Letter and that the Lord old Burgomaster Van Opmeer had said that the said Lords Hooft and Hop had done nothing without order but 't is also true that that Order could not qualifie the said Lords Hooft and Hop during the said deliberation to be present in the Assembly since by reason and very ancient custome in such a case all those who had participated in the same matter yea also all the Lords deputed of that City ought to have absented themselves if the Lords the Members of the Assembly had insisted thereon But it is said the Lords Hooft and Hop were not particularly named in the said Letter of the Count D'Avaux none but the Lords of Amsterdam being therein expressed and when the Lord Councellor Pensionary said to them that on the day of the writing of the said Letter they had been at the house of the said Embassadour they proved they were then elsewhere It were in truth to be wished that when they would make known matters of that nature to Members of the Government for their discharge they should then declare the truth thereof without any colouring it is true that the said Lords Hooft and Hop are not mentioned in the said Letter by name and that therein is onely exprest Messieurs D'Amsterdam the Lords of Amsterdam but it is also true that what in the Letter of the said Embassadour is mentioned must have been transacted by these Lords of Amsterdam who had spoke with the said Lord Embassadour of France since those who had not spoken with the said Embassadour by the name of Messieurs d'Amsterdam the Lords of Amsterdam who had told him thus as is express'd in the Letter could not be comprehended Now it is true and acknowledged as well by the Lords of Amsterdam as by the Lords Hooft and Hop that the same Lords Hooft and Hop were the same who had spoken with the Lord Embassadour and I know none that shall justly judge but will find a difference therein whether the said Lord Embassadour in the aforesaid Letter should have named the said Lords Hooft and Hop or that he should say the Lords of Amsterdam had told me thus when it must be construed from the acknowledgment of the said Lords that the said Lords Hooft and Hop were the same who at that time were with him and spoke with him without being able to name any others and although it be true that the said Lords Hooft and Hop when the Lord Pensionary Councellor asked them if on the Sunday when the Letter was written they had not been at his house they answered in the Negative and could prove themselves to have been elsewhere but it is also true the said Lord Pensionary was mistaken in the day and that the said Lords acknowledged to have been the day before namely Saturday with the said Lord Embassadour and spoke to him as he expresly hath mentioned it in the said Letter and I leave it to your judgment whether in this they proceeded with the required sincerity when they carp at the mis-expression of the day when the truth of their speaking to the Embassadour and the time thereof and their own confession may consist together When now the resolution of the Lords the States and the practice thereon succeeding expresly infer that those whose affair was in deliberation before the Assembly ought to absent during those deliberations and that by the confession as well of the Lords of Amsterdam as of the said Lords Hooft and Hop it appeareth that they are the same who had spoke with the said Embassadour and that it is therefore their case that is in debate and that the said Lords took the power to be present notwithstanding many of the Members were of judgment that they should conform to the aforesaid resolution and practice and I judge that all impartial men will adjudge that act of theirs in thus staying in the Assembly a very great disrespect shewed to their Sovereign Power there lawfully assembled and informing themselves and debating concerning actions not onely in themselves unlawfull but also in the highest punishable and said by them to have been acted And that the other Members of their Lordships assembly had great reason to complain of them and to resent the wrong done them by the Lords of Amsterdam depending on their own authority as if they were not tied to the foresaid resolutions nor any practice ensuing thereon Concerning the third point to wit the sealing up of the aforesaid Papers the aforesaid Lords Burgomasters and Common-council of Amsterdam have as little reason to complain as they have concerning the shutting of the doors beforementioned or the required absence of the Lords Hooft and Hop but that this may the better appear we must of necessity touch somewhat nearer the matter giving occasion to that resolution of theirs for Sealing up the foresaid Papers which was this that their Lordships perceived out of the forementioned Letter of the said Embassadour that what was written was not to a private friend to whom a man might write his sentiment as he pleased but that it was writ to the King his Master to whom he was obliged to give an exact account of all his negotiations and whom he ought not nor could abuse and writ to him of several matters concerning which he said to have treated with the Lords of Amsterdam and that he judged them of such importance that to the end the King his Master might also be informed thereof he sent that Letter with an express Post by one of his own domesticks so that what is charged on the Lords of Amsterdam was not founded on a supposition or on the saying of a third person but on the Letter of an Embassadour writ to his King to whom he is obliged to give an account of all his Negotiations and not of that which was related to him by a third person or what he learned accidentally but of something that himself in person had treated with the said Lords of Amsterdam also in person and whereon he expected farther order in answer from the said King his Master I need not Sir acquaint you with the duty of an Embassadour as well known unto your self as to any other for although the Character given them which they may make use of in not dealing too strictly just with those to whom they are sent they are not by common reason therefore dispensed from giving to their Principals an exact true and faithfull account to the utmost of their power of all their transactions and intelligence gained especially in the most essential parts thereof And therefore that the Count D'Avaux who hath so many years performed the function of an Embassadour and that with so general approbation of all men who if I may so say hath been educated under the tuition of the late Count D'Avaux who hath gained the repute throughout the World to have been one of the greatest Masters in matters of Negotiations and Treaties and who fully understood the
Highness's party to have a conference concerning the taking of the Ship La Regle otherwise named the Terms of Amsterdam which the French had taken before the Road of Alicant from under the protection of the Flag of this State under pretence that it was an Algerine Ship That those deputed Lords were glad to hear the complaints of Amsterdam against France but there were others more foreseeing wherein that expedient failed them it was truth and the Lords of Amsterdam have been necessitated to acknowledge it that among others they had spoken with one Lord deputed to the Generality from the Province of Guelderland to bring that conference about and it is also true that endeavours have been used for such a conference and that the holding of that conference hath been declined not that it was suspected for as yet there was no such suspicion of the Lords of Amsterdam but onely for that they did not yet know wherefore a complaint should be made to the Lord Embassadour since the remedy on the complaint was to be sought not here but in France and that in France we had an Embassadour who might there move the said complaints and prosecute the same remedy so that that intreague which the said Lord Embassadour in the foresaid Letter said that the said Lords of Amsterdam had continued with him to bring the States General to deliberate concerning the aforesaid measures was in truth a business contrived by the Lords of Amsterdam and which they also confessed and avowed The Second matter contained in the Letter was that the aforesaid first expedient failing the Lords of Amsterdam would make use of another means which by their vigilance succeeded in place of the first which was on occasion of a complement of congratulation which the Lords the States General had to make unto him the Lord Embassadour on the Birth of the Lord Duke of Anjou and that they the said Lords of Amsterdam had informed the Lords deputed from the Province of Friesland City and Countrey of the whole matter and had obliged the said Lords to speak to him on the same manner as the deputed from Amsterdam should have spoken to him if the deputation had been compleat The Lords of Amsterdam also must acknowledge that they had given notice of the design to the Deputies of the Province of Friesland City and Countrey viz. under pretence of that conference to speak of the foresaid measures they were to take in case Spain should decline the acceptance of any of the Equivalents before the end of January I cannot also conceal from you that I suppose my self to be sufficiently informed that the day before the said complement of congratulation was to have been made some Members of Holland came to the Councellor Pensionary of Holland and asked him if the Lords appointed to perform that complement should propose any other matters than the said complement saying that they were informed that under pretence thereof they were to speak of other matters 'T is also true what the said Letter also mentioneth that after the performance of that complement there was spoken also concerning the taking the aforesaid measures and what further is mentioned concerning the same in the foresaid Letter excepting onely that in the Letter is contained that the Lords the Deputies of Friesland City and Countrey did first begin the discourse concerning the taking the foresaid measures and that the deputed Lords who made that complement say that the discourse was first mentioned by the said Lord Embassadour of France and that after they were all risen in order to depart In the foresaid Letter it followeth that the Lords of Amsterdam about an hour after came to speak with the said Lord Embassadour informing him of the endeavours which by them had been used as also that in the Generality no deliberation was had concerning any matter concerning which no Memorial had been presented And the Lords of Amsterdam have been necessitated to acknowledge that at the same time they had been at the house of the said Embassadour and acquainted him that in the Generality there was no deliberation upon any matters not contained in a Memorial The said Lord Embassadour addeth further that the said Lords of Amsterdam had moreover said that when a Minister spoke with Deputies those Deputies then resolved together whether what was said to them should be proposed as a point of deliberation and that they had the promise of Friesland City and Countrey that they would be of advice that thereof should be made a point of deliberation and would therein also vote with the Lord deputed from Holland in case those in fear of his Highness should be of another sentiment and that those of Amsterdam said that notwithstanding all precautions they durst not assure themselves that thereof would be made a point of deliberation And Sir you know that the Heer of Werckendam who had performed the aforesaid complement of congratulation having communicated to the Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland what the said Lord Embassadour in the said conference had said concerning the taking of the aforesaid measures the said Heer of Werckendam and Lord Councellor Pensionary were of advice that what in the aforesaid conference was moved must also be reported in the Assembly of the States And you also may remember that the Lord deputed from the City and Countrey and the Lord deputed from Friesland which had been present at the said conference being then absent from the Hague used very earnest endeavours to the end that the same might be made a matter of debate by the deputies of the States and that the Councellor Pensionary of Holland had insisted that the received and confirmed custome of their Highnesses Assembly must herein also be observed and that to that effect the Lord Embassadour must first present thereof a Memorial that in an orderly manner it might be known what in the aforesaid Conference hapned and what the true meaning was of the King of France from which those deputed Lords who assisted at that Conference somewhat differed It was also in the end resolved that the said Embassadour should be informed that in case he judged it needfull thereon to take a resolution that he would then without difficulty present the foresaid Memorial so that the contents of the said Letter in that matter agreed evidently with the truth The said Embassadour writeth further that the said Lords of Amsterdam had said that they desired the presentation of that Memorial not so much for to have a deliberation thereon in the Generality as to make appear the good intention of his Master for this State and that the knowledge they had thereof had already wrought considerable effects and that they hoped yet more thereof when that should be spread abroad That they had alledged to him that not to express the matter too plain and that it might appear that that proposition was made to no other end but to the advantage of the States General that some allays
the forementioned Lord Embassadour sheweth clearly the design contrived with him concerning the foresaid matter of which before larger mention is made and also how abusively and captiously they would excuse themselves for having held the said Conferences mentioned in the said Letter when the said Lord Pensionary of Holland mistaking in the date said that the foresaid Conference should have been held on the 9th whereas it was held on the 8th as is noted in the said Letter and it is not a little remarkable that the said Lords of Amsterdam having first said that the said Lord Embassadour of France had not urged them to enter into any concern or particular engagement they notwithstanding in the same breath add that he the Lord Embassadour having pretended to be secured by word of mouth of the constant inclination of that Government to the Peace and that they would enter into the expedients by him proposed that they had often roundly refused it notwithstanding he exprest his displeasure therein in sharp terms so that the said Lords do thereby acknowledge that there had been a Speech concerning such a security by the said Lord Embassadour when they say he demanded the same of them and they denied it and then also when the said Lord Embassadour shewed his displeasure thereat in sharp terms and the said Embassadour saith also in the said Letter not that the mentioned Lords of Amsterdam had engaged themselves to give particular security but onely simply that they had said that there were remedies to which no recourse was to be had but in the utmost extremity and that they would not speak with him thereof till they had left all hope of moving the States to assent to that security his Majesty desired This being a true recital of what passed in the Assembly of the States on the 16th of this Month as also of what happened about the conduct which the said Lords of Amsterdam were pleased to observe and concerning what farther passed and by undeniable consequences must be deduced from thence I leave it to the judgment of every one if in these matters in the procedures against the Lords deputed of Amsterdam there hath appeared any rigour prejudice or unbeseemingness and if they have not abused the State and Fellow-members in an unheard of and insufferable manner and if those Lords which then composed that Assembly and who with so much circumspection proceeded to the aforesaid sealing up of their Papers were rather to be condemned that in a matter so important and such a high nature they used not more vigour for the conservation of the right of their State against those who had proceeded in such an unworthy manner to the ruine of the said State and who had so criminally acted therein and more than once made themselves guilty of Crimen laesae Majestatis and whether the good Inhabitants of the Countrey have not the greatest reason to complain that such a chief Member of the Government as is the Government of the City of Amsterdam could fall into so pernicious a conduct that they would cut off and separate themselves from their other fellow Members and that all this is vented among the good Inhabitants with so much untruth as if the Government of the foresaid City had in this matter no quarrel with their fellow Members but onely with his Highness to make all his actions every where odious and to decry them down whereas all the Members of the States Assembly none excepted have agreed with his Highness in the same sentiment as well concerning the said Levy as concerning the promoting of an accommodation that they all none excepted have highly blamed and been scandalized at the conduct of the Lords of Amsterdam and whereas the moderatest of them who had laboured to find out expedients to allay and remove if possible the said differences so hurtfull and ruinous to this State were convinced that on the part of his Highness all hath been done which hath been required of him and that this condescension hath onely extended to confirm the Lords of Amsterdam in their difference as if the Government of the State had been solely intrusted to them and that all the other Members must yield to them The length of this discourse troubleth me but I thought I ought once to let you see without any disguisement and in all truth the matter which here being related as it hath passed can by none who was in the Assembly be contradicted as to the truth of the affair I shall always remain Sir Your humble Servant PHILALETHES POSTSCRIPT AFter I had witten the aforesaid there came to my hands a Memorial presented to this State by the Count D'Avaux Embassadour of the King of France the 28th of this Month I acknowledge I could never have thought that a Lord of so great a capacity and experience could have resolved to present a Memorial of that kind and that the zeal for defending the Lords of Amsterdam who have so much mistaken themselves and acted in such a criminal manner against the Majesty and Sovereignty of the State had so far prevailed with him thus to express himself as appeareth by the said Memorial which also more and more confirmeth the said correspondency and more and more accuseth the said Lords The first thing that the Lord Embassadour in the said Memorial saith is in effect what he had said by word of mouth to those deputed by the Lords the States who were with him in Conference that he had informed his Majesty of the matter as in truth it was but in that manner as he supposed he must represent it to his Master and that he therefore in that Letter had alledged many circumstances which agreed not with the truth of the matter For first what can more strongly serve to destroy all the Conferences that he had with him the Lord Embassadour and which he should represent to his Master according to the truth what had therein passed when the said Embassadour by a formal Memorial saith that he represented the matter to his Master not as they are but as he judged it best to represent it and who will believe that so considerable a person having the honour to serve such a King should take upon him to relate matters in another form than in truth they were acted yea who will believe that in this Relation he hath so done since the said Lord Embassadour was first so carefull to add in the same Letter the trouble he was in that he could no sooner advise his Majesty of what here passed and how much his Majesty was therein concerned that he might be well informed of what here passed chiefly when therein may be remarked that of himself and without order he dare not make the least step or advance though much thereto solicited and how serviceable soever himself might judge it how much he hath in regard the interest of his Master when he truly speaketh and agreed to points which might be urged of
him yet with that precaution that his Majesty should not thereby be forepromised than that his Master should not thereby be too much engaged and again that his Master might not be hindred to doe what he should judge best None can imagine that a Minister even in that Letter who hath such respect to his Master's interest and with those who seek to deal with him in that manner understandeth how to be able to Treat and yet in the said Letter to represent the truth that happened otherwise than it came to pass It is also worth observation that whereas the said Lord Embassadour in the aforesaid Memorial alledgeth that for the ordering of a Conference concerning the Ship La Regle he should not have used the conduct of which in the said Letter mention is made The Lords of Amsterdam on the contrary by their advice acknowledge and avow that conduct Secondly It is to be observ'd that the said Lord Embassadour by the foresaid Memorial alledgeth that the aforesaid Letter either through ignorance or malice was wrong uncifered and that therefore no credit was to be given to the same whereas the mentioned Embassadour in that Memorial yieldeth that he had writ what had passed concerning the Ship La Regle so as it was uncifered yea that he had written concerning the trouble of some of the Members of the State concerning the devastation of the open Countrey by which the mentioned Barrier would come to sink or vanish in the same manner as it is uncifered from whence necessarily must follow that the same cifers which in the rest were used also signifie the same Letters which they have signified in the said periods and how can any one be taken for an Impostor or Cozener who sendeth withall the Key wherewith he hath uncifered it and who mentioneth the A. B. C. and the other Letter which by Cifers have been signified which A. B. C. and those other Letters have as well been used in the passages spoken of the foresaid Ship La Regle and the aforesaid devastation of the aforesaid open Countrey as in the other passages wherein is carped he the said Lord Embassadour toucheth further in the foresaid Memorial on two passages which he saith are very maliciously turned to a wrong sense the first is the passage which in what is uncifered inferreth that the Lords of Amsterdam were but little moved concerning the pretended coming over of 135 for in the uncifering that number is used and it is true that some Lords of the Government have thought that by that was meant the coming over of the Heer Pensionary Heinsius since the same had as well writ from France as by word of mouth here reported that the State ought to put it self in a posture of Defence then the Peace would then in all likelihood follow and they must not suffer themselves to be amused by promises to neglect that which to the aforesaid defence was necessary and yet no man notwithstanding hath ever said much less the unciferer of the aforesaid Letter that that number designed the Heer Heinsius what malignity there might be herein I cannot conceive for true it is that the Lords deputed of the City of Amsterdam would never give credit to that nor to other advertisements thinking and always saying they were better informed and therein exprest themselves even so far that in their turn giving their advice they feared not to say that although they were singular yet it sometimes happened that one alone might see as far and as much as all the rest 18. But I pray what is there in this Explication that is so remarkably malicious when the said Embassadour saith that the uncifering doth not infer that the Lords of Amsterdam were not a little allarmed at the pretended arrival of that Letter which saith that they onely sought to abuse them when as no man that I know hath drawn out of that period any thing or would charge on the Lords of Amsterdam as an offence that they were more or less credulous or scrupulous The Second period is that which speaketh of the Heer Paets and others well intentioned who had now again taken courage and joyned themselves to Amsterdam and who had said to their friends that they never had conceived that his Majesty would have done so much as was now done in Flanders with annexing the number 180. It is true the words have but small sense except onely that it might thereout be concluded that the same whom the Lord Embassadour in that period named or designed began again to appear encouraged thereto by the good which they never expected the King would have done or did And the said Embassadour saith not alone that that uncifering is false but confirmeth the same very sliff when by the aforesaid Memorial he saith that what is Cifered supposeth that all the well minded whom he there nameth good Republicans had reassumed courage that they had said to their friends that they never had conceived that his Majesty would doe so many things as he now did in favour of the good party but that is true that no man hath thought that there was a party so affixed to France and of which Amsterdam was the head and for which his Majesty would doe so many things of which no man had given the Government any knowledge either directly or indirectly and thence had also been no knowledge thereof if the said Lord Embassadour had not so clearly mentioned it in the foresaid Memorial and had placed the Lords of Amsterdam and the good Republicans together and in one place what offence it is to make such a Party in a State and that also with Foreigners is very well known and there be Capital Examples thereof to be produced out of the Register of the States which will also be shewn when the Matter shall be brought before the Judgment-seat What concerneth the last Point concerning the security which should be required of these of Amsterdam in particular I will speak thereof no more for that in my latter I have made ample mention thereof I will onely say that the said Lord Embassadour hath said by the said Memorial that he well knew particulars could not give it and that his Majesty never would have desired it and that yet the Lords of Amsterdam in their Information say That he the Lord Embassadour had often urged it from them yea so far that they denying it he should have exprest his displeasure whether this agreeth together judge ye I can do no better than to say that the Lords of Amsterdam have suffered themselves to be amused by deceitfull promises as the Priest of the Lord Embassadour well saith in his Note who by the said Memorial they would say to be such a simple fellow to those who are not acquainted with him but who hath a quite other reputation by those to whom he is in any manner known I will hencewith conclude and onely say that it needs must be a great grief to me and all good Patriots that the Lords of Amsterdam have used so ill a Conduct and taken so wrong a path and to so great a disadvantage of their Country as to put and maintain the same in a State without defence through their abstracting the said Levy and in that manner expose the same to the utmost danger on the Promise or Conditions of Peace which by the State could not be brought forth for that it depended on the approbation of Spain and which was declared by the Spanish Ministers here as also by the Minister of this State residing in Spain that it never would be agreed to by Spain let the event be what it will and that they draw their design with so great immoderation and presumption that therein they neither would spare their Country nor the good Inhabitants thereof and this obstinateness is so much the more to be admired for that it cannot be denied but that of two matters the one must be true that is that either the said Lord Embassadour by the foresaid Letter doth represent the truth of what had passed between him and the Lords of Amsterdam in which Case the said Lords of Amsterdam are notoriously guilty of Crimes Laesae Majestatis as is before demonstrated or that the aforesaid Lord Embassadour hath not represented matters according to truth in the foresaid Letter and hath not therein proceeded with them in that just manner which so important a matter required in which Case the said Lords of Amsterdam if they were such good and sincere Patriots as they pretend to be and would clear themselves of all Partiship of which the said Lord Embassadour maintaineth in the foresaid Letter they ought to shew their Resentment against those who so wrongfully and insinuatingly would make them to be suspected and finding themselves amused by deceitfull promises and under colour thereof endeavoured to make the Partiships they would at last join with their fellow-members and with such zeal and inclination as was fitting would concur to the establishing of those means which all their other fellow-members judge reasonable and necessary for the common desence without longer amusing themselves with those who create such intreagues to so great a detriment of the State chiefly since the said Lord Embassadour in his foresaid Memorial is convinced and clearly acknowledgeth that by the whole Government how there is a great inclination in a friendly manner to put a period to these differences by an Accommodation FINIS
THE DEPUTIES Of the REPUBLICK of AMSTERDAM TO THE States of Holland Convicted of High-Treason Written and Proved By the Minister of State According to a true Copy Printed at the HAGVE 1684. LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers Hall 1684. The DEPUTIES of the Republick of AMSTERDAM to the States of HOLLAND Convicted of High-Treason SIR WHereas you desire to be inform'd of me in some measure of what passed in the Assembly of the Lords the States on the 16th of Feb. last concerning which in this our Countrey so much noise has been made and whereof the Lords the Burgomasters and Regents of the City of Amsterdam so much complain I do presume to think my self able to give you and all that think themselves concerned in the true representation of that affair the following information whereof all those will be able to judge who for any time since have been present at the said Assembly which is this The Marquiss de Grana having sent to his Highness the P. of Orange a Letter written by the Count D'avaux Extraordinary Ambassadour from the K. of France to this State on the 19th of January last to the King his Master part in Cifer and part in plain writing with a Copy of what was cifered and besides 3 other Letters which Letter of the said Count D'avaux with the extracts of the aforesaid 3 particular Letters as much as concerned publick Affairs are already Printed and made publick His Highness considered for some days what he should doe with the said Letters for that the matter therein contained was of great importance and that the State was much concerned to be informed of the correspondence therein mentioned and that therefore they ought not to be kept secret the more for that some time since and especially about the time of the writing of the said Letter great muttering was among the respective Members in the Assembly of the States against the City of Amsterdam concerning the correspondence which the Deputies of that City had with foreign Ministers without imparting the same to the States and from whose communication the said deputed Lords used many discourses in the Assembly of the said States which upon enquiry were found false His Highness thought it therefore best at first not to concern Justice therewith but immediately to acquaint the Lords therewith and to leave it to their wisedoms to act therein that it might not be said that his Highness had either done therein too much or too little as he notwithstanding all his faithfulness and moderation shewed on all occasions but chiefly when the Government was almost in the uttermost confusion was charged with many forged calumnies chiefly in the said City of Amsterdam and accordingly on the 16th of this present Month being present at the meeting of their Lordships he acquainted them that he had somewhat to communicate to them of the highest importance with desire that the Members of that Assembly would appoint that the Doors of their Meeting place might be shut viz. those of going out of the house that so by the going out and in of any of their Members the matter might not be divulged that any one desiring might be admitted in but that none should be suffered to go forth without leave of their Lordships whereupon none of the Members replying or moving ought to consideration the Lord Pensioner of Holland rung the Bell to call in one of the Door-keepers and told him It was the order of the Lords the States that he should shut the Doors of their Assembly place and withdrawing chambers thereto adjoyning and admit entrance to any desiring it but to let none out without order of their Lordships none of the Members of the Assembly contradicting the order or moving ought to the contrary Then his Highness proceeded saying that what he had to communicate concerned in some manner as therein nam'd the persons of the Lords Hooft Hop old Schepens and Councellor and Pensionary of the City of Amsterdam wherefore his Highness desired that the said Lords would retire into the withdrawing room of the States whereupon the said Pensioner Hop having first spoken to the Lord of Marsse Veen Burgomaster of the said City and deputed by the said City to the Assembly the said two Lords Hooft and Hop without alledging ought to consideration or that ought was moved by the Lords Deputies of the said City of Amsterdam or of any of the other Cities retired into the withdrawing room whereupon his Highness disclosed the matter to the Lords the States in the Assembly namely that he had received these Letters and the original Letter partly in Cifer and partly in plain writing with the uncifering thereof and gave the 3 Letters into the hands of the Lord Pensioner of Holland who read the same then his Highness declared he had now performed his duty as Governour leaving the full liberty and disposal thereof to their Lordships to act therein as they should judge necessary for the service of their Countrey The Lords rising from their Table to deliberate what might be the effect of this overture and the other Members also preparing to advise the said Lords Hooft and Hop without order and consent of the Assembly entred in again and said they ought to be present when they were to deliberate on the said matter whereupon many Debates were occasioned among the Members of the Assembly some alledging they ought to absent and all the other Lords except those of Amsterdam desired them at least in discretion to absent whereto the said Lords of Amsterdam would in no wise yield so that the other Lords to cause therein no commotion and being resolved to give no other advice in the said matter but what they should judge to consist with all Justice and Equity and the service of their Countrey resolved to proceed although the two aforesaid Lords were present and so insisted no longer on their retirement notwithstanding those Members who were for the retirement of the said Lords Hooft and Hop expresly declared that according to the custome of all such Assemblies and especially according to the most ancient custome and resolution of their Assembly the retirement of the said Hooft and Hop ought not to be left to their discretion but that they ought to be regulated by the foresaid resolution and custome whereupon the other Members having proceeded to give their sentiments they all concluded to give knowledge of this discovery to the Lords the Burgomasters and Common-council their principals and that all the Papers which were in the Closets of the Lords of Amsterdam or in the Chamber of the said Lord Pensioner Hop should by some of the Assembly thereto deputed be sealed up and left in the custody of the said Lord of Marsse Veen and the sealing of them up should be done by the Lords Vander Gaes and Boert Burgomaster and Pensioner respective of the Cities of Delft and Alkmar and the Lord Secretary Van Beamant and that to the sealing
duty of an Embassadour as is manifest by the Negotiations he hath treated That he could fail in one of the most essential duties of an Embassadour viz. the giving of a true and exact account to the King his Master of that which himself had treated about and that therein he would abuse him even such a King who so well knoweth to make himself obeyed by those that serve him or to punish the least failure therein will by none be consented to who is not prejudiced And this is also herein confirmed that the Lords of Amsterdam had with the same Lord Embassadour such a familiar converse that the other Members of the Assembly were ever therewith offended and that the said Lords of Amsterdam were admonished to quit or moderate that so offending communication by the other Members before the Assembly was met and ready to deliberate and when several of the Members stood discoursing together and at the end of their debates had quitted their places even then the Lord Councellor Pensionary Hop with a great confidence and to a farther discontent of very many Members answered that they understood their liberty to go so often to the Lord Embassadour as they should think fit yea and that with so much greater confidence he exprest himself that the said Lords deputed of Amsterdam had inserted some things in their advices which the Minister of the King of Great Brittain should have said and his Highness being informed by the said Minister of England that what was alledged was untruth and having thereof given notice to the Assembly of the Lords the States with complaint concerning the conduct of those of Amsterdam At the same time and on the deliberation for a farther prohibition of communication with Foreign Ministers concerning affairs of the State The said Lords Deputies in the Assembly in their turn expressing their sense by the mouth of the said Lord Pensionary Hop in a braving manner declared they were resolved not to cease that communication and that they would yet that Afternoon speak with the Lord Embassadour of France that the said Lord Embassadour gave them thereto encouragement that he had spoke to them on Christmas Eve of some matters concerning the Trade for St. Vallery and that on occasion of these particular matters he sometimes intermingled some State Affairs but that thereof they had given an account to the Lords their Principals that they also had been at Delft to confer with them that they were convinced of their endeavours to the welfare of the Republick and therefore were not obliged to reflect on the jealousie of the Members but not in all this touching one word concerning the matters relating to the Commonwealth whereof was treated between them and the said Lord Embassadour and that the said Lords of Amsterdam farther acknowledged that the said Lords Hooft and Hop had been with the Embassadour the day before the writing of that Letter add thereto that several matters mentioned in the same Letter that the said Lords of Amsterdam should have done were also in truth by them effected as I shall hereafter more at large demonstrate and that so many circumstances concurred with the said fact as seldom can be brought together to make clearly out the truth of a matter treated of between a few persons What the contents of the said Letter were you may collect out of the Printed Letter of the Count D'Avaux and I would not have made farther mention thereof if I had not thought it needfull for your better information to explain the contents thereof somewhat more particularly Sir you may remember with what immoderate zeal the Lords of Amsterdam have endeavoured to oblige the other Members under pretext of Counsel to force the King of Spain to accept of one of the Equivalents expressed in the memorial of the Count D'Avaux of the Fifth of November last you will possibly also know at least many Lords who frequent the Assemblies of the Lords the States have at several times heard that when the poor Inhabitants of the Spanish Netherlands were bewailed and that men even stood amazed at the desolations which the hard Unchristian yea Inhumane procedures of the French effected that it hath often been said by some of those Lords that the Spaniards must be thereby forced to give satisfaction to the King of France that it was a punishment which the Spaniards must suffer for not resolving to comply with the will of the King of France and many other like discourses you may remember also how oft they have desired that Debates should be had on the said memorial of the Fifth of November how often they have obliged the Members to confer with their Principals concerning the same after they had already by formal resolutions in their Councils taken several times declared that Spain must accept one of the Equivalents and that therefore they could no more confer with their Fellow-members on the same subject what particular endeavours the Lords of Amsterdam have used now with the one then with the other Member yea so much that the other Members have been offended thereat with what earnestness they have opposed the Levy of the Sixteen thousand Men notwithstanding all the other Members of their Lordships Assembly consented thereto and which they judged so highly necessary for defence of this State and that without it this State even without any consideration of assistence to Spain was exposed to the greatest danger and when they herein effected nothing they then addressed themselves to the Lords deputed in the Generality from the other Provinces and particularly also to the Lords deputed from the Province of Friesland and the Cities and Countries The contents then of the Letter is first that the Lords of Amsterdam had complained to him the Lord Embassadour that by their single Authority they could not effect that the States might deliberate on the measures which they had to take in case Spain before the end of January concluded not an accommodation with France that he the Lord Embassadour could present no Memorial concerning the same and by that means bring the matter to be deliberated notwithstanding their earnest desire of him to that method they had together considered of all the expedients which might supply the effect of Memorial that the Lords of Amsterdam had thereupon proposed to him that he would permit them that by their means a conference might be had with him by some deputed out of the States General and that in that conference a friend of the City of Amsterdam who was one of the Deputies of Holland should desire of the Lord Embassadour an explanation of what might happen if before the end of January Spain did not accept one of the Proposals made by France upon which he would find sufficient matter to bring it to a deliberation among the States General to which he had consented that immediately thereon those Lords of Amsterdam had spoken with some of the Lords deputed to the Generality most of his
might be found as that he the Lord Embassadour had observed from several of the Members of State the fear they had of his Majesties Arms if Spain assented not before the end of January that therefore his Majesty had ordered him the said Lord Embassadour to make known to their Highnesses that if they remained in the State wherein they were and hindred that the Troups they had sent the Spaniards should not further act than in defence of the Spanish places his Majesty to free the States General from that fear would promise them to attack no places and to cause his Forces to act elsewhere and content himself to force the Spanish Netherlands by quartering of his Troups on them and the exacting of Contributions and what concerned the security which his Majesty desired that no new Levies should be made that those were matters that might best be by Verbal expressions but not mentioned in the Memorial that thereby the intrinsick of Government should not be touched but that it would be sufficient to say that they should remain in the State wherein they were and that also otherwise when they agreed concerning the rest they would then rather think on discharging of those already raised than of raising any new Troups That the Lords of Amsterdam had very earnestly pressed him to obtain that permission of his Majesty and that they did all what was possible thereby to cause that matter to take effect that they had assured him that every day they gained one or other City to their judgment and that they had gained one of the principallest that they wrought hard to bring the Spaniards to an accommodation and if that could not be effected that they must then take the aforesaid means in hand to maintain the Peace in the Spanish Netherlands and that they hoped that the Provinces of Friesland City and Countrey would agree to their Sentiments and that they had desired him to speak with their Deputies to confirm them the more So that the Lord Embassadour could assure his Majesty that the Lords of Amsterdam did doe all that was in their power and that they agitated with the other Cities with an incredible zeal and application and that he could not omit to acquaint his Majesty that some Members of the State had made difficulty to agree that his Majesty should execute upon the Spanish open Countries for that it was impossible that these Provinces could maintain themselves when they should not know from whence to find subsistence and that so indirectly the whole Barrier should be taken away Now to consider whether there be truth in what the Lord Embassadour hath written in this matter you will no doubt remember that the Lords of Amsterdam in particular discourses they had with the Members of the Assembly before they had orderly taken their seats as also when the same Members were risen after the conclusion and demitting of the Assembly they had now and then spoken much of expedients that ought to be taken to keep the War out of the Spanish Netherlands in case the Spaniards should accept none of the French Postulata or accommodate themselves with France that they also endeavoured particularly to inform themselves of his Highness whether the Militia of this State in the Spanish Netherlands had any other order but onely to defend the Cities and that some of them as herebefore I have said had named the foresaid procedures by the French in the Spanish Netherlands a chastisement which Spain had well deserved and a remedy whereby the King of Spain would be obliged to submit to the Will of the King of France and thereby it may be deduced that it is easily to be believed that those propositions issued from those who were possessed with such an ill will against Spain and so great a good will for France that all those horrid actions committed in the foresaid Netherlands were onely palliated with the names of chastisements and looked on as remedies to force Spain to agree to the Will of France and you are not ignorant how often they in the Assembly of the States by their publick advices have said that they must necessitate Spain to yield to one of the French Postulata And that they have more and more explained themselves that they thereby understood that in relation thereto means must be used to constrain them and make them sensible That it is also true that the Lords of Amsterdam have desired that that which France had to propose might be publick to all the World thereby to gain their advantage on those who were ignorant may hereby appear that when in the Assembly of Holland they had deliberated on the means of Secresie which should be observed in the Treaties set on foot with the Allies concerning the means of an accommodation the Lords of Amsterdam had openly said that they would not consent therein because they would be over-voted by all the other dissenting Members in the negotiation of that affair that in that same matter they might not make any notes nor relate to others what passed therein and that therefore they rather would the same should pass through a number of above 400 persons than pass through a few out of which according to my judgment nothing else is to be concluded but that the Lords of Amsterdam finding themselves in their opinion singular and that all the other Members meeting in the Assembly much blamed their conduct though that by those who did not there appear but daily heard and saw what was there deliberated on and who could not so well be informed of all things as the others they would reap more benefit by an abusive information given them and to raise an agitation in the minds of the Regents and other inhabitants under that pleasing pretence of Peace and Freedom from extraordinary Taxes and that they could not so well serve themselves thereof when they must onely speak to those who were as well informed of these matters as themselves and could on all occasions undeniably convince them of their abuses and wrong propositions For that the Allegation which they made that this negotiation was of that importance that the whole Government ought to have cognizance thereof was but a pretence will not onely appear that the business wherein the foresaid Secresie should have been used should have onely been preparatory and not that the Lords thereto appointed should have concluded ought finally without the States of the respective Provinces or those who should be thereunto by them authorized after a full account of what in that affair had passed and with full and considerate deliberation should have resolved and determined what they should have judged to consist with the service of the Republick which design and intention of theirs appeareth undeniably that they themselves proposed that when the other Members would conform to their sentiments and would joyn with them for the furtherance of a peace they by writing declared to consent to leave the direction
thereof to a very few persons so that no importance in the negotiation publick or secret direction and ordering concerning the furthering thereof cometh in consideration but onely whether the other Members will agree to the sentiments of the Lords of Amsterdam and then all may pass but when that cannot be assented to although all the other Members agree in one sentiment nothing must pass how rational soever it be and on whatsoever foregoing examples and practice it may be founded and concerning the earnestness and endeavours they have used with the other Cities I need not mention they being so known that the Lords of Amsterdam could not deny it also neither the earnestness and endeavours they used with the Lord Deputies of the Provinces of Friesland and City and County You also well know that hitherto the Lords of Amsterdam have not consented to the ordinary and extraordinary State of War that they might make it appear that it was true which they had promised the said Lord Embassadour that if all things succeeded to their mind it would rather be endeavoured to discharge than to raise new Forces and that when some of the Members of the Assembly about that time spoke with the Lord Pensionary Councellor of Holland concerning the Declaration which the King of France should make to attack no Cities but onely to execute upon the open Countrey till they should be agreed about a Peace between the two Crowns the said Lord Pensionary Councellor should have asked these Members how and from whence those Cities should be thus supplied when the open Countrey was thus ruined for that it was clear these Cities could not subsist without the open Countrey and so must of themselves fall into the hands of the King of France What farther is contained in the said Letter concerning the designed Levy and the opposition of the Lords of Amsterdam against it It also is true and known that to hinder the same the Lords of Amsterdam have used all possible endeavours that I need to speak no farther thereof but I could never have thought that they had done it induced by the good intentions the King of France declared to have towards them and strengthened by the means which were propounded to them if the said Lord Embassadour had not so plainly expressed the same in the said Letter and I am the more convinc'd of the truth of the whole contents of the Letter when I remark first that the Lords of Amsterdam had often asked from whence those Solicitours would get money when the raising of the Forces would be begun without their consent and that they in the Assembly of the States have by proposition asked who should bear the charges of the foresaid Levy when they consented not therein and secondly that it is true that the Heer Van Haren extraordinary Embassadour of this State to the Court of Sweden then being here in the Hague and speaking with his Highness concerning the necessity of the said Levies and complaining that the deliberations concerning the same proceeded so slowly and that the opposition of the Lords of Amsterdam against the said Levy much hindred the consent of the other Provinces whereupon his Highness answered that he hoped that the Members in Holland would make an end thereof and in few days bring it to a conclusion if possible with assent if not without the assent of Amsterdam since the Countrey must not be deprived of their defence for obstinateness of one Member and lastly concerning that the said Embassadour writeth viz. that he as yet desired not to know of his Majesty what security he should demand of the Lords of Amsterdam in case they could not move the States to consent to those things his Majesty desired of them because he knew not what therein his Majestie 's intentions might be that he the Lord Embassadour could onely say that the Lords of Amsterdam had thereupon not yet explained themselves to him and that they had expresly said to him that they were remedies to which no recourse ought to be had but in the utmost extremity that they would not speak to him concerning the same till they had lost all hope to give to his Majesty by the States that security which ought to be given him which they yet imagined to be able to effect and though I readily yield that to be very hardly believed that the Lords of Amsterdam should be able to arrive to such an extravagancy yet I must confess I ought not to doubt thereof when I consider not onely the discourses which the said Members at this time often have maintained namely that if they were not consented to that they then must consider their own security yea that they also so far exprest themselves that when the other Members required that the matter of the Levy should be brought to a conclusion that they in their turn giving in their advice in the Assembly of the States publickly had dared to say that they understood not to remain in a Society wherein they enjoyed not the right of that Society not considering that the Body of the Sovereignty of Holland and West-Friesland was not brought together as particular Members united by special contract as the union of Vtrecht brought the several Provinces together but in a manner of which no particular account can be given onely that in the old Histories it is said that the City of Amsterdam in its beginning was under the power and direction of particular Lords who were also at that time Subjects to the Earls of Holland whereas the ancient Histories mention not that several other Cities were under the like subjection to other Lords also subject but immediately under the Earls of Holland and have thus immediately from the beginning composed the Body of the States whereas the City of Amsterdam could not enjoy that honour during they were under those particular subject Lords besides that every one must think it strange that the Lords of Amsterdam complaining that the said Levy was concluded without their consent and would say that the right of the Society was not yielded them whereas the Body of the Sovereignty of Holland and West-Friesland being obliged for the conservation of their Religion and Freedom to the Land to their utmost power that the Lords of Amsterdam by a strange obstinateness refused to help to provide what all the other its Members judged indispensably necessary for their common defence and in a time when all their Neighbours round about strongly armed did more and more strengthen themselves by new Levies and all the friends of this State had their eyes on the resolutions of this State for the defence of it self against oppression and over-ruling and with God's blessing to free itself therefrom and of which in that sad year of 1672. they had experimented so great and sensible a fusserance for having neglected the putting themselves in a posture of defence I suppose in what hath been said I have clearly shewed that what the said
perswaded that that which France demanded was so unjust that Spain desired that his Allies together would examine whether the foresaid pretensions were founded on reason adding that if they should judge the said pretensions were just he would much yield in such a case to the judgment of his Allies we could in such a case never make this State more unfit to use endeavours with Spain for an accommodation than to declare to France that we should force Spain to the acceptance of one of the aforesaid propositions that we incessantly endeavoured the same employing all our credit to make disputes in the Cities and also withhold what in case of need might serve us in some measure to defend the State to wit the Levy of the foresaid Men. And what could more move France to yield nothing as being ascertained not from without or from some out of the Government but of such a considerable Member of the same Government that the said Member used its utmost endeavours with an incredible zeal and application to bring Spain to accept one of the foresaid proposals and to withhold that which in any manner might serve to put off the first push if no accommodation could have been made with France which was the foresaid new Levies since France was thereby assured that Spain must either yield to the aforesaid conditions or that otherwise he finding Spain and this State without any power to resist and giving him all opportunity with the approaching Spring to settle and bring to effect his designs to possess himself not onely of the foresaid Netherlands but also of this State I leave it to the judgment of wiser persons if this be not criminal and deserving punishment in the highest for that it hurteth to the utmost the security of the State by discovering the weakness thereof to those whom the State ought chiefly to fear and animated them withall not to diminish of his demands and put a sufficient opportunity into his hands of carrying the Spanish Netherlands to the utmost detriment of this State if not this State it self at last Secondly it appeareth by the aforesoid Letter that the Lords of Amsterdam in consult with the French Embassadour and animated by the kindness the King of France pretendeth to have for them and fortified by the means he proposed to them had openly withstood the said Levy and caused many Disputes in several of the Cities concerning the same you may Sir hereby judge whether it be not criminal to raise disputes among the Members of the Assembly and animated thereto by the service a Foreign Prince pretendeth they doe him therein and strengthned by the means which that Foreign Prince proposeth yea and that of a Prince who by his Forces hath attacked an Allye of this State in a place in which the State hath so sensible an interest and whither the State hath sent assistence to that Allye so attacked and these said assisting Troups are actually employed to the assistence of the Attacked against the Attacker and that these disputes are occasions to put and keep the State out of a posture of needfull defence Thirdly That the Lords of Amsterdam have if not personally yet openly concerted with the French Embassadour concerning overtures whereby this State should be engaged either to force Spain to accept one of the French proposals or to desert them on condition onely that France should leave the places in the Spanish Netherlands unattacked and continue to molest the open Countrey with Quarterings and Contributions that they had earnestly insisted that he would present a Memorial to that effect whereby they would be in a condition to effect the business if that be not also criminal and punishable in the highest degree I willingly leave to the censure of wiser and sharper judgments I very well know how that matter was resented in the year 1666. and what Letters some Ministers of this State being then in France have written notwithstanding that what then passed hath no more comparison with this present affair than a Gnat to an Elephant for what can be more hurtfull and disadvantageous to the greatness of this State than that a Member of one Province by particular authority without knowledge of its other Fellow Members should in such a manner deal with a Foreign Prince who hath Attacked one of the Allyes of the State who must be assisted by that State and is already actually assisted and should confer with that Foreign Prince not onely to make ineffectual but even to break the Treaty the State hath made with the Attacked where is it wherein the State must find its security as the said Lords of Amsterdam have often said by Allyances and Contracts with Foreign Princes against the over power of others which by their own power they cannot effect and what can bring such Allyances and contracts in more discredit with Foreign Princes than that they shall perceive that it is in the power of one Province yea of one Member of a Province by its own Capricio to make ineffectual Treaties solemnly made or to withhold the effect thereof and how can it be born by the Supreme Authority that whereas by the constitution of the Government of these Countreys one Province alone how Sovereign soever it be cannot enter into Treaties with Foreign Princes that one Member of a Province to wit the Lords of Amsterdam shall propose or at least concert with the said Embassadour without knowledge of the Government concerning such overtures of accommodation and desire him to propose the same by a Memorial and that they hope by that means to bring them to effect I will not now speak of the Proposals themselves so dishonourable and so unfit that every one that hath yet remaining in him but a small portion of Fidelity and Honour must have for the same the utmost abhorrence for what can be more dishonourably imagined than that this State which is obliged to defend Spain against unjust Force should by a publick Treaty oblige it self to force Spain to that which France alone by force and over power acquireth of Spain as Spain says and not by Right and Justice and that in a time when Spain will permit this State to examine the justice or injustice of the French pretensions or if they could not arrive thereto that by a publick Treaty they should oblige themselves to give Spain over to the will of France and that in all parts of the World France might at his pleasure exercise all force and wrong on Spain onely that the Cities in the Spanish Netherlands might not be Attacked yea that in the same Netherlands they might act on the open Countrey these horrible sorts of executions of which in former Wars hath not been heard In truth if this conduct of affairs had not been so publickly and clearly seen it could not be imagined that such a Government as is that of Amsterdam should have arrived so far to give so evident a proof of a perfidiousness
other Members in matters of Peace wherein all the others cannot comprehend that one Member and I would that any one were found so understanding and sharp witted who should then tell me what a Government we had in this Countrey where was the Sovereign Power lodged and with whom men had to treat and contract and how far might extend the Capricios of one Member who designeth to distinguish it self from all the other Members each of which hath the same right with this Member and who esteem themselves as good Patriots of their Countrey as that one Member and to be as much inclined to Peace as that one separate Member and who would treat and contract with a Government constituted in that manner I will not now enter into the Examination whether and how far Members of the same Government may undertake to correspond with Ministers of Foreign Princes and how that is understood in this Republick but I will onely say that I have seen when the Queen of England in the year 1588. endeavoured to treat of Peace with Spain and that in that matter there was there in this Countrey no small disagreement in the Assembly of Holland that the Members thereof were not onely obliged to abstain from all correspondence but were also obliged to discover all what occurred to them even from that Queen or any one whomsoever of her Ministers notwithstanding we were in a very strict Allyance with her Majesty and had from her Majesty an actual assistence and had also two Councellors of her Majesty present in our Council of State to whom then the greatest part of the direction of Affairs was imparted but the matter is not whether any Member of the State keep correspondence with a Foreign Minister but whether it may be permitted to any Member of the Government whatsoever to keep such correspondences as are mentioned in the foresaid Letter It is further said that it was onely uncifered and which the Marquis de Grana had sent 't is true it was sent by the Marquis de Grana as having intercepted it and conceived the State to be so much concerned therein that it ought to know what was here contriving to the detriment of the Publick but the said Marquis de Grana whose uprightness some would question hath proceeded therein with that candour that he also sent hither the Key whereby he uncifered the Letter that it might appear by what Rule they uncifered the same and that it was impossible to feign the like as they now endeavour to make it suspected To which is added that the Lords deputed from Amsterdam to the Assembly of States having understood that the Lord Embassadour had some Proposals to make whereby the Peace in the Spanish Netherlands and between France and this State might be preserved and that he was desirous to confer with them concerning the same that they had made report thereof to the Lords their Principals with many circumstances who had especially charged them to have a nearer Conference with the Lord Embassadour concerning the same and oblige him to give notice thereof to the Members and especially to the Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland as the Minister of the Lords the Nobles and that the said Lords deputed of the said City of Amsterdam had also given notice thereof to the said Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland but hereon I will first ask wherefore the Lords deputed from Amsterdam were so scrupulous to hear and receive such Proposals of the said Embassadour if there had been nothing else to treat between them and that they charged the other Members who had no order from their Principals with the having visited the said Lord Embassadour and to have heard the said Proposals of him for they say that they were those who would have had that they should also speak to the other Members whereas before they had made no difficulty to speak to so many other Foreign Ministers without having had such special charge from their Principals and said with so much assurance even against the displeasure therein of the other Members they both should and would continue the said Conferences with the said Embassadour and notwithstanding the foresaid narration of that Conference is clearly and at large made appear even as if the said Lords Deputies had given to the States in the Assembly a full and perfect knowledge and information thereof whereas all those know who have been in that Assembly that the said Lords had given to the said Assembly not the least knowledge thereof what here and there they might by particular discourses have said to some one or other of the particular Members I know not it may be they may have to every one given such an overture thereof as they thought might serve their design You know Sir that the Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland hath said more than once that the said Lords deputed had not in the least made him acquainted therewith but onely that the said Lord Embassadour had also said to him the Lord Councellor Pensionary in the aforesaid Visit that in case the Lords the States would treat to preserve the Peace in the Spanish Netherlands and leave his Majesty free to further his pretensions on Spain elsewhere and that they would engage themselves in such a case to afford no assistance to Spain that his Majesty would not be averse thereto and that the said Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland had answered either to the said deputed Lords or to the said Lord Pensionary Hop that there could be no deliberation had concerning the same before a Memorial to that effect was presented and that it would occasion a very honourable name to this Republick with all Foreign Princes if we should so deal with those with whom we were in Allyance and you know Sir that the said Lord Pensionary of Holland hath also often declared that the said Lords deputed except that one time and in that manner had never given him any other information of the said overture of the said Treaties and Conferences The said Lord Pensionary of Holland hath not to my knowledge ever pretended that the Lords of Amsterdam were obliged to give him any account of what they did and it will therefore appear as strange to him as to any other that the said Lords did now appeal to the knowledge they should have given him thereof What is further said of the cutting off of correspondence with foreign Ministers I know that to have proceeded from the so much offending Conferences which the said Lords deputed had with the forementioned Lord Embassadour You also know Sir that the Lords of Amsterdam have explain'd themselves thereon to the Assembly in a manner so irreverently that all the Members thereof were thereat highly offended however none then knew or could surmise from whence that proceeded and what was then ordered concerning the discourse relating to the ship La Reigle and that on the 8th of January last the said Lords deputed had spoken with
thereof they should use their own particular seals And all the Members and particularly also the Lords deputed of the said City of Amsterdam undertook to give cognizance of the discovery and Letters to their Principals the Burgomasters and Common-council of their said Cities but of the sealing up those Papers onely to the Lords Burgomasters all under the same Oath of Secresie excepting that the Lords deputed of the City of Amsterdam since this Sealing up of these Papers chiefly concerned them should communicate the same also to their Common council so that nothing else was debated in the said Assembly but what concerned the discovery made by his Highness and the absence or presence of the said Lords Hooft and Hop during the Debate on the said discovery the sealing and securing their Papers and the said resolution of Secresie I leave it to your wise and serious judgment if any who is but any thing impartial could or ought to have otherwise managed an affair of so great importance and of so fair a prospect as the contents of the said Letters and if any thing hath been amiss it might in truth be said to have been rather by too great moderation than rigour But whether or no the Lords the Burgomasters and Common-council of the City of Amsterdam whose Deputies had undertaken to keep the matter secret and not to disclose the same unto their said Burgomasters and Common-council but under a like Oath of Secresie have regulated themselves according to those promises when they by their Letters communicated the same to the Burgomasters and Governours of the other Cities and permitted atleast connived the publishing the same by their City Printer But that I may give the better information herein It will be needfull to consider what it properly is that the Lords the Burgomasters and Governours of the City of Amsterdam complain of in relation to that Letter and that is First concerning the shutting of the Doors Secondly concerning the withdrawing of the said Lords Hooft and Hop and Thirdly concerning the sealing up of their Papers Concerning the first it is sufficiently known to be the custome that when their Lordships in their Assembly have been in debate concerning a matter of great import that they have caused the doors of their Assembly place to be shut and prohibited the going forth of any without knowledge of their Lordships the examples of which are so known that all those who have frequented that Assembly for some years since cannot be ignorant of so that the said Lords and Commoncouncil have no cause to complain thereof as a matter extraordinary and unheard of and that the Pensionary Councellor of Holland should alone have given order concerning the same without first putting the question round to all the Members of the Assembly is wrongly mentioned for his Highness had openly desired it of all the Members present that for the importance of the business and for that many of the Members did often use to go out and come in that therefore the doors of the said place might be shut and that no man contradicted that matter or urged any the least consideration against the so doing It was therefore the place of the Lord Pensionary Councellor to signifie unto those who in the Assembly are concerned the pleasure of the Lords the States and accordingly the Door-keepers being called in he told them the resolution of the States to have the doors shut which he did not privately but in the hearing of the whole Assembly without opposition contradiction or appearance thereof by any and since I cannot perceive wherein he the said Lord Pensionary Councellor hath done ill or against the orders of our Countrey notwithstanding that period might easily admit such an interpretation as if he had designed to himself an unjust and illegal power I must therefore believe that the same is rather pretended out of animosity than reason the rather for that in the same Letter it is insinuated by a repetition to have been the sole duty of the Lord Pensionary Councellor especially when you shall please to call to mind that in matters of much greater import than is that of shutting and opening the Doors of the Assembly place the said Councellor Pensionary hath been used oftentimes to take the resolution of the Assembly as concluded without moving the question round to every particular Member when none of the Members have objected any thing against what was moved As to the second point concerning the presence or absence of the Lords Hooft and Hop during the opening and debate on the aforesaid Letter I desire you will consider that it is not onely used in all Collegiate Assemblies that those on whose matters the debate is when they are Members of the same Assembly should absent themselves during the said Debate to leave unto the rest a freedom in debate of the said matter to give their sentiments free and undisturbed and that also the instructions of most Collegiate Assemblies are to that end directed and that it hath also been a very ancient custome in the assembly of the Lords the States that not onely those in whose matters particular debates and resolutions are to be had are to absent themselves from that Assembly but that also the absence hath been commanded of those that were their nighest relations notwithstanding their quality in that present Assembly yea that even the Lords deputed to that Assembly by the single notice given by the then Lord Councellor Pensionary of Holland are accustomed to absent when in the Assembly any debates were to be had concerning the Cities from whence they were deputed yea also in such an occasion when all the members of the said Assembly having on the matter in debate brought in the advice of the Lords their Principals and should advise not according to their own judgment as on accidental causes but even when they alone are to deliver the charge of the Lords their Principals in which the presence of such Members could make no change yea that the deputed Lords of such Cities desiring not to be absent out of the Assembly that they might onely hear the Lords Principals of the other Members notwithstanding they have been necessitated to obey the orders given them to absent although it were but by the plurality of the Votes of the other Members and that several of the other Members declared themselves free to utter their minds in presence of those Members which were ordered to absent The Assembly of their Lordships have judged it necessary in matters of the least importance and therefore as an express resolution have caused it to be registred viz. that each one concerning whom as to the distribution of any Office or place it was deliberated that during that deliberation he should be absent to leave them free to their deliberation It is true that the Lord Marsveen Burgomaster of the said City and deputed to the Assembly protested to be ignorant of all the correspondencies mentioned in that
Embassadour hath exprest in the said Letter is not onely very probable but as evident as things of that nature can be made and that there is therein no farther cause of doubt when it may be seen what since the writing of the aforesaid Letter by the forementioned Embassadour farther hath been done namely that the said Embassadour having by the aforesaid Letter earnestly desired that his Majesty would give him some permission to present Memorials and particularly that he should not need therein to express of the not making the said Levy and that he might therein use some sweetnings in consideration of the open Countrey of the Spanish Netherlands first by a Memorial the Nineteenth of this Month presented to the States hath declared that he would take it on himself to grant some time to bring the Spaniards to an accommodation on the conditions proposed by his Majesty if they would promise his Majesty to remain in the State wherein they were without making any steps which might make the Spaniards more obstinate by the hopes of a new and greater succour and then afterwards first in a Conference which he willingly would have had on the Sixteenth of the said Month but which was had on the Seventeenth for that the Deputies of Holland who were also to be at the same assisted on the aforesaid Sixteenth of February at the deliberation which then was had in Holland on the aforesaid Letter of the Lord Embassadour and hath afterwards declared by a Memorial that in case the States would engage to cause Spain to agree within two or three Months to one of the Equivalents contained in the aforesaid Memorial of the Fifth of November last or a Truce of Twenty years that his Majesty would cease all Hostilities against the Crown of Spain but so that if the Spaniards should suffer those two or three Months to run out without effect that then the States should cause that their Troups now in the Spanish Netherlands should not be otherwise employed than in defence of the places his Majesty of Spain there possesseth that they also should promise to give no where else any assistence to Spain against his Majesty of France or his Allyes and that then France would promise to Besiege or take no places in the Spanish Netherlands yea not to act the War any more on the open Countrey on condition that Spain should also observe the same and reserving to himself to use his Arms elsewhere till that Crown should compose the Peace which it had broken Or if the States would not oblige themselves thereto and would onely use earnest endeavours to press Spain to a friendly accommodation that also in such a case his Majesty would yield to a Cessation of Arms in the Spanish Netherlands as long as the present War should last and also promise neither by Siege or otherwise to make himself Master of any places in the Spanish Netherlands provided that the States on the contrary should oblige themselves not onely that their Troups in the Spanish Netherlands should onely be employed for defence of the places in the said Netherlands but that also they should give Spain no farther assistance in any other place whatsoever nor to act directly nor indirectly against his Majesty or his Allies and that also his Majesty would oblige himself to perform no acts of Hostility in the foresaid Spanish Netherlands provided Spain shall from the said Netherlands act no Hostility against him or if it would there continue the War that his Majesty would then continue it there onely against the open Countrey for what can better agree with what the Lords of Amsterdam had discoursed with the Lord Embassadour they say there must be no speech of making no new Levies but to leave matters in the same state they were in He doth also the same by his first Memorial They say there should be a Cessation of Hostility against the Cities in the Spanish Netherlands provided that the State meddle not with the Quarrel elsewhere or elsewhere help Spain he doth so likewise and for that he feared it would offend that that Cessation of Hostility should not extend to the benefit of the open Countrey he profereth the same also for so much as concerneth the open countrey if Spain on its part will not from the Netherlands act ought on the open countrey of the French He presenteth also those Memorials as late as he can and then when he judgeth that he would be thereby sitted to support the Lords of Amsterdam in their designs so that none before-hand not prejudiced can deny or doubt in his mind that what is contained in the aforesaid Letter is in truth for so much as concerneth the essential part not come to pass and effected That being so we may consider whether the Lords of Amsterdam may not be said to have there in done amiss yea greatly done amiss I believe not that the said Lords will themselves call in doubt that what is said in the foresaid Letter to have been done by them should not contain offences hurtfull in the utmost to the greatness and justness of the State and the welfare thereof and capable to cause the ruine of the Countrey for what can be more hurtfull and hindersome to the State that at this time when we should endeavour either an accommodation between parties at War together or must experience the loss of the Spanish Netherlands or to fall in difference concerning the same with the King of France and that as well the loss of the Spanish Netherlands as the falling at odds with the King of France would be very prejudicial to the State they should particulary discover to the King of France or that which is the same to his Embassadour the difference which was in the State between the Members thereof about finding out means of accommodation that the one was of advice that to put our selves in security of not being surprized was by raising a greater number of Militia and then to speak and endeavour for a good and lasting accommodation and that others advised that without providing any means of Defence they must blindfold help to execute what France desired of Spain That the Lords of Amsterdam said they would never yield to a Levy but to doe what might be done to oblige Spain to accept one of the French proposals for that these communications could indeed be of no other effect than more and more to encourage France to yield in nothing of what he pretended and to draw Spain more and more off and make him averse from all that by this State should be proposed to him to the furtherance of a Peace for since the mediation of the Peace depended not on the will of this State but on the approbation of Spain for that all what France pretendeth whether out of the head of his first proposal or by consequence of the Equivalents whereof was pertaining to Spain and by that King must be yielded and that Spain was so
so great and unheard of I cannot deny that it may sometimes have happened that one hath left his Friend and Allye in need and although it be very ill done and that God hath often sadly punished such perfidiousness yet hath the deserter always found or made a pretence to colour that his saying that he could no longer assist his Friend but so far as I can remember no instance can be found that a Prince or State without any the least reason should oblige himself by a particular Treaty to force his Friend to yield to what is unjustly required of him or to give him over to the pleasure of his opposite party when the opposite party hath not put that his pleasure in execution in presence of the deserter of his Friend besides that when that scandalous and dishonourable dealing could not produce that expected effect for that Spain finding it self treated in such a base manner onely that the Spanish Netherlands might remain safe and that thereby the War would but the more furiously be transported to his other Countries and Kingdoms would soon find means to secure himself from that danger by a yielding over or changing these Countreys which they desire to preserve in the Spanish Netherlands for that which Spain in former Wars had now or formerly lost Fourthly It appeareth by the foresaid Letter that the Lords of Amsterdam had spoke with the said Lord Embasladour concerning the security which they in particular were to give if the State should not approve to yield those matters his Majesty had proposed You may Sir easily conceive that this is not a less but at least as great a crime as any of the forementioned for how can it agree with the Majesty of the State that one of the Members of the same should give security to a Foreign Prince to effect that the State should grant those conditions which the said Foreign Prince desireth of them yea how can it be suffered by a Sovereign State that one of the Members shall comprehend all the rest or if that cannot be effected shall engage it self to agree apart concerning other particular Securities which this Member should then give to a Foreign Prince Lastly by the said Letter it also appeareth that the design on foot to cause the said Embassadour to present the foresaid Memorial was to raise the good Subjects against the Government as if the Government were inclined to the War and that the King of France presented and Proffered Peace and that the City of Amsterdam lending thereto their helping hand sought to evade the War and that his Highness and the other Members who in that matter could not joyn with the Lords of Amsterdam sought to engage the State in a sad and deplorable War whereas his Highness and all the Members composing the Assembly of States have often declared with the utmost sincerity that they designed nothing else than if it were any ways possible to help to allay these differences by an accommodation which according to the present constitution of times and matters might be in any manner esteemed honourable and secure and that they would concerning the same enter into Conference with Spain and the other their high Allyes since unto Spain belonged that which should be sacrificed to the Peace and that by the aforesaid written Letter no security for Peace was made neither could be if it were not secured by a good Guaranty of other Princes and States and that for the obtaining that Guaranty there was nothing to be expected or hoped if concerning that Peace there were no consultation with the said high Allyes and they induced to the conditions thereof yea to hear all the Members who frequented the Assembly also the Lords deputed of the City of Amsterdam have often been necessitated to acknowledge that all the measures his Highness took were towards a Peace and that his Highness had not given to any of them reasons to suspect that he was not inclined to a Peace And Sir you know what reason I have to be well perswaded that the Peace had been long since attained at least would have been much furthered and that the inhabitants of the Country would have had much less trouble if the Lords of Amsterdam by their conduct had not given France cause to hope to obtain better conditions than could be effected and had thereby made on the one side all councel and inducement which could have been made with Spain invalid and on the other side stirr'd up France to yield nothing and to quit nothing of his Demands and Proposals by him made as conditions of Peace yea Sir you well know that when here in the Hague entrance was made into a Treaty with Spain and the other high Allyes who had here expresly their Ministers to enter into a Conference of Proposals for accommodation that on the part of the Lords of Amsterdam in the Assembly of the States where in consideration of the confidence and security which should be among Allyes and friends having one and the same design then concerning the keeping secret not of that which should be brought to a conclusion for that was proffered to be made known when it was proper but of that which in that Conference might happen yet without concluding and then concerning many Questions Speculations and the like which could not but cause a great suspicion and alienate the minds of the high Allyes from one another there hath often such Propositions issued forth from which nothing else could be concluded but that the Lords of Amsterdam must have had a design to smother the said Conference in the beginning and to make it fruitless and that the other Members of the States Assembly were in this their conduct and so acting much dissatisfied and have much blamed them all none excepted I must Sir ask you whether a rational man and who is a lover of the welfare of his Countrey and of that Religion and freedom in so great esteem with our Forefathers shall be found who seeing such a Letter written by an Embassadour who hath managed the affairs of his Master in this Countrey so many years and hath been before employed in the like affairs seeing and knowing that what is written in the said Letter so well agreeth with that which hath happened and was transacted even by the said Lords of Amsterdam as here before at large I have demonstrated and knowing that that which was contained in the said Letter if it agreed with the truth was in the highest criminal and punishable and that this Republick could not subsist but must perish if such transactions were tolerated that every Member who could not in Assembly effect the matter to his desire might concert with the Ministers of Foreign Princes and joyn with them and conclude how best to oblige the other Members thereto would not doe at least so much as to contribute what could be thought thereof to attain the truth contained in that Letter and since it could from
nowhere else better appear than out of the Papers which possibly might be found in the Lodgings of the Lords of Amsterdam here in the Hague and in the Chamber of the Lord Councellor Pensionary Hop who had for the most part held the conferences with the said Lord Embassadour and where the Members knew that the Lords of Amsterdam had caused the continuance of those Conferences notwithstanding the other Members had demonstrated to be offended and scandalized thereat whether they were not also obliged to take care that those Papers should be sealed to the end the States after all the deputed Lords should have made their report to the Lords their Principals might be in condition to deliberate and resolve on what they should find expedient to have done or left therein for that is all that hitherto hath been done or ordained by the States viz. that the foresaid overture which his Highness should make should be received with closed doors that the mentioned Lords Hooft and Hop should absent while his Highness made the same overture that the foresaid Papers should be sealed up that the whole overture should be kept Secret except that thereof was to be given notice to the Councils of the several Cities and of the sealing of them onely to the Lords Burgomasters and all this upon Oath that the said matter might be managed with as little noise as was possible till the respective Burgomasters and Councils having had knowledge of all things might dispose of Affairs and if the Lords Burgomasters and Council of the foresaid City had not onely been the first who had writ their foresaid Letter to the other Members but also connived at the publick Printing thereof the aforesaid matter might have been as little noised abroad as other matters which in the like manner were debated in the Assembly with shut doors in secret and without noise But it is said that hereby is deminished the freedom and security which those Deputies who were in the Assembly ought to enjoy as to their persons and Papers For what concerneth the persons the complaint is yet too unripe for against the persons of the said Lords Deputies hath nothing been determined but I would have asked whether those who are deputed to the Assembly have thereby a licence to commit and act whatsoever they think good without being for the same searched or punished I believe not that it will be said by any at least those that would say it must then suppose that those deputed to such an Assembly might also sell their Countrey to the Enemy and that the Assembly of States which is designed for the good of the Countrey and is so needfull and serviceable for the peace and conservation of the same might produce the hurtfullest effects to the said Countrey without means of punishing such evil doers and those who abused the freedom of such an Assembly in such an unfit and dishonourable way but that being otherwise and the foresaid Assembly being onely designed to prevent any ill effect that might accrue to the Commonwealth therefore those who under pretence of such an Assembly and that they are Members thereof when they shall come to contrive such matters as onely tend to the subversion of the liberty and the ruine of their Countrey must not think they may evade by a fair pretence of liberty and freedom the search which their Lawfull and Sovereign Authority doth resolve to make but it is said the Lords of Amsterdam were not admitted to make their Defence in relation to the contents of the said Letter But I leave it to your judgment how justly this is objected for the Lords of Amsterdam complain now that the Nobility and the other Deputies whereof the Assembly of the States was then composed did resolve to seal up those Papers the sealing up whereof was performed in that manner which was least offensive the same sealing up of them being onely a mere securing of them and had no communication with any criminal process The Lords Deputies leaving all matters as they were that when the respective Councels of the Cities should have had cognisance of what had passed they might deliberate what was to be done viz. whether they should proceed to a farther examination either of the foresaid sealed Papers or to hear and examine those who had held those Conferences with the said Lord Embassadour and also of others who might be detected to have had knowledge thereof If they had proceeded to the hearing of the said Lords would it not then have been said that the Assembly of the States had designed to begin a criminal process by the examination of the said Lords which the said Assembly ought not to doe it being no seat of Justice and what more might be said to that purpose It is further said concerning the forementioned Lords of Amsterdam that this Letter was writ by a Foreign Minister which could import nothing to the hurt of a third Person but it was also true that the Writer thereof was an Embassadour who gave an account to his King and who was obliged to give that account in the best and truest manner it appeared also out of that Letter how neatly he therein distinguished what the Lords of Amsterdam had concerted with him what they had proposed to him and what they had undertaken to effect and further what was known to him of the matter under dispute whatsoever sense he had thereof the duties he had to observe with them and the duty in which he was obliged to his Master and especially that his Majesty was therein in the highest concerned that he might know and be well informed of all what passed here and that he therefore to know his Majesty's intentions on what he had written had sent the said Letter with an express he was also a Minister who kept with the Lords of Amsterdam a perfect friendship and correspondency who by their councel had been to confer with the other Members of the Assembly and again with whom the Lords of Amsterdam used so great confidence that they would rather load on themselves the scandal and the suspicion of the other Members of the States Assembly than to miss the said conversation but it is said the design was Peace and all the Members professed their inclination thereto and it was not prohibited to correspond with such Foreign Ministers whose Masters were in friendship with this State As concerning the matter of the Peace I have spoken before and also shewed it to be a Crimen laesae Majestatis in the first and highest degree to undertake such negotiations as are mentioned in the said Letter which the Lords of Amsterdam had held with the said Lord the French Embassadour it cannot also not be thought by any one that it should be lawfull in a State obliged to one another in such manner and composing one body of Government as doth this State that one Member of one of the Members of that Body should comprehend all the