question I beseech you to have attention to this and examine whether ever prodigy of Tyranny proceeded so far Now on the other side there is no saying that France is as large as the rest of Europe for it makes but the tenth part of it nor is it to be said that it is a sign of its Wealth for France has its sandy Grounds and its Desarts as well as other Countries it has very good and very fertile Cantons but other Countries have also the like it has nothing that comes near the fertility of Flanders and of Holland or of Hungary it has fewer uncultivated Lands than Spain it has full as many as Germany and Italy thus there is no other cause of those immense Revenues of the Crown than the Violence and Tyranny of the Government this is a sensible proof of it and against which nothing can be answer'd The Court does annually exact of the Realm possibly four or five times more than there is Money in Commerce and if the Treasury had all at once all that is drawn from the State there would not be so much as one single Penny in the rest of the Kingdom Thus all the Money in France must pass four or five times at least through the Hands of the King's Officers If the Tyranny is evident and clear in the immense summs which are raised upon France it is no less so in the manner of raising them People have establish'd Kings for the preservation of the Persons Lives Liberties and Goods of individuals but the Government of France is mounted to that excess of Tyranny that now the Prince looks upon all as belongfng to him in Property He imposes Tribute and such as he pleases without consulting either the People or Grandees or States or Parliaments I am going to tell you a thing which is certain which a thousand People know though most of our French-men are ignorant of it Under the Ministry of Monsieur Colbert it was had in Consultation whether the King should not put himself in actual Possession of all the Funds and all the Lands of France and whether they should not all be reduced into Royal Demesne to be enjoyed and settled on whom the Court should think convenient without having regard either to ancient Possession or to Inheritance or to other Rights just as the Mahometan Princes of Turkey Persia and Mogull have made themselves Masters in Property of all Funds and the Possession of which they give to whom they think fitting but only for Life Monsieur Colbert sent for a * Bernier famous Traveller who had spent several Years in the Eastern Courts and examin'd him a long time about the manner of administring those Estates and this induc'd the Traveller to publish a Letter directed to that Minister wherein he endeavours to shew that this Unhappy Tyranny is the Cause that the finest Countries in the East are become Desarts no Body any longer possesses any Fund in Property wherefore no Body any longer thinks of improving them they draw from them as much as they can they exhaust them as knowing they only possess them during Life nay and this is the occasion that Men marry very little have only Concubines and scatter themselves in a thousand dirty barren Pleasures because they have it not at heart to raise up Families to which they have nothing to leave See I beseech you to what a pass you are come and under what Government you live when there shall come an Administrator of the Finances that shall be a degree bolder than was Monsieur Colbert all your Inheritances will be wrested from you in one day you will become Farmers and pay to your Prince the rent of all your Properties The main of the thing is already done already is the Prince perswaded that he has a right to do this the Considerations of Conscience are already annihilated he has only been detain'd by reasons of State Be assured that Reasous of State are not eternal Truths and that they change when occasion offers How many Excesses and Violences are there committed in the Leavy of the Imposts the smallest Collector of the Excise is a sacred Person has an absolute Power over Gentlemen over the Members of Justice and over all the People one blow given is capable of ruining the most potent of Subjects They take away out of houses Moveables Cattel Money Corn Wine and all that is found The Prisons are full of miserable Wretches that are oblidg'd to answer for summs which they have impos'd upon other Wretches that cannot pay what is exacted of them Nothing is more harsh and cruel than the Impost upon Salt People are made to pay ten or twelve Pence the Pound for a thing which Nature the Sun and the Sea gives us for nothing and which might be had for a Farthing Under colour of raising the Dues upon Salt the Kingdom is cover'd with a vast Army of Villains call'd Archers de la Gabelle who go into Houses with Authority break into the most secret Places and fail not of finding false Salt wherever they think Money may be found the poor Wretches are fined immense summs they are forc'd to rot in Prisons Families are ruin'd Salt is impos'd in most places and each Family is forc'd to take three times more than it can spend In Countreys bordering upon the Sea they will not suffer the poor Peasunt to carry away the Sea-water they break his Pitcher beat the People and imprison them In a word there is no sort of Violence but is thereby committed as well as by raising the other Imposts which is perform'd with horrible Charges seizures of the Fruits Imprisonments Pleas before the Commissioners and Court of Aids Expences that exceed the Principal They put into the hands of the Rabble the means of revenging themselves on their Enemies and of mortifying People of fashion A Collector imposes upon a Man a Tax twice or thrice beyond his Revenue Now what Remedy You must pay by Provision three or four hundred Crowns to which a Man is taxed who does not possess the moiety of that Revenue afterwards you are to look for your remedy that is to say mount from Bar to Bar unto the sovereign Court plead three or four Years spend in Law three times as much as the Principal is worth and at the end of all this get nothing for they who manage the King's Affairs and look after his Dues have always reason and are always in the right France is one of the Countries in the World the most abounding in Wine and this was formerly its Wealth but is now its Poverty The Imposts upon Wines as well Wines that are transported as those that stay at home are so great that they almost swallow up all and the Proprietor has nothing Thus is all France reduc'd to the utmost Poverty In the former Reigns that is to say since the Ministry of Cardinal Richelieu and under that of Cardinal Mazarine France was already loaden with
THE SIGHS OF FRANCE IN SLAVERY Breathing after LIBERTY By Way of MEMORIAL Done out of FRENCH LONDON Printed for D. Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultrey 1689. The PUBLISHER to the READER THese two Memorials I now give you were sent me from France and as I am in hopes of having frequently the like I shall take great Delight in Imparting them to the Publick And the rather since this Pourtraict of the present French Government will give an Idea of what ours would have been had King James continued upon the Throne Licensed according to Order THE SIGHS of FRANCE in SLAVERY c. I. Memorial Of the First of September 1689. Of the Oppression of the Church of the Parliaments of the Nobles and Cities IT seems a fond saying That People are not the less wretched for having several Companions in their Miseries since it is certainly true that the Heart suffers much more when it suffers in the midst of all others who are happy Among all the Goods whose loss we have reason to bewail Liberty is doubtless of the principal It is a hard matter to be a Slave in the midst of a thousand free Persons without being concern'd at ones slavery Wherefore France ought to rouze up it self and feel the Weight of the dismal Slavery it groans under considering the blessed Liberty other Neighbouring States enjoy under their Lawful Princes and in the possession of their ancient Laws And the Felicity England has newly obtained by seeing the Fetters broken with which it was upon the point of being shackled ought to revive and stirre up anew in the Bosoms of all good French-men Love for their Countrey Desires for the Return of Liberty and the Design of shaking off that hideous Yoak that rests upon their shoulders We see all around us the Hollanders enjoying a happy Freedom the Flemmings under the King of Spains Government possessing their ancient Priviledges the States of the Empire living under a Head not in a Condition to oppress them the Free Cities in Germany retaining the Form of Republicks the States and Provinces subjected to the Electours and other Princes basking in the repose of their Fortune under a Government mild and moderate France alone the finest Countrey in Europe the Noblest part of the World finds it self subjected to a Sway cruel tyrannick and to a Power that sets it self no bounds A free People and who have derived the name of Francks or French-men from their ancient Liberty are now under the greatest subjection of all People without excepting those that groan under the Tyranny of the Turks Now all Freedom is lost even to that of speaking and bemoaning Wherefore I send my Voice to Foreign Countreys in hopes it will return thence by Reflexion and that it will awake anew my Countrey-men who sleep beside me under the weights of their Chains With compassion do I view the cruel Tempest wherewith my Countrey is menac'd I bewail the Desolation of its Cities the Death of its Children and the loss of what the Tyranny of its Government has left it remaining I cannot forbear wishing it a Recovery of Reason and Courage Of Reason that so it may apprehend that the Priviledges of the People do not suffer any Prescription and do not perish by the Usurpation of the Princes and that thus an Age or two of Tyranny do not take away the Right of recovering its Liberty Of Courage that so it may lay hold on the present Circumstances the most propitious that ever were for reducing the Government of the Realm to its Ancient Form and to cast off the Yoak of this Despotick Power according to which the French are treated with a harshness unknown to all people who live under Christian Princes With the Interest of the People I cannot forbear considering the Interest of the Prince lawful Heir to the Throne to whom the Court is going to leave a Skeleton of a Kingdom and an imaginary Crown That Prince in the Campagne of Phâ—isbourg shew'd himself not only brave and prudent but full of good Nature He now groans at the Infernal Barbarities that are exercised in the same places where he had exercised so much Humanity and we are assured that he will much rather choose to Reign as a Father under the ancient Laws of the Kingdom than to command as a Tyrant that sets himself above the Laws Wherefore my Design is to perform these Four things in this Tract 1. To shew the Oppression and Tyranny under which all the Orders of France do groan and the Misery they are reduc'd to under a Despotick power 2. To consider in the second place by what means the Court of France establishes its Yoak and now upholds its absolute Power and the Abuse it makes of it 3. We shall see how much the present Government of France is different from that under which the Monarchy was founded and wherein it subsisted so many Ages 4. And lastly We shall examine by what Means the favourable Circumstances of the present time may be improv'd for the reducing the Monarchy to its Ancient Government For the understanding how great the Oppression is which France groans under we have only to consider the Scituation of the Parts which compose the State. The Church is certainly the First the Noblest and that which has ever retained the greatest Priviledges and the most of Liberty But now in France the Church is subjected to the Tyranny of the Government as well as all the rest The French Kings have made themselves Popes Muftâ—i's High Priests and absolute Princes over Sacred things the Name of Papal Dignity and its Authority are now there no more than meer Phantomes The Priests of Jesus Christ are Slaves the Holy Houses and consecrated to God are expos'd to the Furies of the Souldiery Faith it self and the Mysteries depend absolutely on the Sovereign's Will. To render this sensible I will not go far back it is sufficient to set before our Eyes what has pass'd in our dayes and in our own Remembrance Let 's call to mind for Example after what manner the Affair of the Five Propositions of Jansenius has been handled The Court of France caus'd that Controversie to be defin'd at Rome as it pleas'd after which there is no sort of Violence but which it committed and exercis'd for the subjecting the Disciples of St. Augustine to the Decisions it had by surprize obtain'd from the Court of Rome It 's well known what a noise the Formulary occasion'd how the Court caus'd a Form of Oath to be made by which People acknowledg'd not only that the five Propositions were Heretical but that they were in Jansenius that is to say that the Court would needs then have the Pope to be Infallible not only in matters of Right but in matters of Fact and all those who would not go along with this Current were depriv'd of their Benefices drove away banish'd plung'd into darksome Prisons Above sixty of the Doctors of Sorbonne were
all Paris all his Pallaces and the whole Kingdom with his Name and his Deeds as if he had left the Alexanders the Caesars and all the Heroes of Antiquity a thousand leagues behind him And all for having snapt from a weak and minour Prince three or four Provinces for having known to take advantage of the Divisions of the Empire and of the little Union and Undestanding that is between its Members for having stript a poor Duke for having purchas'd several important places for having desolated half of his own Kingdom by the persecution of Calvinism Thus you see what the Greatness of Lewis the great amounts to it is a self-love of an immense greatness And it is that enormous passion which devours so many Riches and to which so many Sacrifices are made Thus the immense Revenues of the Crown are employ'd First in sumptuous Buildings for the Kings glory We shall never know what Versailles cost and should we know it and say it Posterity would never believe it in the least It costs nothing to build and erect stately Piles with prodigious charges then pull them down again to raise them up afresh upon a new Platform issuing from the Caprice of an Architect coming from God knows where His Ancestors were not well enough lodged The Louvre Fountainbleau S. Germain were too small to lodge such a Prince something greater and more magnificent than all this was necessary That the King's Grandeur might appear the more it was requisite to build that magnificent Pallace in a place disgrac'd by Nature and bring thither all the Ornaments which it was depriv'd of with prodigious Expences It is a Place dry and without Water and to convey Waters thither the face of Nature must be chang'd Valleys be made where there were Mountains Waters raised up to the Clouds the Current of Rivers diverted Ponds and Lakes made in places where there were no other than sandy Grounds Who can reckon the Millions of Gold that have been spent and the Thousands of Men that have perish'd in the bare Works of the River of Eure Is it not a mighty Delight for a State that finds its Veins drain'd to the very last drop of its Blood and its Bowels torn out of its Bosom to see them employ'd for the erecting Eternal Monuments to the Vanity of the Prince Will it not be a solid advantage for the Kingdom when it shall be one day said that it is a Work of Lewis the Great He has consum'd therein two or three hundred Millions He has forc'd Nature He has buried more Lead in the Entrails of the Earth than is got out of Mines in several years He has spared nothing to enrich it with Marbles Guildings Paintings rich Movables precious Jewels that have been purchas'd or brought from all parts of the World. After this who can have any regret for his Money his Movables his Funds that have been torn away by Exactions So great a Prince so superbly lodg'd cannot be at any mean Expence in so great a House Wherefore in it must be consumed in Tables in Officers in Mistresses in Trains that are kept for them in Fortunes conferr'd upon their Relations in Feasts Opera's Comedies Ballets in what is call'd Appartments in Presents to Women and Favourites in Guards and in Pensions there must I say be expended once or twice more than was formerly expended in the maintaining of Armies and the Frontier Places of the State. Is not this well laying out the Money of the Kingdom Can it be question'd but that the King is all and that His Self-love is the Divinity to which all is sacrific'd The King makes some Expences which seem to be for the Publick He has caus'd a Canal to be made for the Conjunction of the two Seas This is for the conveniency of Commerce I know not whether the Prince is Himself the Cully of his own Heart But no body questions but that this prodigious Undertaking which can never be accomplish'd was form'd out of a principle of Vain-glory as well as the rest It is to leave to Posterity a Monument of his Grandeur by the prodigious Expences He shall have been at in such a Work. The truth is that it will not subsist and that the Floods will ruin it the first year it shall be neglected and that at the long run it will be abandoned because the Expence of the Maintenance will by much surpass the profit But no matter these will be great Ruines that will denote the Greatness of Soul of Him that form'd the Project of them and upon which will be written Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excedit ausis Would you know another Article of Expence which consumes prodigious Summs It is the immense Liberalities bestow'd upon Favourites the making of Creatures and new Princes in the World. The Family of Tellier possesses possibly fourscore or a hundred Millions of Land the Family of Colbert has much about the same and others proportionably There are Subjects in France much richer than are several Soveraigns in Europe who nevertheless make a fair figure If regard was had to the State and to its Interests the Expences could not be worse laid out for the new Grandees that start up from the Dirt and mount up to the side of the Throne only serve to pull down the ancient Houses and bring them to nothing They are the Tyrants of the State and the Blood-suckers It would be much more useful that the Wealth was spread among the Publick than Pocketed by one private Person It may be said to be Wealth lost for the Kingdom for out of those great Reservers into which the King causes all the substance of his Subjects to flow there never comes out any thing again for the good of the State since that those great Families are exempt from all charges In fine there is injustice in reducing so many Families to Beggery for the causing People of a low and mean Birth to live in a Royal abundance and in the midst of a thousand superfluities But no matter this makes and this proves the Prince's Greatness These are Colossusses that shew the vast Imagination and great Capacity of the Workman People will one day shew those stately Houses of rew Erection and say Those are the Works of Lewis the Great judge how great He was that made them Unless it comes to pass that a new Star should rise with the Successor which should pour upon those new-rais'd Houses the very same Influences as those which have desolated the Foucquets and his like which every Individual hopes for his Comfort and Revenge Let 's lastly come to the Expences that seem the best laid out The King expends infinitely in Pensions Hardly is there a Prince in Europe but to whom He is become tributary Where He cannot gain the Prince Himself with Money He gains Favourites the Ministers and oftentimes the Princess who sleeps in the Soveraign's Bosom they are paid large Pensions Presents are