it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
Instructions given to their Agents in England to insinuate to the King but yet very tenderly what a piece of Unjustice it would be so to disgrace an innocent harmless Princess to whom he had been lawfully married and who had with so much patience bore the Infirmities that attended him and that the consequent of such a Divorce would perhaps be worse than the Divorce it self seeing a Brother would be baulked of the just hopes he had after his Majesty's death of ascending the English Throne c. But since my Lord having found the Parliament and Privy Council disposed very much to favour such an Action they gave their Emissaries of another stamp directions to incite the King to it and to promise to find him out a Princess of this Courts recommendation and procurement in hopes by that means to set the two Brothers at variance and to raise new Factions and Disputes about Succession and if they saw he would not consent yet they had their Creatures ready to whisper it in the Duke's ear as a great secret that if it were not for them he would have consented thereunto but how far these Politicks have been practised your Lordship can observe much better than I at such a distance who am My LORD Your ever obliged and most humble Servant Paris Mar. 2. 1680. N. S. LETTER LXVI Of the Earl of Shaftsbury's being Calumniated by the French Agents to King Charles II. in order to put him out from being President of the Council and from all Publick Administration My LORD THE joy conceived by the Ministers of this Court at the displacing of my Lord of Shaftsbury from his great Office of President of the King's Council and consequently from all Administration of Publick Affairs is as open and unexpressible as the Instruments and Causes of such a change are secret but so far as I have had any intelligence of this grand Affair which I predict to be no good Omen to our poor Country I am free and I hold my self in duty bound to communicate to your Lordship who perhaps will not much wonder at such a change when I tell you that the Emissaries of this Court but more especially the women kind whom I need not Name have incessantly as they have been taught their Lessons been buzzing the King in the Ears with such Calumnies and Accusation as here follow according as they are inserted here They were to lay hold on all opportunities to render the said Noble Lord obnoxious to the King but yet to be very tender in their first attack and therefore frequently to say That truly his President was a person of incomparable Parts and Abilities in matters of State and that to do him Justice he had done his Prince as important service as any of his Subjects That though he had in former times fallen in with the republican interest which was then predominant in the Nation yet he had since shewed so much Zeal for the Monarchy as might justly obliterate all former miscarriages provided still he proved constant in his Devoir and gave no suspition of his being inclinable to re-assume the principles which he seemed once so entirely to have forsaken and when they had again and again made way by such insinuations as these for more desperate Attacks They urged his Majesty might call to mind the time and occasion when as well as of whom the Earl had once said that when a man is wanting to himself he deserves that others should be so to him also and he might consider how false and dangerous a Maxime that was when it referr'd to a Prince or ones Country to whom one is never allowed to be wanting That the Earl had been as good as his word was already sufficiently manifest when he had discovered in Parliament the secret motives that had engaged the King to grant Liberty of Conscience before the late War as well as his Alliance with France and insinuated the designs his Majesty had to retrench the liberty of Parliaments which was indeed no more then to reduce that Assembly within the bounds of their Duty that his conduct ever since in promoting the Test c. gave no small Umbrage that he meant more then a bare exclusion of his Royal Highness from publick Offices That they could not be positive that a change of Government was designed thereby and a new essay for the monstrous Metamorphosis of the Monarchy into a Republick once more but that surely it looked that way For if the thing were considered aright the King 't was true was an Established Prince and now long in possession and in whose person there could be no plausible pretence to induce the people to abandon that form of Government and for the Regal power it self the time was yet too short since a Company of Tyrants had plunged the State into Troubles for to propose an entire abolition of King 's a second time seeing those very persons who went under the notion of Republicans did not so much yet aim for the most part at the change of the form of the Monarchical Government as at the diminution of the Authority and hence it might be reasonably inferred that the Earl well foreseeing he could not proceed directly to that which he aimed at began cunningly to take a round which he judged would conduct him with more safety to the same end And that seeing no possibility of dispossessing the King he had formed a design to disinherit the person that ought to succeed him being assured that the best expedient to destroy the regal Dignity was to disturb the order of Succession And that his Majesty must needs foresee the dangers arising from the Counsells of so pernicious a Man whose authority in Court Parliament and City was equally formidable as his Pollicy I will not take upon me to determine what great services his Majesty has lost by the discarding of this great Statesman he may want it in time and be better perswaded then ever of the Character himself has given once of him upon his resolution of a difficult Case viz. That he had a Chancellor who knew more Law than all his Judges and more Divinity than all his Bishops if these particulars be not new to your Lordship I desire to know it that I may be more cautious for the future in my Intelligence wherein I always aim at pleasing your Lordship Who am Your humble Servant Paris Aug. 29th 1681. LETTER LXVII Of the Duke of York's being in France Twice and Closetted by the French King His Rencounter with the French Ambassadour Barillon His Wives ill success in France Her Petition to the French King Return without Relief and her fatal End My Lord HAD I been able to have given your Lordship some remarkable passages relating to the Duke and Mr. Coleman's History in the time the great Affair of the Popish Plot was in Vogue and Agitation I do not doubt but I should have perform'd a grateful part to you yet I find
further expressions of his Mind upon that occasion that plainly discover'd that such a Zeal in the Prince was esteem'd unseasonable and not free from Suspition With which and a grateful acknowledgment of all your Lordship's Favours to me and my Family upon all occasions I shall now conclude and for ever remain My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant Paris August 24. 1685. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Methods proposed and Arguments used to King James for carrying on the Dispensing power My Lord THAT the King intends to Assume a Power into His Hands of Dispensing with Penal Laws against Recusants I believe your Lordship may be sensible of by this time since it 's manifest that notwithstanding the Parliaments Remonstrance to the contrary he retains the Popish Officers still in his Service and that it is so far from being a Secret here that I can oblige your Lordship with some of those Methods and Arguments suggested to him by the Agency of this Court to carry it onward wherein it 's more then whisper'd here he has fully acquiesced It was thought advisable considering the violent Humour of the Nation against the admission of such Persons either into Military or Civil Offices and that all the Cry was That the King had not kept his Word but did thereby Infringe their Laws and Liberties to bring the matter into Westminster-Hall to have the Dispensing Power there Argued upon a particular Case but to make sure of the Judges before-hand to Favour such a Procedure the King was told could he gain such a Point his business were done for ever tho' at the same time it was his undoubted Prerogative to dispense with Laws being an Essential right and an usage in England as ancient as the Kingdom that it was in being at all times and in all Reigns that there were several Acts wherein there had been Provision made for such a Reservation to the King that the Term of Nonobstante which was so common was always a Dispensing with some Law that the Commutation of Punishments are no less a proof thereof And how much more were Remissions Pardons the Restoration of Criminals to their Goods again c That there were Presidents to be met with wherein the King 's of England had suspended the Effects of Laws not only by Dispensations regarding particular and single persons but by a general Suspension in regard to the whole Kingdom That his Brother had done so in cases of the Statute relating to Carriages whereof there was not the least complaint in Parliament neither was it so much as once said that he had thereby exceeded the Just bounds of His Authority That the same had been done by Henry the Seventh his Great Ancestor and Solomon of England in respect to the Act that prohibited the Continuation of Sheriffs in their Office above One Year which in Council was declared null and impracticable because that thereby the King was divested of of his Regal Power in disposing his Subjects I do not question my Lord but you will soon hear of the effects of such Council but whether to your satisfaction therein I have as great reason to doubt as I have a desire to promote it and ever shall to the best of my power who am My Lord your very humble servant Paris Nov. 13. 1685. N. S. LETTER VI. Of the Unjust Complaints of the French Clergy against the Reformed in France My Lord THE Ruin of the Reformed in this Kingdom is as much precipitated as that of a Protestant Church is designed somewhere else and which I believe your Lordship by this time is pretty well perswaded of and to this end the Popish Clergy have accosted the King with a severe Remonstrance against them the sum whereof for want of more entertaining News I shall write to your Lordship at this time They began with the hardiest Lie they could have invented saying That there was nothing included in their Complaint but what was most necessary and could be most clearly jnstified and made good Whereas it is most evident that every title of it tends to Destroy and Persecute and is grounded upon the most manifest Falsities in the World then they begin to charge the Reformed with Calumniating and falsly Accuting the Catholicks that they did not believe the Truths of the Faith as they express it whereas the Protestant Divines here have so far been complyant as to testifie from time to time that the Roman Church retained still those Truths that were Essential to Christianity In that she makes Profession to Believe in one God in three the Incarnation of the Son of God the Redemption of Sinners by the Price of his Blood and divers other Articles contained in the Antient Creeds then they proceeded saying That the design of the Pastoral Advertisement in 1681 was to oblige the Reformed to acknowledge that their Separation was not grounded but upon Suppositions and Jealousies and they hugged themselves that the many Conversions which had been wrought since that time have been almost all procured by this consideration which they call an Invincible Argument that as there could never have been any Just Cause of Separation all those alleadged by the pretended Reformed could never have any sollidity That the Protestant Ministers did their utmost to hinder the People to profit by that same Advertisement either by deterring of them from Reading of the same or else by giving false Explications thereof as they were wont to do of the Holy Scriptures and Works of the Fathers Adding farther That the Exercise of the Reformed Religion had been permitted by the King's Predecessors provisionally only and by reasons which have no longer subsistance that tho' the Clergy had very good Reasons to urge it so as to require a Revocation of the Edicts which contained this permission yet that it was not their present design to insist upon that Point that it was now the only favour they pray'd for for to repress the Calumnies of the Reformed against the Roman Church which were not and which could not be allowed by any Edict being an unhappy Liberty which the Ministers themselves might be ashamed of that such a supposition and Calumny were Crimes Condemn'd by all Laws both Humane and Divine and that the Reformed durst not maintain that those excesses ought to be permitted nor to make their Complaints if the King should forbid them to commit them Then they went to speak of the Method they had thought on to make the King acquainted with the truth of their Complaints they drew up in Two Collumnes the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that which they said the Reformed imputed to them to the end it might be easier for the King to compare them and said most Malignantly That they had avoided the Relating of many thing which exceeded all the bounds of Modesty and which St. Paul himself would not have as much as named amonâ— the Faithful to the end they might create a Suspicion by these
conceiv'd in very easie Terms for the promoting of the Re-union as 't is call'd by them but among others this that follows I thought very remarkable and whereby your Lordship may see the Latitude they assume to themselves for the promoting their Interest tho' no doubt it is but a Bait to catch some of those harmless Gudgeons the words were these I own and confess the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church as it was in the time of the Apostles and I Renounce and Abjure all those Errors which have crept in ever since The Bishop of Meux hath to make the way still smoother in his Preface to the Second Edition of his Expostulation of the Catholick Doctrine gone so far as to say We do not serve Images God forbid we should do so And indeed there is some likelihood that the Clergy would have stretch'd their Complaisance yet farther this way had not an unexpected accident hindred it for the Pope's Nuncio being inform'd that the General Assembly or rather the Arch-bishop of this City under the Covert of that Name and by the Advice of the Jesuits were about to draw up and form a Profession of Faith more adapted for the satisfaction of such of the Reformed as became New Converts than that of the Roman Church he bestirr'd himself and interposed in his Master the Pope's Name and made several Remonstrances to the King upon the Authority which the French Clergy were about to assume to themselves of setting up other Forms of Doctrine then that which the whole Catholick Apostolick Church had received since the Council of Trent You cannot imagine my Lord how much this little unexpected Traverse from the old Dad disheartn'd the Court whether it were that it came from a Pope whom the King did not care for or that they were afraid it might retard the Work of Conversion is not certain but the result was as I have been first informed and since seen somewhat verify'd by the consequence that the Pope should be comply'd with and the rather because they were well satisfy'd with his inflexible temper and that as they believ'd it would be dangerous to sow Division between the Clergy of France and the Pope at a time when they were labouring to reduce all Frenchmen to the Unity of the Church it would be more advisable for them to keep to the usual Profession of Faith And now my Lord the Clergy give out every where that they will not qualify any Points but vaunt that in reducing the Reformed they will not put out any one Taper that Adorns the Altars I shall not detain your Lordship at present with any farther account of a matter that suits not with your Gusto tho' I know you have goodness enough to accept my endeavours though never so contemptible in themselves and to pardon my weakness who am My Lord Your Lordships very obedient servant Paris Sept. 17. 1685. LETTER X. Of Popish Guardians imposed upon Protestant Children and of Protestant Physitians Chyrurgeons and Apothecaries being forbidden to follow their Practise with the pretended Reasons alleadged for such a Prohibition My Lord WHatever underhand-brewing may be in England in matters of Religion they be bare-fac'd enough â—â—re in carrying on their Designs for the Ruine of the Reformed Churches tho' still they retain some specious pretences for what they do 't is but lately that we have had a Declaration publish'd forbidding any to take upon them the Office of Guardians to Children whose Parents have died in the Protestant Religion excepting such as are Roman Catholicks and tho' that part of the Edict that concedes this Privilege to the Reformed is couch'd in the most clear and express terms that could be conceiv'd yet the Declaration takes no manner of notice of the said Article nay and the Expressions wherein it has been conceiv'd are such as would bespeak that such an usage has been without foundation but indeed this is a method that the French Council has for some time used when they have been mindful to put out any Order in prejudice to any of the Privileges granted in the Edict that are exprest so clearly as that no Cavils raised by them can render them dark and and absurd And as they found it too difficult a Task to find Reasons forcible enough to elude such formal Concessions they made a shew of being ignorant of them and they were willing to put forth such Orders that might only seem to Regulate such New and Extraordinary Cases But yet that they might have some colourable pretences for what they did herein they charged the Guardians of the Reformed Religion with Two Crimes First That they abus'd that Power which they had in that quality over those in Pupillage to them and hindred them to become Catholicks Then that they Imbezell'd the Estates of such Minors when they became Converts against their Will which was a great Obstacle to their Preferment when they came of Age These two things were spoken of as if there had been nothing in the World more certain and truer and of which they had had abundant experience but they are of the number of such instances that are alike easie to be raised as impossible by any proofs to maintain and any ones Reason my Lord will give him especially as to the last Article that it must be notoriously false For can any one believe that such Guardians who would adventure in a malicious way to imbezill the Estate of their Pupils could go unpunish'd in a Countrey where their Religion and Power was so much in the Wain and surely he must be next to a Madman that would thus adventure to play with the Zeal of the Parliaments of this Kingdom animated by the Recommendation of the Clergy who are forward enough to make their Court into them And if my Lord the Protestant Guardians are thus Injuriously used the Physicians of the same Perswasion have fared much worse as being deprived by another Declaration of their Means of Living upon the most ridiculous pretences in the World they alleadging that since those of the Reformed Religion were already deprived of all Judicial Affairs and the freedom to exercise the Functions of Counsellors at Law it were to be feared the greatest part of their young Men might fall to the Study of Physick That that would considerably augment the number of Protestant Physicians and that those of the Roman Catholicks must by that means as much decrease and that hereafter that would become very prejudicial to the Salvation of sick Catholicks in that the Reformed would take no care to put their Patients in mind of Receiving the Sacraments of the Church when they found them reduc'd to such a condition as did require them I know not my Lord but that there may be a Snake in the Grass here and that the Crafty Jesuits amuse the World with such Illusions and would buoy People up in a belief that since they have taken â—â—ch great Precautions for futurity it 's the
Epistolary way when it be considered that such a Form was indispensibly necessary under the Circumstances of the Author and his Noble Correspondent and that there is a very engaging part naturally couched under such a method of bringing State-Arcana's to light by way of Letters which in the very Notion of them carry something of secrecy Though after all the Reader cannot but observe an Air of History to run in a manner through the whole composition but whether arising from the Mode of those Minutes from whence our Author drew his Intelligence or from his own natural Genius or partly from both is I confess a Question I never asked him neither do I think the determination of it of any great consideration As to the nature and manner how this Correspondence was managed the Inquirer may take notice that the conveyance was not so difficult For the Post during all the time these Letters were continued was free between both Nations though he is also to observe that some of them occasionally for fear of interception were written in Cyphers which I retain by me as I do the rest of the Original Papers for my own and the Worlds satisfaction But for the method pursued by him during the present Reign It will then be time enough to give such hints thereof as in prudence shall be esteemed safe and necessary But though the Station this learned Gentleman was in did together with his own industry and curiosity entitle him to the vast Discoveries made in these Letters Yet the ticklishness of his Circumstances and the fears of being surprized together with a natural tendency that is in Mankind to take notice of present rather than past Occurrencies would not admit of a continued succession of writing Matters of Fact as they have fallen out in order of time Which as it is a most convincing Reason of so many inverted and promiscuous Dates so it has introduced the Methodizer First under a necessity of frequently altering the prefatory and conclusive parts of the Letters and then of making up some small breaches which under the forementioned Circumstances must necessarily happen and which yet are grounded upon the most irrefragable Authorities that there might be a connection between the several Parts and the History appear entire and all of a piece And it could not be thought ungrateful to our Reader to have the Contents inserted before every Letter with the Observation of the Years so far as was needful when each Matter was transacted whereof there neither was a necessity for the Author to observe to that Noble Lord to whom he was the Intelligencer who is too great a Critick in History to need it unless it were upon some very special occasions neither indeed would the promiscuous way of Writing which the stinted Opportunities he was under forced to him admit well of it especially when these Papers at the first taking of them were not designed to be made publick Though his own Curtosity led him to keep Copies of whatever he writ that was material then which nothing is more common with Persons under the like Circumstances The many Letters and Memoirs that have from time to time appeared in the World being a convincing proof hereof And without which Method it had been impossible to have transmitted to Posterity the thousandth part of what the World has been obliged with in things of that kind It s true there are some Letters to be met with now and then in the course of this Correspondence which at first sight may seem to be foreign and have little or no relation to the main Subject But besides that there are few or none without some sort of connexion and do not in one degree or other interfere with the British Affairs they are so much an imbellishment to those parts they fill up as not to merit so severe a Censure as to undergo the fate of being castrated And here is a spacious field before me were it adviseable or any ways necessary to descant upon the excellency and usefullness of these Discoveries which are wholly new But I shall wave that and only observe That there is no one Party or sect of Men in England much less the Court exempted but may draw very seasonable Informations and no less timous Instructions herefrom seeing they have all of them in their respective turns though many quite against their knowledge been imposed upon by French Emissaries and made Tools of to serve the Interest of France to the prejudice of themselves and of their own Country And how far the same Emissaries though under different shapes according to time and occasion have prevailed to nourish and perpetuate those Intestine Feuds and Cruel Animosities which they formerly sowed amongst us during the present Reign will in part among other surpriâ—ing Secrets be the subject matter of the next Volume which will be continued down to the present year 1696 and which I could not forbear mentioning upon this occasion though it comes in by way of Anticipation D. Jones From my House in Clerkenwell Nov. 9th 1696. LETTER I. Of the Author's being introduced to the Place of Interpreter of the English Tongue c. My Lord I Am not so pleased with my Preferment of being made Interpreter for the English Affairs to the Principal Commis or Clark of the Dispatches under the Marquess De Louvois to which Employment I have been lately admitted as I am with the Thoughts of the Opportunity I shall have to serve your Lordship with much better Intelligence than hitherto my Circumstances would admit of most of my time since my admission into the â—aid Office has been taken up in inspecting into Mr. Kil-Patrick's Method who was Predecessor to the Person to whom I am Interpreter and I have under my Hands all his Papers and Minutes for near Twenty Years backward whereby I do not question but I may in time give your Honour much light into the Intrigues of the Ministers of State in this Kingdom and the Maxims they have and do go upon for the producing such Accidents and Revolutions in their Neighbour-Nations and especially in our Kingdoms as may favour the Aspiring Endeavours of this Court towards an Universal Monarchy and obviate all such cross Events as may fall out contrary to their Designs I have seen some strange things already in relation to our Country Contrived and Agitated by them but my Business requires so much Attendance from me at present and the minuting out of any thing but what belongs to the Service of the Office requires so much Circumspection and Privacy that I durst not hitherto venture upon any such thing but I hope a little time will put me into a freedom of Circumstance that may in some measure be answerable to my readiness to serve you and make appear how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Ian. 8. 1676. N. St. LETTER II. Of the Opposition made by the French Ministers of State to K.
time be interpreted much to his disadvantage by those of other Nations and particularly that there was no hopes to break the said League or to disunite it especially the King of England of whom he conceived the greatest hopes and had the greatest Eye upon as being not only nearest but also most powerful of any of the rest it was resolved to put forth an ample Declaration in Favour of the Reformed which revoked several unjust Judgments given against them and remedied many Important Difficulties and Severities they laboured under whereof they had made their Complaints to the King and which gave them hopes that they should for the future be left to live in Tranquillity and Peace They knew well enough unless this were done there was no very great likelihood to bring our King to their Bow of whom the Parliament had already entertained some Jealousies and who would not fail to be enraged when they came to understand he had entred into an Alliance with a King who gave way to the Oppression of his Protestant Subjects but this specious pretence of the French Indulgence might serve him very well to amuse his Parliament and at the same time to deceive himself and the Protestant Nations in general without might very well believe the French proceedings herein and especially that part of it which related to the Reformed's future Tranquillity were real when they themselves in France were fully perswaded of it and imagined that the Days of Henry IVth were returned upon them again It 's certain there had been considerable Efforts made since our King 's entring into the aforementioned Tripple Alliance to have it further strengthned by the Accession of other Protestant Confederates into it and that there was a certain Person whose Name was Marcilli a Rocheller Born and a Professor of the Reformed Religion that took indefatigable pains in it the true Story of this Man is very odd and falling pat with the Design of this Letter I shall give as concise an Account of it as I can not doubting of your Lordship's kind Acceptance this Person I say taking the Advantage of the Conjuncture of the League between England and Holland and very much doubting of the sincerity of the Declaration made in Favour of the Reformed in France thereupon made his Application to several Protestant Princes about entring into the said Alliance and was no small Instrument to induce the King of Swedeland to come into it which gave occasion of its being called the Tripple League He had been also at our Court and opened the King's Eyes in relation to many things that had been misrepresented to him and wherein he had been imposed upon either by the French Agents or the falsity of his own Ministers of State but these Addresses of Marcilli were not long concealed from the French Court wherefore they took Council and dispatcht away the Mar-Marquess De Ruvigniâ— into England with Instructions to take off those Umbrages our King had taken upon the Conduct of the French Council towards him the Marquess his Religion being a Protestant as well as his Capacity recommended him as the fittest Person to assure the King of the sincerity of the French proceedings and that the Reformed should have all the Justice in the World done them in short the Marquess did his Business so effectually at our Court that tho' he were the Reformed's Deputy-General he had almost Bankrupt his Credit with all the Churches who did not a little resent his Complaisance upon that Head Marcilli having done as he thought his Business in England was gone upon the same Negotiation to the Swiss Cantons not without Directions as 't was believed in France tho' dissembled for a time from our King to induce the Swiss to come into the Alliance whereof when Ruvigni had advertized the French Court the King gave Mareschal Turenne who yet made Profession of the Protestant Religion Orders to Seize him if possible and Kidnap him back into France the Mareschal to disguise the Matter as much as might be and to give as little umbrage of any such Design as was possible pitcht upon Three Officers making Profession of the same Religion with himself to go into Switzerland to Seize him the sameness of Religion between Marcilli and them gave them easie familiarity with him so that at last having got him into a place where he could not be rescued they hurried him into France where he was Tryed forthwith and Condemned the Man during his Imprisonment shewed all the Constancy both of a Brave and Innocent Mind and all the Application of the Judges and Rigour of the Questions put unto him could never make him change his Language but he maintained his Innocence to the last and the Secrets he had been entrusted with by a great Prince whom I have heard some of his very Enemies blame for not interposing in his behalf or afterward resenting of it at all when there were some things put to him in relation to that Princes Person that little suited with his Honour even upon the publick place of Execution just as the poor Man was broken upon the Wheel and now my Lord they had Murdered his Body they went about also to Murder his Fame by giving out that they were forced to expedite his Execution because that having found a piece of Glass in the Prison he cut off his Privy Parts therewith as thinking he might quickly bleed to Death and so be his own Executioner which notwithstanding being soon observed by the Goaler he gave the Officers notice thereof who put him to Death Two Hours after And that France might seem to be sincere at all Points in respect to the Liberty of her Reformed Subjects out came another Declaration in August 1669 inviting all of them that Sojourned abroad or were in the Service of Forreigners back into their Native Country and particularly out of the United Provinces where there were of them great numbers as Officers Soldiers Merchants Seamen c. but tho' they were thus liberal in their Promises to the Reformed and made all the semblance of Sincerity in the World hereupon yet they never ceased underhand to tempt the most Considerable Persons amongst them by large Donatives and Hopes of Preferment to come over to the Church of Rome and what Success they had therein will be the subject of another Letter and so I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 23. 1676. N. St. LETTER XI Of the Pervertion of the Prince of Tarent Mareschal Turenne c. to the Romish Religion about the Year 1669. My Lord FRance as I have informed your Lordship in my last having invited her Subjects of the Reformed Religion home out of all quarters the Prince of Tarent who had been settled several Years in the United Provinces and possest of great Employments quitted their Service thereupon and returned to his Native Country where he had not been long arrived but he was Charmed into the Popish Religion and
all his Children saving one Daughter afterward Married to the Prince of Oldenburg following his Example This they looked upon as a good step but what gave them a mighty accession of strength as much as it was a diminution of the Power of the Reformed was their gaining of Mareschal Turenne to their Church who because so considerable a Person and so famed for a great Captain I shall recount unto your Lordship all that ever I could learn in relation to him upon this account It 's true the Mareschal never did appear to be a Person very Zealous for his Religion but as he had from time to time given some Proofs of his Constancy it was attributed to the Coldness of his Temper which made him Calm enough in all things but that Constancy that appear'd in him for a time was attributed afterwards to other Causes and primarily to the ascendency his Wife and Sisters had over him his Lady being Daughter to the Duke De la Force and a Person of Exemplary Piety keeping of him steady in his Profession whilst she lived and his Eldest Sister the Marchioness De Duras always encouraging of him to be constant and so Zealous she was that she began to breed up one of her younger Sons with a Design to make him a Minister but that Design not succeeding that Person going over very Young into Engl. has been since as your Lordship well knows advanced to Honour in the Kingdom The youngest Sister the Dutchess of Trimonill never failed also of her Duty towards the Mareschal in that kind That the Marshal had been often tempted to change his Religion is manifest Cardinal Mazarine who had a great Opinion of him made him many suggred Promises if he would come over when the Dauphine was Born he had Intimations given him that he might one day be made his Governour but that did not move him neither the last Effort that was made upon him was by the King himself at the beginning of the Campaign in Flanders in the Year 1667. when he promised him a share in all his Secrets and higher degrees of Command if so be he would Embrace the Communion of the Church of Rome but this had the same success upon him with the rest and the Mareschal acted his part with so much sted fastness and in so Noble a manner that the King took no Displeasure thereat and for this the Church at Charenton returned Publick Thanks to God who had inspired him with such laudable Constancy but without naming of him but some time after that Peace was concluded when there was no more talk of him upon that Score he entred into the Roman Communion and it was given out he did it voluntarily and of his own accord and I could ne'er learn by whose Instigation it was done or what were the true Reasons that brought him to it but however it was this Change of his was attended with important Consequence which did appear in due time and this is all I could remark or learn concerning this Illustrious Person only that he Abjured his Heresie as they call it in Notre-Dame in presence of the Archbishop of Paris and so concludes My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 31. 1676. N. St. LETTER XII Of a Book Published in France proposing Methods for to Ruin the Reformed which had like to have spoiled the Court-Politicks in pretending Favour unto them at that time My Lord I Have in a former Letter shewed your Lordship the great Care the French Court took to have it believed both at Home and Abroad that their Declaration in Favour of the Reformed was real and like to be permanent and what Politick Ends they had therein but a Book Entituled the Policy of France came out not long after to wit in the Year 1669 that had like to have spoiled all the fine Web they had spun It was supposed to be written by the Marquess De Chatelett a Gentleman of Bretaign and contained one entire Chapter of Methods to Ruin the Reformed and he was so Adventurous as to Dedicate it to the King himself and made him a Present of one of them but his Zeal was but coarsly Rewarded for he was sent to the Bastile for his Pains and the Book supprest but because the Methods he proposed therein were such as were very odd and may be put in Execution in time and that I cannot send your Lordship one of the Books I have taken out the Heads and are as followeth he proposed the Total Destruction of them as a necessary Work and reserved it for the present King and whether he did really know or was ignorant of the Court Designs he did certainly I believe fit his Politicks to the Intentions of the Court He represented them full of Resentment for the loss of their Places of Security and of being always animated with Minds to Revolting Confusion and Anarchy and constantly ready to make use of any Opportunity to Re-establish themselves He made them to be Enemies to the King's Prosperity perpetual Obstacles to his Designs and always to be feared because of their Animosity and of the number of good Soldiers over which they could make Chiefs by giving them Authority to Command them He took upon him to shew that the Protestants of Germany suffered themselves to be ruined without any Opposition and that they had too much need of the King's Protection to Embroil themselves with him He said the same thing of England Swedeland Denmark the United Provinces and of all the Protestants whom he imagined to have been so linked to the King by strong Chains of Interest that they would not concern themselves to hinder his Exterminating of the Reformed Religion in his own Kingdom He put a Malicious Interpretation upon the Reformed's taking up Arms in the last Civil Wars and he pretended to Divine that had it not been that the War had been so soon happily terminated they would have formed Grand Designs made High Demands and endeavoured to set up their Party again He said the Edict of Nants was revocable as having been a thing extorted from the then King and admitting it might have been formerly granted for the Benefit of the State yet it might now be revoked for the very same reason He was far from being of their Opinion who thought that the Reformed were useful to the Church of Rome her self because they obliged the Ecclesiasticks to Study and lead Regular Lives he said that was a Trifling Argument and concluded that the King had sufficient Grounds to seek out ways to put them out of Condition to Hurt or do any injury to his State Having promised this he was not of the Judgment to be rid of them by way of Banishment as the Moors had been driven out of Spain he looked upon that way of Treatment Inhumane and withal prejudicial to the State but he proposed Fifteen Expedients to be rid of them by little and little The first of which was
be eluded and he only made a Tool of That tho' it was likely the Parliament of England would upon any great Success of the French be for breaking of the War and deny the King Money to continue it longer yet after they had made a sufficient Impression on the Netherlands they might prevail by their Golden Arguments upon the King at least to continue Neuter and leave his Land Forces still in the French King's Service for some considerable time That this Juggling would in a little time raise Animosities and Jealousies between the King and Court-party and that of the Patriots make the latter to deny him Money press hard upon his Prerogative raise new Pretensions about Liberty and Property which if carefully fomented by dexterous Agents would give the King and People there work enough in mutual Contests at Home which would hinder them from acting any thing considerable Abroad keep the King always under a necessity of continuing their Pensioner for fear of becoming his Parliaments Underling yet prop him up so as to preserve him in a Capacity still to be able to keep them in some sort under and hinder the daring English Senate from attaining any more so much the Soveraignty as to Erect themselves into a Republick He telling them from the Famous Cardinal Richlieu's Authentick Observation that an Absolute Monarch or a Republick in the Brittish Dominions would prove almost alike Fatal to France that therefore it was the best way to endeavour a Mean between this Scylla and Charibdis by keeping a Ballance between King and Parliament and fomenting perpetual Contests between them which was to be done by having unknown Instruments to sow Jealousies among the Patriots and People against the Court and make them cross the latter and at the same time make use of that crosness as an Argument to perswade the King that his Authority could be no way safe without sticking to their Alliance and feed him with Money both to enable him to carry on his Business and Pleasure without a Parliament and to Animate him from time to time to Prorogue and Dissolve them upon occasion And when upon some Success of the King and Court party they should begin to make such steps towards Absolute Power as might if attained to prove dangerous to the French Interest and Embolden our Monarch to slip his Neck out of their Collar then anew to stir up the Patriots and Popular Party against him and abandon him wholly to them till he were forced to break them by returning to their Alliance again That above all things they were not to forget to make their best use of that mighty Engine called Religion which tho' powerful all the World over yet was of more prodigious force among the English People than among any other in the habitable Earth Now this Advice my Lord as coming from so Old and Experienced a Statesman and the Ablest Disciple who had Viva Voce heard the Documents and Precepts of the great Richlieu that Famous Architect of the French Grandure was assented to both as the Wisest and Securest and was afterward in every Punctilio put in Execution as Time and Conjunctures afforded occasion whereof your Lordship may expect an account in due time from him who is My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Sept. 17. 1676. N. St. LETTER XV. Of the Methods the French use in keeping Intelligence among their Neighbour-Nations c. My Lord I Cannot think but that your Lordship will be pleased to understand how the French keep their Correspondence among and make Tools of Men and Parties most averse to them in their Neighbour-Nations and whom no manner of Motives would ever be prevalent enough to make Instrumental to promote an Interest so hateful to them did they but know who they wrought for and it is my Lord in this manner Would they set the Conformists and Nonconformists peckeering at one another Thus they did it presently after the first Dutch War in order to prepare Factions to make way for the Designs which followed They had diligent Spies to inform them where Men of quaint Wits brisk Tempers Self-conceited but Atheistical in Principles or at least of very loose Morals were to be found as likewise to take notice of those that were in reality most Able and more Zealous both of Conformists and others in their several ways than the rest of their Brethren Then the first by some Persons that pretended to admire their Wits and that were French Pensioners tho' some of them did not know it were either by some present modicum of Money Promise of Preferment or sometimes by the meer tickling Praises of the said qualified Persons put upon writing something that might check Religion particularly that Established Then they knew the Crime would be laid at the Door of some Nonconformists and cause the Reforming Clergy to write bitterly and reflectingly against them and them again to justifie themselves and recriminate till at length they engaged not only the Body of the Nation but even their August Representatives likewise in their Quarrels and so from Religious Contests produced State Factions and in this all of them tho' they were of different Parties were told they would please both their King Parliament and Country For the Dissenters were told that tho' for Policy 's sake the King did not publickly abet them yet he was secretly disposed to favour them and such Writings if well penned would not displease and might procure them at last Ease in a Parliament c. And for the Conformists they were easily perswaded that by Ridiculing the Dissenters immoderately extolling the Excellency of their own Ceremonies and the Superlative extent of the Prerogative they could not fail to please neither And thence My Lord came that Legion of Books of that Nature that came out in the Interval between the Two Dutch Wars and which made way for After-Divisions of which I saw a Catalogue with the Books printed and of what Service they were for the Interest of the French Court Some I have forgot and some I remember but shall not name any for fear of reflecting on any worthy Persons who I am perswaded did not know by what Instruments they were abetted on either side Then for keeping several Lords and Commons too in Pension to their Ends without their Knowledge thus they did it They had their Jews and some other Bankers at their Devotion who would under an Obligation of great Secrecy tell them that they were ordered to allow them so much Money saying sometimes it was from their own King to do him some private Service in or out of Parliament or from the Spanish Imperial or Dutch Ambassadors under pretence of serving their Interests and their own Countries too against Prerogative Oppression in Religion c. and oftentimes directly to oppose Popery and the French Interest that by firing them on with too great vehemency to pursue those Points the French Court might more easily compass other Ends aimed
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
Game another way and employ'd their Emissaries in Holland to stir up those People to provoke the King's Resentments by all the ways that Artful Malice could devise they caused him to be represented to them as a mean Spirited Prince drowned in Pleasures and by them Bankrupt and that would put up any Affronts rather than be weaned from them a Moment That slender courage he had being Cowed in the last War as likewise were the Spirits of the proudest Merchants and Seamen his Subjects under such an Unactive Prince adding moreover that to their certain knowledge the Duke of York was now a Papist tho' in hugger mugger and that the People had a strong suspition of it how clandestinely soever carried and had thereupon conceived such an implacable Jealousie against the Duke therefore and against the King himself on his account that they would never patiently brook the Command of the one nor heartily assist or fight for the other in a War against a Protestant State but break into Factions and rather abet them then support so Unwarlike so Unfortunate and what was worst of all so Popishly affected a Prince that therefore now was the time to give that finishing stroak to that so Great so Glorious and so Advantageous a Work to their most Puissant and Renowned Republick which they had more than half done in the last War under the favour of the most Powerful Assistance of their great Master Viz. to obtain for ever the dominion of the Seas so highly contended for by the English and ingross the whole Trade of both the Hemispheares to themselves And that in so Glorious an Undertaking As the Great Monarch of France had when in extremity most opportunely and successfully assisted them in the preceding War So he was determined to do in this not with a few Auxilliary Troops and Ships as before But with his whole Force being resolv'd of nothing less than to concur with their High and Mightinesses for the Absolute Conquest of that Queen of Islands that had so long domineered over the Sea and pretended to give Laws upon that Element which God and Nature had left as free as the Air it self And that their High and Mightinesses might enter into no Umbrage of his designing any Greatness to himself that might be prejudicial to them by such a Conquest he was content to share it with them and that so Partially in their Favour that he would satisfie himself with the two Poorer Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland the former for the sake of its Ancient Alliances with his Kingdom and the latter because of the Conformity of the Religion of its native Inhabitants with that of his own Subjects leaving to them the Principal which was England where all the Chief Trade Riches and Power both by Sea and Land of the Brittish Empire was concentred together with all its goodly dependances both in the East and West Indies with which he could not pretend to meddle the success of which Proposals I design shall be the subject of another Letter with the first opportunity From My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1677. N. S. LETTER XX. The Dutch upon the foresaid Remonstrances made to them by the French King being induced to enter into a Treaty with him were wheedled by the French Embassador to sign their part of it and to send it to the French King for him to sign it but he pretending specious delays sends it to the King of England using it for an Argument for his compliance with the Proposals he made to him of entring into a War in Conjunction with him against the States But ordering his Embassador withal to acquaint him that in case of his Refusal he must be obliged to turn the Sham-League with the Dutch into a real one My Lord THE Specious Remonstrances and moâ—e Inviting Proposals made on the French King's part to the Dutch as mentioned in my last to your Lordship so tickled the Hogens that they suffered themselves to be deluded into a close Treaty with the French Court for that great Expedition not at all thinking what Ruine was designed themselves and Division of their own Territories between the French and English was then Modelling among the Monsieurs as a further tentative to induce our King to arm with France against Holland and that the very League the French pretended to be making with them was but the master Stratagem to procure that other Allyance that without the unexpected and timely interposition of Divine Providence had proved the Mene-Tekel of their Flowrishing State and turned that great Magazine of the Trade and Riches of the Universe into a sorry bank of Lillies accordingly they began first to insult our King in his Person by multitudes of most scandalous and insupportable Pasquirades and Pictures which the French Agents endeavouring to make him resent as they deserved and finding still that he declined to comply with their desires alledging again for Answer the ill success of the last War caused chiefly by them the averseness of his People to another War c. And farther his unwillingness only for Injuries that personally concerned himself alone to engage those Nations again in so bloody and destructive a War as after all could be of no very considerable advantage to either side be the event what it would They proceeded then to tempt him further by offering a larger proportion of those Provinces when Conquered and besides such an assistance in Money as should enable him to go through with the War tho' his Parliament should deny their Concurrence with him therein and to make their perswasions the more effectuall they did again warmly ply the Duke of York attacking of him on the blind side Viz. his Religion and telling him that tho' he were privately a Catholick yet the People began to have a strong suspition of it and would at long run come to know it and would not fail then to make such strong brigues against him as that they would certainly put him by the Succession unless before such a Discovery were perfectly made he could induce his Brother to joyn his Arms with those of his Most Christian Majesties for the Conquest of Holland where were the Vitals that Administred Life and Spirits to all those Factions he had to fear and which after the Conquest of that United many-headed Hydra would soon be supprest â—ut could be by no other way and that then the introduction of the Roman Religion into these Kingdoms whenever he should succeed to them would be easie else impossible that his Most Christian Majesty was then provided with such formidable Forces and had laid the Empire into such a Sleep of Security and so amused the other Neighbour Princes with such doubtful and contrary appearances that before they could awake and rub off the dust they had thrown in their Eyes they might have done their work on the Hollanders who least of all the rest expected an Attack and were therefore
Alliance in that disadvantagious Posture of the British Affairs and rather inclined to joyn with his Majesty against those sawcy Republicans and sworn Enemies to all Crowned Heads Ordering him withall to tell him that the Obstinacy he perceived in his Majesty in refusing to vindicate his own his Families and his Kingdom 's Honour and Interest against them had prevailed with him to push on a Treaty with them so far as to get it by Address Signed by them afore-hand that he might have wherewithal to give his Majesty an undeniable Proof both of their malicious and dangerous Intentions and of his own sincere Inclination to his Majesty and delude them into a security that might hinder them from providing for any Defence by Land against the Forces he had ready to pour in upon them in case his Majesty would please while it was yet time to joyn with him And further to add that for his part he had not Sign'd it yet but was ready to Sign one much rather with his Majesty and would on that condition so protract the time with delatory Answers and Excuses that their present Naval Preparations should be eluded and they attacked when they least expected and when his Majesty might have time enough to make sufficient Provision to second him therein by Sea to both their certain and glorious Advantage And lastly ordering the said Ambassador in the close to tell his Majesty roundly that tho' indeed he had carried on that sham League for the Reasons afore-said viz. For the Interest of his Brittish Majesty as well as his own for the better conviction of him of the Necessity as well as Convenience of joyning with him and lulling the Enemy into that security that was necessary to the Success of the Arms of both Crowns yet if after all these steps his Majesty would still persist to be deaf to his own Interest so visibly and plainly made out to him that truly his Master then would be forced to decline those of his Majesty take new Measures consonant to his own and in a word turn the sham Alliance into a true one by immediately Signing and Counterchanging it and at the same instant joyning with those Enemies against him without giving him time to make any tolerable Preparation that might enable him to weather their first Attempts for that it was his Masters undoubted Interest to keep great Forces on foot and not to keep them idle And that therefore if the King of England would not joyn with him to employ them where he had most Inclination and much Interest too to employ them he would be forced by Interest against his Inclination to employ them against him being resolved to employ them some where and so the Ambassador concluded his Harangue as I shall conclude this Letter having been tedious I am afraid to your Lordship and so remain My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris March 19. 1677. N. S. LETTER XIX King Charles II. being at length brought over to a Compliance with the French Intreagues and to make War upon the Dutch the French Council make all the Alliances they can among the German Princes c. and where they could not prevail use their Endeavours to perswade to a Neutrality My Lord HAving in my last to your Lordship set forth the successive Intrigues of France to bring our King into their Interest and to come to a Rupture with the Dutch States their Artifices especially the last as how could it choose unless he had been indeed the Log he has been resembled to wrought so effectually with him that he then without Reluctancy consented to the French King's Overtures and an Alliance was tho' very privately concluded on wherein were inserted Articles for a projected sharing of the States Dominions already Conquered by our Army as we had been before by theirs and now both Courts concert Measures to continue the Amusement of the Enemy and to gain some other Neighbours into a Concurrence or Neutrality The French King after some Demur to gain time and to finish his Intrigue in England had no sooner concluded it but after his usual way of Dissimulation sent back the Instrument of the Treaty with Holland to the States but with such Additions and Amendments as he knew would take up time to debate tho' couched in most suggred Words and backed with large Promises of continuing and augmenting Friendship And having in the mean time gained the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster and some others on the Rhine partly by Money and partly by deceitful Pretences to joyn with them They had also the vanity to attempt tho' the very Thoughts of such an Overture were charged with insuperable Difficulties to delude the very Spaniard if not into a Compliance yet into a Neutrality with them while their Forces should be acting such Tragedies as were intended in their view and not without passing through their Country they having such Creatures and Factions in Spain as they much confided in but after all their Wheedles and Intrigues there they found such strong Opposition made by the Queen-Mother who was a great Enemy to France as gave them little grounds to hope for any great Success in that Negotiation so that they began to content themselves with what they thought they were sure of viz. By gaining of so much time in keeping of Matters in suspence both in the Spanish and Imperial Councils who were naturally slow enough in their Deliberations as might suffice them to accomplish their design upon Holland before they could be in a readiness to hinder the finishing Stroke If so be they should declare for the States against them as was to be suspected they would after which secure of Success they concluded they should be in a condition to attack rather then to expect the whole Austrian Force tho' fortified with the Succours of all the rest of Christendom My Lord I am not at present furnished with the Topicks they went upon to bring the Spaniards to a Compliance in this Matter but I hope I shall be able to give your Lordship a good account of them in my next which shall be with the next conveniency but in the mean time I am My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 15. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXII Coleman being engaged in the French Interests here follows the Topicks he went upon to induce the Spaniards to a Neutrality in the War in 1672. My Lord THat the French Ministers are Gens audax omnia perpeti is very manifest by what I have written to your Lordship before but to be so adventurous as to form Topicks for the engaging those in the Spanish Interest to favour their Designs by deluding that Nation to a Neutrality seems to be a Master piece of their Policy as well as Audacity Having therefore gained Mr. Coleman whom they judged of any other the most proper Instrument to carry on such a Design they formed the following Topicks for him the better to
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
brought our Nation under such Convulsions that without the help of kind Heaven must end in a total Dissolution Sed futura nesâ—imus I am My Lord Your Constant and Faithful Servant Paris Decemb. 16. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXVI The Opinion of the French Court concerning the five Persons that made up the Cabal in England in the Year 1671 2. My Lord THE Ministers of this Court are not only the most inquisitive Persons in the World into the Affairs of other Courts but even into the Persons that manage them whose Natures Dispositions Religion Natural and Acquired Abilities as well as Respective Infirmities they endeavour to sift out to the quick that so they may use them or shun them as they find occasion and for this reason it is that they make some Remarks upon them in their Minutes as well as upon the Affairs transacted by them And therefore since the Five Persons who made up the Cabal in England a few years ago and who your Lordship may remember were the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale the Earls of Shaftsbury and Arlington and the Lord Treasurer Clifford were very distinguishable for the Stations they were in the Offices they held and the Parts each of them acted in the Government I find this Character given of them For the Duke of Buckingham as he was the Kings Favourite so he really deserved to be so as being very capable to be a Minister of State if his application to business had been answerable to his Talents if his mind which was furnished with excellent Endowments had not been distracted with Libertinism which was in him to an extream degree and by a love to his Pleasures which made one of those Persons in the World that was fittest for great and solid things vain and frivolous Of the Duke of Lauderdale there is little or nothing said but that he is a great and quaint Politian and no question but he has merited that Character at their hand Of my Lord Clifford they are as profuse in their Praises as I doubt they have been too of their Money saying he was a Person who wanted nothing but a Theatre where Vertue and Reason had been much more in use than it was in his Country in the Age wherein he lived for to be superiour to and overtop the rest My Lord of Arlinton they make to be a Person of a meaner Capacity and more limitted Genius than any of the Five but say his Experiences supply the Defect and has acquired him especially a very great knowledge of Forreign Affairs last of all they bring in Anthony Ashley Cooper the Renowned Earl of Shaftsbury of whom they say he was by far the fitter Person of any of them to manage a great Enterprize and so was as the Soul to all the rest being endued with a vast Capacity clear Judgment bold Nature and subtil Wit equally firm and constant in all he undertook a constant Friend but an implacable Enemy with many other Expressions such as his not being terrified neither with the greatness nor the multitude of the Crimes he judges necessary for his own preservation or the destruction of others much to his Lordships dishonour which is a clear Argument he was not for their Interest and for which he is much beholding to them Your Lordship will pardon the freedom I take with You and accept of the sincere endeavours to serve you of My Lord Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVII Of the Methods practised by the French Ministers to corrupt our Embassadors My Lord HAving given your Lordship some account of the opinion the French Court have had of some of our Statesmen it may be it will not be unacceptable to recount to your honour in this place some of those ways they have taken here to corrupt and pervert our Embassadors And I can boldly affirm that there has been hardly any one Embassador sent from our Court hither since the Restoration whom they have not endeavoured to corrupt and to get into a private Intreague to traverse not only what he was to Negotiate but even something of what themselves prest on our Princes by their own private Agents and on some of whom I have named one to your Lordship formerly they have made very great impressions to our Nations detriment for matters of main Consequence were treated of by private Ministers or Messengers between both Kings which were not as much as mentioned to the Embassadors sent in Publick who have been on our side sent only for Parade to Negotiate many times things whereof the contrary had been most commonly agreed upon especially in private only to blind by that piece of Formality the Eyes of our Subjects at home and of our Neighbours abroad or else to treat about matters of meer Complement or of but ordinary concern and tho' what has been privately treated on between the Two Kings or but only proposed was of great Concern to be kept secret and that for that very reason they knew our Embassadors were not made acquainted with it yet such has been their Malice and Treachery to our King and Country as to discover to our Embassadors or Envoys and their Secretaries such parts thereof as they have thought being once known to them would be most proper and effectual to induce our Ministers to enter into a particular Cabal with them for by-ends and many times to affirm things more invidious than ordinary to have been agreed upon between both Courts which were only proposed which kind of Communication of theirs had a very powerful influence by the curiosity that is natural to all Mankind to work upon our Ministers to entertain such a Correspondence with them to the dishonour and detriment of their King and Country for they have told them sometimes that not only the Points proposed by the Dutchess of Orleans but other things of as bad and dangerous consequence for the Subjects and Religion in England were absolutely concluded on between both Crowns unknown unto them and that our King and Duke of York had taken such and such Measures to put themselves into a Condition to do what they pleased and that the King their Master was willing to flatter them in such hopes and feed them with a little Money to keep them from taking part with his Enemies yet that truly at the bottom he had no such Zeal for Religion nor for the Pope of Rome as he had not for the King of England's over great Power and Absoluteness in Rule being things which could not but be prejudicial and very incompatible with his own greatness and therefore he should not fail underhand to favour the People of England in supporting their Liberties and Rights and defending their Religion and confining the Kingly or Regal Power to its own due limits And therefore if they Viz. our Envoys or Ministers would serve him in that design they might assure themselves they should be well gratified for
Prince as they did not in the least expect whose Answer was He would never betray a Trust reposed in him nor ever sell the Liberties of his Country that his Ancestors had so long defended c. I have not opportunity to go on in the Prosecution of this Subject at present but hope in my next to make it up to your Lordships content and so remain My Lord Your Honours most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 3. 1678. LETTER XXX Of the Embassy sent by King Charles II. upon the Advice of the Earl of Shaftsbury to Expostulate with the French King and stop his further Proceedings My Lord I Have in my last to your Lordship taken notice of the Surprize and Indignation the French King and his Council were put to at the Revolution in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the United Provinces and how much his Correspondents had deceived him in assuring him that all was his own in that wealthy City and that there seemed but that one place to perfect and secure the re-union of all the Belgick Provinces that renouned part of the ancient Gallia to his new French-Burbonian Empire as he was advised by some to call it and now to see his victorious Chariot in its full speed and almost at the end of all its Career receive a check by the resolution of one puny Burgher and withall that his Attempts upon the young Prince of Orange proved abortive however considering he was Master of all the places round about and no Power then on the Continent being in a posture to come to its Relief and that tho' the Prince of Orange were restored to the Command of his Ancestors he had as good almost to have been without in the Posture his own and the Affairs of the State were then in and confiding still in the Influence of those of his Cabal within who were Men of greater Estates and Eminence tho' at present laid aside then that obscure Burgher and those whom the Mob had advanced to their Offices and besides that the little Vigour that seemed to be infused into the drooping Spirits of the Citizens by the foresaid Revolution and Remonstrances would quickly vanish and be interpreted as a flash of unseasonable and insignificant Rashness at the sight of his formidable Troops and disappear like Smoak before the Sun to whom his flatterers had taught him to compare himself it was resolved the place should be reduced if not otherwise by his Arms with all speed to prevent any interveaning Accidents that might impede the mighty success But seasonably came another Adventure that put a new Spoke in the Wheel For my Lord while the French Court thought themselves secure of all things on our side as having in their Imagination not only lulled the King asleep but the five Persons that made up the Cabal that managed him and in effect there were four of them in their Interests the fifth Man who was that renowned Statesman and true Patriot the Earl of Shaftsbury then Lord Chancellor of England whose sagacious Head could penetrate deeper then the rest and whose Eagle Eyes the Splendor of those Golden Pieces streaming in such abundance from that French Phaeton and which had blinded so many others in the like Station could not dazzle used all his Efforts to rouse up our King from the heavy slumber of Security into which French Sorcery had cast him and highly to represent to him in their true Light the fatal Consequences to his Crown Dignity and Interest attending the taking of that City and the total Conquest of the Hollanders tho' now his Enemies by any other at least then English Hands and above all by the Arms of France and constrained him by the Cogency of his Reasons and vigorous Representations of a speedy and brisk Interposition prest home with an Importunity that would admit of no Evasion nor allow any Repose but immediately to dispatch away an Embassy to divert the impending Stroke But tho' my Lord by his pressing Eloquence gained his Point in regard to the Embassy in it self yet your Lordship very well knows that two of the three Persons employed in it viz. the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Arlington were deeply engaged in the French Interest and seemed by their carriage at the French Court then at Utretch rather as if they had been sent to promote the French Conquests then any way to obstruct them and because they knew my Lord Hallifax was honest they did all they could to oppose his appearing and acting conjunctly with them tho' included in the same Commission in as ample a manner as themselves under pretence of his coming a day or two after them to the Hague And when they could no longer keep him from acting went privately to the French Camp under sham-Pretences and had Negotiations of their own on foot But tho' my Lord Hallifax's Vigilancy Constancy and Resolutions could not balk theirs and the French King's Designs yet it put them hard to it and they saw plainly that it was the King's mind they should desist However the French Court never forgot that noble Lord the adviser of the Embassy whereof I shall not forget to give your Lordship account in due place but do intend in my next to transmit the Substance of the Consultation held by the French King upon this unexpected Embassy and so wishing your Honour all happiness remain My Lord your devoted Servant Paris June 14. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXI An account of the Council held by the French King upon the Embasie from England with the resolves thereupon and methods proposed to elude it My Lord UPON so ticklish and unexpected an Occasion as was mentioned in my last a Council Extraordinary was held wherein the major part after a serious and warm Debate were for their Kings pursuing his first Resolution maugre all the Considerations to the contrary and to venture even a rupture with England if it could not be avoided otherwise rather than quit so dainty a morsel and lose an opportunity never to be again retrieved of gaining a Post from whence he might easily defie all the Force of Europe But however to carry on things the more fairly for his Reputation and to accomplish if possible his design without a present War with England whose Friendship was as yet more convenient than its Hate they advised him to dispatch away immediately some acceptable and able Minister to our Court with store of Allamode Lenitives to that Sore and to return an Answer in the mean while to our Embassadors full of specious pretences and promises of intended advantage to their Prince and Country by that veâ—y expedition they were sent to diswade and to tell them that his Most Christian Majesty having reduced his and their Masters common Enemy so low as they now saw them and such a panick Terror having seized the People even of the Capital City that if it were made use of in time must needs make the Town an easie prey to him if
sourdene but with instructions after all their industry if they could not succeed in obstructing the peace yet not to fail to elude it which how well they succeeded in the first for a time and when that could not be warded off no longer how much more fortunate success they have had in the latter I shall endeavour to make your Lordship acquainted with at another time when I hope they may be no less grateful to your Honour's gusto from him who desires to approve himself to be My Lord Your Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 9. 1678. LETTER XXXIII Of the Negotiating a Marriage between the Duke of York and the Princess of Inspruck in Germany How that Match came to be broke off and how the French gain'd their Point in Marrying the Princess of Modena to him My Lord THings continuing in the same posture I mentioned in my last to your Lordship between England and France the latter having the full ascendency over our King and Court to keep them from the Peace with Holland and to enter into a War in Conjunction with the rest of the Confederates against them and the Duke of York happening to be a Widower who was entirely as they thought in their Interests at this time which was the year 1673. there was an Intrigue started up and carried on that in all appearance was â—eady to break the Thread of all their Contrivances and irrecoverably to overturn all they had been so long and with so much pains about but another as lucky a hit interposed timely in their Aid which salved all their drooping Interest in our Court again sounder than ever tho' like the Beast in the Apocalypse it seemed to have received its deadly wound For when a Negotiation was now not only set on foot but in a manner concluded for Matching our Duke with a Princess of the Austrian Family an Alliance which would certainly have broke the neck of all Leagues with France and make England once more the Ballance between those two mighty Powers I say just when a Match was concluded with a Princess of the House of Austria and nothing seemed remaining to the accomplishing of it but celebrating the Espousals and bringing over the Lady into England to remain the gage of a close and lasting Alliance between the Royal Stem of England and that Illustrious and Potent House and the Monsieur at biting his Nails for spite to see his Interest there desperate and past retrieval it most luckily happened to him that in that very interim the Empress died and the Emperor coming to want a Confort and finding no other worthy his Choice according to the usuâ—l practice of the Austrian Families whose Branches intermarry frequently with one another he retain'd the Lady for himself and so defeating our Prince of his Spouse and putting of him in a new quest gave the French an opportunity to prosser him a Female who they knew descended from a right Intriguing Breed and would be sure to do their Work throughly and thereby not only renew but make sure against all Events that Alliance that hath since proved so pernicious to all Europe and so vexatious to the one as well as to the other of our Princes This Match they knew might be of great importance to them not only as to the promoting their Ambitious Ends in England but in Italy too and if they could once ensnare the Duke into it would as fixedly tie him to their Interests as it would infallibly lose him every where else and engage not only the Protestant Subjects of these Kingdoms but even all the other Powers of Christendom as well of the Roman Communion as the Reformed to oppose his future Elevation that so he might be wholly dependant upon them She being a Lady not only Italian by Nation but a Relation of the Pope and in that Quality most odious to England and also of the late Cardinal Mazarine and in a word of a Prince Pensionary to the French and an adopted Daughter of France which last Quality they honoured her with to render her compleatly hateful to all the World besides most liberally paying her Portion Pentioning the King and greasing the Ministers to have the Parliament Prorogued that in the interim the Match might be huddled up with all the precipitation imaginable for fear upon the least delay by contrary Sollicitations from the Austrians or any other Potentates abroad or any black and grumbling Clouds at home the unstable King might be over-persuaded or frighted from letting his Brother go on with that destructive Alliance These my Lord were their Contrivances and Precautions upon this Subject and they succeeded so well in their Endeavours that mauger any Reasons the King might have to the contrary or any Opposition made by some few then about him that Match was concluded from which England may in a very great measure date the commencement of her ensuing Grievances and which according to the Parliament's Prediction of it caused such terrible Earthquakes in the three Nations already and God Almighty alone knows what the dire Effects may be and where things will terminate at long run though it may at the same time prove better than our fears For after it was once done they cared not what Storms it produced amongst us for if the endeavours of an Alliance cemented with so charming a Female unwearied in enticements could not allure nor the sugâ—ed Professions of a constant Amity and Protection besides the powerful Spells of continual Supplies of Money engage sufficiently yet they were confident the troubles it would cause would necessitate him for Self-preservation to keep close to their Interests and to be content perhaps for the preservation of the rest to give them part of his Estates whenever it should succeed and make them Executors of his Will or at least at all Adventures keep up such Divisions as by the care they would take to balance the respective Parties concerned in them would both divert and disable the Nation from exerting their Resentment against them to any great purpose These my Lord were the Improvements they proposed to make by this Match and herewith I shall conlude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's very humble Servant Paris Aug. 30. 1678. LETTER XXXIV Of the Peace made between England and Holland in February 1673 4. The Motives to it and the French Methods to elude it by retaining the Irish still in their Service with our Courts connivence My Lord I Have formerly taken notice to your Lordship of the Methods and Precautions the French used to keep our King from making a Peace with the Dutch-States and how they made it their business to dispossess all those and particularly my Lord Shaftsbury of the King's Ear and Favour who were concerned for His and the Nation 's Interest by promoting such a Peace but though they prevailed therein as well as in that of the Duke's Marriage with a Female of their own chusing yet my Lord you know very well
they failed to stem the Tide that broke in as a consequent upon that Vote of the Commons Octob. 31. 1673. That considering the Condition the Nation was then in they would not take into further consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear the obstinacy of the Dutch should render it necessary c. For the French Emissaries had taught the King and his Juncto their Lesson to wit to give out that the Dutch were full of Sullenness and Obstinacy and would come to no honourable Terms and therefore there was a necessity of further humbling of them but now the Court of England were as hasty to make up the Peace with Holland as e're they were to declare War against them which was concluded by the 9th of February 1673 4 but though the Dutch came hereby to enjoy Peace with us at Sea yet they found the pernicious Effects of the Valour of the English Troops which continued in the French Armies and gained them several Victories after that Peace till upon the earnest and repeated Instances both of the Foreign Powers concerned and of our own Parliament some redress was given to that Grievance but never a total one a Proclamation being obtained for recalling our Forces from the French Service which yet was construed not to extend to the Irish Nation who after that by that foul connivence of our King not only continued there in Bodies as formerly but drew over Recruits from time to time and were most highly cherished and caressed as indeed were the Irish Nation all along with a sensible difference above the English and Scotch especially when a War was expected with us they having a secret design upon that Kingdom by one Method or other ever since their first drawing our King into League with them which they did not obscurely intimate when by way of encouragement they would now and then say to the Irish Roman Officers among them as likewise to other qualified Gentlemen Travellers of that same Nation That the King their Master had an esteem of them above all other Nations for their Antâ—quity Generosity and Invincible Conâ—â—â—ncy to their old Religion for above a Century of Years after their Masters the English had abâ—ndoned it and that the Scots and the Wâ—eish Britains by the contagion of their Example with sufficient Derogation from their former unviolated Claims to Antiquity and unconquered Liberty had done the like and would assure them from him That the time would come when he would shew them marks of his Esteem by conferring the Hereditary Guard of his own and his Successor's Persons on their Nation instead of the Scots who were now departed from their Interests and that as a Catholick Prince and the Guarantee of their Treaty with King Charles when in Banishment for restoring to them their Estates whenever he should be restored he would see them righted and would one day free them from the Tyranny of the English Nation But notwithstanding all underhand Compliance of our Court with that of France as our Peace with Holland had already displeased them This recalling of our Troops as partially executed as it was quite put them out of humour so that though they durst not shew their Resentments too far for fear of increasing the Evil they fretted at yet they did what they could by allurements to debauch and by hard Usage and all imaginable Discouragements both to deter as many as they could of our Soldiers from paying Obedience to the said Proclamation and to disable those who were fixedly bent to return from being serviceable to their King and Country Among the rest mighty Advantages were offered to my Lord Dowglas afterwards Earl of Dunbarton to intice him to stay and some time after he was gone upon hearing he had no Preferment under his own King by reason of the severity of our Laws against Men of his Perswasion there were very great Rewards proposed to those they thought had any influence over him to perswade him to return and particularly to my self in case I could find any who could so far prevail over him but all in vain yet most of the Irish remained to the last and were very serviceable at the brisk Action of Gyrone and on some other Occasions and after the fear of the War with us was blown over by the Tempest raised among our selves whilst we blinded our Parliament and People by seeming to observe exactly the Articles of Neutrality agreed upon between our King and them they for a long time and even till now have refused to receive any English and Scotch Officers and Soldiers to their Service tho' contrary to their Allegiance to their King and Country several of them and some of them Romans of tried Affection proffered themselves yet still as many Irish as presented themselves were readily entertained And thus My Lord Tho' these subtile Politicians missed of their first point in hindring our Peace with Holland they succeeded but too well in the second through our Court's weakness and base Prevarication which was eluding it by corrupting our Neutrality with such a partiality on their side that it was an Honey-Comb to them whilst it was but a Spunge of Gall and Vinegar to the Confederates but foreseeing that in time this jugling conduct of our King would make all Europe murmur and render his Friendship or Mediation suspicious every where That it would make him odious to his People and blow into a Flame those old jealousies that already began to rekindle and afford ample matter for the Emissaries of the Confederates to work upon in our Nations and consequently to actuate our People so violently to a League with the said Allies against them that it would be impossible for the King with Safety to resist them for of his good Will to them by this time they were pretty confident they therefore were careful to make a timely Provision against an inconvenience so much dreaded by them and to endeavour to make use of those very Jealousies Fears and Animosities whose Effects they apprehended against their Adversaries by dexterously catching them up like Fireworks before they brake and returning them back upon our selves and this difficult sort of Game they managed by several Stratagems of which I have neither room nor opportunity to advertise your Lordship at present but must defer it to a proper season and remain as I truly am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris July 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXV Of the Marquess de Ruvigni a French Protestant his being sent Embassador into England and what the Politicks of France were therein My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship does remember the first time of the Marquess de Ruvigny's being sent Envoy from this Court into England which was in the Year 1669. and which I think I have in one of my Letters hinted already That he was a Person very capable for such an Imployment none can doubt that knew him but that ever he was
chosen by this Court purely for his Capacity is not to be admitted of You know my Lord the Triple League stuck then close in the French King's stomach and that the danger Religion was in as well as Property from the progress of the French Arms before in the Netherlands contributed very much to the cementing of such an Alliance which this Court were labouring tooth and nail to break to pieces and more especially to get the King of England out of it and to that end Monsieur Ruvigny's Religion he being a Protestant highly recommended him How well he discharged his Commission then I need not recount to your Lordship the Event has sufficiently discovered it to England as well as to Holland's sorrow and to the no small regret of some of those of his own Religion and Fraternity in France It was much about Six years after that the same Marquess was entrusted with another Negotiation at the English Court to no less pernicious an end than the former and I fear at long run with worse effects They had my Lord besides the Instruments I have formerly mentioned for some time before this imploy'd several of their own Hugonots in England for the carrying their Intrigues more effectually on among our Protestants which Hugonots have been the more forward to please and obey the Instructions of their Prince and his Ministers in that they have believed them very compatible with their own particular Interests wherefore they have done all they could to contribute to the Elevation of the Presbyterian Government in our Nation which because the same with their own they have naturally had some desire to see established in a Kingdom so able to protect them and which had hitherto been the great impediment to their extirpation in France But to return from this Digression for which I beg your Lordship's pardon to the Marquess de Ruvigny his Instructions were to endeavour to possess the Protestants in general in our Nation which were now my Lord full of fears of some Secret Designs a brewing between the two Kings in prejudice to their Religion and Civil Rights too that they needed not to be so much concerned at Appearances that it was far enough from the thoughts of his Master to make their King great to his Subjects prejudice and that he was not so zealous for the Roman Religion as they might imagine whereof he was to urge several instances and to endeavour to throw off all the odium from him upon the Pope and the Court of Rome and thereby make them level all their Fears Jealousies and odious Reflections that way to the end that by the Royal Church-Party who had the King's ear they might still secure him further in their Interests and have their helping-hand to carry on those Points they aimed at that way viz. the hindring the Princesses matching with the Prince of Orange and the Offensive Alliance so much feared then and now with the Confederates c. But this was but one Party of the Protestants his Instructions also were to make a particular Interest among the Dissenters and such as inclined to them at the same time that in case they were defeated in the one and saw no likelihood of staving off the other they might have them ready prepared to enter the lists against the former and when War was ready to be declared against France to push them on if possible to raise a Civil Combustion at home and to insinuate into them That the King his Master was willing privately to assist them as his Predecessor had done theirs in the late Civil Wars upon occasion c. in which sort of Negotiation the Marquis was effectually enough seconded by his Countrymen Hugonots then in England and particularly by a man of singular Parts and Learning and exceedingly well versed in Intriegue named Monsieur but on the contrary in case they should have been able by the Royal Party to have been strong and successful enough to gain the two said Points and hinder both the Match and the War which was their business and is still in part to oppose they had Orders to have the same Dissenting Party still ready when King Lewis and his Cousins of England should have had that part of their ends of the Conforming Party to make use of them against them if they would not humour them so far as to suffer themselves to be carried quite back to Rome And because all our Protestants however differently denominated should take no umbrage at any of this Court's Proceedings they thought fit once more to let their Sun as they so often term him to cast some warm beams on the Hugonot Party at home and to entertain them awhile with some Courâ—ly Smiles whereby they have designed to amuse our people and at the same time make their own Protestants to be their Instruments to carry on the Divisions of those who while united are their only Protectors for hitherto while they have had War with the Confederates and chiefly with Holland and are in fear of one with England it being yet out of their power to destroy these people they have thought it their interest not to exasperate them whereby they may be tempted to run over to the Enemy but rather for the present to court them and make them serviceable unto them by working in the very Mines which in all human probability are designed to blow them up withal I will not intrude When Captain E returns I should take it as a singular favour to receive a line from your Lordship and particularly your Sentiments of our Home-affairs by him whom I shall expect with utmost impatience who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 20. 1678. LETTER XXXVI Of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced by the Emperor for Corresponding with the French about the Year 1674. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot be ignorant that during this Intrieguing in England and Canvassing of Designs against our King and Kingdom the War went on on this side with various success but I find England is not the only Country that has been bubbled by the French Emissaries and had its Secrets betrayed I cannot tell any one part of the Confederates that have been exempted but Germany more particularly has suffered in this kind variously but in nothing so remarkably as in the business of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced some time since by the Emperor and which has made so much noise in the World that your Lordship could not but hear of it That he corresponded with this Court there is nothing more certain though when the business was once winded their Emissaries thought it adviseable to be the first Rumorers of it but related the same with Particulars so extraordinary that were scarce credible that thereby they might turn the whole at length into a ridicule But the way of their Correspondence with the said Prince and others in the Empire was so intricate to be fathomed that 't is no wonder the matter
at that time as well as his own and that if he would effectually espouse that Affai◠he might reckon upon what he pleas'd himself from the Generosity of the King their Master whose constant Character it was never to let the least Merit go unrewarded But if it should so fall out that Sir William proved stiff in the matter as it seems he did by the sequel they were to turh the same Batteries upon Pensioner Fagel with a variation of Phrase and Complement agreeable to the Person and Circumstances and more especially to try what the force of the French Pistols might effect that way And if so be matters were carried so far as that the Prince was found to give any ear to it then he was to be rounded briskly what mighty things the French King would do for him in relation to his future Greatness both in England and Holland That for his Principality of Orange he should have it restored to him again or such a compensation nigher Home as he would reckon on himself as also for his Lands in Burgundy and any other Losses Damages c. Nay they were ordered to offer him a very large annual Pension if he would have complied But half these things were never actually Proposed because the said two Ministers and the Prince himself more than any were as so many 〈…〉 for they would not so much 〈◊〉 hearken to the Voice of those dangerous Charmers A rare Instance My Lord to withstand such great Temptations and not to be parallell'd perhaps in any other young Prince of our Age as it was indeed also in the two Ministers many of which England at this time is not over-fruitful of I wish it were our Affairs would have been in a better posture than I hear they are and I dread much worse to come I pray God avert it and preserve your Lordship from all Dangers which shall ever be upon the Heart of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 19. 1678. LETTER XXXVIII A Summary of the French Methods to get the Dauphin made King of the Romans My Lord PErhaps since all the noise of the Western World at this time is the Affairs of Hungary between the Turks and Imperialists the particulars whereof I need not trouble your Lordship with it will not be amiss to look a little back and remark what influence this Court has had upon this War and what Designs they have long since hatched under the Covert not only of this but all the other Broils they have engaged Germany in I find by Patin's Letters so far back as 1671. that it was a matter then not questioned but that there had been Designs concerted to have the Dauphin created King of the Romans which made me endeavour after a more particular information in that Intriegue which at last I have found to be inserted in this manner according to the distinct Heads that follow I. All the Designs which they had concerted in the Wars between England and Holland for the weakning and destroying them if possible as I have already given your Lordship a particular Account of first terminated in that ultimate end Of advancing the Dauphin as before-mentioned II. The former Wars against the Confederates was attempted for the same Ends in a great measure all their Designs against the Spanish Monarchy having a tendency that way III. Their unspeakable Pretensions in the Palatinate on the behalf of Madam the present Dutchess of Orleans IV. All their open and secret Practices in Hungary from Arch-Duke Joseph's being made King there and by making Overtures to another King underhand John Sobieski by name to oppose the Emperor therein promising their utmost Interest to get that Crown and Country conferred on him and his Posterity rightly judging that if the Arch-Duke were balked in Hungary it was not likely he should prevail in Germany 5. They have now for the same end their Emissaries in Turkey being partly Jews and partly Jesuits who incited the Turks to begin the War and to push it on even to the Capital of the Empire and did at the same time by other Agents both in Poland and at Venice all they could that they might hinder those Countries to come into the Confederacy against them as thinking themselves Cock-sure that if Vienna had once been taken the German Princes would have been in such a Consternation that as the only remedy they would have called in the French Power to oppose against such a dreadful inundation of Infidels as would thence have followed and for which they could have done no less than to have declared the Dauphin King of the Romans and have made the French King Guardian and Protector in the interim of the Emperor and Empire especially having the Electors of Cologne Mentz and Triers either inclined for or over-awed by them and it being easy in that juncture to have forced the rest This my Lord is the substance of what I have found they have projected upon this Subject from time to time as the circumstances of Affairs gave way and occasion and nothing more certain than that they have had it all along in their view to advance the Dauphin to that Dignity which they have hitherto failed in and I hope ever shall I did not think to have entred upon this subject which is also somewhat remote from the Affairs of our own Country but that the sight of the forementioned Author excited my curiosity and the fondness of the discovery made me also fond to communicate the same to your Lordship tho' perhaps no very grateful part which yet I trust your goodness will pardon in him who is My Lord Your very humble and obedient Servant Paris Jan. 14. 1684. N. S. LETTER XXXIX Of Don John of Austria's being hindred to take upon him the Administration of the Spanish Affairs in the year 1676. My Lord IT 's not long since I have given your Lordship an account of the advances made by this Court towards a Peace but you know since that the War went on with various successes and perhaps your Lordship has heard of the Business of Don John in Spain How he was prevented from having the Administration of the Affairs of that Country by a Letter under the King of Spain's Hand when he was just going to embark for the relief of Messina there was at that time an expectation in the Confederates of mighty things to be perform'd by him to their advantage and the preventing him from a share in the Government was esteemed generally to be a French Trick and so it was but I believe the Confederates were guilty of a grand mistake in their expectation of him for the French Memoirs say Don John was perfectly their Creature and that it was the violent hatred of the Queen Mother of Spain as well as a jealousie to have her own Power invaded that put him beside the Administration That it was through his means the Matching of the King
their Church whatever they might suggest with themselves to the contrary than they were aware of or was easily indeed to be imagined were of the same Sentiments but that they were under a restraint and durst not declare themselves to be such for fear of the Mobile and of the Presbyterians other Sectaries and Republican Parties which like so many evil Spirits presided over those Savage kind of Animals and stirred them as they pleased themselves against their Superiors But to those My Lord whom they found to be of the more inflexible sort they were instructed to make use of great Flatteries and Complements and to acquaint them that they had a great deal of reason to love the Roman Catholicks as the Roman Catholicks had to do so by them for that they had had for a long time the same Common Enemies had suffered much with them conjointly for the same Royal Cause in the late Rebellions that their Adversaries were numerous enough to require their united Power and Strength against them and that their subtilty was no less to be dreaded by them whose effects could not be warded off without such a double Force that there was much more danger to the Church and State of England and to the Monarchical Government now from the Sectaries than from their Church for it was plain to any one that was but willing to see That it was now no more the Roman Catholicks Interest since they were out of all hopes of being the predominant Religion in the Kingdom to act against the Church or State of England under whom they had such mild Treatment but much rather to join and fall in with them against the Sectaries and Common-wealth's-men under whom they could never expect any thing but utmost Rigour and Cruelty That it being impossible for them alone to support and maintain themselves in England against so great a number of Sectaries as were with the greatest inveteracy imaginable animated against them without the Protection of the Church of England and the Monarchy tho' but by way of Connivence It was therefore so much their Concern and real Interest to Pray for and endeavour after the Prosperity of both Parties tho' different in Perswasion that they had no reason to fear any thing from them nor be alarm'd at the Conversions they had happened to make which were so few and inconsiderable as never to be able to do them hurt had it been so designed as it was not That there was no danger neither from the French King's Friendship or close Alliance with their King it being the only Foreign Security as matters then stood that he could have against the intriegues and power of the United Provinces who not only ruined their Commerce by Sea but were the only People that buoyed up and supported the Sectaries and Republican Party and harboured and abetted all Designs both against the Church and State of England under the then Monarchy it being their inseparable Interest in all things to thwart the English almost in every particular they valued themselves upon in the present Establishment Whereas there was no exception to be made but that it was his Most Christian Majesty's undoubted Advantage and fixed Interest to cultivate by all good Offices the said Friendship and Alliance and to avoid by all manner of means any Rupture or Mis-intelligence with England and to oppose above all things the change of our Monarchy into a Republick In the last place continued they Whereas there had been for some time Reports spread not only of the Duke's but the King himself 's being of their Perswasion they were to give out to this sort of Men that that was only a suspicion and as they really believed ill-grounded enough for tho' they had reason to wish them and all Mankind else of their Opinion in that case yet they had no such reason to think them so but that the King 's having shewed some favour to them upon the score of their Sufferings for and Fidelity to his Father and himself and out of respect to the Most Christian King with whom he was so closely Alli'd for his better support and establishment against the enemies of Monarchical Government was the only grounds People had had for such Rumours which were industriously fomented only by the Authors of the former Fears and Jealousies against his Father in order to get an opportunity thereby once more to destroy the Regal Government And that they made this noise indeed against Popery but levelled it only at Episcopal and Kingly Government not at such contemptible Adversaries as the Roman Catholicks were at that time of day Then as for the Duke they were to affirm They thought and had reason to believe he was no more a Catholick than the King but that being a Prince of an high and inflexible Spirit and Heir presumptive to the Royal Diadem disdained to be compelled by any Subjects either to take an Oath or give any account of his Religion only to gratifie their Humours and Fancies and chose rather to forbear acting in any publick Employment But that for their part as he had not yet declared against the Church of England so he had as yet made no profession of the Roman Catholick Religion as they knew of but took care to keep himself as much reserved towards them as towards those of the Protestant Perswasion By such sort of Sophisiry and cunning Artifices thrse French Incendiaries were instrumental to endeavour to Keep up the Stiff Church Party in a perpetual Animosity against the Protestant Dissâ—nters and Dutch Party as both of a Party and to stir up the Government to side still with the French Interest against the power and growth of the one and provide with severity against the Practices of the other in order to exasperate as much as possibly they could the Spirits of both Parties against the other and widen the Breaches beyond all possibility of restoring them again Which how well they have already effected is but too well known and no less sorely felt in the Bowels of the Kingdom for me to take upon me to Descant upon and therefore I shall forbear and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant to Command Paris Mar. 28. 1682. LETTER XLIV Of the French Intrigues to raise a good Opinion in the Protestant Dissenters of England of the French King 's Proceedings and to Calumniate their own King My Lord I Am come to the last Body of Men within the Kingdom whom this Court by such like Engines as I formerly mentioned has endeavoured to manage for to serve their own turn to the Kingdom 's disadvantage and they are the Protestant Dissenters but they were necessitated to give the less umbrage to change their shapes and form of expression to those of that Party whom they had the design upon and to whom they closely and warmly remonstrated That they had no occasion to be jealous of the Proceedings of France and be animated so
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
reconciled to those ends which he proposed to himself thereby and especially about Replanting both the Popish Religion and Absolute Power in the three Kingdoms and incline rather to the Match suggested with the Dauphine with an intent the more friendly to oblige his Most Christian Majesty to assist him through all the difficulties he fore-saw he had to pass yet he was not a little affraid of the great Resistance he knew would necessarily be made against such an Alliance which many in England looked upon as the most pernicious that ever could befall their Nation being also of himself not a little jealous that if once such a Match between his Eldest Daughter and the Dauphine were concluded some sly practises might be carried on by the French Court against the Issue he should have by his now Dutchess in favour of that his Daughter might probably have by the Dauphine and therefore that he was much more willing and desirous if it might be compassed that a Match might in time convenient be concluded between his said Daughter rather and his Dutchesses Brother the Duke of Modena or some Italian Prince of no power enough to be apprehended to entertain any such Designs and that as much French as she was before his Dutchess was now of the same Sentiments too being married and in hopes of a numerous Issue by the Duke These are all the Particulars I have hitherto met with in relation to the Duke and his Dutchess's Sentiments and with which I conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 14. 1680. N. S. LETTER LI. Of Coleman's Intelligence and private Correspondence with France to the King and Duke's Disadvantage and his Motions and Pretences for Money My LORD WHen I acquainted your Lordship with the Censure past by this Court upon the King and Duke's Sentiments in reference to their League and Correspondencies with them and especially the business of the Match I could neither determine whether it were purely their own Suggestions collected from the Circumstances and natural Positions of things as they then stood which I was inclined to or to some secret Information from another hand but now I find the latter to be true for whatever the King Duke and Dutchesse's true Sentiments were so they were represented under-hand by Coleman to the Juncto here and by some other self-ended Confidents of theirs of whom but more particularly of Mr. Coleman I find it thus inserted in our Minutes That being entered into a close and separate Correspondence of his own with this Court besides that known to their Highnesses whose Agent he was he was therein to give them intelligence of all that was transacted at White-hall and St. James's that possibly he could but more especially of the Comportment of the King and the Duke as to the Points agreed on between France and them as also of the Disposition of all the Factions in England and of the foreign Ministers c. to obliege himself to make Parties to cross his Master the Duke or the King or both in case either or both of them should go about to deviate from the Measures prescribed them by the French Court. I find my Lord he was besides this a great Undertaker for Conversions and Proselyting Men to Rome or rather France and his Agreement with them was to have allowed him as an Annuity the Summe of Twenty Thousand Crowns punctually to be paid and for Extraordinaries as should be calculated according to the emergency of the Occasions His Pretenses for Conversions were manifold and extravagant enough in the relation of them and did slily at first insinuate and when he had once broken the Ice warmly urged that whereas the Duke had very large Remittances made him upon the account of Conversions wherein he was an Undertaker that it were more advisable for the future to entrust him with a moderate Summe for that purpose and thereby save themselves that deal which they must have sent to the Duke upon that Account if they should send any and so moved them entirely to wave that point with him for that he could do much more in that nature than the Duke could ever pretend to because more imperceptibly He promised them likewise for the gaining of Members of Parliament over to their Interest great and mighty things and then discreetly insinuated those things already spoken of about the Designs of the King and Duke towards them and thereupon advised them to transmit unto them both only but moderate Summes and let him have but moderate ones according to a private Man's fortune and he would take effectual care both to manage them and do their business in England more to purpose than they would do without him He also added That to give the King and Duke great Summes would be no other than to enable them to buy the Parliament's Votes for themselves and not for the Interest of France and to get such store of Money of them that they would afterward take such measures as they themselves pleased without any regard to France being sure to please the People at any time whenever they were minded to go contrary to them and much matter to the same purpose with which I shall no farther trouble your Lordship but subscribe my self as I unfeignedly am and ever shall be My LORD Your most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1680. N. S. LETTER LII The Duke of York moves the French Court for Money according to the private Agreement My LORD YOu have heard what a Spoke Mr. Coleman was pleased to put in the King and even the Duke his dear Master's wheel which they poor Princes knowing nothing of moved hard for the Summes promised by France the Duke as supposing his Credit the better being the forwarder of the Two and whose Pretences were that he had been forced to lay out by advance the greatest part of the Money already pay'd to make Creatures for their mutual Interest and future advantage all such Enterprizes being much more chargable to begin then to carry on and perfect that when Correspondencies were begun they must be carried on and that still by advance if any thing of service were expected or hoped for That he had a most difficult and uneasy Task to deal with the King his Brother 's timerous and changeable Disposition and was and had been at a very great Expence to greaze Favourites of more Kinds then one that might influence and perswade him to and hinder others that might disswade him from what they in France did expect from him or urged him to as also to appease and quell Enemies on all sides which his late Match with their adopted Daughter and change in Religion had stirred up violently against him and that to keep the King his Brother steddy in a favourable Neutrality in regard to France and yet at the same time either break off the Match quite with the Prince of Orange defer it so long as
never any of His present Highness's Predecessors have been ever as much as suspected of aspiring at any Power over the Commonwealth but what tended to its greater Security and for the Elevation of the Majesty of the Republick without the least Glances of assuming any to themselves unless it were His Highness's Father who in all probability was animated thereunto by his matching with a Daughter of England And that his Ambition might have proved fatal to the Republick beyond Retrieve if his immature Death and other seasonable Providences had not intervened That the Influence of that Match had proved very detrimental to that illustrious House by stirring up such a Jealousie in the States against them as would not suffer them to admit the present Prince for a long time to enjoy the Places of Honour Authority and Trust formerly so well maintained and officiated by his noble Ancestors And that at the same time it had proved as pernicious to the States themselves in creating and nourishing Factions among them and Endeavours to keep up the Republick upon a new Model without Captain-General Stadtholder Admiral c. and to deprive themselves of the so necessary and Auspicious Assistance and Conduct of that most Illustrious House and thereby exposed even almost to be made a Prey to the dangerous Ambition of the French Monarch And therefore now when they had so newly re-enter'd into their true Interests and happily re-fixed all things on the old Foundation by restoring the present Prince to the Dignity of his Ancestors and calling him to the Helm of the Tempest-beaten State and had by his Courage Conduct and Interest recovered the Common-wealth to a very hopeful Condition of Power and Prosperity again it would be no less than a Madness to venture the Ruin of all those fair Hopes by a second Match with England when by the former they had been almost all Shipwrack'd and to suffer a Prince who was now wholly their own to espouse in such a Marriage as was then in Agitation a Foreign Interest and such as in all probability could not in time but interfere with theirs And therefore desired it might not be 1. Because though the Prince's Intentions should happen to continue never so right and firm to the Interest of the Republick yet this Match could not but be still very detrimental both to him and them by causing incurable Jealousies Factions and Animosities amongst them without end and which could not but be of pernicious Consequence to them both 2. That by reason of the little probability of the Duke of York's having any Vivacious Male Issue this would give the Prince such a near Prospect of the British Crowns that it could not but engage him in that View upon all Occasions to strain his Power and Interest in the United Provinces to the utmost for the advantage of the English Nation to the prejudice of the Dutch increase of Power and Interest 3. That if he ever came to be King of England the Power he would thereby obtain added to that he had already in the United Provinces as Stadt-holder Captain General c. and to the great Influence he had among the Soldiery in the States pay would undoubtedly be a great temptation to him for to reduce that State under the English Crown and influence the others to assist him in it And that if he should have Issue by his Princess as it was likely enough he might the danger under that Circumstance would be in a manner inevitable It s likely my Lord our Politicians here forsaw very great Difficulties would arise in making any manner of Impressions upon the States against the Prince's Match for by the foresaid Remonstrances it does appear to me their Master-battery was turned on that side but though all their Politicks have failed them for the prevention of the Marriage yet they have not failed to put some of these Arguments foâ—â—ards to render the Prince and all his Proceedings suspect to the States and they have already bragged that all the Constancy his Highness is well known to be Master of will find work enough to ver-come the Jealousies entertained of him and which they are resolved never to be wanting on their part to foment and to make it believe that all he has acted since his marriage has been to the aggrandizing of himself and his Authority and the Diminution of that of the Republick I fear I have already too much transgrest by my tediousness and shall therefore only subscribe my self as I am in sincerity My LORD Your Lordships Most humble Servant Paris Sept. 20. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXII Of the Solemn Embassy sent by the French King to King Charles II. in the Year 1677 in order to break off the Match with the Prince of Orange c. My LORD PUrsuant to what I have already mentioned to your Lordship of the Designs concerted between his Royal Highness and the French King about getting of the Lady Mary by a Stratagem into France if their other Measures about hindring the Match were broken was the late solemn Embassy sent over from hence into England whereof the Count d' Estree was the head accompanied with the Duke de Vendosme the Archbishop of Rheims one of our great Minister the Marquiss de Louvois's Sons and at least fifty Lords more of principal Note and whose publick instructions tho' they imported nothing more then a great Complement and some overtures about forbiding any recruits to be sent over to our Land Forces in the service of the Confederates yet privately they were to endeavour a French match and if they saw they could not succeed therein to concert closer measures with the Duke about puting in practise what he had before consented to about geting the Princess his daughter privately convey'd away in Company of this Embassador into France and perhaps your Lordship will not be dissatisfied if I recount what I have heard discoursed one day at this Court between our Commissioner and some other Courtiers concerning the Embassy Said one of them to theother What needed so splendid and costly an Embassy at this time of day to the King of England when there is so little hopes that he durst give his Consent to what we desire of him if he were of himself disposed thereto Yes says the other 'T will be well worth the Cost let things go as they will upon this occasion for 't is a greater honour our King now does to the King of England than he has ever yet done to any other Prince or ever to the Emperor himself when at Peace with him and such an Honour cannot but work sensibly upon the heart of a Prince who is so easily wrought upon and may work some good Effects for us in time if not for the present And however if the worst come to the worst this extraordinary Honour now done him by our Monarch will make his Parliament and People so fully persuaded that he hath entred into an extraordinary
him to see the Prince and thus Matters stood when the late King died but the Brother succeeding he set all his Engines on work how he might get the Duke of Monmouth into his Clutches Dead or Alive But the French Agents my Lord did not think that now their Interest which in the late Reign they would have given any Money to have effected and therefore by their Correspondents in Holland they got the Duke secretly Advertised of the Danger who thereupon withdrew to Bruxels I know my Lord they gave it out that the Prince of Orange by his Favourite Monsieur Bentink got the Duke made acquainted therewith and that he gave him Money to go to Bruxels it was both Honourably and Charitably done of him if it was so to a distressed Gentlemen with an intent to make the King his Father-in-law more irreconcileable to him now he was King then when Duke of York tho' he was to dissemble it for a time and upon his Accession to the Throne to testifie to the Prince the sincere desire he had to live with him rather as a Father then an Ally and Neighbouring King I have had sufficient Experience my Lord of your great Honour Integrity and good Affection which makes me thus bold in a matter so nice at this time and so concludes My Lord Your humble Servant Paris March 17. 1685. N. St. LETTER III. Of King James's being Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury My Lord IT has been a matter of much discourse and reflection here that our King should be Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and not by one of the Roman Communion it was expected that since he had begun so briskly and openly to declare Himself for Rome that he would not have stuck at being Inaugurated by a Roman Bishop I find by the return made hither upon this Subject that his inclinations were violent enough for the latter but that the Reason of his Non-compliance was that having at his assumption of the Crown declar'd to the Council and by them to his People That he would maintain the Church and State of England as by Law Establish'd and that the Ceremony of his Coronation was such as the Laws of the Land did prescribe The thought it was a little two Early to begin and that by so publick an Act which to be sure would be interpreted not only as the most manifest Violation of the National Constitution but the Preludium to a despotick Power which no man knew the end of I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Repetition of the Arguments used here by the Gentlemen of the Roman Church pro and con upon the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of such a Compliance by a Catholick King to the Church of England which tho the Establish'd one they look upon to be false to the Truth as being matters which I suppose your Lordship cares not for and therefore having nothing further wherewith to entertain you that is worth Transmitting I conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris May 6. 1685. N. S. LETTER IV. Of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle's Invasions and Overthrows and of the Prince of Orange's offering to serve against the former but his offer was Malitiously Interpreted and so Rejected My Lord THE Reason of my long silence to your Lordship I hope will not be interpreted by you as any forgetfulness much less neglect of your Honours Commands and Expectation I am too sensible of the many Obligations that have been heap'd upon me from time to time to be guilty of so Notorious a Crime but the want of somewhat that was Solid and Grateful to your Lordship has been one genuine Cause that obstructed my Correspondence to which I may add what your self knows very well the private Orders given in England to open all Letters whether Domestick or Foreign and since I had for so long a time continu'd to write to your Lordship and that undiscover'd I was not willing for want of a little prudent caution and suspension in such a juncture either to expose your Lordship to any hazard or thereby for ever to exclude my self from any farther Correspondence with you whom I so much Love and Honour But now my Lord understanding that the Storm is over in England by the defeat and death of the Duke as we have had some days ago an Account from Scotland of the like misfortune to have attended the Earl of Argyle I have adventured to Salute you with these Lines and to tell my thoughts freely upon the matter I must confess I never had any great opinion of either of the Expeditions because concerted by Men who had very different ends in what they did the Duke and some others for Monarchy but the greatest part Republicans and therefore I do not wonder the whole hath miscarried especially when I can assure your Lordship both the one and the other were tho' very privately Abetted by French Agents to undertake such an Expedition such a procedure may well be wondred at I confess since there was apparently so little advantage like to arise to the French Court therefrom but besides their loving to fish always in Troubled Waters they have somewhat in them that is very like the Devil who loves to do Mischief tho' with no benefit to himself But whatever the World may think hereof those who are fled that escaped from either Kingdom after the Defeat are as kindly received here as those who formerly fled from the Popish Conspiracy but yet they are daily sifted and examin'd by the Spies that continually haunt them I would gladly know might I have the honour your Lordship's Sentiments of both Descents and the Miscarriage of them to be plain with you I own I have very different apprehensions of them now they are over than I had at first and the rather because the Prince of Orange so much resented it tho' most Maliciously interpreted by the King and his Popish Council whetted on by Gallican Agents When the Prince had the first News of the Duke's Landing in England he acquainted Mr. Skelton the King's Ambassador that the Duke of Monmouth though he were a Person but of indifferent Parts yet he had a Warlike Genius and had more Experience and Skill in the Art of War then most of them employ'd against him That for his part if the King his Father-in-Law pleased he would assist him not onely upon that occasion with his Troops but with his Person also and to that end was sending Mr. Bentinck over to England to know the King's pleasure But Skelton malevolent enough of himself and farther influenc'd with Malice against the Prince by French Incendiaries took care to inform the King before Bentinck came that such Assistance as was proposed by the Prince was very dangerous and much to the same purpose so that upon Mr. Bentinck's Motion the King answered That their Common Interest required that the Prince should stay in Holland and gave such
the Authors were from the Communion of their Church That Grotius himself who hath carried his Complaisance towards the Roman Church much farther than any other yet he never rang'd himself of her side by an open Profession and did still retain diverse sentiments that were very contrary to the Court of Rome also but that this Default might be Remedied by a Pious Fraud and to the end they may one day perswade the simple and ignorant that all the Heresies that have sprung up in these last Ages of the World are as so many Tenets of the Calvinists they have not only joyn'd the Lutheran and Arminian Books to them but also those of the Socinians and the Works of Spinosa And they have not my Lord contented themselves to Condemn the Books which have been Written by the Reformed against the Church of Rome but they have also hemm'd in Books that refer only to pure Morality and which Astonishes many here the Theses also of Josua de le Place without excepting those written by him against the Socinians and is a Book that does not attack the Church of Rome in any one of her Tenets and is only design'd for to prove the Divinity of our Saviour against the Sophistical Arguments of that Sect the Translation also of the History of the Council of Trent which Amelot de la Houssay a Roman Catholick Author has put forth is comprehended in the Catalogue of Heretical Books I cannot be positive to affirm to your Lordship who had the chief hand in forming this Catalogue it 's generally attributed to the Arch-bishop of this City but they tell us further That because he would have appear'd to have acted too much like a Patriarch in obliging the rest of the Bishops to take this Rule of their Conduct from him he has by the intreagues of the Procurator General brought his matters so to bear that the Parliament here have committed it to his care to make an Estimate of those Books which ought to be suppress'd the Order was no sooner Published but the King's Officers and the Civil Magistrates who were commanded to have the same put in execution have accordingly made a search for those Books in all Booksellers Shops and also in the Elders and Ministers Houses The Arch-bishop my Lord has some Years ago made use of a very Efficacious Method for to hinder the Publication of any Book that deserv'd to come into the World I believe your Lordship may have seen the Historical and Chronological Tables of John Rou who was a Person of great Learning and whose Merit had acquir'd unto him the Favour and Protection of several Persons of the Highest Quality in the Kingdom of France and which Tables he presented to the Duke of Monthauzier there is but a very slight mention in the Book and that but by the by of any of the Principles of the Church of Rome and those also which she Esteems and looks not upon to be of the highest consideration and importance but these slight touches and the Honour which the Author had done to some Ministers of the Reformed to Name them among the illustrious Doctors of their Age raised the Indignation of all the Bigots in the Church against him and so they got his Copies and Tables which to his great cost and Expence he had got Engraven Seiz'd and the poor Gentleman could not find an Ear open to the offers he made to Correct and Amend those places which might give Offence and all the Solicitations and Friends he could make could never prevail so far as to get Justice done him there are some Persons now who would Redeem them for their own proper use but tho it be nine or ten years ago since the forementioned Transaction they have not yet forgot the Noise it then made and they will by no means part with them who knows but the Crafty Jesuits have a mind to reserve them to procure Honour to themselves by them when they think the ingenious Person that contrived them may be no more Remember'd for it must without Vanity be own'd that they are compos'd with so much Art Judgment Order and solid Learning that there is no man but may glory to be esteem'd the Author of them This Search my Lord after the suppressed Books has been already made in several places and not only some other Bishops who have no manner of dependance upon the Archbishop of this City but other Parliaments we hear have receiv'd the Catalogue and put the Order of the Parliament here in Execution There are several of the Protestant Churches which have very considerable Libraries but some of them already are Rifled under this pretence by the Romanists and 't is not to be so much doubted as 't is to be fear'd the rest will soon run the same hard Fate This Search has also reach'd the Houses of several particular Persons whom they have been so severe upon that they have not so much as left them their Bibles because the Catalogue has put the Versions of the Bible made by Hereticks among the Number of Prohibited Books but surely these Translations how faulty soever they may suppose them to be cannot justly be put among the Number of those Books wherein the Church of Rome was accus'd of holding Opinions which are not receiv'd by her nor consequently be comprehended among those whom the Edict ordered the Suppression of As for the Ministers they are us'd very variously the greatest part have not yet been molested upon the Account of their Books for perhaps as they have already contriv'd to be rid of them by Banishing them out of the Kingdom they look upon it as a kind of Suppression of the Condemn'd Books to suffer them to carry them away along with them but I am assur'd they have given others of them much molestation in diverse parts of the Kingdom some of whose Books they have Seiz'd some Confiscated and caus'd others to be Burnt nay they have been so outragious against many of them as to disposess them of all their Manuscripts and Sermons I am sorry I am forc'd to give your Lordship this Relation of the Misery of the distressed Protestants of this Kingdom because I know it will Trouble you and inspire you with a Noble tho grievous Sympathising of their condition but I am afraid the worst is yet to come I pray God to divert it to whom I commend you and yours and am My Lord Your Honours most Humble and Obedient Servant Paris Sep. 12. 1685. N. S. LETTER IX Of the Popes Nuncio opposing any New Form of Doctrine design'd to be introduc'd by the General Assembly at Paris for the easier seduction of the Reformed to comply with the Popish Church and be United to her My Lord THIS Court is so taken up with Forming Methods and Projects to bring the Reformed to a Complyance and Conformity to the Roman Church that I do not find they mind any Forrein Affair at present I have seen several Formula's
was taken afterward in his Flight out of the Kingdom and Condemn'd according to the Rigorous Proceedings of this Court to the Galleys and though his Age and Quality besides the Great Sollicitations made at Court in Favour of him might render the matter very easie to be obtain'd yet it was with much difficulty that he was got to be exempted from that odious Condemnation and this was given out as an Extraordinary Mark of the King's Clemency The Baron de la Mothe avoided the Smart by not appearing at the place for that time but he was punish'd soon after by having his Two Fine Houses Destroy'd And lately through a tedious Misery of a Prison they Extorted a Compliance from him I hope this will find your Lordship in Health and free from such in this Ticklish Time which shall be the daily wishes of My Lord Your Lordships most humble and most devoted Servant whilst Paris Nov. 13. 1686. N. S. LETTER XV. Of the Revocation of the Edict of Nâ—ntes how Monsieur le Tellier the Chancellor hastned it and his own Death My Lord THE Parliament is not yet open'd here when there was no doubt made of it but that it was fully design'd the Edict of Nantes would have been revoked but most People were astonish'd to see the Revocation come out before the said time and great inquiry made into the secret of this unexpected procedure for though the violences I have in some of my former Letters to your Lordship given an account of were really such if not worse than represented yet they were Christened with the Name of making Converts by fair means and the Court would make the World believe it to be so at all points And to elude the poor Reformed with the vain hopes that they should yet enjoy the benefit of the Edict a long time they had an Order put forth the 15th of September in favour of them in respect of Marriages which they had for a long time before sollicited for in vain But it seems the Chancellor has been the means to hasten it as I am credibly inform'd For finding himself burdened with years and Infirmities and fearing least he might be overtaken with Death before the Fatal Blow were given he did at last by fresh and repeated Instances alleadging he could not live to the time the Edict was design'd to be Nullified and that he was not willing to die before he had put the Seal to the Revocation of it obtain his ends But my Lord it 's very observable that he had no sooner done it by putting to the Seal but that he neither would nor could Seal any other Order whatsoever but Died here three days ago very uneasie tho' he Blasphemously said when he had done it the words of Old Simeon That after he had seen the Salvation of the Lord he would go to his Grave in peace I do not question but your Lordship had heard before of the Revocation of the Edict but the Death of the Chancellor and Circumstance of it I suppose you have not and that is the occasion of my troubling you with this Letter which I shall conclude with Suscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Nov. 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER XIV Containing some Observations upon the French King's Edict in Octob. 1685. for the revocation of the Edict of Nants made in favour of the Reformed in the Reign of Henry the Fourth My Lord I Have very lately given your Lordship an account of the Death of Monsieur le Tellier soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nants I am apt to believe your Lordship has not seen the said Revocation and therefore to keep my Hand in ure and for want of better matter to gratifie your Honour's Expectations I shall descant a little upon the Particulars of it After the Prefatory part of it it 's asserted as a constant Truth That the Edict of Nants was not given but with a Prospect to revoke it That not only the King himself since his accession to the Throne but even his Father and Grandfather Henry IV. had a Design to bring the Reformed back to the Communion of the Roman-Catholick Church and that civil and foreign Wars have been the only Cause that had retarded the execution of that Design That before the conclusion of the Truce in 1684 Affairs were not brought to a fit disposition to bring it about and that till now they had been content to suppress the places of their Worship and to abolish some of their Privileges and that in order to make way for the accomplishing of this great Work the King was the more easily brought to conclude the said Truce this being prefaced the rest contains twelve Articles importing in general That all Edicts made in favour of the Reformed are null That the Reformed Religion shall be no more exercised in the Kingdom That all the Ministers shall be hanish'd yet with Promises that if they became Converts in a limited time viz. in fifteen days they and their Widows after them should be provided for c. That no Reformed Schools shall be kept in the Kingdom That all Children for the future shall be brought up in the Roman-Catholick Religion That those might return into the Kingdom in four months who were out of it else to have their Goods confiscate That none for the future shall dare to go out of the Kingdom under Penalty of the Galleys c. That such Declarations as have been made against those that relapsed shall be in force but last of all it gâ—ants the Reformed liberty to remain where they please in the Kingdom to continue their Trade enjoy their Goods without any molestation or trouble under pretence of their Religion upon condition notwithstanding that they shall not exercise the same nor keep any Assemblies under pretence of Prayers or any other Worship whatsoever But how specious soever this Article may seem it 's already apparent that 't is but a meer Illusion and that there is much Cruelty couched under it It would insinuate to us that the King had no design to forbid domestick Worship and to enforce Mens Consciences since this expression Till such time as God shall be pleased to enlighten them has been added as one fine spun Thread to the rest of the Net but the Court and Clergy have made it already appear that this was the least of their Thoughts since they have actually caused the Troops to march towards the Provinces that have not yet been ravaged tho'at the same time the chief Magistrate of this City has assembled the principal Merchants here together to confirm to them by word of Mouth what was contain'd in the Edict and to assure them they had nothing to fear upon that account And this has had a very pernicious effect already for it has sent many home into their Houses again who had taken measures to be gone with their Families out of the Kingdom for the most distrustful persons could
Principles of the Reformed Churches that without I had had it from incontestable Testimonies I should not abuse your Lordship and hazard my Reputation with you so far as to mention it to you I know not whether I have formerly given your Honour to understand that it has been a frequent Practise here to put young Maidens of the Protestant Faith into Religious Houses to be tutor'd there in the Catholick Faith and where they have found the grossest Ignorance both of their Principles and Practises as ever would have entred into the Thoughts of rational Animals They have looked upon and entertained them as if they were such as had no Belief in JesusChrist and not only so but as such as did not pray to God but invoked Calvin or Luther only by others they were looked upon as Jews that had not been circumcis'd or did not eat any Swines-flesh With a thousand such Chimera's and Absurdities have the crafty Priests fillâ—d the Noddles of those simple Women who think all they say an Oracle But tho' many distressed persons have been extream Sufferers and felt the Effects of these Prejudices in a most rigorous manner yet we are not without Examples of others who when by their Piety Innocence and Knowledge they had disabused those who have the charge of them have been treated by them with much Tenderness and Humanity I would not my Lord have continued a Correspondence so little to your Honour's Information had I not lain under your Commands for my so doing and that you have always express'd your Satisfaction with my Endeavours to serve you who am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris July 7. 16â—6 N. S. LETTER XX. Of Mareschal Schomberg and the M. de Ruvigni's Retreat out of France and of the Favour shew'd to the Marquess du Quesne with the Reasons thereof My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship had acquaintance with Mareschal Schomberg when some Years ago in England you may perhaps see him there again in a short time for he hath with very great difficulty notwithstanding his many and signal Services for this Crown obtained Leave to depart the Kingdom but under very hard Restrictions the number of his Domesticks being limited and the Vessel wherein he embark'd view'd very narrowly The Court before his departure appointed him Portugal for his Retreat that so that same Country where he has been known for so many Victories might become unto him rather a place of Exile than Retreat The Marquess de Ruvigni had always some measure of the King's Favour but that together with all the Interest he has had with his Ministers of State were little enough to procure him Leave to retire with his Family into England but whether arrived there your Lordship can tell much better than I. As for the Marquess de Quesne tho' fourscore Year old and a person that hath deserved so much for his long and glorious Services and under whose Conduct the Naval Power of this Kingdom heretofore so inconsiderable was become formidable to all the World yet he hath not been able to obtain Leave to go finish his Days in a Protestant Country But the Court have complemented him seemingly with a great Favour viz. to continue in this City with Assurance he shall not be molested upon the score of his Religion but no doubt but this Favour hath proceeded more from Court-policy than any Good-will for they are it 's very likely afraid that had they granted him Leave to depart the Kingdom he might go and inform Strangers of the state of their marine affairs the Weakness and Defects whereof he knows as well as he can discover the Strength and Power of the same and as for the Liberty of his Conscience granted him they found that also expedient to hinder him to practise his escape by one Artifice or other if he were menaced with any Constraint I did not think once matters would have been brought to this pass here but when they are at the worst there will be Hopes they will mend as I hope I shall in my Intelligence to your Lordship who am My Lord Devoted to serve you Paris Sâ—pt 4. 1686. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Claude's Book entituled A Protestation in the Name of the Reformed winked at in France and King James made their Drudge to burn it in England My Lord TO think that your Lordship hath not seen and read Monsieur Claud's Protestation in the Name of the Resormed were to judge very disrespectfully and diminitively of your Curiosity and therefore for me to descant upon it cannot but be nauseous but give me leave to observe to your Lordship the different Procedure of the two Courts at this time tho' it s not doubted here and I hope in a short time to give you a further account of it but that they are entred into very close Measures and Designs together which will appear in due Place Nothing can be heard on this Side but the loud and dreadful Cry of Constrain them all to come in while our Emissaries in conjunction with their Popish Leyitical Brethren on your Side are a preaching up a general Indulgence to tender Consciences and a Sovereign Duty to grant equal Toleration to all Opinions and one would almost believe both are sincere But my Lord the Burning of the foresaid Book which is an Abridgment of the History of the Persecution by our King's Order under Pretence of its containing a Doctrine contrary to the Authority of Kings is an ill Proof of the latter and an half-sighted Man cannot but see that maugre all the Inclination that seems to be in the Court towards granting Indulgence to others their Designs must have quite another Tendency but I find this Court has got the Ascendency for they have cunningly enough judged it more profitable to dissemble the Injury they conceive they have received by the foresaid Book than to take a Publick Revenge for fear lest all the World should come to read a Piece that was so dangerous to them and obnoxious to their Interest and when they well knew they had formed a Tool to do that to their Hands with less Envy to themselves and more to When ever they required it I heartily beg your Lordships Pardon for my Freedom with you who am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Nov. 6. 1686. LETTER XXII Of the League made between King James II. and the French King Lewis XIV My Lord I Have once hinted to your Lordship That both Courts were entred into very close Measures and Designs for to establish themselves to the Prejudice of their Neighbours as I should have been and am very sorry to have disappointed your Expectations after such Intimations given you I do now as much rejoyce that I have tho' I may say surreptitiously got the Heads of the League lately made between them for it is here with our Minutes as with other things when they are fresh they are more choice and fond of
them And it was agreed in general That our King should joyn with the French King in a War against Holland both by Sea and Land but in order to carry the same effectually on it was more particularly concerted I. That they shall both endeavour to draw the Prince of Orange to connive at such a War and to consent to the Abolition of the Penal Laws and Test against the Roman Catholicks with specious Promises of making him Prince of Holland secure his Succession in England and of many other great Proffers and Advantages but in case he proves stiff to endeavour to make a total Conquest of that Country and share it between themselves as was projected in the last Dutch War And whereof to the best of my Remembrance I have give your Lordship a particular Relation and then to find out some effectual Expedients to put the Prince of Orange by too of his Succession in England II. That upon supposal that the Prince shall refuse to comply with them in their projected Designs that then the English and Scotch Forces shall be recalled out of the Dutch Service and be sent immediately into that of France to be employed for a Time in remoter Campaigns towards Spain or Italy and for want of such Service in Garrisons for fear they shall turn Tail and revolt and so the Prince and the States of Holland shall be before-hand weakened and the French considerably strengthened III. That some thousands of the French choice Men as of the King's Gentlemen Musqueteers and others shall insensibly be brought into Enland if the King finds his Occasions so require it to be mixt with the English Troops under Pretence of learning the other a more perfect Discipline IV. That they shall both joyn their Forces at Sea with all Strength possible V. That a good Body of French English Scotch and Irish Troops shall be put on Board both the Fleets that so a Mixture may be made in both to the end it may create less Jealousie and that the rest of the English and other Brittish Troops that can be conveniently spared from England shall be employed in the Land-Armies against the Republick of Holland VI. That after the War be once declared such French Refugees as will shew themselves willing to serve under the English Banner against Holland shall enjoy the Revenues which they had in France tho' they shall not be suffered to dwell there VII That neither side shall desist from the War till a total Conquest be made of the said Country which they think themselves sure enough of And that when Holland shall be subjected by their united Force there will then be no more Fear of any Opposition in England to prevent the King from raising Arbitrary Power and the Roman Catholick Religion there to the same heighth as it is in France nor from concurring with the French King till he shall obtain the Empire for himself VIII That the French King shall pay all the Brittish Forces in Flanders and elswhere and be content to defray half the Charges of the War that our King with his Pecuniary Assistance may be enabled to hold on the War with Vigour and Constancy enough for to make a Conquest but that afterwards for a Recompence he shall be obliged to assist France in any future War with thirty Capital Ships and twenty thousand Men at half Charges born Your Lordship knows much better to make a a Judgment of such a League than I can pretend to but I perceive the effect will be dreadful not only to poor Holland but to England too without the neighbouring Potentates be timemously awakened to ward the Blow and that such worthy Patriots as your self rowse up and stand in the Gap But I pretend not to dictate to your Lordship what every generous English Man's Duty is to God and his Country upon such an occasion and so conclude with subscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 24. 1687. S. N. LETTER XXIII Of Methods to be practised by King James for keeping up the Dispensing Power and and particularly about discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord I Have upon another occasion hinted somewhat to your Lordship of those Arguments urged to the King for the promoting of the Dispensing Power and you know very well since it has been put in practise in Westminster-Hall in the Case of Sir F. H. and how that matter terminated to the King's Satisfaction and further heightening of his Perogative Royal and how the same was established by the Concurrence of the Judges of the Land if they may be so called who authorized the same These Points being gained another Matter and that of an higher Consequence was agitated in the Cabinet Council viz. to use some means totally to discard the Militia of England and in liew of them to retain standing Troops in the Nation and to throw a little Dust in the People's Eyes and amuse them so as that they might take little notice or at least not oppose those their Proceedings it was advised to act these previous things In order to Ballance the great Power of the City of London it was projected to grant a Charter to that of Westminster and that under the Pretence of its being the Royal Residence of the Kings of England and of the supreme Court of Parliament and therefore ought to be dignified with as ample Previledges as any City in the King's Dominions London it self not excepted and to have a Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen Sheriffs and all other Officers necessary both for the Support and Grandure of it that great Encouragement should be given to rich Merchants wealthy Tradesmen c. to dwell there and to transport a great part of their Trade thither which would cause them to stick close to the Court and Interests thereof And had this same Project gone on it was also projected to have a new Stone-Bridge imitating that of London but built much broader and more convenient erected between the Palace-yard and the Horse-Ferry and the King seems very eager and forward to promote so useful a Work Then the Mews was to be ditched round and great care taken as well as Expedition used to have it filled with Stabling and other Buildings fit to receive and lodge a good Body of Horse and to be made a Cittadel under Pretence that such Troops should not be Troublesom and a Burthen to the said City And when all this was accomplish'd which was concerted to have been brought about in a short Time then the Militia of the Kingdom was to be new modelled two or three Times over and the new Lords Lieutenants of Counties and other Officers chopp'd and chang'd to the Court's Mind who should shew themselves willing to obey the Orders they were to follow which were to this effect That the Militia should be ordered to meet in their several respective districts and there the Lord Lieutenants for the Time being were to acquaint them That since to
Party hath yet prevailed and affrightned him from venturing upon such things without he had been able as he found he was not to have succeeded in pulling down the Militia of Kingdom or at least in getting such an Army which he could fully rely upon and that he hath not yet got neither but till then he could not pretend to declare the Grand Charter void as obtained by Force of Arms and since infringed and nullified by several Rebellions but especially by that in his Fathers time on the Subjects side and now rule by a Council only without troubling himself with any thing more like unto a Parliament as his French Friends Advised him to your Lordship will excuse the Freedom I have now and always used in my Correspondence and accept of my humble duty who am and ever intend to continue My Lord Your Honours to Command Paris April 7. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVI The substance of Pope Innocent XI First Letter to the French King about the business of the Regale I Cannot think but it will be acceptable to your Lordship to understand what the Contents of the Pope's Letters to the French King are especially in such a conjuncture as this is and when I believe you cannot be furnish'd with a genuine account by any other hand after the prefatory part which is short and concise and somewhat different from others of his Predecessors he comes close to the matter and says that he could not but reflect with no small Astonishment as well as great Grief and sadness of heart upon the late unaccountable Conduct of so great a Prince who would be thought to be and called himself the first Son to the Catholick Church and withal the most Christian King against the holy See of Rome that he should as much as pretend to so much Zeal for Religion and yet at the same time to invade the known rights of the Catholick Church not only in the Kingdom of France but even in the City of Rome herself by pretending to a pernicious Freedom of Quarters which all other Catholick Princes had freely and generously renounced as a gross abuse That his Persecuting the Protestants in the Kingdom of France ought no ways to priviledge him to put affronts upon the holy See it was very plain that was not the way to reunite those people to the Church when he himself was so ill a Pattern and shewed them so bad an Example by contemning and outraging that same Authority which he used Force and Violence to make them own That he was much in the wrong and acted preposterously to Prosecute them for not believing what he himself so Scandalously opposed And that for himself at the bottom he was not of a Persecuting Spirit and Principle but that he was fully convinced it was never Christ our Saviour nor any of his Apostles way who themselves never were nor ever used any Preachers with long Tails Boots and Spurs c. That such a practice had done most disgrace to and created as well it might more implacable prejudice against the Roman Catholick Religion than any thing else whatsoever and so by Consequence had much more obstructed than advanced the propagation of it That it ought never to be used in any Kingdom already infected with heresie tho' it 's true it were a very good fence against its creeping in where it had yet got no footing That it would be a means to blast all the blooming hopes of the Catholick Cause in the Kingdom of England and ingender pernicious Jealousies and a most cruel Opposition in the English a stiff necked people and the most Jealous of their Religion and Liberties of any Nation upon the Earth against their King who was a true Son of the Church and break the Neck of all his designs for the Introducing of it into his Dominions And in a word that he was so far from approving of it that he every way disliked it and that it should not throw dust in his Eyes from inspecting into and opposing of his incroachments upon the holy See which he was resolved to defend to the utmost extreamity and so concluded with a short admonition and with which concludes this Letter to your Lordship from him who is My Lord Your most Devoted Servant Paris June 3. 1687. LETTER XXVII An account of Pope Innocent XI Second Letter to the French King about persecuting the French Protestants c. My Lord SInce my last I have had the opportunity to take the Heads of another Letter written soon after that I have already sent you by the Pope to the French King and is to this purpose In the first place he takes upon him to refute the Answers and frivolous Complaints of the French King and then descends to ridicule his vain pretence of Piety in persecuting the Protestants of his Kingdom for denying him Obedience while he was no less severe to the Bishops of Alet and Pamiers and some other Ecclesiasticks and even to some poor Abesses and their Nuns for paying that Obedience which was due to the papal Authority that this â—id not only look like it but really was nothing less but building up the Church with the Left Hand and at the same time pulling it down with the Right That he was well informed what writings came out in France against his Authority which he well knew was that of the holy Apostolick See what Theses were there maintained and what was done by his over awing the Assembly of the Clergy of his Kingdom how and what method he had taken to vel the French Jesuits against him and imployed Maimburg to represent his supremacy as precarious Itineran and Ambulatory and not fixt to the City of Rome herself but only to the Capital City of the most powerfull Christian Prince in the World for the time that is gallice to Paris in the present Age that he well understood not only this but also the designs that were formed by him to erect a new Religion which should Totally swallow up and deâ—our both Roman Catholicks and â—rotestants and how far he purposed to imitate King Henry VIII of England who writ a Book for the Pope's supremacy and not long after Burnt aed Beheaded people for owning it when also at the very same Time he persecuted the Protestants for opposing other points That it very ill became and it was not the part of a Dutifull and Religious Son â—s he pretended to be and would have the Woâ—ld believe to abuse his supream Pastor to dispoil him not only of his Ancient rights granted him by his Pious Predecessors but even of those very ones which he then injoyed and were derived by Universal consent and constant tradition of all good Catholicks and of the rights of his just Sovereignity in the City of Rome herself That however let him the French King do what he pleased yet all that ever he should or could do should not make him abate the least jot or tittle of his
just pretensions about the Regale nor the franchises of Quarters but that he was resolved to be Pope in France and Sovereign in Rome from which no Force should ever make him depart or flinch back the least degree whatever Dangers he were exposed unto This great Constancy My Lord in the old Pontiff hath not a little appalled the exorbitant Pride and Fury of this Court however they have put the best Faâ— they can upon it and seem resolved to break through all Opposition and outbrave whatever shall be in their Way and divert their Resolution and I am assured the French Embassador Lavardin at Rome hath already pursuant to his Orders from hence highly menaced the old Dad who in a third Letter to the King has made answerable Reply of which I am pretty confident I shall in my next transmit to your Lordship the Particulars but in the mean time remain My Lord Your Faithful Servant Paris june 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVIII The Contents of Pope Innocent XI's third Letter to the French King in answer to that of hâ—â— wherein he shews his Folly and Mistake in his Pretentions and Demands and threatens the Censure of the Church against him and shews the Inconveniency and Danger of setting up a Patriarch in France c. My Lord I Wish your Lordship as much Satisfaction in the perusal of this Letter as I have in keeping my Promise made to you in my last about the Pope's third Letter in getting Sight of the Minutes whereof I have met with much greater Difficulty than I expected or was usual with me I have already hinted Monsieur Lavardin's Menaces made at Rome upon the subject matter of the former Letter and therefore the Pope begins his with answering those Menaces that imported that the King should affranchise France from the Roman See nominate a separate Patriarch there â—and elect Bishops of his own without having any Recourse to the Bishop of Rome and in the mean while invade the Pope's Territories with his Arms and force the Franchises for his Ambassador and fiercely replying That he is resolved as in Conscience bound to do to transmit the Franchises and all other Rights of the Apostolick See to his Successors as he found them That he would recognize or allow of no Bishops of the King 's nominating till he had Satisfaction about the Regale that if he would be so heady as to proceâ—d â—o nominate a new Patriarch it would make a greater combustion in his Kingdom than he was aware of to which his Persecution of the Protestants would not a little contribute which he should find would be very unseasonable for him and would in all likelihood raise all Christendom against him as well as his own Subjects that thereby he would make a wide Gap to let in an Inundation of Heresies which he pretends to keep out and would teach the People after they had once trampled on the Pope's Authority to trample at last on that of the Bishops and King 's too and even on their very Persons as they had done in England and that when he had pulled down the mighty Dam of the Papal Power and let that raging Sea in it would be out of his Power to stop it where and when he would wherefore he conjured him and his Clergy to consider seriously yea twice and thrice of that weighty Project before they went to put it in Execution lest they might when they found it too late repent it and in vain attempt to recal the same That he must not think to fright him with the Noise of an Invasion for that tho' he would neither arm himself nor the rest of the Princes of Italy against him as he might do but oppose only Prayers and Tears yet if he desiâ—â—ed not from his pretended Regale and Franchises he would excommunicate Lavardin his Embassador and interdict his Kingdom and and set it in such a Flame about his Ears as should make him glad to go tamely back again and look after his own Home that after all should he sack and Plunder Rome captivate his Person and have all other Successes he could imagine it would be a very inglorious Expedition for Lewis the Great the eldest Son of the Church and such a pretended Bigot for it for to ravage its Territories and assault the supreme Pastor of it with those Arms with which he was bound to defend it and but a small Triumph to so great a Conqueror to over-power and martyrise a poor helpless and unarmed old Man as he was for whom some of his Predecessors would have been content to have become Martyrs themselves and therefore conjures him to think once more very seriously of it and then to act as he pleased but withal assures him That neither his Menaces nor his Arms shall make him flinch an Hair's breadth from those his last Resolutions wherein he was fully resolved to persist to the last Drop of his Blood Thus my Lord you have the brave Resolution of a Roman Pontiff who tho' the Title and Dignity of Christ's earthly Vicegerent be falsly ascribed to him yet undoubtedly he is possessed of a Soul above that of common Mortals and whom I therefore honour and esteem as I have always done and ever shall your Lordship who am My Lord Your most humble Servant Paris June 28. 1687. LETTER XXIX Of the Tryal and Suspension of the Bishop of London by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission My Lord I Have once and again intimated to your Lordship some Methods that were proposed to be prosecuted in order to the setting up of the King 's Dispensing Power and among other things to the best of my remembrance taken notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission with the Reasons urged to the King for making use of it and now you have seen the Effects of it upon my Lord of London whom some of them have said They were resoved to be revenged on for doing his Duty in the House of Lords by moving after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King for his Speech to that Session after the death of the D. of Monmouth in his own and his Brethren's Name That the House would take the King's Speech into consideration and debate the same but this way was not then resolved on but several others projected which yet they found impracticable when the Commission was agreed to be erected they had even then an Eye to the Bishop tho' no plausible Pretence for the Prosecution of him and therefore the said Commission lay dormant for some Months till such time as they might see the Effects of another Project to be put in Practice which was That some Reglements made in the late King's Reign in the Year 1662. importing among other things The Clergy in their Sermons should not meddle with State Affairs nor enter upon any Question that concerned the Rights of the King's Subjects nor to treat of some Points in Divinity which formerly had created great Troubles in
the Kingdom particularly those of Predestination and Free-Will nor yet to mixt Invective Reproaches Railleries and scandalous Expressions with their Controversies should be republished under a very strict Injunction of all Parties concerned to the observance of them and the least Transgression in that kind to be punish'd with the utmost Severity they did not question in the mean while but that in so ticklish a time there might be some one or other especially in the Diocess of London whom this Bird-lime might catch your Lordship knows how it fell out accordingly in the Case of Doctor Sharp Tho' they were mighty jealous of the old Gentleman of Canterbury that if he were nominated in the Commission and should chance to act which was the least of their Thoughts he should he might rather thwart than promote their Designs yet being pretty confident he would not concern himself with it they adventured to put him in not for his Authority but his Name-sake only for considered they should we get the Bishop of London once into the Toyl he will have no room to plead to the Jurisdiction of the Court seeing the same was founded upon the concurrent tho' in truth but nominal Authority of his Metropolitan to whom he owed Canonical Obedience these things your Lordship may know much better than I but I cannot forbear giving you any Hints of the Court-Designs which whether projected here or on your side we have constant Intelligence of in our I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. â—0 1687. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the Liberty of Conscience first granted in Scotland and then in England by King James II. My Lord YOur Lordship may call to mind what I have before written to you concerning Tolleration in Religion as necessary to facilitate the King's Designs and now you see it hath sprouted up in Scotland and the Buddings of it are visible enough in England that the Parliament of the former as well as the latter opposed the Dispensing Power is notoriously known so that there was much less Hopes they would have concurred to the Indulgence a Point as necessary to be gained every whit as the other that the Scotch Nation were more modelled to the King's Hand than the English the King himself well knew as having a personal Share in it when high Commissioner in that Kingdom in his Brother's Reign and the French and English Jesuitical Faction knew this as well as he and therefore I am assured both of them concurred to have the Indulgence given there first and that also in so partial a manner in favour of those of the King's Religion that the rest have hardly any Share therein which manifests plainly the Design of the English Catholicks whatever specious Pretence they may otherwise use is to bring the People of England also under the same nay a worse Yoke of Servitude and to have their own Religion predominant quickly and in Time the only one in both Nations And as for the third they are cock sure of that already but that of the French Emissaries is not so visible and above Board for they hope such partial Proceedings must at last incense the People of both Kingdoms and that to so violent a degree that the King must of necessity have recourse to call in French Force to quell them and then my Lord when they have once got sure Footing who can guess at their farther Aim however they have not with all their Intrigues been able to prevail with the King to use the same Partiality in England who according to the Transmission of their Intelligence hither seemed very much inclined to it upon their urging the Tractableness of the Scotch Council in the Matter and what a great Pattern they had set to them of England whom they did not doubt but would abrogate the Laws made against Roman Catholicks c. in imitation of them but a Roman Catholick Lord whom I have formerly named to your Lordship to have interposed upon the like Occasion thwarted them therein he deserves well of his Country in some respects and I do not question but your Honour is of that mind and so shall I be till I see more than I do now to incline me to the contrary who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and obedient Servant Paris Sept. 5. 168â— N. S. LETTER XXXI Of the French Projects to put King James upon desperate Measures in Ireland and their Ends therein My Lord YOur Lordship may remember how I have formerly given you the state of the Irâ—sh Soldiers in the Service of France during the late King's Reign and what Encouragement they have had here from time to time above any of the rest of the Brittish Nations and the large Promises that were now and then made That they should be reinstated in their ancient Possessions in their native Country But this King hath no sooner ascended the English Throne but that they have as readily return'd into England and Ireland as they were willing before even contrary to their Allegiance to remain in the French Service the Reason whereof your Lordship must needs know they having already devoured with their Eyes the most valuable Preferments in England and Ireland in the later whereof they have got a Lieutenant of their own stamp and more than all the Lands which they have been debarr'd from by the Act of Settlement having as I can assure your Lordship a previous Promise from this Court That the King will use all imaginable endeavours to get his Brother of England to consent to abolish it and which has put the Irish so hotly upon renewing their Importunities to the King against the said Act that he hath in a manner agreed to those measures that are pursuant thereunto in which motions the Irish were order'd to be effectually seconded by the Emissaries of this Court who at the same time have encourag'd the Irish privately with a Promise That if after all the King would not give his full Consent or durst not do them Right their Master was resolv'd to do it provided they would chuse him for their Protector which they might lawfully do being at best but a conquer'd Nation against their Conquerors for the recovery not only of their Native Rights in that Land but likewise of those afresh confirm'd to them by the Treaty whether pretended or real I will not determine upon that Head with the late K. Charles II of which the French King was Guarrantee and therefore justly might and ought to be call'd in as a Vindicator And this my Lord is confess'd here That they had form'd so strong a Party among the Irish that if the King had not in some measure comply'd or does not for the future but fail'd their Hopes by keeping it as the Interest of his Kingdom one should think naturally leads him to that side of the Ballance against France and maintaining the Act of Settlement they had bid fair as I have
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
Officers of his Navy Royal to become Catholicks for me to make a Relation of that Transaction to your Lordship I fear may be but Crambe bis Cocta but your Honour being now remote from the Court at your Country Habitation and that I believe we have here a truer account of that Affair transmitted to us by the Agents of this Court perhaps your Lordship will not think your Time ill spent in perusing of it Its seems the Commissioners which the King has sent to the several Counties of the Kingdom to dispose Men's Minds to a Willingness to take off the Penal Laws and Test having generally found a grand Aversion in the People to that Matter the King was so incensed at the Report they made of it and the invincible Stubbornness of the Nation that he convened his Cabinet Council and with them resolved to cashier all such out of his Service as would not fall in with his Designs But that all things might be opportunely executed it was agreed he should make himself sure first of his Fleet and his Army without whose Assistance they saw it was in vain to effect so sudden a Change at once wherefore he gave Orders that Mass should be said on Board his Ships but there was such Opposition made thereunto both by the Officers and Seamen that the Priests who went thither for that end were forced to hide themselves for fear of being thrown over Board which they had been like to have undergone had it not been that the Principal Officers who maintained still the Respect that was due to the King's Commands had done their utmost to hinder it But when the matter came to be represented to the King his Fury was raised to an high degree tho' he had for the Time the Artifice to dissemble his Resentment wherefore he resolved to try whether his Royal Presence might not operate more than his Orders and therefore he went on Board the Fleet himself and having commanded all the Officers to bring him their Commissions he there asked them Whether they were not resolved to change their Religion and imbrace his who had bestowed their Offices upon them in Expectation that they would do whatever he commanded them They were surprized at the Complement and expected no such thing nevertheless being resolved not to be frightened either with Menaces nor be gained by Flatteries they generally answered That how devoted soever they were to his Majesty's Service and their own Fortune yet they could not be enduced to any thing against their Consciences To which the King replyed That what he required of them could by no means be Prejudicial to them whatever their Ministers might tell them to the contrary that there was more of Opinion than Reason in the Religion which they professed that they should take the Pains to reflect duely thereon for which yet he would grant them but the Space of 48 Hours But tho' most of them did believe from Words so positive by the King they should certainly be casheered yet they resolved to split upon that Rock rather than alter whatever came of it The King in the mean Time who had trusty Spies in all the Ships having learnt their Resolutions for all his eagerness in the matter did not think it advisable to push on Things over far at that time wherefore he ordered they should be told when he sent them back their Commissions That the 48 Hours which he had alloted being not sufficient for the determining of an Affair of so great Importance he was pleased to allow them some further time to think of it but that they would please him to conform themselves to his Will on that occasion but in the mean time tho' the Politicks of this Court have been much used in England yet herein they have been laid aside and there is an essential Difference between the one and the other for in the Choice which our King makes of Officers he had rather they should have Service than Profit whereas in France they will have both the one and the other if they can and for want of which Profit is always preferred before Service I 'll not censure such an Attempt but I am ashamed we should be laughed at both here and in other Countries for our Politicks and your Lordship knows as well as any Man living that when wise and experienced Statesmen have sate at the Helm they never would suffer the Regal Authority to be put upon such an Hazard well knowing the least Resistance made thereunto is a Triumph to the People but speramus meliora I am My Lord Your Lordships to Command Paris Sept. 25. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the Count d'Avaux acquainting the French King with the Prince of Orange's Preparations against England My Lord THe Embassador of this Court Monsieur the Count d'Avaux at the Hague hath transmitted a positive account hither of the great Preparations made in Holland for some grand Expedition especially by Sea intimating that the Prince of Orange seems to have other Designs in his View than those of a vigilant Statholder for the maintaining the Dutch Fleets and Armies in a good Posture now other neighbour Nations are in Arms. You know my Lord Mr. Skelton is now Envoy in this Country from England as he was some time ago in Holland who while he was there whether really or maliciously I will not determine was pleased to transmit an account to the King of the Prince's holding Correspondence and carrying on some Intrigues with his Subjects to his Prejudice he had some Relations in the Princesses Family by whose means he had an Opportunity to inspect into some Letters from which he took upon him to pick out as much as gave him to understand that there were some Matters agitated underhand that tended to the King's detriment but as far as I could learn the King gave little hâ—â—d to his Informations But what the Count d'Avaux has given his Master an account of hath been esteemed worthy of Consideration and added here some Reputation to Mr. Skelton's Agency whatever it may do in England and I am assured my Lord from such Authority as I dare rely upon that the French King has prest his Brother of England to give that Heed to it which it deserves and to take seasonable Precautions to defend his Dominions from a powerful Invasion wherewith they are threatened My Lord I desire to know with the next Conveniency whether I may be free to continue my Correspondence with your Lordship especially if I find Matters of this Nature transacted for I would not for any thing in the World bring your Lordship into the least Praemunire but in all things study to serve you with exactest Diligence and humblest observance which I shall always strive to do who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Octob. 6. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIV Of the means whereby Mr. Skelton came to know of the Designs in Holland against King James and of
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against
the Royal Family and Interest he had strict Correspondence with one of King Charles's L who found a way to reconcile him to his Majesty and by his Mediation to the Duke of York That being now come to be Prime Minister of State to the King and almost the only one he had since his Elevation to his Brother's Throne he had served him with Zeal while there was a Prospect of Prosperity to attend him but that he hath now no sooner perceived that there is a Party formed against him but that he hath shewed himself ready to enter into a Correspondence with his Enemies against him That the Countess of S writing to the Princess of Orange That their Unkle H. S. a Man deeply engaged in that Interest was gone into Holland to attend the Prince was no small Proof of her Husband 's being engaged in the same Interests That there could be no other Construction made of the Violence done to the King his Master by his engaging of him notwithstanding all his Aversion to it to advance Father Petre against his own Inclination maugre the Opposition made by the Queen to it and in spite of the most essential Laws of the Order he was of to be one of his Privy Council That the King thereby in satisfying of him did on that occasion lose that Right which one should think he had to dispose of his own Subjects That nothing else could be inferred from this Lord's Procedure and Carriage in the imbroiled Affair of the Bishops which he brought on into the Council and which he yet favoured under-hand That it cannot otherwise chuse but that the Contempt which this Minister has affected of all the Informations given the King his Master of the Designs of the Prince of Orange his Son-in-Law and of the Dutch against him whereby he has in a great measure diverted him from using the means necessary to resist any Attempts made upon him or impressions on his Dominions must proceed from an ill Principle and Dissatisfaction to his Interests I hope your Lordship will not take this Freedom ill at my Hands which is nothing else but the Sense of this Court upon the present Occasion and with which I shall now conclude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Oct. 28. 1688. LETTER XLVII My Lord S excused by others of the French Faction as to his Conduct in respect to the Prince of Orange's Design againg King James and his Adherents My Lord THe Censure of this Court upon the late Conduct of a noble Peer and Prime Minister in England as mentioned in my last to your Lordship is not so universal but that there are diverse others who have entertained a quite contrary Opinion of him and say That it is far enough from being an infallible Rule that a reconciled Enemy can never become a sincere Friend That it is possible a Man may reserve unto himself a place of Refuge and Retreat among a contrary Party and yet be far enough from falling in with its Interests That the Suspicions of him are without any manifest Ground since there is not the least Appearance that he hath personally linked himself with his Master's Enemies or held any Correspondence with them that tends to the betraying of him That what his Lady had done with the Princess of Orange tho' it might be lyable to Suspicions in such a Conjuncture is no sufficient Proof or Reason that the same Crime should be attributed to the Earl her Husband That Col. S tho' his near Relation might yet deceive him and make him believe that his Passage into Holland was to no other end than for the Benefit of his Health and a Journey to drink the Waters of the Spaw That to say he turned Roman Catholick that he might the better serve the Protestant Interest was so ridiculous in it self as to need no Consutation That as for the Business of Father Petre the Earl did nothing but what every wise Statesman would have done viz. to seek out one on whom might be discharged the Envy of such things as should displease the People in the Court-Conduct and so escape it himself That as for any Enterprise by the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders against so potent a King as his Master who was incompassed with so great an Army it might appear to be so extraordinary and strange a thing to him that he might believe it his Duty to neglect such Advices as things unlikely and not far from ridiculous And that now at length he finds himself obliged to believe them to be real those same Forces which the King his Master has on foot might make him opinionative to reject the Succours offered him from hence which he looks upon to be as well dangerous as unnecessary but which if the Censures is most agreeable to Truth I le leave to your Lordship's Determination and remain My Lord Your very obliged Servant Paris Oct. 31. LETTER XLVIII Arguments used by the French Agents to gain King James's Consent to receive French Succours into England and Answer'd by my Lord S My Lord YOur Lordship cannot but know of the Business of Cardinal Furstenburg about the Electorate of Cologn and how he is supported by this King whose Arms are advanc'd that way It may be you have seen Monsieur Bonrepos also at London whose Instructions were to offer to the King in his Master's Name That however his Forces are already advanced towards the Upper Rhine and ready to enter upon Action yet finding the danger His Majesty was like to be in from Holland he was willing to prefer his Interests who was his Friend before his own And that if he found the King demur upon the matter he was to tell him That His Majesty ought to consider the thing not as it was in itself but in the present circumstances of it That it might be justly feared his work was not to oppose only the Armies of others but that he should be well assured that those very Armies with which he design'd to resist his Enemies did not hold Intelligence with them and concurr against him in the same Designs That the chief Officers that commanded his Army were faithful to him to such a degree as to be Proof against being corrupted which could not be said of the other parts of the State who were wall known to be corrupted which his Army if they did not already must shortly know from whence he was to infer that if the same Corruption should unfortunately happen to creep into the Army as well as elsewhere the King in refusing foreign Succours which in conjunction with those who should prove faithful Subjects to him would make at least a Party would leave himself expos'd without any defence to all the Forces of his Enemies My Lord you cannot imagine how highly dissatisfied this Court is at the rejection of their Aid and that my Lord S 's remonstrating to the King That the introducing a foreign Army into his