so great and unheard of I cannot deny that it may sometimes have happened that one hath left his Friend and Allye in need and although it be very ill done and that God hath often sadly punished such perfidiousness yet hath the deserter always found or made a pretence to colour that his saying that he could no longer assist his Friend but so far as I can remember no instance can be found that a Prince or State without any the least reason should oblige himself by a particular Treaty to force his Friend to yield to what is unjustly required of him or to give him over to the pleasure of his opposite party when the opposite party hath not put that his pleasure in execution in presence of the deserter of his Friend besides that when that scandalous and dishonourable dealing could not produce that expected effect for that Spain finding it self treated in such a base manner onely that the Spanish Netherlands might remain safe and that thereby the War would but the more furiously be transported to his other Countries and Kingdoms would soon find means to secure himself from that danger by a yielding over or changing these Countreys which they desire to preserve in the Spanish Netherlands for that which Spain in former Wars had now or formerly lost Fourthly It appeareth by the foresaid Letter that the Lords of Amsterdam had spoke with the said Lord Embasladour concerning the security which they in particular were to give if the State should not approve to yield those matters his Majesty had proposed You may Sir easily conceive that this is not a less but at least as great a crime as any of the forementioned for how can it agree with the Majesty of the State that one of the Members of the same should give security to a Foreign Prince to effect that the State should grant those conditions which the said Foreign Prince desireth of them yea how can it be suffered by a Sovereign State that one of the Members shall comprehend all the rest or if that cannot be effected shall engage it self to agree apart concerning other particular Securities which this Member should then give to a Foreign Prince Lastly by the said Letter it also appeareth that the design on foot to cause the said Embassadour to present the foresaid Memorial was to raise the good Subjects against the Government as if the Government were inclined to the War and that the King of France presented and Proffered Peace and that the City of Amsterdam lending thereto their helping hand sought to evade the War and that his Highness and the other Members who in that matter could not joyn with the Lords of Amsterdam sought to engage the State in a sad and deplorable War whereas his Highness and all the Members composing the Assembly of States have often declared with the utmost sincerity that they designed nothing else than if it were any ways possible to help to allay these differences by an accommodation which according to the present constitution of times and matters might be in any manner esteemed honourable and secure and that they would concerning the same enter into Conference with Spain and the other their high Allyes since unto Spain belonged that which should be sacrificed to the Peace and that by the aforesaid written Letter no security for Peace was made neither could be if it were not secured by a good Guaranty of other Princes and States and that for the obtaining that Guaranty there was nothing to be expected or hoped if concerning that Peace there were no consultation with the said high Allyes and they induced to the conditions thereof yea to hear all the Members who frequented the Assembly also the Lords deputed of the City of Amsterdam have often been necessitated to acknowledge that all the measures his Highness took were towards a Peace and that his Highness had not given to any of them reasons to suspect that he was not inclined to a Peace And Sir you know what reason I have to be well perswaded that the Peace had been long since attained at least would have been much furthered and that the inhabitants of the Country would have had much less trouble if the Lords of Amsterdam by their conduct had not given France cause to hope to obtain better conditions than could be effected and had thereby made on the one side all councel and inducement which could have been made with Spain invalid and on the other side stirr'd up France to yield nothing and to quit nothing of his Demands and Proposals by him made as conditions of Peace yea Sir you well know that when here in the Hague entrance was made into a Treaty with Spain and the other high Allyes who had here expresly their Ministers to enter into a Conference of Proposals for accommodation that on the part of the Lords of Amsterdam in the Assembly of the States where in consideration of the confidence and security which should be among Allyes and friends having one and the same design then concerning the keeping secret not of that which should be brought to a conclusion for that was proffered to be made known when it was proper but of that which in that Conference might happen yet without concluding and then concerning many Questions Speculations and the like which could not but cause a great suspicion and alienate the minds of the high Allyes from one another there hath often such Propositions issued forth from which nothing else could be concluded but that the Lords of Amsterdam must have had a design to smother the said Conference in the beginning and to make it fruitless and that the other Members of the States Assembly were in this their conduct and so acting much dissatisfied and have much blamed them all none excepted I must Sir ask you whether a rational man and who is a lover of the welfare of his Countrey and of that Religion and freedom in so great esteem with our Forefathers shall be found who seeing such a Letter written by an Embassadour who hath managed the affairs of his Master in this Countrey so many years and hath been before employed in the like affairs seeing and knowing that what is written in the said Letter so well agreeth with that which hath happened and was transacted even by the said Lords of Amsterdam as here before at large I have demonstrated and knowing that that which was contained in the said Letter if it agreed with the truth was in the highest criminal and punishable and that this Republick could not subsist but must perish if such transactions were tolerated that every Member who could not in Assembly effect the matter to his desire might concert with the Ministers of Foreign Princes and joyn with them and conclude how best to oblige the other Members thereto would not doe at least so much as to contribute what could be thought thereof to attain the truth contained in that Letter and since it could from
duty of an Embassadour as is manifest by the Negotiations he hath treated That he could fail in one of the most essential duties of an Embassadour viz. the giving of a true and exact account to the King his Master of that which himself had treated about and that therein he would abuse him even such a King who so well knoweth to make himself obeyed by those that serve him or to punish the least failure therein will by none be consented to who is not prejudiced And this is also herein confirmed that the Lords of Amsterdam had with the same Lord Embassadour such a familiar converse that the other Members of the Assembly were ever therewith offended and that the said Lords of Amsterdam were admonished to quit or moderate that so offending communication by the other Members before the Assembly was met and ready to deliberate and when several of the Members stood discoursing together and at the end of their debates had quitted their places even then the Lord Councellor Pensionary Hop with a great confidence and to a farther discontent of very many Members answered that they understood their liberty to go so often to the Lord Embassadour as they should think fit yea and that with so much greater confidence he exprest himself that the said Lords deputed of Amsterdam had inserted some things in their advices which the Minister of the King of Great Brittain should have said and his Highness being informed by the said Minister of England that what was alledged was untruth and having thereof given notice to the Assembly of the Lords the States with complaint concerning the conduct of those of Amsterdam At the same time and on the deliberation for a farther prohibition of communication with Foreign Ministers concerning affairs of the State The said Lords Deputies in the Assembly in their turn expressing their sense by the mouth of the said Lord Pensionary Hop in a braving manner declared they were resolved not to cease that communication and that they would yet that Afternoon speak with the Lord Embassadour of France that the said Lord Embassadour gave them thereto encouragement that he had spoke to them on Christmas Eve of some matters concerning the Trade for St. Vallery and that on occasion of these particular matters he sometimes intermingled some State Affairs but that thereof they had given an account to the Lords their Principals that they also had been at Delft to confer with them that they were convinced of their endeavours to the welfare of the Republick and therefore were not obliged to reflect on the jealousie of the Members but not in all this touching one word concerning the matters relating to the Commonwealth whereof was treated between them and the said Lord Embassadour and that the said Lords of Amsterdam farther acknowledged that the said Lords Hooft and Hop had been with the Embassadour the day before the writing of that Letter add thereto that several matters mentioned in the same Letter that the said Lords of Amsterdam should have done were also in truth by them effected as I shall hereafter more at large demonstrate and that so many circumstances concurred with the said fact as seldom can be brought together to make clearly out the truth of a matter treated of between a few persons What the contents of the said Letter were you may collect out of the Printed Letter of the Count D'Avaux and I would not have made farther mention thereof if I had not thought it needfull for your better information to explain the contents thereof somewhat more particularly Sir you may remember with what immoderate zeal the Lords of Amsterdam have endeavoured to oblige the other Members under pretext of Counsel to force the King of Spain to accept of one of the Equivalents expressed in the memorial of the Count D'Avaux of the Fifth of November last you will possibly also know at least many Lords who frequent the Assemblies of the Lords the States have at several times heard that when the poor Inhabitants of the Spanish Netherlands were bewailed and that men even stood amazed at the desolations which the hard Unchristian yea Inhumane procedures of the French effected that it hath often been said by some of those Lords that the Spaniards must be thereby forced to give satisfaction to the King of France that it was a punishment which the Spaniards must suffer for not resolving to comply with the will of the King of France and many other like discourses you may remember also how oft they have desired that Debates should be had on the said memorial of the Fifth of November how often they have obliged the Members to confer with their Principals concerning the same after they had already by formal resolutions in their Councils taken several times declared that Spain must accept one of the Equivalents and that therefore they could no more confer with their Fellow-members on the same subject what particular endeavours the Lords of Amsterdam have used now with the one then with the other Member yea so much that the other Members have been offended thereat with what earnestness they have opposed the Levy of the Sixteen thousand Men notwithstanding all the other Members of their Lordships Assembly consented thereto and which they judged so highly necessary for defence of this State and that without it this State even without any consideration of assistence to Spain was exposed to the greatest danger and when they herein effected nothing they then addressed themselves to the Lords deputed in the Generality from the other Provinces and particularly also to the Lords deputed from the Province of Friesland and the Cities and Countries The contents then of the Letter is first that the Lords of Amsterdam had complained to him the Lord Embassadour that by their single Authority they could not effect that the States might deliberate on the measures which they had to take in case Spain before the end of January concluded not an accommodation with France that he the Lord Embassadour could present no Memorial concerning the same and by that means bring the matter to be deliberated notwithstanding their earnest desire of him to that method they had together considered of all the expedients which might supply the effect of Memorial that the Lords of Amsterdam had thereupon proposed to him that he would permit them that by their means a conference might be had with him by some deputed out of the States General and that in that conference a friend of the City of Amsterdam who was one of the Deputies of Holland should desire of the Lord Embassadour an explanation of what might happen if before the end of January Spain did not accept one of the Proposals made by France upon which he would find sufficient matter to bring it to a deliberation among the States General to which he had consented that immediately thereon those Lords of Amsterdam had spoken with some of the Lords deputed to the Generality most of his
perswaded that that which France demanded was so unjust that Spain desired that his Allies together would examine whether the foresaid pretensions were founded on reason adding that if they should judge the said pretensions were just he would much yield in such a case to the judgment of his Allies we could in such a case never make this State more unfit to use endeavours with Spain for an accommodation than to declare to France that we should force Spain to the acceptance of one of the aforesaid propositions that we incessantly endeavoured the same employing all our credit to make disputes in the Cities and also withhold what in case of need might serve us in some measure to defend the State to wit the Levy of the foresaid Men. And what could more move France to yield nothing as being ascertained not from without or from some out of the Government but of such a considerable Member of the same Government that the said Member used its utmost endeavours with an incredible zeal and application to bring Spain to accept one of the foresaid proposals and to withhold that which in any manner might serve to put off the first push if no accommodation could have been made with France which was the foresaid new Levies since France was thereby assured that Spain must either yield to the aforesaid conditions or that otherwise he finding Spain and this State without any power to resist and giving him all opportunity with the approaching Spring to settle and bring to effect his designs to possess himself not onely of the foresaid Netherlands but also of this State I leave it to the judgment of wiser persons if this be not criminal and deserving punishment in the highest for that it hurteth to the utmost the security of the State by discovering the weakness thereof to those whom the State ought chiefly to fear and animated them withall not to diminish of his demands and put a sufficient opportunity into his hands of carrying the Spanish Netherlands to the utmost detriment of this State if not this State it self at last Secondly it appeareth by the aforesoid Letter that the Lords of Amsterdam in consult with the French Embassadour and animated by the kindness the King of France pretendeth to have for them and fortified by the means he proposed to them had openly withstood the said Levy and caused many Disputes in several of the Cities concerning the same you may Sir hereby judge whether it be not criminal to raise disputes among the Members of the Assembly and animated thereto by the service a Foreign Prince pretendeth they doe him therein and strengthned by the means which that Foreign Prince proposeth yea and that of a Prince who by his Forces hath attacked an Allye of this State in a place in which the State hath so sensible an interest and whither the State hath sent assistence to that Allye so attacked and these said assisting Troups are actually employed to the assistence of the Attacked against the Attacker and that these disputes are occasions to put and keep the State out of a posture of needfull defence Thirdly That the Lords of Amsterdam have if not personally yet openly concerted with the French Embassadour concerning overtures whereby this State should be engaged either to force Spain to accept one of the French proposals or to desert them on condition onely that France should leave the places in the Spanish Netherlands unattacked and continue to molest the open Countrey with Quarterings and Contributions that they had earnestly insisted that he would present a Memorial to that effect whereby they would be in a condition to effect the business if that be not also criminal and punishable in the highest degree I willingly leave to the censure of wiser and sharper judgments I very well know how that matter was resented in the year 1666. and what Letters some Ministers of this State being then in France have written notwithstanding that what then passed hath no more comparison with this present affair than a Gnat to an Elephant for what can be more hurtfull and disadvantageous to the greatness of this State than that a Member of one Province by particular authority without knowledge of its other Fellow Members should in such a manner deal with a Foreign Prince who hath Attacked one of the Allyes of the State who must be assisted by that State and is already actually assisted and should confer with that Foreign Prince not onely to make ineffectual but even to break the Treaty the State hath made with the Attacked where is it wherein the State must find its security as the said Lords of Amsterdam have often said by Allyances and Contracts with Foreign Princes against the over power of others which by their own power they cannot effect and what can bring such Allyances and contracts in more discredit with Foreign Princes than that they shall perceive that it is in the power of one Province yea of one Member of a Province by its own Capricio to make ineffectual Treaties solemnly made or to withhold the effect thereof and how can it be born by the Supreme Authority that whereas by the constitution of the Government of these Countreys one Province alone how Sovereign soever it be cannot enter into Treaties with Foreign Princes that one Member of a Province to wit the Lords of Amsterdam shall propose or at least concert with the said Embassadour without knowledge of the Government concerning such overtures of accommodation and desire him to propose the same by a Memorial and that they hope by that means to bring them to effect I will not now speak of the Proposals themselves so dishonourable and so unfit that every one that hath yet remaining in him but a small portion of Fidelity and Honour must have for the same the utmost abhorrence for what can be more dishonourably imagined than that this State which is obliged to defend Spain against unjust Force should by a publick Treaty oblige it self to force Spain to that which France alone by force and over power acquireth of Spain as Spain says and not by Right and Justice and that in a time when Spain will permit this State to examine the justice or injustice of the French pretensions or if they could not arrive thereto that by a publick Treaty they should oblige themselves to give Spain over to the will of France and that in all parts of the World France might at his pleasure exercise all force and wrong on Spain onely that the Cities in the Spanish Netherlands might not be Attacked yea that in the same Netherlands they might act on the open Countrey these horrible sorts of executions of which in former Wars hath not been heard In truth if this conduct of affairs had not been so publickly and clearly seen it could not be imagined that such a Government as is that of Amsterdam should have arrived so far to give so evident a proof of a perfidiousness
the forementioned Lord Embassadour sheweth clearly the design contrived with him concerning the foresaid matter of which before larger mention is made and also how abusively and captiously they would excuse themselves for having held the said Conferences mentioned in the said Letter when the said Lord Pensionary of Holland mistaking in the date said that the foresaid Conference should have been held on the 9th whereas it was held on the 8th as is noted in the said Letter and it is not a little remarkable that the said Lords of Amsterdam having first said that the said Lord Embassadour of France had not urged them to enter into any concern or particular engagement they notwithstanding in the same breath add that he the Lord Embassadour having pretended to be secured by word of mouth of the constant inclination of that Government to the Peace and that they would enter into the expedients by him proposed that they had often roundly refused it notwithstanding he exprest his displeasure therein in sharp terms so that the said Lords do thereby acknowledge that there had been a Speech concerning such a security by the said Lord Embassadour when they say he demanded the same of them and they denied it and then also when the said Lord Embassadour shewed his displeasure thereat in sharp terms and the said Embassadour saith also in the said Letter not that the mentioned Lords of Amsterdam had engaged themselves to give particular security but onely simply that they had said that there were remedies to which no recourse was to be had but in the utmost extremity and that they would not speak with him thereof till they had left all hope of moving the States to assent to that security his Majesty desired This being a true recital of what passed in the Assembly of the States on the 16th of this Month as also of what happened about the conduct which the said Lords of Amsterdam were pleased to observe and concerning what farther passed and by undeniable consequences must be deduced from thence I leave it to the judgment of every one if in these matters in the procedures against the Lords deputed of Amsterdam there hath appeared any rigour prejudice or unbeseemingness and if they have not abused the State and Fellow-members in an unheard of and insufferable manner and if those Lords which then composed that Assembly and who with so much circumspection proceeded to the aforesaid sealing up of their Papers were rather to be condemned that in a matter so important and such a high nature they used not more vigour for the conservation of the right of their State against those who had proceeded in such an unworthy manner to the ruine of the said State and who had so criminally acted therein and more than once made themselves guilty of Crimen laesae Majestatis and whether the good Inhabitants of the Countrey have not the greatest reason to complain that such a chief Member of the Government as is the Government of the City of Amsterdam could fall into so pernicious a conduct that they would cut off and separate themselves from their other fellow Members and that all this is vented among the good Inhabitants with so much untruth as if the Government of the foresaid City had in this matter no quarrel with their fellow Members but onely with his Highness to make all his actions every where odious and to decry them down whereas all the Members of the States Assembly none excepted have agreed with his Highness in the same sentiment as well concerning the said Levy as concerning the promoting of an accommodation that they all none excepted have highly blamed and been scandalized at the conduct of the Lords of Amsterdam and whereas the moderatest of them who had laboured to find out expedients to allay and remove if possible the said differences so hurtfull and ruinous to this State were convinced that on the part of his Highness all hath been done which hath been required of him and that this condescension hath onely extended to confirm the Lords of Amsterdam in their difference as if the Government of the State had been solely intrusted to them and that all the other Members must yield to them The length of this discourse troubleth me but I thought I ought once to let you see without any disguisement and in all truth the matter which here being related as it hath passed can by none who was in the Assembly be contradicted as to the truth of the affair I shall always remain Sir Your humble Servant PHILALETHES POSTSCRIPT AFter I had witten the aforesaid there came to my hands a Memorial presented to this State by the Count D'Avaux Embassadour of the King of France the 28th of this Month I acknowledge I could never have thought that a Lord of so great a capacity and experience could have resolved to present a Memorial of that kind and that the zeal for defending the Lords of Amsterdam who have so much mistaken themselves and acted in such a criminal manner against the Majesty and Sovereignty of the State had so far prevailed with him thus to express himself as appeareth by the said Memorial which also more and more confirmeth the said correspondency and more and more accuseth the said Lords The first thing that the Lord Embassadour in the said Memorial saith is in effect what he had said by word of mouth to those deputed by the Lords the States who were with him in Conference that he had informed his Majesty of the matter as in truth it was but in that manner as he supposed he must represent it to his Master and that he therefore in that Letter had alledged many circumstances which agreed not with the truth of the matter For first what can more strongly serve to destroy all the Conferences that he had with him the Lord Embassadour and which he should represent to his Master according to the truth what had therein passed when the said Embassadour by a formal Memorial saith that he represented the matter to his Master not as they are but as he judged it best to represent it and who will believe that so considerable a person having the honour to serve such a King should take upon him to relate matters in another form than in truth they were acted yea who will believe that in this Relation he hath so done since the said Lord Embassadour was first so carefull to add in the same Letter the trouble he was in that he could no sooner advise his Majesty of what here passed and how much his Majesty was therein concerned that he might be well informed of what here passed chiefly when therein may be remarked that of himself and without order he dare not make the least step or advance though much thereto solicited and how serviceable soever himself might judge it how much he hath in regard the interest of his Master when he truly speaketh and agreed to points which might be urged of
Embassadour hath exprest in the said Letter is not onely very probable but as evident as things of that nature can be made and that there is therein no farther cause of doubt when it may be seen what since the writing of the aforesaid Letter by the forementioned Embassadour farther hath been done namely that the said Embassadour having by the aforesaid Letter earnestly desired that his Majesty would give him some permission to present Memorials and particularly that he should not need therein to express of the not making the said Levy and that he might therein use some sweetnings in consideration of the open Countrey of the Spanish Netherlands first by a Memorial the Nineteenth of this Month presented to the States hath declared that he would take it on himself to grant some time to bring the Spaniards to an accommodation on the conditions proposed by his Majesty if they would promise his Majesty to remain in the State wherein they were without making any steps which might make the Spaniards more obstinate by the hopes of a new and greater succour and then afterwards first in a Conference which he willingly would have had on the Sixteenth of the said Month but which was had on the Seventeenth for that the Deputies of Holland who were also to be at the same assisted on the aforesaid Sixteenth of February at the deliberation which then was had in Holland on the aforesaid Letter of the Lord Embassadour and hath afterwards declared by a Memorial that in case the States would engage to cause Spain to agree within two or three Months to one of the Equivalents contained in the aforesaid Memorial of the Fifth of November last or a Truce of Twenty years that his Majesty would cease all Hostilities against the Crown of Spain but so that if the Spaniards should suffer those two or three Months to run out without effect that then the States should cause that their Troups now in the Spanish Netherlands should not be otherwise employed than in defence of the places his Majesty of Spain there possesseth that they also should promise to give no where else any assistence to Spain against his Majesty of France or his Allyes and that then France would promise to Besiege or take no places in the Spanish Netherlands yea not to act the War any more on the open Countrey on condition that Spain should also observe the same and reserving to himself to use his Arms elsewhere till that Crown should compose the Peace which it had broken Or if the States would not oblige themselves thereto and would onely use earnest endeavours to press Spain to a friendly accommodation that also in such a case his Majesty would yield to a Cessation of Arms in the Spanish Netherlands as long as the present War should last and also promise neither by Siege or otherwise to make himself Master of any places in the Spanish Netherlands provided that the States on the contrary should oblige themselves not onely that their Troups in the Spanish Netherlands should onely be employed for defence of the places in the said Netherlands but that also they should give Spain no farther assistance in any other place whatsoever nor to act directly nor indirectly against his Majesty or his Allies and that also his Majesty would oblige himself to perform no acts of Hostility in the foresaid Spanish Netherlands provided Spain shall from the said Netherlands act no Hostility against him or if it would there continue the War that his Majesty would then continue it there onely against the open Countrey for what can better agree with what the Lords of Amsterdam had discoursed with the Lord Embassadour they say there must be no speech of making no new Levies but to leave matters in the same state they were in He doth also the same by his first Memorial They say there should be a Cessation of Hostility against the Cities in the Spanish Netherlands provided that the State meddle not with the Quarrel elsewhere or elsewhere help Spain he doth so likewise and for that he feared it would offend that that Cessation of Hostility should not extend to the benefit of the open Countrey he profereth the same also for so much as concerneth the open countrey if Spain on its part will not from the Netherlands act ought on the open countrey of the French He presenteth also those Memorials as late as he can and then when he judgeth that he would be thereby sitted to support the Lords of Amsterdam in their designs so that none before-hand not prejudiced can deny or doubt in his mind that what is contained in the aforesaid Letter is in truth for so much as concerneth the essential part not come to pass and effected That being so we may consider whether the Lords of Amsterdam may not be said to have there in done amiss yea greatly done amiss I believe not that the said Lords will themselves call in doubt that what is said in the foresaid Letter to have been done by them should not contain offences hurtfull in the utmost to the greatness and justness of the State and the welfare thereof and capable to cause the ruine of the Countrey for what can be more hurtfull and hindersome to the State that at this time when we should endeavour either an accommodation between parties at War together or must experience the loss of the Spanish Netherlands or to fall in difference concerning the same with the King of France and that as well the loss of the Spanish Netherlands as the falling at odds with the King of France would be very prejudicial to the State they should particulary discover to the King of France or that which is the same to his Embassadour the difference which was in the State between the Members thereof about finding out means of accommodation that the one was of advice that to put our selves in security of not being surprized was by raising a greater number of Militia and then to speak and endeavour for a good and lasting accommodation and that others advised that without providing any means of Defence they must blindfold help to execute what France desired of Spain That the Lords of Amsterdam said they would never yield to a Levy but to doe what might be done to oblige Spain to accept one of the French proposals for that these communications could indeed be of no other effect than more and more to encourage France to yield in nothing of what he pretended and to draw Spain more and more off and make him averse from all that by this State should be proposed to him to the furtherance of a Peace for since the mediation of the Peace depended not on the will of this State but on the approbation of Spain for that all what France pretendeth whether out of the head of his first proposal or by consequence of the Equivalents whereof was pertaining to Spain and by that King must be yielded and that Spain was so