sufficiently manifest that their Squadron of Ships was sent only to be Spectators and to learn to Fight and for other ends rather than to act in it and truly his Highness that day gave them an Heroick Example of Skill and Courage when he was set upon by two of the Dutch Squadrons together one of which the Admiral of the French Squadron ought to have engag'd according to the Orders that his Highness had sent to him the day before but he not coming in though the wind all the day stood fair for him his Highness was left alone to bear the brunt of the Engagement with two of the Enemies Squadrons at once and though his own Ship was surrounded on all sides yet he so nobly acquitted himself that day that he not only made his own way out of that great distress but giving a Couragious Example to the rest of his Squadron went with them and assisted that other Squadron of ours which had been engaged against Vice-Admiral Tromp at a great distance in a separate Fight contrary to his Highnesses Orders Moreover it is to be remembred that as he made way to their Assistance his Squadron by the way still fought the Dutch Squadrons who made way also side by side with ours at some distance both sides shooting at each other the Dutch in hope to have hindred the Prince from giving the assistance intended which being nevertheless effected by his Highness and the Hollanders Admirals finding they could not prevent it and that they had enough of it made sail away for their own Coasts But had the French Squadron under the Command of the Count D'Estrees done his Duty and come in to second the Prince any hour of the day as he easily might have done the wind standing fair it was evident that day we might then have had one of the most glorious Victories that ever was obtain'd by Sea and but few of the Dutch Ships could have escaped home This was afterwards acknowledged and attested by Monsieur Martel the Count D'Estrees own Vice-Admiral who like an honest man attempted to have come in with a few of his Ships but could not and afterwards for his forwardness to have fought and because he blamed his Admiral when he returned to Paris he was call'd to an Account and Committed to Prison whereas the Count having followed the private Instructions of the French Ministers was still continued in Honour and Command And therefore it must needs be an undeniable Evidence that he had privy Orders and Instructions only to stand still and look on while we and the Dutch should be tearing and destroying one another because otherwise in order to a vindication of the Honour of France and its Ministers They would doubtless have made him answer that egregious Piece of Treachery with the price of his Head I intend as much brevity as may be therefore have forborn to touch upon all the Circumstances of that affair but thus much is absolutely necessary to give you proof of the French good will and faithfulness to England as well as to all other Nations that have had or shall have any Dealings with them Now let us next see how they dealt with us in order to the putting an end to this which having been by us entred into joyntly with the French doubtless nothing ought to have been attempted by any one in order to the ending of it but what should carry a fair Respect to the Interest of both Parties in conjunction But see how they play'd their parts with us in this also The StatesGeneral of the Vnited Provinces having nominated several Deputies to be sent some to his Majesty of England and some to the French King to know of them both upon what Terms they would be willing to agree and come to a Peace His Majesty as it is a Vertue innate in his own Royal Temper intended to deal most justly with the French King upon this occasion and therefore so carried the matter to avoid giving him any offence or jealousie and being loth to do any thing in the Affair without participation of Counsels immediately sent him word such Deputies were arrived at London and would not so much as hear what their Errand was without the privity of France supposing that he should have a suitable Return from thence But what happened in the mean time Even a quite contrary behaviour of the French For no sooner were the other Deputies arrived at the French Court but they were presently visited and caressed by two Secretaries of State and without further delay it was demanded of them first if they had full power from their Masters to treat and next what Proposals they would make in order to a speedy Peace The Deputies desired rather to know first what Proposals the French Ministers would make Whereupon to hasten them to a Conclusion of the Work the French shortly told them they were to understand That what their Master the King had Conquered by his Arms in Holland he would not part with unless they gave him an Equivalent as well for those Places as for the rest that he should conquer before the Treaty be concluded This Answer made the Deputies forthwith send back one of their number to the Hague by name Mr. De Groot who was speeded back again with Instructions to Amerongen authorizing him and his Fellow-Deputies to conclude a Peace with the French He was no sooner arrived but Monsieur de Louvoy one of the Prime Ministers of State made short Work delivered the Dutch Deputies a Project of Treaty or rather the Pretensions of the King his Master upon grant whereof as he said he would be both willing and ready to return to his former Amity with the States General and conclude a firm Peace with them Was not this a sweet Return of dealing towards his Majesty of England For you to are note That though the War was made joyntly and so no doubt it was not to be ended without respects to be had to the Interests of each Party concerned therein which you have seen was fairly meant and observed by his Majesty on our part towards the French yet they had so little regard of us that they not only put on and entred upon a Treaty without our Privity or Consent but would have concluded it upon that separate Treaty without us only to their own Advantage whereby their Master might as perfectly become sole Master of the Vnited Provinces as if he he had conquered all by the Sword You are to note also for a clearer understanding of their Intents That when the Heer De Groot being to go the second time from Amerongen to the Hague with the Articles of this Separate Treaty when he arrived there the States finding that there was nothing in them which concerned England he told them the French Ministers had told him The Sates his Masters might deal as they pleased with England and make an end as cheap as they would because as they pretended
Christianissimus Christianandus OR REASON FOR THE REDUCTION OF FRANCE To a More Christian State IN EUROP Odimus Accipitrem quia semper vivit in Armis LONDON Printed by Henry Hills and are to be sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1678. Christianissimus Christianandus OR Reason for the Reduction of FRANCE to a more Christian State in EUROP Section I. Being an INTRODVCTION CErtainly 't is high time to think of making the Ministers of France better Christians when 't is apparent they have taken up the Principle of the Common Enemy of Christendom and make his Maximes the Rules and the Measure of their Proceedings Absolute Power at Home and Vniversal Empire abroad is their Aim as well as the Turks and seeing that by their Actions all the Duties of Christianity are laid in the dirt it were hard to determine under which of the Two Christendom would obtain Fairest Quarter after an absolute Conquest For though France be Owner of the better Faith yet the other keep Faith better because all Travellers tell us the Turk counts it Religion to keep Word and Promise But it seems France may do any thing Regnande causâ as we shall shew by and by when we come to tell how little value is made of Promises Obligations Alliances and the Sacraments In these things they exceed the Grand Seignior but in matter and extent of absolute Dominion they are his Rivals and aspiring to forestal him in his design upon Europ to become sole Masters of a Western as he is of the Eastern Empire And why not Why should not Louis the 14th have it now as his Predecessor Charlemain had it heretofore His great Ministers and Officers both Civil and Military say They have ample Territories and very populous and a most numerous Nobility and Gentry as much Courage as their Ancestors together with the advantage of being trained up either to Actions of War or Warlike Exercises also the Situation of their Country and the Opportunity they have by it to invade their Neighbours upon all Occasions the Fruitfulness and Riches of the Soil the prodigious quantity of all sorts of Commodities Manufactures and other wayes with which they supply neighbouring Countries And lastly the vast Revenues of their Kings who governing of late without check or controul at home are thereby the more able to oppress other States or Princes They boast how Charles the Eighth frighted all other Potentates by the surprising Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples How they contended with the Austrian Family when it had been rais'd on a suddain to a wondrous Grandeur by the accession of innumerable Provinces united in the person of Charles the Fifth and that their King Francis the First had like to have carried from him the Imperial Crown having to that end engaged several of the Electors but they forget to tell us that when he had miss'd it then to be revenged on the Emperor and the other Christian Princes he was the first that taught the French Kings the most Christian trick of making Leagues with the Turks for so did he with the Great Solyman the Magnificent as you may read in my Lord Herbert's History of our Henry the Eighth and God prosper'd him accordingly for though he had several times the Turks assistance to carry on his Reverigeful Designs to the hazard of all Christendom yet at last he was forc't to yield to the victorious Arms of that Emperor Charles who took him Prisoner and made him buy his Peace at an extraordinary Rate But yet his Son Henry the Second had better success and would have extended his Dominions very far had he not been prevented by a suddain unfortunate Death as did also his Successor Henry the Third Then came on his Successor Henry the Fourth and of him they boast that he subdued Monsters of Factions at home and afterwards revived that Monstrous Design of grasping all abroad that having made good his Title to the Crown by the Success of his Arms he bent all his thoughts upon a Project vast in the extent of it as extraordinary in the Nature of it intending no less than to cast Europ into a new Model and reduce all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths that were in his time to a certain number and to bring them into such bounds as he should think fit to prescribe to them but to reserve to himself a Portion so considerable as to have enabled him or at least his Successors to grow up into that state of Universal Monarch which had been first imagined by his Predecessor Francis To this effect he had made choice of his Generals and other great Officers furnished his Arcenals with mighty Stores of Arms and collected prodigious Sums of Money into his Treasury and then all came to nothing by a suddain unexpected stroke which was given him by the Hand of Ravalliac After him his Son Lewis the 13th Father of the present King though by reason of some Domestick broyls and Civil Wars he was not at leisure to carry on the Project of his Predecessors by employing that way the great Armory and Wealth which his Father had provided yet still he had an Eye towards it and Cardinal Richelieu with the rest of his Ministers finding that the House of Austria was very near bringing all Germany under their subjection and after the Battle of Prague stood fair to carry away Vniversal Empire the Darling of France they hasten'd with what speed they could to put an end to Civil Dissentions and having got quiet at Home they being then courted by diverse Princes for Assistance and Protection against the Austrian Family were glad of the Opportunity reckoning that under a shew of assisting weak Princes they might at length take occasion to share with them in their Principalities and by that means vastly increase their own Power And so they did subdue new Provinces and considerable Towns in Spain Italy Germany and the Low-Countreys which at last made the Princes as jealous almost of him as they had been before of the Austrian So that to prevent farther mischief they were content to sit down with their losses rather than trust their French Alliances any longer Which occasioned that great Treaty held at Munster which ended in a general Peace An. 1648. Now before I proceed give me leave by the way to make use of what is past in these few Observations viz. First That had not France had a marvellous Wit Courage and Fortune it could never have born its Head above water in the midst of so many Waves and Tempests of Discord and Rebellion as were rais'd during the Reigns of those Kings and yet continue still in a Condition after all to maintain it self and bid fair also against its Austrian Rival for the Mastery of a General Dominion Secondly That in all Ages as soon as their Intestine troubles have been over they have still out of a restless warlike Humour endeavour'd to incroach upon their Neighbours and for
matter with France it brought on another Treaty which was held at Aken i. e. Aix la Chapelle to make a New Agreement betwixt France and Spain about the Observation whereof we have afforded us another Instance of the French Fidelity Unto this Treaty all the Princes of Christendom were invited to take care of the common Security and his Majesty of England among the rest who sent also a Minister to the Protestant Princes of Germany to invite them into the Guaranty of the said Treaty of Aix Proposals also were made to the Duke of Lorain and several other Princes to come into the League then to be made to which the Lorainer immediately accorded hoping that by this Treaty he might have better luck with the French than he formerly had with them by the Pyrenean Treaty But before we proceed it will not be amiss to remember you How the French kept Faith with this poor Prince whose Interests had been provided for by the said Treaty as well as those of Spain and his Dutchy to be restored to him with all the Places and Towns which he had been possessed of within the Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun But see how France dealt with him They deferr'd as long as they could the performance of that part which related to the said Duke and refused still to return him his Country till they had brought him to make another Treaty with them in prejudice of the former whereby he was forced to part with several considerable Places over and above what had been granted to them by the General Peace And yet this would not serve their turn For after the oppressed Duke had enjoy'd a Year and a half but a very unsettled possession during which under several artificial unjust pretences new Quarrels were pick't every day they with a considerable Army constrained him to give them his Town of Marsal Moreover it was but a little time after this that they fell to teazing him again compelling him to sign a New Treaty more disadvantageous to him than the two former and yet so insatiable is their Appetite after Dominion the unhappy Duke could as little as before obtain a quiet enjoyment of that little they had left him They every day encroached upon his Jurisdiction the limits of his Territories and his Soveraignty it self They imposed grievous Taxes upon his Subjects They caused him to disband his Forces and to raise new Men again as they thought fit They kept him from revenging his own Quarrels to take part in others They let loose all his Enemies against him and stopped the progress of his Armies as soon as he had got the least Advantage And in few words he was at that time more a Vassal to France than a Soveraign in his own Country But yet all this would not satisfie the French Court they must have all again wherefore the Duke by many Circumstances shewing how ill he brook't this kind of unreasonable usage They ordered one of their Generals to surprise and seize his Person and to bring him either dead or alive Of which intended violence having had timely notice he escaped when it was very near being effected Which as one very well observed is a new way of dealing with a Soveraign Prince not known before in these parts of the World and it may teach all other Princes what to trust to in treating and what to expect from such monstrous Neighbours And it gives us some hope that we may e're long live to see the West govern'd by Bashaws as well as the East No other thing could give us a better In-sight into the Ambition and Pride nor more fully discover the Intent and Design of France None but an Universal Monarch can pretend to an Arbitrary displacing of Princes and a disposing of their Liberty Lives and Territories ........... Thus you see how persidiously they dealt with the Duke of Lorain But to return to the Treaty of Aix It proved to be of little avail to that Duke For they have since seiz'd his Country again and driven him out to seek his Fortune and this as Men say for no other Reason but because he hoped by this Treaty to have confirmed himself among his Allies in a better State of Security than he had hitherto been And as for the Court of Spain the French also resolved to defeat their Expectation of benefit by this Treaty for contrary to it they presently fell to work First they dismantled all the strong Places and Holds of the Country of Burgundie carried away all the Munitions out of it and would have spoiled the rich Salt-pits of that Province Had not the Powerful interposition both of England and Holland Prevented In despite also of that Treaty they exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limbourg and Luxembourg They laid a new Claim to some Towns as important as any of those that were granted to them by the Peace They confiscated the Estates of the Subjects of the King of Spain that would not forswear their Allegiance and spared not the very Royal House of Mary Mont. Nay as if these Infractions were not enough and still to encroach as far as they were able they forced their way with great quantities of Merchandise through the Spanish Territories without paying the Customs and not long after endeavoured to surprise the Town of Hainault In a word They did whatever they pleas'd plunder'd even the most Sacred Places and acted whatever can be imagined to be done without remorse by insolent and unconscionable men But to proceed it must not be forgotten How under a pretence of advancing the Affairs of Poland and setling an Amity there they contrived a Marriage for that King with a Lady of France by which means they were enabled to send thither along with her in her Train so many expert Instruments of mischief that immediately they settled a Cabal with such Intrigues as in a short time inflamed the Nobility of that Kingdom into heats and Factions against one another which are never likely to be extinguish't and at that time they operated so far that that King soon became willing to quit the Kingdom and thereupon the Turk seeing the great Divisions that were wrought among them was easily invited in by the French Cabal meerly because they could not bring in a King that was of French Blood or of French Interest at the following Election And also to this That one of the greatest Motives of their fetching in the Turk was that their New King contracted Marriage with the Emperour's Sister which Princess being now a Widdow is shortly to be married to the Duke of Lorain It is worth the while also to remember how finely they used the Duke of Newbourg while they trained him on to engage the greatest part of his Estate almost beyond redemption in hopes of getting the Polish Crown which they had promised to procure for him by the help of a strong Party which they had made in that Kingdom Yet under-hand
Flanders that thereby we might have seen some good Fruit of his Majesties friendly interpoposing in order to the procurement of a speedy Pacification and the French pretending so to do and to admit his Majesty to a performing the good Office of Mediation betwixt France and the Confederates but now the Issue of all being contrary for that the French have made an unexpected sudden Breach further upon Flanders in the depth of this Winter and appear'd resolute to carry the whole Country if they could before Spring so that this surprise gave a new Alarm to us and all the Neighbours the World must justifie his Majesty it after all amicable means used in vain he shall now find himself in prudence concern'd to take a Course by War to vindicate his own Honour against the many Violations and Affronts acted by France and by God's blessing to become the happy Instrument to recover the Rights of the oppressed States and Princes as also to preserve his own Nation against the Dangers threatned at our very doors and to restore unto the Generality that glorious Christian Peace which cannot otherwise be obtained Peace was the Subject of Christ's last Sermon the great Legacy that he bequeathed to his Followers What Christians then are they that make it their Interest and Business to destroy it on Earth This is the Work of wild Beasts and Monsters to infest whole Countries and when men act as such the very Law of Nature as well as of Nations excites and justifies all Mankind to War against them Look back on the former Sections of this Discourse and there you have a sight who are the men whom no Treaties nor Intreaties can reduce to a more Christian State Their Motto is Jus est in Armis No Law but the Law of Arms therefore by Arms alone the Quarrel is to be decided and that for these following Reasons Provided that Foreign States and their Ministers do not trifle with but come up roundly to us And that people here at home do their Duty for Encouragement answerable to the Importance of so great and necessary an undertaking Which no question every man wise and honest will be ready to do and no reasonable man can doubt it seeing our own and the Universal Interest now calls for it and the Parliament did this last Summer so earnestly address for it and I suppose his Majesty had suitably answer'd it had he conceived the Time to be seasonable and some other Circumstances agreeable which the Law most prudently hath left in his own Judgment to determine the more full and better sence whereof may be collected out of his Answer to the Address it self at the end whereof I read this Intimation That he could not do things for the security of his People with those Advantages to them which by the Parliament ' s Assistance at that time he might have done Which I remember very well most Men did interpret to be meant of the House of Commons not granting and the King 's wanting the Six hundred thousand pounds demanded by his Majesty for a further supply which might have enabled him to c. But of this more anon Here are the Reasons afore-mentioned I. The first Reason for War against them I draw from the Summum probabile the Highest probability that if we help not to reduce them and extinguish War abroad they will at last bring it home to us Which I prove by consideration of these three particulars France's Aphorisms of State The Political Creed Their Necessity to continue in War 1. The first Aphorism is such as is destructive of Peace in all Places and disposes them to act accordingly That is To enter into all sorts of Affairs by Right or by wrong by Hook or by Crook and every where to become Arbiters by Violence or by Cunning by Threats or by Friendly Pretences In all the Differences past or present they some way or other wind themselves in to take party and form for themselves an Interest nor did ever any People shew the least dislike to the Government and an Inclination to Rebellion but the French fomented it and made the Factions their Allies They never entred into any War to favour any Party but with intent to exasperate it nor into any Peace but to sow the Seeds of New Disputes as past Experience hath made evident and the Stories of these Truths afford numerous Examples but I now want room to insert them So that if we constrain them to Peace it will last no longer than they can work our Mal-contents into Mutiny and then they will violate that Peace by encouraging them or by siding with them secretly or openly 2. A Second Aphorism is to have for their only Rule Interest of State so that the Faith of Treaties the Good of Religion or the Ties of Blood and Amity cannot hold them The Instances for proof thereof I have given already All that the Turks have done in Christendom since the time of Francis the First to our time they owe to the Alliances of France with the Ottoman Court and to the diversion which France made in their Favour against any Christians who were likely to act against that Common Enemy of our Religion 3. Their Third Aphorism is To keep other States as much as they can divided and busied at home or else engaged in some External War as England Germany Italy Denmark Spain Poland Holland and many other Countries have had sad Experience What Peace then with such a Nation when her Witchcrafts are so many Their Fourth is To keep their Younger Brothers of the best Families alwaies in Arms abroad at the Expence of their Neighbours All these are the Maxims of Conquerors infallible Evidences of a profound Design to be prosecuted to the utmost Bounds of Conquest So that to talk to them of Peace is to talk against their Interest that is 't is to no purpose The other thing to be considered is their Political Creed which I shall not give you in my own words but as it is translated having been printed in the French Tongue at Ville-Franche by Jean Petit 1677. They believe that what others call Violence is but a bare precaution and a pursuit of one of their Infallible Rules of Art viz. That Conquerors ought to provide for the future by destroying whatever may hurt them and that they ought to have no Law but the Sword the Appetite of Governing and the Glory to be had by aggrandizing themselves at the cost of their Neighbours Pyrrhus also believed this just and Caesar that all things were lawful for Dominion They generally applaud these Maxims and hold that nothing is forbid to them that may disturb their Neighbours and sow division among them that they have a secret joy in doing wrong and whatever else may be most afflicting and outrageous That Pity is a cowardly Vertue which over-throws a Crown whose best Support is Fear and Impiety its Foundation That Arms inspire a reverence among
much as they did Spain before not considering how their Interest of Religion declines there by the marvelous increase of the Protestants and Jansenists and by the indifferency of zeal in most of the French Papists and were it not mere Reason of State that holds it up there among the Great Ones for the present no Man knows how soon it might be relinquish't if a little time should happen to alter that Reason of State it being a voluble thing if their Ministers shall think they have as good reason to invade Italy as other Places and after Conquest of the smaller Princes there to seize Saint Peters fair Patrimony for an Addition to the French Kings Revenue and then make the Pope content to become his Chaplain and to be glad of a Pension as the Mufti is at Constantinople who knows then how far Reason of State may alter it self and make further Alterations But let the Popish Party look to that They may hope the best if they please but we and all the rest of the Protestant Party in Germany and other parts must be sure to go to wrack as fast as they can reach us and then deal with us as they do with their own in the Concerns of our Religion as well as Estates Ours shall be sure to go down and the Papists cannot be sure their Religion shall not receive Alterations especially in Secular Advantages of Wealth and Power seeing even in France the King hath already converted to his own use a great part of the Monastick Revenues Therefore it almost equally concerns both Papist and Protestant in reference to Religion to adventure their distinct Powers and Interests in one common Bottom and Resolution to War with him and to hinder the obstinate pursuit of that Project of an Universal Monarchy IX The last Argument that might be brought is the Universal Inclination of our People towards a War with France And the like Inclination yea and Necessity that appears among our Foreign Neighbours Never was there a more marvelous Consent of Mankind about any one Business therefore I need not use more words to press it on SECTION V. An Account of such Objections and Impediments as by Malcontents may be cast in the way in case His Majesty shall see Cause now to make a War THat there are Discontents among us is a thing in no wise to be denied and the Authors of them are sufficiently known They are a sort of ominous Birds always hovering about City and Suburbs presuming to misrepresent argue and arbitrate the great Affairs of State and such is the licentious Liberty they take to themselves that they censure arraign and condemn what and whom they please Ever against the Sitting of Parliament they gather and appear in whole Flights and Flocks breeding of false News and boding Mischief wheresoever they come They sometimes haunt the Houses of Ambassadors and other Foreign Ministers if they can get any intimacy with their Servants with whom they give and take Supplies toward a Stock of Intelligence the one to furnish the Foreign Post the other the Coffee-Houses whence they issue again and make sallies upon the Canary Cabals at the Globe the Horn the Kings-head or the Devil to furnish them and settle Correspondencies both East and West and to that end receive Commission to become Emissaries and Trotters betwixt some particular Wiseacres in both the Climates If the Parliament chance at any time to be Prorogued or Adjourn'd that Season proves to this sort of News-mongers like a nipping Frost to Flies and they are even ready to die away like fainting Grass-hoppers There 's nothing revives them in the Interval like some unlucky Mischief befal'n the Court 'T is Mischief they gape for and yet are but Fools at doing it and therefore ought to be better instructed For if I loved Mischief and meant to do it I would first raise Objections to prevent a War now though a while ago I wished well to all those that had a desire to promote it I would object that it is too late to enter upon it now because it should a been done last Summer before the French King could a made his late Impression so far into the Spanish Low-Countrys and before the Confederates were brought so low Besides I would not give way with patience to hear another man answer me that it is not too late but prove that had his Majesty consented to it last Summer there are most sufficient Reasons to be given why it might have turned very much to the prejudice of his Affairs as for Instance 1. Had he then declared an immediate Consent to it it had been all one as to have declared a War for the French are not so slow-witted as not to apprehend it so nor so remiss as to neglect a dealing with us accordingly What could we have expected but that our Merchants Ships which at that time were in great numbers trading within the Dominions of France would have been immediately seized and all their Effects which amounted to a vast sum of mony whereby our King besides the losses of the Merchants must have lost a great sum of mony accruing here to his Customs by the Import of those Goods and Commodities 2. His Majesty very well understands what an important Point 't is to consent to a War which is all one in effect as to proclaim a War before competent preparations made for it by Mony Ammunition and Men Ships and all other necessaries for War could be ready to put it in execution 3. The French King might then for ought that can be said to the contrary have been thereby so exasperated as to lay aside a while his Affairs in Flanders and being ready furnisht with all the necessaries that we wanted immediately have resolved to fall upon us by an Invasion and what I pray you could have hindered at that time such a Surprise of us 4. It had been a strange Adventure to have been so forward to have engaged our selves by promise to enter into the War before it was known what the Confederates would do towards it to encourage us to their Assistance The present Distress lies upon them more than upon us therefore there ought to be no bogling with us or delaying but a quick doing what is reasonable for them on their part to engage us in their Confederacie 5. The French King having pretended fair for an imbracing of His Majesties Mediation in order to a reasonable Peace it was questionless very convenient we should stop a while to see what would be the issue of his pretence that in case he should play foul and deceive us we might have the juster and fairer cause to War with him 6. If there had not been any of these Reasons for delay yet the happy Alliance with the Prince of Orange having been since accomplished and being a very good expedient to open the way for a more convenient entrance into Confederation is that which may abundantly serve to balance
any pretended inconvenience of the delay of entrance But to proceed Moreover If notwithstanding these Reasons any one of those men of Intelligence should yet mischievously Object That last Summers delay hath been the ruine of Flanders and made the recovery of it in a manner impossible and should endeavour to perswade others 't is so because of the loss of some few Towns there since let such consider that the Spaniard by his not closing yet with us in our friendly Inclination seems not to be of their Opinion or that Flanders is yet so near ruine seeing that he himself hath made a further delay by not coming up to our reasonable Demands at this time whenas he hath of late so much pretended it and all men expected he would accordingly have done it out of hand Besides Let those News-and-Mischief-Mongers remember it is not long ago since they themselves in one of the Canary-Clubs were of a mind that the Confederates if we were joyned with them would be able to work Miracles in Flanders against the French but it now seems that the loss of St. Ghislain or of a Town or two more hath in a moment deprived us and the Flemmings of all Power to do what is fit to preserve the Country It hath been told me that very lately the like Discourse being boldly bandied at a certain Cable of Coffee-mongers one that sate smoking hard by in a Corner of the Room stept in and said honestly That he wonder'd there should happen among some men such a sudden Change of Opinion and that it must needs give a suspicion there is some invisible Spring that moves them some Secret Intrigue and Reserve in the Heart when the Tongues go at so rolling a rate and that they are a sort of people tutor'd to this Tune to argue Pro and Con by Turns as their own Occasions alter That they are resolved to dislike whatsoever the King may judge is reason for him next to do in his publick Affairs and that they put on the approbations and disapprovements of a War according as they are influenced and as the WORD is given out by their envious Mal-contented Leaders and as it may serve to please or irritats and to render themselves gracious in their eyes unto whom they are Retainers I do remember said he what Joy the People had and Bonfires as soon as the Marriage of the Prince of Orange was declared and not many days after this sort of frequent Changelings raised I know not how many Scandals about it How far the French have had an influence on such petulant Talkers I cannot say but other men more honest speak broad enough about it Which having been thus roundly utter'd the Gentleman laid down his Pipe paid for his Dish of Coffee and went his way leaving them all in an amaze to guess who this Man should be Now no sooner was this Gentleman gone but another who over-heard the Discourse drew near to them for all are free over a Coffee-dish and sitting down said Gentlemen pardon me if I tell you I was here t'other day and heard some others of you discoursing about Money to carry on the War and methought it was much any among you should think it reasonable and most necessary to have War and others yet be of opinion That the Point of Money should be cumber'd with Delays or Disputes about it What would the Event of this be Would it not render us ridiculous to the French and make them scorn us Would it not dishearten the Confederates and make them jealous that whatsoever Resolutions we take to give them hope of assistance yet as soon as they are taken they will by one Accident or other be made impracticable In time of Necessity and when Hannibal was at the Gates or any other Enemy nigh coming the Romans ever instituted a Temporary Officer whom they called Dictator and to him the Senate and People gave during the publick danger but not longer as full Power as the King of France now enjoys to do and take whatsoever he should judge necessary to secure the Publick State of the Nation by which Policy they avoided all Disputes and Debates about the Concerns of the War and so they generally came off with Success Be it far from me to urge at this time that we should in this occasion of ours imitate them but yet methinks we should so far learn of them as to do all we can to avoid and lay aside disputings especially about the very Life and Sinews of a War constant supply of Moneys and other Necessaries and to come as near the Roman Policy as the publick Constitution convenience and State of our Government can possibly permit if we mean to obtain the like happy Success A trust must be lodged some where therefore 't is best and safest to place it where and in what manner the Law hath placed it The Law obliges the People as well as the King It obliges the King to make War where and when he shall judge it needful And on the other hand it obliges the People readily and cheerfully to give him necessary supplies otherwise this absurdity would be implied in our Law that it should oblige the King and leave the People loose in this matter which can by no means be supposed because then it would oblige him to an Impossibility it being impossible for him to do his part unless they on their part shall sufficiently supply him Which 't is not to be imagined the People can be so mad as to decline because 't is for common Safety The Supreme Law which is a further Tie upon them and if they observe not that it is not only to be wanting to the ends of Gubernation but in effect a Frustrating both of Law and Government it self and at this time an unnatural abandoning of our selves and a giving up of that most noble cause wherein whole Europ is so deeply concerned I thought Gentlemen to have spoken no more at this time but craving your Pardon pray Sirs let me tell you I over-heard also here t'other day what some of your Company said reflecting upon some State-Particulars past the reviving whereof would better become the mouth of a Common Enemy than a true English-man being matters altogether Foreign to the Business of War which is now The Unum Necessarium The one Thing Necessary and till all fit Resolutions upon that be taken why should any matters inferiour that may cause discontent or division of minds be discoursed among you I will not so much as name them to give you cause to over-heat your selves to answer me I resolve to bury them and all that you then said about them For I am no Spy upon you I am a Gentleman and if any other person that is an Informer may have taken notice of what you said and should chance to call me to witness any thing against you know I have a Gentleman's Memory very apt to forget all upon such an occasion This Discourse as I have been told surprised them more than what was said by the other Gentleman insomuch that the Company stared on him with silence being most of them I suppose of Opinion that what he said was Reason but as there is are all Companies some whom no Reason can satisfie so there were it seems among them some few Emissaries Trotters and Mischief-mongers belonging to the Canary Cabals who began to grumble but presently broke up and went to the several places of Caballing and communicated the matter there to their Principals among whom there hapning to be a false Brother or two by that means I got the Story Now for a Conclusion Let me answer one Objection which I hear walks about like a Bugbear to affright us viz. That though our Chronicles tell us that Edw. the Third conquer'd France and his Son Edward called the Black Prince brought their King Prisoner into England and though Henry the 5th made a Second Conquest of them more compleatly being Crowned King at Paris and his Son Henry the 6th also Crowned there and Reigned over them many years yet the Case is alter'd now France is quite another thing it is now one compact Body it in those days was shared by diverse Sovereign Princes which made the French King but little in comparison of what he is in these days being become exceedingly more potent and more difficult to subdue by reason of his present Lordship over all those Sovereignties To balance these Advantages of his note that England also is through God's good Providence become much more powerful than it was in those days For though in those days we had Ireland yet it was but a miserable halfplanted Country alwaies rebellious against us so that it was an extraordinary charge and a clog rather than a help to us but now we have it improved to the height and the Irish in good order with our English also the Accession of the Kingdom of Scotland a numerous and warlike People which then also was another great Clog upon us now united with us To these Considerations add That by addition of the Confederates if they please to be plain with us we may I suppose be contrepoise enough to answer all the French Advantages and no Man that knows what England is at Sea and what an English-Seaman is will doubt especially Holland joyn with us that we may be a Match sufficient for that King and that we over-match him in this that we have a Better Cause and therefore God pardoning our Iniquities in other matters have a better hope of Divine Benediction Which being well weighd we may very aptly invert the old Saying of Cicero Justissimum Bellum iniquissimae Paci antefero That is being a little paraphrased in English I upon the whole matter conclude That a most just War is to be preferred before a most unjust Peace most dangerous to us and all the rest of the European Nations FINIS
they were not bound by Treaty to procure the English any Advantages And thus no more Notice was taken of his Majesty nor greater care of his Interests than if he had never been concerned in the War or in no League with the French at all So that if by wonderful Providence this Separate Treaty had not been broken off Europ might have been in greater hazard of its Liberty and we of our Safety by a settled Domination of the French in the Vnited Provinces Much more might be added to shew the foul play of the French with us at that time and afterwards also when the Duke of Buckingham and My Lord Arlington were sent hence into Holland but I must be brief this being enough to discover their friendly behaviour during the Joynt-War An. 1673. In the next place let us see how they have carried themselves since the Year 73. For we have an Account that notwithstanding the Amity betwixt us hath been continued to this Day yet that Nation hath never ceased to do us one Injury or other and no sufficient Redress at all hath been obtained though Complaints have been made and Reparation earnestly sought for Witness especially the many Affronts and Violences done to us upon our Merchants Ships at Sea by the French Privateers For but very few of them have been restored and those that have been have found the Remedy worse than the Disease because the tedious delay of it brought such charge to the Merchants that the benefit coming by the Restitution would not countervail their Expences in attendance at the Court of France For the Clearing whereof it cannot be amiss to give here at large an Account touching the Event of such Applications as have been made to his Majesty for Redress at the Council-board and with the Commitee of Trade belonging to his most Honourable Privy-Council excellently penned and now come to my Hand newly printed and dispersed therefore I reprint it And it here followeth At the Court at White-Hall the 4. of August 1676. Present The King 's most excellent Majesty in Council The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Trade did this Day present unto his Majesty in Council a Report touching the Injuries which his Subjects did sustain by French Capers in the Words following May it please your Majesty There was presented unto your Majesty in Council on the 31. of May last a Petition in the Name of all the Merchants of London and other places concerned in the several Ships taken by the French Privateers and carried into several Ports of that Kingdom and their Complaints consisted of the Points following 1. That the Ships and Goods of your Majesty's Subjects though manned according to the Act of Navigation and furnished with all necessary Passes were daily seized carried into Dunkirk Calais Sherbrook and other Ports the Masters and Mariners kept close Prisoners to force them by hardship to abuse the Owners or else for Relief of their own necessities being commonly stripped and plundered to enter into the Privateer's Service which great numbers have done with very pernicious effects 2. That the delay and charge of prosecuting the Law in France does commonly make the Owners to become losers of half the value when ever they are successful 3. That there is no Reparation ever gotten from Privateers for what they plunder and imbezle which makes them freely seize upon all they meet and perpetually molest the Navigation of your Subjects Wherefore your Petitioners humbly imploring your Majestie 's Protection and Relief your Majesty was hereupon graciously pleased out of a sence of your Subjects sufferings to command that some Frigats should sail forth to clear the Coast of those Privateers to seize them and bring such as had offended to make Restitution And your Majesty did further order that the Committee of Trade should well take notice of the particular Cases and Complaints depending that such of them as were of weight and merit might be fitted to receive your most gracious Recommendation for Relief as to survey the whole number of Seizures which have been made on your Subjects in order to lay before your Majesty what hardships have been sustained at Sea and what sort of Justice hath been administred in France with their Opinion of what is sit to advise your Majesty therein In obedience to which Command we have hereunto annexed a list of such ships as have bin seized to the number of 53. and the Cases wherein the Owners have repaired unto your Majesty either in your Council or by your Secretary of State for Relief which as in the general it supposes a Justice in such Complaints so it leaves a suspicion of great hardship in the Methods of Redress and the number of Captures is no small proof of the facility of Condemnation How many other helpless Men there have been besides the said Cases who have not had ability to prosecute or how many of these Cases have been favoured with Redress we cannot certainly understand till the Information we have sought for comes from Paris which may also enable us to compleat their Circumstances of every Case But in the mean time such of all the Instances of Redress as are come to our knowledg we have not failed in the Margin to make mention of them being in number seven While we were in the midst of this Prosecution Mr. Secretary Coventry does on the 6th instant present unto the Committee a Paper which he received from the French Embassadour Monsieur Courtin relating to these matters and the Contents thereof were as follow An Extract of a Letter from Monsieur Colbert to Monsieur de Pompone one of the French King's Secretaries written the 28th of June 1676. For what concerns the Prizes it would be a difficult matter to answer to all the Cases contained in Monsieur Courtin's Letter What I can say is That the Council for Marine Affairs sits every Friday at Saint Germans That all Privateers and Reclaimers know it That Sir Ellis Leighton nominated by the English Embassadour hath always notice of it and is always present at it That not a Week passes but I give him two or three Audiences and often-times I send for him on purpose His reasons are all reported read and examined As likewise are all Petitions of Reclaimers and I shall tell you more I acquaint him wiih the Reasons upon which Judgment is given In giving Judgment all Vessels which have any appearance of being English are realeas'd and very often and almost always although we are satisfied that the Ships are Dutch yet they are released because there is some appearance of their being English and every thing is judged favourable for that Nation and it is true that all Ships that are taken are of Dutch-built that they never were in England that the Masters and all the Equipage are Dutch that the Documents are for Persons unknown and which are not often-times so much as named that they carry with them only some Sea-Briefs