Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	great_a	king_n	portugal_n	2,523	5	10.0178	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55434	Popery and tyranny, or, The present state of France, in relation to its government, trade, manners of the people, and nature of the countrey as it was sent in a letter from an English gentleman abroad, to his friend in England, wherein may be seen the tyranny the subjects of France are under ...	English gentleman abroad.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2922; ESTC R1480	12,025	21

practised very Arbitrary and also appoints the Assessors in the Parish who are answerable for the Taxes upon the Parish out of their own Estates and may impose the same Arbitrarily upon their Neighbours yet most of them of any Substance take their Turns and are much regulated by new Edicts in imposing and levying the same If there be any complaint made that the Parish is over-burdened the Remedy is by Petition to the Intendant who upon Examination doth as he sees cause and the Appeal from him is only to the King which is rarely or never practised for those that are great men and concerned at Court are alwayes favoured by the Intendant and for the rest he matters them not The Intendant as I said before is an Officer Elected to Govern and Oversee the Affairs of the Revenue and Finances but his Power is since inlarged to Examine and Determine all Complaints concerning the good Government of the Province and every Member and now lately to oversee the new Manufacturies and Trade and all other things except the Militia and he gives a constant Account to the King by a Master of Requests of the Estate of the Province and Trade and of all such Grievances Inconveniences and Complaints as are not in his Power to remedy and is become a very necessary Officer yet rarely any of Quality is preferred to this Imployment but men Industrious bred up to the Law If there be any complaint between the Assessours and their Neighbours this is determined at the Court of the Elect. Now it is to be known these Elects are certain Officers who buy their Offices and are appointed by the King for each Division though possibly in their beginning they were elected by each Division There lies an Appeal from them to the Courts of Aids where also Process issues forth against the Assessors if any Sum be behind which Courts are assisted with the Chamber of Accounts these hold Plea generally of all Matters relating to the Revenue and the Edicts concerning the same are now used to be Registred there and not in Parliament An Account of the Clergy and their Revenue The Roman Church of France hath in it fourteen Arch-bishopricks viz. Lyons Sens Auches Arles Remis Bourdeaux Tholouse Burgers Narbone Aix Vienne Roan Paris Under which are contained 95 Bishopricks 120000 Parishes or Cures it hath 1356 Abbies 12400 Priories 256 Commanders of Malta 452000 Monasteries that have all Chaplains besides the Monasteries of Religious Women of which the number is 557. Beside these there are 700 Convents of Cordelis without comprehending the Jacobins and Carmelites the Augustines the Charteva the Belisines the Jesuits the Minims and other Religious Houses the Number whereof is 14078 which Ecclesiasticks possess 9000 Castles Pallaces and Houses which have high mean and low Justice They have also 259000 large Farmes and 10000 Arpans of Vines so that it is found that the Revenue of the Church per annum amounts to 312 Millions of Livres Concerning the Manners of the People The Nobility and Gentry unless it be such as are assured of Ecclesiastical Preferment are Unlearned yet generally well bred and very capable of the Court and Camp or Charges belonging to the Law The Gentry when they are past the Grammar-School are usually sent to the Academies where they learn to ride the great Horse Dance Fence and some of them some part of the Mathematicks especially Fortifications The Burgois are very Ingenious the Artisan and Peasant very Laborious of which latter sort not a hand is Idle from break of Day till dark Night all except the great Nobility and Gentry Devout they are Civil to Strangers Servile to their Prince and Good to their Relations and Families Their Defects and Vices They are superficially Learned or knowing nought but Law Physick Chirurgery and Art of War horribly addicted to Luxury and Vices of the Court as plain Building great Trains Courtship and Entertainments which seems to be the Butt and Scope of all men of all Degrees except peasants Proud Boasters Despisers of others Envious of their Superiours and Tyrannical to their Inferiours Slighting in their Friendship Unreasonable in their Askings Unjust in their Dealing extreamly given to Law-Suits and Exacting upon Strangers joyn'd with a Court-Confidence from the Highest to the lowest The Sum of all they imploy themselves to a Court-Deportment are not Naturally Industrious except to acquire mony for their Luxury which the Peasant also would be inclined unto were not his Condition such as puts him in despair of it As to the Countrey the Air is generally very wholsom the Towns wel● built the Soil very fruitful and well improved in all but Herbage abounding in small Walled Towns and Burroughs through the multiplicity of Lords that shar'd the Lands now generally decayed an ill People delicious Companies and full of Elegant Seats and Country-Houses generally small but embellished with Groves and fine Gardens the great Cities are full of Sumptuous Buildings well Peopled and over-run with the Religious with Officers of all kinds and small Artizans there is abundance of Wealth but collected no where but in the Crown the rest the Lawyers Clergy and Officers hitherto have the best share Reflections on the Alliance of France and its Foreign Interest They are suspected by all their Neighbours at present though some out of Necessity or Interest are forced to depend on them such are the Princes of the Rhyne and the King of Portugal the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraign the Dutch in Case of Difference with England the Dane is generally opposed to the Swedes and joyned to Holland the Pole upon the Defensive against the Swede Moscovite and the Cosack the Swede and Swiss upon Occasion for Money if not otherwise imployed the Italian perfectly Spanish except the Duke of Modena the Turk upon occasion may make a Diversion upon the Empire with these several Respects they regard France whose great Hopes that England will be corrupted as it hath been hitherto with the Designs of changing the Government their flattering Hopes of Assistance in that Behalf are also to ruine the Dutch and make us sharers in Flanders beside the Sums of Money to assist the King in his Necessities and to corrupt his Ministers are the Baites by which they have hitherto prevailed and hope still to catch us As for their Tripple Alliance their present Design is to get an Opportunity to fortifie Flanders subdue all Parties and Interest at Home settle the Revenue of the Crown to keep up a considerable Army alwayes in Preparation to take Advantage of the first Occasion and to oblige the Spaniard to a constant Charge of entertaining the Swede by keeping us from all further Occasion to render us cool in the Prosecution of Alliances unprofitable to the Spaniard burthensome to our selves without Prospect of future Advantage and to give us Leisure of dividing among our selves To this I may add the fomenting the Duke of York's Interest and Don Ivans in Spain and their Pretence in Weakening the Dutch in directing their Trade by their new Impositions and new introduced Manufactories whilst we in our Manufactures suffer most by them the Dutch looking well enough to themselves and their Concerns Paris May 12th SIR Your most Humble Servant FINIS

POPERY AND TYRANNY OR THE Present State OF FRANCE In relation to Its Government Trade Manners of the People and Nature of the Countrey As it was sent in a Letter from an English Gentleman abroad to his Friend in England Wherein may be seen the Tyranny the Subjects of France are under being Enslaved by the two greatest Enemies to Reason as well as to Christian or Humane Liberty I mean Popery and Arbitrary Power Tunc tua res agitur Paries cum proximus ardet London Printed in the Year 1679. SIR HAving received from you so good and so large an Account of your Affairs at home with the great Fears you are in I thought it some small Retribution to give you some little Account of the Government here and some little Observations I have been able to make since I came hither which may something inform you both of the Manner the Subjects of France live in and the Strength of the French King in case of any Design upon us Concerning the Government As to the Government of France It is an Absolute Monarchy imposed upon the People by a standing illegal and oppressive Army It is the Corruption of a Monarchy from the best tempered one before the Use of States of France was laid aside to the double Tyranny of Popery and Arbitrary Power Here you will find that Government in its Perfection being supported by all the Machiavilian tricks of a corrupt Policy and suffered by a People who having first submitted the freest part of them to the slavery of Popery are easily brought to submit the other to the Yoke of Oppression Here the Prince is now only upon the Defensive part only to keep what he has got which he has brought about now to be no very hard Task having instilled into the People so great a Vanity of Conquering abroad that they are prouder of having their King take a Town than of possessing any thing as their own without being subject to the Griping hand of an Arbitrary Publican I must confess it has wrought so much with me that it has made me as often as I meditate upon the Afflictions of my Neighbours here thank the Almighty as much for having placed me under so good a Prince and so good a Government as that of England as for my daily Sustenance And really Sir it is only to be attributed to the goodness of Almighty God and the Excellency of his Majesties Temper that we are not under as great Misfortunes as our Neighbours having not wanted Ambitious and Ill men among our selves who had they not been discovered and curbed by some Noble Patriots as well as discountenanced and removed by his Majesty from his Person and Councels might too soon have effected their wicked Designs You must excuse me Sir if I have made such a Digression it being in a thing so much concerns Me and all of us but fearing to trouble you with my thoughts of things you being upon the place can best see into I shall return to what I have promised viz. Something of the present Government of France or the manner of proceeding after Tyranny and Arbitrary Power is come to be the settled Government under an Active Popish Prince The Government of France is to considered either in relation to its Subjects or Foreign Interest As to the Subjects the present state is this The Nobility of all sorts are very much Oppress'd and their Interests are to be broken and rendred absolutely dependent upon the Crown by these Means 1. No Favourite suffered to form a Faction or oblige Dependents Affairs being Managed by three Upstarts only Assistants to the Prince who Acts and Determines all himself and thus the Nobility and Gentry are totally laid aside as to the Administration of Government 2. As to Councel they are rarely and with great Caution made Use of and that only upon extraordinary Occasions none of them being admitted to those Charges that do render it necessary as the Prince of Conde Marshal Turin who are only made Use of in matters of War and Foreign Enterprizes 3. None of their Mediation admitted between the Prince and his Subjects as to publick or private Favours Rewards Preferment or any Affairs laying them aside as to the Court-Interest 4. All those Charges Military or Civil that may render them Considerable supprest or eclipsed as the high Constable high Admiral and Colonel of the Infantry Governours of Provinces Towns Fortresses are eclips'd by these means by Intendants who are Superiours placed in every Province who usurp the whole Power under the Notion of Intendants over Justices Policy and Finances at first only ordained for Finances These render Account only to the King who admits of no Superiour Intendant or high Treasurer nor Mediation of the Governour who being thus divested of Power is reduced also to his bare Pension also the Profits and Privileges taken away which were considerable and in Truth is now much the same thing with our Lord Lieutenants as to quartering Souldiers and other Military Affairs As to Towns and Fortresses all Inland ones are demolished and Frontiers such only as are thought necessary kept up and maintained all the French Companies formerly belonging to the Governours supprest no Possibility of false Musters or making Use of Towns-men to fill up the Places the King supplying his Garrisons out of his standing Army and taking the Pay of the Provinces towards their Maintenance and charging them every three Months by select Companies out of the several Regiments that the Governour and their Officers may not be able by any Correspondence to have Intrest in them or reap any Advantages for themselves notwithstanding all which the Charges are saleable and rarely the greater Nobility admitted to them 2. All Charges both in the Army Law Court and Revenue are diminished in number and retrench'd in Profits upon which the Nobility heretofore depended they are beside much impoverish'd 1. By the late Expedition into Flanders from which they were dismissed without Pay or Recompence 2. By retrenching their Privileges as to Exemption from Tally restraining it to one Farme or Mansion and that in one Place not exceeding two Ploughs 3. By Project of reviewing the ancient Nobles 4. By re-assuming all the demesne Lands of the Crown as upon a Mortgage The Clergy is also overawed 1. By strict Visitations in point of Manners and Imployment of their Revenues 2. By upholding the Jansenists against the Jesuits the Jesuits upholding the Kings Authority against the Popes 3. By threatning to subject the Religious to Episcopal Jurisdiction to which I may add by having the Pope under his Girdle whereby he extorts from the Religious great Aids and suppresses all religious Societies not exceeding such a number or wanting Royal Establishment What concerns Offices and Officers in this Manner 1. Multitudes of them both in Reference to Law and Finances are supprest 2. The Profits of Offices relating to the Law are diminished by Code Lewis and the Fees and

and foreign Manufactures do sufficiently evidence 3. Having reduced all Home Duties into one receit to save the Expence of so many Officers and of Time is another great Encouragement of Domestick Trade to all these I may add the Advance of Duty upon all Foreign Merchandize the Defence made against all Foreign Manufacturies the Favouring the Artizan as to Table but above all the Example of the Prince in confining himself to the wearing his Manufacturies and obliging all his Dependents to the like observance is of great Importance 4. The Increase of Navigation and Shipping is procured by these means 1. Giving 500 l. out of his own Customs by way of Encouragement for every hundred Tuns of Shipping his Subjects shall build of above 100 Tuns burden and 400 Livres for all they shall buy 2. Rendring all Persons incapable in Corporations relating to Trade that have not an Interest in Shipping to put a proportion appointed to each Officer 3. Electing an Northern Company to furnish his Subjects with Provisions of Shipping at the best hand and also endeavouring to find the Materials in his own Countrey as I have already observed 4. Giving their Shipping Preference of Employment as the late Edict for Salt shews obliging all his Officers to fraught French Ships at such a Rate before any Strangers as also fifty soulz per Tun imposed upon Forreign Vessels 5. Endeavouring to make his Subjects sole Merchants of all Trades as well imported as exported and not only by the Priviledges already mentioned upon their Commodities and Ships but also by putting all manner of Discouragements upon all Foreign Factories and Merchants by Difficulty in their Dispatches delayes in point of Justice subjecting them to Foreign Duties and Seizures not suffering them to be Factors to the French or any other Nation but their own and in case of Death to have their Estates seized as Aliens and the Countenance and conceiving the French have as to all Duty when employ'd in the Service of Foreigners 6. The great Care taken to set the Poor on Work to the Increase of Trade and disburdening the rest of their Fellow-Subjects as Work-houses over all France manifesteth but especially at Paris and at Lyons which hath Hostels de Dieu far better than a Tax to support them in Idleness The Care taken to Encourage Foreigners to Travel or abide in France and so increase the number of Subjects as sheweth 1. By a general Naturalization of all Nations except English Irish and Spanish the People of Flanders are comprized in that benefit 2. Convenient Academies Schools Colleges Pensions and Tables de Hostes 3. Convenient Passages by Messages Coaches and Boats 4. Impartial and speedy Justice to all Strangers as well as their own Subjects especially in Courts-Merchants and before their Commissaries considering Contracts made by Strangers to which I may add the late care of setting up Posts Places For every Winter the King does not keep his Court at Paris he is obliged by Covenant to abate sixteen hundred thousand Livres to those that Farm his Excise for that Place In two years time soon after the Kings Marriage when the Kingdom was in Peace the King drew from the Parisians six score Millions of Livres Some Defects and Difficulties in the way of their Trade managed 1. The Wealth of the Burgois seem inconsistent with the Policy of this Monarch 2. The Arbitrariness of the Tallies discourageth the meaner sort seeking after no more than suplying absolute Necessity and makes Towns fearful ro receive new Manufactures for fear of Increase of their Tallies 3. The Prejudice the Trade lies under as to the Nobility being inconsistent with it the Policy of this Monarch designing them all for Arms and Art and not for Trade 4. The unsettledness of the Books of Rates and great Arbitrariness of the Kings Officers and Farmers which are too much favoured by Laws 5. The present Policie admits not of any Corporations of Trade to be Elective 6. Want of able Merchants amongst them and putting the Directions of all their present Companies into the Hands of Persons ignorant in Trade Favourites of the present Ministers whereby they have lost the third part of the Stock of the East India Company already making all the new Manufactures Monopolies whereby most of them are come to nothing as that of Silk-Stockens and Cloth 7. The Encrease of Church-men and Souldiers with the Design this Monarchy hath of enlarging it self by new Acquisitions at Land Lastly The natural Idleness and Luxury these People are addicted unto but that Necessity forceth them to the contrary together with the forcing them to enter into Companies of Trade and imposing their new Manufactures upon Places and Buyers with the evil Treatment of those Strangers that teach them after they have once learned their Trade and the Difficulty of finding a Market and Credit which attends all new Beginners especially where others are in possession of Trade are Obstructions not easily conquered yet should the Project hold of making the Tally hold real and Salt Merchantable succeed and Trade and Manufacturies be made free and the Book of Rates be Regulated under the present Encouragements and the great Advantage of the cheapness of Work and great Industry of Workmen it were much to be feared that the rest of the Difficulties would be overcome Since I wrote this the King hath passed an Edict declaring That the Trade of Merchandize never ought to have been nor never should be in any time to come esteemed a Derogation to Nobility and Ennobling it with many Privileges and by the diminution of the Profits and Privileges of all Charges Military and Civil as I have before observed endeavouring to Necessitate the Gentry and Sons of the Nobility themselves to Merchandise Concerning Revenue The whole Revenue of the Crown is Eighty Millions all Charges deducted comes to sixty Millions of Livres yearly not possible to be augmented the Clergy Nobility and Partizans being already pared and pilled the Tallies and Gabals in most places upon the meaner sort being so far stretcht that they require abatement Especially in respect of Cessation of War and Interruption of Trade with Foreigners by reason of their new Projects about Trade but in general this I must say that there never was more care taken in managing of the Kings Revenues by Superiour as well as Inferiour Officers and am informed that the Tally is so regulated that the Expence in Levying it comes not to above a twentieth part but its Arbitrary manner of Collecting the Tally is thus The King sends down to the Intendant what he intends to Levy upon the Province by way of Tally the Intendant consulting the Elect of each Division returns up word what he thinks it able to bear that year with the reasons thereof then the King sixeth the Sum then the Elects are convened to distribute the Sum upon each Division And lastly the Intendant adviseth with the Elect fixes the Sum upon each Parish as he pleaseth which is