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
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 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
down sometimes Francis the First Anno 1522. at Cambray he settled all Europe in quiet when it was much turmoiled and Italy in security therefore he was stiled Protector of the Clementine League the Instrument whereof doth still remain in the Treasury at Westminster sealed with gold And Clement the Seventh being cooped up by Charles the Fifth in the Castle of St. Angelo was freed by the means of Henry of England and therefore by the whole Consistory of Rome he was called Liberator Orbis Charles the Fifth An. 1521. was by him made Emperour as he doth acknowledge in two Letters to Henry of England and indeed he was the great Arbitrator of all the Assairs of Europe in his time If Henry the Eighth was so much celebrated for keeping the ballance in aequilibrio what Glory and Renown will his now Sacred Majesty of Great Britain have by putting a Batricado to the Ambition of the French Empire and reintegrating all Princes and States in their ancient Liberties and just Rights and setling the Peace of all Europe upon a solid Basis which onely by his Wisdom and Power is to be effected An Act certainly so full of Grandeur that it will tread upon the grave of History bury Monuments see the Worlds funeral Time laid in the dust and stand up with Eternity The glory of Soveraignty consists not in a Chair of State but in such Acts as are well-becoming a Prince Private men may direct their Counsels to such things as they think may be prositable to them but the Actions of Princes must tend to Grandeur and the attaining of Honour and Fame For want of due observation of this prime and Alphabetical Maxime of England the French King of late hath risen up to that Greatness and is arrived to that Pyramid of Grandeur that Europe begins to bow to his Power Universal Empire was first attempted by Charles the Fifth designed by Henry the Great but will be effected if not timely prevented by Lewis the Potent And how great a Progress he hath made towards so vast a Designe it well becomes your great Judgment to consider He hath gotten Brisac and Friburg to enter Germany the French Comte to a we the Switzers Pignoral to enter Italy Perpignan to enter Spain and almost all Flanders to enter England Besides he hath impatronized himself of the Countries of Rousillon and Catalonia the Dutchies of Lorrain and Barr Alsatia Burgundy The French Comte all the Spanish Netherlands are in his Talons and he hath a hovering possession of the remainder as a Hobby hath over a Lark The Italian Garison in Avignion is casheer'd and he is Master of that place though it was part of St. Peter's possession three hundred years The Garison of Foreign Souldiers which were in Orange is dismissed and the Castle is dismantled which was in the bowels of one of his Provinces What will he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he hath gotten the Accession of Germany and all the Low Countries to that already too boundless Power by which he hath inslaved his own people and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Can England and the rest of Europe expect better terms than he hath given to his own Subjects 'T is well if he allow them Canvas and Salowes By Sea he is become so potent that I question if he were but furnished with Mariners and experienced Commanders suitable to the goodness of his Ships if he might not contrast the power of all Europe and make the Sea between Callis and Dover as a Ferry to pass over what Armies he pleased into England In the beginning of the year 1665. he was not able to put to Sea twenty Ships of War now he hath two hundred and upwards and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more Is it not then necessary for England the Vnited Netherlands and all Europe to look about them and to secure their Necks against the Yoke of Slavery with which he threatens them If some timely Expedient be not applied from this Naval Power of France the destruction of Europe may take its date before we be much older It will much concern England in point of Interest to consider if Ireland by the Scheme of their designes may not be looked upon as a Country which may procure France the absolute dominion of the Sea of Trade and the Conquest of the West Indies which have been their antient Project For he being so potent at Sea they may from Brest transmit an Army into Ireland they having many of the Irish Nation in their service and those discontented if they should seize upon Kingsale or Waterford and keep a good Squadron of Ships there which they may do having such numbers of Men of War And though it should not prove the loss of that Nation yet it would obstruct and debar all Trade upon those Seas And if you have any Ship pass there it must be by their favour and paying what Tribute they please to impose Be assured Sir the French Cabal have some notable Designe against England either to engage you in a Civil War by disseminating of Divisions amongst you thereby to put a disability upon his Majesty of Great Britain to give any Assistance or contribute any Aid to the relief of the Spanish or Vnited Netherlands in case by his Arms he should attack them as without dispute he will in case there be not a stop put to his Career Or peradventure the French King if the Capricio shall take him may by his Arms give disturbance to England it self For he cannot think it safe to proceed in his Conquest on the Continent whiles he hath so dangerous an Enemy as England at his reer He well knows the Courage and Gallantry of the English and your Talbots and Bedfords are not by them forgotten They are setting up an Vniversal Monarchy of Commerce and to make France the Staple of Trade and to that purpose do labour to get what Ports they can into their power After the Pyrenean Peace they immediately entred into a League Offensive and Defensive with Portugal though contrary to the Faith of that Treaty and all the Harbours and Ports which the Portugal should take in Spain either upon the one or other Sea were to be put into the power of France No sooner was Dunkirk in the French King's hands but he made it a free Port. And that he might want no Seamen of his own he hath by all imaginable Encouragements established a mighty Navigation in France and thereby will lay the foundation of a greater Empire than ever was in Charlemain For one trading Ship twenty years since there are now forty For this purpose he hath propagated the Fishery in Newfound Land which is the Propriety of the Crown of England and where they formerly till now of late never fished but by License and paying a Tribute to the Kings of England and besides hath yearly educated supernumerary Seamen on board
But you may observe that neither Honour or Relations can stand in competition with Self-interest Did they not oppose his Majesties restauration to the Emperial Crown of his Royal Ancestors Did they not cabal with his greatest Enemies to keep him out of his Kingdom Of which his now Majesty was so sensible that upon his coming into England he commanded away the French Embassadour Bordeux and would not suffer him to come into his presence In the times of the Usurpation in England they were the mischievous Instruments of the War between you and the States of the Vnited Provinces as they were of the two following in 1665. and 1671. dreading nothing more than a durable and firm Friendship between the two Nations blowing up the Fends on both sides pretending to take part with each that they might with less opposition invade their Neighbours and increase their Naval strength but not really purposing it with either having the same designe of weakening both Parties for your weakness is his strength as the Britans formerly had in throwing the Apple of Contention between the Picts and the Scots that they might in the end be the better able to overcome both When you had Victory in your palms and Triumphs in your prospect it was ravished from you by their means The Bishop of Munster who was his now Majesties Allie and in Arms against the said States was necessitated to withdraw his Forces for the security of his own Territories because they sent their Troops against him France wrought Denmark off from your Party and hindered the Swedes to arm in favour of you and contrived that Affront you suffered to your shame and dishonour at Chatham They have made it their Master-piece to raise Jealousies between you and the Dutch and at last sided with the Dutch in a War against you not with any intention for themselves to fight but to see you destroy each other Did they not most treacherously put to the sword and slavery his Majesties Subjects in St. Christophers plundered them of all which by their industry and providence they had for many years acquired But a Peace at Breda being concluded the French were by the Treaty to return to his Majesty St. Christophers in such sort as therein is expressed But instead of performing it according to the true meaning and the very letter of the Article they upon several unjust and frivolous pretences did not deliver it in four years to the Commissioners which were sent to receive it For it 's against the Candor and Integrity of the French Cabal to part with any thing that may be of conveniency for them to keep But at last they delivered it to Sir Charles Wheeler but before the delivery of it they destroyed all the Plantations plundred and carried away all that was there laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse condition that if it had never been planted And as if the detaining of his Majesties Territories had not been sufficient they interrupted the Trade of his Subjects in those parts and assuming to themselves the Soveraignty of those Seas they would not suffer any Ships but their own to sail by or about their Islands and upon no other ground have brought in as Prizes and confiscated many Vessels In 1674 1675. when the Dutch and Neighbour-Nations were in War but England in Peace who thereby expecting a great Trade bought many Dutch-built Vessels the King of England accordingly granted them his License to trade in them by reason of the Act of Navigation But France to hinder the Trade of England issued out an Edict for the seizing of all Ships bought in any Enemies Country And in execution of their Edicts there came out a swarm of French Capers who not onely seized on those Dutch-built Ships though they had his Majesties License but sinding the sweetness of that Trade seized upon your English-built Ships on pretence they carried Enemies goods whilst they themselves would be Judges they did actually seize all English-built Vessels meerly laden on the account of being English Merchants and retook many which had been discharged in France they plundered your Ships and wounded your Sea-men There were about 400 fail of your Merchants Ships seized by them in this manner many of which the French did absolutely condemn and such as were released were kept some three months some six months some twelve months and others longer and then were discharged with great damage by expence and plunder in France besides the first affronts and violences And after all you lost the intended Fruit of your Voyages and what was yet worse they making the most advantages of every thing got many thousands of your Sea-men by extraordinary Pay to engage in his service And that which may super-adde Calamity to your Misery when the French did forbear to take your Ships the Algerines Allies of France and by them set up have continually pickt up your Merchant-men and Vassalized your Sea men ever since And what they take from you they carry into the French Harbours where the French buy the Commodities at their own prices I need not tell you the great discouragements your French Trade hath for many years lain under through their unjust practices and manifold devices Nor shall I speak now how by their Emissaries and Factories of Sedition they have contrived and brooded a most execrable Plot in England and other his Majesties Kingdoms and have sown Divisions Discontents and Jealousies amongst his good Subjects thereby to prevent his Majesties Royal inclinations in giving his assistance to his oppressed Neighbours against that great Prince If these Enormities and Super-injustices of the French Cabal be not sufficient to awaken England considerate men will wonder what Opiate hath cast you asleep and if you be not enchanted by the Magick of French Pistols I pray Sir draw the Curtain open your eyes and see if the Liberty of all Christendom be not now at stake Do you think it will adde any Trophies to your Glory when Posterity shall say It was England which advanced the Most Christian King into the Throne of an Universal Monarchy Is it not your interest to oppose that Power which opposeth all Europe and labours to bury it in the Grave of Infamy and Slavery If you be backward to give your Assistance when you may have so many Allies what will you do when their Forces are broken and you are enforced singly to contrast the Power of France and its new Acquests What you may expect from his Mightiness enquire of the Duke of Lorrain and of the Princes of Germany and they will tell you The Dominion of the British Sea which is your Glory and ought to be your Care is gone He will give Law to your Commerce and Navigation which is now your Honour will be nothing but a Piracy to you and England for want of Trade being an Island will be nothing but a Prison to you You which are the great Merchants and so
Sea Gyant be not timely destroyed but suffered like the Crocadile yearly to grow in Magnitude it will devour all Europe and with it it's Trade Traffick and Commerce Therefore it's Europe's Interest as well as England's Safety to destroy the Naval Power of France which with the conjunction of our Allies may be effected who being once brought down there their Commerce will wax feeble and by consequence their Power at Land will soon abate For we have observed that until the Spaniards lost his Maratine Forces he maintained his designes for the Vniversal Monarchy very vigorously and never sunk till then The French King of late is become so potent at Sea that if he should be pleased to give trouble to you or to any other Prince we mâ—st be at his discretion how kindly he will deal with us And Sir it 's no wisdom in any Prince to depend upon the discretion of another That Prince or State which is Master at Sea may make a descent at what place they please unless they be hindered by a Fleet of equal strength and except every Creek Port and sandy Bay had a powerful Army to make opposition If we have an Army in one place as in all places we cannot have then they may by reason of their Fleet transport their Army to another place and so take ransack burn and consume the Country round about as Agathocles did who being besieged by the Carthagenians in Syracuse put his Army into his Fleet and transported it into Africa and the Carthagenians for security of Carthage and their own Dominions were forced to raise their Seige and follow with their Army Methinks the Miseries Devastations and Infelicities England heretofore suffered by the Naval power of the Danes might teach you wisdom for the future Sir to deal plainly with you it 's impossible for any Mavitine Country as England is though the Coasts thereof be never so well fortified to defend it self against a powerful Enemy that is Master at Sea for a good Fleet of Men of War under a wise and judicious conduct need not fear to pass by the best appointed Fort in Europe though never so many great Artillery are planted in it with the help of a good Tyde and leading gale of Wind. The Duke of Parma besieged Antwerp and finding no possibility to master it otherwise than by Famine laid his Cannon on the bank of the River so well to purpose and so even with the face of the water that he thought it impossible for the least Boat to pass by yet the Hollanders and Zelanders to sell their Butter and Cheese at Antwerp where it was dear passed in their Boats by the mouth of the Duke's Cannon in despight of it when a strong Westerly wind and a Tyde of flood favoured them as also with a contrary wind and ebbing water they turned back again In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Denmark and Sweden were at war our Eastland Fleet bound for Liefland was forbidden by the King of Denmark to trade with the Subjects of his Enemies and he threatned to sink their Ships if they came through the Streights of Elsenore Yet our Merchants having a Ship of her Majesties called the Minion to defend them made their adventure and sustained some Vollies of shot but kept on their course The King made all the provisions he could to stop or sink them at their return but the Minion leading the way did not onely pass without loss but did beat down with their Artillery a great part of the Fort of Elsenore and the Fleet of Merchants which followed went thorough without any wound received Sir Imperator Maris est Dominus Terrae When Augustus and Mark Anthony at Actium fought by Sea for the Empire of the World Mark Anthony's Fleet being defeated all the People and the Souldiers submitted to Augustus well knowing they could never effect any thing by Land as long as Augustus continued Master at Sea Aladine a poor Fisherman but famous for his great Actions at Sea Abraham King of Achen in Sumatra preferred him to be his Lord-Lieutenant and married him to one of his Kindswomen and gave him the care and protection of his Son and Heir Aladine having the Naval power at his command he murthered the Son and Heir and usurped the Kingdom to himself there being no resistance to be made against him because of his great power at Sea The State of Genoa by the advantage of their Naval power beat the Pisans out of Sardinia Corsica and the Baleares in the Mediterranean and having vanquished the Venetian Fleet they took the Island of Chioggia not far from Venice But the Genoesses being disabled in their Naval power by the oversight of Peter Doria their Admiral they lost their Islands in the Mediterranean to the King of Aragon Capha and Pera and the Islands of Lesbos and Chio with some other Islands in the Greek Sea to the Grand Seignior and most of their Holds in Tuscany whereof they had a good part to the Florentines and had nothing left them but Liguria and the Isle of Corsica and were enforced to put themselves into the protection of the Spaniard to preserve the same Therefore Sir you may please to observe how highly England being an Island is concerned in point of interest and safety to advance their own Naval power and to abate that of others There are three great Naval powers in Europe England France and those of the Vnited Provinces if the King of England joyn with one of them they will give Law to the third But what if France and the Vnited Provinces should joyn against England as you have great reason to fear they will if by his Majesties transcendent Wisdom and happy Conduct they be not prevented then you can expect nothing but Confusion and Ruine to fall upon you Therefore it will be the very test of Prudence in this juncture to retrench the power of France by Sea that being done from his Land-forces there can be no great danger to you At Land the Ballance is indifferently even but at Sea which ought to be your care there is no counterpoize The fighting and destroying of his Land-Armies doth not weaken him at Sea but when his new Conquests shall be taken from him or a Peace concluded if he should put an Army into his Navy no Prince in Europe is able to hinder his Attempts and those vast sums of money which he raiseth out of his Subjects if they should be employed in Traffick he being so potent at Sea all States and Princes especially England would be undone To strike the French King at Sea where his strength lieth is to cut his Sampsons locks it 's un Coup de Maistre a Master blow a War in his bowels To give him some light hurt is dangerous to us and to give our selves an incurable wound as the Horse did who falling out with the Lion bruised him with his heel but not long after his Carcass became food for
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