Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n
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A41163
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A brief account of some of the late incroachments and depredations of the Dutch upon the English and of a few of those many advantages which by fraud and violence they have made of the British nations since the revolution, and of the means enabling them thereunto.
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing F731; ESTC R38871
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64,396
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76
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Impoverished and Weakned in the Management of this War into which in order to those Ends they have Wheedled and Invegled us under the Pretence of Humbling Curbing and Reducing France they will be the first both to abandon the Confederacy and to Unite their Forces with those of that Monarch for the Consummating of our Ruine by Power which they have begun and so far Promoted by Fraud And that I may not reflect too far backward nor put my 〈◊〉 upon Examining their Practices Forty or Fifty Years since their Behaviour about seventeen years ago towards the Emperour and the King of Spain but especially towards the King of Denmark and the laâ—e â—â—ector of Brandenburgh who had Embarked in their Assistance and come to their Succour when they were likely to be totally Subdued in that War which they had provoked the French King to enter into against them Anno. 1672. May teach all that help and relieve them under the firmest and most Sacred Confederacy and the highâ—st assurances of their Stedfastness and Fidelity in their Alliances what they are to expect from that faithless People who do always consult and prefer their Interest before all the Obligations they can be brought under to God or Men. The truth whereof tho' the Remonstrances of all those Princes do abundantly manifest which they made unto the States General and Published to the World upon the Separate Peace which the Dutch Concluded with the King of France at the Treaty of Nimeguen Anno. 1678. yet I shall in Confirmation of what I have suggested Transcribe and Exhibit some part of a Pathetick Letter written upon that Occasion to the said States by the Elector of Brandenburgh bearing date at Postdam July 11. 1679. Namely That in the Deplorable Condition his Countries were then in It is easie to Judge saith the Elector whether we have more reason to Complain of those who are Enemies and had fallen thus upon him or of those for whose sake all this happened to him who instead of giving him the assistance required by Treatie have neglected them and made a separate Peace thereby abandoning as well his as their own Affairs and laying upon him the whole burden of the War in which he should have had no part had it not been for his desire to help his friends in their Misfortunes as if it were a Consolation to their High and Mightinesses to see him who had endeavoured with all his Might to save them from Destruction as a Recompence totally Ruined Adding that he had expected an answer to his former Letters and to those Memorials given into them by his Ministers in which he had advized them of the dangers that threatned him and desired their Assistance that so at least he might have had the Comfort to see the Concern they had for his Misfortune which he had the more reason to expect for that it must be fresh in their Memories how in their greatest necessity he hazarded All for them and preferred their Friendship before all the advantageous conditions that were offered him And therefore that he writes to their High and Mightynesses this Letter That they may not think that he tamely Digested their Unjust Proceedings or quitted the Obligation which his Alliance with them laid upon them but that as on his part he had alwaies performed his Promises and Engagements so he requires the like from them or in default thereof Satisfaction for the same and reserveth to himself and his Posterity all the Right thereunto belonging And indeed such has been their Perfidiousness as to the Oâ—sevation of most of â—he Treaties wherein they have been Engaged That should the several Princes of Europe be provoked at last to resent their Infidelity according to the Demerit of it They would instead of choosing to be their Allies or Confederates associate and unite to be their revengefull and implacable Enemies Nor till they be Condignly Punished for the many repeated Violations of their most solemn Stipulations will it prove Wise or Safe to Trust them upon the most Sacred Security that they can give to Kings and Nations by concerted and sworn Contracts For until then it will be but a necessary Prudence in all those with whom they seek and endeavour to be in a Foederal Amity To ask them as Livy tells us the Roman Senator did the Carthaginian Ambassadors at the end of the second Punick War when they came to Supplicate for a Peace Per quos Deos Foe dus icturi essent cum eos per quos ante ictum esset fefellissent By what Gods they would confirm and ratifie their Stipulations seeing they had despised the Omniscience Power and Justice of those Deities by the Invocation of and Appeal to whom they stood obliged to the Observation of former Contracts But when they are once so sufficiently Chastised for their Treacheries and Infidelites of this kind That they can reply as Asdrubal at that time did namely Per eosdem qui tam Infesti sunt Faedera violantibus That they will swear their Leagues by the same God who hath taken Vengeance of them for their Perjury and their Fraudulent Violations of former Agreements Then and not before are they to be Trusted and Relied upon by reason and in the Vertue of any Compacts Covenants and Alliances how Solemnly soever Sworn and Ratified by them Nor will it be improper or unseasonable for me here considering the present Juncture and the Circumstances We of Great Brittain are now Reduced unto to put my Country Men in remembrance that among other of the Motives upon which the Dutch Contrived and Promoted the Revolution how that their Obviating and Preventing the Reckoning and Account which King James was about calling them unto for their Wresting Bantam by Fraud and Violence from the English East-India Company was not only One but that which most Influenced that Avarous and Rapacious Republick thereunâ—o For having during our Convulsions here and the many Jealousies and Misunderstandings which had arisen between the late King Charles and his People to the begetting and fomenting whereof they had contributed all they could Guilfuly and Hoâ—tilely wormed us out of and Drove us from thence where of a large and Beneficial Trade therefore to Anticipate their being forced to restore what they had unrighteously Usurped by Deceit and Power and to avoid making Satisfaction for the Dishonour they had therein done unto the Crown as well as to decline repairing the Injury they had done to the East India Company and to the whole Kingdom They came with Warmth and Readiness into the Design of Invading these Kingdoms and of Supplanting his Majestie 's Throne I suppose it needless to repeat how they had eluâ—ded all the Applications made unto them by King Charles his Ministers in reference to that Affair and how they delayed and evaded giving Satisfaction to the East India Company during the time that remained of his Reign after that Usurpation tho often required and demanded of them both by his
Mony either Conveyed from us or from any of the Confederates to the Army in Flanders and that is by Furnishing most if not all the Stores and Provisions upon which the Army doth Live and Subsist And the Manner as well as the Reason is obvious to any one that can think two Thoughts Coherently Namely that all of one kind or another which they need is Conveyed to them by the Dutch and carried out of the Seven Provinces into the Spanish Netherlands where all things are put off and disposed to the respective Troops and to Ours especially at their own Rates So that they carry back into their own Country all or most of the Mony which is laid out in favour of and upon our own Troops as well as that which is Expended upon the several Materials which are Necessary to the Support and Maintenance of the War which Circulating backward and forward every Week as well as every Month and Centring at last in Holland they are rendred Rich by the War which makes us so Poor and has reduced us to the Indigent and Depâ—orable Estate that we are now in Yea the burning and bombing Cities and Towns by the French and their Seising and Destroying the Forage and the Magazines upon which the Confederate Army should Subsist turneth all to the profit and account of the Dutch and is improved by them to their Gain and Advantage Because both the Materials for the rebuilding ruined Cities and the Stores required to supply and fill wasted and destroyed Magazinâ—s do in a manner come all from Holland and from other of the Belgick Provinces whither they carry back the value in Current Mony to the enriching of their Bank the encreasing of their Stock and the enlarging of their Trade And as they make a large gain by the Spoils Losses and Devaâ—tations which their Confederates suffer and undergo so they make no less Profit by their Victories and Successes even to the preclusion of their Allies and especially the English from all advantage and benefit by them For as Namur is the only Conquest since the Commencement of this War in Flanders that has been obtained over the French so it is but a recovery of what the Confederates had lost during the present War and not a new Acquisition And as it has cost infinitely more in Men and Treasure than it and all the dependencies upon it are worth so these three Kingdoms who contributed most to the taking of it and had more of the Blood of their Men spilt and more of their Treasure and Ammunition expended and wasted in the Winning of that City than any one of all the Confederates have Reapt nothing by it but the enlarging the Barrier of the Dutch and the putting a strong and well fortified City into their power and possession to make them more Insolent unto and Encroaching upon their Allies And when I Consider the Customs of the Spartans who had an Order that when any of their Generals compassed his Designs by Policy and Treaty he should Sacrifice an Ox but when by Force and Bloodshed only a Cock I think that our many late Bonfires and Illuminations and especially our prodigal and foolish Expences in St. James's Square were ridiculous as well as wastful Consumptions For as the distinct Values of those Oblations of the Lacedemonians do shew us according to the Judgment of Plutarch how much they preferred the Successes of calm and sober Councils before those of Force and Strength so there was more cause for Lamentations for the many and brave Men that had been lost before the Town and Castle of Namur e'er they fell into our hands and which in all probability will with less Cost be speedily Snatch'd from us again than of vain childish and expensive Triumphs for the gaining them But to omit this that which I am to represent and display is that the City Castle which were gained at the Price and Cost of so much English Blood and Treasure are now Consigned over to the Dutch and stand Mortgaged to them for the Repayment of what they have laid out and disbursed in this War which seeing there is no likelihood that â—ver the Spaniards will be in a condition to Reimburse them that Town is consequently become a part as well as an enlargement of their Territories and is the Addition of an Eighth Province to the former Seven Yea out of Kindness to the Dutch and Disaffection to us our Belgick Prince is so frugal of their Treasure and so prodigal of that of this Kingdom that much of the Charges necessary for Repairing the Fortifications of Namur is born by us and our Mony remitted and transported to Defray them Which is such a bubbling of this Kingdom that those most engaged in King William's Interest cannot avoid Resenting it with Indignation And as this new Acquisition which our Dutch King hath gained them at the price of our blood and bones as well as of our Mony gives them a stronger Barrier than they had and a new and large Jurisdiction so it not only opens a Traffick to them with France in time of War as well as of Peace but delivers the Hollanders from a Necessity of depending upon Brussels or upon any Spanish Towns for the Management of their Trade Seeing by being possessed of Namur they can supply both Flanders and France and carry home what they want from thence without being under the necessity of allowing the Intervention of others in the management of their Trade or of suffering others either to intercept them in it or to make profit by it thro Exchange So that while the English and others Fight they do only Win and the Lives of our Men are no farther valuable with our Belgick King than as they serve to purchase Power and Opulency to the Dutch For tho we be made use of as the Jackall to hunt the Prey yet we are not permitted to have the least Share in it And therefore whosoever have cause to be weary of the War and to groan under the Consumptions and Desolations that attend it they have not and thence it is that in kindness to them but in hatred to us our Belgick King labours all he can both by persuasions and by Authority to foment and keep it up and resolves to do so untill he hath render'd them so opulent and powerful and us so necessitous despicable and weak that we must be contented because we will not remain in a Condition to hinder it to be Slaves to him and Tributaries to the Hollanders And the tyrannous Projects and Designs which K. W. hath contrived and harboureth in relation to these Kingdoms as well as our own Madness and Folly in concurring and co-operating to promote them are equally manifest and both of them apparently evident by this namely That even upon the Supposition that it was needful and just to begin continue and uphold this War Yet much of that Mony which hath been sent abroad from hence to