Animosities all of a suddain and that each should be willing to make concessions on their own part to Unite more firmly against their mutual Enemies that the differences about the Flagg about Fraight the Herring-Fishery and the Affairs of the East-Indies are too great and recent to be soon made up This is the Language of our Enemies who make us sensible of the mischeif they have done us but conceal the Cause from us on purpose to put us out of hope But let us endeavour to find it out our selves and then it will be easie to apply the Remedy It is a real and undeniable Truth that time out of mind the English and Flemings have liv'd together in perfect Amity and their Antipathy against the French has still been the same and indeed a very slender knowledge of the History of the three Nations will serve to convince any Man of the truth of what is here asserted During the greatest part of the Wars between England and France from the Reigns of Philip the August and Richard Ceur de Lyon till the time of Charles the VII and Henry the VI. the Flemings though Vassals to the French always took part with the Ilanders They were the first who acknowledg'd Edward the III. King of France to the prejudice of Philip de Valois They have several times made War with their Counts because they were too much inclined to the Interest of France And though the House of Burgundy was always so very sparing of their Subjects that they never kept any disciplin'd Forces in constant Pay nor Garrisons in their strong Holds believing that Subjects gently used would be a suffieient Guard of their Country themselves Nevertheless at the time when the English through the Divisions between the Houses of York and Lancaster had almost lost what they possest in France they attempted to rise in Favour of the English against Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy one of the best Princes in the World And the reason which Mezerai alledges for it is very remarkable It was says he not only because the Flmeing were at that time in a close Friendship with England upon the score of Trade but out of the particular hatred which they bare the French The Cittizens of Bourdeaux revolted against Charles the VII for the same Reason having let the English in among them And the same Historian assures us that to keep in Subjection that City which the interests of Commerce and reciprocal Marriages had link'd with England the King was constrain'd to banish Forty Gentlemen and Citizens whom he most suipected and to build two Citadels besides the better to keep the Town in awe Moreover in the Year 1528. Henry the VIII having made an Agreement with Francis I. that the King of England should attack the Emperour Charles the V. in the Low-Countries Mezerai observes that the King perceiving that his Subjects had an Aversion to any War against the Flemings because it would ruin their Trade chose rather to lend his Consederate Thirty Thousand Crowns a Month and for the renewing of Trade negotiated a Truce between the Low-Countries France and England It would be an easie thing to find more examples of this Union in all Ages but to spare our selves the trouble of searching so far off it shall suffice to observe that the Vnited Provinces did not arrive to that high degree of Puissance which renders them now a Terror to their Enemies but by the means of their Trade nor did they begin to Flourish in Trade till they had shaken off the Yoke of Spain and that they came to be strictly in League with England And it was chiefly by means of the succour which Queen Elizabeth sent them that they supported their growing Union against the Formidable Forces of the House of Austria and though James the I. did not second them so Vigorously whether it were that he had too much business at home or that the Valour and Alliances of Prince Maurice supply'd that defect nevertheless it may be said that if England had been their Enemy instead of being their Ally that Valiant Prince would have found it a far more difficult task to have supported himself and defended his Country against Strangers abroad and Factions at home Although Great Britain no way depends upon the Vnited Provinces as being an Island that is able to subsist of its self without borrowing from her Neighbours yet I think she has no wrong done her in averring that the succour which she afforded Holland turn'd to her own profit For as the Hollanders utterly expell'd the Portugueses and Spaniards out of the Indies so the impairing the Power of the latter did not a little contribute to aggrandize the English in America and to cause their Trade to Flourish in Europe It is also very probable that if Philip the II. had not been so embroyl'd as he was with the Vnited Provinces he would have ventur'd a Second Invasion of England Nor would Queen Elizabeth been able to have reform'd and govern'd her Kingdom so peaceably as she did after the Destruction of the Invincible Armada and indeed never was the Trade of the Island in a more flourishing condition then under the Reign of that Queen James the I. confirm'd the Alliance and found the benefit of it as long as he liv'd And Charles the I. was so far from being ignorant of how great consequence it was for the two Nations to continue inseparably United that he gave one of his Daughters to William the II. Father to his present Majesty After all the English have experienc'd the importance of having good Neighbours and indeed according to all outward Appearances had there been no Hollanders nor any Prince of Orange in the World the Religion Laws and Liberties would have run a great hazard of being utterly abolish'd or at least the strugling for them would have cost a vast Effusion of Blood The first that broke the happy Union of these two Nations was the Vsurper Cromwel out of his hatred to the House of the Stewarts The two Brothers Sons of Charles the I. during their Exile suffer'd their heads to be intoxicated with a necessity of Absolute Power looking upon it as the only Remedy to prevent the frequent Revolutions in England Now when this Fancy had taken deep root it was easie to perswade them that the Protestant Religion or New upstart Opinions as the Roman Catholics call them nourish in the People this same Spirit of change and inconstancy For that they who will be troubling their heads to examine whether their Bishops and Pastors do not delude and mislead them will as soon take the same Liberty to enquire into the Actions of their Kings and will not suffer them to invade their Priviledges nor to violate the Conditions of their Coronation-Oath That the only means to bring about their ends upon the English and to free the Crown from depending upon Parliaments was to introduce Popery by degrees into the Island for
Opposition from any Person whatever Generally before such Revolutions can be brought about Slaughter Executions and Banishment depopulate the Land here was no such thing to be heard of 'T is true the French News Books tell us of several English Fugitive Lords But what is it drives them out of the Land either their own pannic Fears or the remorse of their own Consciences The Roman Catholics live as much at ease and undisturb'd under the Regency of William Henry as under the Reign of James the II. And I dare say 't will be their own fault if they do not enjoy a greater Tranquility then yet they do The English are as good natur'd and compassionate as they are constant and couragious so that there needs no more then to be an Object of Pity to disarm their Fury Tho' we had no more then this general knowledge of the Life of the Prince of Orange we ought not to wonder that Heaven has so signally prosper'd his Arms or that the English have Proclaim'd both him and his Illustrious Consort King and Queen But there would be sufficient Cause to be surpriz'd that England or Holland either should enclose within their own Bosoms Persons so distrustful or such aligning and ill minded Malecontents that should refuse to rejoyce sincerely at this Happiness It will hardly be believ'd there are any such at least among the Protestants of the two Nations and what is here said is only to confirm and fortify those whom the Fallacious Arguments of our Enemies may cause to waver and sit loose for a time But when it shall be consider'd that their most Serene and Sacred Majesties have undergon so many severe and tedions Tryals that they have all their life time observ'd an equal Conduct and that they are arriv'd to Years of mature deliberation without derogating from themselves 't is a sign that their Souls and Minds are sufficiently endu'd with constancy and that it is imposible they should be deprav'd by Prosperity It signifies nothing to say that a Powerful King is always formidable to a free People for he is only so to the Enemies of his Dominions He must be a very Feeble Prince as well in Mind as in Body whom the Grandees govern as they please themselves and according to their different Interests while they buz him in the Ears sometimes with the noise of one Faction sometimes of another and make use of his Sacred Name as the Shuttlecock of their own Passions and of the Royal Authority to the Ruin of the Subject He must needs be a very Superstitious Prince that suffers his Head to be fill'd with the Dotages of an Idle Monk and believes he offers a pleasing Oblation to God in Sacrificing to the Avarice of an insatiable Society or by abandoning to the fury of the Souldiery the most sound and solid Party of his Kingdom He is but a faint and impotent Prince who is scar'd and frighted at the sight of the slightest danger and has neither Credit nor Authority to suppress the threatning disorder He is a Vicious Fantastical and for the least Offence implacable Prince who in the Transports of his Anger or the furious Heat of his Wine permits his hands to be clear'd of his most Faithful and Prudent Servants He is a Prince addicted strangely to his Pleasures who suffers himself to be guided by his Confidents and his Mistresses and oppresses his People with exactions to gratify their Vanity These are the Princes of whom the People are to be afraid But I would fain know what cause they have to fear a Wise a Prudent a Laborious Indefatigable Prince Religious without Superstition who has almost an equal esteem for all the Societies of Protestantism nor any bigotted hatred against the Roman Catholics A daring couragious Prince who understands how to shun Danger and yet ready to expose himself when necessity requires a Prince so regular in his Manners and in all the Conduct of his Life that the Word Intreague is hardly known at his Court Such a one according to the public Voice of General Fame is William Henry Prince of Orange now King of England Scotland France and Ireland But this Prince is too Powerful they cry as if a Prince could be too potent when he only makes use of his Authority to do good Since the ruin of the Roman Empire in the West never was Monarch more Powerful then Charlemain yet never did Europe Flourish more never was it more happy then under his Reign he it was that converted and polish'd the Government of Pagan and Barbarian Germany who tam'd the Pride of the Lombards and set bounds to the Ambition of the Saracens and by his Victories gave an Opportunity to the Christians who were retir'd to the Mountains of Biscay and Asturia to enlarge their Dominions in the Plains and by degrees to chase the Infidels out of Spain He it was that restor'd Learning and the knowledge of the Liberal Sciences and made the greatest part of those Laws which to this day uphold Justice and good Order in the Western Parts Nevertheless this Prince whose Empire extended from the Brittish Ocean and the Frontiers of Navarre to the Danaw and the Tuscan Sea never undertook any considerable Enterprize without the Advice of his Parliaments and Counsel of his Barons and the consent of the Assembly of his Estates Being fully perswaded that the greatest Power of a King and the strongest Bulwark which he can oppose against his Enemies is the Affection of his Subjects and that then they are to be govern'd with least trouble when he suffers Equity and Justice to Reign Had the Successors to Charlemain but had wit and courage equal to Him his Empire had not been dismember'd into so many peicemeals of which not any one having force sufficient to repel the Irruptions of the Northern People Europe was soon after cover'd with Blood and over-run with Ignorance and Barbarism Therefore it is Apparent by what has been said that a Prince is not to be fear'd by his Subjects for that reason only because he is Powerful and that there is very little Probability that ever King William the II. should ever make a wrong use of his Authority how great so ever it be that the Parliaments of Great Brittain and their High and Mightinesses intrust him withal However though there be nothing to be fear'd on his side yet perhaps the Constitution of the two Estates which now he governs with Supream Controul is of such a Nature that they can never remain United Which is that which we are next to examin It is objected that People of the same profession rarely agree that the English and Hollanders are addicted to Navigation that the Sea is the common Fountain and Source of their Wealth that the two Nations have been at Wars for above these twenty or thirty Years as well in the Old as New World and all upon the score of Trade that it is very improbable they should forget their
THE Happy Union OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND OR THE Advantagious CONSEQUENCES OF THE ALLIANCE OF THE CROWN of GREAT BRITAIN WITH THE States General of the Vnited Provinces Licensed May the 20th 1689. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily 1689. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury My Lord THE Happy Consequences of a settl'd Alliance and Union between their Majesties of Great Britain and the States of the United Provinces are that which these few Sheets have undertak'n to make out as being necessary for the safety and repose of both in particular and of the Protestant Interest in general How zealously Your Lordship has always Labour'd the Advancement of the Latter and how Instrumental you have been to promote the Former is not unknown to all the World For this reason the Author of this Treatise really intended for the good of both Nations is so Ambitious as he is to appear in the English Dialect under Your Lordship's Patronage and Protection from the Censures of those who make it their business to disturb the Public Tranquility both of Church and State Not doubting through Your Lordships Favour of the same Reception here as the Original had in the place that gave it Birth Yet humbly craving on the other side Your Lordships Pardon for the Confidence of this Address which speaks however the High Esteem and Honour that all Men who value the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of their Country have for Your Person but more especially of Your most Humble and Most Obedient Servant R. W. The Necessity of a Union between the ENGLISH and HOLLANDERS USually we judge by the Event of the Uprightness or Injustice of human Actions and of the Prudence or Indiscretion of those that Act. The Philosophers take upon them to make their Comments upon these inconsiderate Judgments That vulgar Opinion carries it That is to say that they who prosper pass for Wise and many times for Vertuous Men they who are unfortunate are lookt upon as imprudent and sometimes which is worse as wicked and impious A Kingdom oppress'd with exactions becomes enrag'd against the Contrivers of their Misery and revolts against those that Officiate in the Tyrannies of the Court. Therefore Forces are sent to quell and dissipate the mutinous Multitude their Ringleaders are seiz'd and put to Death by all the most infamous and cruel ways of Execution nor do they grant any Act of Oblivion to the rest but by charging them with new Taxes and Impositions And as a Consummation of their Misfortunes their Posterity attribute all their Miseries to them and Historians range them in the Number of Factious and Rebels justly depriv'd of their Liberties and their Ancient Priviledges For these thirty Years the Kings of England have labour'd to render themselves Absolute they have gradually dispoyl'd the Cities and Corporations of their Charters and made it their business to introduce Popery into their three Kingdoms well knowing that the Alteration of the Establish'd Religion trailes after it the Change of the Government and the Laws and no less assur'd that of all the Christian Sects the Roman is that which best agrees with Arbitrary Dominion and is most proper to inspire blind Obedience The English weary'd with their Sufferings privately call in the Prince of Orange and that great Hero was receiv'd into the Island as their Tutelar-Angel but with so much Order and Unanimity that the suddain Commotion was taken rather for a public Rejoycing then a Rebellious Insurrection Some make hast to meet him others set up his Standard while the King disturb'd in Mind perplex'd and astonish'd withdraws without striking a stroak and punishes himself with a voluntary Exile for having followed the Advice of his Evil Counsellors All Europe admires so suddain a Revolution The Protestants lookt upon him as a Prodigy of Heaven sent for the relief of Truth oppress'd The moderate Catholics acknowledge the Justice of the Prince of Oranges Designs applaud the mildness which he exercises toward their Brethren and impute the unkindness which he has for their Religion at this Conjucture to the violent Counsels of the Jesuits The Politicians of both Parties look upon the Success as the Effect of a Transcendent Genius which Heaven has been pleas'd to Favour whether to set Enslav'd Europe at Liberty or whether it were to shew that Prudence and Mildness are more assur'd and efficacious means to attain their Ends then the Sanguinary Maxims of Matchiavel Lastly Persons of the clearest Intellects and most perspicacious insight into Affairs belive that nothing can be above the reach of that Prince who has shewn himself able to carry on for many Years a Design of so great Importance unknown to his Enemies or any other who had no occasion to be interested therein A Prince who has United several Soveraign Potentates against France who has so well managed the Inclination and Humours of three Kingdoms of several distant Plantations and a Powerful Commonwealth for a long time harass'd by various Factions as to soder them into Unanimity A Prince in a Word who after he has taken time to reflect and consider puts his Resolutions in Execution with a courage and swiftness beyond imagination 'T is true the Sloath the lgnorance and the Necessity which constrains some Men to submit to a present Conjuncture and to side with the strongest Party are without question the real sources of those applauses which are given to those whom happy Success has exalted above others Add to this that how desirous so ever Men may be to ingratiate themselves with such Persons yet they are always willing to act conformably to their own Understandings So that Self-Love being willing to reconcile these two Passions easily perswades us that our Flatteries are just and that the Grandees are beholding to their Merit for their advancement Moreover it is most certain that these successful Persons are many times highly worthy of Honour and that Prudence and Indiscretion are the most usual causes of the good or bad Success of Men of which they who only understand the most known Circumstances of the Revolution of England may convince themselves with little trouble But if Men are so quick in judging of things done on the other side they are so slow to determin when they ought to Act that their mistiming Execution or their Wavering and Hesitation becomes the disappointment of the greatest and most noble Designs They whose Interest it is to oppose them fill their Minds with pannic Fears or desperate Mistrusts and Jealousies and in regard that the number of Persons timorous and jealous are very numerous and for that idle and imaginary Fear works a more signal Effect upon such then a hope and assurance grounded upon Reason therefore that a Man may act with Prudence upon such occasions it behoves him to take a convenient time to examin the Circumstances of Time of Places and Persons and then to resolve and pursue his design by the
lessen the Authority of the Church of England 'T is a strange thing that the Roman Catholics who hardly know their own Religion should pretend to teach us ours They have been told a thousand times that the Bishops and Presbyterians of England differ only in so slight Ceremonies which are nothing to the Essential part of Divine Worship and that there is more of Obstinacy and Misunderstanding between them then of real Cause of Dispute We have seen at the Hugue for this ten or twelve Years the Princess of Orange now Queen Mary of England repair indifferently sometimes to the Dutch or French Church and sometimes to her own Chappel The Prince no sooner arriv'd at London but he receiv'd the Communion in an Episcopal Church and gave a favourable Reception to the Presbyterian Ministers who went to Congratulate him We see every day several of the Episcopal Party Communicate with the Reformed on this side the Sea and our French and Holland Protestants joyn themselves with the Church of England Yet maugre all this the Romish Doctors would make us believe we are of two Religions And upon the same score because their Religion properly consists only in exterior Pomp in Images Relics Beds Rosaries Holy-water Monks of several Colours and such like Superstitious Exercises and Institutions and that those other things wherein they differ from the Protestants are only the Inventions of Italian Policy they imagin it to be the same with ours Whence it comes to pass that all the Speculative Opinions of our Divines are by those Gentlemen lookt upon as so many All the Confessions of Faith the Liturgies the Ceremonies in the Administration of the Sacraments the Varieties of Discipline the Orders and Habits of the Preachers if our Adversaries were so to be believ'd among us make so many different Sects For this reason it was that a certain Prelate who believ'd himself to be very witty has made a History of the Variations of our Churches and he had so great a desire to augment the Number that he bethought himself of ascribing to us as many Relics as he found Systems of our Ministers upon the Apocalyps the most obscure Book of all the New Testament Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the Headstrong Obstinacy of some of Ours and the remains of Ignorance and the Spirit of Antichristianism that will not yet out of the Bones of some that Envy our Unity have given occasion to these Calumnies The Western Church has mourn'd for above these ten Centuries under the Darkness and Yoke of Popery During which time there was Opportunity and Advantage enough to deepen the Superstitions and Impressions of Popery under so wicked a Master Add to this that since the Reformation we have not had a Prince whose Knowledg Piety and Puissance have been able to reconcile our Differences The Great Gustavus had conceiv'd such a Design in his Mind but he vanish'd like a flash of Lightning in the midst of his Victories It seems that God has reserv'd this Honour for William the III. and this Happiness till our Time God has sent this Prince into the World in a Country where the Spirit of Toleration has pass'd from the Magistrates to the most Learned Ministers He has call'd him to a Kingdom replenish'd with Learned and Pious Bishops who have for a long time preserv'd their Flocks in Peace by their gentleness and moderation The Prince at hi first Coming to the Government found Factions in the Church as well as in the State He has appeas'd both the one and the other The Persecution of the Reformed in France has open'd the Eyes of all their Brethren and has shew'd them the necessity of guarding themselves from the Fury of the Jesuits All these Conjunctures in my Opinion presage a happy Union of the Protestants As to what is said that the Prince of Orange is more absolute in the Vnited Provinces then any of his Predecessors is an Equivocation For ever since the Establishment of the Commonwealth the Hollanders have always born a very great Affection to the House of Orange but true it is that ever since William the Silent who laid the first Foundations of their Liberty this State never had a Prince whom they lov'd more then William Henry The reason is because he enter'd upon the Government at a time when the Hollanders seem'd to be ruin'd beyond recovery and yet he restor'd them to their former Grandeur However notwithstanding this signal Service done them the dread of War and certain vain Suspitions were the Cause that there was great Opposition made against a Levie of sixteen Thousand Men which the Prince most earnestly press'd for as better understanding the Designs of France then any of the Burgomasters of Amsterdam The Event demonstrated that never was any Opposition made upon such bad Grounds nor more Prejudicial to the State For Lewis the XIV boasted in the Edict which revokes that of Nantes that he had not made the Truce but to Exterminate the Protestants out of his Kingdom James the II. took that time to perplex the Church of England and to invade the Liberties of his People At length France threw off her Mask and broke the Truce as soon as she thought she could do it with Advantage That long Train of Delusions justify'd the Prince's Innocence shew'd that he had no other Aim in all his Designs but the Preservation of Liberty and the Protestant Religion and gain'd him the Hearts of all the Hollanders And I would fain know how long it has been a Crime for a Governour to win the Love of those who are under his Conduct Thus you may see how the first Prince William render'd himself Absolute and how the same Power came to be transferr'd to his Successors not by Usurpation but by preserving the Liberty of the Republic The form of Government is still the same the Elections are made by the usual Suffrages the Resolutions taken for the raising of Money making Peace and War Affairs of Trade Justice and Civil Government are all determin'd in the Assembly of Estates according to the Ancient Customs and we are ready to make it appear that for these fifteen Years last past that William Henry has sate at the Helm he has acted nothing but according to the Laws and by vertue of the power annex'd to his high Authority and Command As to what is reported that the Prince engag'd the States General in his Expedition for England without imparting to them his Design is a Calumny of his Enemies which has no other foundation but the Malice of those who are enrag'd that he did not make a discovery of that Fortunate Enterprize at such a time that they might have had more leisure to prepare to obstruct him And it is an easie thing to convince all Intelligent Persons of the Folly of this Objection Suppose this Revolution had been the Effect of long deliberation it was necessary before all other things 1. To be assur'd of the Inclinations