Universal Monarchies at this day and tho' whole Kingdoms heretofore would not join in a Common Defence whole Europe would now However Ambitious the King of France may be he can never think of so unweildy a Project in which he must not only encounter all England all this Island all these Three Kingdoms but all Europe too I come in the last place to shew That it is not the Interest of the K. of France to attempt to make us a Conquest either for Himself or K. James I would ask but two things to be granted me which I think will be granted by most Men The one is That the King of France tolerably understands his own Interest The other is That he will follow it where he finds it And now I shall proceed to prove That it is not the Interest of France to attempt to make us a Conquest The Unweildiness of the Project is one very good Reason against it Less than One hundred thousand of his best Men cannot make us a Conquest and keep us so and he must only take Possession of the Land and not expect to be Master of the People by reason of our Religion and whoever he sends to be his Lieutenant here will be under great Temptation to revolt from him and set up for himself or become the First Subject of these Kingdoms which we shall be willing to make him and a greater Subject than France has rather than not get rid of the Miseries of a Provincial and be restored to our own Government Consider how much danger the Absolute Power of France will run by a too free intercourse with the few surviving Britains who will acquaint so many of his Soldiers what were the Freedoms of our Land Consider whether France can bear such an Evacuation as is necessary to Make and People us a Province We believe that the Expulsion of the Hugonots let out too much of his People too much of the Vital Blood of France It did so doubtless and a Plantation of our Island would endanger all he has upon the Continent What Neighbor that envies him would not be glad to see him make such an Experiment would not nick the lucky Opportunity and pull back all those Towns and Provinces which he may now much more easily keep than he can gain us Would any Peace any Leagues they can have with him be Proof against such a promising Temptation To attempt the Conquest of these Kingdoms would indeed be grasping at a prodigious Shadow but he would not fail to lose a great deal of real Substance The King of France is not such a Knight-Errant he does not love to venture over much He like Julius Caesar when he had attain'd the Empire loves to make good what he gets and is not like the Macedonian Rambler greedy of difficult and bloody Travels Let the Designs of France be as vast as they will their King is no Madman Augustus and Tiberius who were both skilful in Government are thought by very sensible Men to have neglected Britain out of this wholsom State-Maxim That it was necessary to bound and moderate the Roman Empire It is certain those two Emperors often thought of bounding the Roman Empire and of bringing it into a tenable Compass and it is plain that mighty Empire was at last overthrown by its own Weight and Largeness The Jurisdiction of France is of a prodigious growth for this Age and if the King of France thinks of subduing such a brave and populous Countrey as we are so united as we shall be when we find only the French King's Interest at the bottom of the Plot and so assisted as we shall be by all the Potentates of Europe for their own sakes he will miscarry in the Enterprize and France it self will tumble from its Highth It is a bolder Undertaking than what is recorded of Alexander the Great and thô the King of France should overrun us he would like that Alexander never be able to settle a Government amongst us but his very Victories would shake his own Let it be farther considered That though the French have been successful in Wars near home yet they have been unsuccessful in remote Undertakings where either the transporting by Sea or the uneasiness of the passage by Land have rendred Succours hard and difficult to be sent What rendred all their Attempts upon the Kingdom of Naples and Dutchy of Milan ineffectual but the difficulties they found in sending Supplies to Naples by Sea and to Milan over the rough Alpes In our King John's time Lewis the then Dauphine of France was invited over and sworn to by many of the Barons But did not the difficulty of getting Supplies to maintain his footing at last utterly defeat all his Hopes Would not our present Sailers carry their Ships to any part of the World rather than let them be carried into France Is there not think you one Great Man left whose Fidelity to our own right Line and whose Courage and Vigilance is equal to Hubert de Burgh's Think you there is no Gallant Man who would by a Sea-fight hinder the pouring in of fresh French Succours when we saw they aimed at the Distruction of the Right of our Royal Family and our own Rights I am not over fond of the present Age yet there are many Brave and Loyal Men in it that would defeat any French Design that were injurious to our own legal Monarchy But to come to our own Days What enabled Spain to recover Catalonia in a great measure and to pluck Messina in Sicily out of the present King of France's hands when they were losing Ground in the confining Provinces but the difficulty of sending Supplies to the one over the Pyrenean Mountains and to the other by Sea And it is remarkable That the uncertainties alone of Wind and Weather rendred the suppling of Messina impracticable even when the French were Masters of the Seas and had routed the Spanish and Dutch Fleets and killed the famous de Ruyter How much more will the same uncertainties of Wind and Weather joyn'd with our brave Ships and braver Sea-men render us safe and all such Designs as a French Conquest impracticable Did not also this present King of France in our own Memories over-run like a violent Torrent the United Provinces and possess himself of a great part of their Country and yet was obliged to throw up all his Conquests And for what Reason Because there was the interposition of fifty or sixty Miles that was not his own which might have hinder'd the sending Supplies and will not the interposition of more Miles of a tempestuous and uncertain Sea joyned with the Rebuffs which will be given him by our Fleet lay greater Rubs in his way and oblige him at last to disgorge tho' he should by surprize gain Ground upon us What was it induced the Romans to maintain Fourscore thousand Men in Britain and to secure their Frontiers in this Island by the famous Walls of
Adrian and Severus as well as with such numerous Troops against the Incursions of the Scots and Picts who were confin'd within the little Country now called Scotland when at the same time they were able to protect their Frontiers with less numerous Troops from the Insults of the Parthians and of the Germans which then included all modern Germany to the North and East of the Danube and Rhine the Northern Crowns Poland and better part of Muscovy each of which Nations taken separately did possess Countries six times bigger than France at this day Was it not because of the difficulty of sending Troops into Britain occasion'd by the uncertainty of Wind and Weather tho' they were Masters of the Seas and their Enemies had no Fleet to oppose them What Reason then have the French to dream of the Conquest of our Island when all its Inhabitants are united in one Monarchy and Government when all Nations are now equalised as to Arms and Discipline of War and when our Fleet modestly speaking is equal to any of our Neighbors Would it be reasonable for them with Forces less considerable than those of the Romans with fewer Incouragements from the Advantage of Military Discipline and Arms in which the Romans did far surpass their Enemies and under many more Discouragements from our Fleet and otherwise to attempt the Conquest of a People much more Great Rich and Numerous than the ancient Scots and Picts who have the sense of Religion as well as Liberty of all that is dear and valuable to rouze and influence their Courages especially when from all Histories Foreigners may learn this Lesson That nothing less than an Annihilation can extinguish the sense of Religion Honor and Liberty in English Breasts I think I have already shewn That it is not the Interest of France to attempt to make us a Conquest for themselves And it is as easie to shew It is as little their Interest to make us Slaves to King James I am resolv'd I will advance what will be thought a Paradox viz. That there is no one Countrey so much concerned as France that we should have good Securities for our Liberties under the Restauration and if I am challenged on this Head I can make this Paradox plain to every body's Understanding I shall touch upon it briefly here France is concern'd to keep us from an Absolute Monarchy and Popery too and that by reason of our Pretences upon that Kingdom It would be the greatest Solâ—ecism in the French Politicks to make a King that has such a Claim entire Master of a People who have such natural Courage and that love Glory rather too immoderately or to remove such a Shiboleth as are our different Creeds It is the Interest of France to promote and head our Discontents and not to lay the People at the King's Mercy They thought so formerly and of late years Did not Lewis mention'd in my last Paragraph before he departed this Realm take care that Hen 3. should give his Oath nay made him give it That he would restore to the Barons of the Realm and other his Subjects all their Rights and Priviledges for which the Discord began between King John and his People Baker's Chronicle P. 114 Did not their great Richelieu at the beginning of our late Civil Wars send Emissaries into Scotland to stir up the Male Contents and that though we had so lately married a Daughter of France and so lately had had a Quarrel with the Spaniard Their Kings must be ready to assist the People if their Rights are in real Danger or when we have lost our Rights they may lose their Crowns The Friendships of Neighbouring Princes seldom last long seldom during their own Lives and are more seldom transmitted to their Posterities Many Reasons and Jealousies of State are falling in which occasion frequent and unavoidable Breaches and a King of England who is Absolute and Master of his Subjects may be troublesome and dangerous to France and may revive our Old English Pretences to the most considerable Provinces nay to the Crown of France its self So that it will be prudent in the French King to let us alone with our old Quarrels between Prerogative and Privilege and let our Ease be a check upon the Ambition of our Princes when a daring and enterprising Spirit may be upon the Throne one who may be willing to court Difficulties and Dangers and try for what his Forefathers have possessed The King of France is so far from designing a Conquest for himself that he desires no Retribution for what King James his Misfortunes have cost him And this I say from good Authority And as for Conquering for King James he too well knows his own Interest to think it so to make us Slaves or Papists or either of them Of this you may read more in Great Britain's Just Complaint I know how artful and indefatigable our Adversaries are and that tho' a Man beats them out of all their strong holds yet they will at last retire and betake themselves to those Arguments that they in their own minds know have no real weight and I therefore foresee they will still endeavour to scare Men with the remembrance of all our former pretended Conquests and for that reason and that there may remain no umbrage not even the least to imagin a French Conquest practicable I will take every one of those Conquests into consideration and handle them apart that I may treat of them more distinctly and I presume the Reflections I shall make upon them will shew not only a vast difference between the Condition and Circumstances of those that are said to be our Conquerors and the present French Power and between the State of the British Affairs then and what they are now but also shew a great disparity between the Interests that those Invaders proposed to themselves and what the King of France can have at this day So that whether in a genuine and strict sense they were Conquests or no I hope to make it plain that they will in no wise overthrow the Positions I have been advancing If any man has a mind to examin whether they were properly Conquests he must consult our Antiquities and those Treatises that are expresly written on that Subject wherein he will find the Point warmly debated on both sides and perhaps with more Heat than Judgment I will refer this Enquirer to those Authors and sall directly to consider our several Invaders I will begin with Caesar's Invasion which was the first of which we have any certain knowledge Julius Caesar who was then only an Officer of the Roman State but had laid in his own Breast the Design of seizing upon that Empire when he had subdued most part of the ancient Gallia which comprehends the modern France Savoy Switzerland Germany on this side the Rhine and the Spanish Netherlands and by a Potent Faction at Rome had obtained it of the Senate as his Province for
rot But Mr. Pepys has prov'd the contrary with a witness and appeals to the Books and Men that are now in the Admiralty and Navy Offices By this you may guess at the Sincerity of Dr. King in other particulars King JAMES without Taxes repair'd and added to our Navy and augmented its Stores but the Vote which declares the Sense of the House of Commons to be That the Commission of the Admiralty should not be filled with Men experienc'd in Sea-Affairs tho' it look like a Jest was well enough calculated for the Humour of this Prince who is willing to put the Nation under an absolute Necessity of maintaining a vast standing Army though a Pamphlet written and dispers'd at the beginning of the last Sessions by the wiser Williamites themselves called The Interest or State of Parties had so evidently made it out That the Natural and only Defence of England depended upon its Wooden Walls and spake broadly of the Insufficiency of the present Lords of the Admiralty I suppose too that they who occasion'd our not making use last Summer of our Victory at Sea which even those who would fright us with the French Power say was gain'd by a part only of our Fleet inferior in Number and Quality to the French who attack'd them and since have got Russel discharg'd from being Admiral instead of being rewarded with an Earldom and Garter for that Victory which did indeed destroy many of the French Ships tho' it was not the greatest Victory that ever the Sun saw as Dr. Tillotson phrased it and yet it is the only time that we have not by reason of our preposterous Management come off with loss and shame I say These Men know how much better King William is pleased with Land-Forces than Tarpawlins but how little Care soever has been taken of our Ships whatever Dangers the Prince of Orange would expose us to hereafter that he may rule us more arbitrarily during his own Time yet the Nation will find out his Designs feel their own Strength know whereon their own Safety depends time enough to hinder his or a French Conquest tho' they will at the same time perceive it necessary to call home that Prince whose Claim is indisputed and whose coming home upon such Concessions as we want and He is ready to grant will swallow up all Fâ—ctions They will e'er long percâ—ive it necessary to call him home â—pon such Securities even to secure their own Interests All Remains of 〈◊〉 pâ—â—tâ— Governments are at an 〈◊〉 and since Printing has been in the World the French and all Nations so well know how vindicative of their Liberties the English have always been that they will have but little mind to make us a Province I have already intimated how unsafe it would be for the Absolute Power of France at home to let their Soldiers hear from the surviving Britains what were our Freedoms and it would be yet much more unsafe for the French Lieutenants to agree to the Observation of our Laws But I will hasten to the Norman Conquest Before any body takes it for granted that William the First was a Conqueror I wish they would read the First Part of the Historical Discourse of the Vniformity of the Government of England written by Mr. Nathanael Bacon and the latter-end of the third Part of Mr. Will. Prynne's Historical Vindication of the Fundamental Liberties of English Freemen together with all those Authors these two Writers refer to But I resolved at first to wave examining whether we have ever in a proper and strict sense been conquered or no and therefore must fall directly upon comparing those and our Times and the Pretences of the Duke of Normandy and what the French can have upon us I can find but one thing that has any shew of likeness with our present Circumstances and that is Harold was an Vsurper and had broke the Protestation he had formerly made to Duke William as much as the P. of Orange has his Declaration to the People of England and truly if any thing can facilitate a French Conquest and if the Times did not exceedingly differ in other respects the Breaches we have made upon the Lineal Succession and the Impotencies Irregularities and Exactions of the present Government might make way for it But those things that made a Conquest feasible then and are not in our present Case are very many The Normans came from Norway and Denmark which Places were surchaged with People and there was no Project so improbable in which their Leaders could not easily engage them The Religion of the Normans and the Inhabitants of Britain was the same The Conqueror had many Pretences of Title Edward the Confessor's Will the Donation of the Pope who also gave him a Consecrated Banner an Agnus of Gold and one of the Hairs of St. Peter Besides his Titles here were several Normans within this Land who helped him he had been here himself to view our Land and make a Party as his own Speech intimates the then King of France helped him in his Acquest So did the Emperour Henry the Fourth he likewise came and lived among us and stipulated at his own Coronation to defend the Holy Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal People subject to him justly to establish equal Laws and see them duly executed Nor did be as the Judicious Samuel Daniel well observes ever claim any Power by Conquest but as a regular Prince submitted himself to the Orders of the Kingdom desirous rather to have his Testamentary Title however weak to make good his Succession than his Sword and tho' the Stile of Conqueror by the flattery of the Times was after given him he shewed by all the Course of his Government he assumed it not introducing none of those Alterations which followed by Violence but by a mild gathering upon the disposition of the State and the Occasions offer'd and that by way of Reformation These are the words of Daniel page 36. Now I come to compare I must once more repeat That France has no occasion to send forth Droves of People and the Religion of France will make the People of England resist a French Conquest to all Extremity And if King James would sell his Kingdoms as some ridiculously have suggested the People of England would hardly be brought to make good the Bargain and the Pope's Gift would as little influence our Minds tho' he should send with the Arms of France all the Reliques of Rome We have indeed many French amongst us but I think no one Man fears they will assist their own King in such an Adventure They are so far from that that they have not been which I am sorry to say GRATEFUL to King James who gave them Protection and Relief when they came hither in Distress And I have already proved That it is not the Interest of any Prince abroad to joyn our Three Kingdoms to the French Territories And
many years thought it necessary to add to the Glory of his Name some Attempt upon Countries beyond the end of the World for so was Britain in those days thought at Rome that so his dazling Achievements might make his long intended purpose more easie I mean his Design of raising himself from a Servant to be Master of his Country As to the Romans themselves when they came first amongst us their Power was united entire and so much too big for all our Neighboring Countries that they had given Law to every one of them before they had attempted Us and we were divided into several petty Governments who would not joyn in a common Defence Give me leave now to set down That the King of France is already at the Head of a Government and needs not risque what he has to make him Superior to those amongst whom he dwells We are united under one Monarchy There are many Princes confederate against France that are very Powerful and Neutral Princes enough to turn at any time the Scale Nor is there as I said amongst all the Jacobites that I know one Man who so little loves his own King and his own Country as that he would not hazard his Life against the French if they designed any thing in prejudice of our Rightful Monarch or his Posterity or our Constitution it self Can any Man think we have less sense of Liberty than the Irish who yet had not a different Religion to caution them as the Protestant Jacobites have here Indeed some of us are like them sometimes wheedl'd into too early and undue Suspicions of the French even by the Emissaries of the Prince of Orange and if any body talks of governing England by French Power I am sure they must be the Prince of Orange's Pensioners and tho' the Prince of Orange himself is not good at Much his Agents have the Art to foment Jealousies Besides all this there is a great disparity between the Times in which the Romans came hither and now by reason of our Skill in Military Affairs I suppose few English-men will allow the French so much superior to us in the Art of War as the Romans were to the naked Britains Our late Taxes have been very ill bestow'd if our Fleet does not hold the same Disproportion and yet in those days tho' the Romans were so long amongst us and tho' they govern'd us in great part by our own Laws and many of their Lieutenants rather taught us the exercise of than took away our Liberties nevertheless they never had if our best Historians may be credited the whole Land at any one time in Subjection and tho' such Multitudes of the Britains were slain the Tribute the Romans got here cost them in Massacres and Battels more Men than France will ever be able to spend upon the Project of Conquering these Kingdoms Most of what is recorded of the manner of the coming and being here of the Romans is handed down to us by their own Writers with a naked and sedate Narration but Cloyster'd Clergy-men who used themselves to write Hyperboles rather than precise Truths being those from whom we have most of our Accounts of the Saxon Times we must expect swelling and Legendary Reports but that wherein I shall consider to shew the disparity between them and the French and ours and those days lies in a small Compass and will be granted on all hands The Quarrels of the Roman Empire had carry'd into France under the Banners of Maximus one of the Competitors for it the Flower Strength of Britain and with the overthrow of Maximus by Theodosius they either all perished or seated themselves in Armorica There was likewise another great Transplantation of the British Youth under Constantine and at this time the Saxons were a very Warlike People and so over-charg'd with Numbers that they sent Multitudes abroad to fight for a Habitation The Frame of their Government agreed very well with the British and was very near what are at this day the Fundamentals of our Government They were invited in to preserve us from being over-run by the Scots and Picts who were our Fellow-Islanders and tho' I don't doubt the Saxons carried the Merit of their Successes against our Enemies further than became our Friends yet I cannot imagin but that there was a more equal Incorporation of the British Stock than we can discover at this distance of time and from such passionate Writers as are the Relators of what pass'd then And after all it was want of Ships and great Divisions amongst the Britains occasion'd their Overthrow for our Monarchy was not perfected and as Milton says very well Vortigern was rather Chief than sole King These were the Reasons why the Saxons so far mastered the Britains and yet the Saxons often ran a Risque of a final Extirpation From this Account of the Saxon Invasion the disparity is very obvious I heartily lament the Loss of so much English Blood as has been spilt unnecessarily and unlawfully too in these our deplorable Distractions into which we have brought our selves by inviting over a Foreigner to rescue those Liberties which he has as we might well suppose he would more trampled upon than all the Evil Councellors of King James We would invite a Foreign Prince to do our own proper Work instead of endeavouring Parliamentarily to redress our Grievances or rescuing our selves our Liberties by an English Insurrection such a one as those whereby our Ancestors obtained the Confirmations of their Charters and which often ended as all Insurrections ought to do without any real Prejudice to the Successive Monarchy and which let it be call'd now as Whiggish as they will and those that were formerly were Popish is more justifiable either to Prudence or Religion than the Nobility Gentlemen and * Tho' the Prince of Orange's Declaration mentions Lords Spiritual and some have raised a Scandal upon Archbishop Sancroft as if his hand was to the Invitation of him I am well assured that neither that Right Reverend Prelate nor his Fellow Sufferers ever engaged in that design of calling over the P. of Orange Clergy who call themselves of the Church of England their Invitation of a Foreign Prince which with all the Charity and Pity in the World for those who were inconsiderately misled and are not so obstinate as to think with Catiline That ill Deeds must be made safe with worse I beg leave to say was Unnatural and in despight of His Relative and their Civil Duty I say I heartily lament the Loss of so much English Blood as has been unwarrantably thrown away in Ireland at Sea and in Flanders and yet God be praised we have still left generous Youth enough to make us the Terrour of all Ambitious Princes if we would once again unite to take away all Disputes of Title by restoring our rightful and lawful King and betake our selves to negotiate in the Arbitration of Europe rather than over hastily engage
such a Conquest is palpably opposite to the Interest of all the Princes and States of Europe And lastly That to attempt a French Conquest of England either for Himself or King James is not the Interest of the King of France himself I omit shewing a French Conquest is against the Interest of King James for I don't think it worth my while to prove that it is against a Man's Interest to have his Estate taken from him and his Posterity destroy'd King James has a Child that He believes and you believe too notwithstanding all the pains you take to be thought to believe that useful Flam of your pretended Imposture which was at first taken up and industriously promoted like that of the Irish cutting the Throats of all the People of England and Scotland to help forward this Revolution to be a True PRINCE OF WALES and at least this innocent Child has not disoblig'd the King and this is enough to make him take pity of the Nation however Rebellious and Ungrateful we have been to him But besides he has several times since his Exile expressed himself in so pathetick and extenuating a Style concerning those Subjects that have used him so ill that it would be almost incredible if related And tho' the Prince of Wales was dead he retains even for the Princess of Orange such a Fatherly Affection as plainly supersedes Royal Resentment and I have heard one that was by say That upon a Gentleman 's mentioning even upon occasion of Business the Fault of the Princess of Orange and that with all the Modesty imaginable and he must touch very tenderly upon that String who will make his Court to the King tho' such virulent Pamphlets are Licensed here against Him the King reply'd That the Princess of Orange had Natural Foundations of Good ness that Dr. Burnet and the Bishop of London can never destroy And further they who have been at Sâ— Geâ—mans kâ—ow with what Indignation the King treats althoughts of Restoring him by any other Method than by a great Concurrence of his own People The King knows how obstinately the People of Britain nay many that are now his own Friends would resist any other Method and he knows that the Riches of a Country are the People of it He would be Himself and he would have his Son the King of Great Britain and he does not think it worth his while to be King of Trees of Beasts and a desolated Land or to leave such a ruin'd Kingdom to his Son When I weigh the good Inclinations of the King and the barbarous Persecution and Misrepresentation he has met with I am shook with a double Agony I compassionate His Wrongs and am astonished at our Ingratitude and that we would not once try whether the Things we complain'd of proceeded from His own Nature or from those about him whom the Prince of Orange had corrupted The Scene of His and our Miseries is abundantly and admirably laid open in an excellent Book printed last Summer called Great Britain's Just Complaint and if I would entertain the World upon that Subject I must either transcribe what may be found in that Book or relate the History of the same Matter of Fact without doing the same Justice to the Cause of the King That Great and Judicious Author has discover'd the whole Mystery of Iniquity How such Snares were laid for the King as an honest-minded Man could scarce escape How willing the King was to redress our Grievances when he found he had been in Mistakes and this before he went away How he continued in the same Mind when he was addressed to by some of his Subjects of Scotland who had appeared most vigorously to resent those Mistakes and this when he was under no Pressure in his Affairs I will add no more to justifie the Inclinations of the King but beseech every body who reads this to read Great Britain's Just Complaint which puts the Nation upon the best Method for us to know the Inclinations of our King He advises page 48. to resume that Treaty we so foolishly broke off and refused and thereby to secure Religion and Property by those Concessions which our Sovereign is still ready to grant us He goes on Let us put it home to him and lay it at his own Door Let him have it in his choice to return by his People if he pleases Convince him that his Protestant Subjects upon securing their Religion and Liberties will repair their former Errors by contributing heartily towards his Restauration And as that Author says if he declines to return upon a Protestant and English Foot there is an end of the Controversie and of all Disputes amongst Protestants for Religion and Liberty will never be sacrificed by true English-men And I will add to what he says If no true English-man joyn with him whatever Forces they can transport upon us neither can King James come home nor can the French conquer us But God be praised a great many true English men will joyn to bring home the King tho' I know not one so bad an English man as would join in a French Conquest But I come in the second place to shew That it is not the Interest of any of the Princes or States of Europe that the French should make us a Conquest The excellent Author of the abovenamed Great Britain's Just Complaint has proved that whether this Confederate War ends successfully or unsuccessfully in all likelihood and according to all the Rules of Policy the Restauration of King James must in a short time follow upon the Determination of it But it is my business to make it plain That tho' it may be and is the Interest of all Countries to have King James Restored at the conclusion of this War yet it is not the Interest of any of them that the French should conquer us have our Kings their Vassals or be Masters of our Ports Would the Spaniard have the Chanel shut up on both sides to Flanders Would the Dutch have the English and Irish Ports managed by such select Committees as the French would infallibly set up for Trade And how long would the Dutch resist Ours and the French Power united under one Absolute Monarch Would not the Northern Crowns and all the Princes of Germany soon feel the Weight of such a Confluence of Strength The Influence that such a Conquest would have upon all the States of Europe be they never so remote is at first sight so evident that there is not one of them who would be an idle Spectator of our Ruine Every body now knows the Danger their own House is in when their Neighbor's is on fire Every little Politician knows how much Greatness depends upon Naval Preparations and Trade therefore every body would be allarm'd every body in an Uproar when they saw such Maritime Kingdoms as ours like to be made an Accession to the numerous Land-Forces of France They are idle Brains that dream of
I believe if the King of France should promise to protect the Protestant Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal People subject to him justly to establish equal Laws and to see them duly executed we should not take his Word nor would his own Subjects be well pleased It is King William only that is allowed to have a Religion for his several Dominions that may be a Synod-of-Dort-Presbyterian in Holland an Episcopalian in England of the Kirk in Scotland and a downright Favourer of Popery in Ireland as is apparent by the Limerick Treaty and the Pamphlet put out by the Irish Gentlemen concerning the Proceedings of their late Parliament and the Depositiâ—â—â— that are before the House of Lords I have told over our former Conquests somewhat tediously and will add very little about them however I desire the Reader will reflect That the Neighboring Princes because they did not animadvert how much Greatness consisted in Naval Preparations and Trade and because we had not begun to make a Figure in either never thought themselves so much concerned as all the Potentates of Europe will now what becomes of us None of our Neighbors ever help'd Us formerly some of 'em did our Invaders Let the Reader farther reflect that it was not necessary for any of our former Invaders to make such a total Subversion of all our Laws as it will now be for the French King and consequently Composition and Treaties more easily succeeded Battles The former Alterations rather meliorated than overthrew our Constitution They bundled up and refin'd our By-Laws into National Statutes and introduced Forms where the Methods of Justice seemed less articulate And lastly Let it be considered though there are great Divisions amongst us some few for keeping the Prince of Orange others for restoring the King and several for something that they have not yet licked into Form yet all Persons that make the respective Parties of these Divisions will all of 'em joyn together to obstruct a French Conquest There will be such Divisions whenever Men will commit Violence upon the natural and ancient Constitution and I must confess these Divisions are the most fatal Symtom that attends our distemper'd State and may and will certainly subject us though not to a French Conquest to great Calamities and Devastations unless we restore the King I suppose I have sufficiently prov'd a French Conquest to be neither Desirable nor Practicable yet God knows what infinite Mischiefs we may have brought upon our selves by reviving a sort of Quarrel which by the Mercy of God has been so long extinguished A Dispute for Title which has in the days of our Forefathers had so fatal an Effect which has so dismally wounded our State and is left bleeding in the Histories of so many Reigns Because you shall not think I aggravate the Calamities that were occasioned by the Contention of the Two Roses I will only transribe some Passages out of Trussel who is a chast and cautelous Writer and it cannot be supposed his History was written to serve a Jacobite-Turn Page 257. he says There were in the Quarrel of the Two Roses Fourscore Princes of the Blood destroyed and twice as many Natives slain as were lost in the Two Conquests of France Pag. 260. he says In the Battle of Townton there were killed Thirty five thousand ninety and one English-men and of Strangers One thousand seven hundred forty five beside Two hundred and thirty slain the Day before at Ferry-bridge In his last Page his Words are these The total of private Soldiers that perished in these Civil Wars and suffered Punishment of immature Death for taking part of the one side or the other was Fourscore thousand nine hundred ninety and eight Persons besides Kings 2. Prince 1. Dukes 10. Marquesses 2. Earls 21. Viscounts 2. Lords 27. Lord Prior 1. Judge 1. Knights 139. Esquires 441. The Number of the Gentry is uncertainly reported and therefore Trussel omits them but says That for the most part they are included in the Number of private Soldiers set down to be slain to which he says you must add the Number of Six hundred and thirty and eight the total of all the Persons not therein accounted and then there appeareth in all to be slain Fourscore five thousand six hundred twenty eight Christians and most of this Nation not to be repeated says the Historian without grief nor remembred without Deprecation that the like may never happen more He concludes his History with this Saying Pan una Triumphis innumeris potior The whole History of that Quarrel sets before us such apposite Lessons for our Times that I wish all who love England would seriously read and ponder it It is time to draw to a Conclusion I am not willing to prophecy the Destruction of my Countrey and I beseech God Almighty to incline our Hearts to the Things that belong unto our Peace to our Peace in this World and to our everlasting Peace in the World to come I beseech God to incline the Prince of Orange not to forfeit an eternal weight of Glory for a momentary Crown which has nothing of good in it if it is not got by the Acts of Goodness God grant that he may consider it as a more valuable Character to be a Virtuous and a Christian Prince than a Romantick Heroe and God grant that he may be so Wise that his Days may not end in Tragedy I wish he would review his own Declaration and the Memorial of the States and that he would pursue those excellent Ends for which he came for which the States said they lent their Ships and which King James would have comply'd with and is ready to comply with still The King is willing to secure the Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and had not the Confederates made their Quarrel â—â—â—ult by giving way to an unnatural Ambition in the Prince of Orange and dispossessing King James whilst they pretended they formed this Confederacy to repair the Injuries done to them by the French K. JAMES the injured King JAMES would have checked the Growth of France and kept Namur and Mons. He was far from a French League and would have perform'd the part of a true Guarrantee for either the King would have prevented France coming before them by reminding their King of the Treaty of Nâ—miguen or our Arms would have had doubtless success when we had Justice on our side and the Wishes and Prayers of all English-men joyned with the undertaking of our rightful indisputed King How far he was from a French League how unwilling to think ill of the Pr. of Orange and how unwilling to be too much beholding to France his disbelief of all the Advices of d'Avaux and of many of his Friends his Answer to Bonrepos and his refusal to the last of any French Assistance sufficiently witness and as much as he has been beholding to France during his Troubles I am satisfied that