Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A88869
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The copy of a letter from Min Heer T.V.L. to Min Heer H.V.C. Faithfully translated from the original.
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T. V. L.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing L83C; ESTC R179228
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2,742
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4
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The Copy of a Letter from Min Heer T. V. L. to Min Heer H. V. C. Faithfully Translated from the Original SIR THo' I have a great deference for your Judgment yet can I not give way to those Fears which you tell me you so mightily apprehend On the contrary my Opinion is tho' what you suggest should prove true yet would the Prince our States and the Confederates be considerable Gainers by the Expedition What I say may seem a Paradox to one who runs as you do upon so high a strain in your apprehensions of seeing all our Designs ruined by King James's regaining the Possession of His Kingdoms but yet I doubt not but in few words to make the matter clear to a much meaner Capacity than yours You know Sir as well as I that the first Design of the Confederates was not the Security of the Protestant Religion in England nor the hindering their Laws from being changed nor the Birth of a supposed Prince of Wales but principally to oppose the King of France's Power and suppress his Growth You know Sir also that it was looked upon as impossible to make the late King of England a Partner in that Undertaking or to have kept it secret if it had been Proposed to him and therefore it was thought necessary either to constrain him to take part with the Confederates or else to reduce him to such a state that it should not lye in his Power to do them harm by lending his Assistance This made our States urge the Prince to hearken to the Proposals of the Male Contents in England and the hopes they had of compassing those great Ends together with some smaller concerns of their own were powerful Motives to furnish him with Men Money Ships and other Necessaries answerable to the Greatness of the Attempt Now what I affirm is that tho' the Prince of Orange should be at last forced to quit England yet would neither he nor any of the Confederates nor our States of Holland be frustrated of their hopes but would sufficiently obtain their Ends. 1. Not he For you know that according to his Declaration he did not at first aim at the Crown of England but when he saw it ready to drop upon his head a far less Ambitious Man than he would have scarce refused it It was his Natural Antipathy to the King of France and the desire of Glory which pushed him on to make that Attempt which we must needs say Nature would have otherwise abhorred And the hopes his Souldiers had to have laden themselves with the Spoils of a Countrey which a long Peace Prosperity and Trafick had not only made Rich but Luxurious and Effeminate made them follow him with Joy in that Expedition And you may assure your self let what will come they will accomplish their first Designs and if he be Beaten off from his other Attempt 't is because he went farther than his Commission I say he will gain his first ends and instead of either losing his Honour or wasting his Treasure as you suggest will no doubt both enrich himself and his Companion and gain a due esteem amongst all the Confederates by providing so effectually against the common Enemy For should it happen as you fear it will that the late King James by the Aid of the Irish and Scotch should enter into England and find that People who are strangely changeable in their Humours ready to embrace him again for their Soveraign and like a wanton Steed cast their Rider before he be well seated in the Saddle yet can you not in Prudence think that he who has the actual Possession of all the Forts and Magazines and by consequence the Strength and Riches of the Nation in his hands and that he who Commands the Ports and Navy and has put what Officers he pleases in every Station will go away empty handed or leave the Nation in a Capacity to do either him or his Confederates any mischief Assure your self Sir he will not go till he has Fleec'd that Proud and Pamper'd Nation The Forts shall be first if not dismantl'd at least render'd useless by withdrawing all the Cannon and Amunition from them some pretences or other will be found out to drain the Exchequer to melt down the Plate to be Master of the Richest Jewels to remove the most Stately Furniture to borrow immense Sums and by this means if he cannot keep the Crown he will at least enrich himself and the free Plunder of the City of London will be a sufficient recompence for his Souldiers if they find they must be gone Neither can you doubt of his being able to carry all this off when you consider that he is not so unpolitick a Prince but that he will take such effectual care to secure the English Fleet from doing him any harm that on the contrary he will certainly bring the Chiefest Vessels into Holland with him 2. This will fully Answer all the Expectations of our Confederates for all that could have been hop'd for from England would have been either to make them sit still or lend the Assistance of their Fleet with some few Regiments And as for sitting still they must necessarily do it when they are so impoverished and the Augmentation of our Fleet by those Vessels will make us formidable to the French by Sea neither will he want as great an Army of English who will be forced to fly with him as he could have sent had he continued a Peaceable Possessor of the Crown 3. Our States of Holland will be the most considerable Gainers in this Affair For 't is manifest the Three Kingdoms will be so impoverished that they will not be able to recover it 100 years of Peace but you may assure your self we shall not permit that neither for having once got them under we should be Fools if we did not labour to keep them so and let them have neither Commerce abroad nor Peace at home but what we shall think good to allow them Thus Sir you see I am so far from heing of your mind that this Expedition of the late King JAMES will be the utter ruine of our Affairs if it succeed that I can scarce hinder my self from wishing Him all the Success He hopes for being perswaded that otherwise we cannot expect to impoverish that Nation nor humble it to such a Degree as I hope the Prince of Orange's Return will do I am Min Heer Your most humble Servant T. V. L. Amsterdam March the 15th 1689. I hear some persons doubt of the Truth of this Letter but I think no one that sees the Transactions at present can be of so Incredulous a Nature 'T is manifest that almost all the Arms and Amunition are sent out of the Tower and other Magazines to Holland not to Ireland nor Scotland as we are made believe The Exchequer is already drain'd French Hugonots are underhand Armed with an Encouragement of a free Plunder of the City if things succeed not to their minds The Souldiers and Sea-men whose Loyalty they mistrust are or must be Ship'd away for Holland and from thence to the Indies where they are like to Expiate their Treachery to King James with a severe Punishment a perpetual Slavery The Royal Plate is Melted down Money is endeavoured to be borrowed if the Citizens will take a Tax which is not likely to be Raised for their Security What will become of the Jewels Borrowed for the Corronation let them that lent them find by Experience And as for ruining our Trade and Commerce our Merchands find that Dutch Bottoms can now Import Merchandize into England without controul So that nothing is now remaining to be effected but the Demolishing our Forts Burning or Sinking our Ships Plundering the City and Scampering