instanc'd in History I must confess the Character and Account that Learned Gentleman gives of the King meets so close with those Transactions of his Life that has hapned since that one would be almost tempted to think the Book had either been written or at least lick'd over again after this late Revolution in England was brought about But so far was it from being so that it 's committed now to the Press just as it came from the Author's Pen several years before this Revolution was either thought upon or the least occasion for it and that without his Knowledg or Review or the least Alteration Addition or Deduction of any one single sentence through the whole In reading these Curious Memoirs and the part His Majesty has in them it brought to my mind a Book of Monsieur Aubery's printed at Paris in French Twelve Years ago with Approbation of the French King entituled Memoirs pour servir a l'Histoire de Holland Memoirs to give light to the History of Holland In which there is a Character given of the present King in a few words that rather outdoes than falls short of Sir William Temple's And because Monsieur Aubery is both an Author of great account and much more that the very Design of the Book it self is mighty unfavourable to the Family of Orange and he as much an Enemy to the present King as can well consist with the Temper of an Historian I beg leave to do the ungrateful part of a Translator as to some Passages in it Let us hear therefore what a French-man a Roman-Catholick an Enemy of the then Prince of Orange and of his House and an Idolater of the present French King tells us of the Affairs of Holland during the last War and His Majesty's part therein and withal let us pardon an Air of Vanity that naturally attends a French Author when he writes of his King In Page 300 of these Memoirs he has these words as near as I can give them in English This young Prince meaning the present King then Prince of Orange has from his Infancy given the greatest Marks of his Reservedness and Moderation His Prudence augments as he grows up in years And all that pretend to know any thing of Merit that are acquainted with him do agree in this That never Prince has given the world greater hopes of himself He endured with the profoundest Dissimulation pardon the Expression from an Enemy the Injuries of the Barnevalt Faction restored in the Persons of the two De Wits waiting with a Patience and Taciturnity even beyond that of his Great Grandfather Prince William of Orange the Advantages of Time and a favourable occasion for his own Re-establishment for being deprived by a solemn Edict of all the great Employments of his Family after the sudden Death of his Father he came to be re-established in them by a contrary Edict the beginning of this War He was obliged for his Restoration to France which having about seven years ago made the greatest Conquests that has been heard of in so short a time the most part of the Frontier Towns of the Vnited Provinces and many of their Capitals Utrecht and Zutphen among others rendred themselves at the first view of our Troops Tho those Places were provided of great Garisons yet being composed of Officers and Soldiers without skill the King meaning the French saw himself Master of above Forty Places in less than Two Months time and found himself so overwhelm'd with Success not only above his Hopes but Wishes that he might say with Caesar Veni Vidi Vici I came I saw I overcame These Thunderclaps that presag'd yet others worse to come and which put the Hollanders to the greatest Consternation gave occasion to the People to complain of the ill Conduct of the De Witts and furnished a just Cause for the Friends of the House of Orange to say That there was none capable to sustain their Tottering State nor to defend them against that Powerful Enemy but the Princes of that Family And that as they had protected them before against the Tyranny of Spain there was no others able to save them from the Thunder of France The Grandmother of the present Prince a Woman of a Masculine Courage that had endured with the greatest impatience the low Ebb of that House which she had once seen in the greatest Splendour took pains to gather together all the best Friends and Dependants of the Name of Nassau which were very numerous These People displeased at their being turned out of all the Employments in their State and to see them in the hands of the Children of the Burgomasters and being back'd with the Fury of all the rest that lov'd their Countrey and saw themselves under the hazard of present Destruction by a Victorious Army in the bowels of their Countrey they came as to their last Sanctuary to restore the present Prince to the Possession of all the Dignities his Ancestors had enjoyed that is of Captain and Admiral General and Stadtholder whicb were thereupon entail'd on his Family for ever by a Solemn and Vnanimous Decree This same Author comes afterwards to tell us that before this re-establishment of the Prince of Orange The Holland Troops were such sort of creatures that places wherein there were Five Thousand Foot and Eight Hundred Horse in Garison would render themselves Prisoners of War at the first approach of the French without making the least Resistance And that Fifty Reisters of Munster would put ordinarily to Flight Three Hundred of the Dutch Horse that fled before them as so many Sheep before a Wolf But Page 311. Returning to speak of the present King and his Part in the War after his Re-establishment he expresses himself thus The Prince of Orange saw himself at the Age of Twenty One Years at the head of an Army as his Great Grandfather William of Orange had been at the same Age under the Emperor Charles the 5th And in the whole course of this War he made appear to the World so much Conduct and so much Bravery in a great many Rancounters Battels and Seiges as certainly far surmount the Actions of his Renowned Ancestors who had set a Copy for Two Hundred Years together for the greatest Captains to imitate If he had not had the unhappiness to be born in the Age of Lewis le Grand whose Power Genius and Fortune admits of no stop This Young Hero continued He with a few Troops hastily Levied and but ill Disciplin'd had the Courage to make head against this great Monarch in the height of his Fortune And his Conduct and Personal Valour in Battel made Victory for some hours incline to his scale till at last he had the consolation not to have Yielded but to the Greatest Prince on Eartb And it may be justly said of him tho an Enemy That nothing but so Glorious a Sun could lessen the Rays of this Rising Star Thus far Monsieur Aubrey and
AN APPENDIX TO Mercurius Reformatus OR THE NEW OBSERVATOR By the same AUTHOR LONDON Printed for RICHARD BALDWIN near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCII AN APPENDIX TO MERCURIUS REFORMATUS OR The New Observator WHO the Author of the NEW OBSERVATOR is the World comes to know with a witness A Paper I always blush'd to own and which hitherto has past only under a bare suspicion of being mine an unexpected Accident has now oblig'd me to acknowledg before one of the most August Assemblies upon earth I find it 's expected I should continue to Write this Paper both upon the account it has not wanted Friends at Home and Abroad that have thought it has done some Service to the Government and that the Honourable Speaker of the House of Commons was pleased to lay no Commands upon me to discontinue it when I was before Them But upon second thoughts and mature deliberation I hope I may be forgiven to lay it down for once lest some one time or another in tracing Truth too near I may come to have my Teeth struck out Yet even the fear of this should not deter me if by all that can occur to me from the present Juncture of Affairs of Europe I did not think Their Majesties Throne was setled beyond a possibility of being shaken and therefore they come to stand in need of no man's Pen far less mine to assert their Right Tho I do not repent me to have written the New Observator yet I have found too late that I have done it under a hateful and invidious Title The Gentleman that began both the Thing and the Name in the Two last Reigns has justly entail'd upon the very word Observator an indelible stain that must needs stick to the softest and justest Pen that shall ever attempt to write again under that Name The Outrages done by him to whole Bodies and Professions of Men and to Parliaments themselves could never have been past over in any Reign but that of Two Princes that shew the World every day They scorn to establish Their Throne upon any other Basis but that of an unimitable Mercy It 's no wonder then that I 'm asham'd to have borrowed from a Paper so justly abominated by all Men of Temper a Title to any thing I wrote Tho at the same time I must say It was rather the Fault of the Bookseller I first employed than mine There is one thing more that puts me to the blush about this Manner of Writing The Gentleman that first begun it was set a-work by the late Instruments of our design'd Slavery as a Tool to lash or turn into Ridicule every Person and Thing that then stood or was afterwards like to stand in opposition to the Arbitrary Designs then on foot Here was another Misfortune like to overtake any body that should Write for a Government in time coming And they who were not acquainted with the Author of the New Observator might be I am afraid inclinable to believe him a Tool in this Government as he that wrote the Old one was in the last Which is so far a mistake that I here declare to all the world Neither any of the King's Ministers nor any about Him did put me at first upon Writing neither did they nor any body else give me Instructions Advice or Assistance in the continuing of it far less did I write for Place or Pension but out of Zeal to a Settlement that only could make these Three Nations happy I have the honour to serve a Prince that neither uses nor needs such kind of Tools All his Actions carry along with them such Impressions of Honour as his very Enemies are not proof against And there is one thing remarkable in Him that perhaps cannot be trac'd in History Never Prince has attain'd to be more Popular and never Prince has used less Art to be so I leave these Papers to take their fate and shall make no other Apology for the Faults and Imperfections that may be found in them than that most of them were written in a hurry of Business and very seldom had I time to read them over after I wrote them If any Party of Men think themselves therein hardly treated impute it to something in my Nature that 's diametrically opposite to Bigotism for if the extent of my Charity in point of Religion were known perhaps somr of the Bigots of the Age would be ready to stone me And I had rather err in the Excess than in the Want of so necessary a Cement of Human Society I am afraid I have said too much of those Papers with relation to the Author And being I am to take my leave of this kind of Writing I beg leave to subjoin a few things with reference to the Papers themselves and to the subject-matter of them The present Circumstances of Affairs in Christendom We are now in the Third Year of a War in which most Nations of Europe are some one way or another concerned but none more than these Three Kingdoms It is now that the Quarrel betwixt France and Us is not the Re-inthroning of the late King James for every body knows that that Prince's Interest is quite out of doors with the French Court But it 's a Quarrel of a far other nature that takes in all that a Nation can wish to regain or preserve In one word either we must bring France to a condition not to be able to hurt us or we must resolve to see our selves despoyled of our Glory our Strength at Sea our Trade and our Plantations in America if not to be reduced to the worst of Fates even that of receiving Laws from a severe Conqueror The last Summer the French play'd the Defensive part both at Sea and Land But there 's reason to believe this Winter will not pass without some Remarkable Attempt in War upon their side and whether that be so or not we may assure our selves it will not pass without the mightiest efforts that Crown ever made to pave a way for a Peace with some of our Allies Spain probably will be the last that ever will give ear to an Accommodation with France but if the French can but gain any one of the Confederates be sure England will be the last they will make Peace with It 's England that the French King has his eye upon if not to make it a Conquest at least to render it insignificant He only wishes a Peace with the Confederates that he may turn his whole Force against this Island And his Emissaries give it out already in some Foreign Courts That they may assure themselves of a Peace with France on what terms they please all that he requires of them being but to ask and have The French stick at nothing that can any-wise favour their Design upon England They spare no Cost to get Intelligence of our Affairs and they have fallen upon such unerring Methods to obtain it that they make
no scruple now to brag openly of it It is no wonder they should for they have had time to bring the Art of Bribing among us to Perfection having practised it upon us to our eternal Reproach for the space of near Three whole successive Reigns The French Court has it self taken notice of the great difference in matter of Intelligence of the Affairs of England betwixt what it was at the time of Cromwel's Government and in the Reigns which have hapned since And I remember a late Author when treating of this subject gives a Reason that I leave to the Reader to judge of without adding my own Opinion about it In Cromwel 's time says he men served their Countrey and the Government out of a Principle of Religion which Principle tho in it self mixed with a Thousand Enthusiasms and false Lights had yet this natural good effect attending it That to discover the least Secret of the Government they lookt upon as a Crime God would never pardon And thence it was continues he That Cardinal Mazarine was pleased often to confess he had more difficulty to get Intelligence of Cromwel 's Designs than of all the other Princes and States in Europe together The Notions of Religion tho never so mistaken are the surest Tyes which possibly can bind men to the Interest of their Countrey And thence it is that the wisest people among the Ancients endeavoured always to make the Rules of the Civil Government depend on their Principles of Religion To this purpose I have often reflected in my mind on the great Cunning and Politick in the frame of the Mahometan Religion which was so contrived as it could scarce have failed of extending it self to that prodigious Growth that it has now attained in the world Mahomet in his System of Divinity tho in a great many other things strangely ridiculous yet in the Methods to propagate both it and his Empire together fell upon the Luckiest Principle that ever was invented viz. That it was the chiefest and most meritorious part of Religion to extend the Mahometan Law by Force of Arms and that whoever had the hap to dye either in the Propagation or Defence thereof was sure of Paradise It was this Notion alone that gave Wings to the Follies of Mahomet which has since overspread so considerable a part of the three great Cantons of the habitable world And while this Political Maxim of Religion continues in its full force it 's next to an impossibility that ever the Princes of the Mahometan Religion can be brought to any irrecoverable ebb of Fortune by those of a contrary Persuasion The Secresy that visibly attends the Measures of France may be partly owing to a Principle of Religion as well as of Honour As they abhor the Baseness of betraying their Master's Secrets so they fear the Sin of it And thus both Honour and Religion takes place with them But how far both of these are wanting with some who pretend to a more Refined System of Theology I leave it as a melancholly Subject I love not to rip up at this time Tho France during the late Usurpation of Cromwell was greatly to seek in point of Intelligence of the English Affairs as I have said yet Cromwell was not so as to theirs And I remember to have seen an Account of no less Sum than Ten Thousand Pounds expended for meer Intelligence from France for the space but of Fifteen Months audited and allowed by Cromwell himself with this very Remark at the foot of it All well bestowed written with his own hand I am the less astonish'd at the success of the French Emissaries and Pensioners in England when I consider how far a dexterous Spy can insinuate himself into the Secrets of a Court. Of this I could give several remarkable Instances from both Ancient and Modern History But I shall only mention one in the time of King Charles's Exile There was a Gentleman employed by Cromwell as a Spy about the King who had the Wit and Dexterity to get into his most Secret Transactions and as he was wont afterwards to say himself into his very heart In this unsuspected and unlimited Intimacy did he continue for some years about the King and might have done it longer if an unexpected Accident joined to a piece of Inadvertency in Cromwell had not occasioned the Period of his Intriegue and Life together Which was thus The late Duke of Richmond having for a considerable time preserved himself in the good opinion of the Protector begg'd leave at length to make a step over Sea for his Health and Diversion as he pretended Cromwell agreed to his Request but with this condition That he should not see his Cousin Charles Stuart as he was pleased to call the King The Duke coming to Brussels and being resolved to wait on his Prince and withal to to save his Credit with Cromwell was introduced in the most secret manner several times to the King in the dark At his return Cromwell pretended to ask the Duke only in jest If he had been with Charles Stuart who answering him That he had never seen him the other replied in a Passion It was no wonder for the Candles were put out This unexpected answer put the Duke of Riehmond to write to the King That he must needs be betrayed by some in the greatest Intimacy about him and at last the Traytor was accidentally discovered in the very moment he was writing to Cromwell an account of the Duke of Richmond's Letter to the King and was thereupon shot to death upon the place It 's more than time to shut up this Subject and yet I know not but the Reader may forgive me to mention further a remarkable Passage that hapned upon this Reply of Cromwell's to the Duke of Richmond which as it was never yet committed to Print for any thing I know so it carries with it one of the truest Idea's we can ever attain of that Great Man's Character Scarce was the Discourse I mentioned betwixt Cromwell and the Duke of Richmond ended but the first found he had committed a dangerous mistake in letting the Duke know how much he was acquainted with King Charles's Secrets and thereby exposing his Spy to the narrowest Enquiry could be made upon it The fear of this obliged him to go strait to Secretary Thurlo's Chamber tho then very late where with the greatest concern of mind he told him what a wrong step he had made in his Discourse with Richmond and how much he fear'd the Person he employed as his Spy about the King naming him at the same time might run the hazard of being discovered through so unlucky a piece of Inadvertence When Cromwell came first in he had both enquired and was told by Thurlo there was no body but them two in the room But while Cromwell was walking up and down in the Chamber in the restlessness of mind this affair had put him in he espies one of
Jurieu and Monsieur Bale But some months thereafter the Debate growing hot betwixt them the one affirming the other denying with equal passion It fell out that Monsieur Bale among other Arguments brought by him to prove his Innocence adduced that Passage in the New Observator wherein the Author gave a hint of the Advis aux Refugés being concerted with the French Court and of his saying He knew the Author of it And thence concluded That since the Author of the Observator knew the Author of the Avis aux Refugeés and that Monsieur Bale and the Author of the Observator was not acquainted together Therefore Monsieur Bale was not the Author of the Avis aux Refugeés This Argument of Monsieur Bale's and some Papers written since by Monsieur Jurieu obliges me to give here a true Account of what I know of this Affair leaving these two learned Persons to make what use of it on either side they think fit And this I do the more willingly that Monsieur Jurieu has been pleased in several Letters to Persons of Note in England to signify his grief for some mistaken Expressions he had us'd towards me in one of his late Books on that score This Book Avis aux Refugeés had scarce appeared in France and was not yet seen in England when from a Worthy and Noble Person in France since in Chains for his Religion I had an account both of the Book it self of its being concerted with the French Court and that every body in Paris looked upon Monsieur Pellison as the Author of it In return of a letter of mine in answer to his my Friend told me That according to my desire he had employed one that was intimately acquainted with Monsieur Pellison to inquire of him the truth of that common report And that Monsieur Pellison was pleas'd to allow the Person that spoke to him to think him the Author though he would not positively confess he was so adding that it was not fit for him or for the King's service to acknowledge that Book publickly to be his though he were the Author of it In short this Worthy Gentleman gave me both his own and the universally received opinion at Paris That Monsieur Pellison was the Author of the Avis aux Refugées and backed it with a great many probable arguments needless here to be mentioned The Book it self appearing here in London a little after I took occasion to mention what my Friend told me about it and withal upon his Information said I believe I knew the Author meaning Monsieur Pellison with whom I was a little acquainted at Paris Nine Years ago In one word I was the first that ever mentioned in Print That that Book was concerted with the French Court or that it was written by a French Emissary And was very glad to find so Learned and Fam'd a Man as Monsieur Jeurieu to Print a Book some Months thereafter designedly to prove at length what I had but hinted at in an Observator though at the same time was sorry that any French Protestant much more one of Monsieur Bale's parts should be accused for it And this is all I know of an affair that has employed the Press in Holland for near a Year together The other Passage I think my self obliged to clear is about a Letter from King James the First to Doctor Abbot concerning the Canons of Bishop Overals Convocation of which Letter I publish'd an exact Copy in one of the Observators That Learned Dr. Sherlock's late Book of The Case of the Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers Stated and Resolved c. that laid such weight on this Convocation-Book was the occasion of my making some Reflections both upon the Convocation it self and the reasons of its being call'd of its medling with so nice points as the Rights of Kings and why the Canons made therein were never inforc'd with the Royal Assent Several Pamphlets written against Dr. Sherlock since that time has endeavour'd to lessen the Credit of this Letter to Dr. Abbot And some have been so good-natur'd as to question both the truth of it and the veracity of the Author that has oblig'd the World with so important a Paper Though I owe no kindness to some People that have importun'd me on this score Nor shall take any other notice of a personal reflection against me in one of their Papers of my being forc'd to flee my Countrey in the last Reign than to confess it was true and that I glory in having chose to be overwhelm'd in the ruins of my Countrey rather than to have any share in the Causes of them Tho at the same time I must tell that Gentleman I had as great offers from the Late King as any of my quality ever had if I would have accepted them And that I came not to serve the present King out of meer necessity notwithstanding of my being ruin'd in the two last Reigns Since my good Fortune rather than my Merit procured me about the same time an honourable Call from a Crown'd Head abroad to one of the best Posts that a person of my Profession could wish For which so undeserved a favour I shall ever retain the profoundest Veneration and Gratitude to that Generous Prince that offer'd it me However love to truth and the desires of some Eminent Persons both in Church and State to whom I have caus'd it to be shewn has prevail'd with me to leave the Original Letter with Mr. Baldwin for ten Days time together just after the Publishing of this Paper in order to be seen in his hands by all that please to call for it This is one trouble more that for the sake of the Publick must be put upon a Man that has in all times been firm to the interest of England and that has suffered more since this Revolution for Printing Books he thought was written for the Government than all the Booksellers in London have done for Books written against it Thus have I done with this Appendix having written it in a hurry of business and under the dismal apprehensions of the greatest disaster that can befall me on earth And tho I trouble the World with no more Observators yet I promise from time to time in some other way and under some other Title to serve my King and Countrey with my Pen when any emergency falls out that requires it FINIS BOOKS Sold by Richard Baldwin THE First Second Third and Fourth Volumes of Mercurius Reformatus Or the New Observator Containing Reflections upon the most Remarkable Events falling out from time to time in Europe and more particularly in England Christianissimus Christianandus Or Reason for the Reduction of France to a more Christian State in Europe By Marchimam Needham A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammer whereby the Learner may attain in few Months to Speak and Write French Correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is Dark Superfluous and Deficient in other Grammers is Plain Short and methodically supplied Also very useful to Strangers that are desirous to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is added a Short but very Exact English Grammar By Peter Berault Mathematical Magick Or The Wonders that may be perform'd by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning Mechanical Powers Motions Being one of the most Easie Pleasant Useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks Not before Treated of in this Language By J. Wilkins late L. Bishop of Chester The Devout Christian's Preparation for holy Dying Consisting of Ejaculations Prayers Meditations and Hymns adapted to the several States and Conditions of this Life and on the four last Things viz Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Vtrum Horum Or God's Ways of Disposing Kingdoms and some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of them The Royal Flight Or the Conquest of Ireland A New Farce The Folly of Priest-Craft A New Comedy Passive Obedience in Actual Resistance Or Remarks upon a Paper fix'd up in the Cathedral Church of Worcester by Dr. Hicks With Reflections on the present Behaviour of the Rest of the Family The Great Bastard Protector of the Little one Done out of French And for which a Proclamation with a Reward of 5000 Lewedores to discover the Author was publish'd