down sometimes Francis the First Anno 1522. at Cambray he settled all Europe in quiet when it was much turmoiled and Italy in security therefore he was stiled Protector of the Clementine League the Instrument whereof doth still remain in the Treasury at Westminster sealed with gold And Clement the Seventh being cooped up by Charles the Fifth in the Castle of St. Angelo was freed by the means of Henry of England and therefore by the whole Consistory of Rome he was called Liberator Orbis Charles the Fifth An. 1521. was by him made Emperour as he doth acknowledge in two Letters to Henry of England and indeed he was the great Arbitrator of all the Assairs of Europe in his time If Henry the Eighth was so much celebrated for keeping the ballance in aequilibrio what Glory and Renown will his now Sacred Majesty of Great Britain have by putting a Batricado to the Ambition of the French Empire and reintegrating all Princes and States in their ancient Liberties and just Rights and setling the Peace of all Europe upon a solid Basis which onely by his Wisdom and Power is to be effected An Act certainly so full of Grandeur that it will tread upon the grave of History bury Monuments see the Worlds funeral Time laid in the dust and stand up with Eternity The glory of Soveraignty consists not in a Chair of State but in such Acts as are well-becoming a Prince Private men may direct their Counsels to such things as they think may be prositable to them but the Actions of Princes must tend to Grandeur and the attaining of Honour and Fame For want of due observation of this prime and Alphabetical Maxime of England the French King of late hath risen up to that Greatness and is arrived to that Pyramid of Grandeur that Europe begins to bow to his Power Universal Empire was first attempted by Charles the Fifth designed by Henry the Great but will be effected if not timely prevented by Lewis the Potent And how great a Progress he hath made towards so vast a Designe it well becomes your great Judgment to consider He hath gotten Brisac and Friburg to enter Germany the French Comte to a we the Switzers Pignoral to enter Italy Perpignan to enter Spain and almost all Flanders to enter England Besides he hath impatronized himself of the Countries of Rousillon and Catalonia the Dutchies of Lorrain and Barr Alsatia Burgundy The French Comte all the Spanish Netherlands are in his Talons and he hath a hovering possession of the remainder as a Hobby hath over a Lark The Italian Garison in Avignion is casheer'd and he is Master of that place though it was part of St. Peter's possession three hundred years The Garison of Foreign Souldiers which were in Orange is dismissed and the Castle is dismantled which was in the bowels of one of his Provinces What will he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he hath gotten the Accession of Germany and all the Low Countries to that already too boundless Power by which he hath inslaved his own people and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Can England and the rest of Europe expect better terms than he hath given to his own Subjects 'T is well if he allow them Canvas and Salowes By Sea he is become so potent that I question if he were but furnished with Mariners and experienced Commanders suitable to the goodness of his Ships if he might not contrast the power of all Europe and make the Sea between Callis and Dover as a Ferry to pass over what Armies he pleased into England In the beginning of the year 1665. he was not able to put to Sea twenty Ships of War now he hath two hundred and upwards and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more Is it not then necessary for England the Vnited Netherlands and all Europe to look about them and to secure their Necks against the Yoke of Slavery with which he threatens them If some timely Expedient be not applied from this Naval Power of France the destruction of Europe may take its date before we be much older It will much concern England in point of Interest to consider if Ireland by the Scheme of their designes may not be looked upon as a Country which may procure France the absolute dominion of the Sea of Trade and the Conquest of the West Indies which have been their antient Project For he being so potent at Sea they may from Brest transmit an Army into Ireland they having many of the Irish Nation in their service and those discontented if they should seize upon Kingsale or Waterford and keep a good Squadron of Ships there which they may do having such numbers of Men of War And though it should not prove the loss of that Nation yet it would obstruct and debar all Trade upon those Seas And if you have any Ship pass there it must be by their favour and paying what Tribute they please to impose Be assured Sir the French Cabal have some notable Designe against England either to engage you in a Civil War by disseminating of Divisions amongst you thereby to put a disability upon his Majesty of Great Britain to give any Assistance or contribute any Aid to the relief of the Spanish or Vnited Netherlands in case by his Arms he should attack them as without dispute he will in case there be not a stop put to his Career Or peradventure the French King if the Capricio shall take him may by his Arms give disturbance to England it self For he cannot think it safe to proceed in his Conquest on the Continent whiles he hath so dangerous an Enemy as England at his reer He well knows the Courage and Gallantry of the English and your Talbots and Bedfords are not by them forgotten They are setting up an Vniversal Monarchy of Commerce and to make France the Staple of Trade and to that purpose do labour to get what Ports they can into their power After the Pyrenean Peace they immediately entred into a League Offensive and Defensive with Portugal though contrary to the Faith of that Treaty and all the Harbours and Ports which the Portugal should take in Spain either upon the one or other Sea were to be put into the power of France No sooner was Dunkirk in the French King's hands but he made it a free Port. And that he might want no Seamen of his own he hath by all imaginable Encouragements established a mighty Navigation in France and thereby will lay the foundation of a greater Empire than ever was in Charlemain For one trading Ship twenty years since there are now forty For this purpose he hath propagated the Fishery in Newfound Land which is the Propriety of the Crown of England and where they formerly till now of late never fished but by License and paying a Tribute to the Kings of England and besides hath yearly educated supernumerary Seamen on board
the French Trading-Ships at his own charges He hath engaged most of his Nobility in the East and West Indian Trades and the better to encourage them hath granted many Priviledges to them And without doubt by reason of his great preparations by Sea he hath some great Designe in projection If he shall propose to make himself Master of the Indies I do not see how he can fail in his Attempts if Europe be not more watchful By an Ordinance of the French Privy Council which is the now standing Law of that Kingdom all the Officers and Commanders in the Islands of America are strictly enjoyned and required to secure to the Most Christian King the Soveraignty of those Seas and the French in execution of it have much interrupted the Trade there and have proved very vexatious And having erected the East India Trade he hath attempted to get footing in divers places in the East Indies What his success may be time will shew But if he should unite the Dutch Trade and Strengths in those parts to himself by an Union of the Vnited Provinces and their Navigation to his Empire as he will if some timely Assistance be not given by England how the English Factories there will then preserve themselves from Violation or utter Extirpation it doth well become England to consider For France designes to engross the Trade of the Vniverse And by their irregular course of Trade they will exhaust all Europe of their Money I have heard that England loseth yearly by the French Trade 1500000 l. sterling and I am sure they draw out of the Northern Regions of Europe for Wines 25 Millions of Florens for Salt 10 Millions of Florens for Brandy 5 Millions for Wines Brandy and Salt they yearly exhaust from thence 40 Millions of Florens for Silks Stuffs Toys and Fripparies they spirit out of those Countries yearly 40 Millions of Florens and there is not imported into France of the Commodities of all the North so many as do amount unto 15 Millions of Florens So that France doth yearly drain out of the Northern Regions of Europe 65 Millions of Florens And what great and prodigious sums of money he draweth from the rest of Europe must be left to sober men to consider But no Foreign Commodities can be imported into France but they are clog'd and incumbred with such great Duties and Customs that the return made thereof to the Merchant is without any profit His Most Christian Majesty having for his Royal Revenue Sixty Millions of Florens yearly and France being inriched yearly as abovesaid and being able by his supream power without any check or controul to impose what Taxes he pleases he hath laid such an inexhaustible Fond of Treasure to carry on his designes to the Oppression of all Europe that he can rarely be disappointed or fail in any He can support his Armies when other Princes are enforced to beg for Peace because their Treasures are exhausted He after many years War can engage in a new War and upon occasions by reason of his Treasure have Instruments to execute his Projects By this he purchases the assistance of Foreign Princes and endears their Ministers opens their Cabinets engageth true and close Correspondencies and poysons their Councils By this he can pass unseen through Rampiers and Guards into Cities and Forts and can surprize them without tedious hazards of Guards And many contemplative men think that he hath gained more Territories and Dominions by his Pistols than by his Sword and Cannon So that the Serpent is more serviceable to them than the Dragon as acting with less noise and greater execution Ambition is the Compass whereby they sail and Universal Dominion the Port whereunto their course is directed and as their Ambition hath no Horizon so their Designes have no Latitude Charles the fifth his Motto Plus Vltra and his Son Philip's Non sufficit Orbis discovered their vast Ambition And doth not that of Lewis the eleventh Immensi tremor Oceani and that of Lewis the fourteenth Solus contra Omnes manifest the Designes of France Well if there be not a Retrenchment of the spreading and ambitious Designes of France I am sometimes of the opinion that the Most Christian King may ere long take upon him that jolly humour of the great Cham of Tartary who when he hath dined commands his Trumpeters to sound and make proclamation that now all other Kings and Princes may sit down to dinner It will be worth the while that all Europe may be satisfied of the Conduct of the French Cabal to consider the candor and integrity of their Actions for some years last past and whether they may expect better Principles and Methods from them for the future than they have hitherto had The first Essay of their Ingenuity and Honesty was in their behaviour and carriage in the Pyrenean Treaty and their performance thereof By the Endeavours of the Queen-Mother of France a Peace being promoted between the two Crowns of France and Spain with a Marriage between the French King and the Infanta of Spain the whole Treaty was founded upon two considerable points The one was the forsaking of Portugal the other a Renunciation of the Infanta ratified by the French King of all her present or future pretences titles or claims whatsoever to the Spanish Monarchy and Dominions thereof which if not granted the great work of the Match had never taken effect As to the first the French King did promise and oblige himself upon his Honour and upon the Faith of a King not to give at present or for the future neither in common nor to any person or persons thereof in particular any help or assistance neither publick nor seeret directly or indirectly of Men Munition c. under any pretence whatsoever Yet the Peace was no sooner made but they sent them Supplies of Men Arms and Money and a while after notwithstanding their former Treaty with Spain in the view of the whole world they entred into an Offensive League with that Kingdom against all their Enemies The other was the Renunciation aforementioned And as to this the French King after the death of the late King of Spain claimed notwithstanding the said Renunciation a great part of the Spanish Low Countries as being devolved to him in the Right of his Wife and to take possession thereof invaded the Country contrary to his Engagements and so destructive to the Essence of the Treaty with a powerful Army The Marquiss de la Fuente extraordinary Embassadour from Spain being upon his return into Spain upon the death of the late King his Master his Most Christian Majesty did with all possible Asseverations engage his Faith and his Royal Vow That he would religiously observe and keep the Peace and continue a faithful Friendship both to the Queen of Spain and to her Son And the Archbishop of Ambrun after the French Army was already in the Field and had possessed Charleroy some sive days before
Treaties can be reckoned which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmed by Oaths and Sacraments and contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Tyes of Bloud and Marriage Before a Breach complained of or a War declared they invaded the Territories of an Infant King Have they not by Addresses and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavoured to corrupt most of the Ministers of State in Europe How well they have kept the Articles of Peace concluded at Westphalia and Nimmeguen the Emperour King of Spain and Princes of Germany can tell you And can you prudently hope that the future Practices of the Most Christian King will be more just than his former He that hath broken thorow so many Obligations Alliances and Treaties will he not do so again Be assured Sir you cannot anchor any faith or confidence in the Alliance or Friendship of France for France is a floating Island and no Terra firma It 's prudence to keep an Enemy at the Swords point and not to suffer him to come within you The Spanish Dominions are the Fountain from whence you draw a great part of your Traffick and by consequence your Riches The Netherlands are the Out works of England if they are taken you are weak and dismantled And let me tell you Sir the day of the Ruine of Flanders is the eve of the Subversion of England If the Vnited Provinces should be brought under the subjection of France it would be a thing of that dreadful consequence that the very thoughts of it must needs raise the bloud of all true English men They are so scituated that several of the greatest Rivers in Europe not onely run thorow their Country but disembogue into the Ocean within their Precincts If the French make themselves Masters of the Rivers as it 's their designe and endeavour will they not in a short time bring all the Havens and all the Inhabitants bordering upon the Sea under the same subjection The Sea-ports without the Rivers and the Rivers without the Sea-ports being altogether useless if they be reduced under the Obedience of the French their Country will be the Nursery of his Sea-men and in all other respects the support of his Naval strength If they must be Slaves will it not be some satisfaction to them to lend a helping hand to bring their Neighbours and in truth all Europe into the same condition with themselves The conquering of the Vnited Provinces is not onely a fair step but it 's the best part of the way to the Universal Monarchy They being conquered the Spanish Netherlands will of course fall into their hands being the Key which opens the door to the Throne of that Monarchy And if you do not act vigorously with the rest of the Confederates the Most Catholick King will be enforced to take new Measures and break with you I need not use many words to make all England sensible of the sad consequence of a Spanish War 1. The seizure of all your Merchants Estates amounting in the whole to a vast sum 2. The loss of your Trade with them which of all others is the most beneficial to England and without which your Woollen draperies must lie upon your hands and half of your Weavers and Spinners c. go a begging 3. The interruption of your Levant and Plantation-trade which cannot in case of a Breach be secured by ordinary Convoys With what encouragement or safety can your Traders venture abroad when the Seas come to be infested with Ostenders Biscainers Majorcans and Minorcans Did not those very men without any help take above 1500 Ships from you in the late Spanish War when Spain was at the lowest and fought alone against England and France I could offer many other reasons but I am unwilling to be troublesome When the French King suffered the Duke of Alenson his Brother to take upon him the Title of Duke of Brabant and defence of those Countries he sent an Embassadour into Spain to excuse his Brother's going thither and signifie unto the Spanish King that which was done was done without his privity or consent The Spanish King was highly displeased with the Message and answered the Embassadour That he had rather have the French King his professed Enemy than a dissembling Friend And whether England ought not to have the same Sentiments I pray consider The French have no kindness for England but an inlaid and hereditary Malice against them When Lewis of France sent an Army into England to the assistance of the Barons there against King John their Soveraign Prince he vowed utterly to extinguish the English Nation whom he held vile unjust perfidious and never to be trusted as it was declared with much compunction by Viscount Melun a French Gentleman lying at the point of death And I can easily believe that the same Rancor doth yet run in the veins of the French I pray Sir who contrived and encouraged the Distempers of the Scots against King Charles the First was it not France And the Peace at Rippon Anno 1639. being concluded between the two Nations but much against their will did not France stir them up to break that Peace and to make a second attempt by their Arms on England Which they durst never have done if they had not received countenance and encouragement from France By their Emissaries they formed a Rebellion in England and underhand supported it and his Majesties Forces being defeated and broken France look'd on till that great King was sacrificed to the Tyranny of his worst Enemies His now most Sacred Majesty England being hang'd all with Blacks and the best of his Subjects weeping over the Kingdoms funeral for the safety of his person retired into France where he might have expected protection from so near a Relation and comfort as a distressed Prince but found none for by virtue of an execrable Treaty made with the then Usurper he was forced to forsake that Kingdom or else would have been resigned up to Cromwel For the chief Article of that Alliance was That his Majesty the Dukes of York and Gloucester with all their Relations and Friends should be expelled out of and no more admitted into the Kingdom of France If the French King had had the least trillo or touch of Honour in him he would never have yielded to such a Condition as to banish out of his Kingdom those who came to him for succour and relief in the utmost extremity that ever Princes were put to and they his nearest Relations being his Sisters Children And what could be more unbecoming so great a Prince than to make a League Offensive with him who had murdered their Father and expelled them out of their Dominions What was this but the owning of that Murder and aggravating their Oppressions instead of relieving of them Such practices as these amongst private Christians would be abominable and much more amongst any Kings not stiled the Most Christian
the News of it came to Madrid did in verbo Sacerdotis and upon all that is most sacred protest and vow to the Queen That his Master intended nothing less than what was reported of him and would not break with the King of Spain or invade his Dominions as long as he was under age These Circumstances are more surprizing than the Breach it self But the March of the French Army and the Hostility they committed agreeing so little with their Vows and Promises and the same being complained of they answered It was no Breach and that they onely came fairly and in a friendly manner to take possession of what belonged to them This War or as the French term it a Friendly possessing of their own ended by a Treaty at Aix after which contrary to the faith of that Treaty they first dismantled the strong places and holds of the County of Burgundy carried away all Munition out of the Country and notwithstanding the same Treaty at Aix they exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limburg and Luxemburg and laid a new Claim to some Towns as important as any of those granted to them by the Peace and confiscated the Estates of the Subjects of the King of Spain that would not forswear their Allegiance If these Infractions and many more are not sufficient to awaken England and all Europe I know not what will Since the Treaty at Nimmeguen such have been the actings of the French Ministers such Contraventions thereof such horrid Injustice hath been committed and executed upon the Subjects of his Catholick Majesty in the Spanish Netherlands and else where notwithstanding the great Territories granted to the Most Christian King by that fatal and destructive Peace which all Europe may have time enough to repent and lament that no King in the world can in justice own or give any countenance thereunto Certainly there men act as if great sins would merit Heaven by an Antiperistasis Thus they have dealt with Spain Let us see how other Princes have fared with them We 'll begin with the Duke of Lorrain who by the Pyrenean Treaty was to be restored to his Dutchie of Lorrain with all the places and Towns which he had possessed in the Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun but contrary to the Treaty the French King refused to restore it and to this day doth detain it and ordered one of his Generals to seize his person and to bring him either dead or alive as it 's the usual practice of all Usurpers to destroy those they have dispossessed and injured and it was very near being effected A new way of dealing with a Soveraign Prince not yet known in these parts of the world and which gives some hopes to Europe of seeing ere long the West governed by Bashaws as well as the East None but an Universal Monarch can pretend to a Right of displacing Princes and disposing both of their Lives and Territories And therefore nothing could deserve a higher Resentment nor a more vigorous Opposition from all the Kings and Princes of Europe The Kingdom of Poland comes next which hath lain a bleeding ever since they had a French Queen and which is at this instant in imminent danger of being conquered by the Turks through the means of the French Cabal who have called into the Kingdom the Enemy of the Christian name meerly because they could not have a King either of French Bloud or of French Interest The Duke of Newburg was not better used whom they caused to engage the greatest part of his Estate almost beyond redemption in hopes of the Polish Crown which they had promised to raise him to by the help of a strong Party they had made in that Kingdom Yet underhand contrary both to their Treaties as well with the Elector of Brandenburg as with himself and to their reiterated Promises and Vows both by word of mouth and in writing they did by their Creatures and Agents oppose the said Duke's pretension and endeavoured with all industry to have the Prince of Conde preferred before all other Competitors Nothing certainly can be a greater instance of the perfidiousness and treachery of the French Ministers and how little faith or credit is to be given to any of their Promises or Vows If there were no other instance thereof this alone were sufficient to alarm the World to be careful and advised how they put any trust in them The Emperour hath as little reason to thank them for at the very time when the Most Christian King sent his Forces to joyn with his Army against the Turks they began to settle a Correspondence with the Counts Serini Franchipani Nadasty and Toffenback from whence that so-well-known Conspiracy hath since broken out as it hath been made apparent by the Depositions and Confessions of some of the Accomplices who had been instrumental in carrying both Money and Letters from the French Ministers at Vienna All the Confusions Distempers and Wars in Hungary have been raised and continued by the Practices and Intrigues of France And they have given disturbance to all Germany by their private Treaties and Correspondencies with several Princes contrary to the Treaty at Munster To which may be added That one of the greatest Motives of bringing the Turks into Poland was the Marriage of the Empress's Sister with their King Yet it must be owned that the French seem to have repented their pernicious Intrigues and caballing in that Kingdom For when they saw the Emperour preparing in earnest to assist the Dutch in the late Wars they made against them to work him from that designe and to engage him if it had been possible not to concern himself or take part in the Quarrel they very fairly offered him to put into his hands and deliver him all the original Letters they had from their Creatures and Friends in Poland to the end both his Imperial Majesty and the King of Poland his Brother might take what course they thought fit with those Rebels A fair warning to all those that prefer French Money before their Loyalty and the true Interest of their Country Nay I doubt the Swedes their good friends have not always been pleased with them and they cannot to this day forget that about eighteen years since having made a Treaty with the French whereby they were to receive by way of gratuity or pension sixteen hundred thousand Crowns the French upon second thoughts finding their Treaty with Sweden of little use to them refused to ratifie it and sent their Monsieur de Trelon who without more words told them in short That the King his Master declared it to be void A sine Court-stile for one Prince to use to another I and a short Majestick way of rescinding all Treaties These are stupendious passages and will be no more credited by Posterity than we do what is said of King Arthur's round Table It 's needless to tell you how they have observed their Treaties with Holland for all Europe
famous in the world for your Traffick must become Higlers and petty Chapmen under him Your Men of War which are now a Terrour to your Neighbours will be of no use to you but to make your Slavery the greater Your gallant Commanders and Sea-men as the Romans served the Britans when they had conquered them will be sent into foreign Dominions to advance their Empire And if he shall suffer any of you by his favour to grow rich and full it 's onely like Spunges to be squeezed You must like the Camel down upon your knees and receive what burthens he shall please to lay upon your backs You are now a flourishing and well Crested People you have your Liberty and Freedoms which you ought to value above a Crown but if you come within the power of France you will be such Slaves as you will not be capable of a Jubile Suppose the Most Christian King should be so kind and merciful unto you as to observe his Alliance with you tell he hath reduced all other Princes and States under his Obedience yet you cannot but expect Poliphemus Curtesie to be the last which shall be eaten up Whereas if we all associate and unite and act potently against that aspiring Prince we are freed of all fears and jealousies and it 's not possible for him to be other than the French King And then instead of an Universal Monarchy which is the desigue of France there will be established in Europe an Universal Peace of which his Majesty of Great Britain will have the honour for by the power of his Arms it 's onely to be effected A timely War is less dangerous than an uncertain Peace and such is your condition with France A War will fall upon you and it 's a great oversight to have been so modest as to abide the taking of the first blow Wisdom teacheth us that in Warlike actions the having of the start and to strike first is a great advantage it puts the Enemy to the defensive which is no other than fighting for his own stake The Romans as long as they were Defendants were miserable and Antiochus refusing Hannibal's counsel to invade Italy was put to the defensive wherein he lost his Life and Crown The charge of the invading Prince is certainly known if he like not the Attempt he may desist at pleasure Whereas the invaded is not onely at the charge to maintain Armies but his Territories are instantly impoverished his Revenues deminished Trade and Commerce laid aside his good Subjects with fear amazed the Ill-affected who desirous of change apt to run to the Enemy and many other Mischiefs will fall upon you whereof you cannot be eased but at the pleasure of the Invader Besides the Money to be disbursed for the War offensive especial with you in Great Britain where Victuals Arms Shipping and other Habiliments for the War abound runs into the Subjects purse and the Realm is little or nothing impoverished by it But to forbid and attend the descents of the Invader if we be on the defensive part your Fleet must necessarily be divided the consequence whereof considering the Potency of their Naval power I am afraid will prove that you will be too weak in either Squadrons of your shattered Navy I should be sorry to see Great Britain become a Province to the French Monarchy and be made a Theatre where the Tragedy of Monieurs perseention shall be acted and the good Protestants there suffer the same Calamities Banishment and Miseries for the Liberty of their Conscience as the poor Hugonots have done in France for the exercise of their Religion I do assure you Sir you cannot expect better terms than the Hugonots now have in France With what Infelicities pressures in Gonscience and inquietude of Mind and how precariously they do possess but not enjoy their Estates gotten with Sweat and kept by Care I need not tell you It was not the method of Christ to force Belief by Slaughters or instruct mens Consciences by the Sword yet these are the Arguments which they apply to convince those unhappy Souls Sir there is no safety in depending upon the Charity of France I must tell you again the onely security of all Christian Princes and States in Europe is their impuissance to do hurt The end of War is Peace but a Peace with France seems to me to be the beginning of War And though War be a great Evil yet from all appearances I dread the consequences of a Peace more If the Most Christian King shall disband his Forces it 's far from being any security since he may raise them again at his pleasure nor is it to be imagined that he will so do since that were to give his People an opportunity of rebelling for which he is sensible they are sufficiently prepared and onely want Domestick Heads and Partisans or foreign Assistance to rescue them from Tyranny and Oppression And whiles so potent a Monarch is in Arms all Princes and States will be obliged for their own safety to keep up standing Armies which Charges will assuredly undo them for it 's a declared Maxime in their Counsels That there is no better way to ruine the Princes and States of Europe than to oblige them to keep Armies on Foot For those require great expences which will impoverish them and by consequence precipitate their Ruine Just Fears are a just cause of War and a preventive War is a true defensive as well as a War upon an actual Invasion though offensively acted Hence the Lacedemonians as Thucydides tell us armed against the Athenians by reason of their over-growing Greatness And Antiochus upon this principle invited Prussias King of Bithinia at that time in League with the Romans to joyn with him in War against them setting before him a just fear of the over-spreading Greatness of the Romans and that their designe was to reduce all Kings and Princes under their Obedience and to make the State of Rome an Universal Monarchy that Philip and Nabis were already ruinated and it was his turn to be assaulted next So that those Princes or States which do desire too great Monarchies and seek to enlarge their Dominions do give a just fear to their Neighbours That War is just which is necessary and then Arms are deemed pious when they are the last Refuge of those which use them In elder time it passed for an Oracle of Wisdom Decreseat Hispania non Crescat Gallia If we do make a War against that great Disturber of the Peace of Europe as it 's our Safety so it is Prudence to make it speedily and powerfully for if we do not make it powerfully we shall be like the poor woman who bought Coals sufficient to roast her Pig but laying them on one by one her Coals were wasted and her Pig unroasted And if we do not make it speedily we shall imitate that Emperick who gave Physick to a dead man The Latines prayed in aid of the
But you may observe that neither Honour or Relations can stand in competition with Self-interest Did they not oppose his Majesties restauration to the Emperial Crown of his Royal Ancestors Did they not cabal with his greatest Enemies to keep him out of his Kingdom Of which his now Majesty was so sensible that upon his coming into England he commanded away the French Embassadour Bordeux and would not suffer him to come into his presence In the times of the Usurpation in England they were the mischievous Instruments of the War between you and the States of the Vnited Provinces as they were of the two following in 1665. and 1671. dreading nothing more than a durable and firm Friendship between the two Nations blowing up the Fends on both sides pretending to take part with each that they might with less opposition invade their Neighbours and increase their Naval strength but not really purposing it with either having the same designe of weakening both Parties for your weakness is his strength as the Britans formerly had in throwing the Apple of Contention between the Picts and the Scots that they might in the end be the better able to overcome both When you had Victory in your palms and Triumphs in your prospect it was ravished from you by their means The Bishop of Munster who was his now Majesties Allie and in Arms against the said States was necessitated to withdraw his Forces for the security of his own Territories because they sent their Troops against him France wrought Denmark off from your Party and hindered the Swedes to arm in favour of you and contrived that Affront you suffered to your shame and dishonour at Chatham They have made it their Master-piece to raise Jealousies between you and the Dutch and at last sided with the Dutch in a War against you not with any intention for themselves to fight but to see you destroy each other Did they not most treacherously put to the sword and slavery his Majesties Subjects in St. Christophers plundered them of all which by their industry and providence they had for many years acquired But a Peace at Breda being concluded the French were by the Treaty to return to his Majesty St. Christophers in such sort as therein is expressed But instead of performing it according to the true meaning and the very letter of the Article they upon several unjust and frivolous pretences did not deliver it in four years to the Commissioners which were sent to receive it For it 's against the Candor and Integrity of the French Cabal to part with any thing that may be of conveniency for them to keep But at last they delivered it to Sir Charles Wheeler but before the delivery of it they destroyed all the Plantations plundred and carried away all that was there laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse condition that if it had never been planted And as if the detaining of his Majesties Territories had not been sufficient they interrupted the Trade of his Subjects in those parts and assuming to themselves the Soveraignty of those Seas they would not suffer any Ships but their own to sail by or about their Islands and upon no other ground have brought in as Prizes and confiscated many Vessels In 1674 1675. when the Dutch and Neighbour-Nations were in War but England in Peace who thereby expecting a great Trade bought many Dutch-built Vessels the King of England accordingly granted them his License to trade in them by reason of the Act of Navigation But France to hinder the Trade of England issued out an Edict for the seizing of all Ships bought in any Enemies Country And in execution of their Edicts there came out a swarm of French Capers who not onely seized on those Dutch-built Ships though they had his Majesties License but sinding the sweetness of that Trade seized upon your English-built Ships on pretence they carried Enemies goods whilst they themselves would be Judges they did actually seize all English-built Vessels meerly laden on the account of being English Merchants and retook many which had been discharged in France they plundered your Ships and wounded your Sea-men There were about 400 fail of your Merchants Ships seized by them in this manner many of which the French did absolutely condemn and such as were released were kept some three months some six months some twelve months and others longer and then were discharged with great damage by expence and plunder in France besides the first affronts and violences And after all you lost the intended Fruit of your Voyages and what was yet worse they making the most advantages of every thing got many thousands of your Sea-men by extraordinary Pay to engage in his service And that which may super-adde Calamity to your Misery when the French did forbear to take your Ships the Algerines Allies of France and by them set up have continually pickt up your Merchant-men and Vassalized your Sea men ever since And what they take from you they carry into the French Harbours where the French buy the Commodities at their own prices I need not tell you the great discouragements your French Trade hath for many years lain under through their unjust practices and manifold devices Nor shall I speak now how by their Emissaries and Factories of Sedition they have contrived and brooded a most execrable Plot in England and other his Majesties Kingdoms and have sown Divisions Discontents and Jealousies amongst his good Subjects thereby to prevent his Majesties Royal inclinations in giving his assistance to his oppressed Neighbours against that great Prince If these Enormities and Super-injustices of the French Cabal be not sufficient to awaken England considerate men will wonder what Opiate hath cast you asleep and if you be not enchanted by the Magick of French Pistols I pray Sir draw the Curtain open your eyes and see if the Liberty of all Christendom be not now at stake Do you think it will adde any Trophies to your Glory when Posterity shall say It was England which advanced the Most Christian King into the Throne of an Universal Monarchy Is it not your interest to oppose that Power which opposeth all Europe and labours to bury it in the Grave of Infamy and Slavery If you be backward to give your Assistance when you may have so many Allies what will you do when their Forces are broken and you are enforced singly to contrast the Power of France and its new Acquests What you may expect from his Mightiness enquire of the Duke of Lorrain and of the Princes of Germany and they will tell you The Dominion of the British Sea which is your Glory and ought to be your Care is gone He will give Law to your Commerce and Navigation which is now your Honour will be nothing but a Piracy to you and England for want of Trade being an Island will be nothing but a Prison to you You which are the great Merchants and so