sunk Ships and damage to their Goods the absolute Loss of their Market the Money which must be payed for their Conducting home and the Expences while they stay for a stronger Convoy and the real Loss you sustained as appears by the Remarcks on the London Gazette the Merchants must have lost a pretty round Sum. And I learnt before I came from London that upon the first Alarum of that Loss many thousand of Workmen at the Clothworkers Trade had been dismissed so that in one Parish viz. Leeds in Yorkshire Five hundred Workmen had been discharged in one day And the hazard of Adventuring hath so discouraged the Merchants to buy that they are still out of Employment and we have the like Effects with us However the matter fell out that you suffered no more yet the French at that time in Ships and Goods got as much besides the Burning of so many Ships as will desray the greatest part of the Charge of their Fleet this Summer whereas you have been at a vast Charge and yet scarcely have preserved one inward or outward bound Ship which was discovered by a French Privateer Neither can we apprehend the true reason of your late Proclamation concerning your Sea-men that they shall have no pay till their next going to Sea and then only a promise to be paid to Michaelmas last The Pay they used to have at the laying up of their Ships was a great Support to their Families in Winter and by short Voyages till the Fleet went out they got something towards the Summer following I know not how you can think that near 100000 Persons including their Wives and Children can have any possibility of subsisting without Stealing Begging or Starving if they be not paid now This kind of way of Proceeding our Sea-men would not suffer and such Proclamations have that fatal Consequence besides the Discouragement of the Sea-men which you may be sure pleaseth us here that it discovers either the real want of Money the Governmeet is in or else the Squandering what is given to unwarrantable Uses Such as the magnificent Buildings here at the Loo where our Statholder is building a Palace to equal Versailles or the Pleasure-house of the Duke of Savoy to furnish which besides the Curiosities and splendid Ornaments he hath provided as an Onyx Table and Stands from the Emperor he hath transported the richest Hangings and other Furniture of the Palaces of your Kings and several rich Silver Tables and Pictures and he hath demolished a great part of Hampton-Court and so magnificently rebuilt it that I was told when I went to see it that already he had Expended above 100000 l. upon it it would Cost 400000 l. more ere finished and furnished while Whitehall lyes still in Rubbish and one of your Commissioners for taking the Publick Accounts told me that as much was Expended upon that Building and at Kensington and for Jewels and other needless Matters as would have built Fourscore Men of War And I remember an Extract of their Accounts was shown me whereby it appeared that since our Statholder's Administration in England he had received into the Exchequer 25 Millions of which according to a full discharge of all Money to be defrayed according to the Establishments he must have Expended no more than 20 Millions and yet there was a Debt owing of 5 Millions still and that he expects for carrying on a Vigorous War no less than 7 or 8 Millions more and an encrease of 20 or 30000 Men without which he can hope for no better Success than he hath had formerly whereas it is our Opinion you neither can provide such Supplies nor if he had them he would be able to effect greater Matters than he hath hitherto atchieved I own there are many secret Sluces by which great Sums of your Money have passed which whether they be publickly owned I know not The Duke of Savoy besides 100000 l. Prest-money hath received 20 30 40 or 50000 l. per Month. The King of Denmark had a large Sum for the hiring the Troops under the Command of the Duke of Wirtenburg though Prince George his Royal Brother hath had ill Usage by your Court. The Duk of Hannouer and several other German Princes proportionable Sums Above 100000 l. spent upon the Swiss Cantons and Vaudois besides what we and the Spanish Neatherlands have received So that your Money hath plentifully Circulated through the whole Confederacy How much hath been squandred away upon other Accounts I know not but I presume upon giving liberty to due Informations you may easily learn And I cannot think it needful to descend to many Particulars but one Instance I cannot omit a Master of one of the transport Ships related to me in presence of several not as any Secret but as the Case of many other such Masters That upon his first Imployment into Ireland he had 70 l. worth of Hay a board and was retained at 50 l. a Month and ordered with his Hay to lye at one Port after another till his Wages amounted to 1300 l. and when he related this he said he had the like Lading on Board upon the other years pretended Descent whièh he had kept on Bonrd till his Pay had run up to 750 l. He adds further That a year since there was 500000 l. owing to transport Ships which he durst Undertake to prove was more by 400000 l. than all their Cargo was worth I think you may cast into the Scale of the lavish Expence 300000 l. at least squandered away upon your noised Descents by which you mightily raised the Expectation of all Europe to have seen some Master-piece of Stratagem which by their Abortiveness have redounded to your eternal Disgrace and if your present Undertaking with your Squadron under Capt. Bombo with his Well-boats and Bomb Vessels shoul end in an empty Burst you will forfeit for ever your Reputation in Policy and Conduct I remember when I was with you I heard several of your Character liberally censuring some of these Matters as also bitterly inveighing against the Numbers of civil and military Officers and Pentioners in the House for whom it was reported that 150000 l. was lodged not to be touched for other Uses that it might be ready for Distribution agoinst the Sitting of the House Besides the quarterly Payments of 30000 l. which I doubt not but our States if required would willingly pay a share of rather than such useful Persons should want their Wages for the more Liberal such Men are of the publick Money the more comes to ours and all the Confederates Treasury as well as yours And I think you may easily judge in whom this Aurum Potabile works most effectually for they will seem at the first Sitting as forward as any to redress publick Grievances yea to enquire into some Miscarriages and seem unwilling that any Money should be given till publick Accounts be stated but when they have gotten the Reputation of Patriots by that
Art they then know when to follow their File-leaders to supersede all further Enquiries by diverting the House by some new Matters or suggesting Dangers from abroad or Plots at home and then watching an Opportunity when their Party is strongest in the House they gain some fundamental Vote for a Supply and as soon as that is obtained they pursue that Quarry only letting all other publick Bills sink insinuating that they had found no such grounds of Complaints or Mismanagements as at first appeared to them This Discovery I gained by discourse from a Member of our States General who hath a great influence in your Councils as well as ours so that you may be confident that till you remove such mercinary Members out of the House as Monopolists and other obnoxious Persons as Betrayers of their publick Trust have been in other Parliaments you will never be able to obtain a true Account how your Money hath been Expended and what vast Arrears are owing to the Fleet and Army Providores of Stores of Victuals Ammunition transport Ships c. It pleaseth us infinitely that so great Sums are brought over hither for pay of the Army and the Confederates in Specie and the best Money and I cannot learn that our Statholder brought any great Sum back in Silver hesides 1500 l. in washt and clipt Money I am sure you cannot forget how a very credible Person of Quality told you and me That if a strict Enquiry were made there would appear that 1900000l had been given by you since the Administration of our Statholder with you for your Fleet more than ever had been paid to the Sea men or expended upon it and he believed such like Defalcations would be found in what was given to the Army and for other Occasions besides placing more to Accounts than really had been paid I shall long to know whether in this Sessions you make any Enquiry into such Matters for it is believed if you trace these Matters up the Stream which if you do not you will be notorious Breakers of the Trust reposed upon you you will pinch some great Ministers who must either have an unusual Decian Courage to devote their Lives to excuse some above them which will be a rare Gallantry in this Age or you will at the Fountain head find the source of Miscarriages you are to Enquire after of which we here talk more openly than you do Having thus dispatched the second of your Enquiries in these several Particulars I how proceed to the last It is more difficult I must confess to give an Answer to this than either of the former because the Consultations of the Confederate Princes are kept as they ought to be very Secret only I can tell you in the general That neither the Emperor King of Spain Duke of Bavaria or the other German Princes are so devoted to our Statholder as formerly since they see he can work no Miracles And all the deference they have for him now is because he hath been so well credited and befriended by you as to be supplied with Men and Money hitherto according to his desire without rendering any Account which though it be to the infinite damage of your selves who reap no sort of Blessings or Benefits thereby yet is the only Cement which prevents the Crumbling of the Confederacy For I assure you we are sufficiently tired out and exhausted by the War and would be very thankful to such unengaged Princes as would uneergo the Office of Mediators for which purpose we have late Advice that the Emperor hath sent to the Pope to acquaint him that he is not averse to Peace provided he may have honourable Terms and for that purpose desires a Copy of the French King's Terms The King of Poland likewise hath represented his Inability to sustain the Losses his Subjects receive by incursions and pressures of the Tartars What Applications have been made by the Emperor to the Northern Crowns and the Willingness of the French King to accept of their Mediation is much discoursed of and how instant the Pope the State of Venice and the Italian Princes are to persuade the Duke of Savoy to accept of the Overtures of the King of France you cannot be ignorant though it may be it is concealed from you into what strates the Duke is reduced for we have it from sure hands That in the late Battle after a perfect numbring of the Duke's Souldiers slain they amounted to 9000 and 600 Men and that 3000 Prisoners were taken and 117 Standards and Colours and besides all the Cannon and Baggage a vast number of Bombs and Carcasses were taken with which the Duke intended to Bombard Pignerol That since this Victory the whole Army under Marshal Catinal hath quartered in that rich Country and hath drawn such vast Provisions from thence that he hath stored Pignerol for two years shall do the like for Cazal besides putting so large a Garrison into it as shall enable them to make Excursions all this Winter and the French King hath sent a Message to the Italian Princes that if they admit any of the Germans to quarter in their Territories he will send his Troops among them otherwise he will inviolably preserve the Peace of Italy and our very last Advices are that the Duke hath at last sent to the Duke of Orleance to medeats a Peace upon which the French King dispatched a Courier with his Answer in five hours and if a Peace be once made in that Quarter it will be a great step towards the like with the Emperor You must in the next place consider the French King is so much above his Work that he may continue the Wars many years yet longer without impoverishing his Subjects in 12 years more as much as ours and yours have been in these Four or Five years last for that he maintains a great part of his Troops by Quarterings Forrage and Contributions out of the Confederate Countries and his Sea Force by Prizes while his own Kingdom enjoys a profound Tranquility as if no War was in their Borders And all the World knows with what ease out of his large and populous Dominions he can raise what Men be pleaseth by Warrants only from Lieutenants of Provinces to the respective Cities and Towns who at a day prefixed bring to the Rendevouz a double Number of Men out of which the Officers pick out the Number needed of the ablest Men without beat of Drum or allowing his Officers so much per Head as the Confederates are forced to advance for theirs And his Subjects have such a perfect Love to him even to a Veneration and such a Sense of the Honour which redounds to the French Nation by his glorious Successes that with great Alacrity they submit to what-ever he requires besides that all Undertakings after mature Consultations are ordered by himself solely so that his Purposes and Determinations are never betrayed or embarrassed or retarded by staying for the Consent of others as the Confederates are yearly â—ompelled to submit to and then he hath 400000 stout and resoluâ—e Men under the most experienced Commanders of any Age to put all his Commands in Execution and his Fund of Money is inexhaustable for that in times of Peace the whole Revenue of his Kingdom passeth through his Exchequer once in Five or Six years some affirm it in Four And if he chance ever to be put to a Streight a few of his rich Allies will supply him Thus Sir I have given you not only my own Judgment but that of very juditious Men I have conversed with Yet least my Letter should be too long I have omitted several things I had to say which if this be of any use to you may be supplied in my next and with profound Respects I remain SIR Yours
the yearly profit he made of the Land so that at last he was forced to part with it yet as Monsieur Halewin saith the States were no Loosers for he was Taxed according to the old rate it being alledged he had received Mony for it which was to be Taxed I remember I heard when with you that this Story was related at an Entertainment when some made complaint of the heaviness of your Taxes it was replied Then and not till then England would have reason to complain when you were driven to such Extremities you know how great a Man he was that related this and Major Ashton can name him if he pleases Monsieur Halewin pag. 3 in his Communication with Monsieur Amelot to aggrandire our power told him Though there were some losses of Trade on one hand yet they were repaid on the other by a considerable Sale of the Manufactures and those that stood in need of the Goods were to pay a greater price and that the Merchants generally ensured But I must tell you this was said to put our best foot forward for though our Merchants of whom our very States consist devise all the ways they can to promote or preserve Traffick yet our common People what by the burthen of Taxes and the Obstruction of the old course of Trade are reduced to such a poor Estate that they are upon the very Tipto of rising in mutiny against our Magistrates and States for their so obstinate persisting in the War and generally exclaim that our Statholder never yet had any success ar all against the French so that if this Winter or in the Spring the French King should have any one signal Success in these parts it would be impossible to restrain the Mobile any longer Indeed our Merchants have many Contrivances you want because our States being all such contrive or connive at the Frauds for whereas we read weekly in your Gazetts of French Prizes taken by some of our Privateers they are generally such as by Assignation are to be brought to our Ports and by these measures we supply you and other Countries with French Commodities besides we are glad to be excused with so small a quota of our Men of War while you make a great noise with encreasing the number of your grand Fleet by which means we spare more for Convoys and it is an admiration to our People that you should not discover our Arts and Industry to ingross all the Trade into our hands We have without your being able to censure us for it utterly defeated all your Laws of Navigation we bring you in our own Bottoms at least under some of your own Peoples names the far greatest part of all your imported Commodities which may be discovered every day by the number of our Dutch built Vessels in your River and all your Ports We have had good Lading back of Corn Butter and Cheese and there is one Fraught we bring of our Country-men French Refuges and other Foreigners for what uses your Master and ours designs them it becomes you to look to it we have got one advantage since your Revolution besides many other colatcral ones that we know the soundings of all your Ports the strength of your Fortifications the Stores of your Arms and Amunition you had which have been Transported hither or to Flanders the small Stock you have left the Secrets of your Revenue and what is above all the disposition of your People and the easiness of managing your Parliaments to our advantage whereby we and the Confederates have gained many Millions since we found you so ready to give us 600000l for our assisting our own Statholder for which benefits we have reaped since in any other Reign we would have given Millions Yet notwithstanding all these Emoluments if you once withdraw your giving hands we shall be forced to make Peace and when you have given to the last Doit and are sufficiently exhausted we shall be able to make our Terms and then enjoy the sole Trade for obtaining which only we use all our Arts to engage you still in the War from which we expect no other advantage And our Statholders interest will never fail within our consideration for that he useth his despotick Power in nominating or approving only such Magistrates as are his Creatures which hath highly disobliged this Town Roterdam Pregow and many others of our most opulent Cities and by his preferring to the Supream Command of our Armies The Dukes of Halston Ploen and Wirtenburgh General Ginckle and others he hath so disobliged the Prince of Nassaw Statholder of Friesland and other Princes of his own Blood as well as deserving Men of our Country that he hath lost very much of his interest in Friesland Groninghen and other Provinces lying most obnoxious to the French which is no inconsiderable weakning of our Country and I doubt not but by our Statholders disobliging many leading and popular Men in our Country as well as in yours he must have cooled the Affections of many to his Person as well as his advancing several among us who are not very greatful to the People as I remember I heard many wonder with you that one Coningsby who was much blackened by Informations against him in Parliament and yet as if done it in dispight to the Houses he made him a Lord and took him into his Secret Council This Consideration leads me to tell you what Resentments he used of the Conducts of the Admirals this Year as he had formerly done against Admiral Torrington and Admiral Russel which we look upon as a perfect Design to convince our States that he hath an heartier good will to promote our Interest than yours I must confess it was a great oversight in your Council and Commissioners of the Admiralty that they did not Order the Grand Fleet to attend the Merchants under the Care of Admiral Rook till they had certain Notice where the French Fleet was but since they had no such Orders I know not wherein the Admirals are to blame for I hear that Admiral Almond owns that Sir Ralph Dalaval and I think the other two Admirals at a Council of Flag Officers moved that the Grand Fleet might attend Admiral Rook till they knew where the French Fleet was which being utterly denied by our Flags and such of yours as joyn'd with us he then moved that at least they might go a hundred Leagues further which being likewise denied by reason I presume of the positive Orders to attend so far only without any Latitude in their Instructions I cannot see why our Statholder should not remove some of the Commissioners of your Admiralty if he be satisfied there have been no Miscarriages of the Council As to the Loss sustained there I think we and the Hamburghers had the greatest Share yet when I consider the Charge your Merchants had been at in lying Fraught Nine Ten or Twelve Months in expectance of Convoys the Charge of buoying up the