Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A41163
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A brief account of some of the late incroachments and depredations of the Dutch upon the English and of a few of those many advantages which by fraud and violence they have made of the British nations since the revolution, and of the means enabling them thereunto.
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing F731; ESTC R38871
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64,396
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76
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Impoverished and Weakned in the Management of this War into which in order to those Ends they have Wheedled and Invegled us under the Pretence of Humbling Curbing and Reducing France they will be the first both to abandon the Confederacy and to Unite their Forces with those of that Monarch for the Consummating of our Ruine by Power which they have begun and so far Promoted by Fraud And that I may not reflect too far backward nor put my 〈◊〉 upon Examining their Practices Forty or Fifty Years since their Behaviour about seventeen years ago towards the Emperour and the King of Spain but especially towards the King of Denmark and the laâ—e â—â—ector of Brandenburgh who had Embarked in their Assistance and come to their Succour when they were likely to be totally Subdued in that War which they had provoked the French King to enter into against them Anno. 1672. May teach all that help and relieve them under the firmest and most Sacred Confederacy and the highâ—st assurances of their Stedfastness and Fidelity in their Alliances what they are to expect from that faithless People who do always consult and prefer their Interest before all the Obligations they can be brought under to God or Men. The truth whereof tho' the Remonstrances of all those Princes do abundantly manifest which they made unto the States General and Published to the World upon the Separate Peace which the Dutch Concluded with the King of France at the Treaty of Nimeguen Anno. 1678. yet I shall in Confirmation of what I have suggested Transcribe and Exhibit some part of a Pathetick Letter written upon that Occasion to the said States by the Elector of Brandenburgh bearing date at Postdam July 11. 1679. Namely That in the Deplorable Condition his Countries were then in It is easie to Judge saith the Elector whether we have more reason to Complain of those who are Enemies and had fallen thus upon him or of those for whose sake all this happened to him who instead of giving him the assistance required by Treatie have neglected them and made a separate Peace thereby abandoning as well his as their own Affairs and laying upon him the whole burden of the War in which he should have had no part had it not been for his desire to help his friends in their Misfortunes as if it were a Consolation to their High and Mightinesses to see him who had endeavoured with all his Might to save them from Destruction as a Recompence totally Ruined Adding that he had expected an answer to his former Letters and to those Memorials given into them by his Ministers in which he had advized them of the dangers that threatned him and desired their Assistance that so at least he might have had the Comfort to see the Concern they had for his Misfortune which he had the more reason to expect for that it must be fresh in their Memories how in their greatest necessity he hazarded All for them and preferred their Friendship before all the advantageous conditions that were offered him And therefore that he writes to their High and Mightynesses this Letter That they may not think that he tamely Digested their Unjust Proceedings or quitted the Obligation which his Alliance with them laid upon them but that as on his part he had alwaies performed his Promises and Engagements so he requires the like from them or in default thereof Satisfaction for the same and reserveth to himself and his Posterity all the Right thereunto belonging And indeed such has been their Perfidiousness as to the Oâ—sevation of most of â—he Treaties wherein they have been Engaged That should the several Princes of Europe be provoked at last to resent their Infidelity according to the Demerit of it They would instead of choosing to be their Allies or Confederates associate and unite to be their revengefull and implacable Enemies Nor till they be Condignly Punished for the many repeated Violations of their most solemn Stipulations will it prove Wise or Safe to Trust them upon the most Sacred Security that they can give to Kings and Nations by concerted and sworn Contracts For until then it will be but a necessary Prudence in all those with whom they seek and endeavour to be in a Foederal Amity To ask them as Livy tells us the Roman Senator did the Carthaginian Ambassadors at the end of the second Punick War when they came to Supplicate for a Peace Per quos Deos Foe dus icturi essent cum eos per quos ante ictum esset fefellissent By what Gods they would confirm and ratifie their Stipulations seeing they had despised the Omniscience Power and Justice of those Deities by the Invocation of and Appeal to whom they stood obliged to the Observation of former Contracts But when they are once so sufficiently Chastised for their Treacheries and Infidelites of this kind That they can reply as Asdrubal at that time did namely Per eosdem qui tam Infesti sunt Faedera violantibus That they will swear their Leagues by the same God who hath taken Vengeance of them for their Perjury and their Fraudulent Violations of former Agreements Then and not before are they to be Trusted and Relied upon by reason and in the Vertue of any Compacts Covenants and Alliances how Solemnly soever Sworn and Ratified by them Nor will it be improper or unseasonable for me here considering the present Juncture and the Circumstances We of Great Brittain are now Reduced unto to put my Country Men in remembrance that among other of the Motives upon which the Dutch Contrived and Promoted the Revolution how that their Obviating and Preventing the Reckoning and Account which King James was about calling them unto for their Wresting Bantam by Fraud and Violence from the English East-India Company was not only One but that which most Influenced that Avarous and Rapacious Republick thereunâ—o For having during our Convulsions here and the many Jealousies and Misunderstandings which had arisen between the late King Charles and his People to the begetting and fomenting whereof they had contributed all they could Guilfuly and Hoâ—tilely wormed us out of and Drove us from thence where of a large and Beneficial Trade therefore to Anticipate their being forced to restore what they had unrighteously Usurped by Deceit and Power and to avoid making Satisfaction for the Dishonour they had therein done unto the Crown as well as to decline repairing the Injury they had done to the East India Company and to the whole Kingdom They came with Warmth and Readiness into the Design of Invading these Kingdoms and of Supplanting his Majestie 's Throne I suppose it needless to repeat how they had eluâ—ded all the Applications made unto them by King Charles his Ministers in reference to that Affair and how they delayed and evaded giving Satisfaction to the East India Company during the time that remained of his Reign after that Usurpation tho often required and demanded of them both by his