Faction to them at Paris A second was their then Madamoisell D' Orleans the French King's Aunt which Match agreed very well both with her and King Charles's Inclination and the King seemed forward to press it but it was not so with the French Court who by their Artifices put it by as remembring likewise her Martial Temper and what she had done when with her own Hands she had fired off the Guns of the Bastile against the King's Party in the Wars of Paris and how hotly she abetted the Party that stood up against the King's Legitimacy for they looked upon her still with a Jealous Eye as thinking her yet full of Resentment and that she would put our King in a Martial Mood cause him to renew the Old Pretensions to France and to abet the Princes that might have been disposed to renew the Dispute of the French King's Illegitimacy and to advance their own Title to that Crown or at least-wise that she would put King Charles upon thwarting in all things whatever might promote the Grandure of Lewis XIVth Nay so great was their Fear of that Ladies Issue by any Person whatsoever that after they had Treacherously sham'd her into a Clandestine Match with the Count D' Lauzun to hinder her Matching with any greater Person they likewise took Care she should have no Issue even by him by keeping of him in Prison and never suffering them to come together again till they were both past Children The third Person I find proposed and that in Earnest was Cardinal Mazarine's Niece Hortensia a Match of which the French Court were very fond and such as was every way agreeable to their Gusto the Cardinal besides many other Sophistical Addresses to bring the Business to bear got the Hook baited with the Appearance of a great stock of Beauty besides the tender of a vast Sum of Money to boot He took Care also to have it rumoured abroad that such a Match was not only in agitation but in a fair way to be accomplished all which 't was believed might have done the Feat but that it having been unluckily rumoured abroad that she had paid her first Fruits already to the French King K. C. said He would not be content with her upon the second hand However it were the Reasons transmitted to the French Court why such an Advantageous Offer was rejected by our King were 1. Because her Unkle had so ungenerously opposed his Restoration and used him so Contemptuously at the Treaty of the Pyrenees 2. Because that Alliance could be of no Advantage to him but by a little present Money and would besides raise Jealousies in his People against him for which the Day was yet too early so that seeing they found they could put no French Lady upon him they resolved to promote the Match with Portugal whereby they were sure the King would have no Issue But that was not all for by this means they were in hopes to render him destitute of any Powerful Forreign Ally and that the Duke of York being already Married to Chancellor Hide 's Daughter and in Prospect of a fair Issue both them Matches might together lay a Foundation for New Discontents weaken the Union between King and People and put the Younger Brother upon Aspiring Thoughts in Prejudice to the Elder But because the foresaid Match with Portugal might not be thought to be of their Contrivance and for some self-ends they put this piece of drudgery upon the Queen-Mother whom they managed so as to give her assured Hopes her second Son who was her Darling would by that means one Day ascend the English Throne and what might not she and all of them hope from him who had ever been much more open in Profession of and Zealous for the Roman Religion c. But great Care was taken to give it out betimes that this Journey of the Queen was only a Visit to her Son now a King de facto and in all Royal State and that she designed quickly to return and spend the remainder of her Days in France her Native Country and at the same time how highly she was offended at her other Son the Duke of York's Marriage with the Chancellor's Daughter which about that Conjuncture came to be publickly known and by whom he had now a Child Born but whether she had any Instructions upon this Journey to break the Ice and make Overtures to her Son about the Sale of Dunkirk I could never learn and our Minutes are in a profound silence concerning it however I shall in my next give you all the Intimations that ever came within the verge of my Knowledge upon this Head and in the mean time am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 25. 1676. N. St. LETTER IV. Of the Sale of Dunkirk to the French and by what Methods effected My Lord THat Cardinal Richlieu had â—ong before laid a Foundation for the French greatness and even to nourish Thoughts of France's attaining in Time the universal Monarchy is notoriously known to all that are conversant in the Histories of his Time and that Cardinal Mazarine who succeeded him as Primier Minister of State pursued his Steps and made considerable Advances in the Design before he Dyed which was about the Time of the Negotiation for the Sale of Dunkirk is no less manifest and that the Methods both the one and the other pursued was to set their Engines on work continually to embroil their Neighbours either in Intestine Jarrs or in an open Invasion of one anothers Territories and then to invite themselves in to assist the weaker that they might run away with the Prey from both but among all their Neighbour Nations the English were those they most dreaded both out of Fear and Emulation of their Military Strength and Glory and whom consequently they made their utmost Efforts to entangle in Civil Discords and therefore it was that Richlieu took Advantage of the unhappy Conjuncture in the first sowing the Seeds of Discontent between King Charles I. and his Parliaments And then by his Incendiaries kindled such a flame in the Three Kingdoms as terminated not only in the Destruction of the King but even of the Monarchy it self so that the Nation after having undergone a Succession of almost all the Forms of Government that have been in use among the Sons of Men run at last into the very Dregs of all Government even Anarchy it self which Mazarine did as streâ—uosly endeavour to keep up amongst us as his Predecessor Richlieu had been forward to run us upon those dangerous Precipices that introduced it but when after all the French Efforts to prevent our return to our Old and known Form again by the Kings Restoration had failed it struck no small damp upon the French Polititians to see the Babel they had been so long Erecting and were now in a fair way to have laid on the Top-stone in danger to be overthrown at one Clap and to have
Engagement with him that all he can say or do will never convince them of the contrary or induce them to trust him with Money to make War against France for fear he should use it against themselves and not only so but it would make him as suspected among the Confederates that none of them from hence forward would trust him either for an Assistant Allie or Mediator and so would render him of insignificant force to thwart our Designs But the King did for once Trick the Trickers by the care he had taken of the Princess as I shall note elsewhere to your Lordship and by his sudden marrying her to his Highness the Prince of Orange so much to the surprize and disappointment of this Court that I cannot express it and therefore must conclude subscribing my self My LORD Your Lordship 's most humble and most devoted Servant Paris Dece 7. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXIII Of the Popish Plot and Father Kelley's Menaces My LORD THE discourse about the Plot cannot be more in England than 't is here but the Particulars of the prosecution of it your Lordship must know much better than I I do not question but there is Villany enough at the bottom of it but our Ministers are as deep in the sudds as any other whatsoever who by their slights and wicked practises have drawn the English Papists into such Combinations as hath put the Nation into such ferments incurable Jealousies and divisions as hath effectually diverted the English from hunting the French in Flanders by imploying them to hunt the Papists and Jesuits at home as they have been pleased to word it My Lord It may not perhaps be unpleasing to give your Honour an account of some passages that happened between one Father Kelley an Irish Priest and my self in this City lately concerning the King c. I know very well that there were and and perhaps may be still some of that name in England but this same has lived for some years at Paris by St. Jean de Greve and tho' a Priest is a great Banker paying most of the pensions for secret service transmitted to the English Romanists but chiefly to Irish Papists in England and Ireland and who by his discourse upon the late English Fleet and Armies being ready and the War likely to be declared against this Kingdom was pleased then to say somewhat in relation to this Conspiracy that I have little thought on till very lately and that may give your Honour some light into the designs of this Court say'd he the King of France will find him meaning our King work enough by Divisions at home and discovering if needs be his and his Brothers intreagues in France and does not care tho' he expose all the Roman Catholicks in the three Kingdoms to a general and hot persecution so long as like the Turkish Asaphi they serve to blunt the English Men's fury and divert them from thwarting the designs of the potent Catholick Kingdom of France which would afterward set all right again but that he was in hopes by their hunting of Papists they would never leave hunting the King and his Brother too if they proved refractory till they had brought them to take Sanctuary in a stricter Alliance with the French King than ever as their only Safe-guard and that it was in the French King's power to spring up a Plot next day to give the King of England Game enough for his life time for that the Mines and Trains were already lay'd and that there needed only putting fire to them c. I am very sorry I could not have oblieged your Lordship sooner with these passages which yet I hope comes not too late but it may in some measure be grateful from My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1678. N. S. LETTER LXIV Of the Duke of York's being Commanded to retire to Bruxells in the Year 1679 and of the Promises made him by the King before his departure My LORD I Know not how Matters go in England nor what the Sence of the people is in general concern the Duke's retiring to Bruxells but I can assure your Lordship they seem to be mightily allarmed here at it tho' they put a good meen upon it Perhaps your Lordship may know much more of the Secret of this Journey than I can inform you but if what is transmitted hither by the Agents of our Grand Minister be acceptable they give us this account That the Earl of D was the person who advised the King to remove his Royal Highness from his presence and that his Reasons for it were that the Parliament might have no pretence for to complain of his Majesty that he had not taken all the Measures necessary for the Security of their Religion and Liberty but they tell us how true I leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to determine that the Earl by the foresaid Advise did not so much consult the King and Kingdoms true Interest as he did to please the Parliament with whom he was at odds because of the Money received to disband the Army and the French Alliance finding now by Experience that that Artifice of his in bringing the Plot upon the stage in order to amuse them had failed They further inform us that the Duke was mightily surprized at the Message for his departure and made some difficulty to bring himself to resolve to obey it but that at length recollecting a better Temper it gave his fast friends an Opportunity to advise him That though it were at that juncture necessary he should obey the King yet it was no less prudent that he should in so doing take all necessary Precautions not to abandon his Fortune to the discretion of his Enemies that they did not doubt but that the Duke of Monmouth would push hard to get himself declared Legitimate by the ensuing Parliament That the business of the Exclusion would be renewed and that there was room enough to fear least his Retreat might be rather interpreted for the flight of a guilty Person than for the Obedience of a submissive Subject that therefore it was expedient he should get the King first to promise him that he would declare and get it Recorded too in the Courts of Justice that he had never been Married to the Duke of Monmouth's Mother That he would by no means consent to the Exclusion that was now likely to be prest upon him and lastly that he should give him express Order in writing to require his Retirement All which they say he has happily accomplished the truth whereof time must determine whereunto I leave it who am My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Apr. 6. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXV Of the Noise of King Charles's Divorce from Queen Katherine My LORD THE business of the King's Divorce has made a mighty noise on this side and I cannot with any certainty inform your Lordship which way this Court stands affected for I find on the one hand
inspired into the heads of the most Stirring and Active Members of the House that the Pretence of War against France was only a Court-trick to get Money and a Standing Army to Enslave the Nation and therefore it were not their best way to trust the King with Money for that purpose unless it were at certain moderate Sums and with such Limitations as might Secure them from any Arbitrary Deligns and from Intrigues with the French and at the same time it was Infused with much Artifice into the King's Head That if he once ventured on a War against France without an Unconditional Vote for sufficient supplies and that in very considerable Sums at once as for example of so much yearly as long as the War lasted that he was an undone and lost Man and would by that false step be infallibly unhinged by which Artifices a Declaration of War against France was so long protracted till the Hollanders despairing of any good from England were necessitated to clap up a Separate Peace which the French with all diligence proposed to them whilst the King and Parliament in England were disputing the Case about Funds for the War My Lord I have been necessitated to recapitulate some things here which I remember I have Written a Larger Account of to your Lordship and that because I could not well otherwise have brought in the succeeding part of Mr. Coleman's History who to say nothing of the Duke having effected the foremention'd Divisions Jealousies and Disputes claim'd his Promised Reward of Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador at London having yet received but one Payment of it but the slie Monsieur finding his Business was so far done that he was able to go on with the rest himself without their assistance put him off at first with Fair Words but Coleman still Renewing his Instances Barillon began to slight his Applications and at last told him in Down-right Terms he had no Orders to Pay him any more Money That he had Receiv'd enough for the Business he had done since there were other Instruments which he had there who had done more and been much more Serviceable in it than himself and in a word That his Master the French King had no further occasion for the Service of such a Sawcy Impertinent and Inconsiderable Fellow as he was Coleman was Netled to the Quick at this Unexpected Treatment which he conceived he had not deserved at their hands and therefore he reply'd again as warmly saying That for his part he had neglected much greater Rewards then what he demanded of him and which was his Iust Due which he might have had from the Confederate Party and that now since he found he was so slighted he should take care to let them see they should find the miss of his Services by what he would and was resolv'd to do for the other side and that he question'd not but to bring the Duke his Master to be quickly of his Mind Barillon thereupon answer'd That his Master would be sure to find them such Imployment in a short time that they should have no leasure to think of serving the Confederates or hunting the French in Flanders having already such a pack of Hounds in a readiness as would quickly snap him and hunt his Master too off his Legs if he did but offer to depart so much from his own Interest as to quit theirs After this mutual Huff Coleman going to take his Leave of Monsieur Barillon the Frenchman retaining still a spice of French Civility came to attend him to the Gate where seeing Coleman's Coach standing right before it Sir said he briskly to him What is the meaning of this that your Coach stands right before my Door that is no place for a person of your mean station and quality That 's strange Monsieur Answer'd Coleman I should be of meaner quality now then I used to be there you know well enough it used to stand But pray where would you have it to stand then continu'd he Two or three doors off cry'd Barillon So indeed said Coleman I used to place it when I went to a Bawdy-house but I did not take yours to be such till now and so adiew It was but a few days after this rencounter my Lord that Coleman was seized for the Popish Plot at the news of which the Discourse was at the French Secretaries that Coleman would certainly pay dear for having adventured to displease the King their Master for that they had perswaded the Conceited Fool to keep his Papers all by him which they flatter'd him were Rare Compositions and Specimens of incomparable Wit and Parts in which they said were things not only enough to hang him out of the way but so to hamper the King and Duke too and involve them in such Troubles that they would be glad to quit all their thoughts of leaning towards the Confederates and so return again to their interests at last as most expedient for them and that they had imployed such Tools as would not fail to Discover all their Inttigues and be in spight of their Teeth forc'd to acts of Repentance and sorrow for what they had done And in fine when Coleman was Condemn'd and the Duke would have interpos'd for a Pardon for him Monsieur Barillon oppos'd it Tooth and Nail and said He ought to be Sacrificed upon that occasion and that if he were not the King his Master would find means to have a worse Discovery made than all that had yet been made to appear out of his Papers or otherwise After Coleman was Hang'd his Wife reduc'd to a forlorn state retir'd into France and presented a Petition to the French King to this effect That whereas her late Husband besides his many other good and timous services done to his most Christian Majesty had upon his instances by his Minister at London hired an House in Deans-yard in Westminster of a considerable Rent some time before that Session of Parliament wherein the matter of a War against the Kingdom of France was to be debated and agitated for the better convenience of Treating some Members of Parliament and some other Gentlemen that had influence over them That he had expended considerable Sums of Mony that way as he had done in like manner among other useful instruments he had in the Country as well as the City for promoting his Majesties Service in England for which he had declined much greater Rewards from the Spanish Imperial and Dutch Ministers and other Agents than he expected or desired from him whom he served more by inclination than Interest and that he had had the good Fortune happily to effect the great task imposed on him by his most Christian Majesties Commands in dividing the King of England and his Parliament and breaking the neck of the intended War against France that yet for all that when his work was accomplish'd Monsieur Barillon had refused to pay him his expences and never had given him one
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
Prince of Orange's Arrival at London My Lord THis Place is very barren of News tho' there is something I am satisfied a brewing which will appear in Time and all that is novel and extraordinary seems to have been tranplanted to the Brittish I sles from whence we hear That the Prince of Orange who they say is always intent and ever was to improve favourable Conjunctures hath taken Advantage of these Movements to make his Entry into London where 't is confest but with much Regret he hath been received with great Demonstrations of Joy and publick Applause but they say it is nothing but what is usually done to New-comers having been felicitated upon the Success of his Enterprise and thanked for the Zeal which he had testified for the good of the English Nation 'T is also reported That the Nobility have met together and pray'd him to take the Administration of the Government upon him till the Estates of the Kingdom can be called together which is dreaded here by both Courts I can assure your Lordship there have been Instructions issued out from hence already to their Agents at London where they have a great Number tho' under various Disguises for to countermine what ever Projects may be on foot for the establishing a Settlement in England and of which I shall endeavour to transmit to your Lorship the Particulars I am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 27. 1689. S. N. LETTER LIII Instructions given to the French Emissaries to infuse into some English Peers upon the subject-Matter of King James's Deserting of the Crown in Favour of his Interest My Lord IT s not doubted here but that there will be strong Efforts made for the Advancing of the Prince of Orange to the English Throne and by the Returns made of Members to serve upon the present Occasion in the Lower House it is concluded that their Procedures will be much in favour of his Interest and consequently to the Disadvantage of this Court and therefore they have taken care to give them a Bone to pick tho' I know not well what it is for the present But of the House of Lords they have entertained a more favourable Opinion but foreseeing that whatever is agitated among the Commons is also likely to creep into a Debate among the Lords and that the King's Resigion his Evil Administration his Retreat out of the Kingdom and the Compact between him and his People may be called in question They have by way of Precaution given Instructions to their Emissaries slily to infuse into any such Peers as they judge susceptible of such Insinuations but I cannot think your Lordship of that Number That it was true the King's Religion had been a very main Cause to bring those Misfortunes upon himself and the Nation which they laboured under but hereby it could not be thought that should be as much as once debated for a sufficient Ground to exclude him from his Throne That this would appear strange in the Sight of all Nations that a Popish Prince was incapable to sway a Scepter when even in England it self there had been no less than Forty Roman Catholick Kings who had governed England from King Egbert to Queen Elizabeth That it was but the other Day that all the Kingdom had by Addresses on purpose disavowed that Maxime That the two Universities had condemned the same for an Error and that the Parliament in One thousand six hundred and eighty five did believe it to be a thing so pernicious and destructive to a State that they were minded to brand with Infamy all those who would have excluded the Duke of York from the Succession That all the Nation having acknowledged this Prince at a Time when he made open Profession of the Popish Religion it would be a ridiculous inconsequence to pretend that that same Religion was an Hindrance to his reigning as King of England and that as for any previous Compact that might be alledged by ill disposed Men to have been between King and People iâ— was a pernicious chimerical Notion often condemned as a Gap opened to seditious Practices for the imbroiling of the State That surely that Retreat could not be called a Desertion in the King full of Discontent and finding himself abandoned by his Subjects to the Mercy of a Foreign Nation especially seeing the Royal Character the bore did but expose him to the Insults of the People and his Person into the Hands of a Prince that imposed Laws upon him seized him in his own Dominions and gave him Umbrages that ought to presage greater Dangers unto him That the Offers he had again and again made to the Nation and even to the Prince of Orange who protected it to treat with them amicably to leave nothing undone for the redressing of their Grievances could not but be adjudged Reparations sufficient for those Faults that were imputed to him That the Letter he had writ left behind him at Feversham and ordered to be printed with several other Letters which he had actually writ to diverse Persons asserting his Authority and Claim And that the Protestations which no doubt he would make against any Acts of the Assembly to meet if any such should happen in disfavour of him which could hardly be credited and the Measures which he had taken and whereof they heard enough every Day and would doubtless more and more dayly for the Recovery of his Dominions were evident Demonstrations that he had not renounced them And that if they were deserted by him it was because his Person was in no Security there and not the Throne which he still looked upon as a Property appertaining to him alone That he was not the first and only King even of England that had made this Step That Ethelrede in the Time of the Saxon Kings retired into Normandy and that among the Royal Stem of the Plantagenets Edward IV. past over into Flanders without King Henry VI. his Competiter his believing that he had thereby acquired a new Title to the Crown That as to the present conjuncture the King found himself in the Condition of Kings would be very hard if they of all Mankind were the only Persons who were not allowed the Favour to shun a Danger they were exposed to and which could not be avoided but by fleeing from it and that surely it was a Man's Prudence when he saw his House on Fire beyond a possibility of extinguishing it to save his own Life and attend an Opportunity to rebuild it again since he could not save it from burning What Successes my Lord these Remonstrances have met with or may still it may be your Lordship can tell But I can tell you if this fails there is another Mine to spring whereon they rely very much and on which they intend to work with utmost Diligence but I pray God to keep my poor Country from falling again into their Shares from which it now is in so fair a way of being
Charles IId's Restoration with their Answers to the Queen-Mother's Resentments thereupon My Lord ACcording to the Expectation I may have raised in your Lordship by my last of some Notable Intelligence from me I am to acquaint you with what perhaps you will hardly believe that this Court considering the near Alliance between the Burbonian and English Royal Family should as much as once think to obstruct the King's Restauration to the Throne of his Ancestors but for my part I clearly find there is neither Father Brother nor Cousin between Kings and Kingdoms and that France used the utmost of her Policy at that time to keep us Embroiled at Home while she might have her Hands loose to play her Game Abroad but because I conceive it may not be ungrateful to your Lordship to understand what those Stratagems were which they own themselves to have practised upon that Occasion I shall briefly hint them unto you as I find them entred here in their Cabinet-Minutes Monsieur Bourdeaâ—x was then their Ordinary Embassador at London whose Instructions were both by himself and several other Emissaries which they had there to raise all the Jealousies imaginable in the several Factions of Monk and his Adherents and at the same time to make Overtures to Monk to assume Oliver's Post and Power urging with great vehemency that he might with much more Justice and Security do it as having what the other had not a President before him but tho' that General refused the Proposal and was proof against all their Attacks of that kind saying he would not split his Family upon that Rock against which the Cromwell's had dasht but would wave all Ambitious Projects of his own Grandure that were indirect and pursue only those that consisted with his Countreys good and that they saw at last it was in vain to attempt the Union of the stronger Factions at Home either against Monk or the King's Restoration they resolved to try what might be done Abroad to work them into a Temper and therefore to raise Jealousies in them from their Neighbours they did in March 1660. Defile several Battalions of Foot towards Calais giving out at the same time that their Design was to Besiege Dunkirk in Conjunction with the Spanish Forces and that after the Place was taken by them it was to be delivered up to the Spaniards pursuant to an Agreement made between them that the latter had consented to give up Cambray and some other Places to the French in lieu of it at which proceedings of theirs the Queen-Mother then in France taking the Alarm she briskly remonstrated unto them the unnatural part they acted considering the near Ties of Blood in her Person between the Royal Families of France and England and how dishonourable it was to oppose the Restitution of a Prince which they were bound to promote even by Arms tho' he had been no ways Allied to them but she was answered that there were many Reasons of state which superceded all those Scruples that for her part she might be assured she should be as well provided for as otherwise that it was not safe for her Son to be brought in purely by his own Subjects but that if they both would have a little patience they did not question but they had taken such Methods so to embroil and weaken England that there would be quickly room enough for the French King to bring him in in a much more Glorious manner so as that he might be Absolute Master of his Subjects and have his Royal Authority no more to depend upon the fickle and changeable Temper of a Perfidious Nation nor be in danger to receive any check from Parliaments that would sooner or latter prove Factious and Dangerous to his State that it was visible the Spaniards had a great hand in promoting such a Revolution in England and therefore they desired her to consider how dishonourable it would be to the House of Bourbon to suffer it and how dangerous such a Conjunction of England and Spain which would naturally follow against them would be she her self might judge and that therefore since a little patience would Infallibly retrieve the whole Game to their Interest and much more to her Satisfaction they could do no less than pursue the Methods they had taken and make both her and her Son happy tho' it were against their Wills that she was much in the wrong to judge of Things by present Appearances that they were assured however Matters might be concealed from her the Conditions proposed to the King her Son by his Subjects were little to her Satisfaction when they imported no less than that her two younger Sons of the Elder of whom she had conceived greatest Hopes and her self must never set footing on English Ground and that the King himself must Marry a Protestant Heretick and suffer no Roman Catholick to live in his Dominions But when they found all their Politicks had failed them and that the King was restored in spight of them according to his Hearts Content they afterwards fell upon other Stratagems put in due time in Execution to work upon his Easie Nature and to render his Power more serviceable than hurtful to their Designs tho' the King who was yet sensible of the Injuries done him upon his Arrival in England ordered Bourdeux to withdraw out of his Dominions this is the substance of what I find entred here in reference to this particular and all I have now to Communicate which if I find it relish with your Lordship I shall not fail to lay hold of all Occasions to demonstrate how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble c. Paris Feb. 19. 1676. N. St. LETTER III. Of several Matches proposed to King Charles the Second by the French Court with his Answers and Rejection of the same My Lord IT 's not unknown to your Lordship that one Topick in the French Politicks has been now for many Years to bring their Neighbour Princes into their Interests by procuring them Wives and the French Women have had an Excellent Faculty to bring over their Husbands into the Gallican Noose tho' apparently to the hazard of themselves and their own State so that quite failing in their end to obstruct the King's Restoration they now attempted to Entrap him with a Wife I understand there were several French Matches proposed to him during his Exile and among others a great Lady whose Name I cannot now remember who had like to have been afterward Married to the Prince of Conde and whom the King hotly Courted when in France but because he was refused by her then he in his turn refused her when Restored tho' in reality such a proffer on their part was no more than to sound his Disposition towards Marrying a French Woman in general for if he had consented to have taken this Lady to Wife the French Court would not have suffered it because she was a Martial Lady and of the contrary
them and weaken and undermine us both as well as to hatch up a Navy of their own and since I am entred upon this Subject your Lordship will pardon me if I proceed a little further and acquaint you that they did afterwards renew their Instances about the Sale of the said Place with much more earnestness then before and that at a Time when their Interest was much stronger and more prevalent at our Court and yet even then tho' the Parliament had denied him the supplies which he demanded extraordinary as your Lordship well knows to be appropriated for the maintenance of Tangier and that he was in great streights for Money he would not sell it to the French nor restore it to Portugal but chose rather to demolish it and abandon it to the Moors why he would not sell it to the French I have already given the Reasons but there was perhaps another more prevalent Argument for it viz. the strong Vote of the House of Commons to that Purpose which your Lordship knows better then I can pretend to inform you to which perhaps I may subjoyn another in due place and therefore now can only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Octob. 24. 1684. N. St. LETTER VI. Of the first Dutch War begun in 1664 My Lord I Have no Reason to doubt but your Lordship knows most of the Particulars relating to that unhappy War begun between England and Holland in the Year 1665. but it may it will not be unpleasing to recount what the French designs might be in it how they promoted it and what Advantages they drew from it which I shall do very briefly when they found our King did not lay hold of those Advantages put into his Hands upon his Restoration to render himself great at home and formidable abroad and made not the least meen of a Martial Designing and Ambitious Humour they made it their first business by their Instrumen's at our Court to hinder his closing with Spain or any other in the Interest of the House of Austria by making up the Portugal Match as I have already hinted to your Lordship next by gaining the Duke of York timely over to their Devotion and then by other Emissaries and Pentioners whereof they had good store both in England and Holland to stir up such Disputes between the two Nations as might end in a War and so divert the first Essays of the Power of our new Monarch from themselves In this how admirably they succeeded is well known the Dutch on the one side being secretly incited and encouraged to Insolencies and Encroachments and the English to as deep Resentments insomuch that a War was hotly urged against them by our Parliament it self the French Court in the mean time playing Bopeep with them both for it does manifestly appear by the hints that I have seen that they promised Succour to both Parties in Case of a Rupture though it were really resolved to see us fight first and then succour the weakest and so kill two Birds with one Stone that is divert and weaken both our Naval Forces and make use of one of us to increase their own Naval Strength till which War was very inconsiderable which they most effectually did for they no sooner saw the Ballance incline to our side by the first great defeat given the Hollanders in that War but contrary to all the Assurances before given to the King they not only sided with the Enemy but drew the Dane too into their Confederacy tho' they never did either of them any good by fighting for them at Sea but only by bribing one at that Time in the highest Favour in our Court I need not Name him got a part of our Fleet sent on a blind Errand after theirs where 't was sure not to be found while the Dutch and the rest of our Ships and Commanders were left to batter one another to pieces to make them sport having gained their Ends in this Point they proceeded and gained also another of yet more dangerous Consequence and that was to get the unthinking Hogens to build them most of the best Ships they now possess and with which they have since scourged the Dutch both before Palermo and otherParts and with which they have pretended since to Match either them or us this appears my Lord by the Minutes of the Lists we have of their Navy whereof some Copies were Printed but at present I cannot help your Lordship to one but therein were exprest the Dates and Places of the building of every Ship whereof of near an 160 Men of War of all sorts near an 100 of them were built in the Ports of Holland in the Time of the said War during which Time also they bought such quantities of Gun-powder Salt-Petre and all sorts of Warlike materials there as so strengthned them and exhausted the other who ne'er dreamt they intended in a little Time to carry the War to them that it much facilitated the success they had afterward in Invading that Country that War ended with all the success to their Designs they could desire both by the Treacherous Compliance of Corrupt Ministers they had gained in both Nations and the Discouragement the English had received by the perfidious falling off of the Bishop of Munster from us Junction of the Dane against us and the Chatham disaster in having our Ships burnt there which they effected by procuring the Queen-Mother to write a Letter to her Son that she was assured the Dutch would have no Fleet out that Summer I need not remonstrate to your Lordship our ill Conduct herein I am sure our Enemies have both blamed and ridiculed us sufficiently for it though it tended so manifestly to their Advantage and was a Pig of their own Sow and let me tell your Lordship they did never believe our King would so easily take the bait till they saw the blow struck and this I can assure your Lordship so heightned their Hopes and whetted them in the pursuit of their Ends upon our Court and Kingdom that they almost never left any Motion they had made for their turn till it were Effected as much to their plenary Satisfaction as to the Kings Dishonour and the Nations Ruine and from hence forward you shall find them drive on their Designs upon us Jehu-like the Particulars whereof I shall not fail to transmit to your Lordship as often as I can have access to take them out with out Suspition from the Minutes where they are Deposited and shall therefore now only subscribe my self as I am in all sincere Devotion My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 29. 1676. N. St. LETTER VII Of the Firing of the City of London in 1666. My Lord I Am fully satisfied by what I have both seen and heard at Paris and elsewhere that the Duke of York was in the Year 1666. brought quite over to the French Interest and I have heard strange Stories
all his Children saving one Daughter afterward Married to the Prince of Oldenburg following his Example This they looked upon as a good step but what gave them a mighty accession of strength as much as it was a diminution of the Power of the Reformed was their gaining of Mareschal Turenne to their Church who because so considerable a Person and so famed for a great Captain I shall recount unto your Lordship all that ever I could learn in relation to him upon this account It 's true the Mareschal never did appear to be a Person very Zealous for his Religion but as he had from time to time given some Proofs of his Constancy it was attributed to the Coldness of his Temper which made him Calm enough in all things but that Constancy that appear'd in him for a time was attributed afterwards to other Causes and primarily to the ascendency his Wife and Sisters had over him his Lady being Daughter to the Duke De la Force and a Person of Exemplary Piety keeping of him steady in his Profession whilst she lived and his Eldest Sister the Marchioness De Duras always encouraging of him to be constant and so Zealous she was that she began to breed up one of her younger Sons with a Design to make him a Minister but that Design not succeeding that Person going over very Young into Engl. has been since as your Lordship well knows advanced to Honour in the Kingdom The youngest Sister the Dutchess of Trimonill never failed also of her Duty towards the Mareschal in that kind That the Marshal had been often tempted to change his Religion is manifest Cardinal Mazarine who had a great Opinion of him made him many suggred Promises if he would come over when the Dauphine was Born he had Intimations given him that he might one day be made his Governour but that did not move him neither the last Effort that was made upon him was by the King himself at the beginning of the Campaign in Flanders in the Year 1667. when he promised him a share in all his Secrets and higher degrees of Command if so be he would Embrace the Communion of the Church of Rome but this had the same success upon him with the rest and the Mareschal acted his part with so much sted fastness and in so Noble a manner that the King took no Displeasure thereat and for this the Church at Charenton returned Publick Thanks to God who had inspired him with such laudable Constancy but without naming of him but some time after that Peace was concluded when there was no more talk of him upon that Score he entred into the Roman Communion and it was given out he did it voluntarily and of his own accord and I could ne'er learn by whose Instigation it was done or what were the true Reasons that brought him to it but however it was this Change of his was attended with important Consequence which did appear in due time and this is all I could remark or learn concerning this Illustrious Person only that he Abjured his Heresie as they call it in Notre-Dame in presence of the Archbishop of Paris and so concludes My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 31. 1676. N. St. LETTER XII Of a Book Published in France proposing Methods for to Ruin the Reformed which had like to have spoiled the Court-Politicks in pretending Favour unto them at that time My Lord I Have in a former Letter shewed your Lordship the great Care the French Court took to have it believed both at Home and Abroad that their Declaration in Favour of the Reformed was real and like to be permanent and what Politick Ends they had therein but a Book Entituled the Policy of France came out not long after to wit in the Year 1669 that had like to have spoiled all the fine Web they had spun It was supposed to be written by the Marquess De Chatelett a Gentleman of Bretaign and contained one entire Chapter of Methods to Ruin the Reformed and he was so Adventurous as to Dedicate it to the King himself and made him a Present of one of them but his Zeal was but coarsly Rewarded for he was sent to the Bastile for his Pains and the Book supprest but because the Methods he proposed therein were such as were very odd and may be put in Execution in time and that I cannot send your Lordship one of the Books I have taken out the Heads and are as followeth he proposed the Total Destruction of them as a necessary Work and reserved it for the present King and whether he did really know or was ignorant of the Court Designs he did certainly I believe fit his Politicks to the Intentions of the Court He represented them full of Resentment for the loss of their Places of Security and of being always animated with Minds to Revolting Confusion and Anarchy and constantly ready to make use of any Opportunity to Re-establish themselves He made them to be Enemies to the King's Prosperity perpetual Obstacles to his Designs and always to be feared because of their Animosity and of the number of good Soldiers over which they could make Chiefs by giving them Authority to Command them He took upon him to shew that the Protestants of Germany suffered themselves to be ruined without any Opposition and that they had too much need of the King's Protection to Embroil themselves with him He said the same thing of England Swedeland Denmark the United Provinces and of all the Protestants whom he imagined to have been so linked to the King by strong Chains of Interest that they would not concern themselves to hinder his Exterminating of the Reformed Religion in his own Kingdom He put a Malicious Interpretation upon the Reformed's taking up Arms in the last Civil Wars and he pretended to Divine that had it not been that the War had been so soon happily terminated they would have formed Grand Designs made High Demands and endeavoured to set up their Party again He said the Edict of Nants was revocable as having been a thing extorted from the then King and admitting it might have been formerly granted for the Benefit of the State yet it might now be revoked for the very same reason He was far from being of their Opinion who thought that the Reformed were useful to the Church of Rome her self because they obliged the Ecclesiasticks to Study and lead Regular Lives he said that was a Trifling Argument and concluded that the King had sufficient Grounds to seek out ways to put them out of Condition to Hurt or do any injury to his State Having promised this he was not of the Judgment to be rid of them by way of Banishment as the Moors had been driven out of Spain he looked upon that way of Treatment Inhumane and withal prejudicial to the State but he proposed Fifteen Expedients to be rid of them by little and little The first of which was
to procure a more familiar Intercourse between the Reformed and Catholicks Secondly That they should be Rewarded with Estates and Honours that would be Converted and to have a Fund setled for that end which should ne'er be alienated that for the exciting of their Ambition and not suppress that Passion in them which might serve as a Sting to their Conversion He was of Opinion that they should be permitted to Exercise the smaller Offices But not to give them great Places but to the Catholicks only for to Allure the Reformed to a Change of their Religion in hopes to attain unto them Thirdly To Embroil the Affairs of particular Persons so as to make them attend the Council and principally the Gentlemen concerning all the Dependances of the Exercises of their Families Fourthly To oblige them to Rebuild the Chappels they had Demolished or Prophaned and that not by proceeding against them in general upon that Head but by Suing of particular Persons upon that Score and to Recommend it to the Care of each Bishop in his Diocess Fifthly To hinder the Deputy-General to interpose therein which he believed might be easily effected because the Hugonots could not form a Body in France and that particular Cases ought not to pass for publick ones and that the King would Administer Justice without any Intervention he would not have the Office of Deputy-General supprest but reduce it only to a Name without any effect and that no regard should be had to the General Remonstrances of the Deputy Sixthly To order it so that none of the Reformed should be suffered to dwell in Cities or the Seigniories which did appertain to such as were of their Religion and he would have it so as they could never want specious pretences to colour that Innovation 7thly To suppress by Death the Charges of Councellors among the Reformed Eighthly To send Catholick Commissâ—ries into the Synods and to chuse such Persons for that end as understood Controversie and knew how to foment any Differences which might arise in the Assemblies to allow no National Synods and to require Money of the Ministers for the King's Use under pretence of Loan Tythes or some other Imposition Ninthly To Commence some Law-Suits against them for their Debts in common and to cause some of their Churches to be Sold. Tenthly To Enjoin all the King's Subjects not to depart the Kingdom without leave for the Reformed would be comprehended under such a general Order Eleventhly To prevent any Catholicks by means of the Confessors to put themselves into the Service of the Hugonots Twelfthly To oblige them to observe the Fasting Days under pretence of State Policy for the same reason as they were obliged to keep Holidays Thirteenthly To endeavour to Marry the Reformed into Roman Catholick Families and to take Care that all the Children proceeding from such Marriages were brought up in the Roman Religion Fourteenthly To hinder the Reformed to Sell their Estates in Land for that such sort of Estates being not to be carried away it would oblige them to keep within the Kingdom And Lastly he advised That the University of Saumur should be removed to some other more inconvenient place for which he furnished them with several pretences and he was of Opinion that for lessening the number of Ministers that the Candidates before they were received should be obliged to go through a Course of Philosophy or Study Divinity for Two Years that they should be Examined before no other Commissioners than such as the King should name and that none should be suffered to take the Function upon them till they were twenty-seven Years of Age. I have troubled your Lordship with a long Letter upon this ungrateful Subject but I hope you 'll pardon me since I think it 's not altogether Forreign to what I have some time since writ to your Lordship about the French Courts procedure in reference to the Reformed whom they made it their chief Business to Cajole into a profound Severity that they might have leisure to carry on their Villanous Designs more securely and therefore it was that this Book and the Author of it run the Fate I have already recounted to your Lordship whom I shall always endeavour to oblige to the utmost of my power who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 8. 1676. N. St. LETTER XIII Of the French Preparations for the War in the Year 1672 and how they compleated their Levies My Lord HAving in some measure traced the Methods the French Councils used to settle their Affairs at Home so as to receive no Molestation from Intestine Motions when they should carry their Arms Abroad they began now to set their Instruments more closely to work in their Neighbour Nations but more especially in England and Holland not only to amuse and play upon those that were at the Realm of Government but to feel the Pulse of and tamper with all the several Factions among the People and to make Creatures among them that might manage them upon occasion as might seem most for their purpose while in the mean time they made vast Preparations underhand for War both by Sea and Land and the better to supply the Defects which seemed to be natural to their Native Soldiers caused Levies to be made for them little or great in all the European Nations insomuch as by a List which I have seen it did appear they had in all of Strangers only about an Hundred and Sixty Thousand Men besides Seamen of whom they had likewise Debauched a considerable number from Holland England Denmark and Swedeland These mighty Preparations without any visible Pretension Alarmed all the Powers of Christendom but the most because of the small Contests then in being with the Pope about the Regale and of some Differences then depending about Lorrain and Alsatia as your Lordship well knows imagined the Storm would break towards Italy and part of Germany till the Preparations of the then Bishop of Munster and the Admission of French Garrisons into the Archbishoprick of Cologn and the Naval Preparations which appear'd last of all filled them with Apprehensions somewhat different from the first among which neither England nor Holland were without some Fears both which they took Care to allay as the Minutes shew by exasperating of them afresh by Secret Agents and Emissaries one against another resolving according as their Instruments should prevail on either to join with one against the other But which of the two they should Attack was a long time the Debate of the French Council for one of them it was resolved without Contradiction must be Invaded it being impossible to make any Successful Attempt upon the Empire as long as those Two Countries maintained the Figure and Power they did then and in that untoward Scituation for them too England was then in a very unprepared condition having almost no Navy at Sea and none but the ordinary Forces at Land whereas theirs were all ready
to be Charmed and ever since favoured the French Interest either with or against his Prince as Occasion or Policy directed In fine he was told that the French King indeed tho' he had great Temptations from Opportunity and Interest to Attack England yet such was his Respect and Inclination for our King that he was more disposed to imploy his Forces against Holland And that he might with the surer Success undertake such an Expedition his Majesty earnestly prest the Duke to do his utmost to Influence his Master to join his Naval Forces with him in that War by which means he might Revenge the Disgraces received in the last especially that of Chatham as likewise the fresher Insolencies of that Saucy Republick whose Vicinity and Power was so much the more dangerous to the Brittish Monarchs than to any other Crowned Heads as the Subjects of these Nations were more prone to hanker after the Liberty Enjoy'd by the Hollanders and to imitate their Successful Example That by so doing his Excellency would do his own Prince very great Service and have the Honour of Obliging a great Monarch who was as Generous in his Resentments as Formidable in Power c. The Duke returned Home well satisfied and brought a pleasing Answer to our King and plyed him warmly with the Proposition aforesaid tho' at first he was not much harkned too but how when and by whose means their Designs were afterward Accomplished your Lordship may expect to hear when Conveniency serves from My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris Nov. 30. 1676. N. St. LETTER XVII Of the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans's being sent Anno 1670. from the French Court to dispose the King to a second War with the Dutch in Conjunction with the French My Lord THe French Court having as I told your Lordship in my Last gain'd the Duke of Buckingham entirely to their Interests they began now to conceive some hopes to bring our King to joyn with them against the States at least wise with his Naval Power of which they had most need and therefore to strike while the Iron was hot they deliberated of sending over an Embassador of their own into England to negotiate the Matter but to colour the Intrigue as if they had no Design of their own thereby and to give no Matter of Jealousie to their Neighbours especially the United Provinces It was agreed it should be a Female Embassadress the Kings fair Sister Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans and so give out at the same time she went over purely on a visit to her Royal Brothers and that it was with some seeming Reluctancy the French King upon her earnest Application to him to that Purpose gave his Consent But she was furnished with such Proposals which they knew well that sent her none could with equal safety and privacy Advance nor none with equal Power and Influence recommend and to secure the whole Transaction from the very Suspitions as well as the Penetration of any not of their Cabal and to make it appear as a pure visit and the effect of natural Affection and void of all Intreague her return was limited to so short a Time and in so peremptory and notorious a Manner that it might induce the World to believe them too Suspitious of the natural Inclinations that Princes might still retain for her Royal Brothers and for the Weal of her and their Native Country so incompatible with the exorbitant grandeur of France to entrust her with any of the mysterious Arcana's of their Politicks and so might prevent all Jealousie in England at that critical Juncture of that interview by shewing so great an Apprehension of it themselves She was charged with the same Message partly and with some of the same Arguments which they had endeavoured to insinuate by the Duke of Buckingham but having an incomparable Advantage above him or any other Embassador to back whatsoever she advanced with all the Charms that a most accomplished and lovely Princes and an only and most beloved Sister could be armed with she who had Wit and Dexterity enough to manage those Priviledges to the utmost Advantage not only prest the said Matter and more home and with infinitely more Freedom and Efficacy but adventured to propose yet higher things and of a much more extended Consequence For addressing her Speech to the King though not without intermixing some Expressions equally affecting also to her Brother the Duke of York she told his Majesty that as she hoped neither of her Royal Brothers had any Reason to call in Question her natural Affection to their Persons and inseparable Inclination for whatsoever did or should at any Time appear to her to be conducing to their true Interest so she believed they had as little cause to doubt but she could see as far as another into the French Monarchs Heart who loved her and admired her to that Degree though innocently as gave no small Umbrage to Monsieur his Brother and her Husband And that she did sincerely represent both as his most Christian Majesty's Sence and her own that the only way to secure to his Majesty and the present Royal Family of England a stability in the Throne they were lately Restored to afâ—er so dismal an overthrow of the Monarchy in the Reign and Person of their unhappy Father and to reinstate the Majesty of the Brittish Kings in its former Splendor and Security enjoyed so long and gloriously in Catholick Times was by all Wise and Politick Mâ—ans to labour to introduce into these Kingdoms the Catholick Religion and to re-assume by Degrees absolute Power â—or that the Church of England by woful Experience had been found too weak alone to defend the Crown and that the Dissenters were so stifly Principled for a Common-Wealth that they would never leave till they had once more overturned the Monarchy unless his Majesty would timely provide for his Security by Methods â—o be proposâ—d to him by her and the most Christian King who she knew had the atmost tenâ—erness for his Interest as was clear enoâ—â—h by all Expressions of his real Inclinations â—â—nce they were emancipated from the â—estraints laid upon them under the Tutelagâ— oâ— a Cardinal who was a Master in pure Politicks and altogether unacquainted with those nobler and more heroick Sentiments of Honour and Generosity which are no less natural and unextinguishable in a born Prince then common Reason is in the â—est of Mankind The chief of which expedients were flattering of the Church of England and first persecuting by Act of Parliament the Protestant Dissenters and wheedling with them again by a Prerogative Lenitive and so by the not to be Questioned acceptance of the Suffering Protestants on the one hand and the no less assured Non-opposition of those of the established Church on the other as by an irresistible Charm to lay asleep that watchful Dragon that had so long kept the golden Apples of Contention between the King and People
unprovided The Duke forward enough before but now quite overcome by these pretences became their most earnest Sollicitor anew to the King but tho' he neglected nothing in that case that a Prince of that great influence over his Brother could do to bring him over to consent to the Measures concerted between the French and him He found him still inflexible and averse to a War not out of any disaffection to the Cause but out of a love to ease and a Principle of Fear as I have formerly hinted to your Lordship Upon which the French Council proceeded to their last Master Stroak in this business resolving in case they succeeded not therein in spite of all hazzards to take the opportunity of joyning with Holland to Invade and Conquer England if possible To this end they had all along managed a close Treaty with Holland even while they were endeavouring one in England by the powerful Negotiation of their Friends the De Wits and Lovestein Faction So then still the more to rouse up our King's Resentments or to Force him to make appear to the World that he had indeed none neither for his own Royal Dignity and Honour nor for the Honour or Interest of his Relations and Kingdoms nay not so much as a sense of the preservation of any of them from Dangers tho' never so visible so present and so fatal to all and every of them they put the De Wits on all the efforts they could to keep down the most Ancient and Illustrious Family of Nasâ—aw under the specious pretences of the danger of the Liberty the Commonwealth might one day run from the suspitious Greatness of that House so well deserving of them especially if ever it were so Fortunate as to mount the Throne of Great Britain their incompatible Rival in Naval Power and Trade and with whom by reason of their near Relation to that Crown that House could not but by Inclination and Interest have such a Correspondence as must needs render it imprudent and unsafe in the States to admit the present Prince into the same Honours and important Charges in that Juncture which his Ancestors in the Infancy of the Commonwealth had enjoyed and exercised so much to their Advantage and accordingly what Steps were made by those two Ministers to keep the Prince of Orange from the Possession of the Ancient Honours and Priviledges of his House is too well known to need mention Which Design being thus set on foot by those Ministers the French still the more eagerly to incite them to pursue their Point insinuated to them That the only way to expect the full Accomplishment of their Desires in the total Destruction of that Family would be to cause a new War to be declared against England upon the plausible Pretences and Encouragements before mentioned in which Juncture the People of Holland who in the Prince his Fathers time had begun to conceive an Umbrage of that Family would be the more easily brought to consent to what remained to the utter Depriving and Disinabling them to aspire to any Greatness that might be above their Pity and that by the potent and auspicious Assistance of the French Monarch in that War the States coming to overpower so gloriously their Rival in Trade and to acquire a Possession of so great a share of the British Dominions â—s was projected between them and as they would in all appearance under the Eavour of that present Conjuncture not fail to attain to they the De Wits by procuring the States so â—easonable and powerful an Assistance and pushing them on to a War that should end with so much Glory and Advantage to them would quite â—ulipse the great Services and Merits of the Nassovian and Orangian Heroes in the earlier Years of the Republick and give the said De Wits opportunity by degrees to raise their own Family to the same if not much greater Honours and Priviledges then those that had been so long enjoyed by that illustrious House in which addeth they you may be assured that from time to time you shall never want the friendly Offices and most efficacious Assistances of our invincible Monarch who is no less Constant Generous and Magnificent in his Resentments towards his Allies and Friends then he is Formidable and Inflexible in those towards his Enemies In fine they soothed these miserable ambitious Ministers to that degree and acted that Sham-Treaty with Holland by their means so to the Life that the States not doubting but they were in earnest made all the forward Steps imaginable towards the Alliance proposed and began to Arm by Sea not minding how careless a Posture they left all their Places by Land as dreaming of nothing from France but Friendship and Assistance And accordingly that Faction having with all the Heat and Diligence imaginable concerted and concluded a Treaty with the French Ambassador he like a sly Gamester wheedled them to sign their part in it and sent it forthwith as privately to his Master who said he would not fail immediately to answer them with a Counter-Change telling them that by this means they should shew a great deference to his Dignity and the Figure he made in Europe and testifie their great Confidence in him then which nothing could be more obliging to a Crowned Head especially to him who much more then any other Prince valued himself upon his Honour and Integrity and besides would contribute much to the success of the great Enterprise they were joyntly to go upon because by this means their common Design would be most dexterously concealed from the English Court whom his Master said he amused all this while with a sham-Alliance and hopes of making Peace with you for them c. And so keeping them from Arming for their Defence and so afterwards be executed with such a surprising Celerity on them that they should sooner see the Dutch Fleet on their Coasts and the French Troops on their Land then hear of them The Stratagem took and the Instrument of the said Treaty was with all expedition sent ready Signed by the said Faction to the great Monsieur who promised speedily to answer the Ceremony on his side And now the De Wits and their Party were Cock-a-hoop and were already in hopes sharing their part in the projected Spoil and Division of the English Monarchy when the more politick Monsieur having brought them into the Snare he had laid for them instead of sending back and Signing a Counter-change of the said League to them sent it secretly to his Embassador in England with Orders privately to shew it our King that he might by that be convinced what advances the People he was so hard to be perswaded to wage War with had made to attack him and his Kingdoms as they had already insulted his Person Honour and Relations And how affectionate his Master was to his Majesty who was ready to depart from all the Advantages he might prudentially hope to reap by such an
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
chosen by this Court purely for his Capacity is not to be admitted of You know my Lord the Triple League stuck then close in the French King's stomach and that the danger Religion was in as well as Property from the progress of the French Arms before in the Netherlands contributed very much to the cementing of such an Alliance which this Court were labouring tooth and nail to break to pieces and more especially to get the King of England out of it and to that end Monsieur Ruvigny's Religion he being a Protestant highly recommended him How well he discharged his Commission then I need not recount to your Lordship the Event has sufficiently discovered it to England as well as to Holland's sorrow and to the no small regret of some of those of his own Religion and Fraternity in France It was much about Six years after that the same Marquess was entrusted with another Negotiation at the English Court to no less pernicious an end than the former and I fear at long run with worse effects They had my Lord besides the Instruments I have formerly mentioned for some time before this imploy'd several of their own Hugonots in England for the carrying their Intrigues more effectually on among our Protestants which Hugonots have been the more forward to please and obey the Instructions of their Prince and his Ministers in that they have believed them very compatible with their own particular Interests wherefore they have done all they could to contribute to the Elevation of the Presbyterian Government in our Nation which because the same with their own they have naturally had some desire to see established in a Kingdom so able to protect them and which had hitherto been the great impediment to their extirpation in France But to return from this Digression for which I beg your Lordship's pardon to the Marquess de Ruvigny his Instructions were to endeavour to possess the Protestants in general in our Nation which were now my Lord full of fears of some Secret Designs a brewing between the two Kings in prejudice to their Religion and Civil Rights too that they needed not to be so much concerned at Appearances that it was far enough from the thoughts of his Master to make their King great to his Subjects prejudice and that he was not so zealous for the Roman Religion as they might imagine whereof he was to urge several instances and to endeavour to throw off all the odium from him upon the Pope and the Court of Rome and thereby make them level all their Fears Jealousies and odious Reflections that way to the end that by the Royal Church-Party who had the King's ear they might still secure him further in their Interests and have their helping-hand to carry on those Points they aimed at that way viz. the hindring the Princesses matching with the Prince of Orange and the Offensive Alliance so much feared then and now with the Confederates c. But this was but one Party of the Protestants his Instructions also were to make a particular Interest among the Dissenters and such as inclined to them at the same time that in case they were defeated in the one and saw no likelihood of staving off the other they might have them ready prepared to enter the lists against the former and when War was ready to be declared against France to push them on if possible to raise a Civil Combustion at home and to insinuate into them That the King his Master was willing privately to assist them as his Predecessor had done theirs in the late Civil Wars upon occasion c. in which sort of Negotiation the Marquis was effectually enough seconded by his Countrymen Hugonots then in England and particularly by a man of singular Parts and Learning and exceedingly well versed in Intriegue named Monsieur but on the contrary in case they should have been able by the Royal Party to have been strong and successful enough to gain the two said Points and hinder both the Match and the War which was their business and is still in part to oppose they had Orders to have the same Dissenting Party still ready when King Lewis and his Cousins of England should have had that part of their ends of the Conforming Party to make use of them against them if they would not humour them so far as to suffer themselves to be carried quite back to Rome And because all our Protestants however differently denominated should take no umbrage at any of this Court's Proceedings they thought fit once more to let their Sun as they so often term him to cast some warm beams on the Hugonot Party at home and to entertain them awhile with some Courâ—ly Smiles whereby they have designed to amuse our people and at the same time make their own Protestants to be their Instruments to carry on the Divisions of those who while united are their only Protectors for hitherto while they have had War with the Confederates and chiefly with Holland and are in fear of one with England it being yet out of their power to destroy these people they have thought it their interest not to exasperate them whereby they may be tempted to run over to the Enemy but rather for the present to court them and make them serviceable unto them by working in the very Mines which in all human probability are designed to blow them up withal I will not intrude When Captain E returns I should take it as a singular favour to receive a line from your Lordship and particularly your Sentiments of our Home-affairs by him whom I shall expect with utmost impatience who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 20. 1678. LETTER XXXVI Of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced by the Emperor for Corresponding with the French about the Year 1674. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot be ignorant that during this Intrieguing in England and Canvassing of Designs against our King and Kingdom the War went on on this side with various success but I find England is not the only Country that has been bubbled by the French Emissaries and had its Secrets betrayed I cannot tell any one part of the Confederates that have been exempted but Germany more particularly has suffered in this kind variously but in nothing so remarkably as in the business of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced some time since by the Emperor and which has made so much noise in the World that your Lordship could not but hear of it That he corresponded with this Court there is nothing more certain though when the business was once winded their Emissaries thought it adviseable to be the first Rumorers of it but related the same with Particulars so extraordinary that were scarce credible that thereby they might turn the whole at length into a ridicule But the way of their Correspondence with the said Prince and others in the Empire was so intricate to be fathomed that 't is no wonder the matter
Native Papists of England c. That their designs in regard to the Popish Plot might not be prevented My Lord HOw far the Subject-matter of my last to your Lordship hath relished your Palate I am altogether ignorant but adventuring for once to presume its having proved grateful I have in this as it were subjoyned those Instructions the French Agents have received for the amusement of the Native Papists of England in order to the carrying on of their Designs under the covert of the Popish Plot against our Native Country To them therefore they were to use in substance the same pretences as to the other but with some further additions as That the King and the Duke of York were both certainly gained over to the Church of Rome That the most Leading-Men of the Kingdom and the Men of most Power and Interest both among the Clergy and Gentry of the Church of England were Popishly inclined and would without all doubt come galloping over tantivy to the Church of Rome when it should be a proper time for the King to declare himself upon that Head as being well convinced that Monarchy and Prelacy had no other way to defend themselves against the restless and violent practices and efforts of the Sectaries and Republicans and others their Adherents in the Kingdom but by seasonably re-uniting with the Roman Catholick Party from their unjustifiable Separation and Schism from whence innumerable incurable and endless Divisions Distractions and Factions had proceeded That for their comfort and support it was now much otherwise than in the late Civil Wars against King Charles I. That the present King of France being in a condition to give their now Sovereign King Charles the Second a most powerful and numerons Assistance and being a most Generous Prince and withal most cordially and well-affected to their King as well as to their Cause there was no manner of question to be made but he would effectually do it without any by-ends of his own as soon as a general Peace should give leave by which time things would be ripe in the Kingdom to favour his good Intentions to go on with the Conversion of our Nations yea and would take care to provide a sufficient Body of Troops for the abetting of so hopeful a Work in case there should be any such need of Force but that it was reasonably to be supposed there would need none For that by the help of safer Methods and of Mony which that great and zealous Prince would not let them want for so good a Work the number of the Roman Catholicks must needs be so mightily encreased in a few Years that the King might venture to declare himself in their favour and then by the voluntary return of the Church of England to Rome their Mother Church and by the very dread of the formidable Power of Lewis the Great who was known to be a sure and fast Friend to our two Royal Brothers the other dissenting Factions would be so over-powered with the number of their Opponents and so terrified at their Strength that if it had not the good effect to work them up into a complyance it would at least into such a tameness that they would neither be able to hinder nor have the rashness to oppose what Changes and Innovations the King should afterwards have a mind to make in Church or State and make them Triumphant in England And thus they were to lead them on till they had noosed them fast in a Correspondence with them but not a word was to be told them till they had first sounded them whether they were fit to hear it of any design they had to subject England or enslave the rest of Europe to French Tyranny or of the Murder of King or Duke or both in case they found them not pliable enough to their Instigations or that their abominable Ends could be compassed no other ways to which if they would not be compliant they were then by those Tools to have some of their Correspondence with them discovered and have them accused as if they had been really guilty of what they were only tempted to And so by this means all the considerable Men of them besides some Rascals to make Tools of were to be drawn into a close Correspondence with France and beaten quite off from any application to Rome or correspondence with the House of Austria sliely insinuating that France was the only Power in Christendom that could preserve or support them But the full design they had upon the Nation as before hinted was a Secret imparted but to a very few nay it was not as much as communicated to the Jesuits of the two British Nations but kept almost to the last as an Arcanum among such of them as were Native French except only two or three Irish Fathers and some very few more of that same Nation whom they thought averse enough to the English Name and Nation to be heartily true and constant to any Foreign Interest and Power capable to support and effectually to back them in the bloodiest and blackest Contrivances against their detested Conquerors for rather than fail to such horrid Tragedies they were determined by some means or other to proceed if they could no otherwise effect their wicked Purposes and could have found a way to fix the Crime as they had projected on some other Party and Nation My Lord I have been tedious but could not avoid it I design without a Countermand to transmit to Your Lordship in my next the applications made to rhe Protestant Party upon the same Head and in the mean time remain My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Mar. 17. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the French Artifices to amuse the Protestants of the Church of England while they carried on their Designs My Lord PUrsuant to my Resolutions in the close of my last Letter without I received a Countermand from your Lordship which I have not I am to acquaint you what this Court 's Maxims were and what Methods they went upon either to make the Protestants of the Church of England helpful to their Designs or at least to do them no disservice and be no obstruction to them therein To the Clergy therefore and Gentry of the forementioned Church whom they imagined there was any likelyhood to pervert they were to alledge most of the same things as before as Arguments to perswade and induce them to return to the Bosom of their Church and would argue much from the agreement in many things of both Religons and were Instructed sometimes not only first to insinuate and then affirm the King was actually Perverted but were moreover impudently to assert That such and such Bishops such and such Eminent Doctors such and such Peers of the Realm and such and such remarkable Gentlemen for Interests Estates and exquisice Parts c. were to their knowledge certainly and infallibly so too tho' at present but covertly and That a greater part of
their Church whatever they might suggest with themselves to the contrary than they were aware of or was easily indeed to be imagined were of the same Sentiments but that they were under a restraint and durst not declare themselves to be such for fear of the Mobile and of the Presbyterians other Sectaries and Republican Parties which like so many evil Spirits presided over those Savage kind of Animals and stirred them as they pleased themselves against their Superiors But to those My Lord whom they found to be of the more inflexible sort they were instructed to make use of great Flatteries and Complements and to acquaint them that they had a great deal of reason to love the Roman Catholicks as the Roman Catholicks had to do so by them for that they had had for a long time the same Common Enemies had suffered much with them conjointly for the same Royal Cause in the late Rebellions that their Adversaries were numerous enough to require their united Power and Strength against them and that their subtilty was no less to be dreaded by them whose effects could not be warded off without such a double Force that there was much more danger to the Church and State of England and to the Monarchical Government now from the Sectaries than from their Church for it was plain to any one that was but willing to see That it was now no more the Roman Catholicks Interest since they were out of all hopes of being the predominant Religion in the Kingdom to act against the Church or State of England under whom they had such mild Treatment but much rather to join and fall in with them against the Sectaries and Common-wealth's-men under whom they could never expect any thing but utmost Rigour and Cruelty That it being impossible for them alone to support and maintain themselves in England against so great a number of Sectaries as were with the greatest inveteracy imaginable animated against them without the Protection of the Church of England and the Monarchy tho' but by way of Connivence It was therefore so much their Concern and real Interest to Pray for and endeavour after the Prosperity of both Parties tho' different in Perswasion that they had no reason to fear any thing from them nor be alarm'd at the Conversions they had happened to make which were so few and inconsiderable as never to be able to do them hurt had it been so designed as it was not That there was no danger neither from the French King's Friendship or close Alliance with their King it being the only Foreign Security as matters then stood that he could have against the intriegues and power of the United Provinces who not only ruined their Commerce by Sea but were the only People that buoyed up and supported the Sectaries and Republican Party and harboured and abetted all Designs both against the Church and State of England under the then Monarchy it being their inseparable Interest in all things to thwart the English almost in every particular they valued themselves upon in the present Establishment Whereas there was no exception to be made but that it was his Most Christian Majesty's undoubted Advantage and fixed Interest to cultivate by all good Offices the said Friendship and Alliance and to avoid by all manner of means any Rupture or Mis-intelligence with England and to oppose above all things the change of our Monarchy into a Republick In the last place continued they Whereas there had been for some time Reports spread not only of the Duke's but the King himself 's being of their Perswasion they were to give out to this sort of Men that that was only a suspicion and as they really believed ill-grounded enough for tho' they had reason to wish them and all Mankind else of their Opinion in that case yet they had no such reason to think them so but that the King 's having shewed some favour to them upon the score of their Sufferings for and Fidelity to his Father and himself and out of respect to the Most Christian King with whom he was so closely Alli'd for his better support and establishment against the enemies of Monarchical Government was the only grounds People had had for such Rumours which were industriously fomented only by the Authors of the former Fears and Jealousies against his Father in order to get an opportunity thereby once more to destroy the Regal Government And that they made this noise indeed against Popery but levelled it only at Episcopal and Kingly Government not at such contemptible Adversaries as the Roman Catholicks were at that time of day Then as for the Duke they were to affirm They thought and had reason to believe he was no more a Catholick than the King but that being a Prince of an high and inflexible Spirit and Heir presumptive to the Royal Diadem disdained to be compelled by any Subjects either to take an Oath or give any account of his Religion only to gratifie their Humours and Fancies and chose rather to forbear acting in any publick Employment But that for their part as he had not yet declared against the Church of England so he had as yet made no profession of the Roman Catholick Religion as they knew of but took care to keep himself as much reserved towards them as towards those of the Protestant Perswasion By such sort of Sophisiry and cunning Artifices thrse French Incendiaries were instrumental to endeavour to Keep up the Stiff Church Party in a perpetual Animosity against the Protestant Dissâ—nters and Dutch Party as both of a Party and to stir up the Government to side still with the French Interest against the power and growth of the one and provide with severity against the Practices of the other in order to exasperate as much as possibly they could the Spirits of both Parties against the other and widen the Breaches beyond all possibility of restoring them again Which how well they have already effected is but too well known and no less sorely felt in the Bowels of the Kingdom for me to take upon me to Descant upon and therefore I shall forbear and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant to Command Paris Mar. 28. 1682. LETTER XLIV Of the French Intrigues to raise a good Opinion in the Protestant Dissenters of England of the French King 's Proceedings and to Calumniate their own King My Lord I Am come to the last Body of Men within the Kingdom whom this Court by such like Engines as I formerly mentioned has endeavoured to manage for to serve their own turn to the Kingdom 's disadvantage and they are the Protestant Dissenters but they were necessitated to give the less umbrage to change their shapes and form of expression to those of that Party whom they had the design upon and to whom they closely and warmly remonstrated That they had no occasion to be jealous of the Proceedings of France and be animated so
fiercely against King Lewis if they would but once consider the great Liberty and Priviledges which their Protestant Brethren enjoy'd in the French Dominions their former assisting the oppressed Protestant Dutch and other Protestant States against the Bloody Inquisitors and Unchristian Inquisition the severe Persecutions of the House of Austria the frequent differences of France with the Court of Rome and the little power the Pope was allowed in the Gallican Church no more than what was Titular and that if these things were but duly weighed it might be more than presumed the present French King would little concern himself or any way intermeddle with Religious Contests in England But that whatever opinion they might have of that Neighbouring King to his disadvantage which yet did but little affect or concern him they had on the contrary much occasion to look about them at home and to that end these Emissaries were to promote tooth and nail the belief of the King and Duke's being both Papists but particularly to affirm that the Duke was most certainly of that Religion and at the same time to discover assured Evidences of it as also of the Measures concerted to bring in both Popery and Arbitrary Power and really to detect some Measures which themselves had as yet but only projected or at least but proposed and that too but to the Duke only as if they had been fully consented to and begun underhand to be put in practice And having once well imprest this they were to exaggerate the greatness and eminency of the danger the more to alarm them and slily to insinuate that an Accommodation was Transacting between the two Churches of Rome and England and a thousand other Artifices they us'd besides to animate each Party against the other too tedious for your Lordship to read or me to relate neither need I tell you how they traversed one another's designs only I must Note Sir Roger L'Estrange and almost all the Writers for that side under a pretence of serving the Church of England and the Monarchy and some also of the other Party though unknown to themselves were and are still but the unhappy Tools and Instruments of French Jesuits and Machiavillian Emissaries who were the main Conjurers that by undiscovered Spells have raised up those Devils of Discord that under the Names of Whigs Tories and Trimmers have so much disturbed our Native Country and the LORD knoweth where it will terminate I am glad to hear your Lordship hath so well exerted the Caution and Prudence inherent in your Family in these times of difficulty and may it be so still which is the hearty desire of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris April 8. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Duke of York's being drawn into a close Correspondence with the French Court with an Account of his Pension from thence My Lord I Cannot think your Lordship will so much admire that the Duke should suffer himself to engage into a close Correspondence with the French Court yea and to enter into a separate Treaty with them when other things more unlikely have been made evident enough so as not to be contradicted I cannot tell at present whether there be any other particulars of this same Treaty than what has come within my Cognizance but so much as has as I hope it will be acceptable I as freely communicate and was in substance as followeth First The Duke was engaged to stick close to his Alliance with France declining all Treaties with those of the House of Austria and even with the Pope himself without the French King's Privity and Approbation Secondly To oppose to the utmost of his Power the King his Brother from engaging in any War for the Confederates Thirdly To joyn with him the French King in making a strong Effort to draw in if possible the Prince of Orange to embrace a separate Interest from that of the States of Holland and if not to come over to the Roman Religion at least to enter into a separate Treaty with the Kingdoms of France and England under a pretence of laying a sure foundation for his own future Greatness and establish it on both sides the Sea by the suppression of all Factions which now disturbed his Uncle and might afterward disturb him and in case he proved still obstinate to second him in all Methods that might be used to hinder his Succession to the Crown of England by hindring any Match that might be proposed between the Prince and the Princess Mary and that he should for that purpose keep off Matching either of his Two Daughters upon several pretences to gain time till a fit juncture might come when Matches might be accomplished for them both with French Princes or some other Princes in that Interest viz. the eldest to the Dauphin and the younger to the Duke of Savoy or a Prince of the Houses of Conde or Conti or to the Duke of Modena Fourthly That the Duke should do his utmost to have the Government of his Children himself and to have them Tuâ—ored if possible in his own Religion and if they were obstinate in case he should sail of other Issue then they would have had him to exclude them and Adopt the Duke of Chartres for his Heir but this was only proposed and Intail the Crown thence forward to Heirs Male only and to have the Salique Law Established in England as well as in France but and if he should not be powerful enough to hinder a Match with the Prince of Orange or some other Protestant Prince but of the former they were most jealous then to concur with them to cut him off but this point would not be formally assented to neither But all Points proposed were on his part easily assented to As doing his utmost for the propagation of the Catholick Religion pursuing Measures concerted for dividing of Protestants undermining of Parliaments and putting forward Arbitrary Counsels without reserve and particularly to raise Arms in Scotland and Ireland and call in French Forces in case the King should at any time by any Motives whatsoever be influenced to act to the French King's prejudice Lastly The Duke was to take care That no Popish Clergy or Layety should be imploy'd by him but such as were in the French Interests and trust his main Secrets with none but such as were French-born Jesuits on which Conditions he was to have a considerable Annuity of Six hundred thousand Crowns and extraordinary Sums when necessary and the circumstances of things did require to carry on any of the forementioned Points even to what he pleased himself to demand So all things being thus concluded he received in hand Three hundred thousand Crowns of his Annuity and Six hundred thousand Crowns extraordinary and Jewish Bankers were accordingly imployed to transmit the Money to him from time to time Besides all which the French King's Confessor promised him a private Contribution from the Clergy
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
King would be involved in equal Trouble on that Account as on the other For that if she were given to the Prince of Orange without first engaging him in the Interests of France that thereby he would have a double Claim to the Crown that of Course the King his Brother must be drawn into a War with France and that by so doing both the Royal Brethren would lose for ever the French King's Friendship and Support in case of Extremity which they would infallibly be reduced to by such a War or by but making a Shew of it For if it went on whether there were Cause or no there would be Jealousies of the Duke 's Corresponding with France yea and of the King too And that after all such a Match would be interpreted but for a piece of Policy only to hide from the People their Correspondence with France and would never cure their Jealousies nor take off the Fears they had of a Popish Succession by his new Dutchess but add Strength and Courage to them to oppose Remedies against it That thereupon when they had the King once in a War they would not give him any Money to carry it on unless they saw the laying of it out and had in a manner the Administration of the War in their own Hands in which His Highness would be but a Cypher and would never be trusted That then not content with that it was not to be doubted but that the Exclusion of himself and of his Heirs by the Second Bed unless educated in the Protestant Religion would likewise be hotly urged in the next place in favour of a Protestant Prince so doubly Allied to the Crown of England a professed Enemy of France and a Native of Holland the Country next their own so much adored by them That such an Alliance would strengthen that Faction that was already but too strong That such an Exclusion being press'd the King must either grant it or deny it if he granted it as it was to be feared he might then was His Highness and the Heirs of his Religion lost without Recovery and then it would be out of the French King's Power as well as Inclination to assist him after having been so disobliged against the Power of England and Holland united neither could he propose that Advantage to himself be it as it will That if the King should resist the said Importunity about Exclusion that then he would expose himself to the Distractions of a Civil War which might end both in the Ruin of the Royal Family and the Monarchy it self for that the Republicans would not fail to lift up their Crests again in those Troubles And that besides the Interest of the Prince of Orange the Duke of Monmouth being already very popular might be tempted by so fair an Opportunity to put in for a Pretender to the Succession and that it was not impossible that the King if he saw him favoured by the People might be tempted too to prefer the Interest of a Son before that of a Brother and a Brother too for whom he must be necessitated to undergo so much Vexation and Trouble and run so great a Risque to defend That in the mean while England being in a War with France that King instead of helping him must be obliged in his own Defence to foment those Troubles and abet his Enemies That perhaps he might think some of these Fears but imaginary but that His Highness might assure himself they had better Intelligence than he in that Case and were very well satisfied that all the said Parties were ready disposed and had concerted all their Designs against him and that they were abetted by Men of the greatest power and Interest in the three Kingdoms and then of what Power and Influence such plausible and popular Pretensions would be among the People when promoted and advanced by such Men His Royal Highness could not be ignorant of That therefore all summed up and duly compared the Dangers attending the Espousing his Daughter to the Prince of Orange were as great if not considerably greater than those that would be incurred by giving her up to the Disposal of the French King for more could not be feared from that than what had been mention'd Therefore they conjured him as he tender'd his own Good and Safety or that of his Posterity or of his Brother or lastly of the hopeful Beginnings of the Catholick Religion in these Kingdoms that he should be persuaded and also persuade his Brother to take the Council of France both in the Disposal of the Princess and other things relating thereto for that the Danger of adhering to the French King was no greater than that on the other side but that the Assistance on his side would be great and powerful as well as Cordial whereas it never could be in the other Party's Power much less in their Interest or Inclination to afford him any Succour in his Troubles but rather to add Oil to the Flame And above all never to be so rash as to suffer himself to be tempted to consent to a War against France for that the Factions would then have their Ends of him as having a full Opportunity put into their hands thereby to compleat his Ruin without Controul These were the Arguments used to His Royal Highness against the March with the Prince of Orange And with which I shall at present conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble Servant Paris Aug. 4. 1679. N. S. LETTER LVIII Proposals made to the Duke of York about consenting to have his Daughter the Lady Mary privately Trapanned into France c. My LORD I Gave in my last to your Lordship a Relation of the Remonstrances used to the Duke in general against his consenting to have his Daughter married to the Prince of Orange I shall now endeavour to oblige your Lordship with some new Proposals made to him upon that Head 1. That the Duke should use all the Power and Interest he had with the King his Brother to let his Daughter the Lady Mary take a Voyage into France to take the Waters of Bourbon or else to consent she might be privily sent away by the Duke as against his Knowledge and Will and that then they would get her speedily married which putting things past Retrieve Matters might the better by good Management be composed and made up to all their Satisfactions 2. That to this purpose the French King would send a most splendid Embassy into England of one of the chief Peers of his Realm with a very numerous Train of choice Nobility But if the King consented publickly to that Proposition the Princess might go over in the said Ambassador's Company Or if he gave private Consent she might be conveyed away as in the first Article 3. If the King should by no means consent to it that then the Duke should contrive a Way to get her seized and shipped off at the Ambassador's Departure without
the King's Privity or Knowledge 4. That if it were done by the King's Consent the Sum of Five and twenty Millions of Livres should be without fail remitted to him at two Payments the first as soon as the Princess should arrive in the Kingdom of France and the other three Months after And that the King and Duke in that Case should seem highly concerned and disposed to declare War against France on that Account and with the Money sent raise Forces as if it were for the War and call to the Parliament for Mony to maintain it which if they granted to take it there was no doubt of their Consent to that After which the French King was to send a very submissive Embassage to England offering to make ample Satisfaction for the Injury and to strike up a Peace with Holland at any rate Upon which our King was to take upon him to be appeased and to pretend the Dutch were in the fault that he did not make War 5. That then if there should happen any Motions for Exclusion that His Majesty might make use of the Money and of the Forces raised as aforesaid for his own Security And that if any Rebellion happen'd he might be assured the French King would send him both Men and Money enough in case of Need. 6. That if it were done without the King's Consent he the Duke should pretend himself wholly ignorant of the Rape and seem as much concerned as the King for Satisfaction 7. But that if the King should be so displeased with His Highness as to side with the adverse Party against him after he had stood his Ground as long as he could and made as many Friends as was possible that then he should privately retire to Scotland or Ireland and raise Arms there where he should be powerfully assisted both with Men and Money from the French King who would likewise use Means to raise Divisions among his Enemies by several Methods they had concerted and suddenly discourage them all by an unexpected Peace with Holland tho' there was but little Prospect that Things should come to this Extremity 8. That the Princess still the better to appease the Heats in England should upon her Marriage have in ample manner a Protestant Chapel allowed her and that at the same time the Protestants in the Kingdom of France should be used with extraordinary Kindness and Favour for her sake till a general Peace or other fiâ— time to take off the Mask were come 9. That the better to take off the Edge of the English Fury to a War with France besides the Peace to be made between the French and the Dutch a third War was to be raised by the Hollanders against England and they put with might and main upon new Encroachments and Insolencies against the English 10. That the better to cover all this the Duke was not only to make a Semblance but really to go to the Protestant Church again and to give out with a full Cry that he had been most maliciously traduced and that he never was reconciled to the Church of Rome and that his Non-compliance in some things lately put upon him did only arise in that he conceived such things were not to be imposed upon a Prince as on a Subject I have had the Opportunity my Lord to see several other things of lesser Consequence projected here for the Management of this Affair to the Interest of the French Court with which I shall not trouble your Lordship and remain My LORD Your very humble Servant Paris Aug. 13. 1679. N. S. LETTER LIX Arguments used by the French Emissaries in England to the Royal and Church of England Party against the matching of the Lady Mary with the Prince of Orange My LORD THe French Emissaries finding notwithstanding the strong opposition made by them to the matching of the Lady Mary with his Highness the Prince of Orange as I have some time since informed your Lordship that there was a very strong Current in the Nation for that Allyance and having informed their Principals in the French Court therewith they had fresh Instructions sent them to gain if possible the time desired by them which was till a General Peace were concluded and to ply the Royalists and high Members of the Church of England not only close upon that Head but their Instructions were reduced to these Branches 1. They were to represent the Match as dishonourable and too much reflecting on the Honour of Crowned Heads to match a Daughter in so fair a way to be Heiress to three Crowns to a Prince who was not only no Sovereign but descended of a Family which had distinguished it self chiefly by heading a Rebellion against his lawful Prince and who was himself but the chief Officer of a Government so hateful to all Kings as a Common-Wealth and that of one founded by Rebellion too that such an Allyance must needs be more particularly dishonourable to the Royal Family of England which had so lately and deeply suffered by a Rebellion moved against it by their own People chiefly out of an Emulation to be like those Rebels That indeed King Charles I. did match his Daughter to the present Prince of Orange's Father but it was because he was involved in Troubles and had not time or opportunity to dispose of her better and thought by that Match to please the people appease the Faction animated against him and by such a protestant Match allay the Jealousies conceived of his being popishly inclined or having Leagued with popish Powers to their prejudice and lastly obtain some Assistance from the States of Holland in his Distress and yet that after all his projection hereby that Match was condemned by most of his Friends as highly Dishonourable and of very ill Example and Consequence and is charged upon him as one of the great Errours of his Reign and therefore by no means to be reiterated by a new one of the same kind 2. They were to remonstrate That the Prince of Orange was bred in Presbyterian Principles and to exaggerate with all the terrible Circumstances that could be supposed the danger the Church of England and Episcopacy would be in by the accession of such a Prince to the Crown Presbyterians being no less passionate Enemies to the Church of England than Papists and being much the more dangerous of the two as being incomparably the more numerous the strange success they lately had in effecting so total a Subversion as they did of the Episcopal Church in the last Reign under rebellious Leaders being too sensible a proof of both what they could and what they would do again more effectually and more irrecoverably when headed by a lawful Superior and strengthned by the assistance of their Brethren in Holland This my Lord is the substance of the Instructions sent from hence to their Emissaries in England for the managing of the forementioned part and with which I shall conclude this Epistle who am My
it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
further expressions of his Mind upon that occasion that plainly discover'd that such a Zeal in the Prince was esteem'd unseasonable and not free from Suspition With which and a grateful acknowledgment of all your Lordship's Favours to me and my Family upon all occasions I shall now conclude and for ever remain My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant Paris August 24. 1685. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Methods proposed and Arguments used to King James for carrying on the Dispensing power My Lord THAT the King intends to Assume a Power into His Hands of Dispensing with Penal Laws against Recusants I believe your Lordship may be sensible of by this time since it 's manifest that notwithstanding the Parliaments Remonstrance to the contrary he retains the Popish Officers still in his Service and that it is so far from being a Secret here that I can oblige your Lordship with some of those Methods and Arguments suggested to him by the Agency of this Court to carry it onward wherein it 's more then whisper'd here he has fully acquiesced It was thought advisable considering the violent Humour of the Nation against the admission of such Persons either into Military or Civil Offices and that all the Cry was That the King had not kept his Word but did thereby Infringe their Laws and Liberties to bring the matter into Westminster-Hall to have the Dispensing Power there Argued upon a particular Case but to make sure of the Judges before-hand to Favour such a Procedure the King was told could he gain such a Point his business were done for ever tho' at the same time it was his undoubted Prerogative to dispense with Laws being an Essential right and an usage in England as ancient as the Kingdom that it was in being at all times and in all Reigns that there were several Acts wherein there had been Provision made for such a Reservation to the King that the Term of Nonobstante which was so common was always a Dispensing with some Law that the Commutation of Punishments are no less a proof thereof And how much more were Remissions Pardons the Restoration of Criminals to their Goods again c That there were Presidents to be met with wherein the King 's of England had suspended the Effects of Laws not only by Dispensations regarding particular and single persons but by a general Suspension in regard to the whole Kingdom That his Brother had done so in cases of the Statute relating to Carriages whereof there was not the least complaint in Parliament neither was it so much as once said that he had thereby exceeded the Just bounds of His Authority That the same had been done by Henry the Seventh his Great Ancestor and Solomon of England in respect to the Act that prohibited the Continuation of Sheriffs in their Office above One Year which in Council was declared null and impracticable because that thereby the King was divested of of his Regal Power in disposing his Subjects I do not question my Lord but you will soon hear of the effects of such Council but whether to your satisfaction therein I have as great reason to doubt as I have a desire to promote it and ever shall to the best of my power who am My Lord your very humble servant Paris Nov. 13. 1685. N. S. LETTER VI. Of the Unjust Complaints of the French Clergy against the Reformed in France My Lord THE Ruin of the Reformed in this Kingdom is as much precipitated as that of a Protestant Church is designed somewhere else and which I believe your Lordship by this time is pretty well perswaded of and to this end the Popish Clergy have accosted the King with a severe Remonstrance against them the sum whereof for want of more entertaining News I shall write to your Lordship at this time They began with the hardiest Lie they could have invented saying That there was nothing included in their Complaint but what was most necessary and could be most clearly jnstified and made good Whereas it is most evident that every title of it tends to Destroy and Persecute and is grounded upon the most manifest Falsities in the World then they begin to charge the Reformed with Calumniating and falsly Accuting the Catholicks that they did not believe the Truths of the Faith as they express it whereas the Protestant Divines here have so far been complyant as to testifie from time to time that the Roman Church retained still those Truths that were Essential to Christianity In that she makes Profession to Believe in one God in three the Incarnation of the Son of God the Redemption of Sinners by the Price of his Blood and divers other Articles contained in the Antient Creeds then they proceeded saying That the design of the Pastoral Advertisement in 1681 was to oblige the Reformed to acknowledge that their Separation was not grounded but upon Suppositions and Jealousies and they hugged themselves that the many Conversions which had been wrought since that time have been almost all procured by this consideration which they call an Invincible Argument that as there could never have been any Just Cause of Separation all those alleadged by the pretended Reformed could never have any sollidity That the Protestant Ministers did their utmost to hinder the People to profit by that same Advertisement either by deterring of them from Reading of the same or else by giving false Explications thereof as they were wont to do of the Holy Scriptures and Works of the Fathers Adding farther That the Exercise of the Reformed Religion had been permitted by the King's Predecessors provisionally only and by reasons which have no longer subsistance that tho' the Clergy had very good Reasons to urge it so as to require a Revocation of the Edicts which contained this permission yet that it was not their present design to insist upon that Point that it was now the only favour they pray'd for for to repress the Calumnies of the Reformed against the Roman Church which were not and which could not be allowed by any Edict being an unhappy Liberty which the Ministers themselves might be ashamed of that such a supposition and Calumny were Crimes Condemn'd by all Laws both Humane and Divine and that the Reformed durst not maintain that those excesses ought to be permitted nor to make their Complaints if the King should forbid them to commit them Then they went to speak of the Method they had thought on to make the King acquainted with the truth of their Complaints they drew up in Two Collumnes the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that which they said the Reformed imputed to them to the end it might be easier for the King to compare them and said most Malignantly That they had avoided the Relating of many thing which exceeded all the bounds of Modesty and which St. Paul himself would not have as much as named amonâ— the Faithful to the end they might create a Suspicion by these
pretended Calumnies of somewhat that was yet blacker then what had appear'd in the passages which they had recited They protested that they would never have made any complaint of the Reformed had the matters in question referred only to the Persons of the Bishops and that on the contrary they would have been content to be deprived of their Power in order to testifie by their Patience and voluntary Forgetfulness of those Outrages that were done them that singular Charity which they retained for them but that they could not neglect the Honour of the Church attack'd by the Calumny of the Ministers nor the Conversion and Salvation of a great number of her Children which they retained in the Error of their false suppositions wherefore they concluded after all that the King would be pleased to repress a Malignity that was so contrary to the Principles of Christianity as also to the Rules of Natural Justice and that consequently 1. That he would renew the Prohibitions already made to the Reformed of using Injurious and Opprobrious Terms in speaking of the Articles and Mysteries of the Roman Faith 2. That he should forbid them to attribute to the Catholick Faith any other Doctrine then that of its profession of Faith nor any of those Errors which they had had till then the rashness to impute unto her You need not doubt my Lord of the Success of this Remonstrance and of a Declaration in time Answering all the Points hereof to the full There is room enough for Reflecting upon the Courts Conduct herein but I shall forbear that part leaving it entirely to your Lordship 's known Wisdom and Judgment and crave leave both now and always to profess how much I am and desire to approve my self to be My Lord Your Honours to Serve and Obey Paris Nov. 27. 1685. N. S. LETTER VII Of the Declaration put out by the French King upon the Remonstrance of the Popish Clergy against the Reformed the Month of August 1685. My Lord I Have in my last to your Lordship of â—uly the 27th N. S. taken notice of the Popish Clergy's Unjust complaint to the French King against the Reformed here and now I shall with presuming on your good Leave give you some hints upon the Declaration that was Publish'd here some days ago in Conformity to the said Remonstrance to which the King condescended so far that the Motives thereof are almost drawn word for word from the Request it self All sorts of Persons are thereby strictly forbid to Preach and Write against the Faith or the Doctrine of the Romish Church and to lay to the Catholicks Charge those Opinions which they allow not of and not so much as to speak directly nor indirectly any manner of way whatsoever concerning the Catholick Religion enjoyning the Reformed Ministers to Teach only in their Sermons the Tenets of their own Religion and Rules of Morality without the intermixture of any other matter whatever But alas the Mischief did not stop here for all persons are Prohibited to Print Sell or Lend any other Books concerning Religion besides such as contain the Profession of their Faith their Prayers and ordinary Rules of their Discipline It doth moreover Order the Suppression of all such Books as have been Written against the Catholick Religion by those of the pretended Reformed Religion and strictly forbids either to Print or Lend any such Books for the future those Ministers and others of the Reformed that make default herein are liable to great Fines perpetual Banishment and the Confiscation of all their Goods the Places where the Ministers should Preach against the Articles of the Edict to lose the Right they had to exercise the same function for ever and the Printers and Booksellers in case of their Offending in any kind to forfeit Five Hundred Livres and for ever to lose the Freedom of keeping open Shops And thus My Lord you see this Court has shut up the Ministers Mouths in all matters of Controversy and leave that Liberty only to the Roman Catholick Divines thereby preparing of them for an assur'd Victory and hereby besides That the Ministers are reduced to be silent and not to concern themselves as to the greatest part of the Articles of the Confession of their Faith which consists in the Rejection of the Tenets of the Church of Rome as false and contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel that they might effectually preclude them from the Right they had to complain of this unjust dealing the King by way of addition in the Preface to his Edict to the Reasons which the Clergy's Petition had suggested to Him has incerted That it was enough for the Ministers of a Religion tolerated in the Kingdom to teach their own Tenets without being carried into Disputes against the Publick and Prevailing Religion which also is therein call'd the True One But one should think this Edict were as needless as many others seeing there are not now past twenty Reformed Churches in the Kingdom where they have Liberty to Preach but there seems to be an hidden Design couch'd under it and it is justly to be fear'd That after they have suppress'd the Reformation in all the Countries under the French Dominions they have hereby made Provision That the Doctrine of Truth shall not be maintained in private Families and never have that means to rise up again out of its Ruins by the Reading of such Books as Teach it wherefore they have taken care to prepare Reasons for the Depriving the Reformed of Books of this Nature and to Establish a kind of an Inquisition over their works which shall not concede to any one the Liberty either to read them or keep them by him But of this I shall be able to give a fuller Account in my Next and shall therefore defer it and so I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Sep. 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER VIII Of the Suppression of Protestant Books in France My Lord I Have in the close of my last Letter to your Lordship hinted somewhat concerning the Suppression of Protestant Books in this Kingdom I have since seen a Catalogue which contained almost Five Hundred Authors whose Works are all Condemn'd Some men in the World love to put the Cheat upon themselves so they here to heighten the Number of such Books have repeated some of them more than once but they have been also as careful to forget several others as the Works of the Learned Grotius Vossius and many more whose Writings are opposite to the Roman Church but your Lordship I believe is no stranger to the â—ly Practise of that Church on this head and how the Members of it have of a long time endeavour'd to perswade the World That these Illustrious Persons had re-entred into their Party That they were willing to retain an Honourable Remembrance of their Names tho it be certain in the main that the greatest part of what they had Writ was as remote from Truth as
least of their thoughts to come to an entire abolition of the Reformed's Privileges and put Constraints upon their Consciences in Religious matters I wish it may prove so the event will discover it When this hardship was put upon the Physitians the Chyrurgeons and Apothecaries every where began to look about them and were terribly afraid their turns would be next they had just reason for it my Lord for not many days were elaps'd since the Publication of the former but comes out an Order of Council Prohibiting all Chyrurgeons and Apothecaries who made Profession of the Reformed Religion to exercise their Art neither by themselves nor by the Interposure of other Persons directly or indirectly nor consign their Privileges to another nor by any other way or means whatsoever insinuating that the exercise of such Trades gave them easie admission into Mens Houses and by that means hindred the Conversion of other Religionaries And thus my Lord the Art of Physick and those others dependant thereon are looked upon as the last Resourses of the Reformed Religion here and this has Administred occasion to some Persons to shew their Wit and to divert themselves with such Frigid Pleasantries saying That the Reformed Religion was at the Point of Death that the Chyrurgeons and Apothecaries could do no more for her and that there was no doubt to be made but that she should in time be abandoned by the Physitians also Your Lordship having exprest no Dissatisfaction with my keeping up my Correspondence with you in things of this kind for want of more agreeable Matter for your Information has enbolden'd me to accost you again in this manner and gives me farther Incouragement to be assiduous to get the most certain Intelligence I can as well as fresh opportunities to profess how much I am desirous My Lord to serve you whilst Paris Sept. 20. 1685. LETTER XI Of Iealousies raised in the Reformed in France that there was a design form'd to Massacre them My Lord THings are now carried on in this Kingdom with so high an hand against the Reformed Churches as to threaten an entire Destruction of them in a very short time It has been a matter debated and hesitated upon for a long time whether they should send their Dragoons amongst them and make use of that Expedient since their Lives and Popish Arguments fail'd them to reduce them to Re-unite with the Romish Church They were not without their fears least when they should send Armed Men in that manner and to that end to those parts of the Country wherein the Protestants were in greatest Numbers and to many Rich and Populous Cities where almost all the Inhabitants are of that Perswasion they might meet with some unexpected Resistance which might constrain them to Abandon their Enterprise or come to a down right Massacre There is indeed a Rumor whisper'd up and down That there has been secret Applications made to the King That considering the Resistance which the Reformed might make to his Orders and the little success which his Designs had already and was like to meet with in preventing their Retreat out of the Kingdom That it were a much surer more expeditious and better way for him to be rid of them by a Massacre Nay my Lord it 's confidently said and I have some Moral Assurance of it that the Orders were given and the Letters drawn already when a Prince of the Blood coming to hear of such Barbarous Resolutions had the Courage to Remonstrate to the King the Evil as well as the Dishonour of it and goodness enough not to leave importuning of him till the Orders were Revok'd and the Letters supprest I cannot be so positive as I would in giving his Name to your Lordship some saying it was the Renowned Prince of Conde but others attribute it to his Nephew the Prince of Conti both of them Persons of great Honour always and as likely either of them to concern themselves in that behalf as any in the Kingdom but whatever stop may have been put to the Jesuitical Fury hereby I think they have begun to discharge it by their Dragoons almost in as Barbarous a manner who have been already guilty of a Thousand Violences and the Almighty alone knows where it will Terminate I beg your Lordship's Pardon if I am any ways troublesome by such Relations and beg leave to subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant Paris Sep. 24 1685 N. S. LETTER XII Of the Violences offered to and the Stratagems used against the Reformed of Bearn My Lord THE Protestant Churches in the Province of Bearn had been several Years ago under some sham pretences or other reduced to the Number of Five and the Parliament from time to time have endeavour'd to render them of no use by the Imprisonment and Silencing of their Ministers but now there has been such a prank plaid for Converting some of the Inhabitants to the Popish Church as I think hardly has ever been Practised by any other People in the known World For the Intendant of the Province having made use of a Notorious Fellow to carry on the Work he deludes some of the People to go with him to a Tavern and there by his Artifice found the way to make them Drunk Next Day when they were come to themselves he goes and tells them That they had promised him they would go to Mass and that if they pretended to deny it they would be sure to be Treated as Apostates That they had besides spoken ill of the Government and the Ministers of Religion and that the only way for them to escape a severe Punishment which they had made themselves lyable to was to Conform to the Church of Rome There was about Fifty of them that were catched with this simple Wile whereof the Intendant Vaunted so much that he has Writ to Court that there is so General an inclination in the whole Province to become Catholicks That the King has no more than to Testify his desire they should do so for him to see the whole Country Embrace the Roman Communion And so having obtained such farther Orders as he desired he has caused an Assembly of New Converts to meet together at Muslac and hath Ordered the Civil Magistrates of the Neighbouring Places to cause the Reformed of their respective Parishes to come thither under pretence of hearing a Sermon which the Bishop of Lescar was to Preach there Now the Bishop my Lord as is well known is fitter for a Play-house than a Pulpit and a Sermon of his Preaching was look'd upon by all a thing so rare as to excite the curiosity of the most stupid in the World to go and hear him wherefore abundance of Persons from all parts presented themselves at the place appointed But when they came there they could hear no other Sermon than the Declaration of the Intendant to acquaint them That it was the King's Pleasure they should all turn Roman Catholicks Those who refused
was taken afterward in his Flight out of the Kingdom and Condemn'd according to the Rigorous Proceedings of this Court to the Galleys and though his Age and Quality besides the Great Sollicitations made at Court in Favour of him might render the matter very easie to be obtain'd yet it was with much difficulty that he was got to be exempted from that odious Condemnation and this was given out as an Extraordinary Mark of the King's Clemency The Baron de la Mothe avoided the Smart by not appearing at the place for that time but he was punish'd soon after by having his Two Fine Houses Destroy'd And lately through a tedious Misery of a Prison they Extorted a Compliance from him I hope this will find your Lordship in Health and free from such in this Ticklish Time which shall be the daily wishes of My Lord Your Lordships most humble and most devoted Servant whilst Paris Nov. 13. 1686. N. S. LETTER XV. Of the Revocation of the Edict of Nâ—ntes how Monsieur le Tellier the Chancellor hastned it and his own Death My Lord THE Parliament is not yet open'd here when there was no doubt made of it but that it was fully design'd the Edict of Nantes would have been revoked but most People were astonish'd to see the Revocation come out before the said time and great inquiry made into the secret of this unexpected procedure for though the violences I have in some of my former Letters to your Lordship given an account of were really such if not worse than represented yet they were Christened with the Name of making Converts by fair means and the Court would make the World believe it to be so at all points And to elude the poor Reformed with the vain hopes that they should yet enjoy the benefit of the Edict a long time they had an Order put forth the 15th of September in favour of them in respect of Marriages which they had for a long time before sollicited for in vain But it seems the Chancellor has been the means to hasten it as I am credibly inform'd For finding himself burdened with years and Infirmities and fearing least he might be overtaken with Death before the Fatal Blow were given he did at last by fresh and repeated Instances alleadging he could not live to the time the Edict was design'd to be Nullified and that he was not willing to die before he had put the Seal to the Revocation of it obtain his ends But my Lord it 's very observable that he had no sooner done it by putting to the Seal but that he neither would nor could Seal any other Order whatsoever but Died here three days ago very uneasie tho' he Blasphemously said when he had done it the words of Old Simeon That after he had seen the Salvation of the Lord he would go to his Grave in peace I do not question but your Lordship had heard before of the Revocation of the Edict but the Death of the Chancellor and Circumstance of it I suppose you have not and that is the occasion of my troubling you with this Letter which I shall conclude with Suscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Nov. 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER XIV Containing some Observations upon the French King's Edict in Octob. 1685. for the revocation of the Edict of Nants made in favour of the Reformed in the Reign of Henry the Fourth My Lord I Have very lately given your Lordship an account of the Death of Monsieur le Tellier soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nants I am apt to believe your Lordship has not seen the said Revocation and therefore to keep my Hand in ure and for want of better matter to gratifie your Honour's Expectations I shall descant a little upon the Particulars of it After the Prefatory part of it it 's asserted as a constant Truth That the Edict of Nants was not given but with a Prospect to revoke it That not only the King himself since his accession to the Throne but even his Father and Grandfather Henry IV. had a Design to bring the Reformed back to the Communion of the Roman-Catholick Church and that civil and foreign Wars have been the only Cause that had retarded the execution of that Design That before the conclusion of the Truce in 1684 Affairs were not brought to a fit disposition to bring it about and that till now they had been content to suppress the places of their Worship and to abolish some of their Privileges and that in order to make way for the accomplishing of this great Work the King was the more easily brought to conclude the said Truce this being prefaced the rest contains twelve Articles importing in general That all Edicts made in favour of the Reformed are null That the Reformed Religion shall be no more exercised in the Kingdom That all the Ministers shall be hanish'd yet with Promises that if they became Converts in a limited time viz. in fifteen days they and their Widows after them should be provided for c. That no Reformed Schools shall be kept in the Kingdom That all Children for the future shall be brought up in the Roman-Catholick Religion That those might return into the Kingdom in four months who were out of it else to have their Goods confiscate That none for the future shall dare to go out of the Kingdom under Penalty of the Galleys c. That such Declarations as have been made against those that relapsed shall be in force but last of all it gâ—ants the Reformed liberty to remain where they please in the Kingdom to continue their Trade enjoy their Goods without any molestation or trouble under pretence of their Religion upon condition notwithstanding that they shall not exercise the same nor keep any Assemblies under pretence of Prayers or any other Worship whatsoever But how specious soever this Article may seem it 's already apparent that 't is but a meer Illusion and that there is much Cruelty couched under it It would insinuate to us that the King had no design to forbid domestick Worship and to enforce Mens Consciences since this expression Till such time as God shall be pleased to enlighten them has been added as one fine spun Thread to the rest of the Net but the Court and Clergy have made it already appear that this was the least of their Thoughts since they have actually caused the Troops to march towards the Provinces that have not yet been ravaged tho'at the same time the chief Magistrate of this City has assembled the principal Merchants here together to confirm to them by word of Mouth what was contain'd in the Edict and to assure them they had nothing to fear upon that account And this has had a very pernicious effect already for it has sent many home into their Houses again who had taken measures to be gone with their Families out of the Kingdom for the most distrustful persons could
them And it was agreed in general That our King should joyn with the French King in a War against Holland both by Sea and Land but in order to carry the same effectually on it was more particularly concerted I. That they shall both endeavour to draw the Prince of Orange to connive at such a War and to consent to the Abolition of the Penal Laws and Test against the Roman Catholicks with specious Promises of making him Prince of Holland secure his Succession in England and of many other great Proffers and Advantages but in case he proves stiff to endeavour to make a total Conquest of that Country and share it between themselves as was projected in the last Dutch War And whereof to the best of my Remembrance I have give your Lordship a particular Relation and then to find out some effectual Expedients to put the Prince of Orange by too of his Succession in England II. That upon supposal that the Prince shall refuse to comply with them in their projected Designs that then the English and Scotch Forces shall be recalled out of the Dutch Service and be sent immediately into that of France to be employed for a Time in remoter Campaigns towards Spain or Italy and for want of such Service in Garrisons for fear they shall turn Tail and revolt and so the Prince and the States of Holland shall be before-hand weakened and the French considerably strengthened III. That some thousands of the French choice Men as of the King's Gentlemen Musqueteers and others shall insensibly be brought into Enland if the King finds his Occasions so require it to be mixt with the English Troops under Pretence of learning the other a more perfect Discipline IV. That they shall both joyn their Forces at Sea with all Strength possible V. That a good Body of French English Scotch and Irish Troops shall be put on Board both the Fleets that so a Mixture may be made in both to the end it may create less Jealousie and that the rest of the English and other Brittish Troops that can be conveniently spared from England shall be employed in the Land-Armies against the Republick of Holland VI. That after the War be once declared such French Refugees as will shew themselves willing to serve under the English Banner against Holland shall enjoy the Revenues which they had in France tho' they shall not be suffered to dwell there VII That neither side shall desist from the War till a total Conquest be made of the said Country which they think themselves sure enough of And that when Holland shall be subjected by their united Force there will then be no more Fear of any Opposition in England to prevent the King from raising Arbitrary Power and the Roman Catholick Religion there to the same heighth as it is in France nor from concurring with the French King till he shall obtain the Empire for himself VIII That the French King shall pay all the Brittish Forces in Flanders and elswhere and be content to defray half the Charges of the War that our King with his Pecuniary Assistance may be enabled to hold on the War with Vigour and Constancy enough for to make a Conquest but that afterwards for a Recompence he shall be obliged to assist France in any future War with thirty Capital Ships and twenty thousand Men at half Charges born Your Lordship knows much better to make a a Judgment of such a League than I can pretend to but I perceive the effect will be dreadful not only to poor Holland but to England too without the neighbouring Potentates be timemously awakened to ward the Blow and that such worthy Patriots as your self rowse up and stand in the Gap But I pretend not to dictate to your Lordship what every generous English Man's Duty is to God and his Country upon such an occasion and so conclude with subscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 24. 1687. S. N. LETTER XXIII Of Methods to be practised by King James for keeping up the Dispensing Power and and particularly about discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord I Have upon another occasion hinted somewhat to your Lordship of those Arguments urged to the King for the promoting of the Dispensing Power and you know very well since it has been put in practise in Westminster-Hall in the Case of Sir F. H. and how that matter terminated to the King's Satisfaction and further heightening of his Perogative Royal and how the same was established by the Concurrence of the Judges of the Land if they may be so called who authorized the same These Points being gained another Matter and that of an higher Consequence was agitated in the Cabinet Council viz. to use some means totally to discard the Militia of England and in liew of them to retain standing Troops in the Nation and to throw a little Dust in the People's Eyes and amuse them so as that they might take little notice or at least not oppose those their Proceedings it was advised to act these previous things In order to Ballance the great Power of the City of London it was projected to grant a Charter to that of Westminster and that under the Pretence of its being the Royal Residence of the Kings of England and of the supreme Court of Parliament and therefore ought to be dignified with as ample Previledges as any City in the King's Dominions London it self not excepted and to have a Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen Sheriffs and all other Officers necessary both for the Support and Grandure of it that great Encouragement should be given to rich Merchants wealthy Tradesmen c. to dwell there and to transport a great part of their Trade thither which would cause them to stick close to the Court and Interests thereof And had this same Project gone on it was also projected to have a new Stone-Bridge imitating that of London but built much broader and more convenient erected between the Palace-yard and the Horse-Ferry and the King seems very eager and forward to promote so useful a Work Then the Mews was to be ditched round and great care taken as well as Expedition used to have it filled with Stabling and other Buildings fit to receive and lodge a good Body of Horse and to be made a Cittadel under Pretence that such Troops should not be Troublesom and a Burthen to the said City And when all this was accomplish'd which was concerted to have been brought about in a short Time then the Militia of the Kingdom was to be new modelled two or three Times over and the new Lords Lieutenants of Counties and other Officers chopp'd and chang'd to the Court's Mind who should shew themselves willing to obey the Orders they were to follow which were to this effect That the Militia should be ordered to meet in their several respective districts and there the Lord Lieutenants for the Time being were to acquaint them That since to
serve in the Militia was but a trouble to them as well as a Charge and Burthen to the Country yet without any Use or Security to the Crown or Kingdom when all our Neighbour Nations were armed with Veteran Troops the King was advised and now thought fit to discharge them of the Trouble and the Country of the Charge of maintaining of them for the future and so order them to deliver up their Arms to be distributed among regular Troops that would be more useful and serviceable But before this was to be put in Execution it was my Lord resolved a Toleration of Religion should be first granted and severe Orders given to the Soldiers for to pay their Quarters duly demean themselves quietly and orderly and to abstain from any manner of Violence and all manner of Persons as well Protestants Dissenters from the Church of England as others of the Roman Communion should be admitted into the Army either as Officers or Soldiers and if any of the Church-men should grumble thereat and begin to stomach it it should be alledged There was no Reason in the World the King should be deprived of the Services of any of his Subjects however denominated as to their respective Religions for the Carping of a few Churchmen who were more concerned for their own worldly Interests and so would have all Places of Profit confined to those of their own Stamp than they were for the real Interest of the Church Then there were to be sufficient Bodies of Soldiers to be placed all over England to assist the Lords Lieutenants to see all the forementioned Orders put quietly in Execution and ready to suppress any Tumult that might be occasioned thereby This my Lord was the Projection I shall endeavour to give your Lordship in my next an account of the Opposition made hereunto as this and the rest have been lately entred here in our Minutes from Papers transmitted by the Resident of Modena and Count Dada the Pope's Nuntio in England to the Resident of that Name and Papal Nuncio in this Kingdom and by them communicated to Monsieur Louvois till then I am and ever shall be My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 9. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXIV Of the Opposition made by several Noblemen and particularly by the Lord Marquess of Powis against discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord 'T Is but a few Days since I sent to your Lordship the particular Resolutions formed in the Cabinet Council of discarding the Militia and other Methods that were to be pursued as either previous to or subsequent of such a Design and now I can assure your Lordship That same Project was chiefly broken by the Marquess of H. D of N. and some other Noble Persons and worthy Patriots but the Marquess of Powis had a greater Hand in it than any of them as being of greater Credit with the King who represented how dangerous and in a Word how impracticable such a Project was For said he it will be impossible to find such Lord Lieutenants in the Kingdom as will undertake to put the same in Execution nor no Officers that will obey If they could find such that such a Practice would necessitate the King to call in a French Army which would as much inslave his Majesty to the French as his own People would be thereby inthralled to him and that he might assure himself the French Faction had no other Intent in advising him to it So that I find my Lord it was resolved to let the Militia alone as it is and go on to secure their Proceedings by stuffing the Army with a Mixture of Nations as well as Perswasions and to chop and change them so often till at last they shall get Roman Catholicks enough in their Troops so as considerably to out-number the Protestants there without calling in any Bodies of French Which Resolution as I find it did not fully content this Court so it hath madded them to use Stratagems to counterpoise it by putting the King upon unseasonable and impolitick Artifices and among others to model and pack Parliaments whereof I shall be able in my next I think to procure your Lordship the Projects laid before him humbly hoping you 'll take all in good part from one that has an English Heart and will love both his Country and your Lordship whilst I am Paris Feb. 17. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXV Propositions made to King James II. by the French Agents for modelling and bridling of Parliaments My Lord I Find abundance of Projects offered to the King by the Agency of this Court concerning modelling and bridling of English Parliaments some were for putting in Execution the Advises given formerly for that purpose to King I. I. specified I think in Rushworth's Collections to which I refer your Lordship but that Proposition was rejected and others of more modern date urged upon him and particularly there were some who would have him procure a Parliament by Oliver Cromwel's Methods chiefly to be composed of the Officers of the Army with an Intermixture of some few others and that being effected he might by them increase very much the Revenue of his Crown by setting up again the Court of Wards and the Right of Purveyance and by obliging all such Noblemen who were by their Tenures anciently obliged to furnish so many Horse and Men and other Necessaries in the Wars either against France or Scotland to supply a full Equivalent towards Ships Men Artillery Provisions c. for a War with the Republick of Holland or any other Enemy whatsoever which they would have called for the greater Amusement of the People a restoring to the Crown the Jewels which had been usurped from it which that it might be further secured it was likewise advised That a Star Chamber with the same Jurisdiction as in the King's Father's Time should be set up again as also an High Commission which last tho' a sort of Tribunal introduced into England since it had proved schismatical and that the Kings thereof had been declared Head of the Church yet it might very well serve a present Turn and give the less Jealousie of his designing to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion among them thereby but that if he did not look upon that Expedient seasonable and that the rather because it had been abolished in Parliament as a Grievance to the Subject he had no reason to oppose the setting up of an Ecclesiastical Commission since the Parliament themselves had erected the same tho' with a more limited Power than the other in lieu of it and since they had judged it necessary for the repressing of the Insolencies of the Churchmen regulating their Manners and obliging them to discharge their respective Duties in their several Stations He being a Catholick King had more reason than any other to make use of it the last your Lordship has seen they have gained and tho' the King hath a great Stomach to that other yet my Lord Powis's
Party hath yet prevailed and affrightned him from venturing upon such things without he had been able as he found he was not to have succeeded in pulling down the Militia of Kingdom or at least in getting such an Army which he could fully rely upon and that he hath not yet got neither but till then he could not pretend to declare the Grand Charter void as obtained by Force of Arms and since infringed and nullified by several Rebellions but especially by that in his Fathers time on the Subjects side and now rule by a Council only without troubling himself with any thing more like unto a Parliament as his French Friends Advised him to your Lordship will excuse the Freedom I have now and always used in my Correspondence and accept of my humble duty who am and ever intend to continue My Lord Your Honours to Command Paris April 7. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVI The substance of Pope Innocent XI First Letter to the French King about the business of the Regale I Cannot think but it will be acceptable to your Lordship to understand what the Contents of the Pope's Letters to the French King are especially in such a conjuncture as this is and when I believe you cannot be furnish'd with a genuine account by any other hand after the prefatory part which is short and concise and somewhat different from others of his Predecessors he comes close to the matter and says that he could not but reflect with no small Astonishment as well as great Grief and sadness of heart upon the late unaccountable Conduct of so great a Prince who would be thought to be and called himself the first Son to the Catholick Church and withal the most Christian King against the holy See of Rome that he should as much as pretend to so much Zeal for Religion and yet at the same time to invade the known rights of the Catholick Church not only in the Kingdom of France but even in the City of Rome herself by pretending to a pernicious Freedom of Quarters which all other Catholick Princes had freely and generously renounced as a gross abuse That his Persecuting the Protestants in the Kingdom of France ought no ways to priviledge him to put affronts upon the holy See it was very plain that was not the way to reunite those people to the Church when he himself was so ill a Pattern and shewed them so bad an Example by contemning and outraging that same Authority which he used Force and Violence to make them own That he was much in the wrong and acted preposterously to Prosecute them for not believing what he himself so Scandalously opposed And that for himself at the bottom he was not of a Persecuting Spirit and Principle but that he was fully convinced it was never Christ our Saviour nor any of his Apostles way who themselves never were nor ever used any Preachers with long Tails Boots and Spurs c. That such a practice had done most disgrace to and created as well it might more implacable prejudice against the Roman Catholick Religion than any thing else whatsoever and so by Consequence had much more obstructed than advanced the propagation of it That it ought never to be used in any Kingdom already infected with heresie tho' it 's true it were a very good fence against its creeping in where it had yet got no footing That it would be a means to blast all the blooming hopes of the Catholick Cause in the Kingdom of England and ingender pernicious Jealousies and a most cruel Opposition in the English a stiff necked people and the most Jealous of their Religion and Liberties of any Nation upon the Earth against their King who was a true Son of the Church and break the Neck of all his designs for the Introducing of it into his Dominions And in a word that he was so far from approving of it that he every way disliked it and that it should not throw dust in his Eyes from inspecting into and opposing of his incroachments upon the holy See which he was resolved to defend to the utmost extreamity and so concluded with a short admonition and with which concludes this Letter to your Lordship from him who is My Lord Your most Devoted Servant Paris June 3. 1687. LETTER XXVII An account of Pope Innocent XI Second Letter to the French King about persecuting the French Protestants c. My Lord SInce my last I have had the opportunity to take the Heads of another Letter written soon after that I have already sent you by the Pope to the French King and is to this purpose In the first place he takes upon him to refute the Answers and frivolous Complaints of the French King and then descends to ridicule his vain pretence of Piety in persecuting the Protestants of his Kingdom for denying him Obedience while he was no less severe to the Bishops of Alet and Pamiers and some other Ecclesiasticks and even to some poor Abesses and their Nuns for paying that Obedience which was due to the papal Authority that this â—id not only look like it but really was nothing less but building up the Church with the Left Hand and at the same time pulling it down with the Right That he was well informed what writings came out in France against his Authority which he well knew was that of the holy Apostolick See what Theses were there maintained and what was done by his over awing the Assembly of the Clergy of his Kingdom how and what method he had taken to vel the French Jesuits against him and imployed Maimburg to represent his supremacy as precarious Itineran and Ambulatory and not fixt to the City of Rome herself but only to the Capital City of the most powerfull Christian Prince in the World for the time that is gallice to Paris in the present Age that he well understood not only this but also the designs that were formed by him to erect a new Religion which should Totally swallow up and deâ—our both Roman Catholicks and â—rotestants and how far he purposed to imitate King Henry VIII of England who writ a Book for the Pope's supremacy and not long after Burnt aed Beheaded people for owning it when also at the very same Time he persecuted the Protestants for opposing other points That it very ill became and it was not the part of a Dutifull and Religious Son â—s he pretended to be and would have the Woâ—ld believe to abuse his supream Pastor to dispoil him not only of his Ancient rights granted him by his Pious Predecessors but even of those very ones which he then injoyed and were derived by Universal consent and constant tradition of all good Catholicks and of the rights of his just Sovereignity in the City of Rome herself That however let him the French King do what he pleased yet all that ever he should or could do should not make him abate the least jot or tittle of his
just pretensions about the Regale nor the franchises of Quarters but that he was resolved to be Pope in France and Sovereign in Rome from which no Force should ever make him depart or flinch back the least degree whatever Dangers he were exposed unto This great Constancy My Lord in the old Pontiff hath not a little appalled the exorbitant Pride and Fury of this Court however they have put the best Faâ— they can upon it and seem resolved to break through all Opposition and outbrave whatever shall be in their Way and divert their Resolution and I am assured the French Embassador Lavardin at Rome hath already pursuant to his Orders from hence highly menaced the old Dad who in a third Letter to the King has made answerable Reply of which I am pretty confident I shall in my next transmit to your Lordship the Particulars but in the mean time remain My Lord Your Faithful Servant Paris june 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVIII The Contents of Pope Innocent XI's third Letter to the French King in answer to that of hâ—â— wherein he shews his Folly and Mistake in his Pretentions and Demands and threatens the Censure of the Church against him and shews the Inconveniency and Danger of setting up a Patriarch in France c. My Lord I Wish your Lordship as much Satisfaction in the perusal of this Letter as I have in keeping my Promise made to you in my last about the Pope's third Letter in getting Sight of the Minutes whereof I have met with much greater Difficulty than I expected or was usual with me I have already hinted Monsieur Lavardin's Menaces made at Rome upon the subject matter of the former Letter and therefore the Pope begins his with answering those Menaces that imported that the King should affranchise France from the Roman See nominate a separate Patriarch there â—and elect Bishops of his own without having any Recourse to the Bishop of Rome and in the mean while invade the Pope's Territories with his Arms and force the Franchises for his Ambassador and fiercely replying That he is resolved as in Conscience bound to do to transmit the Franchises and all other Rights of the Apostolick See to his Successors as he found them That he would recognize or allow of no Bishops of the King 's nominating till he had Satisfaction about the Regale that if he would be so heady as to proceâ—d â—o nominate a new Patriarch it would make a greater combustion in his Kingdom than he was aware of to which his Persecution of the Protestants would not a little contribute which he should find would be very unseasonable for him and would in all likelihood raise all Christendom against him as well as his own Subjects that thereby he would make a wide Gap to let in an Inundation of Heresies which he pretends to keep out and would teach the People after they had once trampled on the Pope's Authority to trample at last on that of the Bishops and King 's too and even on their very Persons as they had done in England and that when he had pulled down the mighty Dam of the Papal Power and let that raging Sea in it would be out of his Power to stop it where and when he would wherefore he conjured him and his Clergy to consider seriously yea twice and thrice of that weighty Project before they went to put it in Execution lest they might when they found it too late repent it and in vain attempt to recal the same That he must not think to fright him with the Noise of an Invasion for that tho' he would neither arm himself nor the rest of the Princes of Italy against him as he might do but oppose only Prayers and Tears yet if he desiâ—â—ed not from his pretended Regale and Franchises he would excommunicate Lavardin his Embassador and interdict his Kingdom and and set it in such a Flame about his Ears as should make him glad to go tamely back again and look after his own Home that after all should he sack and Plunder Rome captivate his Person and have all other Successes he could imagine it would be a very inglorious Expedition for Lewis the Great the eldest Son of the Church and such a pretended Bigot for it for to ravage its Territories and assault the supreme Pastor of it with those Arms with which he was bound to defend it and but a small Triumph to so great a Conqueror to over-power and martyrise a poor helpless and unarmed old Man as he was for whom some of his Predecessors would have been content to have become Martyrs themselves and therefore conjures him to think once more very seriously of it and then to act as he pleased but withal assures him That neither his Menaces nor his Arms shall make him flinch an Hair's breadth from those his last Resolutions wherein he was fully resolved to persist to the last Drop of his Blood Thus my Lord you have the brave Resolution of a Roman Pontiff who tho' the Title and Dignity of Christ's earthly Vicegerent be falsly ascribed to him yet undoubtedly he is possessed of a Soul above that of common Mortals and whom I therefore honour and esteem as I have always done and ever shall your Lordship who am My Lord Your most humble Servant Paris June 28. 1687. LETTER XXIX Of the Tryal and Suspension of the Bishop of London by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission My Lord I Have once and again intimated to your Lordship some Methods that were proposed to be prosecuted in order to the setting up of the King 's Dispensing Power and among other things to the best of my remembrance taken notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission with the Reasons urged to the King for making use of it and now you have seen the Effects of it upon my Lord of London whom some of them have said They were resoved to be revenged on for doing his Duty in the House of Lords by moving after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King for his Speech to that Session after the death of the D. of Monmouth in his own and his Brethren's Name That the House would take the King's Speech into consideration and debate the same but this way was not then resolved on but several others projected which yet they found impracticable when the Commission was agreed to be erected they had even then an Eye to the Bishop tho' no plausible Pretence for the Prosecution of him and therefore the said Commission lay dormant for some Months till such time as they might see the Effects of another Project to be put in Practice which was That some Reglements made in the late King's Reign in the Year 1662. importing among other things The Clergy in their Sermons should not meddle with State Affairs nor enter upon any Question that concerned the Rights of the King's Subjects nor to treat of some Points in Divinity which formerly had created great Troubles in
the Kingdom particularly those of Predestination and Free-Will nor yet to mixt Invective Reproaches Railleries and scandalous Expressions with their Controversies should be republished under a very strict Injunction of all Parties concerned to the observance of them and the least Transgression in that kind to be punish'd with the utmost Severity they did not question in the mean while but that in so ticklish a time there might be some one or other especially in the Diocess of London whom this Bird-lime might catch your Lordship knows how it fell out accordingly in the Case of Doctor Sharp Tho' they were mighty jealous of the old Gentleman of Canterbury that if he were nominated in the Commission and should chance to act which was the least of their Thoughts he should he might rather thwart than promote their Designs yet being pretty confident he would not concern himself with it they adventured to put him in not for his Authority but his Name-sake only for considered they should we get the Bishop of London once into the Toyl he will have no room to plead to the Jurisdiction of the Court seeing the same was founded upon the concurrent tho' in truth but nominal Authority of his Metropolitan to whom he owed Canonical Obedience these things your Lordship may know much better than I but I cannot forbear giving you any Hints of the Court-Designs which whether projected here or on your side we have constant Intelligence of in our I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. â—0 1687. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the Liberty of Conscience first granted in Scotland and then in England by King James II. My Lord YOur Lordship may call to mind what I have before written to you concerning Tolleration in Religion as necessary to facilitate the King's Designs and now you see it hath sprouted up in Scotland and the Buddings of it are visible enough in England that the Parliament of the former as well as the latter opposed the Dispensing Power is notoriously known so that there was much less Hopes they would have concurred to the Indulgence a Point as necessary to be gained every whit as the other that the Scotch Nation were more modelled to the King's Hand than the English the King himself well knew as having a personal Share in it when high Commissioner in that Kingdom in his Brother's Reign and the French and English Jesuitical Faction knew this as well as he and therefore I am assured both of them concurred to have the Indulgence given there first and that also in so partial a manner in favour of those of the King's Religion that the rest have hardly any Share therein which manifests plainly the Design of the English Catholicks whatever specious Pretence they may otherwise use is to bring the People of England also under the same nay a worse Yoke of Servitude and to have their own Religion predominant quickly and in Time the only one in both Nations And as for the third they are cock sure of that already but that of the French Emissaries is not so visible and above Board for they hope such partial Proceedings must at last incense the People of both Kingdoms and that to so violent a degree that the King must of necessity have recourse to call in French Force to quell them and then my Lord when they have once got sure Footing who can guess at their farther Aim however they have not with all their Intrigues been able to prevail with the King to use the same Partiality in England who according to the Transmission of their Intelligence hither seemed very much inclined to it upon their urging the Tractableness of the Scotch Council in the Matter and what a great Pattern they had set to them of England whom they did not doubt but would abrogate the Laws made against Roman Catholicks c. in imitation of them but a Roman Catholick Lord whom I have formerly named to your Lordship to have interposed upon the like Occasion thwarted them therein he deserves well of his Country in some respects and I do not question but your Honour is of that mind and so shall I be till I see more than I do now to incline me to the contrary who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and obedient Servant Paris Sept. 5. 168â— N. S. LETTER XXXI Of the French Projects to put King James upon desperate Measures in Ireland and their Ends therein My Lord YOur Lordship may remember how I have formerly given you the state of the Irâ—sh Soldiers in the Service of France during the late King's Reign and what Encouragement they have had here from time to time above any of the rest of the Brittish Nations and the large Promises that were now and then made That they should be reinstated in their ancient Possessions in their native Country But this King hath no sooner ascended the English Throne but that they have as readily return'd into England and Ireland as they were willing before even contrary to their Allegiance to remain in the French Service the Reason whereof your Lordship must needs know they having already devoured with their Eyes the most valuable Preferments in England and Ireland in the later whereof they have got a Lieutenant of their own stamp and more than all the Lands which they have been debarr'd from by the Act of Settlement having as I can assure your Lordship a previous Promise from this Court That the King will use all imaginable endeavours to get his Brother of England to consent to abolish it and which has put the Irish so hotly upon renewing their Importunities to the King against the said Act that he hath in a manner agreed to those measures that are pursuant thereunto in which motions the Irish were order'd to be effectually seconded by the Emissaries of this Court who at the same time have encourag'd the Irish privately with a Promise That if after all the King would not give his full Consent or durst not do them Right their Master was resolv'd to do it provided they would chuse him for their Protector which they might lawfully do being at best but a conquer'd Nation against their Conquerors for the recovery not only of their Native Rights in that Land but likewise of those afresh confirm'd to them by the Treaty whether pretended or real I will not determine upon that Head with the late K. Charles II of which the French King was Guarrantee and therefore justly might and ought to be call'd in as a Vindicator And this my Lord is confess'd here That they had form'd so strong a Party among the Irish that if the King had not in some measure comply'd or does not for the future but fail'd their Hopes by keeping it as the Interest of his Kingdom one should think naturally leads him to that side of the Ballance against France and maintaining the Act of Settlement they had bid fair as I have
side of the Water for besides that this Court were then and are still at variance with the Papal See There is not the least Instruction transmitted from hence as far as I can find either to England or Rome concerning that matter but perhaps he might receive them in transitâ— and by word of mouth only from M. L. who failed not to see him But as for Count Dada the Apostolâ—ck Nuncio as they call him they have shewed some Concern here that he should have an honourable Reception in England and have order'd it so as to get our King to dispense with that Ceremony which Henry VIII and even his Daughter Queen Mary insisted upon that he should wait like a Mumper at a French Port till he had Leave granted him to enter into England And that the English Nation who had not seen such a Vision for near an Age and a half might not be overterrified with it the French Agents were instructed to suggest unto those Lords and others whom they should think most susceptible of their Sophistry That since the King as a Roman-Catholick Prince could do no less than send an Ambassador to Rome to salute the Pope tho' it were but for form-sake and that his said Ambassador had had such an extraordinary Reception and great Civilities shewed him there it were but very equitable the King in his turn should shew the like to his Nuncio who was a Layman and in that quality came to congratulate his accession to the Throne from his Master not so much as he sate in St. Peter's Chair as he was a Temporal Prince to whose Ministers as such the Law of Nations required a just Deference should be paid That to send a solemn Embassy to the Great Turk who was a Mahumetan and a sworn Enemy to all Christians however denominated was never so much as boggled at by any English-man or other Christian Nation whatsoever either in this or any preceding Age That the Ambassadors of the Emperor of Morocco had been lately received in England most honourably and yet their Master both a Mahametan and a Barbarian Prince in whose Countries Christians were treated more like Brute-Beasts than Men and should they disdain to concur with their Prince to receive with some Ceremony and if not by way of a publick and pompous Entry yet privately in his Palace a Minister from him to whose Civilities many of our English Nobility and Gentry were highly obliged in their Travels to Rome and Italy But what Success they have had in this petty Agency your Lordship can tell much better than I at this distance but the Duke of Somerset is as highly exclaimed against here for refusing to perform the Ceremony of introducing the Nuncio as the Duke of Grafton is applauded for doing of it who I hope for all that will never have the Thanks of a House of Commons for it I am My Lord Your very obedient and humble Servant Paris Nov. 2â— 1â—87 N. S. LETTER XXXIV The French Politicks to embroyl England My Lord THE French Emissaries having gain'd severat Points and particularly that mentioned in my last they have lately turn'd their Batteries another way They have been most of this while endeavouring to compass their Ends by putting the King and those who have most influence over him upon desperate courses whereof the most material I have as Occasion has served noted to your Lordship It will hardly be believed that they would offer to propose any Maxims to the Legal Party in England that are really for their advantage Did not their Instructions make it appear to be so tho they have proposed far different Ends therein I do not question but your Lordship has observed the Uneasiness of the Nation under the present Proceedings of the King and Court-party but tho they have just cause of suspicion I must assure your Lordship the same has been and may still be aggravated by the Agents of this Court who teach them to infuse into the People That the Protestant Religion is in great danger That the reduction of the Roman-Catholicks to the Bounds establish'd by the Law of the Land is highly necessary and without the latter be effected it will be impossible for the former long to subsist That it was visible the Privileges of Parliament were infâ—inged more than in any time of their Ancestors That Arbitrary Power was already acted and without timely prevention would get such rooting that all the power of England could not dethrone it That there was not scarce one made a Nobleman since the Kings accession to the Throne in the Three Kingdoms but such as were Pâ—pâ—sts and That all Honours and Offices of Profit either in Court or Camp were shared amongst such whilst the Protestants lay neglected as useless persons and such as were deem'd to have no Share nor Lot in the Government That the person of the King it 's true was sacred but at the same time it was not only justifiable but an incumbent Duty upon them as Englishmen as they would answer it to God and their Country timously to think of the Danger and to apply the Remedy for without the removal of such Ministers as then managed the State it would be in vain to expect their Grievances could be redressed and their Religion and Liberties secured and if they find themselves harken'd to and their Propositions approved they have further Instructions to hint an Association for one Expedient c. God Almighty knows what will become of poor England amidst so many Designs upon her Religion and Liberty both by foreign and domestick Enemies who continually prey upon her Vitals I can but pray for her as I do and always shall for your Lordship who am My Lord Your most devoted Servant Paris Dec. 13. 1687. LETTER XXXV King James tho' already much disposed put more out of Conceit with the Prince of Orange who is represented by the French Agents very illy to him My Lord I Have in my last suggested to you some of those Arguments the Emissaries of this Court have and are to use to the Church of England-men as they find occasion and a disposition to receive them for to put them upon violent courses to their own and Nation 's destruction But at the same time they have entertained an incurable Jealousie of the Prince of Orange and construe the most just and generous Actions of a Prince who was always so in the worst sense imaginable and as such represent them to the King whom they cunningly whistle in the Ear saying That he could not but know there were some persons in the Nation who were not pleased with his way of proceeding and therefore would be sure to take all Opportunities to oppose him That indeed now Monmouth was cut off they had no plausible Head to retire unto That for the Prince of Orange tho' he had apparently omitted nothing since His Majesty's advancement to the Throne for the maintaining of a fair correspondence with him and
been very forward to pay all the Devoirs due from a Son to a Father-in-law affecting much Zeil for his Interest and acting with his Ministers of State as if himself were the Prime of them Yet they desire him to consider the thoughtful and designing Nature of the Prince who to be sure was not wanting to observe every pace made by the English and to dispose of his own Affairs and People accordingly That His Majesty could not but remember the Applications made to him formerly in his Brother's Reign from England when he was but Nephew to the King and himself but now that he was advanced by his Marriage to a much nigher Degree to the Crown could it be thought that he had less Thoughts concerning it or less Application made unto him on that behalf especially in so ticklish a time That some persons of note 's going over lately into Holland was no sign he was unconcern'd at the English Affairs or unapplied to but must needs give Umbrage and more than a Suspicion that he had already a strong Party within the Kingdom and that indeed his Conduct without was next to a demonstration of it since he had done all that ever he could to hinder His Majesty from all the Succours he could expect from abroad in case of any domestick Troubles for tho' His Majesty was sure of France and had made a general Alliance with Spain and might then be apt to believe that the House of Austria would not oppose him especially when the Catholick Religion was the Dispute yet it was manifest the Prince had bid fair for the deoriving him of both those Supports first by entering himself and then by causing the United Provâ—nces to enter into the League at Ausburg against France to the end he might draw down upon that Monarchy the united Forces of the Confederates in case the French King should offer to attack the States Territories while he might make use of their Power both by Sea and Land to carry on his Designs against His Majesty and his Kingdoms And then that he had render'd the House of Austria very suspicious of His Majesty as being a Prince contrary to their Designs one in Interests and closely engag'd with France in a secret Treaty which would appear in due time I can assure your Lordship that by the Returns which have been made hither the King has been but too susceptible of these Calumnies against the Prince and I fear to his prejudice tho' I heartily wish it otherwise who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 11. 1688. LETTER XXXVI Of the Spaniards attempting to bring King James over to their Interest but failed My Lord HOwever the Emissaries of this Court have traduced the Noble Prince of Orange to the King yet they have in some sort given the Lye to themselves when notwithstanding all their Rhodomantade about the Prince's engaging the House of Austria against his Majesty they have been so alarmed at the Proposals made to him by the Spaniards of a stricter Allyance which they knew if entred into must invalidate that made with them the Emperor and King of Spain being suspicious of the Allyance with France had entred into a Confederacy with the Princes of Germany at Ausburg as I have hinted in my last and that they might make their Party as strong as they could and having at the same time no clear demonstration of our King 's private Leaguing with France they resolved to leave nothing unessayed either to know that it was really so or if not to engage the King in their Interest the Marquess de Gastanaga Govenour of Flanders and the Spanish Embassador Don Pedro de Ronquillo were the Persons employed by that illustrious House in that Affair it 's well known here that the latter has omitted nothing that could be done to bring the King over urging to him the Honour and Interest of such an Allyance that it was the only Opportunity he had left to recover the good Opinion of his Subjects who he must needs know himself were somewhat alienated in their Affections from him with a great deal more to the same purpose and he did at last proceed so far well knowing his blind as to engage if his Majesty would enter into and be cordial in such an Allyance to order it so that his Parliament should acquiesce with whatever he was then attempting to get established in respect of Religion which he could never effect by the Assistance and Agency of France their harsh Procedure against the Reformed there being too green and fresh in Memory to be so soon forgotten by the English who had besides a natural Aversion to that Nation and their Politicks But my Lord all that Don Ronquillo has done was communicated to the French Emissaries who presently took the Scent and being not willing to give the King space to demur upon the Matter lost no Time in remonstrating to him That they who had told him That he ought to take that Opportunity to gain his Subjects by entring into the League of Ausburg had not reflected upon the inconsequence that followed upon such a Procedure That that League now agitated was but the consequence of another made at Magdenburg by the Protestants in favour of the Hugonots and that it were against all good Reason and Sense that a Prince who did his utmost to procure a Liberty to Roman Catholicks in England should concur to re-establish the most rigid of Protestants in France besides it would argue no good Policy for him to forsake a solid Friend such as the French King was to joyn himself to such Princes who would no longer be useful to him than while they had need of him since the Protestants had already begun to over-reach their Piety so far as to draw them into Leagues formed against a Catholick Prince in favour of the Calvinists whom he had driven out of his Dominions wherefore the King made answer to Don Ronquillo in general Terms That as he would faithfully preserve the Allyance made between him and his Master so the same Fidelity obliged him not to violate that Friendship which was between him and the Most Christian King his Kinsman who was willing to live at Peace with his Neighbours and mantain the same as far as he could between them Thus my Lord this hopeful Overture was blasted the Consequence whereof I refer to him who knows all things and to whose Protection I commend your Lordship who am My Lord Your very obliged Servant to command Paris Mar. 16. 1688 N. S. LETTER XXXVII Arguments used to King James by the Lord Marquess of Powis Pope's Nuntio c. against a War with Holland My Lord THat the King pursuant to his late Allyances with this Crown designs a War in conjunction with the French Arms against Holland is no longer a Secret here whatever it may be in England especially since Don Ronquillo's Artifices to gain him over to the Austrian
Interest as I mentioned to your Lordship in my my last have failed tho' he were briskly seconded therein by the Lord Marquess of Powis the Pope's Nuntio and Emperor's Minister whose Reasons or rather Remonstrances to the King upon that Head for want of better Intelligence I shall at present take notice of to your Lordship as entred in our Minutes and which indeed were such that 't is a wonder he should withstand them sed quem Deus 1. They prest it very home upon him That such a War against the States of Holland could not be attempted with any apparent Advantage to his Majesty without a junction with the French Power which yet in all human Probability would never enable him to conquer those Provinces since both the Crown of Spain and the Emperor nay the Empire would be obliged to protect them to war with whom especially with Spain whose Trade as he well knew was most beneficial to England of any in the World would be attended with such manifest Disadvantage as all the Power of France were that King a faithful Ally would never be able to make the Nation amends for and that supposing he should be able to conquer the said Republick by the Assistance of the French Arms yet to conquer it by French Force would necessarily but make himself as well as that Nation a Tributary and Underling of France 2. That in all likelihood a War with Holland and against the House of Austria would disgust his Subjects and set them all against him yea and perhaps move some hot Spirits to form Designs to dispossess him of his Throne or at least so far to make Opposition as to knock on the Head all his fine Projects for the Advancement of his own Religion in England and engaging of his very Catholick Subjects against him 3. That if his Majesty intended the re-establishment of the Catholick Faith in England it was to be considered that the same was a Work of Time and required great Moderation but that they were sure the hot and furious Methods of France and the Jesuits would never effect it 4. That to them for the effectual bringing about of the said Work there seemed a kind of necessity that he should stay till the Discords between the Catholick Princes were so far appeased as to be without Danger of breaking out in a long Time for that all their Concurrence would be found to be little enough to enable him to accomplish his Ends therein 5. That if he should chuse rather to enter into a strict Allyance with the House of Austria against the French he would thereby render himself secure of his People's Hearts and Affections of the Dutch Naval Force to strengthen him at Sea as occasion required and of all the other Allies Forces to divert the French Armies by Land And that if he should lose upon that account as 't was likely any Remittances from France they assured him the Pope would allow him a much better Pension to countervail it and that being engaged against France his People would be so intent against the French and upon that War so agreeable to their Inclination that they would not be so very jealous of and so prying into the Advances he should make in the Change of Religion at Home and that if by that means than which nothing could be thought on more feasible he could not settle that Religion he might at least secure it and make Matters easie to those of his own Perswasion 6. That if his Majesty persisted to make War against Holland which would inevitably draw on one with the House of Austria if his Arms did not prevail so far as to come to an entire Conquest he was certainly ruined and all the Catholicks in the three Kingdoms along with him without resource and would perish unpitied and without any Hopes or possibility of Succour from any Catholick Princes but the French King alone and that if on the contrary as it was the most unlikely thing in the World he should prevail to a Conquest over Holland and his own Country that yet thereby he should under the colour of an imaginary establishment of the Catholick Religion in the Brittish Kingdoms but settle an irreligious Tyrant over all Christendom worse to the Catholick Religion and Christianity in general than any Heretick in the World nay than the very Turk himself and who would insolently trample upon the Pope's as well as his Fellow Princes Power and set up a new Empire and a new Religion of a third sort neither Catholick nor Protestant but such as suited with his own ambitious Designs as the Steps he had already made that way did sufficiently declare And so instead of resettling the Roman Catholick Religion where it had lost Ground and in the Soil of Great Britain which would prove but a Quick-Sand to it he would destroy it all over Europe where it was now established in terra Firma c. I le leave it to the Decision of your Lordship's Judgment whether these or the French Remonstrances carried most of Reason Probability and Truth in them as I ever shall all that comes from My Lord Your Honours most humble and obedient Servant Paris Apr. 30. 1688. LETTER XXXVIII Of the Differences continued between the Pope and the French King and of King James sending am Embassador to Rome to reconcile them My Lord I Have already transmitted to your Lordship the Contents of his Holiness's Letters to the French King about the Regale and Franchises but there seems now to be a Disposition in these two high stomach'd Princes to come to an accommodation and the Conjuncture of Time lies so to the Heart of this Court that I am apt to believe they will precipitate an Agreement however because their forwardness therein might be disguised as much as French Policy could effect they have by their Agents insinuated to our King That an Embassy to Rome from him about accommodating of the foresaid Differences must be very grateful to his Holiness who paid more deference to his Majesty and would further regard his Mediation than any Prince in Christendom and that tho' the French Court stood very stiff upon their Rights yet it was not to be doubted but as they had so high a Valuation for his Friendship at all Times and Occasions so he might be confident that in so critical a Juncture of Time they would not be so purblind as not to see wherein their true Interest consisted It was no sooner my Lord proposed to the King but accepted by him and my Lord Howard is already arrived in this Kingdom in his Way to Italy as the King's Embassador extraordinary on this Errand but notwithstanding this Court has so far prevailed by their Artifices in England to procure the Kings Mediation yet an Accident if it may be called so has lately happened at Rome which may perhaps blast all the blooming Hopes entertained from this mighty Negotiation For Monsieur Lavardin Embassador from
Officers of his Navy Royal to become Catholicks for me to make a Relation of that Transaction to your Lordship I fear may be but Crambe bis Cocta but your Honour being now remote from the Court at your Country Habitation and that I believe we have here a truer account of that Affair transmitted to us by the Agents of this Court perhaps your Lordship will not think your Time ill spent in perusing of it Its seems the Commissioners which the King has sent to the several Counties of the Kingdom to dispose Men's Minds to a Willingness to take off the Penal Laws and Test having generally found a grand Aversion in the People to that Matter the King was so incensed at the Report they made of it and the invincible Stubbornness of the Nation that he convened his Cabinet Council and with them resolved to cashier all such out of his Service as would not fall in with his Designs But that all things might be opportunely executed it was agreed he should make himself sure first of his Fleet and his Army without whose Assistance they saw it was in vain to effect so sudden a Change at once wherefore he gave Orders that Mass should be said on Board his Ships but there was such Opposition made thereunto both by the Officers and Seamen that the Priests who went thither for that end were forced to hide themselves for fear of being thrown over Board which they had been like to have undergone had it not been that the Principal Officers who maintained still the Respect that was due to the King's Commands had done their utmost to hinder it But when the matter came to be represented to the King his Fury was raised to an high degree tho' he had for the Time the Artifice to dissemble his Resentment wherefore he resolved to try whether his Royal Presence might not operate more than his Orders and therefore he went on Board the Fleet himself and having commanded all the Officers to bring him their Commissions he there asked them Whether they were not resolved to change their Religion and imbrace his who had bestowed their Offices upon them in Expectation that they would do whatever he commanded them They were surprized at the Complement and expected no such thing nevertheless being resolved not to be frightened either with Menaces nor be gained by Flatteries they generally answered That how devoted soever they were to his Majesty's Service and their own Fortune yet they could not be enduced to any thing against their Consciences To which the King replyed That what he required of them could by no means be Prejudicial to them whatever their Ministers might tell them to the contrary that there was more of Opinion than Reason in the Religion which they professed that they should take the Pains to reflect duely thereon for which yet he would grant them but the Space of 48 Hours But tho' most of them did believe from Words so positive by the King they should certainly be casheered yet they resolved to split upon that Rock rather than alter whatever came of it The King in the mean Time who had trusty Spies in all the Ships having learnt their Resolutions for all his eagerness in the matter did not think it advisable to push on Things over far at that time wherefore he ordered they should be told when he sent them back their Commissions That the 48 Hours which he had alloted being not sufficient for the determining of an Affair of so great Importance he was pleased to allow them some further time to think of it but that they would please him to conform themselves to his Will on that occasion but in the mean time tho' the Politicks of this Court have been much used in England yet herein they have been laid aside and there is an essential Difference between the one and the other for in the Choice which our King makes of Officers he had rather they should have Service than Profit whereas in France they will have both the one and the other if they can and for want of which Profit is always preferred before Service I 'll not censure such an Attempt but I am ashamed we should be laughed at both here and in other Countries for our Politicks and your Lordship knows as well as any Man living that when wise and experienced Statesmen have sate at the Helm they never would suffer the Regal Authority to be put upon such an Hazard well knowing the least Resistance made thereunto is a Triumph to the People but speramus meliora I am My Lord Your Lordships to Command Paris Sept. 25. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the Count d'Avaux acquainting the French King with the Prince of Orange's Preparations against England My Lord THe Embassador of this Court Monsieur the Count d'Avaux at the Hague hath transmitted a positive account hither of the great Preparations made in Holland for some grand Expedition especially by Sea intimating that the Prince of Orange seems to have other Designs in his View than those of a vigilant Statholder for the maintaining the Dutch Fleets and Armies in a good Posture now other neighbour Nations are in Arms. You know my Lord Mr. Skelton is now Envoy in this Country from England as he was some time ago in Holland who while he was there whether really or maliciously I will not determine was pleased to transmit an account to the King of the Prince's holding Correspondence and carrying on some Intrigues with his Subjects to his Prejudice he had some Relations in the Princesses Family by whose means he had an Opportunity to inspect into some Letters from which he took upon him to pick out as much as gave him to understand that there were some Matters agitated underhand that tended to the King's detriment but as far as I could learn the King gave little hâ—â—d to his Informations But what the Count d'Avaux has given his Master an account of hath been esteemed worthy of Consideration and added here some Reputation to Mr. Skelton's Agency whatever it may do in England and I am assured my Lord from such Authority as I dare rely upon that the French King has prest his Brother of England to give that Heed to it which it deserves and to take seasonable Precautions to defend his Dominions from a powerful Invasion wherewith they are threatened My Lord I desire to know with the next Conveniency whether I may be free to continue my Correspondence with your Lordship especially if I find Matters of this Nature transacted for I would not for any thing in the World bring your Lordship into the least Praemunire but in all things study to serve you with exactest Diligence and humblest observance which I shall always strive to do who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Octob. 6. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIV Of the means whereby Mr. Skelton came to know of the Designs in Holland against King James and of
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against