Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A34478
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The copy of a letter from a gentleman in Dort to a member of the House of Commons in London translated out of Dutch.
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Gentleman in Dort.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing C6115; ESTC R17343
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14,934
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17
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the World we had opportunity enough to have posted our selves so as to have prevented the Siege while the general Discourse even at our Statholder's Table was as several Officers assure me that the French Army was so so harass'd and weakened by the slaughter of their Men at Nere Winden and 8000 of their wounded Men couped up in Hospitals that they were able to do no more this Campaign But to the eternal Shame of our Statholder as Generalissimo we have suffered Charleroy to be taken without once essaying a Relief for we want the Skill or Manhood to attacque an Enemy in their Trenches But it may be you know not what an Excuse we make for such a neglect for the States had sent a new Train of Artillery to supply the Loss at Landen as fair Brass Cannon as any was to be seen but it seems being so credulous that the Statholder had saved his Wagons and draught-Horses by his giving out he had sent them away with his Baggage before the late Battel they sent no supply of them so that too late it was owned how great a part of those were lost So that now we have no manner of Excuse why we relieved not Charleroy but that we wanted Wagons and draught-Horses to furnish a marching Army with a sufficient Train and Provisions for a few days and so were forced to stand in our Camp with our Arms across for 20 days till we had notice of the Surrender of it So that now as Huy opened a free Passage to Liege so this to Brussels and the remainder of Brabant even to our Fastnesses of the united Provinces and it is not forgot among us how 20 years since in one Spring this so victorious King took 60 of our strongest Towns and Forts in one Month when he had neither Huy Namur or Mons and advanced within a few Leagues of Amsterdam So that we have great reason to be apprehensive of our eminent Danger the next Spring if no Peace be made this Winter when we are exposed so naked of any Barrier in the Spanish Netherlands and consider how untenable the strongest places have hitherto been against the force of his Assaults when to conceal or cover our Impotence we ascribe the Successes to Treachery Thus I have given you a short touch of this King's Successes in our Parts I pass now to the Rhine where 't is notoriously known how vast a Magazine of Arms Ammunition and all sorts of Stores were taken at Heidelberg and though Prince Lewis of Baden had so strongly intrenched himself that the Dauphin and Marshal de Lorge thought it not advisable to attacque him yet the French have had the honour to have couped him up all this Summer and the Advantage to have maintained their whole Army in an Enemies Country and raised immense Contributions which by reason of the Hostages they have in Custody must be paid even when their Army are withdrawn into their Winter-Quarters Of how great importance the taking of Roses in Catalonia is may be seen even in the Monthly Account which industriously lessens all Successes of the French it is not only a Port Town and Harbor towards the Mediterranean but hath a very great Trade into Catalonia So as it is a Key both to Trade inward and outward and gives not only an Harbor to French Merchants and Galleys but extends likewise its Jurisdiction to a large part of Catalonia where it seems the Spaniards are so weak that his Forces have not been able to take any Advantage over the Duke of Noalles although he detached some part of his Forces to Marshal Catinat This leads me to give you a short Account of that wise and fortunate General Marshal Catinat's Successes who after he had quietly sustained all the contemptible things from all the Confederates Gazetters as if he were neither able to Succor Pignerol or Relieve Cazal at last like another Fabius Maximus descended from the cloudy Hills into the open Plains and by fine Force obtained as compleat a Victory over the unfortunate and obstinate Duke of Savoy as any hath been obtained in this War Since which he marcheth as Conqueror where he pleaseth through the Country constraining that Duke's Subjects to furnish him with all sorts of Provisions and most large Contributions and the French King resolving to push the War on that side either to a Peace upon his own Conditions or an entire Conquest of the Country hath ordered an addition of 50000 Men to the Marshals Army which will much facilitate the Conquest of that Country or force a Peace As I have given you this Account of the Successes of the French King's Arms so you cannot but with me observe the unprosperous Proceedings of the Emperour's Troops this year in Hungary where the wily Grand Visier as much contemned as Catinat was suffered the Duke de Croy to lay Siege to Belgrade the Reduction of which in one Month our Gazettes assured us off But after the Duke had lost by Assaults Sickness and Death in his march almost as many Thousands of his Men as he had been Days before it for some Prints compute them at 15000 Men the Visier made a short turn upon him and made him ingloriously quit the Siege For excuse of which no other than the common one is made That the Enemy out-numbered ours who by the Prints was from 10000 Men a few days before were multiplied to 50000. at the raising the Siege You may if you please add to these the Consideration That since this present War the Confederates have neither gained one Town or Fort from the French or preserved any one which his Troops attaqued except Rhinefield nor been able though that King is surrounded on every side with an entire Circle of Enemies to hinder him from enlarging his Conquests on every side and is so provident that every year he hath sufficient Magazines before hand of all things necessary for one or two years succeeding and all his Money for two or three years ordered in readiness and this year can increase his new Levies proportionable to what ever he finds the Confederates are able to do This I suppose is sufficient to Answer the first of your Enquiries As to the second Head it may be branched into several Particulars as relating both to you and us which I will not persue in an exact Method but as Matters of Enquiry hath occurred to my mind since I was with you or the later Letters of you or your Friends have suggested to my thoughts And first as to the propensity of our Country to embrace a Peace with France you may remember that in our Town which hath the first Vote the P. of O. was first made Statholder though all the States and Magistrates of the Seven Provinces had taken Solemn Oaths never to admit a Statholder and particularly not the P. of O. nor any of his House and the Prince himself had taken an Oath not to accept of the Office though tendered to
Art they then know when to follow their File-leaders to supersede all further Enquiries by diverting the House by some new Matters or suggesting Dangers from abroad or Plots at home and then watching an Opportunity when their Party is strongest in the House they gain some fundamental Vote for a Supply and as soon as that is obtained they pursue that Quarry only letting all other publick Bills sink insinuating that they had found no such grounds of Complaints or Mismanagements as at first appeared to them This Discovery I gained by discourse from a Member of our States General who hath a great influence in your Councils as well as ours so that you may be confident that till you remove such mercinary Members out of the House as Monopolists and other obnoxious Persons as Betrayers of their publick Trust have been in other Parliaments you will never be able to obtain a true Account how your Money hath been Expended and what vast Arrears are owing to the Fleet and Army Providores of Stores of Victuals Ammunition transport Ships c. It pleaseth us infinitely that so great Sums are brought over hither for pay of the Army and the Confederates in Specie and the best Money and I cannot learn that our Statholder brought any great Sum back in Silver hesides 1500 l. in washt and clipt Money I am sure you cannot forget how a very credible Person of Quality told you and me That if a strict Enquiry were made there would appear that 1900000l had been given by you since the Administration of our Statholder with you for your Fleet more than ever had been paid to the Sea men or expended upon it and he believed such like Defalcations would be found in what was given to the Army and for other Occasions besides placing more to Accounts than really had been paid I shall long to know whether in this Sessions you make any Enquiry into such Matters for it is believed if you trace these Matters up the Stream which if you do not you will be notorious Breakers of the Trust reposed upon you you will pinch some great Ministers who must either have an unusual Decian Courage to devote their Lives to excuse some above them which will be a rare Gallantry in this Age or you will at the Fountain head find the source of Miscarriages you are to Enquire after of which we here talk more openly than you do Having thus dispatched the second of your Enquiries in these several Particulars I how proceed to the last It is more difficult I must confess to give an Answer to this than either of the former because the Consultations of the Confederate Princes are kept as they ought to be very Secret only I can tell you in the general That neither the Emperor King of Spain Duke of Bavaria or the other German Princes are so devoted to our Statholder as formerly since they see he can work no Miracles And all the deference they have for him now is because he hath been so well credited and befriended by you as to be supplied with Men and Money hitherto according to his desire without rendering any Account which though it be to the infinite damage of your selves who reap no sort of Blessings or Benefits thereby yet is the only Cement which prevents the Crumbling of the Confederacy For I assure you we are sufficiently tired out and exhausted by the War and would be very thankful to such unengaged Princes as would uneergo the Office of Mediators for which purpose we have late Advice that the Emperor hath sent to the Pope to acquaint him that he is not averse to Peace provided he may have honourable Terms and for that purpose desires a Copy of the French King's Terms The King of Poland likewise hath represented his Inability to sustain the Losses his Subjects receive by incursions and pressures of the Tartars What Applications have been made by the Emperor to the Northern Crowns and the Willingness of the French King to accept of their Mediation is much discoursed of and how instant the Pope the State of Venice and the Italian Princes are to persuade the Duke of Savoy to accept of the Overtures of the King of France you cannot be ignorant though it may be it is concealed from you into what strates the Duke is reduced for we have it from sure hands That in the late Battle after a perfect numbring of the Duke's Souldiers slain they amounted to 9000 and 600 Men and that 3000 Prisoners were taken and 117 Standards and Colours and besides all the Cannon and Baggage a vast number of Bombs and Carcasses were taken with which the Duke intended to Bombard Pignerol That since this Victory the whole Army under Marshal Catinal hath quartered in that rich Country and hath drawn such vast Provisions from thence that he hath stored Pignerol for two years shall do the like for Cazal besides putting so large a Garrison into it as shall enable them to make Excursions all this Winter and the French King hath sent a Message to the Italian Princes that if they admit any of the Germans to quarter in their Territories he will send his Troops among them otherwise he will inviolably preserve the Peace of Italy and our very last Advices are that the Duke hath at last sent to the Duke of Orleance to medeats a Peace upon which the French King dispatched a Courier with his Answer in five hours and if a Peace be once made in that Quarter it will be a great step towards the like with the Emperor You must in the next place consider the French King is so much above his Work that he may continue the Wars many years yet longer without impoverishing his Subjects in 12 years more as much as ours and yours have been in these Four or Five years last for that he maintains a great part of his Troops by Quarterings Forrage and Contributions out of the Confederate Countries and his Sea Force by Prizes while his own Kingdom enjoys a profound Tranquility as if no War was in their Borders And all the World knows with what ease out of his large and populous Dominions he can raise what Men be pleaseth by Warrants only from Lieutenants of Provinces to the respective Cities and Towns who at a day prefixed bring to the Rendevouz a double Number of Men out of which the Officers pick out the Number needed of the ablest Men without beat of Drum or allowing his Officers so much per Head as the Confederates are forced to advance for theirs And his Subjects have such a perfect Love to him even to a Veneration and such a Sense of the Honour which redounds to the French Nation by his glorious Successes that with great Alacrity they submit to what-ever he requires besides that all Undertakings after mature Consultations are ordered by himself solely so that his Purposes and Determinations are never betrayed or embarrassed or retarded by staying for the Consent of others as the Confederates are yearly â—ompelled to submit to and then he hath 400000 stout and resoluâ—e Men under the most experienced Commanders of any Age to put all his Commands in Execution and his Fund of Money is inexhaustable for that in times of Peace the whole Revenue of his Kingdom passeth through his Exchequer once in Five or Six years some affirm it in Four And if he chance ever to be put to a Streight a few of his rich Allies will supply him Thus Sir I have given you not only my own Judgment but that of very juditious Men I have conversed with Yet least my Letter should be too long I have omitted several things I had to say which if this be of any use to you may be supplied in my next and with profound Respects I remain SIR Yours