that when she was dead they should find Calice at her Heart But He that sold Dunkirk deserv'd to have it written upon his Forehead it is surely a Brand upon his Memory Had the Interest or Honour of our Nation been minded or any thing but Baseness and Vice and the French Greatness We might have kept Dunkirk to this day And there is nothing either in that or in the other Instances that should discourage us from embracing the Project here offer'd But enough of this let us now proceed in the Objections It may be objected further that here is a Design for employing twenty Thousand Men and nothing hath been said where or how we shall have them To this I answer that if nothing hath been said hitherto it is now time to say something But it hath been already intimated that all the Forces we can spare from the Irish War and turn against France which were supposed about twenty Thousand might be put into our Fleet. But you will say they are already in Flanders I answer they are then so much out of their way but they may be easily taken on board I mean chiefly the Foot from Ostend and Newport You will say further that they cannot be spared from those Parts and I answer further that they may well be spared if they draw after them twice as many French which they will certainly do For the French must defend their maritime Provinces and Country Militias cannot do it so that of necessity they must draw back great Numbers of their regular Troops tho even these also will be too little if the Methods be followed that have been here proposed But were it not for the Irish War we might leave our Forces in Flanders and fill our Fleet with those now in Ireland And therefore some that wish well to England and to their Majesties happy Government wish the Irish Lands we fight for were all in the bottom of the great Ocean in regard they take us off from our Main Business which is the hewing down of the French King While we are rooting out the Irish and in pursuit of their Lands God only knows to what Distresses we may be brought The Losses we have received already and the Difficulties and Hazards that may befall us hereafter must all be imputed to these Irish Lands Could we have turn'd our whole Force against the French these things had not been it had in all likelihood given a new face to the War upon the Continent But you will say as the War of Ireland continues so that Men cannot be had from thence for the Project here offer'd So out of Flanders they cannot be had because we are obliged to have them there that is eight or ten Thousand of them to assist the Dutch by virtue of a Treaty with King Charles To this I answer that it is much doubted whether this Treaty do thus oblige us It obliges both Parties to assist each other with that Number in case either be attacqued But if both be attacqued the Obligation stems to cease and we must take new Measures both being concern'd to do their utmost against eth Common Enemy Moreover the Dutch might be more effectually assisted by our having these Men in Normandy or Bretagne then by our having them in Flanders So likewile if the Duke of Savoy have twenty Thousand Pounds a Month it might do him more Service to have this Mony which would maintain 10000 Men more employed upon the Project here offer'd than to have it remitted in specie For the good Effects of a Descent upon Normandy or Bretagne would be felt in Piemont Thus we have found Money as well as Men towards the carrying on our Project There is a further means to get Men which is this I have said before that if a good Part of our standing Forces were drawn down to the Sea-side towards France they might there ly ready to embark for relieving and renforcing our French Garrisons And they may in like manner be employed in our first Descents or Invasions Nor would they be taken off thereby from their Business that is their Guard of England For that Sea being narrow and our Fleet commanding it they would in effect have one Foot in England while the other is in France But there is an Expedient yet remaining both for Men and Money which will be sure to do the Work and which we must make use of if the rest should fail and that is that we now raise this twenty Thousand Men and likewise raise Money to maintain them And this is the thing I have now to say in this matter if nothing had been said before I hope I have fully satisfied all the Objections But this last Expedient may perhaps be a little startling What More Mony at this time of day Yes more Money when all lies at Stake and to preserve us from utter Destruction there being I fear no means to prevent it but by a Descent upon France which must be carried on with this Money We must therefore resolve in this great Exigence to strain our selves to the utmost We must do any thing rather than be Slaves to the French But whereas I have spoken of raising Men and Money these Matters deserve to be further consider'd As for the Men we may rely upon it that they will come in most readily and cheerfully for a Descent upon France Provided there be two things observed which I have slightly mentioned before The first thing is that they be all English For England had always Men enow for a French Voyage and it would be very displeasing to have Foreiners put upon us as if our Nation were either despised or distrusted England also will afford good Officers if Care be taken to have the best but if all the Care be to have the worst I confess they will be very ordinary and so it would be with the bravest Nation upon Earth But all this while it is not intended that the poor French Protestants should be excluded from joyning with us They have been driven from their Country by the Jesuitical bigotted Rage of their inhumane Tyrant who hath exceeded all the Barbarities of the Heathen Persecutors And the restoring of these poor People next to our own Preservation is the great End we aim at So that there is no Doubt but that we should gladly receive them amongst us under their own Officers The second thing to be observed to facilitate the raising of the Men is this that there be a good Fund for their Payment and appropriated to it and that their Money to prevent all Feare of Disappointments be managed by such hands as they like A Committee of Lords and Commons some think would be the most acceptable And if his Majesty would be graciously pleased in this extraordinary Occasion to give leave to the same Committee to recommend the Officers it would be very much for his Service These are the two things which being duly observed there
go further on to Bretagne the Haven of Conquest doth there lie fair for us I confess it is no deep Harbour it lying dry at every low Water But a great and strong Fortification in this place with a great and strong Garrison in it would be very useful to us were the Harbour never so mean Also this Place is so much the better because it is so near the Port of Brest and would be a means to bring us better acquainted with it Lastly The attacquing the Port of Brest it self is a principal end and use of these Land Forces on Ship-board Not to get it for our Selves for that requires a much greater Force but to spoil it to the French which would destroy at once their Power at Sea they having no other Harbour for great Ships upon all this Coast Let us therefore consider how this Port lies It opens to the Westward being at the very Lands end of France which is much broader than that of England just where the Bay of Biscay comes up to the Mouth of the English Channel Without this Port there is a Commodious Bay almost in form of a Semicircle and about two Leagues over the Seamen call it Brest-Water The depth of it in most places is from ten to fifteen Fathom and no where under seven The entrance of the Port is about a League in length and about half a League broad And close under the Southern Shore of it there is a deep and narrow Channel the rest being rocky and shoat water As for the Port it self it is much greater within than the Bay is without being deep for the most part and runing into the main Land by divers Creeks or Spurs and upon a Northerly Creek of it the Town of Brest is situate being exceeding strong and very well mann'd and furnisht Here now it is plain that there is no attempting the Town with the Force that can now be brought against it Nor indeed would it do us any Service to have it as long as the French command the Entrance of the Port which we must presume they have strongly fortified We must therefore apply our Thoughts to this Entrance of the Port and to the Bay without As for the Bay to speak of that first there is no doubt but that if we had a great Fort on each side and in them two or three hundred good reaching Guns the French would find it very uneasie riding or lying in this Bay and not very safe passing I have been present where Men of great Skill have had a large Draught of this Bay before them and have pointed to the very places where these Forts should be And surely if we are Masters at Sea nothing can hinder us from making these Forts Then for the Entrance of the Harbor there are divers things that may be done there One thing is and they that well know the place do think it very feasable to choke the narrow Channel or Passage by sinking of Ships which being loaden with Stone-work and Tarras will not easily be removed Another thing is to make a good Fort on the Northern side of this Entrance where I think the French have no Fort the deep Channel being on the other side But if they have a Fort there and it cannot speedily be taken we must make another not too near it which though half a League from the deep Channel would shrewdly annoy both single Ships and much more grand Fleets in their passage A third thing is to make a good Fort on the Southern side just upon the deep Channel where though the French may have more than one already yet they cannot have so many but that another Fort may live by them this Shore as hath been said being three Miles in length 'T is much if we cannot find a place without their outermost Fort which though it be not so very near the deep Channel may yet command it sufficiently But if there be no such place without we must fix upon one within and our Forces being landed from the Bay may by Land come down to it You will say that such a place cannot be relieved and supplied by Sea the French having a Fort without it But I answer That this cannot hinder small Vessels from coming to it by Night and at high Water for even the shallow parts of the Entrance will be then deep to such Vessels There is yet another thing to be done at this Entrance into the Port of Brest and that is That since by the deepness of the Channel our great Ships may come close to the Forts lying upon it they may with their mighty force of Cannon beat these Forts about the Frenchmens Ears which will be the easier done if they are attacqued by Land at the same time They that are acquainted with these Matters know that a Fort in such cases is a meer idle Bugbeare and that any Fort approachable by great Ships may be thus beaten to pieces unless it be large and have a mighty number of Guns for then it may be too hard for the Ships at their own Weapon I confess this thing requires great skill and courage nor is it to be done by every Fool. but I know the Men that can and dare do it I must now answer some Objections against this Project of a Descent It may be objected that having proposed twenty thousand Men to be employed against France I do afterwards design further to have several great Garrisons which may take up above forty thousand Men more so that I have out-run my own Proposal To this I answer That 't is true here will be required an increase of Men which we may safely presume we cannot want if they are well paid and have good English Officers but here will be no increase of Charge which is the main thing to be feared For these Garrisons will maintain themselves and by how much greater they are by so much better they will do it It may also be objected that the way here proposed is a very laborious and chargeable way of Conquering it would probably cost us less to take Towns ready fortified and furnisht than to raise these Fortifications from the Ground But I answer That we must not think of taking strong Towns unless we had an Army that would make us clearly Masters of the Field Such an Army I confess might find every thing easy but such an Army we cannot have in France unless we had a Peace in Ireland which Peace it concern'd us to have upon any Terms that so we might apply all our Force to pull down this French King for except we do it we are in great danger to be destroyed by him Since therefore by reason of the Irish War continuing we cannot do as we would we must do as we may Moreover the Method here proposed though it may seem flow and heavy yet it is sure and void of all hazard there being hardly a possibility of miscarriage and it would put
A PROJECT OF A DESCENT UPON FRANCE By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Rich. Baldwin MDCXCI PREFACE THIS Paper was written last Winter and should then have been published had it not been for some Impediments And the Business of Valona happening since the mention of it is now added in the transcribing I crave leave to say further that the whole Form of this Project was communicated divers Months agoe to some Persons proper and if they were not pleased to make use or take notice of it the Author is not to be blamed The time seems not yet past for pursuing the Design here recommended But if it should be past so that it were now too late to shew what may be done yet it will be a Satisfaction to the curious to know what might have been Moreover there are some things here offer'd that may perhaps rouze up the Spirits of our English Nation and put them likewise in Mind to do some Good for themselves Of which there is now such an Opportunity as is hardly to be again expected But if it be decreed that We must get nothing we must be content A PROJECT OF A DESCENT INTO FRANCE I That erewhile have sounded a Trumpet for a Voyage Royal into France must now aim at lower and lesser things and content my self with a Descent if even that may be obtain'd Had we a Peace in Ireland we might continue our Thoughts of a Voyage Royal. Our King might then be in the Head of a mighty Army composed entirely of his own Subjects who would delight to follow him and serve him in so glorious an Expedition He might have them to any number under a hundred Thousand We might then act separately and with Honour and we might make a great Figure in the World And moreover we might hereby give to our Confederates a most effectual Assistance making their Work easie by so strong a Diversion Such an Invasion as this would in all Probability turn the Fortune of the Warr at once Such a Voyage as this would make us emulate the great Actions of our Ancestors in France and we might reasonably hope for as good Success For tho the French are much stronger now than they were in those days yet by reason of their many other Enemies assailing them on all sides we should find them much weaker These would be the Effects of a Peace in Ireland But this Peace hath not been had there have been too little Inclinations to it Though all Europe I mean all those that would pull down the French King be as much concern'd to have it as to have a Peace in Hungary For there is the same Consequence and Advantage of both and that is That thereby we may be enabled to bring all our Forces against the French This being the Condition of Affairs and the main of our Force being still detained in Ireland so that only Part of it can act against France it is to be consider'd how this Part may be employed to most Advantage Suppose then that of our seventy Thousand Men which is the present Establishment wanting a few Hundreds and for which the Parliament hath provided full Pay we should turn twenty Thousand against France And I hope we may suppose likewise that we shall have a Fleet out this Summer that will make us Masters at Sea Here I presume to affirm that this twenty Thousand Men being put on board our Fleet will do more Service and be a greater Terror to the French than any other way whatsoever But what must these Men do when they are on board the Fleet What will be their Business I answer their Business will be to run straight upon the French Coast and there to Land or in other Words to make a vigorous Descent into France There are several things that recommend this Design to us First The French cannot hinder us from Landing tho they had no other Enemy and though all their Forces were drawn down to the Sea-side yet it could not be done But when all their regular Troops are engaged elsewhere it were a great Mistake if Arrier Bans and Country Militias should so much as endeavour it Sir Walter Rawleigh knew these Matters as well as any Man in the World And his bare Opinion might seem sufficient in the Case But he not only affirms but also gives plain and clear Demonstration that it is impossible to keep an Enemy from Landing if he be Master at Sea And the thing is confirmed by universal Experience For never any Army that came against a Country by Sea did fail to Land upon it Secondly When we are Landed nothing can hinder us from fortifying If twenty Thousand Men having the Sea and a Fleet behind them cannot intrench either in a Town or upon the open Shoar so as to defend themselves against any Force that can be brought against them they deserve to be cut in pieces But they must labour hard and they must have good store of Spades and Mattocks and Baskets and Barrows and they should carry Palisadoes ready with them In the third Place Nothing can hinder but that the Place we thus fortifie may be some weak Port. There are many such on that side of France which lyes upon our English Channel and which is from Calice to Brest near five hundred Miles in Length But in all this Coast between Brest and Calice there are but three Ports of any Strength considerable and those are Havre de Grace Honfleur and S. Maloes All the rest are in a manner open Towns and may be easily seized by any strong hand that approaches them As for Graveling and Dunkirk they are in the French Flanders and out of these Bounds Fourthly Any Port that we thus fortifie may be made as good as Calice provided it be relievable by Sea and not commanded by Land And by the Labour of twenty Thousand Men it may in two Months time be put in such a Condition that a Garrison of eight or ten Thousand being backed by the whole Power of England will defend it against the whole Power of France It is not necessary that it should be a good Port it cannot well be worse than Calice and the French have no good Port upon these narrow Seas save only Brest and S. Malo's and Dunkirk It will be sufficient if the Place can receive and secure small Vessels Also this Place should be upon these Seas that it may be reinforced and supplied from England with every Snatch of Wind lying also in the way of our grand Fleet. Fifthly This rampant Garrison having a thousand or fifteen hundred Horse lodged in it will command the Country far and wide The French in Mastricht with the like number of Horse exacted so great a Contribution that they sent at one time over and above the maintenance of the Garrison eight hundred Thousand Crowns in Mony to their Flanders Army Dunkirk had but five hundred Horse while the English held it
and they commanded Contribution forty Miles round as I have been told by Sir Tobias Bridges who had the Command of those Horse Sixthly I grant that the French will do their utmost to curbe and bridle this Garrison But it will be to little purpose While the Dutch held Ostend all the Power of Spain which was then very great could not hinder that Garrison from making Incursions into Flanders But if the French should beset us with extraordinary Vigour we must take them off by giving them more Work elsewhere that is by seizing and fortifying some other Ports For my meaning is that our moving Force be still kept up to the full number of twenty Thousand to make farther Progresses and to harrass and torment the French When these Fires are thus kindled in several Places they will find it very hard to quench them and tho possibly they might be able to oppose the Insults of one Garrison yet they can never bear up against three or four or perhaps a greater number These Garrisons being scattered upon their whole Coast of five hundred Miles and every one of them having behind it the whole Power of England to support and enforce it Admitting therefore that the Power of France were double or treble to that of England and that their whole Power were turned against us yet having them at this Lock we should be too hard for them Seventhly There needs no mighty number of Transport Ships for this Service For our Grand Fleet which will be always in these Seas will with great ease carry over the fore-mention'd twenty thousand Men. I mean the Foot of which this Force will almost wholly consist For the Horse must be carried in Vessels proper which may also be done at leisure they being not useful either in the Landing or the Fortifying which are the Things first to be done It is not here intended that our great Ships of War should run close in to the French Shore for generally the Seas are there shallow and dangerous But they may go as near as they can safely and there lying off they may send the Men ashore in their Boats and Tenders or in other small Vessels which for a Miles Passage or two or three Miles may be stuffed as full as they can hold Eighthly If we can fix Garrisons in this French Coast we may well presume they will be strongly supported from England The greatest part of our standing Forces may without much inconvenience lie in the Counties adjoyning to that Sea and be ready to embark upon all Occasions And I may venture to say That even our Trained Bands and particularly those of the said adjoyning Counties would march with all chearfulness to make good our Footing in France the London Auxiliaries I dare engage will do it Nor can Ships be wanting to transport them for beside the Ships that must be kept for that purpose those Seas are always full both of our Men of War and Merchants But since standing Armies must not always be in England and since the Militia's of some Counties must not be press'd with greater Duty than others unless in cases extraordinary we must think of some way beside to support and enforce our French Garrisons It is therefore proposed that fifteen or twenty thousand Foot and three or four thousand Horse be listed and armed in the said adjoyning Counties that is in the Counties to the South of Thames with the addition of London and Middlesex These Troops to be ready to march and embark upon every sudden Command Every Footman to have forty or fifty Shillings a Year and a Horseman eight or ten Pound and their Officers in proportion with full Pay while they are in Service Such an Establishment will not be of any great Charge but what ever it be France will be made to pay it For our Garrisons in France being back'd by such a Body of Horse and Foot will command much farther into the Country each of them will command as far as if this Body of Men were constantly lodged in it And surely England will then be glorious when we have a Range of Garrisons the whole length of the Channel upon French Ground and maintain'd by French Contributions It will be such a Frontier such a Barrier as never any Kingdom hath had the like Ninthly There are upon this French Coast as before hath been noted divers Ports and Creeks such as they are that are capable of being well fortified but some of them are more inviting than the rest of which I shall name a few In Picardy there is Bologne or as we call it Bullen a place of great Fame amongst us English Men since Henry the Eighth took it But all its Fortifications are now demolisht save only the old Walls of the upper Town I confess this Place is not for our turn because even the lower Town lies some distance from the Sea But we may remember that while we held it the French begun a Fort and they called it Fort Chastillon from the Famous Admiral of that Name between the Sea and the lower Town If we should now make a large Intrenchment in this Place for little ones are good for nothing and should fill it with a Garrison of ten thousand Men it would dismember all the French Conquests in Flanders for it would command them quite thorough It would do the French five times more hurt than the taking of Mons hath done them good In vain would Humieres guard his Line to hinder the Incursions of the Brabanders if such a Fire were kindled behind him Then if we go on to Normandy we shall there find Harflew and Quillebeuf at the Mouth of the Seine which Places though they lie open at present have been strong formerly The former endured a Siege from our Henry the fifth when he conquer'd Normandy being the First-fruits of that glorious Expedition And the later in the Civil Wars of France was the only place for a time that Henry the fourth had upon that River during which time it shrewdly annoyed Roan and the other Places which the Leaguers held If it be objected that Havre de Grace and Honfleur lie lower upon the same River and therefore stop the Passage to the other two Places I deny the Consequence for the River is here so wide that there is no stopping of the Passage Moreover in the same Normandy there is the Town of Cherburg just over-against our Spit-head It was always a Garrison till this dangerous War broke out At which time the French King resolved to keep no Garrisons save very strong ones And he found that this Place could not be made very strong unless some high Grounds were taken in that command it which new Line would require so much Labour to make it and so many Men to defend it that he chose rather to slight the whole an old Castle excepted which Castle is of no Strength towards the Land against an Enemy that hath made a Descent If we