Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A48302
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Lex talionis, or, An enquiry into the most proper ways to prevent the persecution of the Protestants in France
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing L1863; ESTC R33482
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14,039
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32
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it Adoni-bezek above-mention'd made a Confession of the Justice of his Punishment when his Thumbs and Great Toes were cut off as a Retaliation of his Barbarities And Samuel's Return upon Agag That as his sword had made women childless so should his Mother be childless among women declares both the Reason and the Justice of God's Decree against him 1 Sam. XV. 33. 'T is true this Retaliation is strictly Personal and all Retaliation ought to be so if possible But in some Cases it differs and where a Personal Retaliation is not practicable then People are considered in Collective Bodies Nations Families and States Thus in a War the Subjects of either Party account it very justifiable to make themselves Satisfaction for Injuries received on any of the Subjects of the contrary Party though the Wrong particularly suffered is not chargeable on those particular Persons who suffer for it By the same Rule it seems justifiable if we cast the whole Body of Europe into Two sorts Popish and Protestant that while the one part commit Hostilities and Depredations on the other the injur'd Party should have a Right of Retaliation on any Member of the same Body of what Nation or Government soever they shall be where the Power is properly put into their Hands for Power in such a case may pass for a sufficient Right of Directing the said Punishment since nothing but want of Power interrupts its being Personal The French King has given a Challenge to all the Protestant Princes of Europe in his present Usage of the Reformed Churches of France He has carry'd on though not with much Success a War for above Eight Years against the whole United Power of Europe at last he has made a Peace not at all to his Advantage nor much for his Honour And now the War of State is at an end he seems to be beginning a War of Religion and that he may lay the Foundation of it safely he has began it upon his own Subjects I cannot imagine why all the Protestant Princes of Europe should not think themselves concern'd in this Invasion of their Religion since nothing is more certain than that they are all strook at though more remotely And by all the Rules of Humane Policy Prevention ought to extend as far as the Evil is design'd If the weakening the Protestant Interest in general were only the Design the strengthening that Interest ought to be the care of the other Besides the Papists are the Aggressors as they always have been and the Injustice of their Cause so great that they have hardly ever attempted to make any other Pretences for all their Barbarities than the Absolute Will and Pleasure of their Omnipotent Monarch who will have but one Religion within his Dominions I confess to me it seems very proper for the Ease of all Parties That Religion should really divide the whole Body of Europe and that all the Roman Catholicks and all the Protestants if they could but agree it among themselves should live by themselves That if the French King will have no Protestants in his Dominion the Protestants should suffer no Roman Catholicks in theirs and when all Parties are withdrawn to their own sort and the Division compleated let the Roman Catholicks begin a War of Religion as soon as they please It is in my opinion the unjustest thing in the World that since the Spaniards and Italians suffer no Protestants to live amongst them but the bloody Inquisition destroys them and the French have Dragoon'd Three Hundred Thousand of their Protestant Subjects to Mass and hurry'd Three Hundred Thousand more out of their Country to seek Comfort from the Charity of Neighbour States The Duke of Savoy has Exiled all his Protestant Vaudois And hardly any Popish Country admit the Protestants among them some few Parts of Germany excepted yet the Protestant Governments at the same time suffer Three Millions of Papists to live among them and enjoy their Liberties and Estates unmolested Nor is this all the Protestants of France Savoy and Hungary have been Persecuted under the Assurances of the most solemn Treaties the most sacred Edicts and the firmest Peace that could be made they have never their Enemies themselves being Judges been guilty of the Breach of their Faith or Loyalty Henry III. of France acknowledged it when he had recourse to them for Protection against his own mutinous Catholick Subjects The Duke of Savoy acknowledged it in his Speech to those Vaudois whom he had releas'd out of the Citadel of Turin We never read of any War begun by the Protestants they were always Defendants we have not one Instance of a Massacre committed or of a King Assassinated or of Nobles Undermined in order to to be blown up by them they have always been Men of Peace till Self-Defence has oblig'd them to be Men of War On the contrary the Roman-Catholicks have been always uneasie to the Governments they have lived under Our Histories are full of their Treasons Ireland has twice been Deluged in Blood by their Rebellions and Cruelties Two Kings of France have been Murthered by their Assassinations and innumerable Protestants Massacred and Butcher'd in Cold Blood under the pretences of Friendship and assurance of a Treaty The Reigns of all our Kings and Queens in England since Henry VIII have been strangely disturb'd by the Plots the Treasons and Rebellions of the Papists they have often forfeited their Estates and Liberties to the Publick Justice of the Nation had they been dealt with by the Rules of strict Retaliation England Scotland and Ireland have such Reasons for Entire removing them out of their Dominions as no Nation in the World can have greater and yet here they live in Peace under the Protection of those very Princes they refuse to swear Allegiance to and under the shelter of those Laws they refuse to be bound by 'T is no Plea in Bar of any Right that the Plaintiff is a Papist our Courts of Justice are as open to them as to any of the Kings most faithful Subjects Of which more hereafter On the contrary the Protestants of France tho' charg'd with no Disloyalty nor guilty of no Crimes are Dispossess'd of their Estates Banish'd their Native Country Dragoon'd Shipt to the Gallies and many of them Hang'd their Children torn from them by Violence and buried alive in Monasteries and Nunneries and all the Cruelties an unbridled Soldiery can inflict acted upon them without any manner of Crime alledg'd but their Religion and this when that very Religion was secur'd to them by the solemnest Leagues and Treaties in the World Declared in the famous Edict of Nantes Entred Receiv'd and Registred in all the Parliaments of the Kingdom The King of France in Persecuting his Protestant Subjects acts not only the part of a Tyrant over them as they are his Subjects but is guilty of the Breach of the Faith and Honour of a King oppressing those People who had their Religion tolerated and allow'd
Dixmuide This is a Practice too well known in the War to need any Contention where the putting a Prisoner of War to Death or any other Breach of Articles has been requited by putting some other Prisoner of War to Death on the contrary Side and though the latter be an innocent Person Lex Talionis is the Word the Justice of it is not disputed 2. It wou'd put these Kingdoms in a Condition to Entertain and Relieve that great Multitude of Distressed Christians with the very Substance of their Adversaries and the King of France might if he pleas'd make the Roman Catholicks Amends by giving them the Estates of the Hugonots or what other Way he thought fit This is most certain that the Roman Catholicks of England wou'd not have half the Reason to Complain of hard Usage that the Protestants of France have they have no Leagues or Capitulations to show for their Permission the Laws of the Kingdom are expresly against them and they have in all the Reigns for 150 Years past been the Disturbers of the Peace of it they resuse now to Swear Allegiance to the Government and if they do not Disturb it it is Owing to their want of Power not their want of Will But if they had all those Defences to make which have been hinted on behalf of the Protestants of France they wou'd have no body to thank for such Usage but their own Friends And the Pope if he ow'd them so much Care might use his Interest with the King of France to let the Protestants enjoy their Liberty in order to save them from the same Fate Some indeed object against the receiving such vast Numbers of Foreigners among us as Prejudicial to the Interest of Trade and to our own Manufacturers and Inhabitants by Eating the Bread out of our Mouths and Starving our own Poor This is an Argument would require a little Volume to Answer but in General I presume to Affirm That no Number of Foreigners can be Prejudicial to England let it be never so great Number of Inhabitants is the Wealth and Strength of a Kingdom and if we had a Million of People in England more than we have let them be of what Nation they would it would be far from being a Damage to us 'T is true if these Million of People were all Artisans Manufacturers it would be some detriment to our Poor who are employ'd in those particular Manufactures but allow one third to be Artisans one third Labourers Husbandmen or Sailors and one third Merchants Shop-keepers or Gentlemen and if the greatest Number that can be supposed came to settle in England it could be no Injury but a vast Advantage to the Kingdom in general And it will appear by this One particular well examin'd An Addition of a Million of People suppose that were the Number would devour a proportion'd quantity of Corn and Flesh for Food and Drink and a proportioned quantity of Manufactures for Cloth and Housholdstuff the one employs more Land and the other more People Now 't is apparent we have in England more Land lies unimprov'd common and waste than would feed a vast many People more than we have and we have a Staple of Wooll never to be exhausted In Manufactures the more Lands we improve the greater the Rents will be and the greater the general Stock of the Nation will be and the more Manufactures are made the better the Poor are employ'd and the richer the Manufacturer is made Many other Arguments might be used to prove That the Coming Over of Foreigners can be no general Prejudice to the Nation as to Trade But that is not the main thing here If the Roman-Catholick Princes pursue their Protestant Subjects with such Cruelty and drive them into Banishment and Exile to seek Relief in Foreign Countries the Case seems to speak for it self the Protestants can have no readier way either to prevent the Miseries of those poor persecuted People or to relieve them in their Exile than by dealing with the Papists in their Dominions in the same manner and Inviting the said persecuted French to come and live in the Estates and in the Places of their Adversaries This is Lex Talionis And this is a way that would soon tire the Papists out For I think I may be allowed to suppose there are much the greater number of Papists among the Protestants than there are of Protestants among the Papists and the Exile of the Parties would also differ as to Places For generally speaking the Protestant Countries are the best for Strangers to live in the Protestant People are the Trading People of the World therefore the Exile of the Protestants of France and Hungary would be less to their disadvantage than the Papists of England Ireland and Holland who must apply themselves to Countries where there are few Manufactures small Trade and but very indifferent Means for a Stranger to live So that the Popish Exiles would be in much the worse Circumstances And there is no question but whenever the Protestant Princes of Europe shall find it needful to use this Remedy the Roman-Catholick Powers will find it for their Interest to make some Cartel or Condition upon which all their Subjects though they are Protestants may enjoy some sort of Liberty in their own Native Countries and so Persecution as well as War might end in an Universal Happy Peace to Europe both in Matters of Religion as well as Civil Affairs which has so often been attempted by other Methods to so little purpose FINIS Judg. i. 7.