said Regiments acquainted with the afore-mention'd Orders without first giving the Prince notice thereof under whose Command they were which they knew well enough the Prince could not but Resent as he did accordingly Threatning Chudley for Interfereing with his Authority without his leave and this upon the Embassador's Complaint to the King his Master and which was sufficiently Improved and Aggravated by the Duke and French Agents about him incensed him so against the Prince that he dispatch'd Letters to Chudley forbidding
side of the Water for besides that this Court were then and are still at variance with the Papal See There is not the least Instruction transmitted from hence as far as I can find either to England or Rome concerning that matter but perhaps he might receive them in transitâ— and by word of mouth only from M. L. who failed not to see him But as for Count Dada the Apostolâ—ck Nuncio as they call him they have shewed some Concern here that he should have an honourable Reception in England and have order'd it so as to get our King to dispense with that Ceremony which Henry VIII and even his Daughter Queen Mary insisted upon that he should wait like a Mumper at a French Port till he had Leave granted him to enter into England And that the English Nation who had not seen such a Vision for near an Age and a half might not be overterrified with it the French Agents were instructed to suggest unto those Lords and others whom they should think most susceptible of their Sophistry That since the King as a Roman-Catholick Prince could do no less than send an Ambassador to Rome to salute the Pope tho' it were but for form-sake and that his said Ambassador had had such an extraordinary Reception and great Civilities shewed him there it were but very equitable the King in his turn should shew the like to his Nuncio who was a Layman and in that quality came to congratulate his accession to the Throne from his Master not so much as he sate in St. Peter's Chair as he was a Temporal Prince to whose Ministers as such the Law of Nations required a just Deference should be paid That to send a solemn Embassy to the Great Turk who was a Mahumetan and a sworn Enemy to all Christians however denominated was never so much as boggled at by any English-man or other Christian Nation whatsoever either in this or any preceding Age That the Ambassadors of the Emperor of Morocco had been lately received in England most honourably and yet their Master both a Mahametan and a Barbarian Prince in whose Countries Christians were treated more like Brute-Beasts than Men and should they disdain to concur with their Prince to receive with some Ceremony and if not by way of a publick and pompous Entry yet privately in his Palace a Minister from him to whose Civilities many of our English Nobility and Gentry were highly obliged in their Travels to Rome and Italy But what Success they have had in this petty Agency your Lordship can tell much better than I at this distance but the Duke of Somerset is as highly exclaimed against here for refusing to perform the Ceremony of introducing the Nuncio as the Duke of Grafton is applauded for doing of it who I hope for all that will never have the Thanks of a House of Commons for it I am My Lord Your very obedient and humble Servant Paris Nov. 2â— 1â—87 N. S. LETTER XXXIV The French Politicks to embroyl England My Lord THE French Emissaries having gain'd severat Points and particularly that mentioned in my last they have lately turn'd their Batteries another way They have been most of this while endeavouring to compass their Ends by putting the King and those who have most influence over him upon desperate courses whereof the most material I have as Occasion has served noted to your Lordship It will hardly be believed that they would offer to propose any Maxims to the Legal Party in England that are really for their advantage Did not their Instructions make it appear to be so tho they have proposed far different Ends therein I do not question but your Lordship has observed the Uneasiness of the Nation under the present Proceedings of the King and Court-party but tho they have just cause of suspicion I must assure your Lordship the same has been and may still be aggravated by the Agents of this Court who teach them to infuse into the People That the Protestant Religion is in great danger That the reduction of the Roman-Catholicks to the Bounds establish'd by the Law of the Land is highly necessary and without the latter be effected it will be impossible for the former long to subsist That it was visible the Privileges of Parliament were infâ—inged more than in any time of their Ancestors That Arbitrary Power was already acted and without timely prevention would get such rooting that all the power of England could not dethrone it That there was not scarce one made a Nobleman since the Kings accession to the Throne in the Three Kingdoms but such as were Pâ—pâ—sts and That all Honours and Offices of Profit either in Court or Camp were shared amongst such whilst the Protestants lay neglected as useless persons and such as were deem'd to have no Share nor Lot in the Government That the person of the King it 's true was sacred but at the same time it was not only justifiable but an incumbent Duty upon them as Englishmen as they would answer it to God and their Country timously to think of the Danger and to apply the Remedy for without the removal of such Ministers as then managed the State it would be in vain to expect their Grievances could be redressed and their Religion and Liberties secured and if they find themselves harken'd to and their Propositions approved they have further Instructions to hint an Association for one Expedient c. God Almighty knows what will become of poor England amidst so many Designs upon her Religion and Liberty both by foreign and domestick Enemies who continually prey upon her Vitals I can but pray for her as I do and always shall for your Lordship who am My Lord Your most devoted Servant Paris Dec. 13. 1687. LETTER XXXV King James tho' already much disposed put more out of Conceit with the Prince of Orange who is represented by the French Agents very illy to him My Lord I Have in my last suggested to you some of those Arguments the Emissaries of this Court have and are to use to the Church of England-men as they find occasion and a disposition to receive them for to put them upon violent courses to their own and Nation 's destruction But at the same time they have entertained an incurable Jealousie of the Prince of Orange and construe the most just and generous Actions of a Prince who was always so in the worst sense imaginable and as such represent them to the King whom they cunningly whistle in the Ear saying That he could not but know there were some persons in the Nation who were not pleased with his way of proceeding and therefore would be sure to take all Opportunities to oppose him That indeed now Monmouth was cut off they had no plausible Head to retire unto That for the Prince of Orange tho' he had apparently omitted nothing since His Majesty's advancement to the Throne for the maintaining of a fair correspondence with him and
THE SEâ—â—â—T HISTORY OF White-Hall FROM THE Restoration of Charles II. Down to the Abdication of the late K. James Writ at the Request of a Noble Lord and conveyed to him in Letters by late Secretary-Interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois who by that means had the perusal of all the Private Minutes between England and France for many Years The Whole consisting of Secret Memoirs which have hitherto lain conceal'd as not being discoverable by any other Hand Publish'd from the Original Papers By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVII THE PREFACE I Do not question but the Reader will expect somewhat should be premised by way of Satisfaction to such Scruples as may be suggested in general concerning the Authentickness of the ensuing Letters which as I conceive they are reducible to the following heads viz. An Account of the Author and the Means whereby he got his Intelligence the Verity of the Matters related the Nature of the Correspondence and what part the Methodizer has had in the Undertaking so I shall endeavour to give as distinct and satisfactory a Solution of each Particular as may reasonably be expected from me or the Circumstance of the Things will justly admit of First then for the Author and his Intelligence The first time he went over into France was in the Year 1675 where he had not stay'd above a Year but that the place of General Commis or Clark of the Dispatches and Particular Commis Interpreter to that great French Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois for the Affairs relating to our Three Kingdoms falling vacant by the Death of one Mr. Kilpatrick a Scotchman ' s Son that same Imployment was conferred by him upon a Frenchman a Favourite of his named Belou Who understanding no English and therefore not being able to manage the Affair without an English Man our Author was recommended to him for that service as he hints in his first Letter which yet you are to Note by the way was not the first he writ from that Country to that Noble Person he corresponded with and to whom he was previously engaged to transmit all the Intelligence he could learn of the Proceedings of the French Court before he entred upon the said Imployment but they being not very material he took no care to reserve the Transcripts by him and continued to be Interpreter of the English tongue till after the time of our Grand Revolution when he came over into England where his stay was not long but that he was imployed by the same Noble Person to return into France again where the dangerous part he was to Act may be better conceived than now exprest but concerning which you may hear more hereafter It s no hard matter to imagine what Qualifications were necessary to recommend our Author to the Imployment afore noted and how far his out-side must differ from his in-side during his aboad there which together with that part which he has Acted in that Kingdom since his present Majesty King William ' s Accession to the Throne and that he knows not how soon he may still be engaged to return though he be at present in London are Reasons of themselves without superadding any other of the many that might be produced more than sufficient for the suppression of his Name and of my being engaged in the Work which yet rather than Truth should suffer I am satisfied he will be as forward to render as well known to the World as 't is to that Noble Person who has imployed him I am of Opinion the Reader will be much better perswaded of the verity of the Facts as well as much more pleased with the new Discoveries of State-Mysteries he will meet with here by the perusal of the Work himself than by any thing I can pretend to say in the Defence of the one or the Commendations of the other And were it not to obviate a vulgar Error and Objection that I foresee would be made upon this Subject That all that could be Writ has been written already concerning the late Reigns I should dismiss it But now I am necessitated not to single out but promiscuously to call to mind a few Heads for to make an Enumeration of all the remarkable Particulars were to run through the Contents of every individual Letter and to ask the Objector where it is he meets with an exact Account of the Private League between King Charles the Second and the French King The Duke of York ' s secret Correspondence with that Court Coleman ' s interventien with both for his own Advantage The Interest the French made both in England and Holland among the several Sects and Parties of Men to prevent the late Queen's being married to his present Majesty The Methods concerted to Trapan her into France with her Father's concurrence and how prevented Father St. Germain's attempting King Charles the Second in his Religion with the King's Answer c. His unseasonable boasting of it the Occasion of his flight into France and the Censure he underwent from those of his Order for it Coleman ' s Wife's Petition to the French King the Answer and her destroying her self Monsieur le Tellier ' s Speech about the Invasion of England the Duke of York his pervertion to the Church of Rome King James his Private League with France when Regnant the Essay made by Don Ronquillo the Spanish Ambassador to draw him into the Austrian Interest with his Answer and Refusal in savour of France How Father Petre came to be made a Privy Councellor wherefore Mr. Skelton was imprisoned in the Tower c. which to name no more though the rest are of equal curiosity as they had in all likelihood been for ever buried in the profoundest Oblivion had not the Fate and Address of this Gentleman led him to fetch them out of the Dark and almost inscrutable Recesses of the French Cabinet-minutes so the Reader will find they carry so much Evidence of Truth with them not only by the Connexion they have with many material Passages in Sir William Temple ' s Memoirs Mr. Coke ' s Detection of the Court and State of England during the Four last Reigns c. but by so natural an unfolding of what is obscurely or but transiently hinted at by those learned Authors who could not see beyond their light and yet so remote from those Scurrulities as well as Inconsistencies to say no worse which occur in some other pieces of the same Reigns that it were a Crime to make any farther Apology for them Yet it may be noted by the way that this same doth evince the necessity of this Supplemental Part as well for the detecting of past Falsities as for the perfecting of past Discoveries And 't is hoped no body will quarrel that this Piece which is Entituled by the Name of a Secret History c. should be written in an
them and weaken and undermine us both as well as to hatch up a Navy of their own and since I am entred upon this Subject your Lordship will pardon me if I proceed a little further and acquaint you that they did afterwards renew their Instances about the Sale of the said Place with much more earnestness then before and that at a Time when their Interest was much stronger and more prevalent at our Court and yet even then tho' the Parliament had denied him the supplies which he demanded extraordinary as your Lordship well knows to be appropriated for the maintenance of Tangier and that he was in great streights for Money he would not sell it to the French nor restore it to Portugal but chose rather to demolish it and abandon it to the Moors why he would not sell it to the French I have already given the Reasons but there was perhaps another more prevalent Argument for it viz. the strong Vote of the House of Commons to that Purpose which your Lordship knows better then I can pretend to inform you to which perhaps I may subjoyn another in due place and therefore now can only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Octob. 24. 1684. N. St. LETTER VI. Of the first Dutch War begun in 1664 My Lord I Have no Reason to doubt but your Lordship knows most of the Particulars relating to that unhappy War begun between England and Holland in the Year 1665. but it may it will not be unpleasing to recount what the French designs might be in it how they promoted it and what Advantages they drew from it which I shall do very briefly when they found our King did not lay hold of those Advantages put into his Hands upon his Restoration to render himself great at home and formidable abroad and made not the least meen of a Martial Designing and Ambitious Humour they made it their first business by their Instrumen's at our Court to hinder his closing with Spain or any other in the Interest of the House of Austria by making up the Portugal Match as I have already hinted to your Lordship next by gaining the Duke of York timely over to their Devotion and then by other Emissaries and Pentioners whereof they had good store both in England and Holland to stir up such Disputes between the two Nations as might end in a War and so divert the first Essays of the Power of our new Monarch from themselves In this how admirably they succeeded is well known the Dutch on the one side being secretly incited and encouraged to Insolencies and Encroachments and the English to as deep Resentments insomuch that a War was hotly urged against them by our Parliament it self the French Court in the mean time playing Bopeep with them both for it does manifestly appear by the hints that I have seen that they promised Succour to both Parties in Case of a Rupture though it were really resolved to see us fight first and then succour the weakest and so kill two Birds with one Stone that is divert and weaken both our Naval Forces and make use of one of us to increase their own Naval Strength till which War was very inconsiderable which they most effectually did for they no sooner saw the Ballance incline to our side by the first great defeat given the Hollanders in that War but contrary to all the Assurances before given to the King they not only sided with the Enemy but drew the Dane too into their Confederacy tho' they never did either of them any good by fighting for them at Sea but only by bribing one at that Time in the highest Favour in our Court I need not Name him got a part of our Fleet sent on a blind Errand after theirs where 't was sure not to be found while the Dutch and the rest of our Ships and Commanders were left to batter one another to pieces to make them sport having gained their Ends in this Point they proceeded and gained also another of yet more dangerous Consequence and that was to get the unthinking Hogens to build them most of the best Ships they now possess and with which they have since scourged the Dutch both before Palermo and otherParts and with which they have pretended since to Match either them or us this appears my Lord by the Minutes of the Lists we have of their Navy whereof some Copies were Printed but at present I cannot help your Lordship to one but therein were exprest the Dates and Places of the building of every Ship whereof of near an 160 Men of War of all sorts near an 100 of them were built in the Ports of Holland in the Time of the said War during which Time also they bought such quantities of Gun-powder Salt-Petre and all sorts of Warlike materials there as so strengthned them and exhausted the other who ne'er dreamt they intended in a little Time to carry the War to them that it much facilitated the success they had afterward in Invading that Country that War ended with all the success to their Designs they could desire both by the Treacherous Compliance of Corrupt Ministers they had gained in both Nations and the Discouragement the English had received by the perfidious falling off of the Bishop of Munster from us Junction of the Dane against us and the Chatham disaster in having our Ships burnt there which they effected by procuring the Queen-Mother to write a Letter to her Son that she was assured the Dutch would have no Fleet out that Summer I need not remonstrate to your Lordship our ill Conduct herein I am sure our Enemies have both blamed and ridiculed us sufficiently for it though it tended so manifestly to their Advantage and was a Pig of their own Sow and let me tell your Lordship they did never believe our King would so easily take the bait till they saw the blow struck and this I can assure your Lordship so heightned their Hopes and whetted them in the pursuit of their Ends upon our Court and Kingdom that they almost never left any Motion they had made for their turn till it were Effected as much to their plenary Satisfaction as to the Kings Dishonour and the Nations Ruine and from hence forward you shall find them drive on their Designs upon us Jehu-like the Particulars whereof I shall not fail to transmit to your Lordship as often as I can have access to take them out with out Suspition from the Minutes where they are Deposited and shall therefore now only subscribe my self as I am in all sincere Devotion My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 29. 1676. N. St. LETTER VII Of the Firing of the City of London in 1666. My Lord I Am fully satisfied by what I have both seen and heard at Paris and elsewhere that the Duke of York was in the Year 1666. brought quite over to the French Interest and I have heard strange Stories
of them according to the Letter of the Treaty and your own repeated promises for which pretended expences persued they still your Majesty may instruct your Ministers to demand such excessive Sums as you know they neither can nor will disburse And as for their asserting their claim by a War after your seizing of Amsterdam that great Magazine of the dead riches of Europe and both Indies and of Warlike Provisions both by Sea and Land and the total reduction not only of that Potent Republick of which it was the Head but likewise of the living sources of Treasure both in the East and West by making their great Fleet Merchants Colonies and Commerce all your own which cannot but clear your way to Guinea and Peru What stomack said they can the English after this have by taking of their Out-works the Low-Countries debarr'd from all assistance from Italy Spain and Germany if in their right senses to have recourse to Arms. Alas what power to attempt any thing but what will move your pitty more then your indignation nay rather what greater Ambition will be left them than to Court your Majesty by an easie and voluntary submission to receive them as Honourable Tributaries thereby to retain a shadow of their Ancient Government and Liberty without incurring the certain destiny by an impotent and fruitless resistance of being forcibly reduced into a Province of your growing Empire to which the Roman Eagle it self abandoning the defenceless Towers of Austria shatterred both by Eastern and Western Hurricanes for the better preserving and re-establishing its Ancient State and Majesty will then be glad to retire This may be your Majesties method continued they to preserve Peace a while with England or stave off at least the War till your present grand design be accomplished and these your Measures how to deal with them afterward in case they suffer you quietly to atchieve this important Conquest But should we be able by no Art to buoy up the King of Englands Spirits against the head-strong opposition of the popular party about him nor so much as to delay a Rupture nor to hinder that violent People from immediately declaring against us yet all considerations on all sides duly weighed and perpended it will be much greater and more certain advantage to your Majesty and of much less dangerous consequence to your Affairs in general to venture a War with them now about a Town which with all they can do they cannot assist time enough to rescue from you and by whose acquisition against their wills you will not only be quit of all their Pretentions but gain power to crush them too at pleasure than after you have for fear of them quitted so great a Conquest to have a War in a little time after both with them and all the rest of Europe not only without those advantages but with the greatest disadvantage imaginable as without setting on work an hundred expensive and troublesome Intriegues you now will have no need off your Majesty will certainly have then notwithstanding all pour complyance to them if you quit your present Design For said they suppose upon your proceeding to the Expedition in question the English declaring a sudden War against you should cause the Amsterdamers to assume courage enough to repulse your Arms how easie were it for your Majesty upon advantageous Terms to clap up a sudden peace with those distressed People and by returning out of their Country to pacifie all those powers now preparing against you and then with your whole Force to fall upon the English with which perhaps too the Hollanders would easily be perswaded to joyn theirs as glad to see themselves delivered so unexpectedly their old Enemies drawn so genteely into the Snare and so fair an occasion put into their hands to revenge themselves on that Rival Nation for joyning with us against them with which it will not be amiss however by your Envoy to threaten the English King Nay and how probable it is that the popular party in England would on that occasion favour the Hollanders to keep down Absolute Power and to preserve their Religion against the aspiring Duke and Popery all which they strongly feared would have come in at once upon them after the ruine of that Protestant State At least said they how effectual may it be to let you Majesties Envoy add that threatning amongst the rest to the King of England But Alas continued they it is but a matter of meer Speculation never likely to come to pass that any thing the English can do at present should as the posture of their Affairs are now in hinder your Majesties taking that City whose Richest and Eminentest Citizens being already gained to your Party the very terror of your Majesties Navy and the appearance of your Forces will quickly open it unto you notwithstanding the weak opposition of a Party formed in a tumultary way among a Mobile by a few particular biggoted Citizens who at the noise of your Cannon would immediately turn to the other extream and cry out as loudly for a surrender And as for the English said they our Emissaries have been so busie and so successful at Amsterdam that it can never be thought what ever good Opinion they may have of the People of England that they can be induced to confide so much in their King whom they have so personally and so grosly affronted in all that can be sensible to a Prince and whom they know so much Frenchified as to think he can heartily intend them any good or that they can expect any milder terms of subjection under him either in respect of Religion or Property then under your Majesty Since they are daily and by very good tokens assured that he is privately advanced already towards Rome as far as the other and waits only the subvertion of their Republick to assume every whit as Despotical and Tyrannical a Dominion over his Subjects in both respects as the French Monarch had over his or in fine that they had so great an opinion of his Power in that Posture of Affairs as to think him able to rescue them time enough or remove the French from them if he went really about it And consequently that in the great Consternation they then were in and the little hopes they had of the slow Forces of Germany and the distrust they lay under both of their own strength and of the Faith and Power of the English together with the Apprehension they were possest with of losing the great Riches they had there by an obstinate resistance which they might secure by a timely composition they would undoubtedly submit upon the first Summons of his Majesty or any famed General of his at the head of a considerable Body of Men especially when his Majesty should offer them such advantageous Conditions as they advised him to do the more effectually to avert them from all thoughts or temptations to close with England and to propose
Native Papists of England c. That their designs in regard to the Popish Plot might not be prevented My Lord HOw far the Subject-matter of my last to your Lordship hath relished your Palate I am altogether ignorant but adventuring for once to presume its having proved grateful I have in this as it were subjoyned those Instructions the French Agents have received for the amusement of the Native Papists of England in order to the carrying on of their Designs under the covert of the Popish Plot against our Native Country To them therefore they were to use in substance the same pretences as to the other but with some further additions as That the King and the Duke of York were both certainly gained over to the Church of Rome That the most Leading-Men of the Kingdom and the Men of most Power and Interest both among the Clergy and Gentry of the Church of England were Popishly inclined and would without all doubt come galloping over tantivy to the Church of Rome when it should be a proper time for the King to declare himself upon that Head as being well convinced that Monarchy and Prelacy had no other way to defend themselves against the restless and violent practices and efforts of the Sectaries and Republicans and others their Adherents in the Kingdom but by seasonably re-uniting with the Roman Catholick Party from their unjustifiable Separation and Schism from whence innumerable incurable and endless Divisions Distractions and Factions had proceeded That for their comfort and support it was now much otherwise than in the late Civil Wars against King Charles I. That the present King of France being in a condition to give their now Sovereign King Charles the Second a most powerful and numerons Assistance and being a most Generous Prince and withal most cordially and well-affected to their King as well as to their Cause there was no manner of question to be made but he would effectually do it without any by-ends of his own as soon as a general Peace should give leave by which time things would be ripe in the Kingdom to favour his good Intentions to go on with the Conversion of our Nations yea and would take care to provide a sufficient Body of Troops for the abetting of so hopeful a Work in case there should be any such need of Force but that it was reasonably to be supposed there would need none For that by the help of safer Methods and of Mony which that great and zealous Prince would not let them want for so good a Work the number of the Roman Catholicks must needs be so mightily encreased in a few Years that the King might venture to declare himself in their favour and then by the voluntary return of the Church of England to Rome their Mother Church and by the very dread of the formidable Power of Lewis the Great who was known to be a sure and fast Friend to our two Royal Brothers the other dissenting Factions would be so over-powered with the number of their Opponents and so terrified at their Strength that if it had not the good effect to work them up into a complyance it would at least into such a tameness that they would neither be able to hinder nor have the rashness to oppose what Changes and Innovations the King should afterwards have a mind to make in Church or State and make them Triumphant in England And thus they were to lead them on till they had noosed them fast in a Correspondence with them but not a word was to be told them till they had first sounded them whether they were fit to hear it of any design they had to subject England or enslave the rest of Europe to French Tyranny or of the Murder of King or Duke or both in case they found them not pliable enough to their Instigations or that their abominable Ends could be compassed no other ways to which if they would not be compliant they were then by those Tools to have some of their Correspondence with them discovered and have them accused as if they had been really guilty of what they were only tempted to And so by this means all the considerable Men of them besides some Rascals to make Tools of were to be drawn into a close Correspondence with France and beaten quite off from any application to Rome or correspondence with the House of Austria sliely insinuating that France was the only Power in Christendom that could preserve or support them But the full design they had upon the Nation as before hinted was a Secret imparted but to a very few nay it was not as much as communicated to the Jesuits of the two British Nations but kept almost to the last as an Arcanum among such of them as were Native French except only two or three Irish Fathers and some very few more of that same Nation whom they thought averse enough to the English Name and Nation to be heartily true and constant to any Foreign Interest and Power capable to support and effectually to back them in the bloodiest and blackest Contrivances against their detested Conquerors for rather than fail to such horrid Tragedies they were determined by some means or other to proceed if they could no otherwise effect their wicked Purposes and could have found a way to fix the Crime as they had projected on some other Party and Nation My Lord I have been tedious but could not avoid it I design without a Countermand to transmit to Your Lordship in my next the applications made to rhe Protestant Party upon the same Head and in the mean time remain My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Mar. 17. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the French Artifices to amuse the Protestants of the Church of England while they carried on their Designs My Lord PUrsuant to my Resolutions in the close of my last Letter without I received a Countermand from your Lordship which I have not I am to acquaint you what this Court 's Maxims were and what Methods they went upon either to make the Protestants of the Church of England helpful to their Designs or at least to do them no disservice and be no obstruction to them therein To the Clergy therefore and Gentry of the forementioned Church whom they imagined there was any likelyhood to pervert they were to alledge most of the same things as before as Arguments to perswade and induce them to return to the Bosom of their Church and would argue much from the agreement in many things of both Religons and were Instructed sometimes not only first to insinuate and then affirm the King was actually Perverted but were moreover impudently to assert That such and such Bishops such and such Eminent Doctors such and such Peers of the Realm and such and such remarkable Gentlemen for Interests Estates and exquisice Parts c. were to their knowledge certainly and infallibly so too tho' at present but covertly and That a greater part of
fiercely against King Lewis if they would but once consider the great Liberty and Priviledges which their Protestant Brethren enjoy'd in the French Dominions their former assisting the oppressed Protestant Dutch and other Protestant States against the Bloody Inquisitors and Unchristian Inquisition the severe Persecutions of the House of Austria the frequent differences of France with the Court of Rome and the little power the Pope was allowed in the Gallican Church no more than what was Titular and that if these things were but duly weighed it might be more than presumed the present French King would little concern himself or any way intermeddle with Religious Contests in England But that whatever opinion they might have of that Neighbouring King to his disadvantage which yet did but little affect or concern him they had on the contrary much occasion to look about them at home and to that end these Emissaries were to promote tooth and nail the belief of the King and Duke's being both Papists but particularly to affirm that the Duke was most certainly of that Religion and at the same time to discover assured Evidences of it as also of the Measures concerted to bring in both Popery and Arbitrary Power and really to detect some Measures which themselves had as yet but only projected or at least but proposed and that too but to the Duke only as if they had been fully consented to and begun underhand to be put in practice And having once well imprest this they were to exaggerate the greatness and eminency of the danger the more to alarm them and slily to insinuate that an Accommodation was Transacting between the two Churches of Rome and England and a thousand other Artifices they us'd besides to animate each Party against the other too tedious for your Lordship to read or me to relate neither need I tell you how they traversed one another's designs only I must Note Sir Roger L'Estrange and almost all the Writers for that side under a pretence of serving the Church of England and the Monarchy and some also of the other Party though unknown to themselves were and are still but the unhappy Tools and Instruments of French Jesuits and Machiavillian Emissaries who were the main Conjurers that by undiscovered Spells have raised up those Devils of Discord that under the Names of Whigs Tories and Trimmers have so much disturbed our Native Country and the LORD knoweth where it will terminate I am glad to hear your Lordship hath so well exerted the Caution and Prudence inherent in your Family in these times of difficulty and may it be so still which is the hearty desire of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris April 8. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Duke of York's being drawn into a close Correspondence with the French Court with an Account of his Pension from thence My Lord I Cannot think your Lordship will so much admire that the Duke should suffer himself to engage into a close Correspondence with the French Court yea and to enter into a separate Treaty with them when other things more unlikely have been made evident enough so as not to be contradicted I cannot tell at present whether there be any other particulars of this same Treaty than what has come within my Cognizance but so much as has as I hope it will be acceptable I as freely communicate and was in substance as followeth First The Duke was engaged to stick close to his Alliance with France declining all Treaties with those of the House of Austria and even with the Pope himself without the French King's Privity and Approbation Secondly To oppose to the utmost of his Power the King his Brother from engaging in any War for the Confederates Thirdly To joyn with him the French King in making a strong Effort to draw in if possible the Prince of Orange to embrace a separate Interest from that of the States of Holland and if not to come over to the Roman Religion at least to enter into a separate Treaty with the Kingdoms of France and England under a pretence of laying a sure foundation for his own future Greatness and establish it on both sides the Sea by the suppression of all Factions which now disturbed his Uncle and might afterward disturb him and in case he proved still obstinate to second him in all Methods that might be used to hinder his Succession to the Crown of England by hindring any Match that might be proposed between the Prince and the Princess Mary and that he should for that purpose keep off Matching either of his Two Daughters upon several pretences to gain time till a fit juncture might come when Matches might be accomplished for them both with French Princes or some other Princes in that Interest viz. the eldest to the Dauphin and the younger to the Duke of Savoy or a Prince of the Houses of Conde or Conti or to the Duke of Modena Fourthly That the Duke should do his utmost to have the Government of his Children himself and to have them Tuâ—ored if possible in his own Religion and if they were obstinate in case he should sail of other Issue then they would have had him to exclude them and Adopt the Duke of Chartres for his Heir but this was only proposed and Intail the Crown thence forward to Heirs Male only and to have the Salique Law Established in England as well as in France but and if he should not be powerful enough to hinder a Match with the Prince of Orange or some other Protestant Prince but of the former they were most jealous then to concur with them to cut him off but this point would not be formally assented to neither But all Points proposed were on his part easily assented to As doing his utmost for the propagation of the Catholick Religion pursuing Measures concerted for dividing of Protestants undermining of Parliaments and putting forward Arbitrary Counsels without reserve and particularly to raise Arms in Scotland and Ireland and call in French Forces in case the King should at any time by any Motives whatsoever be influenced to act to the French King's prejudice Lastly The Duke was to take care That no Popish Clergy or Layety should be imploy'd by him but such as were in the French Interests and trust his main Secrets with none but such as were French-born Jesuits on which Conditions he was to have a considerable Annuity of Six hundred thousand Crowns and extraordinary Sums when necessary and the circumstances of things did require to carry on any of the forementioned Points even to what he pleased himself to demand So all things being thus concluded he received in hand Three hundred thousand Crowns of his Annuity and Six hundred thousand Crowns extraordinary and Jewish Bankers were accordingly imployed to transmit the Money to him from time to time Besides all which the French King's Confessor promised him a private Contribution from the Clergy
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
reconciled to those ends which he proposed to himself thereby and especially about Replanting both the Popish Religion and Absolute Power in the three Kingdoms and incline rather to the Match suggested with the Dauphine with an intent the more friendly to oblige his Most Christian Majesty to assist him through all the difficulties he fore-saw he had to pass yet he was not a little affraid of the great Resistance he knew would necessarily be made against such an Alliance which many in England looked upon as the most pernicious that ever could befall their Nation being also of himself not a little jealous that if once such a Match between his Eldest Daughter and the Dauphine were concluded some sly practises might be carried on by the French Court against the Issue he should have by his now Dutchess in favour of that his Daughter might probably have by the Dauphine and therefore that he was much more willing and desirous if it might be compassed that a Match might in time convenient be concluded between his said Daughter rather and his Dutchesses Brother the Duke of Modena or some Italian Prince of no power enough to be apprehended to entertain any such Designs and that as much French as she was before his Dutchess was now of the same Sentiments too being married and in hopes of a numerous Issue by the Duke These are all the Particulars I have hitherto met with in relation to the Duke and his Dutchess's Sentiments and with which I conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 14. 1680. N. S. LETTER LI. Of Coleman's Intelligence and private Correspondence with France to the King and Duke's Disadvantage and his Motions and Pretences for Money My LORD WHen I acquainted your Lordship with the Censure past by this Court upon the King and Duke's Sentiments in reference to their League and Correspondencies with them and especially the business of the Match I could neither determine whether it were purely their own Suggestions collected from the Circumstances and natural Positions of things as they then stood which I was inclined to or to some secret Information from another hand but now I find the latter to be true for whatever the King Duke and Dutchesse's true Sentiments were so they were represented under-hand by Coleman to the Juncto here and by some other self-ended Confidents of theirs of whom but more particularly of Mr. Coleman I find it thus inserted in our Minutes That being entered into a close and separate Correspondence of his own with this Court besides that known to their Highnesses whose Agent he was he was therein to give them intelligence of all that was transacted at White-hall and St. James's that possibly he could but more especially of the Comportment of the King and the Duke as to the Points agreed on between France and them as also of the Disposition of all the Factions in England and of the foreign Ministers c. to obliege himself to make Parties to cross his Master the Duke or the King or both in case either or both of them should go about to deviate from the Measures prescribed them by the French Court. I find my Lord he was besides this a great Undertaker for Conversions and Proselyting Men to Rome or rather France and his Agreement with them was to have allowed him as an Annuity the Summe of Twenty Thousand Crowns punctually to be paid and for Extraordinaries as should be calculated according to the emergency of the Occasions His Pretenses for Conversions were manifold and extravagant enough in the relation of them and did slily at first insinuate and when he had once broken the Ice warmly urged that whereas the Duke had very large Remittances made him upon the account of Conversions wherein he was an Undertaker that it were more advisable for the future to entrust him with a moderate Summe for that purpose and thereby save themselves that deal which they must have sent to the Duke upon that Account if they should send any and so moved them entirely to wave that point with him for that he could do much more in that nature than the Duke could ever pretend to because more imperceptibly He promised them likewise for the gaining of Members of Parliament over to their Interest great and mighty things and then discreetly insinuated those things already spoken of about the Designs of the King and Duke towards them and thereupon advised them to transmit unto them both only but moderate Summes and let him have but moderate ones according to a private Man's fortune and he would take effectual care both to manage them and do their business in England more to purpose than they would do without him He also added That to give the King and Duke great Summes would be no other than to enable them to buy the Parliament's Votes for themselves and not for the Interest of France and to get such store of Money of them that they would afterward take such measures as they themselves pleased without any regard to France being sure to please the People at any time whenever they were minded to go contrary to them and much matter to the same purpose with which I shall no farther trouble your Lordship but subscribe my self as I unfeignedly am and ever shall be My LORD Your most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1680. N. S. LETTER LII The Duke of York moves the French Court for Money according to the private Agreement My LORD YOu have heard what a Spoke Mr. Coleman was pleased to put in the King and even the Duke his dear Master's wheel which they poor Princes knowing nothing of moved hard for the Summes promised by France the Duke as supposing his Credit the better being the forwarder of the Two and whose Pretences were that he had been forced to lay out by advance the greatest part of the Money already pay'd to make Creatures for their mutual Interest and future advantage all such Enterprizes being much more chargable to begin then to carry on and perfect that when Correspondencies were begun they must be carried on and that still by advance if any thing of service were expected or hoped for That he had a most difficult and uneasy Task to deal with the King his Brother 's timerous and changeable Disposition and was and had been at a very great Expence to greaze Favourites of more Kinds then one that might influence and perswade him to and hinder others that might disswade him from what they in France did expect from him or urged him to as also to appease and quell Enemies on all sides which his late Match with their adopted Daughter and change in Religion had stirred up violently against him and that to keep the King his Brother steddy in a favourable Neutrality in regard to France and yet at the same time either break off the Match quite with the Prince of Orange defer it so long as
something so singular and diverting therein that I cannot but flatter my self it will still in some measure prove agreeable Mr. Coleman had for a long time manag'd the Intrigues between the French and English Courts and that your Lordship well knows for his Letters that were seiz'd and publisht make it evident and he was one of the chief Instruments to draw his Master the Duke of York into so close a Correspondence with them as he was ingag'd in of which your Lordship has heard before and from the Year 1676 to near the time he was Arraign'd and Condemn'd for the Popish Plot I am free to acquaint you my Lord That all his Letters past through my hands being first directed to a French Gentleman who took care to transmit them to me with Orders to send them to Father St. Germain who manag'd all Affairs between him and Father La Choise but I saw the Contents of few or none of them till lately I have found them among other things of that kind in the Minutes of our French Secretary and which is the Reason your Lordship has not receiv'd this Account sooner at which I am sure you cannot but stand astonished as I was my self when I acquaint you that I find it entred here that the Duke of York was during this famous Correspondence two several times in France and Closetted to boot by his Most Christian Majesty which by the way unfolds the Mystery of the Proposals I have formerly mentioned about Trapanning the Princes into France but it was both times by Night and the Works of Darkness between One and Two of the Clock in the Morning trusty persons being ready posted to Introduce him And one time a Councellor of the Parliament of Paris to whom Some of Coleman's Letters were directed happening accidentally to let fall an Expression intimating That the Duke of York was come thither in Person tho' it was Voic'd up and down among the Courtiers it was Coleman he receiv'd a very severe Check for his unseasonable Inadvertence and as a farther punishment he had no more any Secrets communicated to him for the Letters from thenceforward were distributed by another way The first time the Duke was Closetted was a little before the second Dutch War to concert Measures how he should he enabled to induce his Brother to give his Consent to it to promote the French Designs thereby as was likewise our Famous Admiral Sir Edward Spragg for the same purpose not very long after the Duke The second time was a little before the Splendid and Extraordinary French Embassy was sent into England and wherein Measures were Concerted how to induce our King to give his Consent to have the Princess Mary Married into France and in case that would not do how to Steal her and send her away when they went off but this Intrigue coming to be privately discover'd to the King by one of the Duke 's great Confidents he had the Cunning to dissemble the matter and took no manner of notice of it to the Duke his Brother but gave secret Orders that a strict Eye and a good Guard should be kept over the Princess and would not permit the Duke to have her abroad upon any Invitations or other pretence whatsoever till the Embassadors were quite gone saying It would administer Iealousie to His People if She should be permitted to stir abroad much while the French Sparks continued in England And to prevent the like Plots upon her for the future and to please His People who were now upon the fret and as they would have it here out of Displeasure against such an Indirect and Rash Procedure which had it taken effect as he said would have dashed him and his Government in an Instant upon an inevitable Rock he Married Her as your Lordship well remembers to the Prince of Orange to the great Regret and Vexation of the French Court and of the Duke too who from thenceforward hath not cared how almost he exposed the King his Brother by engaging of Him in continual Troubles for his sake nor how closely he United with the French Faction who afterward wreakt their Revenge for some time upon the Duke himself but chiefly upon the King by their Intrigues in bringing the following Popish Plot upon the Stage Both the times the Duke was on this side the King knew not of or at least they design'd He should believe so but thought he was retir'd for Indisposion yet both times he brought Remittances for considerable Sums of Money yet the French were highly displeased at him for his failure in the aforesaid Match and the subsequent Plot upon his Daughter so far as that they Suspended his Pensions as they likewise did Coleman's which made them both incline to Revolt to the Spanish Faction and moved the Duke to some seeming willingness to go over and Command the English Forces in Flanders in the War then likely to be declared from England against France for which they were cruelly revenged upon Mr. Coleman by contriving his Ruin and Death and against the Duke of York too by the discovery of the Popish Plot in which they were highly Instrumental and by imploying the Dutchess of Portsmouth and some other of their Creatures in our Court which were bigotted to their Interests to promote the Bill of Exclusion that so that Prince might be brought under a necessity as they thought to return to and absolutely to rely upon them for when in those Troublesom Times the Duke was forced to retire to Bruxells the French King was heard to say That had he follow'd his Counsel and been constant to him he should not have needed to have retir'd to Bruxells or to any other place but France But however I find all was accommodated again afterward and the Duke got closer in with them than ever when the Whigparty as they call'd it was quash'd and things were ripe for another Plot called The Pr. one But however before that Breach we have spoken of with the Duke and Coleman they were resolv'd first to get some Service out of them for finding after the Allyance with Holland that our King was somewhat inclin'd to comply with His Parliaments and Peoples Instances well as those made to Him by the Confederate Ministers in Declaring a War in conjunction with them against France as appear'd by His Speech to the Parliament But more by their Voting a Fleet of Ninety Capital Men of War and an Army of Nine and twenty thousand Land-soldiers for that purpose of all which it does appear Coleman sent over hither a speedy Account They then presently Renewed their Pensions to him and to the Duke for some time with a Solemn Promise of a considerable Sum by way of Gratuity besides if they could so far prevail as to sow such Dissentions between the King and Parliament as might hinder those Preparations by being seconded by an Actual Declaration of War which they did effectually for they had by their Creatures
it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
him to see the Prince and thus Matters stood when the late King died but the Brother succeeding he set all his Engines on work how he might get the Duke of Monmouth into his Clutches Dead or Alive But the French Agents my Lord did not think that now their Interest which in the late Reign they would have given any Money to have effected and therefore by their Correspondents in Holland they got the Duke secretly Advertised of the Danger who thereupon withdrew to Bruxels I know my Lord they gave it out that the Prince of Orange by his Favourite Monsieur Bentink got the Duke made acquainted therewith and that he gave him Money to go to Bruxels it was both Honourably and Charitably done of him if it was so to a distressed Gentlemen with an intent to make the King his Father-in-law more irreconcileable to him now he was King then when Duke of York tho' he was to dissemble it for a time and upon his Accession to the Throne to testifie to the Prince the sincere desire he had to live with him rather as a Father then an Ally and Neighbouring King I have had sufficient Experience my Lord of your great Honour Integrity and good Affection which makes me thus bold in a matter so nice at this time and so concludes My Lord Your humble Servant Paris March 17. 1685. N. St. LETTER III. Of King James's being Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury My Lord IT has been a matter of much discourse and reflection here that our King should be Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and not by one of the Roman Communion it was expected that since he had begun so briskly and openly to declare Himself for Rome that he would not have stuck at being Inaugurated by a Roman Bishop I find by the return made hither upon this Subject that his inclinations were violent enough for the latter but that the Reason of his Non-compliance was that having at his assumption of the Crown declar'd to the Council and by them to his People That he would maintain the Church and State of England as by Law Establish'd and that the Ceremony of his Coronation was such as the Laws of the Land did prescribe The thought it was a little two Early to begin and that by so publick an Act which to be sure would be interpreted not only as the most manifest Violation of the National Constitution but the Preludium to a despotick Power which no man knew the end of I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Repetition of the Arguments used here by the Gentlemen of the Roman Church pro and con upon the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of such a Compliance by a Catholick King to the Church of England which tho the Establish'd one they look upon to be false to the Truth as being matters which I suppose your Lordship cares not for and therefore having nothing further wherewith to entertain you that is worth Transmitting I conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris May 6. 1685. N. S. LETTER IV. Of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle's Invasions and Overthrows and of the Prince of Orange's offering to serve against the former but his offer was Malitiously Interpreted and so Rejected My Lord THE Reason of my long silence to your Lordship I hope will not be interpreted by you as any forgetfulness much less neglect of your Honours Commands and Expectation I am too sensible of the many Obligations that have been heap'd upon me from time to time to be guilty of so Notorious a Crime but the want of somewhat that was Solid and Grateful to your Lordship has been one genuine Cause that obstructed my Correspondence to which I may add what your self knows very well the private Orders given in England to open all Letters whether Domestick or Foreign and since I had for so long a time continu'd to write to your Lordship and that undiscover'd I was not willing for want of a little prudent caution and suspension in such a juncture either to expose your Lordship to any hazard or thereby for ever to exclude my self from any farther Correspondence with you whom I so much Love and Honour But now my Lord understanding that the Storm is over in England by the defeat and death of the Duke as we have had some days ago an Account from Scotland of the like misfortune to have attended the Earl of Argyle I have adventured to Salute you with these Lines and to tell my thoughts freely upon the matter I must confess I never had any great opinion of either of the Expeditions because concerted by Men who had very different ends in what they did the Duke and some others for Monarchy but the greatest part Republicans and therefore I do not wonder the whole hath miscarried especially when I can assure your Lordship both the one and the other were tho' very privately Abetted by French Agents to undertake such an Expedition such a procedure may well be wondred at I confess since there was apparently so little advantage like to arise to the French Court therefrom but besides their loving to fish always in Troubled Waters they have somewhat in them that is very like the Devil who loves to do Mischief tho' with no benefit to himself But whatever the World may think hereof those who are fled that escaped from either Kingdom after the Defeat are as kindly received here as those who formerly fled from the Popish Conspiracy but yet they are daily sifted and examin'd by the Spies that continually haunt them I would gladly know might I have the honour your Lordship's Sentiments of both Descents and the Miscarriage of them to be plain with you I own I have very different apprehensions of them now they are over than I had at first and the rather because the Prince of Orange so much resented it tho' most Maliciously interpreted by the King and his Popish Council whetted on by Gallican Agents When the Prince had the first News of the Duke's Landing in England he acquainted Mr. Skelton the King's Ambassador that the Duke of Monmouth though he were a Person but of indifferent Parts yet he had a Warlike Genius and had more Experience and Skill in the Art of War then most of them employ'd against him That for his part if the King his Father-in-Law pleased he would assist him not onely upon that occasion with his Troops but with his Person also and to that end was sending Mr. Bentinck over to England to know the King's pleasure But Skelton malevolent enough of himself and farther influenc'd with Malice against the Prince by French Incendiaries took care to inform the King before Bentinck came that such Assistance as was proposed by the Prince was very dangerous and much to the same purpose so that upon Mr. Bentinck's Motion the King answered That their Common Interest required that the Prince should stay in Holland and gave such
Prince of Orange's Arrival at London My Lord THis Place is very barren of News tho' there is something I am satisfied a brewing which will appear in Time and all that is novel and extraordinary seems to have been tranplanted to the Brittish I sles from whence we hear That the Prince of Orange who they say is always intent and ever was to improve favourable Conjunctures hath taken Advantage of these Movements to make his Entry into London where 't is confest but with much Regret he hath been received with great Demonstrations of Joy and publick Applause but they say it is nothing but what is usually done to New-comers having been felicitated upon the Success of his Enterprise and thanked for the Zeal which he had testified for the good of the English Nation 'T is also reported That the Nobility have met together and pray'd him to take the Administration of the Government upon him till the Estates of the Kingdom can be called together which is dreaded here by both Courts I can assure your Lordship there have been Instructions issued out from hence already to their Agents at London where they have a great Number tho' under various Disguises for to countermine what ever Projects may be on foot for the establishing a Settlement in England and of which I shall endeavour to transmit to your Lorship the Particulars I am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 27. 1689. S. N. LETTER LIII Instructions given to the French Emissaries to infuse into some English Peers upon the subject-Matter of King James's Deserting of the Crown in Favour of his Interest My Lord IT s not doubted here but that there will be strong Efforts made for the Advancing of the Prince of Orange to the English Throne and by the Returns made of Members to serve upon the present Occasion in the Lower House it is concluded that their Procedures will be much in favour of his Interest and consequently to the Disadvantage of this Court and therefore they have taken care to give them a Bone to pick tho' I know not well what it is for the present But of the House of Lords they have entertained a more favourable Opinion but foreseeing that whatever is agitated among the Commons is also likely to creep into a Debate among the Lords and that the King's Resigion his Evil Administration his Retreat out of the Kingdom and the Compact between him and his People may be called in question They have by way of Precaution given Instructions to their Emissaries slily to infuse into any such Peers as they judge susceptible of such Insinuations but I cannot think your Lordship of that Number That it was true the King's Religion had been a very main Cause to bring those Misfortunes upon himself and the Nation which they laboured under but hereby it could not be thought that should be as much as once debated for a sufficient Ground to exclude him from his Throne That this would appear strange in the Sight of all Nations that a Popish Prince was incapable to sway a Scepter when even in England it self there had been no less than Forty Roman Catholick Kings who had governed England from King Egbert to Queen Elizabeth That it was but the other Day that all the Kingdom had by Addresses on purpose disavowed that Maxime That the two Universities had condemned the same for an Error and that the Parliament in One thousand six hundred and eighty five did believe it to be a thing so pernicious and destructive to a State that they were minded to brand with Infamy all those who would have excluded the Duke of York from the Succession That all the Nation having acknowledged this Prince at a Time when he made open Profession of the Popish Religion it would be a ridiculous inconsequence to pretend that that same Religion was an Hindrance to his reigning as King of England and that as for any previous Compact that might be alledged by ill disposed Men to have been between King and People iâ— was a pernicious chimerical Notion often condemned as a Gap opened to seditious Practices for the imbroiling of the State That surely that Retreat could not be called a Desertion in the King full of Discontent and finding himself abandoned by his Subjects to the Mercy of a Foreign Nation especially seeing the Royal Character the bore did but expose him to the Insults of the People and his Person into the Hands of a Prince that imposed Laws upon him seized him in his own Dominions and gave him Umbrages that ought to presage greater Dangers unto him That the Offers he had again and again made to the Nation and even to the Prince of Orange who protected it to treat with them amicably to leave nothing undone for the redressing of their Grievances could not but be adjudged Reparations sufficient for those Faults that were imputed to him That the Letter he had writ left behind him at Feversham and ordered to be printed with several other Letters which he had actually writ to diverse Persons asserting his Authority and Claim And that the Protestations which no doubt he would make against any Acts of the Assembly to meet if any such should happen in disfavour of him which could hardly be credited and the Measures which he had taken and whereof they heard enough every Day and would doubtless more and more dayly for the Recovery of his Dominions were evident Demonstrations that he had not renounced them And that if they were deserted by him it was because his Person was in no Security there and not the Throne which he still looked upon as a Property appertaining to him alone That he was not the first and only King even of England that had made this Step That Ethelrede in the Time of the Saxon Kings retired into Normandy and that among the Royal Stem of the Plantagenets Edward IV. past over into Flanders without King Henry VI. his Competiter his believing that he had thereby acquired a new Title to the Crown That as to the present conjuncture the King found himself in the Condition of Kings would be very hard if they of all Mankind were the only Persons who were not allowed the Favour to shun a Danger they were exposed to and which could not be avoided but by fleeing from it and that surely it was a Man's Prudence when he saw his House on Fire beyond a possibility of extinguishing it to save his own Life and attend an Opportunity to rebuild it again since he could not save it from burning What Successes my Lord these Remonstrances have met with or may still it may be your Lordship can tell But I can tell you if this fails there is another Mine to spring whereon they rely very much and on which they intend to work with utmost Diligence but I pray God to keep my poor Country from falling again into their Shares from which it now is in so fair a way of being
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
to be Charmed and ever since favoured the French Interest either with or against his Prince as Occasion or Policy directed In fine he was told that the French King indeed tho' he had great Temptations from Opportunity and Interest to Attack England yet such was his Respect and Inclination for our King that he was more disposed to imploy his Forces against Holland And that he might with the surer Success undertake such an Expedition his Majesty earnestly prest the Duke to do his utmost to Influence his Master to join his Naval Forces with him in that War by which means he might Revenge the Disgraces received in the last especially that of Chatham as likewise the fresher Insolencies of that Saucy Republick whose Vicinity and Power was so much the more dangerous to the Brittish Monarchs than to any other Crowned Heads as the Subjects of these Nations were more prone to hanker after the Liberty Enjoy'd by the Hollanders and to imitate their Successful Example That by so doing his Excellency would do his own Prince very great Service and have the Honour of Obliging a great Monarch who was as Generous in his Resentments as Formidable in Power c. The Duke returned Home well satisfied and brought a pleasing Answer to our King and plyed him warmly with the Proposition aforesaid tho' at first he was not much harkned too but how when and by whose means their Designs were afterward Accomplished your Lordship may expect to hear when Conveniency serves from My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris Nov. 30. 1676. N. St. LETTER XVII Of the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans's being sent Anno 1670. from the French Court to dispose the King to a second War with the Dutch in Conjunction with the French My Lord THe French Court having as I told your Lordship in my Last gain'd the Duke of Buckingham entirely to their Interests they began now to conceive some hopes to bring our King to joyn with them against the States at least wise with his Naval Power of which they had most need and therefore to strike while the Iron was hot they deliberated of sending over an Embassador of their own into England to negotiate the Matter but to colour the Intrigue as if they had no Design of their own thereby and to give no Matter of Jealousie to their Neighbours especially the United Provinces It was agreed it should be a Female Embassadress the Kings fair Sister Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans and so give out at the same time she went over purely on a visit to her Royal Brothers and that it was with some seeming Reluctancy the French King upon her earnest Application to him to that Purpose gave his Consent But she was furnished with such Proposals which they knew well that sent her none could with equal safety and privacy Advance nor none with equal Power and Influence recommend and to secure the whole Transaction from the very Suspitions as well as the Penetration of any not of their Cabal and to make it appear as a pure visit and the effect of natural Affection and void of all Intreague her return was limited to so short a Time and in so peremptory and notorious a Manner that it might induce the World to believe them too Suspitious of the natural Inclinations that Princes might still retain for her Royal Brothers and for the Weal of her and their Native Country so incompatible with the exorbitant grandeur of France to entrust her with any of the mysterious Arcana's of their Politicks and so might prevent all Jealousie in England at that critical Juncture of that interview by shewing so great an Apprehension of it themselves She was charged with the same Message partly and with some of the same Arguments which they had endeavoured to insinuate by the Duke of Buckingham but having an incomparable Advantage above him or any other Embassador to back whatsoever she advanced with all the Charms that a most accomplished and lovely Princes and an only and most beloved Sister could be armed with she who had Wit and Dexterity enough to manage those Priviledges to the utmost Advantage not only prest the said Matter and more home and with infinitely more Freedom and Efficacy but adventured to propose yet higher things and of a much more extended Consequence For addressing her Speech to the King though not without intermixing some Expressions equally affecting also to her Brother the Duke of York she told his Majesty that as she hoped neither of her Royal Brothers had any Reason to call in Question her natural Affection to their Persons and inseparable Inclination for whatsoever did or should at any Time appear to her to be conducing to their true Interest so she believed they had as little cause to doubt but she could see as far as another into the French Monarchs Heart who loved her and admired her to that Degree though innocently as gave no small Umbrage to Monsieur his Brother and her Husband And that she did sincerely represent both as his most Christian Majesty's Sence and her own that the only way to secure to his Majesty and the present Royal Family of England a stability in the Throne they were lately Restored to afâ—er so dismal an overthrow of the Monarchy in the Reign and Person of their unhappy Father and to reinstate the Majesty of the Brittish Kings in its former Splendor and Security enjoyed so long and gloriously in Catholick Times was by all Wise and Politick Mâ—ans to labour to introduce into these Kingdoms the Catholick Religion and to re-assume by Degrees absolute Power â—or that the Church of England by woful Experience had been found too weak alone to defend the Crown and that the Dissenters were so stifly Principled for a Common-Wealth that they would never leave till they had once more overturned the Monarchy unless his Majesty would timely provide for his Security by Methods â—o be proposâ—d to him by her and the most Christian King who she knew had the atmost tenâ—erness for his Interest as was clear enoâ—â—h by all Expressions of his real Inclinations â—â—nce they were emancipated from the â—estraints laid upon them under the Tutelagâ— oâ— a Cardinal who was a Master in pure Politicks and altogether unacquainted with those nobler and more heroick Sentiments of Honour and Generosity which are no less natural and unextinguishable in a born Prince then common Reason is in the â—est of Mankind The chief of which expedients were flattering of the Church of England and first persecuting by Act of Parliament the Protestant Dissenters and wheedling with them again by a Prerogative Lenitive and so by the not to be Questioned acceptance of the Suffering Protestants on the one hand and the no less assured Non-opposition of those of the established Church on the other as by an irresistible Charm to lay asleep that watchful Dragon that had so long kept the golden Apples of Contention between the King and People