Thing in order to Examine whether we ought to apprehend any Danger from it in case such an Attempt shou'd ever be made in Europe for 't is apparent some Princes of the Roman Catholick Party have Will enough to such an Enterprize and the Pope would be forward enough to set it on Foot if he were but sure of the Success The glorious Peace of Reswick in which all the World must acknowledge the French have been very much reduc'd has but One Clause that any way Eclipses the Honour of its Conclusion on the Protestant side and that is that it left the Poor Protestant Subjects of the King of France without any shelter from the Violences of their Persecutors as if the Protestant Princes had so much excluded the Int'rests of Religion from the Articles that they had not one Compassionate Thought for their Distressed persecuted Brethren 'T is true the War was wholly a War of State as is before noted and the Invasion of Property was the Occasion of it and therefore the Surrender of Luxemburgh to the Spaniard who is a Roman Catholick nay a few Villages in the Chattelany of Aeth made more Bustle in the Treaty than the Restoration of Three Hundred Thousand banish'd Christians to their Country and Estates Some have presum'd to say That had the Restoration of the Edict of Nants been insisted on with the same Vigour as the Dutchy of Lorrain it wou'd as easily have been Obtain'd and these People among whom some of the French Refugees are of that Mind think the Protestant Int'rest was not so much Considered in that Treaty as it ought to have been I cou'd easily Answer such Objectors by telling them That the Ground of this War being only Matter of Right to reduce the Power of France to a Balance and to oblige her to restore what she had by Force and Injustice taken from her Neighbours this being obtain'd the End was answer'd and the Confederate Princes had no further Pretence for a War As to the Protestant Refugees they were the Subjects of the King of France and strictly speaking with respect of Princes no body had any thing to do with it let him use them how he would Besides to have made it an Article of the Peace it could not be expected that the Catholick Branches of the Confederacy would have insisted on it or indeed have desired it and the Treaty being Manag'd in one Body by the Resolutions and Measures of several Princes and States in Congress the Catholick Princes would have immediately Protested against it and the Union must have been Dissolved So that there was no room to Espouse the Interests of the Protestant Subjects of France in the General Treaty any other Way than by Intercession with their King to use them Mercifully And this has been done by all Parties though hitherto without Success It remains now to examine what Methods are further to be used in order to oblige the King of France to use his Protestant Subjects with more Humanity and if possible either to preserve them that Peace and Enjoyment of their Properties and Estates which is their Natural Right or to procure them some other Equivalent which may give them some kind of Satisfaction and Repose To Commence a War against the King of France for the Prosecution of His Protestant Subjects seems to be very Unjust because Speaking of Right and Wrong we are not Interested in the Quarrel I make no Question but the Protestants of France themselves have by the Laws of Nature and Reason a right to Defend their own Possessions and Inheritances and to Maintain themselves in them by Force if they had a Power and by the same Rule might by Strength of Hand recover and take Possession of their own Estates if they were Able But it does not seem so clear that a Neighbour Nation or State can justifie the making War on the King of France to oblige him to do Justice to his Protestant Subjects Nor will I attempt to Determine how far it would be Lawful to assist such a People in such a forcible Return or in Maintaining themselves in the Possession and Enjoyment of their own Rights be they never so Just. Only thus far 't is plain That by the particular Article of the Peace of Riswick respecting the Kings of England and France England is fore-closed from such an Attempt both Sides having expresly Stipulated not to Assist the Subjects of either against their Sovereign The Fourth Article of the said Treaty providing as follows viz. And since the most Christian King was never more desirous of any thing than that the Peace be Firm and Inviolable the said King Promises and Agrees for Himself and His Successors That he will on no Account whatsoever disturb the said King of Great Britain in the free Possession of the Kingdoms Countries Lands or Dominions which He now Enjoys and therefore Engages His Honour upon the Faith and Word of a King that He will not give or Afford any Assistance directly or indirectly to any Enemy or Enemies of the said King of Great Britain And that He will in no manner whatsoever favour the Conspiracies or Plots which any Rebels or ill-disposed Persons may in any Place Excite or Contrive against the said King And for that End Promises and Engages That He will not Assist with Arms Ammunition Provisions Ships or Money or in any other way by Sea or Land any Person or Persons who shall hereafter under any Pretence whatsoever Disturb or Molest the said King of Great Britain in the free and full Possession of His Kingdoms Countries Lands and Dominions The King of Great Britain likewise Promises and Engages for Himself and Successors Kings of Great Britain That He will Inviolably Do and Perform the same towards the said most Christian King His Kingdoms Countries Lands and Dominions There seems to be but One Way left either to make any Amends to these poor desolate People or to bring to pass their Re-admission I do not say that the Princes of Europe will find it their Int'rest to put it in practice any more than I believe it is really the Int'rest of the King of France to Ruine so many Thousand Families of his Peaceable Subjects I mean the Old Standard Law of Retaliation But if it might be a Means to re-establish those poor People in Peace and Liberty the Sacrificing Ten Thousand Families of other persons as Innocent as them seems to be a Justice their present Case calls for Lex Talionis seems to me to be the Foundation-Law of Right and Wrong the Scripture is full of Instances of this Nature Adoni-bezek Agag and a multitude of other Relations therein declare it to be agreeable to the Divine Method of Executive Justice the reason of Rewards and Punishments seems to be wholly measured by it And if exactly administred it carries so Convictive a Force that no Person who ever fell under the severest part of it could object against the Execution of
to them by his Ancestors in the most sacred manner possible and he is guilty also of the greatest Unkindness to those very People who were the Instruments and Agents of the Glory of his Family and of his Person To make good which Reflection that I may not seem to be guilty of Disrespect to the Majesty of the King of France 't is needful to examine a little the Ground on which the Protestant Interest in France stood for the last Century of Years and the History of the present Royal Family of France and how they came to the Crown In the Year 1571. on the 24th Day of August Charles IX being King of France the Third War with the Hugonots having been lately ended and a Peace made with the Protestants the Cities of Rochell Montauban Coignac and la Charitie being put into their Hands for Security and the Chief of the Protestants wholly resting on the Faith and Honour of the King in full Satisfaction of his sincere Intentions being come to Court was acted the Massacre of Paris at which in the space of Five Days above Thirty Thousand Protestants were barbarously Surprized and Butcher'd in Cold Blood Upon which follow'd the Fourth and Fifth Civil War during which King Charles IX died and the Crown fell to Henry III. the last of the House of Valois and then newly Elected King of Poland The Beginning of his Reign being entangled with Civil Broils the Protestant Interest grew very strong and though the League forced the King to make Three several Wars with them yet they still maintain'd their Liberty and Religion At length the Faction of the Guises known by the Name of the Catholick League Declar'd themselves so absolutely against the King and grew so powerful especially after the Death of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise whom the King had caused to be kill'd that they had almost driven him out of the Kingdom In this Exigence the Protestants against whom he had carry'd on Four Persecutions and Wars and therein destroyed many thousands of their Brethren undertook his Defence and joining all their Forces in order to Restore him marched with him to the very Gates of Paris where while he was preparing for a general Attack of the City he was barbarously Assassinated by Jacques Clement a Jacobin Monk sent out of the City on purpose being stabb'd in the Belly with a Poynard of which he died the Day after Henry IV. the present King's Grand-father was then King of Navarre and a Protestant and being Lawful Heir to the Crown as also recommended to the Nobility by the deceased King at his death took upon him the Stile and Title of King of France The League back'd by the Power of the King of Spain oppos'd him with all the vigour imaginable and many of the Catholick Nobility deserted him on the account of his being an Heretick The Protestants serv'd him with all the Glory and Loyalty that ever was shown perhaps in any War in the World and as is computed during the Years War he maintain'd against the League and the Spanish Power above an Hundred and Sixty Thousand Protestant Soldiers lost their Lives in his Service At length to put an end to the War and assure himself of the Kingdom he deserted his Religion and turn'd Roman-Catholick by which means he obtain'd a full Possession of the Crown ruin'd the League the Chief Heads of it making their Peace with him one by one and at last concluded the War with the Spaniard at the Peace of Vervin The Protestants however never withdrew their Loyalty nor their Services from him The famous Mareschal de Biron the Dukes de Bouillon du Plessis and de la Tremouille continuing to do him the most faithful and important Services against the Spaniards to the last Having setled himself in the Kingdom and made Peace with all the World the Protestants who had serv'd him so faithfully and who expected no other Reward than the Security of their Religion and Estates obtain'd from him the famous Edict of Nantes in which is particularly stated and stipulated the Terms of their Liberty in what Places they should erect their Temples how they should hold their Synods and Assemblies Money was allotted out of the Publick Revenues to maintain their Ministers Cities were allotted to them for their Security the Garrisons whereof were to be paid by the King And the Edict was made Perpetual and Irrevocable by being Entred and Registred in the Parliaments and Courts of Justice all over the Kingdom But all the Services of the Protestants to this Great King by which he was brought to the Crown of France nor the solemn Engagement of this Edict could not preserve them but that in the Ministry of Cardinal Richlieu under the very next Reign they were again attack'd and driven to the necessity of taking Arms in their own Defence Which Cardinal after three times making Peace and breaking it again at his pleasure compleated the Conquest of them in the Taking of Rochelle the Protestants being miserably deserted by the English and Thirteen Thousand People starv'd to death in the Town Since this in the Infancy of the present King while the Contests between the Prince of Conde and the Queen-Mother were so hot as to break out into a War the Protestants as Subjects only were not a little instrumental to the maintaining him in that very Power which now he makes use of to their Destruction I think this History fully makes good the Assertion that the present Usage of the Protestants is both Perfidious and Ungrateful Perfidious as being acted while under the Protection of a Sacred League and Solemn Treaty and Ungrateful as it is exercised on those very People who with their Lives and Estates raised the present Fortune of the House of Bourbon to the Greatness it now enjoys I have been the more particular in this Account because from hence it will appear that the Protestants of France stand on a different foot from other Subjects of that Monarchy and that his right of Dealing with them differs from his Power over the rest of his Subjects for they are his Subjects by express Stipulations and Agreements whose Obedience to him has been always allow'd to be Conditional they have made Peace and War with their Kings not as Rebels but as Persons having a Lawful Right to Plead and to Defend their Kings have given them Cautionary Towns for the Performance of the Treaties made with them a Thing which in its own Nature implies that they might hold those Towns against him if he did not perform the Postulata of those Treaties without the Scandal of Rebellion So that their Right to the Liberty of their Religion had an Authority sufficient to justifie them in taking Arms nor does any of the French Histories that ever I saw though wrote with the greatest Partiality ever call it a Rebellion but a War with the Hugonots and the Conclusions were always call'd A Peace with the Hugonots as
it Adoni-bezek above-mention'd made a Confession of the Justice of his Punishment when his Thumbs and Great Toes were cut off as a Retaliation of his Barbarities And Samuel's Return upon Agag That as his sword had made women childless so should his Mother be childless among women declares both the Reason and the Justice of God's Decree against him 1 Sam. XV. 33. 'T is true this Retaliation is strictly Personal and all Retaliation ought to be so if possible But in some Cases it differs and where a Personal Retaliation is not practicable then People are considered in Collective Bodies Nations Families and States Thus in a War the Subjects of either Party account it very justifiable to make themselves Satisfaction for Injuries received on any of the Subjects of the contrary Party though the Wrong particularly suffered is not chargeable on those particular Persons who suffer for it By the same Rule it seems justifiable if we cast the whole Body of Europe into Two sorts Popish and Protestant that while the one part commit Hostilities and Depredations on the other the injur'd Party should have a Right of Retaliation on any Member of the same Body of what Nation or Government soever they shall be where the Power is properly put into their Hands for Power in such a case may pass for a sufficient Right of Directing the said Punishment since nothing but want of Power interrupts its being Personal The French King has given a Challenge to all the Protestant Princes of Europe in his present Usage of the Reformed Churches of France He has carry'd on though not with much Success a War for above Eight Years against the whole United Power of Europe at last he has made a Peace not at all to his Advantage nor much for his Honour And now the War of State is at an end he seems to be beginning a War of Religion and that he may lay the Foundation of it safely he has began it upon his own Subjects I cannot imagine why all the Protestant Princes of Europe should not think themselves concern'd in this Invasion of their Religion since nothing is more certain than that they are all strook at though more remotely And by all the Rules of Humane Policy Prevention ought to extend as far as the Evil is design'd If the weakening the Protestant Interest in general were only the Design the strengthening that Interest ought to be the care of the other Besides the Papists are the Aggressors as they always have been and the Injustice of their Cause so great that they have hardly ever attempted to make any other Pretences for all their Barbarities than the Absolute Will and Pleasure of their Omnipotent Monarch who will have but one Religion within his Dominions I confess to me it seems very proper for the Ease of all Parties That Religion should really divide the whole Body of Europe and that all the Roman Catholicks and all the Protestants if they could but agree it among themselves should live by themselves That if the French King will have no Protestants in his Dominion the Protestants should suffer no Roman Catholicks in theirs and when all Parties are withdrawn to their own sort and the Division compleated let the Roman Catholicks begin a War of Religion as soon as they please It is in my opinion the unjustest thing in the World that since the Spaniards and Italians suffer no Protestants to live amongst them but the bloody Inquisition destroys them and the French have Dragoon'd Three Hundred Thousand of their Protestant Subjects to Mass and hurry'd Three Hundred Thousand more out of their Country to seek Comfort from the Charity of Neighbour States The Duke of Savoy has Exiled all his Protestant Vaudois And hardly any Popish Country admit the Protestants among them some few Parts of Germany excepted yet the Protestant Governments at the same time suffer Three Millions of Papists to live among them and enjoy their Liberties and Estates unmolested Nor is this all the Protestants of France Savoy and Hungary have been Persecuted under the Assurances of the most solemn Treaties the most sacred Edicts and the firmest Peace that could be made they have never their Enemies themselves being Judges been guilty of the Breach of their Faith or Loyalty Henry III. of France acknowledged it when he had recourse to them for Protection against his own mutinous Catholick Subjects The Duke of Savoy acknowledged it in his Speech to those Vaudois whom he had releas'd out of the Citadel of Turin We never read of any War begun by the Protestants they were always Defendants we have not one Instance of a Massacre committed or of a King Assassinated or of Nobles Undermined in order to to be blown up by them they have always been Men of Peace till Self-Defence has oblig'd them to be Men of War On the contrary the Roman-Catholicks have been always uneasie to the Governments they have lived under Our Histories are full of their Treasons Ireland has twice been Deluged in Blood by their Rebellions and Cruelties Two Kings of France have been Murthered by their Assassinations and innumerable Protestants Massacred and Butcher'd in Cold Blood under the pretences of Friendship and assurance of a Treaty The Reigns of all our Kings and Queens in England since Henry VIII have been strangely disturb'd by the Plots the Treasons and Rebellions of the Papists they have often forfeited their Estates and Liberties to the Publick Justice of the Nation had they been dealt with by the Rules of strict Retaliation England Scotland and Ireland have such Reasons for Entire removing them out of their Dominions as no Nation in the World can have greater and yet here they live in Peace under the Protection of those very Princes they refuse to swear Allegiance to and under the shelter of those Laws they refuse to be bound by 'T is no Plea in Bar of any Right that the Plaintiff is a Papist our Courts of Justice are as open to them as to any of the Kings most faithful Subjects Of which more hereafter On the contrary the Protestants of France tho' charg'd with no Disloyalty nor guilty of no Crimes are Dispossess'd of their Estates Banish'd their Native Country Dragoon'd Shipt to the Gallies and many of them Hang'd their Children torn from them by Violence and buried alive in Monasteries and Nunneries and all the Cruelties an unbridled Soldiery can inflict acted upon them without any manner of Crime alledg'd but their Religion and this when that very Religion was secur'd to them by the solemnest Leagues and Treaties in the World Declared in the famous Edict of Nantes Entred Receiv'd and Registred in all the Parliaments of the Kingdom The King of France in Persecuting his Protestant Subjects acts not only the part of a Tyrant over them as they are his Subjects but is guilty of the Breach of the Faith and Honour of a King oppressing those People who had their Religion tolerated and allow'd
Dixmuide This is a Practice too well known in the War to need any Contention where the putting a Prisoner of War to Death or any other Breach of Articles has been requited by putting some other Prisoner of War to Death on the contrary Side and though the latter be an innocent Person Lex Talionis is the Word the Justice of it is not disputed 2. It wou'd put these Kingdoms in a Condition to Entertain and Relieve that great Multitude of Distressed Christians with the very Substance of their Adversaries and the King of France might if he pleas'd make the Roman Catholicks Amends by giving them the Estates of the Hugonots or what other Way he thought fit This is most certain that the Roman Catholicks of England wou'd not have half the Reason to Complain of hard Usage that the Protestants of France have they have no Leagues or Capitulations to show for their Permission the Laws of the Kingdom are expresly against them and they have in all the Reigns for 150 Years past been the Disturbers of the Peace of it they resuse now to Swear Allegiance to the Government and if they do not Disturb it it is Owing to their want of Power not their want of Will But if they had all those Defences to make which have been hinted on behalf of the Protestants of France they wou'd have no body to thank for such Usage but their own Friends And the Pope if he ow'd them so much Care might use his Interest with the King of France to let the Protestants enjoy their Liberty in order to save them from the same Fate Some indeed object against the receiving such vast Numbers of Foreigners among us as Prejudicial to the Interest of Trade and to our own Manufacturers and Inhabitants by Eating the Bread out of our Mouths and Starving our own Poor This is an Argument would require a little Volume to Answer but in General I presume to Affirm That no Number of Foreigners can be Prejudicial to England let it be never so great Number of Inhabitants is the Wealth and Strength of a Kingdom and if we had a Million of People in England more than we have let them be of what Nation they would it would be far from being a Damage to us 'T is true if these Million of People were all Artisans Manufacturers it would be some detriment to our Poor who are employ'd in those particular Manufactures but allow one third to be Artisans one third Labourers Husbandmen or Sailors and one third Merchants Shop-keepers or Gentlemen and if the greatest Number that can be supposed came to settle in England it could be no Injury but a vast Advantage to the Kingdom in general And it will appear by this One particular well examin'd An Addition of a Million of People suppose that were the Number would devour a proportion'd quantity of Corn and Flesh for Food and Drink and a proportioned quantity of Manufactures for Cloth and Housholdstuff the one employs more Land and the other more People Now 't is apparent we have in England more Land lies unimprov'd common and waste than would feed a vast many People more than we have and we have a Staple of Wooll never to be exhausted In Manufactures the more Lands we improve the greater the Rents will be and the greater the general Stock of the Nation will be and the more Manufactures are made the better the Poor are employ'd and the richer the Manufacturer is made Many other Arguments might be used to prove That the Coming Over of Foreigners can be no general Prejudice to the Nation as to Trade But that is not the main thing here If the Roman-Catholick Princes pursue their Protestant Subjects with such Cruelty and drive them into Banishment and Exile to seek Relief in Foreign Countries the Case seems to speak for it self the Protestants can have no readier way either to prevent the Miseries of those poor persecuted People or to relieve them in their Exile than by dealing with the Papists in their Dominions in the same manner and Inviting the said persecuted French to come and live in the Estates and in the Places of their Adversaries This is Lex Talionis And this is a way that would soon tire the Papists out For I think I may be allowed to suppose there are much the greater number of Papists among the Protestants than there are of Protestants among the Papists and the Exile of the Parties would also differ as to Places For generally speaking the Protestant Countries are the best for Strangers to live in the Protestant People are the Trading People of the World therefore the Exile of the Protestants of France and Hungary would be less to their disadvantage than the Papists of England Ireland and Holland who must apply themselves to Countries where there are few Manufactures small Trade and but very indifferent Means for a Stranger to live So that the Popish Exiles would be in much the worse Circumstances And there is no question but whenever the Protestant Princes of Europe shall find it needful to use this Remedy the Roman-Catholick Powers will find it for their Interest to make some Cartel or Condition upon which all their Subjects though they are Protestants may enjoy some sort of Liberty in their own Native Countries and so Persecution as well as War might end in an Universal Happy Peace to Europe both in Matters of Religion as well as Civil Affairs which has so often been attempted by other Methods to so little purpose FINIS Judg. i. 7.