Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	france_n	king_n	treaty_n	1,483	5	9.3011	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37167	An essay upon the ways and means of supplying the war	Davenant, Charles, 1656-1714.	1695 (1695)	Wing D311; ESTC R5880	45,241	169

AN ESSAY UPON Ways and Means AN ESSAY UPON Ways and Means Of Supplying the WAR LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet 1695. AN ESSAY UPON WAYS and MEANS OF Supplying the War IN the course of this War we are engag'd in with France nothing seems more to have hurt our affairs than an Opinion which from year to year has been entertain'd among some People of Authority That the War could not last which they were brought into by the vanity natural to our Nation of over-rating our own strength and undervaluing that of our Enemies Whoever reflects upon the Ways and Means by which we have all along supplied the King will plainly see how much this Opinion has prevail'd with the People in general Raising Money by Land Taxes Fonds of Interest Polls doubling the Excise charging Tonnage laying new Customs and anticipating the old ones may be proper Expedients to answer a single and a short Necessity but perhaps they will hardly appear to be the proper Ways and Means to carry on a great and a long War At the beginning of the Confederacy France seem'd to take in all its Sails in expectation of a Storm and in a manner sate still while we took Mentz and Bon. This Success and the great Names and Mighty Kingdoms and States that were Listed in this Quarrel made us flatter our selves with Extravagant hopes The most Modest did believe the King of France might be easily reduced to the state he was left in by the Pyrenean Treaty But the more general Opinion was That he would be subdued to our own Terms But such did not consider that there is hardly any instance to be given in Story of a Mighty Empire over-run that was in the full possession of its Military Virtue In such an entire possession of the Art of War were the Romans during the second Punic War the whole People were train'd up to Arms and continual Action had bred up and instructed many famous Captains so that they were not to be broken by the many Victories Hannibal obtain'd even in the heart of Italy And in such a Warlike posture was the Ottoman Empire when Tamberlain came into Asia who in the Battel fought in the Year 1397 took Bajazet Prisoner and slew most of his Army yet that People bred to War under three Martial Kings were so far from being subdu'd that in fifty three Years after besides many other acquisitions they were able to Conquer all the remains of the Greek Empire Great Dominions are to be attempted with hopes of success then only when either their own bulk makes them unweildy or when Wealth has deprav'd their Manners or when long Peace has made them forget their Military Skill and Vertue and at such seasons have the great Monarchies of the World been Invaded and Conquer'd not by Superior Virtue in others but for want of Virtue in themselves It is not from hence concluded that lesser Nations are not to make War with strong and Victorious Princes or that we in England should not with the last drop of Blood defend this almost only spot of ground which seems remaining in the World to Public Liberty But from these Instances and many others in History it may be argu'd that we cannot presently and with ease pull down so Mighty an Empire as France and that much Time Blood and Treasure must perhaps be spent before we can reduce it to such Terms of Peace as may be Safe and Honourable for the Confederates And since there seem very many who think the business of this War so easie and who wonder the Confederates have done no more it may not be improper to take a short view of the Affairs of France in order to make it appear what a powerful Enemy we have to deal with That Kingdom has been growing for these two hundred and seventy years by slow degrees to the height we now see it at and from the time of Charles the Seventh to the Reign of Francis the Second there were always upon the Throne Martial and Active Princes in perpetual War and forming their People to Discipline And if in the little Common-wealths of Greece wherever there happen'd to be an extraordinary Man that Man did make his City strong and powerful for a long time after much more must a Succession of six Kings all Men of Counsel and Action give strength and power to such a Kingdom as France 'T is true that from the time of Francis the Second to the Peace of Vervins which was about forty Years the Nation was miserably torn by a long and cruel Civil War but as there are certain Diseases which when overcome dispose the Body to a better state of health for the future so perhaps it may be made appear that even this Civil War in its Consequences has contributed to the present Power of that Monarchy by pulling down the three chief obstacles that stood in the way of its Greatness which were the Protestant Interest Spain and the old Nobility of the Kingdom The Massacre of Paris gave the Protestant Interest in that Nation such a wound as it has never since been able to recover Philip the Second to procure the Crown of France for the Infanta did furnish such vast Sums for the Maintenance of the League as have ever since kept Spain low And the Houses of Lorrain Montmorancy and Chastillon were in a manner extinguish'd in that War and the rest of the great Families so ruin'd by it that they are now no more than the Trappings and Ornaments of the Tyranny which were in times past so strong a part of the Constitution From the Peace of Vervins Harry the Fourth employ'd his care in repairing the Calamities of that Civil War and chiefly he set himself to bring the Treasury of his Kingdom into some order in which he was assisted by the Duke of Sully a frugal Man who by natural Wisdom and meer Honesty brought the Revenue out of infinite Debts into such a flourishing condition that when the French were forming their great designs against the House of Austria in 1610 they had ready four or five years Provision for a War that was likely to be the greatest their Nation had ever undertaken But the foundations of the present Greatness of that Monarchy were laid by Cardinal Richelieu he first introduc'd that exact Method which appears in all their Affairs that secresie and steadiness which is in their Councils and that intire Obedience which all subordinate degrees pay to their Superiors and by exacting it severely he first accustom'd the French to that Zeal Diligence and Honesty to their Master which they show in all Public business Cardinal Mazarin was bred up in his School a Man perhaps not quite so deep but of infinite Subtilty and very fit for the Intrigues of the Cabinet in a Minority and under the Regency of a Queen Mother What the Duke of Sully but began Colbert brought to