which is made here by the small Quantity of French Wine which is consum'd at present by the several Fruits Dry and Green and French Sweat-Meats which are little esteem'd That England is at this day much more Wealthy than France and that if God had afflicted England with such a Government and a King of Lewis the Fourteenth's Humor she might doe much more than France does now That therefore all Princes that are tempted to imitate that King in his Humors to be a Conqueror and an Absolute Prince ought rather to swallow Poison and quit the World than to suffer themselves to be over-rul'd by such Barbarous and Cursed Passions That indeed in some measure Lewis XIV is to be excused for his Attacking Mons and Nyssa as supposing him to have a good Correspondence both in the one and the other and that his Design was thereby to re-establish or maintain the Reputation of his Great Power of which he began to be somewhat doubtfull and to prevent his Credit from falling as well among the Rebels in Ireland as among his own Subjects and at Rome where there is such Disputing about the Election of a New Pope and that he thought this would strike a Terror into the Confederates especially the Duke of Savoy who he troubles the most and therefore would oblige him to make his Peace apart and others after or together with him He was also willing to make the World believe that the Congress at the Hague of which he had Intilligence 8 Months before did nothing astonish him And therefore beleiving it was high time for him to Attempt something he pickt out Mons before any other in the Low-Countries and took all his Measures to Crown the Enterprize with Success And the Reasons why he pitch'd upon Mons were these Because it was a Place the most advanc'd toward France and for that the Confederates would sooner make an Invasion of his Country on that side than any other way because it was a Place which fetch'd great Contributions out of France and the Conquer'd Provinces and for that being large and wealthy it might serve to make a Magazine for K. William's Army and because that if the Confederates were so far weakn'd as to make a Peace to his Advantage the next Winter he would rather keep it than Aeth Oudenard or Charleroy which he had been once already oblig'd to quit to serve as a Bar to the Spanish Low-Countries besides that it is the Capital City of a large Province which the Conquest of that Town would reduce wholly under his Subjection As for Nyssa assuredly it was Bought and Sold for that otherwise it would have been a foolish attempt to have Attacqu'd it in the Heart of Winter being a Place Impregnable and that the Traitors were agreed to cover their foul Play to fire the Powder under the Favour of the first Bombs that Catinat should throw into the Town by which means they should take the French Money yet appear honest Men. That as for the Circumstances and the Soldiers kill'd by the Accident it might all be so manag'd as if the whole had happen'd fortuitously the better to cover their Intrigues Therefore 't is presumed that France went the best way to try whether she could by these means separate the Allies one from the other and farther that there is no question to be made but that France by other Intrigues supported with Money will do her utmost to make a Peace the next Winter for that otheâ—wise she is ruin'd for ever notwithstanding all the outward haughtiness she carries in her looks and that it is the Interest of the Allies not to be too hasty but to stand resolutely upon their Terms That whatever outward shew Lewis XIV makes it will be impossible for him to support another Campaign after this but that he must be oblig'd to constrain his Subjects to sell the last remainder of their Plate and to raise the Price of his Money at least half in half And that all this will hardly suffice for another Campaign for that the farther he goes forward in these Excesses and the more his usual Imposts decay the less Money he will have and the more the People will be ruin'd Having now given you a short but faithful Account of the Miseries and Calamities that the French King's Subjects groan under at home as also the sinking Condition of the State which we may modestly affirm to be the Effects of his Tyrannical Government on the one hand and of his Infidelity and Injustice towards his Neighbours and Allies on the other let us now examine the Particulars of his Transactions with each Neighbouring Potentate for some time past and then let the Impartial judge whether any thing but Oppression to his People and Ruin to his Kingdom are likely to be the Events of such perfidious Practices We will begin with England How happy was the King of England at his first Restauration belov'd by his People ador'd by his Parliament and in perfect Union with his Neighbours the Dutch What might not those two Potentates in close Confederacy have done France trembled at the thoughts of it and despair'd of grasping Universal Empire unless she could divide this solid opposition so pernicious to her soaring Projects The French King well understood that the King of England would he but put himself to the trouble of knowing his own strength and making a true use of it was in a condition not only to mediate but to force a Peace among all the Potentates of Europe For by a strict Union with the Hollanders he was absolute Master of the whole Ocean and consequently of the Riches of the World insomuch that the Mines of America were not safe to the King of Spain but by his Permission and by sending to the weaker side the assistance of his Land Forces formidable as well for their Courage as their Discipline he was able to have turn'd the scales of Victory which way soe'er he pleas'd Now then in regard that by the common Rules of Policy and Fore-sight the French King could not but be well assur'd that whatsoever Princes he assail'd the other would be as certain in the weakness of his Condition to have recourse to the two Grand Fortresses of Europe Potent at Sea and no less powerful by Land to prevent the Râ—vage of his Territories whether the Dictates of Achitophelism and Machiavilism might not in some measure justifie the most Christian King in pursuing the best Methods he could to separate such a Conjunction so prejudicial to his aspiring Ambition and Self-interest may not be so much perhaps the Question but whether he is not to be look'd upon as the worst of the whole Race of Cain and as a Mischief and Pest which all Mankind ought to eschew who besides the most unchristian like ways by which he sought to subdue his Enemies treated his most faithfull Friends and Allies with that infidelity that Treachery that base and scornfull Ingratitude as
Doway the Fort of Scarp Turnay Oudenard Lille Armentiers Courtray Bergues and Turnes and all their Bayliwicks c. and restore to the King of Spain the County of Burgundy together with Alost And to this Treaty all the Princes of Christendom were invited to give the two Kings their Promises and Engagements of Warranty as to all the Contents of the Treaty And by another Article of the Treaty it was accorded that whatever should on the day of the Ratification of the Peace be found upon the Lands of France should appertain to Her and that whatever in like manner should be found upon the Lands of Spain should appertain to the Crown of Spain but as if it were an impossibility for France to keep her word the Most Christian Prince designing to make his Advantage of this Article before the Ratification came caus'd the Ax to be set to a Wood of Overgrown Trees which was upon the Lands of Spain and having fell'd the Timber transported it into his own Dominions that when the Ratification should come he might have an excuse for what he had done In like manner though he were to restore all Burgundy by the Articles of this Treaty without reservation and though he were Sworn upon the Cross the Holy Evangelists the Canons of the Mass and upon his Honour fully really and bona fide to observe and accomplish all the contents of the Articles yet he both dismantl'd the strong Holds and Places of the County carryed away all the Ammunitions and Warlike Provisions and would have destroyed the Rich Salt Pits of that Province but for the powerfull Interposition of England and Hâ—lland Nor could this Treaty of Aix so religiously sworn to tie up the French King from exacting heavy Contributions from the Duchess of Lymburgh and Luxenburgh from laying new claims to some Towns as important as any of those that had been granted him by the Peace nor from confiscating the Estates of the Subjects of the King of Spain that refus'd to forswear their Allegiance not sparing the Royal House of Mary Mont. And as if these Infractions and Incroachments had not been sufficient they forc'd their way with great Quantities of Merchandize through the Spanish Territories without paying Customs and not long after enveavour'd to surprize the Town of Hainault And in short they did whatever they pleas'd plunder'd even the most sacred Places and acted without remorce or pitty whatever can be imagined by insolent and unconscionable Men. This perfidious dealing of France with England and Spain spreading over Europe like a Gangrene as it prov'd extreamly prejudicial to some so it became no less pernicious to others of the Europaean Princes Among the rest the Duke of Lorrain by the Pyrenaean Treaty was to be restor'd to his Dukedom of Lorrain with all the Places and Towns which he had possessed in the Bishopricks of Mets Toul and Verdun But France after the Exeeution of the other Articles of that Peace delay'd as long as she could the performance of that part which related to the Duke and still refus'd to restore him to his Country till she had made him condeseend to another Treaty with her whereby he was constrain'd to part with several other considerable Places besides what had been granted to him by the General Peace Nor would that Usurpation satisfie her voracious Appetite for that after a Year and an half of an unsettl'd Possession during which time under several unjust pretences new quarrells were every day pick'd with him till she forc'd him with a considerable Army to surrender into her hands his Town of Marsul Nor was it long after before the French again compell'd him to sign a new Treaty still more disadvantageous than the two former nor could he then as little as before have any quiet Enjoyment of that little they had left him till they had worm'd him out of all For every day the French encroached upon his Jurisdiction the Liberties of his Territories and his Sovereignty it self He laid most Enormous Taxes upon the Duke's Subjects he constrain'd him to disband his Forces and then to raise new Men again as the Most Christian Usurper thought fit He was kept from revenging his own Quarrels to take part in that of others all his Enemies were let loose against him to stop the progress of his Armies as soon as he had gain'd the least Advantage And in few Words the Noble Duke who deserv'd a much better Treatment was all that while rather a Vassal to France than a Sovereign Prince Neither would this satisfie the Ambition of the French King who finding by many circumstances how highly the Duke resented such Despotick Vsage he sent one of his Generals to surprize and seize his Person and to bring him either dead or alive A new French Mode of dealing with Sovereign Princes not known in the more generous Climates of Europe and which may give us some Hopes of seeing the Northern part of the World govern'd by Basha's as well as the Eastern But 't is an infallible Maxim that every Prince dispossess'd of his Estate may hold for certain there will be nothing omitted on the Usurper's part or Conquerer in Possession to ruin him if possible and all his Generation Therefore 't is not strange that the French King should leave no Stone unturn'd for the Destruction of His Highness of Lorrain From hence it was that the Imperial Governour of Philipsburgh the same who afterwards basely and cowardly surrender'd up that Garrison to Crequi so notoriously and openly as he did attempted the Destruction of that Prince by a Trap-door which he cunningly caus'd to be contriv'd for that purpose in the Bridge of that Place through which the Duke not dreaming of any such French Treachery so near him fell head long to the Bottom of the Ditch For may it not be justly inferr'd that this Governour had capitulated and agreed with some Christian Minister of France to execute so greatfull a peice of Treason more especially since it was by the Power of the Favourers of France at Vienna that the Traitors escap'd altogether unpunish'd And now we are come to Vienna it will not be amiss to take a short view of the Most Christian King's behaviour towards the Emperor where he will be found nothing chang'd either in his Morals or his Politicks As for the occasion that ever his Imperial Majesty gave the French King to make such Bloudy Wars upon Him there is no body that can tell of any Nor is it probable that a Prince so good Natur'd so Piously inclin'd so much given to Repose and Peace and so averse from contending with his Neighbours or making War upon his Inferiours as he is said to be should be an Aggressor But all the World knows that it has been long the Ambition of France to grasp in his hands the Universal Monarchy of the fourth part of the Habitable Earth and this is that which makes the French King seek Occasions of Publick Universal
the Marquess of Bethune's Sister was married to the King of Poland jealousies between the King her Husband and the Emperor were fomented and Factions set up in that Country by the means of those Golden Rays which the Sun of France displays in that Court by the Hands of the Bankers of Hamburgh and Dantzick And the more to encourage her to play her Gaime according to the French Instructions his Most Christian Majesty made her Father a Duke and Peer of France and promis'd to receive her as a Queen and not as a Subject if she return'd a Widow in her own Country Thus he thought to have caught the Young Duke of Bavaria with one of his natural Daughters but that Heroick Prince despis'd the Motion And if the French King were assur'd that the Young Prince of Poland should succeed his Father there is another natural Daughter of France ready prepar'd for him for otherwise it would be a Daughter merely thrown away if she could not be in a Station to serve her own Country For that the main end of the French King in giving French Wives to the King of Poland and the several Princes of Germany is to divide the strength of the Empire and lessen the Authority of the Emperor by separating from his interest the particular Princes of the Empire by private Intrigues and distinct Treaties which though it be contrary to the Treaty of Munster yet that signifies nothing to a Prince who has no such Veneration for Leagues as to think them worth observing As for the French King 's dealing with the Duke of Nieuburgh it was somewhat Barbarous for that after the French King had caus'd him to Mortgage the greatest part of his Estate almost beyond the hopes of Redemption in expectation of the Polish Crown to which France had promis'd to advance him by the assistence of a strong Party which she had in that Kingdom contrary to the Treaties as well with the Duke as with the Elector of Brandenburgh and to his reiterated Promises and Vows both by word of Mouth and in Writing he underhand by his Creatures and Agents oppos'd the Duke's pretensions and endeavoured with all the industry and importunity imaginable to have the Prince of Conde preferr'd before him and all the rest of his Competitors a sufficient warning to all Princes how they relie upon the broken Reed of French Integrity The Elector of Brandenburgh was environed with French Emissaries and Spies and some of his Principal Ministers so intoxicated with the Elixirs of France that nothing was said or done in his Palace of which the French Envoy had not swift Intelligence And the World was well inform'd of all the Intrigues and large Presents which Monsieur De Rebenack scatter'd about in that Court of which the Agent himself was so unwary or so foolish as to make his boasts The Elector of Saxony better understood his own Interest and therefore would not bite at the Golden Hook as one that disdain'd the treacherous Offers of France but the French King endeavour'd by other ways to raise him disturbances in his own Family and to set him at Variance with his Neighbours which would have strangely imbroild him had not the Emperor in time provided against those Mischiefs However lest it should be said there was any Court in Christendom wherein the French King had not some Plough or other going he forbears not to send into Saxony such as know how to accommodate themselves to the Humour of the Country more especially the stoutest Drinkers he can find out who by that means making themselves familiar at the Tables of the Great Persons watch their opportunities in the highth of Jollity and Compotation to draw the Worms out of their Noses and dive into the bottoms of their open'd hearts The Palatine Electors neither Father nor Son would close with the Interest of the French and therefore his most Christian Majesty sacrificed the depopulated Cities of that Country to his Fury even to the compassion of some that were the Executioners of his Rage a Depopulation which none but such Monsters of Men as the Most Christian King employs would have undertaken Men so impious and fearless of God that one of them being mildly reprehended for the burning of a fair Town reply'd That he would burn God in Heaven if his Master the King of France commanded him to doe it But perhaps the Most Christian King is of the Opinion of the Antient Galls believing there is no way to give peace to a Country but by rooting out the Inhabitants according to that of Tacitus Galli ubi solitudinem fecerunt pacem appellant Nor could the Bishop of Munster as cunning as he was preserve himself from being out-witted by the French infidelity For that being comprehended in the League of the Rhine when he found himself attack'd by the States of Holland within the Empire he implored the Aid of France according to the Guarranty but in vain for which when he was about to make his complaint he was of a sudden overwhelm'd with the Forces of France and had not his Enemies us'd Moderation toward him more than his own Allie his Territories though the Patrimony of the Church had been laid in Ashes before now When the French King broke Faith with Holland to the surprize of a great part of their Country he was so far from assigning any Cause true or false for his Actions that he only publish'd a Declaration of War without any other Reasons than only the Ill satisfaction which His Majesty had of the behaviour of the States General toward him being risen to that Degree that he can no longer without Diminution of his Glory dissemble his Indignation against them c. Therefore he had resolv'd to make War against them by Sea and Land c. And commands all his Subjects courir sus upon the Hollanders for such is Our Pleasure Certainly it was never known that in any Age or Nation in the World the Sword was drawn upon no better Allegations a style so far from being Most Christian that nothing but some French Romance could parallel the Expression All that can be said 't was A-la-mode de France But Holland had no reason to wonder at these proceedings considering what a Prank the French King had plaid them before when he pretended to joyn with them in the War against England At what time France by virtue of a Treaty of Guarranty with the States of the United Provinces after several requests ineffectally made by the States found her self oblig'd to make a shew of undertaking to defend them against England among the rest of the Articles there was one by which it was concluded and agreed in express terms that the Allies should not Negotiate much less conclude any Peace or Truce with the common Enemy without the consent of the other and without procuring the same satisfaction for his Allie as he would for himself The States tied themselves with that Integrity to this Obligation
THE Germane Spie Truly Discovering the DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF THE KINGDOM and SUBJECTS OF THE French King BEING An ABSTRACT of the several Years Observations of a Gentleman who made that the Peculiar Business of his Travels WITH A Continuation of Christianismus Christianandus LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691. THE Germane Spie TRULY DISCOVERING The Deplorable Condition of the Kingdom and Subjects of the FRENCH King A Certain German Gentleman a Subject to one of the Northern Princes a Person of great Uunderstanding and no less devoted to the good Cause being returned some Weeks ago by the Way of Italy from the Kingdom of France where he Travell'd a long time and took an extraordinary Care to inform himself of all things with an admirable Exactness has imparted to us in his own Language a Writing containing several Remarks of considerable Importance which he made upon the present State of France of which we find it to be our Duty and for the Interest of the Publick Good that the Nation should be inform'd To which effect we immediately with great diligence set our selves to Translate the same And this we do so much the more willingly because we find that several Persons have form'd in themselves such an advantageous Idaea of the Power of France by reason of the taking of Mons and Nyssa that we deem'd it proper to disabuse those People and all others that are led into the same Errour Our Author begins with a Discourse of the Beauty of the Country and Temperature of the Climate the goodness of the Fruits the agreeable Dispositions and Politeness of the Inhabitants and their Assability towards Strangers which in truth is very great and after he has entertain'd the Reader for some time with these things he tells us That the Miseries of those People are not to be express'd That there is not any Nation under Heaven so oppress'd even in a time of Peace neither excepting the Muscovites nor the Turks and that those distressed People are reduced to such a Condition of Poverty that though the merciless Exactors exercise in those Places ten times more Cruelty than an Hostile and Victorious Army is wont to do upon a People newly subdu'd nevertheless the King is not able to raise the half of his ordinary Imposts which he rais'd about three Years agoe because the People have no Money and for that the Kingdom lies so like a Desart in many Places That this Year there will be a Failure of above Thirty Millions upon the Score of Non-ability to pay That all Manufactures are at a very low Ebb as those of Silk Linen Paper c. And that all the Artificers are either dead or in the Wars and that their Trade is absolutely ruin'd as well by Land as Sea as well without as within the Kingdom and that Lewis XIV receives but very little Money by it Which is the reason he has been constrain'd to have recourse to violent Means which are never made use of but when the State is ready to perish such as are the Creation of a great number of new Officers the Borrowing of Thirty Millions the Augmentation of Officers Fees for large Summs the extraordinary Taxes upon the Clergy his Command to sell a great part of his Plate and the enhauncing the Value of Money by which means the King has rais'd above a Hundered Millions without which he could not have paid his Men this Year That all Provisions for the Belly as Corn and Wine are sunk above the sixth part of the Value which they were formerly worth and much less than what they cost the Husbandman That they who have Lands to Let cannot find Farmers and that the Houses tumble down and the Lands lie untill'd That they who have Offices have no Profit by them That they who have Money due cannot get the Interest of their Money iâ— a long time unless they be such who have lent Money to the King some years agoe because he thinks thereby to oblige all those that have Money to lend it him That all the Subjects of that Kingdom in general are all equally ruin'd as The Church-men who formerly were very Wealthy and Powerfull but now their Lands and other Estates no longer yeild 'em any Mony And for the inferiour Clergy they have nothing to doe for they neither Marry nor Baptize nor Bury all the Men being kill'd in the Wars The Grand Nobility live onely upon their Pensions and Court Employments The Gentry are a Body the most miserable in the World and which ought to curse the Reign of this King The Officers of Justice of the Politick Government and the Finances receive no Benefit either by their Estates or Emploiments and yet the King loads them every day with new demands The Universities Colleges and Academies for Riding Dancing and Exercise of Arms are all so low that the Masters die for Hunger That whereas prudent Princes never make War but with one Part of the Revenue of their Subjects and never Conquer but to Enrich and People their Dominions Lewis XIV has devour'd in War three Fourths of all the Funds of the Kingdom and is hastning to eat up the Remainder and that his own Subjects are a thousand times more miserable than the People which he has Conquer'd as appears First In that the Lands and the Houses one with another are not worth above the fourth Part of the Revenue of what they were worth besides that there is no Rent to be seen and to fell them they would not yield a sixth part That there is a fourth Part of the Houses that fall to ruin and a fourth Part of the Lands that are thrown up That the Husbandman who formerly gained 8 Sous a day living in the Country now gets not above two and that pay'd him in Corn of which a Bushel that was formerly commonly worth 30 Sous is not worth above five or six and withall that there is very little Corn in the Kingdom take it in general That by consequence the King has devour'd all the Money that was due to the Rich Men of the Kingdom by the Loans of Money to particular Persons and this exceeds above a third Part of all the Stock of the Kingdom For Lands Houses and Rents being eaten up the Mortgages must fail That he has several times devour'd the Offices and Employments of the whole Kingdom which he sold at dear Rates and which were to him instead of a Grand Principal Substance which produc'd nothing to the Officers That all these Offices of Judicature Civil Policy and the Finances could not have cost less than eight hundred Millions and that the small Wages which they receive from the King are swallow'd up in the Taxes which they pay from time to time That the innumerable multitude of these Offices and of their exorbitant Prices is such that these People having but small Wages and ill Paid cannot drain less than a hundred Millions a year from the People by