Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67669
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The happy union of England and Holland, or, The advantageous consequences of the alliance of the Crown of Great Britain with the States General of the United Provinces
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R. W.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing W94; ESTC R24583
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52,058
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72
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THE Happy Union OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND OR THE Advantagious CONSEQUENCES OF THE ALLIANCE OF THE CROWN of GREAT BRITAIN WITH THE States General of the Vnited Provinces Licensed May the 20th 1689. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily 1689. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury My Lord THE Happy Consequences of a settl'd Alliance and Union between their Majesties of Great Britain and the States of the United Provinces are that which these few Sheets have undertak'n to make out as being necessary for the safety and repose of both in particular and of the Protestant Interest in general How zealously Your Lordship has always Labour'd the Advancement of the Latter and how Instrumental you have been to promote the Former is not unknown to all the World For this reason the Author of this Treatise really intended for the good of both Nations is so Ambitious as he is to appear in the English Dialect under Your Lordship's Patronage and Protection from the Censures of those who make it their business to disturb the Public Tranquility both of Church and State Not doubting through Your Lordships Favour of the same Reception here as the Original had in the place that gave it Birth Yet humbly craving on the other side Your Lordships Pardon for the Confidence of this Address which speaks however the High Esteem and Honour that all Men who value the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of their Country have for Your Person but more especially of Your most Humble and Most Obedient Servant R. W. The Necessity of a Union between the ENGLISH and HOLLANDERS USually we judge by the Event of the Uprightness or Injustice of human Actions and of the Prudence or Indiscretion of those that Act. The Philosophers take upon them to make their Comments upon these inconsiderate Judgments That vulgar Opinion carries it That is to say that they who prosper pass for Wise and many times for Vertuous Men they who are unfortunate are lookt upon as imprudent and sometimes which is worse as wicked and impious A Kingdom oppress'd with exactions becomes enrag'd against the Contrivers of their Misery and revolts against those that Officiate in the Tyrannies of the Court. Therefore Forces are sent to quell and dissipate the mutinous Multitude their Ringleaders are seiz'd and put to Death by all the most infamous and cruel ways of Execution nor do they grant any Act of Oblivion to the rest but by charging them with new Taxes and Impositions And as a Consummation of their Misfortunes their Posterity attribute all their Miseries to them and Historians range them in the Number of Factious and Rebels justly depriv'd of their Liberties and their Ancient Priviledges For these thirty Years the Kings of England have labour'd to render themselves Absolute they have gradually dispoyl'd the Cities and Corporations of their Charters and made it their business to introduce Popery into their three Kingdoms well knowing that the Alteration of the Establish'd Religion trailes after it the Change of the Government and the Laws and no less assur'd that of all the Christian Sects the Roman is that which best agrees with Arbitrary Dominion and is most proper to inspire blind Obedience The English weary'd with their Sufferings privately call in the Prince of Orange and that great Hero was receiv'd into the Island as their Tutelar-Angel but with so much Order and Unanimity that the suddain Commotion was taken rather for a public Rejoycing then a Rebellious Insurrection Some make hast to meet him others set up his Standard while the King disturb'd in Mind perplex'd and astonish'd withdraws without striking a stroak and punishes himself with a voluntary Exile for having followed the Advice of his Evil Counsellors All Europe admires so suddain a Revolution The Protestants lookt upon him as a Prodigy of Heaven sent for the relief of Truth oppress'd The moderate Catholics acknowledge the Justice of the Prince of Oranges Designs applaud the mildness which he exercises toward their Brethren and impute the unkindness which he has for their Religion at this Conjucture to the violent Counsels of the Jesuits The Politicians of both Parties look upon the Success as the Effect of a Transcendent Genius which Heaven has been pleas'd to Favour whether to set Enslav'd Europe at Liberty or whether it were to shew that Prudence and Mildness are more assur'd and efficacious means to attain their Ends then the Sanguinary Maxims of Matchiavel Lastly Persons of the clearest Intellects and most perspicacious insight into Affairs belive that nothing can be above the reach of that Prince who has shewn himself able to carry on for many Years a Design of so great Importance unknown to his Enemies or any other who had no occasion to be interested therein A Prince who has United several Soveraign Potentates against France who has so well managed the Inclination and Humours of three Kingdoms of several distant Plantations and a Powerful Commonwealth for a long time harass'd by various Factions as to soder them into Unanimity A Prince in a Word who after he has taken time to reflect and consider puts his Resolutions in Execution with a courage and swiftness beyond imagination 'T is true the Sloath the lgnorance and the Necessity which constrains some Men to submit to a present Conjuncture and to side with the strongest Party are without question the real sources of those applauses which are given to those whom happy Success has exalted above others Add to this that how desirous so ever Men may be to ingratiate themselves with such Persons yet they are always willing to act conformably to their own Understandings So that Self-Love being willing to reconcile these two Passions easily perswades us that our Flatteries are just and that the Grandees are beholding to their Merit for their advancement Moreover it is most certain that these successful Persons are many times highly worthy of Honour and that Prudence and Indiscretion are the most usual causes of the good or bad Success of Men of which they who only understand the most known Circumstances of the Revolution of England may convince themselves with little trouble But if Men are so quick in judging of things done on the other side they are so slow to determin when they ought to Act that their mistiming Execution or their Wavering and Hesitation becomes the disappointment of the greatest and most noble Designs They whose Interest it is to oppose them fill their Minds with pannic Fears or desperate Mistrusts and Jealousies and in regard that the number of Persons timorous and jealous are very numerous and for that idle and imaginary Fear works a more signal Effect upon such then a hope and assurance grounded upon Reason therefore that a Man may act with Prudence upon such occasions it behoves him to take a convenient time to examin the Circumstances of Time of Places and Persons and then to resolve and pursue his design by the
the French only sought to amuse them till he made himself Master of the Low Countries and Germany These Reasons were laid before the King with so much strength of Argument and the Parliaments refus'd with so much constancy those Aids which the King stood in need of to continue the War that King Charles found himself constrain'd to accept of those Proposals which were made him by the States and the Treaty was concluded at Westminster the 19. of Feb. 1674. And whatever endeavours the Kings of England have since us'd they could never engage their Subjects in an open and formal War with the Vnited Provinces It is easie to deduce several Consequences from this piece of story which utterly dissipate those vain Jealousies that the Enemies of the two Nations would fain create between them under pretence of Trade 1. The First is that the English and Hollanders have no natural Antipathy one against the other and that their Three last Wars were only the Effect of an Vsurpers Revenge who labour'd the Destruction of the Royal Family and of two Kings their Conceal'd Enemies who had sworn the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion their Priviledges and Liberties The Second is that Commerce is so far from being a lawful Cause of the difference between the two Nations that on the contrary it ought to incline them to a stricter Union if they understand their own Interests since their Trade then always flourish'd most when there was the strictest Amity between them 3. The Third is that they ought to take a more then ordinary care how they Engage in a War one against the other well knowing that in all their Sea Engagements the Advantages on both sides have been very little different or rather that they have come off with equal losses and that Strangers taking the real Advantages of their Quarrels are become their Rivals in Navigation Hambrough with the rest of the Hanse-Towns the Danes and Swedes for the most part now take in those Freights by which the Hollanders before gain'd so much profit and engross'd to themselves a great part of the Trade of the Baltic Sea The French who since the time of Hen. IV. had not so much as one Ship that belong'd to the King have acquir'd several Territories in America and are now Labouring to get Footing in the Indies by that Alliance which they have contracted with the King of Siam set forth great Fleets and pester the Sea with Pyrates All which came to pass while the English and Dutch were busily imploy'd in ruining one another So that if three of their Wars have so sensibly abated their Trade to such a degree the Fourth which after the present Union of the Two Nations would be the Effect of an Irreconcileable Hatred would prove their utter ruin by Translating to their Neighbours all the Advantages which the two Nations receive by their Shipping As for what concerns their Quarrels about loaring the Flag Freights and the Herring-Fishery they are not worth the trouble of any farther discourse and to bury them in Oblivion there needs no more then to keep close to the Peace of Breda in the Year 1667. The differences between the two East India Companies seem more considerable nevertheless if Men would but rightly understand one another it might be easie to remove this Stumbling-block either by Incorporating altogether or by some other way which provident deliberation might soon find out The Third Objection falls of it self after what has been said to refute the Second The Interest of the English and Hollanders inclining them to the continuance of their Union and to contribute their utmost to their mutual Prosperity there would never be any Jealousie between the two Nations unless they lent their Ears to the seducing Fallacies of their Enemies and by consequence their King and their Governour would have no occasion to Invade their Priviledges Besides that we are confidently assur'd that he will never endeavour it but on the other side will use all his endeavours to prevent any difference between the two Nations which are equally dear to him But supposing that we were not so certain as we are of the mildness and gentleness of his present Majesty at least we dare not question but that he is a Person of Honour and a Valiant Prince and that he has a High Esteem for true Glory If he has won Battles if he has taken strong Towns if he has made considerable Conquests he is only beholding for all this to the Blessing of God to his Valour and the exact Discipline which he observes in his Armies and the Love which his Souldiers have for him He was never known to purchase strong Holds to corrupt Governours nor to aggrandize himself by fowl and treacherous means If several French Officers have Listed themselves in his Service it was the Catholic Zeal which expell'd them their Country and the Reputation of so great a Captain which made them eager to serve under his Command How can it be imagin'd that a Prince who next to God is beholding for his high advancement only to the largeness of his Soul and the greatness of his Courage to the Wisdom of his Counsellers and the Love of his People A Prince that has suffer'd so long and with a Patience unimitable the wrongs that have been done him who never took up Arms in Revenge of his own Interests but to deliver an Oppress'd Nation that implor'd his Aid How I say can it be conceiv'd that it should ever come into such a Princes thoughts by indirect ways to destroy that Liberty which he adventur'd to restore with the hazard of his Blood and Life or that he would go about for an Airy Authority to loose that immortal Glory which he has acquired Or that while he Reigns as he does in the Hearts of his Subjects and Allies he should rather choose to draw upon himself the Hatred of the One and the Indignation of the Other rather then peaceably to enjoy the Fruit of his Labours If on the one fide Honour engages his Majesty of Great Britain to preserve the Priviledges of his Subjects as his own Handy-work and to maintain the Liberty of the Hollanders his Fellow-Citizens it inclines him on the other side to exterminate Tyranny We know it Triumphs in France with an unlimited Power and that it is there as it were in the Center Nor are we ignorant of the heinous Injuries which Lewis XIV has offer'd to William the III. when he was only Prince of Orange Governour and Generalissimo of the Vnited Provinces The English are forward enough of themselves to engage in a War with the French and several Historians have observ'd that they never give Money with a more willing Heart then when they are ask'd to contribute toward the Expences of that Expedition Besides they well understand that Cromwels Civil War The Evil Designs of their two last Kings their Intestine Discords their Engagements against the Hollanders in a word all