Honest and Christian dealing from the unbelieving Turk than from the Most Christian King 'T is true that after the Peace of Breda the King of England was at liesure to consider how the French King had abus'd him by engaging him in a War with his Protestant Nighbours and how he had seemingly taken their parts to prolong the War that while they were battering and bruising and weakning one another he might have the fairer Opportunity in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treaties to invade the Spanish Netherlands and observing with what a rapid Torrent of Victory he bore down all before him thought fit to interpose before the flame that consumed his next Nighbour should throw it's sparks over the Water and therefore sent into Holland to invite them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such farther Counsels as were most proper to stop the Fury of the French King which offer being by the Dutch embraced with open Arms a defensive League was concluded in five days time between Holland and England together with another for the repressing the farther Progress of the French Armes in the Spanish Netherlands In which the Sweeds afterwards making a third Party concern'd gave it the name of the Triple League This was no way pleasing to the French King however for a while he dissembled his resentment of the Affront though from the first moment he resolved to make use of all his Charms and Golden Magick to dissolve this Triple Knot whatever it cost him To this purpose the Duchess of Orleance is said by the French to be sent over hither believing no Instrument so proper as the King of England's own Sister to prevail with her Brother King Charles met her at Dover where their endearments one to another were so much the more reciprocally prevailing by how much it happens that Princes more rarely than private Persons enjoy their Relations And when they doe yet their kind Interviews are many times attended with some fatal disaster of which though there was no appearance here in England yet the first News we heard of her upon her Return to France was that she was dead However the Affair was so dextrously managed that a French Ambassadour was forthwith dispatch'd out of France and an English Ambassadour sent to Paris and as the French gave out a private League was clapt up to the ruine of the Triple Alliance to all the highth of Intimacy and Dearness as if upon dissecting the Princess there had some State Philter been found in her Bowels or that a Reconciliation with France could not have been celebrated with a less Sacrifice than that of the Bloud-Royal of England This supposed Treaty was a work of Darkness not to be div'd into in a great while but afterwards the French King caus'd it to be made publick as we shall see by and by 'T is true the Knowledg of this was of great Importance to England but the discovery was the most apparent Demonstration in the World of French Perfidiousness so enormous as it could not be imagined to have entred into the Breast of a Most Christian King so treacherously to expose the Secrets of his dearest Confederate after he had drawn him in by all the Assurances of his assistance imaginable And the reasons that induc'd him to make the detection were no less Impious though agreeable to the Practice of the French King who after he has made it his business to decoy in Princes that lend an easie ear to his Enchantments or with too much facility suffer themselves to be overcome by his Alluring Engagements into any unseemly and dishonourable undertaking believes he has them then safely tack'd to his Interests and that they will not dare to flinch from his Desings for fear of being exposed to their People which he takes care in due time to have artificially instill'd into their Ears a Maxim of Christianity which lies conceal'd from all other Men but the most Christian of Princes And thus it was that the French King having amus'd the Emperor with the Noise of a Treaty and at the same time brought the Turk into Hungary to joyn the Malecontents to excite his Private Confederate the King of England to follow his steps in Government Bare-faced causes a little Book to be Printed and Published with the Privilege Du Roy Entitl'd The History of the Transactions of this Age and therein ordered the Dover Treaty as they call'd it to be inserted and to that purpose furnish'd his Historiographer with Notes and Directions by the Hands of his Secretary Colbert to the end that the King of England being truly as he design'd set out in his Colours and despairing of being ever after trusted by his People might be enforced to take such Resolutions as Despair and Fury should inspire him withall to the Destruction of those he had so highly disoblig'd there being nothing more than the Subversion of England which the French King aim'd at 'T is true he was so kind as to recall the Book upon the loud complaint of the King of England's Ambassador however it was an apparent Demonstration to all the World how little trust or reliance there was in French Amity and plainly shews that there is no way to bind this mighty Sampson by Oath Promises Treaties or by any other the most Religious Ties and Considerations which are no more to him than Spiders Webs but by an absolute clipping off the Locks of his Power and disabling him so as never to rise more But to return to the Triple League In the end the French King by his wicked Policy so contrived the matter as to cause a new Rupture twixt the Dutch and the English and as if he had intended to be the Master of Iniquity and to make the King of England as bad as himself nothing would suffice till he had prevail'd with the King to attack the Dutch Smyrna Fleet returning home and dreaming of no such matter which as it was contrary to the Genius of the English Nation and to the Nature and Gentle Disposition of the King of England himself is wholly to be attributed to the Wiles and wicked Temptations of the Most Christian Prince who never ceas'd pealing it into the King of England's Ears that if he could but master the Wealth of the Smyrna Fleet he should never want Mony again And being thus betrayed by wheedling French Hallucination what can the French expect but the Severity of England's just Revenge wherein we may venture with the greater hopes of Success as being engaged with all in the common Cause of Christendoms Tranquillity Add to this that when the French King thought the King of England was engaged so far by the Smyrna Attack as that he must needs go forward the Most Christian King then openly declared 't was none of his Quarrel and that he only engaged in it to assist the King of England merely in respect to His Person By which means the King of
that Nation cannot long endure the Calms of a Lazy Peace so that if you cannot find employment for them abroad they will be framing Commotions and Disturbances at home The Eldest Sons of all their Noble Families carry away the Estates without leaving any thing to the Younger but an empty Title and their Swords so that being little addicted to Learning and disdaining the life of Mechanicks nothing remains but War or Thievery to rescue them from Misery which is the reason that the Politicks of France oblige her to be continually picking Quarrels with her Nighbours to evaporate those Flames which otherwise would prey upon her own Bowels Their second Maxim is to insinuate themselves into all sorts of Affairs on which hand soever it be and to make themselves Vmpires in all business either by Force or Subtilty by Threatnings or under pretence of Friendship to wriggle themselves into Treaties of Peace where they are Parties interested as they did in that of the Bishop of Munster and afterwards in the Assembly at Breda There never was any Quarrel wherein they had not the cunning to pretend some Interest or Right and never any People shew'd the least inclination to rebell but they always made them their Allies But experience tells us that they never took part in any War but to enflame it the more nor ever interpos'd in any Peace to Sow the Seeds of new Differences Their third Maxim is to make Interest of State the only rule of all their Actions without having any regard to the Faith of Treaties or the Sanctity of Religion or any other Ties of Parentage or Friendship according to the Fundamental Principle of the D. of Rohan That Princes commanded the People and Interest commanded Princes So that all that the Turks have gain'd upon Europe from the time of Francis the First till this time they owe to their Alliances with France and the Diversions she had made in their favour by giving disturbance to those that enterpriz'd any thing against the common Enemy Their fourth Maxim is to keep as much as in them lies all Foreign States employ'd and divided at home or else engaged in Foreign War of which England in particular has found the sad Effects and under pretence of assisting sometimes one sometimes another to seek their own Advantages in the Troubles of others These are the Maxims of Men that make haste to be Rich in Ignoble Conquests and the infallible marks of a profound and vast design that must be stopp'd in time to stop the spreading of the Ambitious Grangrene for from a Royal and powerfull Professor of such Maxims as these there is no Prince that can be safe in his Dominions Among private Persons it is the most difficult thing to deal with a Man of a large Conscience how much more a most Herculean task it is to cope with a mighty Potentate whose Conscience is no less wide than his Ambition is Vast who having eleven Millions of Sterling Pounds torn from the Bowels and Mouths of his poor and wanting Subjects at command to maintain his Wars and bribe his way to Conquest through all the Fences of Religion Morality and Common Justice values not the tremendous Anger of Heaven nor the Violation of all the Laws of God and Nature nor the preservative Constitutions of Men to attain his ends It is said of Tamerlane though a Scythian and Barbarian that to one who earnestly importun'd him in behalf of Bajazet he made this answer that he did not punish a King but an impions and nefarious Man The same justification have the Princes of Europe that they fight not against the Most Christian King but an Anti-Christian Vsurper who conquers to oppress and oppresses merely to support his Oppression and shew the Grandeur of his Power England has more just pretences to his Dominions than perhaps he has himself at least far more just than what he has to the conquests which he has wrested out of the hands of the Spaniard and the Emperor England has the greatest Reason in the World to recover her Antient and till lately uncontested Glory and assert her long continued Dominions of the Seas usurp'd by the Assistence of a purchas'd Navy which if once destroy'd nothing but the same opportunities could again recover It is said that the Portcullis was added to the Royal Badges of the Crown of England to signifie that the Kings of England had a just Right and Title at pleasure to shut up and open the Sea when they thought fit and it may still be prov'd by several substantial Evidences that the King of England's Title to the Propriety of the Sea is as good and perhaps better than any Title the French King has to any part of his Dominions by Land And the Letters are still to be seen in the Paper-Office at White-Hall if not remov'd Written by this King's Grandfather with his own hand to King James to ask leave for some few Vessels to Fish for Sowles as he should have occasion for his own Table and it ought to be so agen for it is only fit that England should guard the Seas that so well defend and guard Her Justice it self now loudly calls to England to demand satisfaction for the illegal and vexatious Depredations and Practices committed upon her Merchants even at the time when she was in strictest League and Combination with her to the ruine of her Trade which is the Apple of her Eye and the main support of her Wooden Walls her chiefest Glory and next under Heaven her chiefest Safeguard and Protection She ought in Justice and Honour to resent the Indignities and Affronts so lately put upon her in making her that ought to be the Balance of Europe the Derision of her Enemies and only the Pity of her Friends such a generous Animosity and Resentment as this would wean the English Nation from that fond Dotage upon French Baubles French Fashions and French Vermin to the loss of above Sixteen Hundred Thousand Pounds Yearly to this Kingdom there having been Yearly so much more imported of French Commodities than exported of ours which only serves to enrich the Capital Foe to our own Ruine and to fit us for the Yoke of French Slavery For this is a certain Rule that the first step to the subducing of a Nation is to insinuate into them a good liking or rather a dotage of those that are to be their subduers and therefore it was that the French King observing that while the English were under the Conjunction of the Triple League there was a general humour in the Nation in opposition to Frence insomuch that they had thrown off the French Mode and put on Vests to the end we might look the more like a distinct People and not be under the servility of Imitation which alwaies pays a greater reverence to the Original than is consistent with that Equality which all independent Nations should pretend to I say the the French King observing this
Victories as if by Conquering the Land the French did not at the same time become Masters of the Havens Rivers and Fleets of the Dutch And yet such was the vast Predominancy which French Treason and the hidden Conspiracies of French Counsels had over these great Politicians and the Asscendent which they had over the King of England that he was so kind to the French King for setting him together by the ears with the Dutch that he sent him his Vice Admirals and other Sea Officers to encourage and promote the setting out of his Fleets and in pity of their want of experience in Sea Affairs took his raw Seamen by the hand train'd them up in his own Fleets among the best of his Seamen and taught them that skill which the English had been many Ages a learning and all this in hopes to enable the French King to assist him in beating his best and most secure friends wherein the French according to their wonted Treachery fail'd him too when they were put to the Tryall All the World would have thought the King should not have so soon forgot the Punic Faith of France in their kindness to his Person while he was abroad in Exile among them or if then they might pretend the Interest of their Kingdom and palliate their faithless and inhumane Dealing with him by necessity of Self preservation yet no such necessity constrain'd him to forget the French King 's opposing his Restauration with so much violence as he did and his Caballing with his greatest enemies to keep him out of his Kingdom more especially since he was then so sensible of it when it was recent in his Memory that upon his coming into England he commanded away Monsieur Bourdeaux the French Ambassadour and would not suffer him to come into his presence But the Most Christian King knew full well how to work himself again into the King of England's favour and at length by throwing a French Dalilah into his embraces quite cut off the Locks of the British Sampson All on a sudden France seem'd to be remov'd into England nothing but French Baubles and Gugaws pleased our English Gentry A French Faction prevailing at Court French Mountebanks for Physicians French Fashions French Hats French Lackeys French Fidlers French Dancing-Masters French Tooth-Drawers French Barbers French Air in our very looks French Legs French Compliments French Grimaces and French Debauchery to fit us for French Slavery And had the French Disease been then unknown in England 't is to be questioned whither it would not have been entertained with as general a Consent as the Sichemites submitted to the Pain of Circumcision though to the hazard of being all destroy'd by the French Simeon and Levi while sore and driveling under the Distemper Nor is it to be doubted but the French Christianity would have as easily made tryall of such a Design as they did of the rest of their Tricks had they thought it would have taken effect It is well known that before the first Dutch War was entred into the King of England sought to make Alliances with France and Spain but the Spaniards were so Cock-sure of the French Promises that they would not make any Approaches to Friendship with England without the giving up of Dunkirk Tangier and Jamaica As for the French a Project of a Treaty was offer'd them and promoted with all earnestness by the Lord H s at Paris but it was plainly discern'd that the principal designs of the Most Christian King was only to draw the King of England into such an Alliance as might advance his design upon Spain and therefore so soon as he had set the Dutch and us together by the Ears and saw that thereby the Balance of Europe was broken he no longer minded Alliance with England But after many Proposals of Leagues and many Arts used to highten the jealousies between Us and the Hollanders he at last sided with the Dutch though to so little purpose that his Intentions plainly appeared to be no other than to see the two most Potent Obstacles of his Ambition destroy one another to the end he might with less Opposition invade his Nighbours and increase his own Naval Strength Nay the Juggle went much farther for that in the heat of all the War he still kept Negotiations on Foot and made overtures and proposals of Peace by means of the Queen-Mother whom in the end he so far and so treacherously deluded as to ascertain her and by her means to assure the King of England her Son that the Dutch would not set out any Fleet the ensuing Summer and yet underhand press'd the Dutch with all the Vigor and Importunity imaginable to fit out their Men of War again with a promise rather than fail that he would joyn his Fleet with theirs against the English Now it was upon a Supposal that the Most Christian King was at that time a good Christian and true to his Word in pursuing his pretended Proposals of Peace and upon that faithless French Paroll it was that the King of England put forth no Fleet to Sea that Year upon which followed that Fatal surprize of our Ships at Chatham then which a greater Dis-honour never happened to the Nation since the memory of History But at last as we had been oblig'd to the Craft and Treachery for the War and the Shame we received by it so we were glad to receive the Peace that ensued from his favour which was concluded at Breda between England France and Holland By this Treaty of Breda the French were oblig'd to restore St. Christophers to the English in the same manner and form as is exprest in the Articles but instead of performing their Engagement according to the true intent and literal meaning of the Articles they from time to time upon several unjust and frivolous Pretences deluded and delay'd the English Commissioners that were sent to take Possession of it till finding there was a necessity to comply with us in so small a matter while we were preparing to venture a second quarrel in their behalf it was at last surrendred after four year's baffling to Sir Charles Wheeler However to shew the perfidiousness of French dealing before they deliver'd it they destroyed all the Plantations laid the whole Island waste and left it in a much worse condition than if it had never been planted And as if the seizure and detaining of the King of England's Territories had not been sufficient they interrupted also the Trade of his Subjects in those Parts and assuming to themselves the Sovereignty of those Seas would not suffer any Ships but their own to sail either by or about those Islands but as if it had been Criminal so to doe took and confiscated several Vessels upon that account From all which a Question will arise easie to be resolv'd whither any thing be recorded of the old Carthaginians more perfidious than this and whether the King of England might not have expected more