Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A80828
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Critical remarks upon the adventures of Telemachus son of Ulysses· Translated from the French.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing C6960A; ESTC R224553
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20,327
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48
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By all the Rules of Probity my Criticism ought not to go so far 't is forbid me to grope another Man's Heart 't is a secret part reserv'd only for God a Confessor and a Confident Tho' Mentor with his Political Exhortations should visit all the Courts of Europe that gives me no Prerogative to accuse him of having a design upon any one Suppose the King should send to ask a great suspected A. Bishop whether he had any design in Telemachu to censure the Governmen there is no question but that laying his hand upon his Conscience and lifting up his Eyes to Heaven he would reply God forbid and we ought to believe him upon his word For Holy Men and especially Mystical Holy Men will never tell a Lye so that had I nothing else to say to ye but that the Mystery will be at the bottom But because Men are wicked enough to envenom the Intentions of the most upright and for that the Publick has been so unjust as to report to our Court the vehement Declamations of Mentor against the Tyranny of bad Princes I will leave the Author to his own Conscience and endeavour to root this malignity out of your mind 'T is very great and I must frankly acknowledge that were they English or Polanders that were to interpret the Intention and discourse of Mentor I should have nothing to object Those Idolaters of Liberty look upon us with an Eye of Scorn and Disdain and are streight upon our Bones if we give Slavery the least good word As for your Genlemen Resugees there 's nothing else to be expected from them exasperated as they are against the King it cannot be but that the shadow of a Censute made by a devout A. Bishop must tickle their Hearts You look upon your selves as Martyrs for the Cause of God and the Laws And indeed if Patience Charity Humility Piety and good Living were eminent among your People your Faith would make the Conscience of the most zealous Catholick tremble But in short you believe your selves the Victims of an unjust Oppression 't is no wonder then you should be so highly pleas'd with whatever decrys the Conduct of your Persecutor in a word I pardon you your Commentaries and your Exultations over Telemachus The least favour that can be granted to Innocent Unfortunates much less will I quarrel with your Brethren that languish in the midst of us their misfortune is still greater then yours But I have a secret Grudge against a Crowd of People who boasting to bear the glorious Titles of Catholick and French Men prophane both the one and the other by seeking in Telemachus the Censure of our Admirable Government For I ought not to conceal our Shame it is certain that Telemachus has run thro' France with as much or more Applause as in Holland and that which vexes me most is that they write me word from several Courts that the Embassadors make this Book their Favorite Companion so that if what you send me word be true that the worthy Minister that we have among you gave order that the Bookseller should be well school'd I shall have a greater Esteem for him then ever I had and hope to thank him in the Name of all good French Men so soon as he shall return But don't you see Sir by this the Character of our Nation without a Prospective Glass When the French Men do not love their King they are insolent when they obey a Prince whom they adore even to dotage they are overjoy'd when he is revil'd and rayl'd at But let us see whether there be any ground for the imagining that Mentor has done it in Telemaehus For my own part who am a little Scrupulous and who should be very much troubl'd to think ill of my Neighbour I had rather believe that the Author of the Romance fill'd as he is with veneration of our incomparable Monarch has fetch'd a compass about to draw his Portraiture and being unwilling to resemble those flattering Historians who blind the Eyes of Princes with their Incense and their Smoak he makes Minerva speak in general To be short in all that Mentor unfolds to us of the Vettue Glory and Merit of good Princes is there any thing which does not presently cause us to think of Lewis XIV In the hideous and extravagant Pictures that Minerva gives us of Tyrants can we refrain our Joy when we consider that we have a Prince who is not so wicked as they But you will not be fatisfi'd with an Idea so general I know your Exactness you must have a particular Accompt go too then The first and greatest Quality that Mentor seeks in a good Prince is that he should live only for the sake of his Subjects Does not the King do so 'T is only out of a desire to reign over his Subjects that he desires to live and he will Reign to the last gasp of his Breath or else he would not be Master Mentor would have it that the Prince should be the Father of his Country and love his Subjects with as much tenderness as his own Children Well Sir d' ye not see his Majesty to the Life in all this People judge of the Tenderness of a Father by his extraordinary zeal to seek the good of his Children Now I defie you and all your Historians to find me out since the foundation of Royalty a Prince that has longer and more successfully apply'd himself as well in Person as by his Ministers to seek the welfare of his Subjects I mean their Spiritual and Temporal Welfare and to prove it to ye for with a Hugonot we must be sure to have good proofs for what we say do not you conceive Sir that the true welfare of the People consists in Plenty Riches perhaps are a more dangerous Enemy they are only fit to enfeeble natural Vigour to feed Passion and hasten Death The chief Happiness of Life is to be Master of his own Hearth to eat his Bread in Peace under the protection of Justice Now are not we beholding to the Kings Bounty for this inestimable Blessing When he ascended the Throne he found Subjects that knew not how to make use of Fortunes Favours Money was in their hands like a Knife in the Hand of a Madman Troubles Disorders Rebellion was all the Talk of that Time The Nobleman oppress'd the Peasant the Great men made the Little Ones turn about with the wind of their Pride and Capriccio the Stronger gave Laws to the Weaker From whence Duels Murders Robberies Injustice and Violence multiply'd the People swel'd up with their own fat no longer acknowledg'd any Master or to speak more properly they groan'd under the Yoke of an infinite number of petty Tyrants forgot their Respect to their lawful Soveraign The Princes Governours Parliaments the Men in Credit all these were like so many Flambeaux that kindl'd and fed the Fire of Revolt under the specious pretence of maintaining the Law and
the preservation of Liberty Good Pleasure full Power and Soveraign Authority depended upon all these Heads and when Abuses were to be reform'd or Money was to be rais'd to supply the Publick Necessities the Royal Majesty was expos'd to Affront or Refusall Our Prudent Father of his Country has pluck'd up all these Mischiefs by the Roots as a prudent Head of a Family ought to do he has made himself Master of the whole By that means his Kingdom is like a House well regulated where the Father disposing of the whole Estate retains every body in Order in Subjection and in their Duty Do we see any discontented Prince under Lewis the Great betake himself to Arms to do himself Justice Do we see Governors draw whole Provinces after 'em contrary to the Interest of the Sovereign Do we behold Seditious Libels presented in an Assembly by the People's Deputies Do we hear of any sharp and Stinging Remonstrances from a Parliament So far from it that the Ambition of Princes is calm'd the Governors are submissive the Parliaments set open their Registers the People have no more to do but to open their Purses absolute Power spreads its Influences every where and every body libes in peace under his own Fig-tree This Sir is that which among the Heroes is call'd seeking the Temporal good of the People You Dutchmen with your shadow of Liberty have no mind to agree to this You look upon all us as Slaves and Beggars 'T is true our People are not so fat as yours nor our Country Peasants so rich But if Murders and insurrections should happen among you is it not true that you would wish to be in our places Besides you are not to imagine that our Prince heaps up abundance and draws it to himself to make a benefit of it but to be a good Steward and a just Dispenser of it Do you not see that he labours still under the same Necessities that his Edicts observe their Course and that tho' he be actually at peace he is constrain'd to augment the Taxes What does he do say you with those prodigious Numbers of Millions that go every Year into his Coffers He generously divides a Part to those who have the Honour to serve him and principally to those notable Head-pieces that manage the Finances He maintains sormidable Armies that make him the Arbiter of the Laws and the Terror of his Neighbours He enlarges his Palaces and makes Embellishments there that surpass even wonder it self He reforms Nature by levelling Hills and digging new Rivers Has he not need of Immense Summs for those incomparable Beauties who had Charms sufficient to engage his Heart and oft refresh'd him wearied with the Toils of Government How many Cities purchas'd How many Spies maintain'd abroad I say nothing of his famous Trafficking at Constantinople which if it were not the most famous of all was yet the most beneficial to France There is no need for me to inform ye at this time how our great King has sought and still seeks the Spiritual Welfare of his Subjects you that are an Obstinate Heretick know it too well but the hardness of your Heart will not permit you to reap the Benefit of it and this Pious Monarch stays but till the day of Judgment to reproach you with it Mentor would have a King be just ours is so He has made Restitution in earnest and restor'd to every one the best part of what belong'd to him Just do you say to his People Yes juster then to his Enemies The same is Lewis the Grand If we understand by Justice that which is rendred in Tribunals never Prince was so exactly careful in his Administration He has turned out and turn'd in all Officers of all sorts and sifted their Employments He has created new ones in Superior and Inferior Jurisdictions and if the Judges are the Eyes of a Prince as some will have it it may be said without Flattery that Lewis the XIV is the most quick-sighted among Monarchs If we mean Justice that a King ought to render himself to his Subjects 't is that which our Prince never fail'd of The French love Money and when they have it can never live at quiet they love Honour and feed ' emselves with it What has our Prince done He has taken away their Money and given 'em Quiet and Honour in Exchange Is not the one better then the other The French love their Trade but as a good Catholick People they love their Religion better The King has spoil'd Trade but he has exterminated Hugnenotism have the People any reason to complain You shall hear a French Peasant that can hardly pay his Taxes chatting after his Rustical Manner over a Pint of Wine of the King's Conquests and Victories and then is he in his Kingdom I hold an even Wager he would not change his Condition with one of the Burgo-Masters Had you seen in the time of the War our Beggars dancing about a Bonfire you would agree with me that Poverty becomes a French Man and that it is but Justice to reduce him to that Condition But lastly one convining Proof of the King 's great Justice is that the People never complain You who so regularly read the Gazette have you ever observ'd that the People cry out for Bread or that they murmur'd at the scarcity of Money or pasted up Pasquils injurious to the Court 'T is true the Gazetters and News Papers mention some such thing sometimes but as we are not oblig'd to keep Faith with Hugnenots so there is as little reason to credit ' em Mentor declaims against unjust War Is there any such The Right of War is authoriz'd by the Possession of all Ages Alexander is not quoted in History for a Robber nor the Romans for Usurpers were it so the Pulpits would not ring so often as they do with their Names and the Preachers would have a care how they suly'd their Sacred Eloquence by extolling every Day thd Noble Actions of those famous Conquerors The King made use of this Right as another would have done His Majesty has extended his Frontiers he has conquer'd Cities and Provinces and acting with more sincerity then those ancient Lords of the World who took all and restor'd nothing the King has restor'd more then he took and has kept nothing but what he could not restore But who told these Interpreters of Telemachus that our King ever undertook an unjust war Let 'em consult all the Declarations of War that have been publish'd since the King's Marriage I am sure they will not find one that does not contain a great deal of Reason That concerning bad Satisfaction which one of our illustrious Deserters explain'd among you with his usual Delicacy is may be the weakest of all But they who penetrate the Reasons of that bad Satisfaction agree that the Complaint was not altogether ill grounded You see then that Telemachus is not more happy in his Mysterious Part then in his Designs and his Stile But to give something to the Publick I suppose with them that Mentor's Politicks are the Reverse of the Government and that 't is that which has caus'd the disgrace of the A. Bishop of Cambray Do you not believe with my self that Mentor's King is a Fantastic King and that if Princes would reign according to the Memoirs of that old Dr. Minerva must have descended to the Earth to overturn the World If a King should observe all those divine Precepts he would become a Victim to his People and his Condition would be worse then that of a private Person I wish all Nations one of Mentor's Prince but where will you find him Mentor would have a King without Infirmities and Passions Is this possible King 's being Masters and always Flesh and Blood 't is impossible but that they should be subject to notorious Vices An ambitious King ruines his People by War A voluptuous Prince can give no good Example A covetous King will suck the Blood of his Subjects A Heart of Iron will never be mov'd to Compassion A proud and despotick Prince will domineer over all Mankind A Prince prejudicated with a false Zeal will persecute to death and so of other Defects 'T is for the People to lay down their Necks and bear the Burden These Sir are the General Remarks which I have made in Reading your Telemachus You will hence conclude that there is no great Matter in the Piece or that I am but a Novice in these Matters However I shall comfort my self with a full Perswasion that I have said nothing but what is true and with the delight which I shall take in having obey'd your Orders If you think fit burn this little Epistle and take a special Care that no Refugee may see it Those Gentlemen never love the Apologists of our Court and as I have a great Esteem for their Perseverance I should be very much troubled to incur their Displeasure Farewel Sir you know I am yours ad Aras Focos The rest by the Porter Paris c. FINIS