their King and then all fidelity to men What they said in this clause they say was not intended to be mentioned and indeed it no way concerned their present controversie with the United Provinces unlesse they thought to scare all men by recounting their own Actions But they proceed to say neither is that indeavour to divide them in the memorable yeare of forty eight to be omitted Surely the one might have been omitted as well as the other was not intended for it hath nothing proper to their Declaration unlesse they meant to make their owne story And they very unseasonably mention the endeavour to divide them when they were formerly divided and the division still continued and themselves not onely endeavoured but effected it rejâ—cting both Scots and Presbyterian Was not the new modell and change of the Generall their Act And was not their division further acted by purging the House and change of the Government Nor can they admit the great preparation against this Nation in the yeare 1650. And what is all this to the United Provinces And can they think any man believs that preparations to assiâ—t the King dispossesse them of their usurpation and restore the Nation to its just Rights are preparations against the Nation but this is the common stile of them Declarations This they say necessitated their proceedings in Scotland being refused satisfaction for forepast wrongs and denyed assurance of peace from them who had received the declared Enemy of the Commonwealth from the Vnited provinces Their guilt and malice necessitated their proceedings for the Scots were obliged to receive their lawfull King and will any accuse Subject for fidelity and obedience to their King but such as hate all piety and truth but what were those forepast wrongs They had agreed with the Scots after the engagement of forty eight which was the wrong pretended and nothing can be assurance of peace to them but a totall abdication of Loyalty and submission to the new Republican power of England And it is their pretence of invasion to have satisfaction upon mens estates and security by enslaving their persons The Scots were unhappily mâ—sled in in their connection with the English in their Rebellion against the King and found the reward of it from those they assiâ—ted And yet after they discerned the mischievous consequents of their undertaking upon their owne Nation continued yet jealousies of one another and while they feared that which might never happen they suffered that which they saw was unavoidably falling on them the power of the English Rebells And while some would act alone and had feare of the event of a victory if they got it betrayed all to the common Enemy And what if they received the King from those Provinces Did he not come through the Dominions of the Kings of France Spaine And what was the mischievous contrivement that was hatched there against England Doubtlesse if the contrivement were to bring in the King it had been happy for England if it had taken effect But what is this to the United Provinces if Strangers and Allies passe through their Countrey But they say their Enemies had much open and secret assistance by the Interest of the Prince of Orange and others And what law or convention was there against it had the United Provinces any League with England besides what was made with the late King and when their Ally dyes must they quit all friendship to his heire They say it was a time when the Prince and his adherents were contriving as is most probable to erect a Tyranny upon these Countryes of which he missed but narrowly especially in his attempt upon Amsterdam which things they say are better knowne there then heere and are not the purpose of this Declaration But it was purposely set in to scatter jealousiâ—s in their Provinces and divide thâ—ir affections endeavours against the malitious attempts of this common Enemy The differences arising touching the attempt upon Amsterdam were prudently composed and buryed by the States Provinces and no man will measure intentions by the malitious invectives of an Enemy that contrives to effect that which he saies another inrended Tyrany is judged by the sence not by the fancy But wisemen will not by the apprehonsion of past or remote dangers make way for present They say it is not pleasant to remember the cruel and bloudy business of Amboina for which no satisfaction hath bin given though often demanded But never by them when they sent their Agents Ambassadors to treat whereof they speak afterwards And if it were not pleasant to them they would rather have endeavoured satisfaction when they treated then repetition when they were in hostility Now they come to unkindnesses received that the Parliament sent a Resident to the States General who refused to receive him The reason is very apparent The Parliament never had sent any Resident neither was any such Authority acknowledged by forreign States And it s a known Treason for the persons in Parliament to doe such an Act. Besides the United Provinces were in league and amity with the King The Parliament or such as called themselves so had not then renounced the Kingly Title and still allowed the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy to the King and therefore their Resident was ill sent and justly refused But they think this amounts to an unkindness since it proceeded from their affection to the Vnited Provinces the establishment of liberty advantage of traffique and strength to both Their affections are doubtles such as are usuall between neer and potent Republiques especially where the advantages of traffique are the common aim of both which not only creates emulations but necessarily makes continued differences till one be destroyed and thence proceeded the Judgement of Qu. Elizabeth who concluded that the United Provinces must in wisdome desire the stability of the English Monarchy where by these ruptures might be prevented the Crown of England had greater assurance of these Provinces in the Government they were under then if they had bin under a Prince when new Alliances and engagements would continually change the affections and Councels of the Prince but when these men sent their Resident their affections were to their own interest and they sought to gain reputation by having a Resident received and to diminish the Kingly power abroad But the reason above al they say was the advancement of the true Protestant Religion which both profess and which in humane probability would receive the greatest growth by their friendship The State of the United Provinces did not think that England professed not the true Protestant Religion in the time of Queen Elizabeth and the Kings since but the Religion those new Governours professe no true Protestant will own for his no one Church established in any estate concurring with them And as one chief Article in their Religion is upon their own private Authority to rob their neighbours and kill their Kings so their doctrine
AN ANSWER TO THE DECLARATION Of the Imaginary Parliament of the unknowne Common-wealth of England concerning the Affaires past betwixt Them of England and the High and Mighty Lords the States Generall of the United Provinces Wherein their Frivolous Reasons are cleerly refuted and their injust proceedings in the Treaty of the aforesaid Affaires as in all their Actions Manifestly discovered At Rotterdam by John Pieterson 1652. THe Authors of this Declaration are the same men who having acted that execrable parricide upon the King assumed the name of Parliament which they had abolished Their beginning and growth hath beene formerly published how a few lurking Sectaries being at first Members of Parliament and consorting in prodigious opinions in Religion and policy with the illiterate rabble became usefull to the prime projectors that under the maske of securing Religion and Lawes sought to gaine the power of the State into their hands being assisted in their votes in the Lower House and applauded abroad for their proceedings by this busy crew who got into places in the Army and at last gave law to their old Masters and having renounced faith and obedience to their King with more ease scorned the bonds of association to their guides consorts in the same impieties And it cannot seem strange to any that look on their Actions to reade their shamelesse Declarations nor that they should proceede with like injury to strangers as they have used to their King Companions and Countreymen They say the returns which the people of the Vnited Provinces made toward this Commonwealth will hardly be believed if their sufferings and deliverance and the principles and spirit that acted in them then be remembred and the help they had from this Nation with the expence of English blood and treasure The people of these Provinces have with gratitude acknowledged the assistance they received from the Crown of England and the affection and readines of the English Nation And it were a just reproach if they should make returnes for those benefits to the Usurpers of the regal power destroyers of the Monarchy and Oppressors of this Nation Can Nationall obligations be transferred to the Enemies of the Nation And because a Traiterous Army hath gotten power over the Nation shall the Friends and Allies of the Nation assist the Usurpers This will hardly be believed but easily that these Declarers have the impudence to pretend a right to all that which was due to the Crown that they have abjured Though their boasting of successes be a principle part in all their papers and so in this Yet it is not intended they say to be very particular in mentioning the State of the affairs of this Commonwealth as it stood when oppressed by a Tyrant they were necessitated to fly to Armes for defence of their Lives and Estates because in Parliament they did but assert and desire the setling of their just and Native liberties When over particulars are mentioned of the State of affaires in England in the time of the late King their Faithlesse and bloody proceedings must more cleerly be manifest And its proofe to all reasonable men of a resolved continuance in wicked undertakings that they call the King a Tyrant when not onely the mildnesse of his nature and Moderation of his privat and publique Actions but the Peace and Prosperity of the People was so universally knowne to strangers and when in all that peevish discontent or Traiterous malice could offer against him there was no one Act in its nature and substance Oppression but such only as were pretended might not be done by the King out of Parliament and no one of these was done by the King Regiâ manu with the Kingly power but left to the ordinary Ministers of Law and Justice to decide in point of right and execute accordingly but these men knowing how odious their Actions are seeke a cover from reproachfull appellations upon the King as if any could entertaine a prejudice by misnaming persons or Actions and if it were Tyranny for the King to do an Action out of Parliament which he was advised by the Judges of law he justly might how impudent are these men to reduce it For where is the Parliament Authority for their vast levies of mony Murder of the King and the imposing Lawes upon the people Can a few persons of the Lower House scarce the tenth part of the whole by violence totally abolish both Houses and doe all Acts that belonged to the whole And yet they perswade the world they are beleeved in such extravagant untruths There need nothing be more said how causelesly the Rebells of England tooke Armes against the King And if Rebells may pretend defence of their persons against Soveraigne power Malefactors will never want a justification when force is used to bring them to Justice And is it one of the just and native liberties of the English nation that the members of Parliament in the Lower House being five hundred forty of these may drive out the rest and doe what they please this is the present case But if we looke back is it the liberty of England to be without a King or to be subject to the power of one another have no recourse to their Prince for redresse Is it the liberty of England that a rabble of the City of London or an Army shall oppresse the Parliament and propound laws to oblige the whol Kingdom Is it the liberty of England to exclude the King from making of laws or governing the Militia But they that are not ashamed to act yet seeme loath to speak the things they doe The seizing the Kings forts and navy raising force against him and both Houses of Parliament punishing Judges for doing their duty and delivering their opinions in open Courts against sedition licencing all lewd sectaries and disturbers of Government are only asserting and desire of setling just and native liberties Thus they call their murders Justice their robberies Reparation of Wrongs And their persecution of the King from one end of the Kingdome to the other the defence of their lives and Estates It s well seene that those men are the God of Gods anger upon the three Kingdoms but they vainly flatter themselvs to think that any beleeve it a blessing of God as they assume it or that these wonders in so many signal battells or that series of providence was either in favour to them or their cause and such presumptuous pretences declare of what spirit men are that they take up the language of Senacharib who came not without God against Jerusalem and of the Turk that attributes all his successes against the Christians to the power of his false Prophet And those men that in their writings against the King used the name of the whole Kingdom on their part and the small strength of the King now tells us of an handfull of men that were faithfull to the cause even so faithfull that they first brake allegeance to
Action wherein they had cleere reason and the warrant of their superiours to whom the complainers discovered the iniquity of their cause by so unjust an exception They come now to the solemn Embassy they sent the States which they say was in a time when there was much less cause to apply to the States for any need the Parliament had of their assistance for that England was wholly in their power most of the Towns Cities in Ireland the affairs of Scotland not unprosperous But whoever took notice of the affairs then knew very well they had neede of the forbearance of the United Provinces from engaging against them which had they then acted it s probably they had prevented the progress of their victories and rendred them liable to their demerits And what the men of Westminster did in that Embassy was in order to their own affairs not out of any priciples of affection to the Protystant Interest or common good They endeavoured to draw the United Provinces into their own guilt by the league they propounded so as these Provinces must have supported their usurpation and have drawn on them the infamy of Murdering the King and all the former Actions whereby that usurpation was effected Though Princes and States for the peace of their people sometimes enter into leagues for comerce with such who by wicked attempts have obteined the power of States yet neither Religion nor civill Justice permit defence of unjust power And when those Embassadours discerned that the United Provinces could not be drawn into a scandalous league then they deserted the prosecution And these tenders which their Embassadours were impowered to make that would have demonstrated the affection of these in England to the good People of the United Provinces the same as to themselves sufficiently demonstrate their affection to the people of these Provinces to be only for themselves And the Priviledges they tendred to them were to divide them from their own State to a dependance on a forreign kindness and was of the same stamp with this hypocriticall profession to the good people of these Provinces these good people being in their sense such as would be seduced against their Country by their attempts such being their dealing with Scots pretending rather private enmity against some persons then Dominion over all which was so apparently their Design as it will be the shame of any that shall hereafter pretend ignorance of it They say the Embassy was rendred of no effect because the Embassadours were unheartily and dilatorily dealt with But the true reason was that these Masters had instructed their Embassadours to make no agreement without the absolute submission of these Provinces to them If their Embassadours were unsafe in their persons it was not by any neglect of the States of the United Provinces who placed a sufficient guard about them punished such as offered indignities to them and if their Embassadours concealed it they dealt unfaithfully with their superiours and unjustly with them they were sent to And when it appeared the States of the United Provinces would not partake in the guilt of that blood and usurpation with these Masters in England the Embassadours were recalled home That the States Generall sent not an Embassy till after the defeat at Worcester is true and the willingness and affectection with which it was received doth testifie for the English part they stood fixed to their former Principles which were to serve themselves of the power and Interest of the vinced Provinces for to prepare for the Embassadours entertainment they had made an Act as they call it that no commodities should be brought into England by any forraign vessels but such as were of the growth of that Country to which such vessell belonged which tooke away that traffique and intercourse which was in all ages continued betweene the nations and had no other scope but to interrupt the trade of these Provinces And as this Act testâ—fies what principles they went in to destroy the trade and navall strength of the United Provinces so they being the same they had in their former proceedings and sending their Embassy they vainly pretend affection to Religion Liberty or amity with this Country while they expresse a malicious Design to enslave or destroy it from their first Treaty with them They finde fault that in the Treaty the States Ambassadours evaded possitive demands in things not of hardest resolution with allegations of want of power though their Commission shewed no such restraint The age of these mens rule in England may be read in these frivolous objections Though Embassadors have an absolut commission are they not tyed to instructions And are there not particular laws customes in States that limit Embassadours and yet not expressed in their Commission But whence comes the Allegation of want of power to be an evasion And because the Provincial States must be assembled before answers could be had it gave small grounds of any real intendment of a firm peace and amity It was a firm ground of aversion to peace in those of England that they were positive in such demands as must enforce the meeting of the Provinciall States to give a resolution Upon the comming of the Embassadours of the States General into England it s well knowne what licence was taken by mean people to abuse them And to let them know what they must trust to a Treatise is composed published of the business of Amboina which had rested for so many years and till then unmentioned by those affectionate seekers of amity with the United Provinces Herein they provoke the people to assume an hatred of these Provinces to seek revenge for an Act so long passed If they had intended amity or thought a strict Alliance with these Provinces necessary why would they renew the memory of old differences or fix an aversion in the people to those with whom they treated for peace This might have bin a proper work after a treaty broken but to make such a narration the Prologue to a Treaty is a sure ground that no peace was intended but such as force and terrour could extort And that such propsitions must be granted to obtein it as a conquered people only must submit to and they must needs give way to the exercise of the peoples licence and hatred that used the means to work it in them And this designe of the Rulers being known it was soon prosecuted their ordinary Agents the Preachers and composers of Gazetts and Almanacks published it to the world and from thence came these predictions of their South sayers of the destruction of Holland And these discuourses of their Politiques of subjecting such powers as might be prejudiciall to the new Babell they had raised in England and therefore the United Provinces being able to do them harm they must have these Countries in such a Chaine as may draw them that way onely where those new Rulers shall move and like formes of