famous in the world for your Traffick must become Higlers and petty Chapmen under him Your Men of War which are now a Terrour to your Neighbours will be of no use to you but to make your Slavery the greater Your gallant Commanders and Sea-men as the Romans served the Britans when they had conquered them will be sent into foreign Dominions to advance their Empire And if he shall suffer any of you by his favour to grow rich and full it 's onely like Spunges to be squeezed You must like the Camel down upon your knees and receive what burthens he shall please to lay upon your backs You are now a flourishing and well Crested People you have your Liberty and Freedoms which you ought to value above a Crown but if you come within the power of France you will be such Slaves as you will not be capable of a Jubile Suppose the Most Christian King should be so kind and merciful unto you as to observe his Alliance with you tell he hath reduced all other Princes and States under his Obedience yet you cannot but expect Poliphemus Curtesie to be the last which shall be eaten up Whereas if we all associate and unite and act potently against that aspiring Prince we are freed of all fears and jealousies and it 's not possible for him to be other than the French King And then instead of an Universal Monarchy which is the desigue of France there will be established in Europe an Universal Peace of which his Majesty of Great Britain will have the honour for by the power of his Arms it 's onely to be effected A timely War is less dangerous than an uncertain Peace and such is your condition with France A War will fall upon you and it 's a great oversight to have been so modest as to abide the taking of the first blow Wisdom teacheth us that in Warlike actions the having of the start and to strike first is a great advantage it puts the Enemy to the defensive which is no other than fighting for his own stake The Romans as long as they were Defendants were miserable and Antiochus refusing Hannibal's counsel to invade Italy was put to the defensive wherein he lost his Life and Crown The charge of the invading Prince is certainly known if he like not the Attempt he may desist at pleasure Whereas the invaded is not onely at the charge to maintain Armies but his Territories are instantly impoverished his Revenues deminished Trade and Commerce laid aside his good Subjects with fear amazed the Ill-affected who desirous of change apt to run to the Enemy and many other Mischiefs will fall upon you whereof you cannot be eased but at the pleasure of the Invader Besides the Money to be disbursed for the War offensive especial with you in Great Britain where Victuals Arms Shipping and other Habiliments for the War abound runs into the Subjects purse and the Realm is little or nothing impoverished by it But to forbid and attend the descents of the Invader if we be on the defensive part your Fleet must necessarily be divided the consequence whereof considering the Potency of their Naval power I am afraid will prove that you will be too weak in either Squadrons of your shattered Navy I should be sorry to see Great Britain become a Province to the French Monarchy and be made a Theatre where the Tragedy of Monieurs perseention shall be acted and the good Protestants there suffer the same Calamities Banishment and Miseries for the Liberty of their Conscience as the poor Hugonots have done in France for the exercise of their Religion I do assure you Sir you cannot expect better terms than the Hugonots now have in France With what Infelicities pressures in Gonscience and inquietude of Mind and how precariously they do possess but not enjoy their Estates gotten with Sweat and kept by Care I need not tell you It was not the method of Christ to force Belief by Slaughters or instruct mens Consciences by the Sword yet these are the Arguments which they apply to convince those unhappy Souls Sir there is no safety in depending upon the Charity of France I must tell you again the onely security of all Christian Princes and States in Europe is their impuissance to do hurt The end of War is Peace but a Peace with France seems to me to be the beginning of War And though War be a great Evil yet from all appearances I dread the consequences of a Peace more If the Most Christian King shall disband his Forces it 's far from being any security since he may raise them again at his pleasure nor is it to be imagined that he will so do since that were to give his People an opportunity of rebelling for which he is sensible they are sufficiently prepared and onely want Domestick Heads and Partisans or foreign Assistance to rescue them from Tyranny and Oppression And whiles so potent a Monarch is in Arms all Princes and States will be obliged for their own safety to keep up standing Armies which Charges will assuredly undo them for it 's a declared Maxime in their Counsels That there is no better way to ruine the Princes and States of Europe than to oblige them to keep Armies on Foot For those require great expences which will impoverish them and by consequence precipitate their Ruine Just Fears are a just cause of War and a preventive War is a true defensive as well as a War upon an actual Invasion though offensively acted Hence the Lacedemonians as Thucydides tell us armed against the Athenians by reason of their over-growing Greatness And Antiochus upon this principle invited Prussias King of Bithinia at that time in League with the Romans to joyn with him in War against them setting before him a just fear of the over-spreading Greatness of the Romans and that their designe was to reduce all Kings and Princes under their Obedience and to make the State of Rome an Universal Monarchy that Philip and Nabis were already ruinated and it was his turn to be assaulted next So that those Princes or States which do desire too great Monarchies and seek to enlarge their Dominions do give a just fear to their Neighbours That War is just which is necessary and then Arms are deemed pious when they are the last Refuge of those which use them In elder time it passed for an Oracle of Wisdom Decreseat Hispania non Crescat Gallia If we do make a War against that great Disturber of the Peace of Europe as it 's our Safety so it is Prudence to make it speedily and powerfully for if we do not make it powerfully we shall be like the poor woman who bought Coals sufficient to roast her Pig but laying them on one by one her Coals were wasted and her Pig unroasted And if we do not make it speedily we shall imitate that Emperick who gave Physick to a dead man The Latines prayed in aid of the
hath taken notice of it They are in continual acquests of Dominion by force or fraud and what they get by fraud they keep by force for the Sword with them is ever better than half the Title to any Dominion They do not onely pursue but commonly wound their Adversary before they declare him such or give him leisure to draw They first invade a Princes Territories and after set up their Title and Cause of War They are not concerned that all the world observe their pretence to be false and trifling vain and unjust warranted by no other reason than that of absolute and unbounded Will which are the foundation and conclusion of all the Actions of the Most Christian King and Wars abroad as well as of his Laws and Edicts at home expressed in these imperious words Tel est Nostre Plaiser It 's a prime Maxime of the French Cabal That that Prince which wars for his Glory and avows Power to be the Rule and Strength the Law of Justice may without Right enter upon any Princes Dominions and may in Honour and Justice detain them so they be of conveniency to him to keep them The Dukes of Lorrain Deux-ponts and Mewthelward and the ten free Towns in Alsatia sufficiently prove the truth thereof They have erected at Metz a Court where his Most Christian Majesty as Judge and Party cites the most August and Illustrious Houses of the Empire which he hath nothing to do withal to make their appearance and to give him an account by what Right they possess that which their Predecessors have for three or four hundred years peaceably enjoyed His pretentions are to the greatest part of Lorrain the whole Dukedom of Deux-ponts and the best part of Alsatia as far as Lauterburg These as ancient Dependencies of the Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun and Thersow must be reunited to that Crown because they are of conveniency for him By this all Kings Princes and States may see what they are to expect if they come within the despotical power of France All Princes and States which may give them any jealousie they keep employed and designe to depress all Powers which are capable of obstructing the Torrent of their Ambition All Europe is sensible thereof to their grief They have engaged the Swedes to embroil the Empire which they did to the loss of all their Territories and Dominions in Germany And they brought the Turks upon the Muscovites whereby the Swedish Army in Livonia was let loose upon the Confederate Princes They worked the Messinesses to form a Rebellion against his Catholick Majesty their Soveraign Prince in Sicily and had gotten Messina into their power where they had a potent Fleet of Men of War thereby to give Law to all which should pass upon the Mediterranean But afterwards because they could not keep it did most perfidiously desert them whereby those poor people were exposed to the displeasure of an inraged Prince and to the greatest miseries and calamities imaginable A fair warning to all ambitious and discontented persons who shall quit their Allegiance which they owe to their natural Prince They are continually brooding of Mischief and labouring to enlarge their Empire herein imitating the Grand Seignior of Asia who first subdued Asia Minor then he passed over into Europe and conquered all Greece next he falls upon Syria Egypt and Armenia till at last he came as far as Moldavia and Hungary And doth not the French Cabal observe the same method conquering or surprizing one Dominion after another by Arms endeavouring to reduce the Seventeen Provinces under his Obedience and also Germany labouring some of the Princes thereof to stand Neutral working others to their Party by proposals of Matches and other Artifices and will in short time if not prevented shake hands with the other Grand Seignior of Asia They have now in designe by the power of their Arms to procure the Dauphin to be elected King of the Romans Are not the persons and Estates of the three Ecclesiastical Electors and of the Prince Palatine of the Rhine every hour exposed to the Violences and Irruptions of the Arms of the French It may easily be foreseen without the help of Galileas Prospective whether by force or promises which will never be kept they may not give their Suffrages for that ambitious Crown and how far the Marquess of Brandenburg may be prevailed with by reason of that dishonourable Peace patched up at the Congress at Nimmeguen a little time will discover But if the Dauphin shall be advanced to the Imperial Dignity will not Germany become a Province to the French Monarchy the fatal consequences whereof let Europe soberly consider Can the Princes thereof expect better terms than they have given to the Duke of Lorrain For certain the Protestants will be sure of the same usage and infelicities which the poor Hugonots are now under in France For Fire and Fagot must be prooemial to his Universal Monarchy Dissimulation is the best support of the French Interest and the first step to their Grandeur And to deal plainly with you that Prince which will lay the foundation of Empire by Cruelty must build the Superstructures by dissimulation The whole Globe of Miseries Calamities and Infelicities which Europe hath suffered for many years we must own to the unlucky contrivance and ambitious designes of the French Cabal If there be not a Retrenchment of the Grandeur and Potency of that aspiring Monarch I have so much of an Astrologer in me that I can foretel what will be the fate of Europe France like a perpetual Aetna will fling Fire and Flames Bloud and Confusion into the Dominions of the Kings and Princes of Europe and will be more dreadful to his Neighbours than the Indian Hurricanes are to the Natives there The common Inscription of his Cannon Ratio ultima Regum is by him inverted to a contrary sence and made a publick Warning to mankind That he designes as God did of old to give Law to the world in Thunder and Lightning To scatter by the flames of his Artillery all those Clouds of Confederate Forces that shall eclipse the Majesty of his Glory He makes the power of his Arms his first and last reason His Device the Sun in its Meridian with this Motto Non pluribus impar sufficiently shews his intentions for the Universal Monarchy and the haughty opinion he conceives of his being the onely person qualified for the government of more Worlds than one declares his resolutions of admitting no Rivals in Soveraignty looking upon all other Princes but as so many smaller Stars or wandring Planets compared with him the Sun from whom they are to receive their borrowed light or power as it shall please his Mightiness to dispence So that crowned heads Princes and Republicks as well as their Subjects are to expect the same meat of Slavery and though that be not sweat yet the Sawce will be four Poinant to all though perhaps a little differenced
the Lion Great Potentates are not at all to be touched but if they be they must be made sure from taking Revenge Some considerate Princes have begun a War rather with the Sword than with a Trumpet So delt the Aragonoies with the French in Naples Henry the second of France with the Imperialists when he went to Brisac to surprize as many places as he could before the War broke out Don John with the Netherlands and Philip the second of Spain with the English when in the great Imbargo he took all your Ships and Goods in his Ports And may not the French King if the Capritio shall take him before any denunciation or indiction of War set upon your Fleets of Merchants Ships at Sea he having such powerful Squadrons of Men of War in all parts that no Fleet of Merchants with their Convoys are able to make any opposition but they must be sunk or taken As it was the oversight of the Kings and Princes of Europe if you please to pardon the expression to suffer France to grow up to that Potency and Magnitude of Power at Sea so it will be their wisdom and interest to act in consort till they have destroyed it Methods and Arts TO Retrench the Potency OF FRANCE BY LAND and SEA And to Confine that Ambitious Monarch Within his Antient DOMINIONS and TERRITORIES Humbly submitted to the grave Consideration of the KINGS and PRINCES of Europe 1. ALL Kings Princes and States to associate and vigorously to act in concert against him and to make France the seat of the War if not by his Contributions and the oppression of his Armies by which he maintains his own Forces they will all be ruinated their Countries wasted and themselves must be submitted to his power Whereas by making France the seat of the War the Souldiers will be inriched with the Spoils support themselves at the cost and charges of France and the French King will be necessitated to draw his Souldiers out of his new Acquests for the defence of his ancient Dominions and so they will revert 2. All Princes and States to call home their Subjects which are in the French service and by that means his Infantry will be weak and inconsiderable For from the slavery of that people such is their unfitness for War that whenever they shall be confined to home for Souldiers they will be constrained as well as contented to live in peace with their Neighbours 3. No Prince or State to suffer any Levies of Men or Horse to be made in any of their Dominions or Territories as they have done to the great recruits of the French Armies and to the ruine of themselves and Countries 4. To interdict all Trade and Commerce with France is a good Expedient for their Trade being obstructed their power at Land will soon become feeble and weak the first giving life to the latter and if he shall lay Taxes upon his people their Trade being taken away it may hazard the Obedience of his Subjects and his Souldiers will mutiny for want of Pay 5. The three Estates General of that Kingdom must be re-established with their Priviledges There being fourscore and ten thousand Gentlemen in France if they will draw their Swords and joyn with the honest Commonalty there and with the Confederate Princes which are now in War against France which will be a generous and heroick act in them they may deliver their own necks from that Yoke of Slavery which now oppresses them and all Europe from destruction For whiles the French King can exercise the despotical power over his Slaves rather than Subjects and without controul levy what sums of Money he pleases from them they must never expect to enjoy their just Rights and Liberties or any the Kings Princes or States his Neighbours to live in Peace or Tranquility 6. France must be opposed in all its endeavours for farther addition and engreatning his Dominions especially on his designs upon the Spanish and Vnited Netherlands for should he gain the Harbours and Ports there he would be formidable and an over Match for all Europe Therefore if the Crown of Spain had no Dominions in the Low-Countries it 's their interest and in true policy they ought to preserve the Vnited Provinces entire and they ought to venture all their Kingdoms and to the very last of their men to prevent if it be possible so formidable Accession of Naval power to the French After which no Plate-Fleet or Gallions could never come safe nor consequently their Monarchy stand much longer And the King of Great Britain ought be it spoken with dew reverence to his person to have the same Sentiments for if the French should become Masters of the Vnited Provinces farewel the Soveraignty of the British Seas farewel all Trade and Commerce of England and his Majesty may bid adieu to the best branch of his Royal Revenue the Customs 7. The King of Great Britain ought to make himself Protector of the Protestant Kings and Princes in Europe and the Cantons of the Switzers and the Grisons are to be invited for their security and because they can give trouble to France into the Association For though formerly with great reason being jealous of the House of Austria because of their pretentions to them they held a good correspondency with France yet now it 's their interest all to be jealous of the growing Greatness of the French King and to be firm to the House of Austria and to hold a true Friendship with them 8. A firm and sincere Friendship is to be established between the King of Great Britain and the Vnited Provinces For they being the two great Naval Powers in Europe are by Providence so seated with admirable advantages and for the security of themselves and of the Spanish Netherlands that when there is a true intelligence preserved between them their greatest Enemies cannot prejudice either but they can give a check to any aspiring Prince and be as an invincible Bulwark against the spreading and ambitious designes of France 9. England must unite within it self and settle a kindness and friendship amongst themselves Concord or Division being the life or death of a State for it 's a Jergon of the French Cabal to disseminate Factions and Divisions amongst them that they may not contribute their Assistance to the relief of oppressed Europe or to obstruct the designes of the French King for the Vniversal Monarchy 10. Firebands are to be sent into France to raise Divisions amongst them as the French Cabal send their Engineers to the disturbance of Europe to make a Combustion in other Princes Dominions that he may with more safety drive on his designes 11. Councils must be adapted to present necessity and it 's imprudence to expose security to apparent danger In great concerns it 's not wisdom to rest in the dull Counsels of what is lawful but to proceed to quick Resolutions of what is safe 12. The Monarchy of France is to
be cantonized into several Principalities which was aimed at by the Grandees of France in the time of Henry the third and had been effected if the ambition of Philip the second would have given way to it 13. It 's the true interest of Europe to oppose the French designes and in case there be any occasion of making use of them against some others not to accept of their Assistance longer or further than publick Utility requires it nor to suffer them to proceed after the danger is over As it was practised in the Peace of Passaw in the time of Henry the second and that of Munster in both which the French were stopped in their full carreer by their own Allies 14. All Kings Princes and States of the Protestant Communion to enter into mutual Leagues and Alliances and to be incorporated into one Union that by their joynt strength they may put a stop to the progress of the French Arms. It will be prudence in them to rely upon their own strength and not to depend upon the Aids or Auxiliaries of others 1. Because all the Councils of Catholick Princes are governed by the Jesuits and French Pensioners 2. The designes of the Conclave of Rome and of the Jesuits are to extirpate out of Christendom the Protestant Religion which they have concluded to effect by the Arms of France that are solely influenced by the Jesuits and to re-establish the Papacy in its ancient Glory and Splendor for the fall of the one is the exaltation of the other 3. All Wars raised between Catholick Princes are contrived to be but as Decoys to draw Heretical Princes as they are pleased to call them into Ruine and Destruction and are used as delusary Mediums drawn before their eyes that they may more securely advance the interest of the Mitre and the designes of the Triple-Crown If his Majesty of Swedeland managed by France his Majesty of Denmark his Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh and his Highness of Zell managed by the Imperial Court will take the pains to search to the bottom by what Artifices they have all four been engaged in War which hath wasted their Subjects ruined their Countries and Estates they will find it was the designes of Rome managed in conjunction with the Cabal of France to bring Ruine and Confusion to them all During the late War the Protestant States of the Empire have been so miserably harrassed by Winter-quarters Exactions Burnings and Contributions that most of the Protestant Imperial Towns have been almost ruined while the hereditary Countries Bavaria and many other of the Roman Communion in the Empire have been so little oppressed that they scarce felt it It 's a concluded Maxime of the Rota That where there is an Enemy compounded of several and distinct interests the best Medium to effect their Ruine is to divide the Powers and to engage one against the other by that means you will bring a Consumption to their Forces and a Ruine to their Estates and you must fortifie your selves upon their Fronteers that when you please you may make sudden Inroads into their Countries With what dexterity this hath been practised during the late Wars in France all Europe is very sensible 15. To restore the Hugonots of France to the full exercise of their Religion according to the Edicts of Hen. 3. and Hen. 4. which were confirmed to them by Act of Parliament and for their security and the performance thereof that they have cautionary Towns put into their hands as they formerly had This would be not onely an Act of Piety to deliver those poor people from Tyranny and Slavery but an Act of Prudence that he could not safely issue out with his Armies to the disturbance and undoing of his Neighbours 16. The Kings of Great Britain Spain Denmark Sweden and the States of the Vnited Provinces ought to associate by Sea and every one to set forth such a number and Quota of their Ships as shall be agreed upon If the Naval Forces of France be at Sea they must be fought except the French King be Prince of the Air and can post his Ships at Sea as he doth his Forces at Land that they cannot be attacked as it 's said though that imagination was confuted at the Relief of Mons if they be in Harbour and will not take the Sea they must be fired which under the favour of a good Wind and Tyde may be effected notwithstanding their Castles and Forts 17. To maintain Fleets constantly upon the Coasts of France is necessary to keep in his Ships outward bound and to interrupt his Ships of the Indies to meet with the Fishers of New-found-Land and to sink and destroy them to forbid Strangers to bring him supplies of Pitch Tar Masts Munition c. to burn as many of his Maritine Towns and the Shipping in them as they can and also such as are not far within the Land as shall be within their power and to give leave by Letters of Reprizal to as many of the Subjects of the Confederates as will adventure to Sea These Fleets are to be furnished with such a number of men as may be able to make an Invasion into such a part of France as shall be thought most convenient to the purpose So the Heads of the Parties in France must be consulted and made to part with such places as shall be taken till the French King shall be constrained to submit to Reason and Justice 18. Notwithstanding the great noise the number of the French Ships make in the world yet they may be reduced by Sea 1. Because they have no Ports in the narrow Seas 2. None very good on this side the Mediterranean save Brest in Britany and the new-made Haven at Rochford upon the River of Clarent but that is so deep on the Bay of Biscay as it 's out of all Maratine course except to their own Country 3. The Ports and Harbours which they have are so far distant from each other that their Naval Forces may be destroyed by our Fleets before they can unite Therefore nothing ought to be more the care and endeavours of the King of Great Britain and of the Vnited Provinces than to keep the French King from any more Ports or Harbours than he now hath for that Prince which hath many Ships and few Harbours is of as little consideration as that Prince which hath many Ports and Harbours but few Ships Nothing multiplies Sea-men but Foreign Commerce and nothing so much that as plenty of good Ports Harbours and safe Coasts of which to the comfort of Europe I speak it France is wanting but if we delay to lower the Sails of their Ambition until they have furnished themselves further with Ports and Havens they will soon prove too great to be dealt withal Therefore I say it 's the true interest of the King of Great Britain and of the States of the Vnited Provinces and for them indispensably necessary to destroy the French in their Naval strength New-found-Land-Fishery and their West India Trades which are their Nursery for Sea-men By this means their Navigation being destroy'd their Trade will decay and their Power at Land soon disband No one Prince hath such advantages against the French as the King of Great Britain hath by reason of Tangier which is so advantageously scituated that it surveys the greatest Thoroughfare of Trade and Commerce in the world no Ship can pass in or out of the Mediterranean unobserved from thence The French have more business in and about the Streights and frequent the Streights-mouth with more Shipping of one sort or other than any two Nations in Christendom from whence your Ships riding at Anchor may weigh or slip and speak with all People that pass in or out and may sink or take all Ships which sail that way none can escape without a strong Convoy which will eat up all their gains and they will think it more prudence during a War with England to suspend their Trade than with so much charge and hazard to prosecute it 19. France being reduced in its Naval strength it will be the interest of the King of Great Britain and of the States of the Vnited Provinces to stint France for the future as to the number of Ships which he shall keep as the Pope the States of Italy Kingdom of Naples and Sicily Grand Duke State of Genoa and Grand Master of Malta keep by agreement such a limited number of Gallies and Men of War that one may not give occasion of trouble or jealousie to the other These Methods being observed France may be compared to a man which grasps a handful of fine Sand in hopes to keep it if he holds it loose all runs from him if hard but little remains which agreeth with the Italian Proverb Chi troppo abbraccio poco stringe He who graspeth too much retaineth but little Sir I must tell you again there is no trusting to the Charity of France Incredulity is the best sinew of Wisdom Nihil credendo omnia cavendo tuti crimus And the most Christian King will at last understand that it 's easier to make Subjects than to keep them for men may submit to the force of Arms but they will never obey but a just power Present Successes are no Hostages to secure those which receive them of a perpetual Felicity and the most uninterrupted Success cannot calcine an unjust action to the purity of Vertue Cruel Empires though they be absolute are not lasting Upon uncertain moments do the fortune of Battles and the fate of Kingdoms depend But you were pleased to say That I have no kindness for France I do assure you Sir I have that honour and regard for France that whereas now there is but one King of France I wish there were twenty Sir I am fearful I have stained too much Paper I must with Apelles Manum de Tabulâ I beg your pardon for this interruption and am Sir Your faithful Servant FINIS
THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED With the Methods and Arts TO Retrench the Potency OF FRANCE BY LAND and SEA And to Confine that MONARCH Within his Antient DOMINIONS and TERRITORIES Humbly submitted to the Consideration of the PRINCES and STATES of EUROPE especially of ENGLAND Written in a LETTER From a Person of Quality abroad to his Correspondent here Nulla potentia scelere quaesita est diuturna LONDON Printed for R. Baldwin 1681. THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED c. SIR IN obedience to your Commands I have soberly considered your learned Discourse wherein are such excellent Prudentials of Government such grave Aphorisms of State and the whole composed with so great judgment that it makes me think the Opinion of the equality of Souls to be a Paradox Yet I must beg your pardon if I cannot obtain so much favour of my Reason as to agree with you that in this Juncture of Affairs in Europe it 's England's Interest to stand Neutral When Neighbour Princes are at difference and their Forces not greatly unequal and no fear of any Parties aggrandizing it self it may be prudence But when Kingdoms are tottering Nation reeling against Nation and France endeavouring to set up an Empire over the Emperour himself and by the power of Arms reducing Princes and States under an Vniversal Dominion as it 's evident to be the French Designe then I take it for England to be an idle Spectator and to sit still is the greatest Soloecism in point of State For that Prince which stands Neutral and suffers his weaker Neighbours to be subdued except his strength doth over-ballance the Victors doth but expose himself to danger and his own Dominions to the mercie of the Conqueror Theramenes thought it a great instance of prudence during the Peloponnesian War and the troubles of the Athenians to keep himself quiet without taking part with the one or with the other but in the end was deserted by all his Dominions made a Prey and his Life a Sacrifice to the prevailing Powers Certainly Sir nothing can be more becoming the wisdom of the greatest Prince than to be watchful that the States about him should not in-greaten themselves by access of Dominions by ruining of Confederates blocking up of Trade or by the like means Hence it was that Sextus Quintus being jealous of the Spanish Greatness and that his designe was of aggrandizing himself with great efficacy stirred up the Crown of France to assist and defend the States of Holland And for this reason of State Pope Julius the second Maximilian the Emperour Lewis the twelfth of France Ferdinand of Aragon and other Princes and States An. Dom. 1508. at Cambray entred into a League against the Venetians yet so as the Confederates had a perpetual Eye one upon the other that none of them should over top And the best Guard which the Italian Princes have is the reciprocal fear which the one of them hath of the other The wisest Princes have ever been in this point very jealous and the more jealous the less they have been deceived for then are Kingdoms and States most safe when their Neighbouring Forces are not greatly superiour to their own Strength And it 's prudence in a Prince as well to contain his best Friends within a moderate Greatness as to weaken and depress his most potent Enemies The safety of Princes consists in the equal counterpoise of Power for Power is never safe when it groweth bold and doth exceed And therefore it was great weakness and oversight in the Neighbouring Princes and States to the Commonwealth of Rome to suffer it to grow to that magnitude of Reputation and Power that when forty Princes and States being jealous of its Power with united Forces did endeavour to reduce it they were all subdued and their Conspiracies did much contribute to the enlarging ber Dominions for by seeking to suppress Rome they made them not onely provide for their own defence but also gave them the means how they might with more Force better advice and greater Power offend them It hath been looked upon as a great imprudence in Lewis the twelfth of France after he had gotten Millain to give Aid to Pope Alexander to seize upon Romagnia who thereby became so powerful that he would have made himself Lord of Tuscany if Lewis had not with his Army made a descent into Italy The Neighbouring Princes to the Signiory of Geneva would not suffer it though but a palm of ground to fall into the hands of the Duke of Savoy or of any other Potentate of more strength than himself insomuch that when he besieged it An. 1589. England the State of Venice and Florence aided them And at another time when the Pope the French King the Spaniard and Savoy had designes upon it the Emperour offered them assistance both of men and money and sometimes the Duke of Savoy hath assisted them against the others So watchful were Princes and States in those times that none of them could enlarge their Dominions thereby to become troublesom or formidable to their Neighbours France and Spain were the Scales of the great Ballance of Europe and England was then the Beam of that Ballance which kept it in an even Counterpoise And let me tell you Sir England by observing this fundamental Maxime of their State and by contributing Aid to one Party hath ever risen in Honour and Reputation and most commonly hath kept both Parties at their Devotion and in Dependancy the one in hopes of Succors from them the other for fear of their giving Assistance against them And in case England should not take any Party yet in prudence a Fleet must be equipped Souldiers raised an Army maintained and all this Expence and Charge without any Fruit or Glory otherwise the Scene of the War may be turned upon you and the Ambition of the Victor may erect his Trophies and extend his Triumphs into England Whereas by giving Aid unto one Party you will maintain a Spring and Seminary of brave men at the expence of others which will make you considerable to your Neighbours And in case of an Accommodation or Peace you shall be sure therein to be comprized which will be your Safety Otherwise you will remain friendless exposed to the charity of the Conqueror and to the scorn and contempt of the Conquered who upon all occasions will meditate revenge against you for not giving them your Aid and it may be that both Parties with united Forces may attempt against you However that Prince or State which will stand for a Cypher when in prudence he is obliged to arm shall with Servilius in Rome please neither side of whom the Historian observeth that P. Servilius medium se gerendo nec Plebis vitavit odium nec apud Patres gratiam inivit Henry the Eighth amongst several other Princes understood this Maxime of England so well that he assumed unto himself this Motto Cui adhaereo praeest Sometimes he would make Charles the Fisth weigh
The former may be allowed Golden while the latter are to be manacled with Iron Chains And be assured he that makes War for his Glory hath more ambition to put his Chains on Princes and States than on their People His thoughts are as large as any of the Roman Emperours and they esteemed it a greater glory to lead one King in Triumph than a thousand Subjects of several Kingdoms He doth purpose to make all Princes and States of Europe Vassals and Tributaries to his Universal Empire and rather than fail he hath designed to bring in the Turks with whom they will tell you they have contracted an entire Friendship in whose Court he hath found help to make his Coin currant Nor is that infallible man at Rome to escape at least to the Temporal part of his power which he hath not as he ought employed for the French Interest but will abrogate that great Authority in which his Predecessors Pipin and Charlemain's Charity have vested him and without doubt will pull down his Spiritual Grandeur by fixing it in a Gallican Patriarch and so his Holiness instead of being Christs Vicar will be made a French Curate And some of the Princes of Germany and Italy which now seem unconcerned will when it 's too late repent the oversight Sir it 's storied when Beasts had Kings the Lions had the Soveraignty every one of them within his peculiar Forest Whiles their strengths were equal they lived neighbourly none insulted over the other At last time produced a Lion stronger than the rest who disdaining to be kept within the Precincts left by his Progenitors preyed upon the Forest adjoyning The other Lions fearing their particular Estates or Walks consulted for remedy the way resolved upon was to pare his Nails Your Prudence Sir will easily make the Moral Certainly it 's the true Interest of Europe for all Kings Princes and States to unite for their common safety and to act in concert and not onely to chase that ambitious and aspiring Prince out of his new Conquests but to confine him to his ancient Empire and his own Dominions A devouring Lion which is never satiated with Prey must be chained up The Conquest of Naples by Charles the Eighth occasioned a Consederacy of all the Neighbouring Princes against him whereby he soon lost that he had gotten Look into Asia did not the Grand Seignior pick up one Common-wealth after another the one giving no Aid or Assistance to the other but looking on with their hands in their pockets till at last he reduced them all under his Empire and what was the fatal consequence thereof is well known How much more then are the Arms of France to be dreaded whose power is mightier than that was of the Turks And every new acquest and accession of Territories enlarges his desires and makes that Prince think that which before seemed not onely difficult but impossible to be easie and feasable Ambition is never so high but it still thinks to mount and that Station which lately seemed the top is but a step to her now and what before was great in desiring seems little being once in power The Successes of the French have already made them think no Enterprize too hard and still prompts them to push on their good fortune which nothing can withstand but a general opposition of all the Princes and States of Europe Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur Sir I must confess you are obliged in all duty to acknowledge his Majesty of Great Britain's incomparable Wisdom great Vigilancy and dextrous Conduct of Affairs that you have been hitherto preserved in Peace and Prosperity when the whole Neighbourhood hath been infested with Fire and Sword and had no other Prospect but Bloud and Confusion But by sad experience you will finde that if you do not vigorously contribute your Assistance to put a stop to the progress of the French Arms that the natural strength and scituation of England can be no sufficient defence against the power of France when to that he hath already is added all the rest of Europe unless you can dream that your Fleets by Sea and Armies at Land are able to contrast and secure you against that power which hath subdued all Europe I have observed that the neglect of beginnings many times makes the Disease mortal and incurable The vivacity and boldness of brisk Resolutions always bring forth fortunate proceedings and glorious conclusions The way down hill is easie and ordinary but to ascend unto the top of Glory requireth Wisdom to frame the steps and Courage to give the attempt As sudden Resolutions are always dangerous so no less peril ensueth of slow and doubtful Delays In times of Danger it 's more safe to be found in Action than Counsel Cunctatio servilis statim exequi regium est I am in my Constellation under Mercury not Mars and desire Peace but I am of that Princes minde not to take up Peace at the interest of Danger to ensue A wise State ought to desire Peace but it 's necessary to be prepared for War In Puglia in Naples if any be bitten by a Tarantula it 's not to be cured but by Musick onely You are bitten in your Trade and wounded in your Traffick there is nothing will cure you but the noise of Cannon and sound of Drum and Trumpet But you are pleased to say that you are in League with France and a Rupture on your part would be unjust it 's not honourable to break Leagues which are the Tye and Cement of Nations The French King will grant us any terms I do not deny but he will grant you any terms but the more advantagious terms you have if you consider the Genius of the French Nation the more ought it to be your fear and jealousie of their breaking of them But when France shall be brought to more Equality better and more advantageous Conditions will be drawn from him and he will be well advised before he break them Sir I must tell you there is no Faith or Trust in France but in its puissance to do hurt France hath ever preferr'd interest of State before the faith of Treaties and Leagues and that made the Duke of Rohan observe that Princes command over the People and Interest commands over Princes Leagues and Alliances as they are made for Interest so Interest will dissolve them and foreign Friendship lasts no longer than it 's advanced with mutual Interest All Leagues and Alliances made with France are but as the Rod of Mercury to charm them asleep with whom they are made It was truely observed by Lysander the Greek that Children are to be deceived with Toys but Princes with Oaths and Leagues And you know it 's a prime Maxime in the Cabal of France That Leagues and Alliances are to be made for Interest and not on designe to keep them For a Prince ought not to be a Slave to his Faith or Word What Leagues Alliances or