acquainted the Baron de L'Isola with the Dutch Allegations concerning some Advances made by him as from his Majesty upon the Point of Poleroon He says however they may seem to interpret it they could not understand it by any Thing that passed from him in that private Communication which was all he entred into upon his short stay in Holland That upon his first Discourse of His Majesty's Intention to make the Treaty of 1662 the Foundation of this at present the Person he discoursed with raised two Difficulties the first that of Poleroon and the other the Continuance of the Pretensions left on either side which as they had given Occasion or at least Pretext for the present Quarrel so if they were left still undecided they might hereafter have the same Effect whereas their Desire was by this Peace to cut off the Root of all future Differences For the first Point he the Baron asked whether if all other Articles should be agreed the States would be so obstinate upon the Point of Poleroon as to endanger the Peace for that alone It was answered the French had already essay'd to do some Offices in this Particular and had brought it to this very Demand whether the States would continue the War rather than yield the Point of Poleroon and that the States had answered formally they would For the second concerning the mutual Pretensions left in the Treaty of 1662 He the Baron seemed to approve the cutting them all off but proposed that in Consideration of it the States should give His Majesty a Sum of Money in some sort proportionable to what his Pretences might amount and that if the States would make any Advance considerable in Point of the Sum He the Baron would employ all his own and his Friends Endeavours to induce His Majesty to a Condescention in this Point of Poleroon as well as that of clearing all Pretensions on either Side To this was answered that for Poleroon nothing more could be said nor any Consideration make the States yield it without the Alternative of restoring all on each side which would create Length and Difficulty in the Treaty That for a Sum of Money in Satisfaction of His Majesty's Pretensions they could not consent to any such Proposal without a particular Liquidation of what the Pretentions on each side amounted to since they believed in gross their own upon us to be higher than ours upon them And yet at the same time it was insisted that no such Examen or Liquidation should be entred upon since doing it before the Conclusion would expose the Treaty to the Danger of Delays and consequently of Accidents and leaving it to Commissioners after the Conclusion would leave Field for new Disputes This was the Sum of the Baron's Negotiation in which he made all the Advances as from himself but when he found he was not likely to bring it to any Issue by Reason of those two Difficulties that is Poleroon and the Sum in Consideration of our clearing all Pretensions he then told them as by his Majesty's Order that the Point of Poleroon touching our East India Company rather than His Majesty the King would send over some Persons Deputed from the said Company with His Ambassadours and if the States would do the same it was likely the Persons Deputed from each Company might find an Expedient in the Business This the Baron gives me for the short and true Relation of all his Discourses in Holland which having been made with one Person alone and very private I find he expected not they would have been so publick as to be alledged upon any new Negotiations Our News from the Frontiers since my last is this About the time of the French King 's coming down to Arras the Orders were given for slighting Armentiers la Basseè and Charle-Roy which being publick and begun to be executed at Armentiers a Brigetin Priest of that Town went to Arras and upon Complaints of their being left without Defence in the Times of Danger that were approaching made Application to the Governour of Arras for a Protection for their Town Within a Day or two after when the Works were about half slighted instead of the Protection came Seven or Eight Hundred French Horse and finding a Guard of about forty Men at the Entrance of the Place made a Discharge upon them killed one and wounded two Upon which those few Soldiers that were in the Town-House shot and killed three or four of the French who began to pillage some of the Burgher's Houses but this Disorder was soon appeased by their Officers after which they summoned the Peasants in and begun to repair the Fortifications kept the Governour in Restraint and carried the Matter as if this had been the Declaration of War This News coming to the Governour of Lille he seized upon some French Men he found in his Town by Way of Reprisal for those taken at Armentiers and the Marquess gave Order to the Prince of Ligny who commands the Horse here to charge any Party he should find making Courses into the Frontiers and to endeavour to bring away some Prisoners both as Reprisals for those of Armentiers and to know something of the French Pretensions After they had kept Armentiers about five Days they released the Governour told the People they came not to begin any War but only at their Invitation to protect the Town drew off at first one Party of their Men and last Friday Morning all the rest The Governour of Lille set his French Men at Liberty and the Prince of Ligny some that he had taken in a Skirmish of small Parties upon the Borders of Hainault wherein the Marquess tells me about fifty of the French were killed and near twenty taken This I am more particular in relating because it seems the first Pace of the War tho' since in a manner disavowed by the French and indeed it is generally censured as the Effect of a weak and uncertain Council to begin without any formed Design or Declaration by siezing so rashly a Place of no Moment and in the Province of Flanders where none of their Pretences lie These three last Days the Motion of their Troops has been through Philiipeville and the Frontiers of Hainault The French King was expected last Night at Quesnoy and to Day at Philippeville They have begun a Bridge upon the Sambre near a Village called Marsin au Pont a League up the River from the Place where Charle-Roy stood the Ground being on the one side Pais de Liege and on the other the Spaniards Country so we expect here they will enter that Country to morrow but which Way they intend their first Impression is uncertain the Bridge they make serving a Design either upon Namur Mons or Brussels The Spanish Forces on this Side lie between this Place and Marimount consist of about four thousand Horse and as many Foot have no formed Design but to attend the Enemy's Motion and to retire
some of the small Towns to prevent and ruine a Council of the greatest Importance to Christendom as well as to our two Nations that had been on Foot in many Ages That unless the States General would conclude and sign the Treaty immediately and trust to the Approbation of their several Provinces and Towns after it was done I should give it for gone and think no more of it Monsieur de Witt seemed to think this impossible said no such Thing had ever been done since the first Institution of their Commonwealth that tho' it was true the States General might sign a Treaty yet they could not Ratifie it without Recourse to their Principals and that they should venture their Heads in Signing it if their Principals not approving it should question them for doing it without Orders that he hoped the Forms might be expedited in three Weeks Time and that all Care that could be should be taken to prevent the Addresses of the French Ambassadour among the Provinces I cut the Matter short and told him I continued of my first Opinion to see it immediately agreed between Me and the Commissioners and then Signed by the States which might be done in four or five Days and that the Deputies might safely trust to the Approbation of their Principals in a Point of so great and evident publick Interest That for my Part I know not how this Delay and thereby Hazard of the Affair might be interpreted in England nor what Change in my Orders it might produce That I had now Powers to conclude an Alliance of the last Consequence to the Safety of Flanders and this State that if it should miscarry by the too great Caution of the Deputies in Point of Form for ought I knew they might venture their Heads that Way and more deservedly than by signing at present what all of them believed would not only be ratified but applauded by their Principals With this I left him and the rest that passed in the Progress of this Affair as well as in my Audience or with the Commissioners Your Lordship has it in my Dispatch to My Lord Arlington to whom you will please to communicate these more secret Springs that by knowing the Conception the Forming the Throws and Birth of this Child you may the better consult how it is to be nourished till it grow to Strength and thereby fit to atchieve those great Adventures for which it seems designed I am ever with equal Passion and Truth My Lord Your Lordship 's most faithful and most humble Servant To Mr. Godolphin Hague Jan. 28. S. N. 1668. SIR THO' the Interruption of our Commerce hath been long yet I thought it necessary to renew it at this Time and thereby let you know what has lately broken it on my Side that you may not believe any Interruption of yours has had a worse Effect upon me of late than it ever had before being an Accident I have often been subject to About the end of last Month N. S. I passed through this Place with private Commission from His Majesty to sound the Mind of the States in what concerns the present Quarrel between the two Crowns and how they were disposed to join with him in the Share of a War or Project of a Peace to be endeavoured by our joint Offices between them From hence I went to London with the private Account of what I had in Charge After five Days Stay there I was dispatch'd back as His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to the States with full Power to treat and conclude upon those Points which His Majesty esteemed necessary for our common Safety and the Repose of Christendom in this Conjuncture Upon the 6th I arrived here had my first Audience on the 18th and on the 23d were signed by me and the Commissioners given me by the States with full Powers three several Instruments of our present Treaty The first containing a League defensive and perpetual between His Majesty and the States against all Persons without exception that shall invade either of them with Agreement to furnish each other upon Occasion with forty Ships of War of which fourteen betwixt sixty and eighty Guns and four hundred Men a piece one with another Fourteen between forty and sixty Guns and three hundred Men a piece and of the other Twelve none under thirty six Guns and a hundred and fifty Men Besides this with six Thousand Foot and four hundred Horse or Money in stead of them at the Choice of the Invaded and to be repaid within three Years after the End of the War the Proportions of Money to the several Parts of the said Aid being ascertained in the Treaty The second Instrument contains our joint Obligations to dispose France to make Peace in Flanders upon one of the Alternatives already proposed and likewise to dispose Spain to accept it before the End of May but in Case of Difficulty made by them to dispose France however to stop all further Progress of its own Arms there and leave it wholly to the Allies to procure the Ends proposed in this League The third Instrument contains certain separate Articles between His Majesty and the States Signed at the same Time and of the same Force with the Treaty but not to be committed to Letters 'T is hardly imaginable the Joy and Wonder conceived here upon the Conclusion of this Treaty brought to an Issue in five Days nor the Applause given to His Majesty's Resolution as the wisest and happiest that could in this Conjuncture be taken by any Prince both for his own and his Neighbours Affairs nor are the Reflections upon the Conduct of it less to the Advantage of the present Ministry in England the Thing being almost done here assoon as my Journey was known in London and before my Errand was suspected by any publick Minister there Three Days after our signing the Suedish Ambassadour signed another Instrument jointly with me and the States Commissioners obliging his Master to enter as a Principal into the same Alliance so soon as some Pretensions he has from the Emperour and Spain are satisfied by our good Offices between them After which Count Dona parted as Ambassadour likewise from that Crown for England where the rest of that Affair will be negotiated and in his Company my Brother Henry Temple with the Whole Account of my Business and the Treaties signed in Order to their Ratification for which a Month is allowed tho' the States promise theirs within fifteen Days after the Date When those arrive and are exchanged I return to my Residence at Brussels to see the Issue of this Business which now takes up the Thoughts and Discourse of all Christendom and from which most Princes will resolve to take their Measures I suppose My Lord Sandwich upon his Way and therefore content my self only with giving you this Trouble and the Professions of my being SIR Your c. To the KING Hague Jan. 29th S.N. 1668. May it please Your Majesty
that Court His Excellency's said Acceptation and thereupon to negotiate and conclude the same on that Side And to the End that no Objection may be made by France against the present Expedition of this Truce in order to an ensuing Treaty and Peace We send You likewise by this Express the Marquis's last Answer to our Instances Yesterday made for the Acceptation also of the Alternative which is so full and so direct to the Ends of our late Treaty that we have now nothing left to do on this Side the Remainder of the whole Negotiation lying on your Parts at Paris which we are here very much pleased with seeing it is devolved to so much abler Hands I hope You will place the whole Strength of His Majesty's and the States General 's Credit in that Court upon an immediate Consent to the Suspension of Arms knowing how dangerous all new Accidents may prove to the fair Hopes and Prospect in which we are at present of a Peace and withal how far His Majesty and the States are engaged to take Part in any Action that shall begin after the Marquis's accepting the Alternative as well as all other Points of their late Project for bringing about so happy an End For a good Presage of this greater Peace we received here the News of That of Portugal the very Evening which brought us so happily the Marquis's Answer upon the Alternative which has so much raised the Hearts of the Spaniards here that we are likely to have less Thanks for pressing them so far to a prejudicial Peace as they esteem it on this side But since they are already obliged it will depend wholly upon France to hinder the Conclusion of this in the same Season with the other which I will believe them too wise to do as well as too constant to the Assurances they have already given His Majesty the States and several other Princes in this Point of which the immediate consenting a Suspension of Arms will shew the Meaning and Effect I shall no further increase your present Trouble than by the Professions of my being Sir Your most humble Servant TO THE Count de Molina Spanish Ambassador at London March 7. 1668. My Lord YOUR Excellence cannot doubt of my Satisfaction in arriving at Brussels to find my self there immediately possessed of your Letter with the inclosed Paper tho' the News of your Health was more necessary to me than that of the Unreasonableness of one of your Neighbours and true Interests of the others which I find so well described there But the best Ink in the World is not a Balsom that can cure such Wounds they must find their Remedy from more powerful Medicines which the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo has given us reason to hope if France will still chuse rather to fall out with all the World than to make a Peace so much to their own advantage as that we offer them At least it is certain that your Excellency with a stroak of your Pen has brought to light the most covered Designs of your Enemies undeceived with the greatest Clearness your Friends and put Flanders under the securest Protection of which I cannot help rejoycing with You as the Author For what relates to Father Patrick how much soever I concern my self in his Fortunes I do not yet see any way that it can be in my power to serve him on this Occasion the last French Conquests having determined the Dispute between the Abbot Arnolphino and the Marquis of Baden about the Abbey de la Charité But the Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo has assured me he will find some other way of shewing the Esteem He has both for the Merits and Person of Father Patrick to whom I hope Your Excellency will do me Justice having endeavoured though without Success by this unhappy Conjuncture all that lay in my Power to serve Him I Kiss Your Excellency's Hands and am Yours c. Al Conde de Molina 7 Marco 1668. Sennor Mio NO puede V. E. dudar del gusto que he tenido enllegar a Brusselleus aviendome yo allado a qui con su carta en las manos con el quaderno adjunto aunque a mi era mucho mas necessaria la noticia de su salud de V. E. que no de la sinrazon de uno suyo vezino ny del interez verdadero de los otros que van muy bien traçados en el dicho quaderno Pero la mejor tinta del mondo no es balsamo bostante para curar tales heridas y es menester remedios mas fuertes a los quales la prudencia del Sennor Marques de Castel Rodrigo a dado lugar si la Francia par sus peccados mas quisiere la guerra con todo el mondo que no la poz avantajada que la hemos offrecido a lo menos se puede dezir que S. E. con un rasyo de pluma a sacado en luz los desinios mas encubiertos de sus enimigos a dado a los interessados el mas claro dessenganno y puesto las cosas de Flandes debaxodel amparo mas fuerte que se podia buscar de que no me puedo impedir de dar a V. E. la enorabuena Por interessado que soy en los aumentos del Padre Patricio no veo come sara possible servirle mas en esta occasion aviendo la Francia con su postrera conquista determinada el pleyto entre el Abad Arnolfin y el Marques de Baden en la de la Abadia de la caridad Pero el Sennor Marques me ha prometido con muchos veras de hallar otra manera di manifestar en quanto stima la personna y los meritos del dicho padre a quien V. E. me ha de justifiar por averme empennado quanto era possible en suo negotio aunque faltado en alcancarle por la desdicha de las coyunturas B. L. M. D. V. E. Su Mayor Servidor To my Lord Arlington Brussels March 13. S. N. 1668. My Lord THE last Post brought me none from England nor has this Week as yet brought me any from Spain so that 't is France only at this Time that entertains Us. The Dispatch return'd Us late last Night from Sir John Trevor upon the point of the Alternative has given the Town here occasion to talk of the Peace as a Thing done though I know not yet what the Marquis says to it having not seen Him since but think it possible He may be as much surprised with their Acceptation as Sir John Trevor says They were with His. It seems plain to Me that France desires to pursue the War but fears our engaging in it and to hinder That will use all the Address that can be to lay the Obstruction of Peace upon the Spaniards They on the other Side desire to continue the War provided they may be sure of our and Holland's Assistance and to that End if they play
qu' á mourir that I think it will not pass for a very just Exception and our Friend Count Marsyn who is hot at Hand will I hope come to himself and help to keep all Things quiet in Flanders till Don John's Arrival which is now talk'd of but I am not the easiest to believe it I beg your Lordship's Favour or rather Justice both to esteem and use me as My Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jul. 15. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to find that the great Measure of his Majesty's Grief upon Madame's Death was a little lessened by the Satisfaction he had received that it had passed without that odious Circumstance which was at first so generally thought to have attended it and of which I endeavour in my Discourse here to allay the Suspicions since I see his Majesty is convinced though it is a very difficult Matter to succeed in after so general a Possession which has been much encreased by the Princess Dowager's Curiosity to ask her Phisician 's Opinions upon the Relation transmitted hither to one of them from his â—rother who is the Dutch Secretary at Paris and pretends it came from Dr. Chamberlain tho' something different from what he transmitted into England However it happened it had certainly all the Circumstances to aggravate the Affliction to his Majesty which I am infinitely touch'd with as well as with the Sense of an Accident in it self so deplorable But it is a necessary Tribute we pay for the Continuance of our own Lifes to bewail the frequent and sometimes untimely Deaths of our Friends Et levius fit Patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nefas The Baron d'Isola parted this Day for Brussels from whence he told me he would answer your Lordship's last Letter by which he pretends to have drawn Confidence of his Proposals succeeding in England with the Temper the Dutch had given it here But he does not press the Matter much at present because he does not pretend that the Emperor's Resolutions are fully taken upon it nor will be till after the Enterview which is as he says about this time contrived between the Electors of Mentz and Triers where an Envoy from the Emperor another from the Duke of Lorrain and as the Baron pretends from some other German Princes are to intervene where the Measures will be fully taken among them In case his Majesty should fall into the Thoughts of admitting that Conjunction as Monsieur de Witt tells me he has likewise some Hopes given him from Monsieur Van Beuninghen I think it were best however reserving the Declaration of any such Consent until he were very well assured of the Emperor's and the other German Princes final and firm Resolutions which I know not whether we may be confident of learning from the Baron d'Isola whose Business seems to be rather first to draw out our Points and make them his Ground for persuading his Court to agree with them and thereby value himself both to his Master the German Princes and others upon his own being the Author of so great a Negotiation And perhaps if his Majesty have a mind to see the bottom of it and wishes it effected for common Interest sake he could not do better than to acquaint the Elector of Mentz privately with his Thoughts upon it and leave him to make use of that Knowledge towards the preparing all Pieces for the Work For I find That Prince must be the Spring of all the Motions that are made in it on the German Side So that all will depend upon his Dispositions and Conduct which for my part I pretend not to understand yet in this Affair For though his late Envoy here visited me with great Professions from his Master to his Majesty and much Civility to me yet I fell into no sort of plain or confident Discourse with him upon this Matter but finding him rather shy in it I resolved not to be behind-hand with him in that Point And so we parted as wise as we met By this Days Post I hear the Count de Monterey is declared Governor of Flanders by way of Interim which yet may last longer than is thought of according to the slowness or uncertainty of the Spanish Councils especially Don John having now finally refused to accept that Charge The Count Marsyn I hear says he will not obey a Man Qui ne fait que naître because the Count Monterey is but twenty eight Years old and therefore sets on foot already many Brigues against him both in Spain and Flanders which we here fear may produce very ill Effects by encreasing the Disorders of Flanders and thereby the Temptations of France though I hope our Friend who you know is something hot at Hand may yet come to himself For methinks his Exception against the new Governor is not very just after having so long obey'd a Man that thought of nothing but dying and for ought I hear was by that Apprehension rendred unfitter for his Post than any he could have met with to leave in it without very great Luck They much persuade me here to make a Journy to Brussels in this Conjuncture having heard me speak of it this Summer and of having his Majesty's leave because they know I am acquainted with those at present upon the Scene I find their Deputies have no Credit there and come back only with Dissatisfaction and Complaints I see nothing like to take me up here when I have observed this Assembly of the States of Holland and what they will do and promise further in the Prince's Business which a Fortnight will determine and therefore am well enough inclined to it But should be much the more if his Majesty should think fit to Complement the Count Monterey upon this Occasion and save the Expence of an express Person by sending him a Letter with me to be delivered as one that goes wholly Incognito and without any Character as was last Year intended I should have done to the Constable Of which your Lordship can easily satisfy me I find the Prince has put off the Thoughts of his Journy till towards the sitting of the Parliament upon what your Lordship last writ By whose Advice his Highness resolves to steer in the Course of his Affairs and Motions relating to England I am ever My Lord your c. To Sir John Trevor Hague July 22. S. N. 1670. SIR I AM at once to acknowledge both yours of the 1st and 5th current with the inclosed Names of the Scotch Ministers in the first and in the other the last Paper concerted with Monsieur Van Beuninghen concerning the Affair of Surinam Upon what concerns the Scotch Ministers I gave in yesterday a Memorial to the States upon which I received this Day a Message from Them expressing their Readiness to perform all Parts of their Treaties with his Majesty and desiring to know from me the several present Abodes of the said Persons to
Majesty's Character and the next Morning began my Conference with the Eight Commissioners of secret Affairs I exposed my Powers and saw theirs In pursuit whereof I offered them the Project of the defensive League as that which was to be the Foundation of all further Negotiations and without which perhaps neither of us should be very forward to speak our Minds with Confidence and Freedome in what concerned our Neighbours being likely therein to shock so great Powers abroad I told them for the rest His Majesty having resolved as far as he could in Honour to comply with the Sense of the States in the Offices of Mediation between the two Crowns I was first to expect from them the Knowledge of the States Resolution in Case they were already agreed I took this Course in my first Proposals because I found here that the Provinces were not yet resolved upon theirs five of them only having fallen upon that of Monsieur de Witt but Zealand being of Opinion to agrre with France for dividing Flanders and Utrecht for suffering France only to retain the last Years Conquest by way of Compromis till their Pretensions were adjudged before competent Arbiters to be agreed by the two Crowns or by the joint Mediators And I was in hopes that knowing His Majesty's Resolutions to join with them before they were agreed among themselves it might produce some Councils among them a little more favourable to Flanders and consequently more honourable to his Majesty After my Proposals Monsieur de Witt was by the rest of the Commissioners desired to speak for them all in the Conduct of our Conferences who after a Preamble of the usual Forms and Complements upon His Majesty's happy Dispositions to enter into a nearer Alliance with the State upon the mentioned Points declared the same Resolution in the States and allowing our Confidence by a defensive League for the Basis of the rest said the States were very willing de faire infuser les Clauses pour la souretè commune dans les Articles de la Mediation and was large upon this Argument that the last being of very pressing Haste as well as Necessity and they having already Order from their Provinces to proceed upon it they could not have the same Powers upon the Defensive being a new Matter under six Weeks or two Months Time but as soon as they received them would proceed to give their Ambassadour in England Powers to fall upon that Treaty which must for a Basis have at the same time an Adjustment of Matters of Commerce for his forementioned Reasons I thought fit to cut this Matter short and told them directly I had no Orders to proceed upon any other Points but in Consequence or Conjunction of the defensive League in which I thought His Majesty had all the Reason that could be both because he would not venture a War 's ending in Flanders to begin upon England and on the other side knew the States whose Danger was nearer would never be capable of taking any vigorous Resolutions in their Neighbours Affairs till they were secure at home by His Majesty's Defence That His Majesty thought the most generous and friendly Advance that could be was made on his Side by His Proposition being Himself so much more out of Danger than they were and so much courted to a Conjunction with France to their Prejudice as well as that of Flanders that they had not made a Difficulty of such Alliances with Princes who had lately desmelèes with them as well as His Majesty and that God be thanked His Majesty was not in Condition to have such an Offer refused by any Prince or State of Christendom These were the Sum of our Discourses tho' very long and such as occasioned the Commissioners to withdraw thrice and consult together tho' nothing was resolved but that Monsieur de Witt and Monsieur Isbrant should spend the Afternoon with me at my Lodging to endeavour the adjusting of Circumstances between us since we seemed to agree in Substance That Conference ended as I gave your Lordship Notice that Evening upon the Point that instead of the Project of Schevelin or any new Adjustment concerning Marine Affairs the States would proceed upon His Majesty's Project of a Defensive League provided the provisional Articles in the Breda Treaty might be inserted and perpetuated in this and thereupon we should expect His Majesty's Answer to what I should write that Night The next being Saturday Morning I desired another Conference with my two Commissioners but could not have it till the Afternoon they being to report that Morning to the States what had passed the Evening before At our Meeting Afternoon they told me their Communication of all to the States and their Lordships Resolution upon them that it was necessary the Articles provisional should be inserted in the Treaty so as I began to doubt a Stop of all till His Majesty's Answer which subjected all to Uncertainties I knew the French Ambassadour was grown into very ill Humour upon my Arrival and fallen into Complaints and Expostulations with several of the States and the more because He could not see Monsieur de Witt from my coming over till that Time tho' he had often press'd it and had an Hour given him the next Day Monsieur de Witt having promised to see him as he went to Church after Noon Upon this I knew likewise he had dispatch'd a Courier to Paris which I thought would make no Delay and therefore resolved to fall upon all the Instances and Expedients I could to draw up a sudden Conclusion I told them I desired it extremely before I could hear again out of England because I had left Monsieur Ruvigny very busie at my coming away and not unbefriended that I feared the same Artifices of France to disturb us here and perhaps Monsieur D'Estrades might at his next Meeting endeavour to infuse some Jealousies into them by the Relation of what had passed between Your Lordship and Monsieur Ruvigny three or four Days after the Date of my first Instructions Upon which I told them frankly as His Majesty gave me Leave what had passed in that Affair Monsieur de Witt asked me whether I could shew him the Paper drawn up between you and knowing I had it not desired earnestly I would procure it him assuring me no Use should be made of it but by joint Consent but saying nothing would serve so far to justifie them in Case of a Breach growing necessary between them and France I promised to write to Your Lordship about it which I desire you will please to take Notice of I told Monsieur de Witt what Confidence I had given His Majesty of his sincere Proceedings and how I had been supported by Your Lordship in those Suggestions against the Opinion of some other great Men What Advantage these would take if they saw our whole Negotiation was stop'd upon a Thing that looked like a Chicanerie since Articles provisional till
with our Conclusion For upon our first Conference with the Commissioners he had said Tout cela s'en ira en Fumèe que le Roy son Maitre s'eu mocqueroit The Day before our Signing being told we advanced very fast he replied Et bien d'icy á six semaines nous en parlerons relying upon the Forms of the State to run the Circle of their Towns Upon our giving him Part of the whole Business he replied coldly that he doubted we had not taken a right Way to our End that the Fourth Article of the Second Instrument was not in Terms very proper to be digested by a King of twenty nine Years old and at the Head of eighty Thousand Men That if we had joined both to desire his Master to prolong the Offer he had made of a Cessation of Arms till the Time we propose and withal not to move his Arms further in Flanders tho' Spain should refuse we might hope to succeed But if we thought to prescribe him Laws and force him to Compliance by Leagues between our Selves or with Spain tho' Sueden and the German Princes should join with us he knew his Master ne flecheroit pas and that it would come to a War of forty Years From this he fell a little warmly upon the proceeding of the States saying they knew his Master's Resolutions upon those two Points neither to prolong the Cessation proposed beyond the End of March nor to desist the Pursuit of his Conquests with his own Arms in Case Spain consented not to his Demands within that Term. He said His Majesty not being their Ally might treat and conclude what he pleased without their Offence but for the States who were their nearest Ally to conclude so much to his Master's Disrespect at least and without communicating with him the Ambassadour at all during the whole Treaty he must leave it to his Master to interpret as he thought fit Monsieur de Witt defended their Cause and our common Intentions with great Phlegm but great Steddiness and told me after he was gone that this was the least we could expect at first from a Frenchman and that I should do well however to give His Majesty an Account of it by the first that we put our Selves early in Posture to make good what we have said and that as to the Time and Degree of our Arming he would consult with the States and let me know their Thoughts to be communicated to His Majesty upon this Occasion I was in hopes to dispatch this away to morrow Morning but I shall be hindred till Night by the Delay of Signing of a separate Article with the Count de Dona whereby Place is reserved for Sueden to enter as Principal into this Treaty For I have gone along in the whole Business since my coming over with perfect Confidence and Concert with the Count de Dona upon his assuring me his Orders were to conform himself to His Majesty's Resolution in what concerns the two Crowns tho' before he absolutely engages he expects from the Spaniards by our Intercession some Supplies for Payment of his Troops and some other Adjustments with the Emperour which will be treated between the several Ministers at London under His Majesty's Influence In what I shall sign upon this Occasion together with the States I confess to Your Lordship to go beyond my Instructions but apprehending it to be wholly agreeable to His Majesty's Intentions and extremely advantageous to the common Ends and Affairs I venture upon this Excess and humbly beg His Majesty's Pardon if I fail Your Lordship will be troubled with some Postscript to Morrow before I dispatch an Express with the Copies to be ratified by His Majesty within a Month tho' I hope a less Time will be taken those of Holland having undertaken theirs on fifteen Days I am c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jan. 26. S. N. 1668. My Lord SInce the Close of my long Dispatch I have every Hour expected the Copies to be transmitted for His Majesty's Ratification without being able to procure them I cannot but imagine some Occasion of the Delay may have been a Desire in them here to interpose some Time between the Receipt of my last Friday's Letter and of this Pacquet to the End His Majesty may in the mean Time have dispatch'd his Orders to me about the Provisional Articles tho' I cannot think they should be of such Moment inserted or omitted to either Side I now dispatch the inclosed Copies of the Treaty in Order to His Majesty's Ratification which is generally desired may be returned as sudden as possibly the States having undertaken to have theirs ready in fifteen Days after the Signing and believing it necessary to proceed jointly and early to the mutual Councils of Arming in Case France continues the Dispositions they seem to be in at present of pursuing the War My Brother who will deliver this Dispatch to Your Lordship is able to add what particular Circumstances I may have omitted or Your Lordship shall think fit to enquire from this Place and what he fails Count Dona will supply who is a Person very well worth Your Lordship's particular Acquaintance and Assistance in his Negotiations or at least the Forms and Entrances of them being in all Points our Friend Yesterday the Spanish Ambassadour received the Communication of our Treaties from Monsieur de Witt and me with some Descants upon the hardship of it but I believe Satisfaction at Heart I have this Day written at large and with all the Instance imaginable to the Marquess de Castel-Rodrigo to induce his Consent and immediately upon the Ratifications shall away and pursue that Point at Brussels I cannot but rejoice in particular with Your Lordship upon the Success of this Affair having observed in Your Lordship as well as my Lord Keeper a constant steddy Bent in supporting His Majesty's Resolution which is here so generally applauded as the happiest and wisest that any Prince ever took for Himself or his Neighbours What in earnest I hear every Hour and from all Hands of that Kind is endless and even extravagant God of Heaven send His Majesty's Councils to run on the same Course and I have nothing left to wish since I know Your Lordship will continue to esteem me what I am with so great Passion and Truth My Lord Your c. To Sir Orlando Bridgman Lord Keeper Hague Jan. 27. S. N. 1668. My Lord THo' I know my long Dispatch by this Express to my Lord Arlington will give Your Lordship your Share of Trouble yet I could not omit the encharging my Brother with a particular Attendance upon Your Lordship from me nor accompanying him with these Acknowledgments of Your Lordship's great Favour and good Opinion even before I had the Honour of being known to you I will presume I have done nothing since to forfeit them as I had nothing before to deserve them and that my late good Fortunes at the Hague will help to
continue what my good Fortunes alone at Brussels began and my five Days stay at London served to improve in so great a Degree Yet I will assure Your Lordship if I can make any further Advance by the Resentments of your Favour by my Desires to deserve it in the Return of my best Services or by the true Honour and Esteem of those Qualities I have discovered in Your Lordship upon so short an Acquaintance I am very far upon my Way already But I will leave this Subject in the first Place to congratulate with you upon another which is the Success of a Council wherein I observed Your Lordship and my Lord Arlington to have the most steddy Bent in promoting a Resolution of His Majesty's which is on this side the Water esteemed generally the happiest and the wisest that could ever have been taken by any Prince in such a Conjuncture and upon Respects not only of his own Affairs but even those of all Christendom besides It is not fit for me to tell you much of what I hear of this Kind or the Applauses given to His Majesty and his Ministers upon this Occasion to tell you all I am sure would be endless but from what I hear I cannot but raise at least a happy Presage of a New Year and a new Ministry's running on together with a Succession of the same Honour and good Fortunes both to His Majesty and his Kingdoms In the next Place I will according to your Orders give Your Lordship an Account of some Particulars that fell into this great Transaction which I thought not fit to trouble my Lord Arlington with as not perhaps proper or of Weight enough for the View of His Majesty or the Foreign Commmittee and yet worth the Knowledge or Reflection of some of his Ministers in Order to the Conduct of His Majesty's Councils hereafter both in this and other of his Affairs I must tell Your Lordship that in my first Conference with Monsieur de Witt since my Return I begun with telling him that he could not but remember that when I passed this Way last into England I told him upon what Points His Majesty desired with the greatest Secrecy that could be to know his Opinion and by that to guess at what might be the States upon the present Conjuncture of Affairs in Flanders to the End His Majesty might accordingly take his own Measures That His Majesty guess'd by the general Carriage and Discourses of the Dutch Ambassadors at London the States were not willing to see Flanders over-run by France but could not find they had any thing positive to say to him upon that Subject That he had therefore sent me privately and plainly to tell him his Mind upon it as to a Man of Honour and who he believed would make no ill Use of it and if he thought fit to know his Sentiments upon that Affair That for His Majesty he neither thought it for his own Interest nor Safety nor for that of the States or of Christendom in general that Flanders should be lost and therefore was resolved to do his utmost to preserve it provided the States were of the same Mind and that it might be done in Conjunction between them and to that End desired to know whether the States would be content to enter into an Alliance with him both Defensive between themselves and Offensive against France for the Preservation of Flanders That he Monsieur de Wit might remember his Answer to me was first much Applause of His Majesty's Resolution great Acknowledgment of his Confidence towards him by that Communication much Assurance that the States would be of the same Mind as to the Preservation of Flanders which was their nearest Interest next their own That he found both His Majesty and the States had the same Mind as well as Interest in this Matter but that the Distrusts remaining upon the late Quarrel between them had kept either of them from beginning to enter frankly upon it But since His Majesty had pleased to break it to him in a manner so obliging tho' he could not pretend to tell me his Master's Mind yet he would his own which was that the Defence of Flanders was absolutely necessary but that it ought to be tryed first rather by a joint Mediation of a Peace between the two Crowns than by a Declaration of War but that if the first would not serve it ought to come to the other That I knew France had already offered a Peace to the Offiâ—es made by the States upon an Alternative at the Choice of the Spaniards that he thought our Mediation ought to be offered to both Crowns upon that Foot to induce France to make good their own Offer and Spain to accept it And that to this Purpose he thought it very necessary to make a strict Alliance betweeen His Majesty and the States That for making an Offensive Alliance it could not be for it was a Maxim observed by this State never to make any at least when they were in Peace that for Defensive Leagues they had them with many Princes and he believed would be ready to enter into one with His Majesty and tho' he could not at all answer what would be the Mind of the States upon these Points yet he had told me his and would add that he was not usually mistaken in theirs and that he would at least use all his Endeavours to bring the States to such Opinions and Resolutions When I had said this and observed by his Action and Face that he assented to this Recital of all that had passed between us I ask'd him whether this was all right that I might know whether I had mistaken nothing in representing His Majesty's Meaning to him nor his to His Majesty He answered that it was all right and that he very well remembred it and much commended a Method of proceeding so exact and sincere by an Endeavour to avoid all Mistakes between us I then told him that I had upon my Arrival in England represented all as faithfully to His Majesty as I had done to him and that upon it His Majesty had taken so much Confidence in his Monsieur de Witt 's Opinion and Judgment as well as in his Credit with the States that he had taken a sudden and firm Resolution upon it first to join with the States in the Offer of a Mediation between the two Crowns and upon such Terms as they and I should agree but with a Desire that they might be as advantageous as the States could be induced to for the Preservation of Flanders and Recovery of such Places as should be most necessary to it In the next Place to conclude a Treaty the strongest that could be between us for obliging France to accept the Peace upon those Terms and in the mean time for putting a stop to the Course of their Arms in Flanders But that His Majesty thought it necessary to begin all this with a strict League
would answer if ever it did it should never be by my Hand and was as confident I might answer the same for Your Lordship and My Lord Arlington and that you would fall or stand upon this Bottom Monsieur de Witt seemed much satisfied with what I had said assured me for his Part he would give his Hands towards a good Conclusion of this Affair That he would trust His Majesty's Honour and Interest upon so great a Conjuncture as well as the Sincereness and Constancy of His Ministers whom he could judge of by no other Lights but what I gave him made me Compliments upon the great Confidence he had taken in me and my manner of dealing by what he had heard and seen of me since the first Visit I made him in my Passage here after the End of the War and concluded that I should see the Count Dona and try how far Sueden was to be engaged in this Affair I tell Your Lordship all these Circumstances that knowing where the Difficulties have been how they have been overcome and upon what Advances on my side this Knot has been tied Your Lordship and My Lord Arlington may the better know how to support this Affair and make any others easie by recovering the Credit of our Conduct in England so far lost by the Unsteddiness too truly laid to our Charge and at least by your own Constancy in what you have begun make good the Characters you have already in the World and the Assurances I have given Monsieur de Witt upon your Occasion That Evening I went to the Count Dona and run over all Ceremonies of our Characters by going straight into his Chamber taking a Chair and sitting down by him before he could rise out of his I told him I hoped he would excuse this Liberty upon an Errand wherein I thought both our Masters were concerned that Ceremonies were intended to facilitate Business and not to hinder it that I knew nothing to make my seeing the other Ambassadours at the Hague necessary and so was content with the Difficulties had been introduced between our Characters but thinking it absolutely for my Master's Service to enter into Confidence with His Excellency upon my Errand here I had resolved to do it in this Manner and if he gave me Leave would pursue it as if our Acquaintance and Commerce had been of never so long a Date The Count embraced me gave me great Thanks for the Honour I did him made me Compliments upon so frank and confident a Manner as I used with him and said he was ready to return it upon any Thing that I should think fit to communicate to him After this I entred into the Detail of my whole Progress to that Time both in England and here of His Majesty's Reasons of the common Interests of Christendom of the Reception my Errand found from Monsieur de Witt and the Hopes I had of succeeding Of our Discourses about engaging Sueden in the same Measures and a Desire of extending our League into a Triple Alliance among us for our own mutual Defence the Safety of Flanders and thereby of Christendom That I knew how the Crown of Sueden had been treated of late Years by France how close they had kept to the Friendship with His Majesty and how beneficial as well as honourable such a Part as this might prove to them by the particular Use they might be of to the Crown of Spain and that upon any good Occasion they might be sure of His Majesty's Offices and the States who resolved to enter into this Affair without any other Interest than that of the Preservation of Flanders and thereby of their own Safety and the common Good The Count Dona professed to applaud His Majesty's Council to be confident that Sueden would be content to go his Pace in all the common Affairs of Christendom which he was assured of by his own Instructions in general but that such an Affair as this not being foreseen he could have none upon it That if it succeeded he would make all the Paces he could to engage his Master in it as what he thought of Honour and Advantage to the common Safety But that he would return my Frankness to him with the same to me in telling me that he doubted my bringing it to an Issue That he first doubted Monsieur de Witt 's Resolution to break upon any Terms with France and close with England not only considering what had lately passed between us but the Interests of the House of Orange which he must ever believe would at one Time or other be advanced by us whereas he was sure to be supported against them by France Therefore he believed tho' he would not oppose it because the States and People might run into it yet he would find some Means to elude the Conclusion or Effect of it without appearing himself in any such Design That in the next Place since such a Treaty could not be made by the States general without first being sent to all the Provinces and Towns for their Approbation and Orders upon it to their Deputies he did not see how it was possible for the French Ambassadour to fail of engaging some Towns or Provinces against it and the Opposition of any one of them would lose the Effect since no new Treaty could be made by the Constitutions here without an universal Consent That however he would not discourage me but wish'd me Success with all his Heart upon many Reasons and among others as being so much a Servant to the House of Orange which could not but profit by a Conjunction between England and Holland And again promised whenever I brought it to a Period to use all his Endeavours and stretch his Powers as far as he could towards engaging his Master in the same Measures with us In the second Conference I had with Monsieur de Witt I acquainted him with what had passed with Count Dona which he seemed much pleased with and said tho' we could not expect he should have Powers so general as to conclude such an Affair yet an Instrument might be drawn up between us whereby Room may be left for Sueden to enter as a Principal into our Alliance and the Count de Dona had so much Credit at his Court to recommend it there so as to succeed especially upon the hopes we must give him of obtaining Subsidies from Spain which might countervail what they might lose from France upon this Occasion I then fell upon the Form of concluding this Treaty saying I could easily foretell the Fate of it if it must pass the common Forms of being sent by the several Deputies to all their Principals for their Result upon it That I knew this would take up a Month or six Weeks Time and that nothing would be so easie as for the French Ambassadour to meet with it in running that Circle and by engaging some one Member perhaps by Money thrown among the chief Persons in
they would give all to the King's Ships at Sea which theirs or any other Ambassadours gave to his own Person in his Kingdom where his Dominion was as absolute as he could pretend it to be in the narrow Seas which is to uncover first and cover last so that all their Ships should vail to ours when they met in Case ours would in Return take down the Pavilion as a Civility to theirs afterwards and theirs should remain vailed till we had set up our Pavilion again I told him I could say nothing to that Matter which I knew was very delicate but that if ever we agreed in that Point I thought it must not be by Articles or Treaties but by Concert between the Ministers of each Side as for the States first to give absolute Orders to all their Captains to vail to the King's Ships whenever they met them in the narrow Seas and at the same Time to signifie so much to His Majesty in a Letter of Compliment and as a Resolution taken upon Consideration of so near and happy Alliance as was now entred into between the Nations Upon which His Majesty might consider what Returns of Civility he would be content his Captains should make to an Allie so near as this State was now likely ever to be to the Crown of England Monsieur de Witt was willing to fall into any Expedient and said that whenever I came into England he would hope I might bring this last Matter to pass as happily as I had done all the rest That His Majesty should find he would be wanting in nothing that the Point of Civility or Deference might require in this Matter provided it were without acknowledging our Pretensions to the Dominion of the Sea which they must die rather than do but in what should pass they would leave us to our Interpretations and keep themselves to theirs For the provisional Articles according to my Word which made Way for the Treaty's Conclusion I told Monsieur de Witt His Majesty had in his Answer given me Leave to do it with an Article for the Meeting of Commissioners at both Parties Desire to compleat what should be defective and change what should be found inconvenient and cut off any Thing that should be superfluous so as it might appear to be an Original Treaty between us which would be more for our Honour than to copy after the French That tho' His Majesty had given me this Leave in Compliance to the States yet he had rather the Thing should now be left to Commissioners for these Ends than concluded with Reference to them hereafter I made His Majesty's Concession in this Point easie for these two Ends that either they finding His Majesty indifferent in it might grow so too Men being commonly apt to pull the harder the faster another holds or else if they resolved to insist upon it since I was already engaged to value a Thing which costs His Majesty nothing for as much Obligation as I could to the States which might make Way for some material Return upon another Occasion Monsieur de Witt seemed very much pleased at His Majesty's Compliance with them in this Point and said if I knew His Majesty's Pleasure in any Particulars which he desired should be added or any others changed for common Convenience he desired me to tell him and doubted not but we should end it in twenty four Hours but he was unwilling it should fall into other Hands or remain undone for the Reasons I mentioned in one of my last After much Discourse and no Way left to avoid the Thing we agreed it should be done but with an ample Article for the Meeting of Commissioners for those foresaid Ends and after the Perpetuity I will endeavour to get in these Words Aut quousque saltem ex utriusque partis Consensu indicentur Commissarii or some Words to that Purpose And likewise in the Preamble of this separate Instrument some Expressions of this Kind ut omnibus innotescat quam sincerâ sanctaque Fide nuper contractae Amicitiae non modo in praesens sed in posteros colendae cavere voluerunt And Ad divellenda penitus quaecunque non modo dissentionum sed Litium Altercationum Semina And Ad praecidendam spem omnem Expectationem quorumcunque praedictam Amicitiam novis Altercationibus labefactatam iri interesse possit Which are Things that come now only into my Head but shall be digested against we meet to morrow upon this Occasion And this is all that is possible for me to do in this Matter and which at least is likely to hasten the Exchange of the Ratifications and to leave our Alliance the clearest firmest and most confident that can be I confess I am troubled that it cannot be otherwise because Your Lordship says His Majesty would rather have had it so and if you had not sent me after the Treaty's Arrival an Explanation of what was written to me in an unintelligible Cipher it had been so and my Words had been safe but I think it had been worse in leaving a Dissatisfaction between us which is now avoided and I find My Lord Keeper in a Letter to me seems to put no Weight upon it if done in the Manner mentioned and I know you both put a great deal upon any Person 's employ'd by His Majesty being and passing for an honest Man No Post going from hence till the End of the Week I have resolved to dispatch this by the Yatcht that brought over my Brother whose Orders it seems are to return immediately But I know not how to find the safe Conveyance for the Dutch Ratifications unless another Yacht be sent for them about a Week or ten Days hence and to that End I shall leave them with Mr. Carter at my Lord Cravenss House here and who does all His Lordship's Business who shall deliver them to any Person that brings a Letter from Your Lordship to that Purpose This I think will be much better than to venture them with me in my Journey to Brussels or upon a Passage from thence I am ever with My Lord Your c. P. S. I had forgot the mention of this inclosed Memorial given in Yesterday to the States and by their Order sent me with a Compliment They would receive nothing without communicating it to me They resolve upon the Marquess's Answer for the Treating at Aix to send likewise thither but refer the Quality or Number of Persons to the Marquess's Intentions of going himself or sending some Delegate and that I suppose will depend upon Don Juan's coming over In the mean Time the States are absolutely of Opinion with me that no Treaty can begin with good Intentions on the French Side unless they consent to a Suspension of Arms while it lasts and therefore that the Force of our joint Instances at Paris is to be put upon that Point To Sir Orlando Bridgeman Lord Keeper Hague Febr. 12. S. N. 1668. My Lord
to as even than to have had it all omitted I desire Your Lordship to communicate all this to My Lord Arlington and to excuse this Trouble by Reason of His Lordship's Pacquet being already sealed up I am ever c. Proemium Tractatus inter Anglos Hollandos Febr. 13. 1668. QUandoquidem annuente Divinâ Gratiâ conspirante mutuarum rerum salute aequé ac Christiani Orbis jam temporis necessitate Vigesimo tertio Die Januarii proximè elapsi inter Serenissimum conclusum signatum sit Foedus perpetuum defensivum fortissimis utrinque tam mari quam terrâ proestandis auxiliis communitum Eodemque die alioque Instrumento de rerum vicinarum tranquilitate paceque Orbi Christiano restitundâ inter Praedictum pronis animis consultum conventum fuerit adeoque nihil aliud protenus superesse videatur quod tam mutuâ voluntate conflatam amicitiam necessitudinem ullo demùm tempore interpellare poterit praeter controversias de mercimoniorum speciebus hic inde redigendis forsitan orituras ex incertâ vel ambiguâ ejusmodi rerum utrinque adjudicatione forsitan etiam promovendis Quo autem omnibus innotescat quà m sincerâ sanctâque fide Praedictus nuper conflatae amicitiae non modo in praesens sed ad posteros colendae cavere voluerint jamdemum ad divellenda quaecunque non modo dissentionum sed vel altercationum semina praecidendamque penitus eorum Spem aut expectationem quorumcunque demùm praedictam amicitiam novis litibus concussam aut labefactatam iri interesse poterit In subsequentes Articulos utrinque conventum est qui pro normâ Regulâ ejusmodi rerum maritimarum mercaturae hic inde redigendae mutuò perpetuò observabuntur aut quousque saltèm ex utriusque partis Arbitrio Consensu Commissarii indicentur conveniant ad uberiorem iis de rebus omnibus Navigationisque Legibus tractatum communi utrinque commodo ulteriore experientiâ dirigendum Sequuntur Articuli Conclusio CUm autem rerum omnium Conventionum commoda aut Incommoda non nisi tractu temporis mutuaeque experientiae documentis penitùs indagari poterunt Conventum itaque est ut quocunque demùm Tempore utrique Parti id visum fuerit ex communi Confensu indici convenire poterunt utrinque delegati Commissarii quorum curae erit operis quodcunque in supra memoratis Articulis defecisse reperietur supplere quodcunque autem incongruum utrinque incommodum mutare aut circumscribere uberiorem demùm hisce de rebus omnibus Tractatum absolvere prorsus perlimare To the States at first Audience High and Mighty LORDS WHereas His Majesty of Great Britain the King my Master hath already found the good Effects of the late Peace concluded at Breda with Your High and Mighty Lordships by the general Satisfaction of His Majesty's Subjects as well as his own and doubts not but Your Lordships have likewise found the same Effects among your People in general as well as among your selves His Majesty esteems nothing more likely to encrease the mutual Satisfaction nor to assure the Safety of both Nations than an Increase of the Confidence and Friendship already contracted between His Majesty and Your Lordships by a stricter and firmer Alliance at this Time And whereas His Majesty contented with those great and powerful Kingdoms and Dominions which Almighty God has given him by an undisputed Succession covers nothing from his Neighbours nor has other Thoughts or Wishes besides those of the common Peace and Repose of Christendom His Majesty finds himself in this Conjuncture sensibly touched by the Calamities so many others are like to feel from the Continuance of the War lately broken out between the Neighbour Crowns and which in Course of Time cannot but involve most of the Princes and States of Christendom unless the Flame be quenched before it rise too high And His Majesty believes that nothing can so much contribute towards a safe and sudden Composure of that Quarrel nor consequently restore the Peace of Christendom as a joint Mediation of His Majesty with Your H. and M. Lordship's together with each others Allies between the two Crowns now in War Upon these two Considerations His Majesty hath thought fit to send me to Your Lordships with full Powers to treat and conclude upon what shall be found necessary between His Majesty and Your Lordships in the Adjustment of all Matters tending to these great Ends. And since nothing can bring these Negotiations to be of Effect so much as the suddenness of their Conclusion I desire Your Lordship 's to appoint such Commissioners as you shall think fit with whom I may fall upon the Treaty of these Matters and to whom I am ready to expose the full Powers which His Majesty the King my Master has given me upon this Occasion At my Audience of Leave to the States General High and mighty Lords HIs Majesty of Great Britain the King my Master having seen so happily finished and in so few Days three several Treaties with Your High and Mighty Lordships By which the common Security of both Nations is established the Seeds of all new Differences entirely rooted out and the Way laid open to the Peace of Christendome in Case our Neighbours proceed with the same good Faith wherewith we have begun His Majesty thinks he has no further Occasion for my Services here because Ministers are only proper for fastening and cementing a Confidence and Friendship whereas ours is so firmly established as not to require any even the most ordinary Supports For this Reason His Majesty has order'd my Return to Brussels there to pursue in concert with Your Lordships in favour of our Neighbours what we have here concluded for our selves But His Majesty has commanded me upon my Departure to assure Your Lordships from Him that as all things are best preserved by the same Means they are begun so His Majesty will not fail for ever to observe what he has now concluded with the same Faith the same Sincerity and the same open Heart wherewith he gave Command they should be negotiated and His Majesty doubts not at all that Your Lordships are entirely resolved to proceed after the same manner which is the highest Mark of a perfect Confidence to be given at present For my own particular I cannot part from hence without expressing my Satisfaction at the sincere and judicious Proceeding of Your High and Mighty Lordships in the whole course of these Negotiations and particularly at the great Prudence you have shewn in the Choice of those Commissioners you gave me their Candor and Sincerity their great Capacity and Application did contribute very much to the quick and happy Conclusion of our Treaties For my own particular as I shall ever bear in mind with Joy and Pleasure this short space of Time I have pass'd with Your Lordships in whatever Part of the World I may be so
and bestow your Friendship only upon such as deserve it since you cause Persons to be employ'd who acquit themselves so worthily I think my self happy to have negotiated with him and that by his means your Lordship hath been pleased to give me a new Testimony of your Goodwill For the Favour you say His Majesty is pleased to have for me I have no otherwise deserved it than by my Respects for his Royal Person whereof I shall endeavour to give Proofs upon all Occasions His Majesty will please to afford me In the mean while I shall wait with Impatience for some Opportunity to shew how sensible I am of all your Lordships Civilities which I shall ever acknowledge by a true Esteem for your Merits and by a strong Passion to let you see that I am with as much Sincerity as you can desire My Lord Your c. Monsieur de Witt á Milord Arlington Le 14. Fevr. S. N. 1668. Monsieur COmme il n'etoit pas possible d'envoyer icy un Ministre plus capable ni plus propre pour le naturel le Genie de cette nation que Monsieur le Chevalier Temple aussi croy-je que l'on n'auroit pas pû choifir une personne qui puisse ou venille plus equitablement juger de la disposition en laquelle il a trouvée les Etats á repondre aux bonnes intentions du Roy de la Grande Bretagne Il ne doit pas etre moins satisfait de la promptitude avec laquelle les Etats ont passé outre á la conclusion signature de traitez pour lesquels il est venu icy qu'ils sont de sa conduite de sa belle maniere d'agir en toute la suite de sa negâ—tâ—ation Il paroit Monsieur que vous vous connoissez en hommes que vous ne donnez votre amitié qu'á ceux qui la meritent puisque vous faites employer des personnes qui s'acquittent si dignement Je m'estime heureux d'avoir eu á negotier avec luy de ce que par son moyen il vous a plû me donner un nouveau temoignage de votre Bienveillance Pour ce qui est de la bonté que vous dites que sa Majesté a pour moy je ne l'ay merité point que par le respect que j'ay pour sa personne Royale dont je tacheray de luy donner des preuvez á toutes les occasions qu'Elle me faira la grace de m'en faire naître J'attens bien avec autant d'impatience celles ou je vous puisse temoigner combienje suis sensible á toutes vos civilitez que je reconnoitray toujours par un veritable estime pour votre merite par une trés forte passion de vous faire voir que je suis aveâ— autant de sincerité que vous pouvez desirer Monsieur Votre c. The Triple Alliance copied from the Original Papers WHereas by the late Treaty concluded at Breda between the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands both Nations have been restored through the Blessing of God to that ancient Friendship and good Correspondence which was between them And in Order to cut off all Occasions of farther Differences and to prevent all new Accidents which might tend to the Disturbance of the said Amity and good Correspondence of the Subjects on either part some Articles and Rules of Navigation and Commerce were there agreed and particularly by the Eleventh Article of the said Treaty it was ordained That the said King and the said States General shall be oblig'd as Friends Allies and Confederates mutually to defend the Rights and Immunities of each others Subjects against all such as shall endeavour to disturb the Peace of either State by Sea or by Land or such as living within the Dominions of either shall be declared publick Enemies by the one or the other And because it is not particularly determined in what way and manner the said Confederates stand oblig'd mutually to succour each other and that it is the fix'd Resolution of the said King of Great Britain and of the said States General more and more to corroborate and accomplish the said Agreement Therefore in the first place and above all other things they consent to confirm the said Treaty concluded at Breda together with the said Laws of Navigation and Commerce relating to the same as by these Presents they are confirm'd under a mutual and undissolvable Obligation to observe and accomplish them truly and faithfully and to command the Subjects on both sides exactly and religiously to observe and fulfill them according to the genuine Sense and Tenor of the said Treaty and Articles And for the better ascertaining the mutual Assistance that the Parties are to give to each other which was omitted in the preceeding Treaty for increasing Amity and Friendship between the said King and States General and that full Provision may be made by a nearer Alliance and Union for the safety and mutual defence of both States against the pernicious Endeavours and hostile Attempts of any Enemy under any Pretext whatever We whose Names are underwritten in virtue of the Orders and full Powers granted to us and hereunder to be inserted do covenant and agree That the said King of Great Britain and the said States General of the united Netherlands shall be mutually obliged united and confederated together as they are by the Force and Virtue of these Presents mutually obliged united and confederated in a perpetual League defensive in the manner and under the Conditions following I. That if any Prince State or other Person whatever without exception shall under any Pretext invade or attempt to invade the Territories Countries or any Places that lie within the Dominions of the said King of Great Britain or shall exercise any Acts of Hostility by Sea or by Land against the said King or his Subjects the said States General shall be obliged as by Virtue of these Presents they are obliged to send forty Ships of War well furnish'd with all things necessary to assist the said King to oppose suppress and repel all such Insults and acts of Hostility and to procure him due reparation for any Damages sustained That is to say Fourteen of the said Ships shall carry from sixty to eighty great Guns and four hundred Men a just allowance and computation being made as well with respect to those Ships that carry a greater as those that carry a lesser number of Men Fourteen other Ships shall carry from forty to sixty Guns and one with another three hundred Men at the least Allowance to be made as before and none of the rest to carry less than six and thirty Guns and a hundred and fifty Men. Besides which they shall assist him with six thousand Foot-Soldiers and four hundred Horse or shall pay a Summ of Money with due regard to the just value of such an
Neighbourhood and having observ'd That the Flames of that Fire have insinuated themselves among their Neighbours which by inevitable necessity will involve the greatest Part of the Princes and States of Christendom in the same Calamities unless they may be timely extinguish'd before they gather greater Force Have thought that they could not discharge the Duty of that Trust and the respective Offices wherein they are placed by God if after the Re-establishment of a mutual Friendship and Alliance between the Nations of Great Britain and the United Netherlands and the Conclusion of a Peace between the four powerful States that were Parties in that bloody War They should not apply their Minds with the utmost Diligence and Industry to compose the differences that have arisen between the said two Crowns and more especially to take care That the Flames of that War which have been kindled in their Neighbourhood may be extinguished Therefore The most Serene King of Great Britain and the High and Mighty States of the United Netherlands having with much Labour and eâ—â—nest Intreaty induced the most Christian King to profess solemnly to the said States General That he would immediately lay down his Arms if the Spaniard would either consent to yield up to him in due form and manner by a Treaty of Peace all those Places and Forts together with the Chastelanies and their Dependencies which he possess'd himself of in the Expedition of the last Year Or will be perswaded to transfer and make over to him all the right that remains to them in the Dutchy of Luxemburg or else in the County of Burgundy together with Cambray and the Cambresis Doway Aire St. Omer Winoxbergen Furnes and Lincken with their Bailiwicks Chastelanies and other Dependencies and in case they accept the Alternative last mention'd the most Christian King will restore to the King of Spain all such Places and Territories as the French have possess'd by their Arms since they entred Flanders Provided the High and Mighty States General shall on their part promise and render themselves Guarrantees to the most Christian King That they will by their Reasons and other effectual Means induce the Spaniards to agree to these Conditions The said King of Great Britain and the said States General jointly conclude and judge That they can do no better Service in this Conjuncture and State of Affairs either to the two Kings before named or to the rest of the neighbouring Princes and States than by their joint Counsels and utmost Endeavours to exhort and as much as in them lies oblige the said two Crowns to make Peace upon the Terms and Conditions before mention'd To which end we whose names are hereunto subscribed having receiv'd full Power to that Effect have by Virtue of those Injunctions concluded and agreed the following Articles I. That the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands shall either jointly or separately provided their Intentions be mutually communicated and no way repugnant to this Agreement use their utmost Endeavors and Industry with the most Christian King to perswade him to promise and engage in the best Form and by a solemn Treaty to the King of Great Britain and to the States General of the United Netherlands That he will conclude a Peace and Alliance with the King of Spain without any Exception or Reserve under whatever Pretext or for whatever Cause if the King of Spain shall be induced or perswaded by the King of Great Britain and the Confederated States to yield to the most Christian King either the Places he possess'd himself of the last Year in the Low-Countries or to give him an Equivalent by delivering up the Places above mention'd or others in lieu of them as shall be mutually agreed betwen the Parties concerned II. That the most Christian King be induced to consent That the present Cessation of Arms in the Low-Countries may be prolong'd to the End of the Month of May to the end that the King of Great Britain and the confederated States may in the mean time employ themselves with all Diligence Care and Industry to procure the Consent of the King or Queen of Spain and their Council to the aforesaid Terms and Conditions III. But that the most Christian King may have no just occasion to refuse to prolong the Cessation of Arms the King of Great Britain and the Confederated States shall oblige themselves by the same Treaty to take effectual Care That the Spaniards shall yield to France all that was taken the last Year by the French or give them an Equivalent as shall be agreed with the Consent of both Parties IV. That the most Christian King shall be induced and perswaded to give intire Credit to and put full Confidence in the aforesaid Promise that his Arms may not for the future disturb the Quiet of the Low-Countries So that if it should happen contrary to all hope and expectation that the King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall not be able by their Exhortations and earnest Sollicitations to perswade the Spaniards to give their Consent to the Conditions above-mention'd before the end of the next ensuing May and that it become necessary to use more effectual means to that purpose Nevertheless the French shall not move or introduce their Arms within or upon the Limits of the said Low-Countries but the King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall engage and take upon themselves to make such necessary Provision as may effectually oblige the Spaniards to accept the foresaid Conditions of Peace And it shall not be left to the Discretion of the most Christian King either to exercise any Acts of Hostility in the said Countries or to possess himself of any Town tho' by voluntary Surrender unless the King of Great Britain and the Confederated States shall cease and omit to prosecute the Things above-mention'd V. That when the Peace is made between the two Crowns not only the King of Great Britain and the confederated States but likewise the Emperor and all the neighbouring Kings and Princes who shall think themselves concern'd that the Quiet of Christendom remain unshaken and the Low-Countries be restored to the Enjoyment of their former Tranquillity shall be Guarrantees and Conservators of the same To which end the number of Forces and other means to be used against either of the Parties that shall violate or infringe the said Peace shall be determin'd and agreed that the Injury may cease and the Party offended receive Satisfaction VI. That this Agreement with all and every thing therein contain'd shall be confirm'd and ratified by the said King of Great Britain and the said States General of the United Provinces by Letters Patents on both sides sealed with the Great Seal in due and authentick Form within four Weeks next ensuing or sooner if it can be done and within the said time the mutual Instruments of Ratification shall be exchanged on both sides In Witness and Confirmation
be a difficult thing to answer a Letter I receiv'd lately from your Lordship if it could ever be difficult for me to do a Duty where I Owe it so much and Pay it so willingly The Reflections I make upon what you say and what I hear from other Hands of the same kind carry me only to consider how much by chance and how unequally Persons and Things are judged at a Distance and make me apprehend from so much more Applause than is my Due upon this Occasion that upon the next I may meet with as much more Blame than I deserve as one seldome has a great Runn of Cards that is not followed by an ill one at least Gamesters that are no luckier than I. It is not my Part to undeceive People that will make my Successes pass for Merit or Ability but for my Friends I would not cheat them to my Advantage it self and therefore will tell you the Secret of all that has seemed so surprizing in my Negotiation which is That Things drawn out of their Center are not to be moved without much Force or Skill or Time but to make them return to their Center again there is required but little of either for Nature it self does the Work The true Center of our two Nations now so near ally'd is where they now are seated and nothing was in the way of their returning thither but the extreme Jealousies grown between the Ministers on both sides and from thence diffused among the People and This it was my good luck to Cure by falling into a great Confidence with Monsieur de Witt which made all the rest easie And there is the whole Story that you may see how much you are either biass'd or mistaken in all the rest you say of it For what you mention of Reward I know not how it came into your Head but I am sure it never enter'd into mine nor I dare say into any Bodies else I will confess to you that considering the Approbation and good Opinion which his Majesty and some considerable enough about him have been abused into by my good Fortune in this Business I think a wiser Man might possibly make some Benefit of it and some of my Friends have advised me to attempt it but it is in vain For I know not how to ask nor why and this is not an Age where any Thing is given without it And by that time you see me next you shall find all this which was so much in Talk to my Advantage for nine Days as much forgotten as if it had never been and very justly I think for in that time it receiv'd a great deal more than its Due from many other Hands as well as from yours This I tell you that you may not deceive your self by hoping to see me ever considerable further than in the Kindness of my Friends and that your Lordship may do your Part to make me so in that seeing me like to fail in all other Ways But as I remember this is a Time with you for good Speeches and not for ill Letters I will therefore end this to make you more Room for the others and hope that none of the Eloquence you are entertained with can be more persuasive than a plain Truth when I assure you that I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Faithful Humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Brussels March 2. S. N. 1668. My Lord I Am sorry his Majesty should meet with any thing he did not look for at the opening of this Session of Parliament but confess I do not see why his Majesty should not only consent but encourage any Enquiries or Disquisitions they desire to make into the Miscarriages of the late War as well as he has done already in the matter of Accounts For if it be not necessary it is a King's Ease and Happiness to content his People I doubt as Men will never part willingly with their Monies unless they be well perswaded it will be imploy'd directly to those Ends for which they gave it so they will never be satisfy'd with a Government unless they see Men are chosen into Offices and Imployments by being fit for them continued for discharging them well rewarded for extraordinary Merit an punish'd for remarkable Faults Besides in these Cases his Majesty discharges the Hardship and Severity of all Punishments upon the Parliament and commits no Force upon the Gentleness of his own Nature while his Subjects see that no Tenderness of their Prince nor Corruption of Ministers can preserve them long from paying what they owe to any Forfeits of their Duty Nor indeed can any Prince do Justice to those that serve him well without punishing those that serve him ill since That is to make their Conditions equal whose Deserts are different I should not say this to any Person but your Lordship to whom I know part of that Justice is due But to say Truth the Progress and End of the last War went so much to my Heart and I have heard so much lately from Monsieur de Witt concerning the carriage of it on our side especially what fell under his Eye while he was abroad in the Fleet that I cannot but think the Parliament may be excused for their Warmth in this Pursuit But your Lordship can best discern by the Course of Debates whether this proceeds from a steddy Intention upon a general Good or from some accidental Distempers from which the greatest and best Assemblies of Men are not always free especially when they have continu'd long together I beg Your Lordship's Pardon for my Liberty in these Discourses to which You were pleased to encourage Me by hearing Me so obligingly those few Minutes I was allowed for such Talk or Thoughts at my last being with You and from the Sense You then expressed of the absolute Necessity there was for His Majesty to fall into a perfect Intelligence with His Parliament especially being engaged into an Appearance of Action abroad by the Force of this present Conjuncture I am ever c. To Sir John Trevor Brussels March 5. S. N. 1668. SIR ABout ten Days since I dispatcht away an Express to You joyntly with the Deputies of Holland whereby We acquainted You and Mons Beuningham that the Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo had accepted the Truce and Suspension of Arms proposed some Time since by France until the End of March as well as the other proposed lately by His Majesty and the States General until the End of May. We are in some Pain to have yet received no Account of His Arrival but hope this Delay will be recompenced by bringing Us news of the Treaty's being accepted in the same Terms by that Court as well as by this However in case of any Scruple which may be raised there for want of due Notice given of the Acceptation here we now send You an Act of the Marquis Castel-Rodrigo authorizing His Majesty's and the States Ministers at Paris to manifest to
de l'intention de leurs Hautes Puissances Et demeureray á jamais celuy qui suis avec passion Monsieur Votre tres affectionné et tres humble Serviteur Johan de Wit From Monsieur de Wit Hague March 16. 1668. SIR YOur Dispatch of the 11th Instant did not come to my hands till the 14th at Noon the Courier who brought it having not been dismiss'd from Brussels till the 13th I was very glad to see you had at last dispos'd the Marquis to dispatch the Baron of Bergeyck for Aix la Chapelle being very much perswaded that it imports us mightily to have a quick Conclusion of the Peace or else to see clearly into the most inward Dispositions of the King of France as well as those of the Spanish Court and that all Delay is very prejudicial to our Intentions and to the Interests of Spain And that we may be neither surpriz'd nor abus'd on either side I think in the present Conjuncture two things are absolutely necessary The first is that England and this State be well furnished by Sea and Land and the other that we take away not only all lawful Cause but also as much as possible all Pretext from France to delay or avoid the concluding and signing the Treaty of Peace To satisfie on our side for the first Point we are resolv'd as soon as the Season will permit to send into the Field all our Cavalry which consists of 7300 Horse and provisionally 25 Regiments of our Foot for which the chief Rendezvous shall be at Bergopzoom or thereabouts from whence there will be a convenient March in a few days into most part of the King of Spain's Places in the Netherlands We have also given Order for equipping 48 Ships of War above the Number commonly used for Guard and Convoy And the States have already given order to their Ambassadors in England to concert with the King of Great Britain and his Ministers upon the Number of Ships and Men that each Party shall be oblig'd to have ready and in what time Besides the Deputies of the State have this Day finally agreed with the Ministers of the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunebourg to bring into the Service of this State three Regiments of Horse and 3000 Foot and I hope the Treaty will be signed to morrow or the next Day And further they are going here to augment the Old Militia by new Levies to the Number of 12000 Men with the Troops of the said Dukes which are to enter into the Service of the State And I will not fail of helping what I can to the accomplishing of all this as soon as it can be done by the Constitution of the Government And if you approve all these Preparations and Diligences as I hope you will since they seem very necessary and no way offensive since he who really desires the Peace will find in it his Support and Advantage and that these Forces shall not be employ'd till the last Necessity against him that by his Wilfulness would disappoint Christendom of the Benefit of it I desire you by your Letters to make the Exhortations necessary to the King of England and his Ministers that they may not fail on that side to make the like Preparations and Diligences As to the 2d Point I think it imports much that the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo should explain himself upon which of the two Conditions proposed by the Alternative he pretends to have accepted wherein there seems the less Difficulty since his Excellence will without doubt explain himself for the abandoning the Places the King of France has conquer'd the last Campagn with their Dependances But then I think it will be our Interest and Duty to endeavour that some reasonable Exchange be made for Places far in the Heart of Flanders against Places lately taken in the Franche Compté or others that shall be more for the Advantage of France and less for the Inconvenience of Spain and Us. Besides to take all Pretext from France which they may pretend to make upon a Defect of Powers in the said Marquis either in the principal Matter or by default of a Clause of Substitution or otherwise I think it will be very necessary that the K. of Great Britain and the States General shall be obliged to ratifie and accomplish whatever shall be treated and concluded at Aix and shall promise in the firmest manner the K. of France can desire to oblige Spain in case of necessity to the said Ratification and Accomplishment by all their Forces both by Sea and Land And in short that in every Occurrence they will do very judiciously to obviate all Exceptions and Delays which can be brought to the Prejudice of the Peace But further when we shall have brought the King of France to an absolute Necessity of either finally concluding or discovering his Intention contrary to the Peace in that Case upon the first Step France shall make to frustrate Christendom of such a general Good the King of Great Britain and the States shall without further Delay bring all their Forces by Sea and Land not only for Defence of the Spaniards but also for the Intent specified in the third of our separate Articles and more amply deduc'd in my Dispatch of the 25th of February last For the rest if you have receiv'd the King of Great Britain's Ratification upon our last Marine Treaty I shall wait till you think proper to exchange it upon which I shall endeavour to câ—â—form the States to your Desire whether our Ratification shall be sent to our Commissioners now with you or whether you will please to send your Secretary or your Brother hereto the Hague or whether you know any way will please you better For in this and every other Occurrence I shall endeavour to follow your Desires and second your Intentions as being not by form of Compliment but very really Sir Your c. De Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 16me Mars 1668. Monsieur VOtre depêche du 11me de ce mois ne m'a esté rendue que le 14me apres midy le courier qui la apportée n'ayant esté expedié et parti de Brusselles que le 13me J'ay esté fort aise de voir que vous aviez enfin disposé Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo á depêcher le Baron de Bergayck promptement vers Aiz la Chapelle estant tres persuadé qu'â— nous importe d'avoir une prompte conclusion de la paix ou de voir clair dans les intentions les plus interieures du Roy de France aussi bien que dans celle de la cour d'Espagne et que tout delai est fort prejudiciable á nos intentions et aux interêts de l'Espagne Et á fin que nous ne puissions pas estre surpris ou abusés de coté ou d'autre je juge qu'en la conjuncture presente deux choses nous sont absolument necessaires dont la
and their Pretensions in the same Condition they were before The same Liberty still remaining upon the last Article of the Marine Treaty to appoint Commissioners and alter or add any Thing when both Parties shall agree and will be but like taking so much by Advance upon Account of a greater Debt So that I am apt to conclude from all these Observations That they who influence our Merchants in this Prosecution either have no meaning this Treaty should end fairly and so they put it obstinately upon that single Point and in that Form which they know will never be granted or else they aim at gaining an Occasion of raising new Disputes with the Dutch whenever they find a Conjuncture for it there seeming some Reason for the Dutch Opinion that agreeing upon an Article as ours propose it we may fall into new Contests upon the Extent and Interpretation of it whenever we please If this last End be in the Bottom of this Business and it be taken up or countenanced by his Majesty or his Ministers upon Reason of State and we make our Provisions and take all our Measures accordingly for ought I know it is a wise and may prove an honourable Council in Time at least if the present State of Affairs in Christendom should change by any sudden or unexpected Revolution But if our Merchants or those who influence them in this Matter mean no such Thing as a Conclusion of the Treaty but only by the depending of such Disputes to leave an Unkindness and Weakness in our Alliance which may in time shake the Foundations of it and make way for new Measures on one Side or other which will in time prove destructive to both I cannot but interpret this as the Effect of their Distast or Envy at the King 's present Ministry and the Course of his Councils which have not gained greater Honour abroad nor perhaps Safety and good Will at home by any Thing than by our late Alliances so renowned here and thereby the Stop we have given to the Progress of the French Greatness And therefore it must come from the Influence of some who would be glad to see not only our Alliance shaken or changed abroad but our Ministry at home too which I shall be sorry to see till the King can find better Hands for himself and the Kingdom to place it in And whenever that happens as much as I am your Lordship's Servant I shall be very well contented and so I dare say will you too If your Lordship should imagine any particular Envy or Peek at me or my Employment here may have contributed to the Difficulties which have succeeded in this Business and that our Merchants or those that influence them believe it would thrive better in any other Hand I will beg of you not to be sway'd by Considerations of Kindness to me in a Matter of publick Concernment nor to fear that whenever this Employment falls you shall be troubled with me at home as great Ministers use to be with Men out of Office For while the King's Business goes well 't is not two Straws matter whether such a Body as I have any Share in it or no. And there 's an end of all the Reflections I have had upon the most troublesome and untoward Business that I thank God I ever had in my Life or I hope shall ever have again And perhaps I am mistaken in them all However if your Lordship can pardon this you shall be sure not to be troubled in haste with any more of it from My Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Aug. 7. S. N. 1669. My LORD I Was very glad to find your Lordship in your last upon your Journey into the Country because I very much doubt whether the Exercise or Diversions you usually allow your self are what your Health requires and what your Cares and Troubles deserve I am sure in the Prospect I have of them I am so far from envying them with all their gay Circumstances that I think your Lordship has a very hard Bargain of them altogether unless it be one Day made up to you by the Glory and Satisfaction of some great Success in the Pursuit you intend of his Majesty's and the Kingdoms Honour Safety and Happiness which I doubt will need some stronger Councils than Men seem at present disposed to But this is none of my Business I cannot give your Lordship any Account of what you say is made a great Matter of by Somebody to a private Hand about the Difficulties intended by Spain in the two last Suedish Payments with Design of making new Demands I am only in Pain at present to see the first Payment finished which is not yet arrived but expected by the first Courier When that is done and the Guaranty delivered by Sueden as well as us and Holland I shall be in no great Fear besides that of the Spanish King's Death or of Spain falling into some Agreement or other with France for the Exchange of Flanders by seeing so great a War still entailed upon it and their Neighbours unwilling to share so far in their Dangers as perhaps it were Our and the Dutch Interest to do I am sure in the present Posture of that Monarchy if I were of their Council I should be of Advice to do it whenever France would be content upon it to quit all Pretence to the rest of the Spanish Dominions And perhaps 't were wise for France to get Flanders by that or any other quiet Condition For within two Years after he were well possess'd of that little Spot of Ground I doubt no Prince or State in Christendom would pretend to dispute any more with him then than the Spaniard does now But these are Events to be considered by Men in greater Spheres than I am and perhaps deserve to be a little more thought on than they are I have received and returned a Visit with the French Ambassador so that we are upon as good Terms as can be My Lord Culpepper pass'd this way last Week and upon that Occasion I cannot but desire your Lordship to let me know more particularly from you how I am to treat any English Lord as to the Hand and Door in my own House For though the French Example is given me as to all publick Ministers yet there is nothing specified as to other Persons and if I am to follow it in this and other Particulars I desire to have something from his Majesty's positive Commands to bear me out as the French Ambassadors have and as methinks the Case deserves Since I am told the Innovation began in Monsieur Cominges's Time in England and that before the Orders he received in it he gave the Hand to all Gentlemen of Quality in England and to all Persons of great Quality or Families though of his own Nation And that my Lord St. Albans ever gave it to all English Lords while he was Ambassador at Paris Though it seems
yet observed in the chief Ministers here who are as hard and as firm as you can imagine them But for Tricks or Jugling I do not observe either their Abilities or their Dispositions lie much that way nor I believe does any wise Man 's unless he be brought to it by the ill Condition or Necessity of his Affairs and finds no other way of living which is not yet their Case here nor will be I suppose while Flanders is preserved And so long I shall look upon them as Merchants in good Estate and Credit and who will endeavour to keep it up by square dealing But whenever they fail in that Adventure I shall grow as jealous of them as I see others are I have enquired particularly of the Spanish Ambassador and am assured by him that all Monsieur de Witt 's Discourses upon that Subject of the late Answer from Spain agreed perfectly with what he made me upon the same Occasion And I know the States Deputies at Brussels had immediate Orders from hence to apply themselves very earnestly to the Constable for the Redress of that Fault And I dare say whoever thinks that these Men here will quit a Point of Interest for a Point of Honour has taken a wrong Measure of them The Spanish Ambassador bids me be assured That the Answer from Spain will be amended and come in all Points to his Majesty's Satisfaction He goes this Day from hence towards Brussels being hastned thither by an Express from the Constable who I believe intends to make use of him in the Junto there upon whom I hear he will wholly devolve all his publick Business Having taken an Attestation from his Phisicians that his ill Health has rendred him wholly uncapable of charging himself any longer with it For Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Errand into England I suppose the Rise of it was of an old Date and occasioned a good deal by my laying often to their Charge the want of Respect they shewed his Majesty in the choice of the Ministers they sent into England who are seldom of the Province of Holland or of those Persons most considered in this State Besides when I found I was not able to bring the Business of our Marine Treaty to such a Conclusion as we proposed though I failed but in one Article which yet it seems is thought to import the whole of our Pretensions there I told them here That it would be absolutely necessary to treat it in England and bring it to some Issue there And for that purpose to send some able Person over who being perfectly intrusted in it from hence might debate it there with Persons as well instructed on our Side Upon these Grounds Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Journy was thought fit above a Year ago but his being chosen Burgomaster of Amsterdam about the same time made him then absolutely refuse it Since his Year expired my Instances still continuing for a Conclusion in our East-India Business and Mr. Secretary Trevor's Papers upon the same Subject keeping Life in it from Time to Time Monsieur Van Beuninghen began about two Months since to shew some Inclination to the Journy which has been pursued very earnestly by the States here and especially by Monsieur de Witt till it came lately on all Sides to be resolved on So as your Lordship must reckon that the avowed Errand will be the Business of the East-India Company and the clearing that part of the Marine Treaty which so long proved too hard for me here Besides this will be the Compliment they pretend to make his Majesty in sending a Person of so much Account among them as Monsieur Van Beuninghen And with the Orders of Surinam which they here reckon upon as a perfect Piece of Compliance with his Majesty And this is the Account they give the French Ambassador of this Journy adding a good deal of Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Inclination to see England in this Season That which is further meant by it is First in general to inform themselves perfectly of our Temper in the Pursuit of those Ends we have been these two or three Years last engaged in And which many Discourses and Reflections of late have made them a little suspect does not continue so equal and so warm as it began And in this Regard it will be his Business to use his best and most parsuasive Oratory to confirm us in the Pursuit of those common Interests abroad which we have of late so much advanced by our Triple Alliance and the Dependances of it And in short to persuade us that it is more our Honour and our Interest to Lead than to Follow In Pursuit of this he will I believe endeavour to dispose Us to accept a Conjunction with such Princes of the Empire as desire it upon such Measures as are proposed in the late Project I sent your Lordship drawn up by Monsieur de Witt Though I have made so good way in defending you upon this Point that I believe it would not cost much Trouble there unless you are willing to enter further into it than you seemed of late Another Point and that which I believe he will most eagerly pursue is the Prohibition of French Commodities upon which his particular Imagination has been long bent as the only sure and easy way of bringing the French Power and Riches into Decay in case the Thing could be agreed on among all or the greatest part of their Neighbours And this State having sounded the Spanish Court upon that Point received Answer That whatever England and They should agree upon Spain would readily join with Them in it By which means they suppose that besides what would be saved by both our Nations by stopping the vast Importation of French Commodities a very great Traffick would be gained by exporting our own to furnish the Spanish Fleet which supplies their West-Indies every Year in a great measure with Commodities brought them from France The Resolutions of this State go as yet no further as I can hear than to all sorts of wearing Goods and Brandy nor do I know whether this it self will be brought to Execution before they are satisfied how far we are likely to join with Them in it After which the Considerations of Wine and Salt will likewise come in Play Besides these Publick Matters I doubt you will likewise be pursued about Mr. Honywood's Widow who is Daughter to a Burgomaster of Amsterdam and so most properly under Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Protection especially being a young and handsom Widow which I hear will tempt her to go over with him herself and plead her own Cause I do not think the Intentions of his Journy go further than what I have mentioned unless he be invited to any Thing upon the Place or by some new Accident from abroad In the mean time to do him right we shall have a great deal of Reason to welcom him because he has very industriously employ'd himself in helping us to gain
time will only assure you of my utmost Diligence in a Matter wherein you say his Majesty is so much concerned I doubt not but a great part of Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Errand was to dispose us towards the Admission of the Emperor and therefore wonder not at his enforcing that Proposition But yet sure the Ground of his Journy was the Desire of finding some Temper in the Business of the East-India Trade wherein I am very glad you hope for Satisfaction from him I mean upon that single Article which has so long stopt the Marine Treaty and foiled me absolutely in the Pursuit of it For the other Point I know not yet whether Monsieur de Witt has received any new Account from Mentz of the Emperor's Intentions nor how much it signifies what the Baron d'Isola tells me That the Imperial Minister there has declared his Master's Resolution of referring himself wholly to that Elector for the Conduct and Conclusion of that Affair And that the said Elector hath declared his Judgment of its being both fit and necessary but that as to the Proposition of Forces to be furnished by the several Princes he could not proceed to ascertain it without more particular Directions from the Emperor tho' his Minister there press'd him to it All which seems to me a very general and loose Account for his Majesty to proceed upon and to have something of the Baron d'Isola in it as well as of the Negotiations of Mentz And yet this is all the Light I can get at present nor do I well know where to expect better the States Envoy having already left that Place I shall not fail of performing all the Offices you please to enjoin me towards the preserving our mutual Confidence in this Conjuncture which I have endeavoured in all my Discourses here upon the Duke of Buckingham's Journy into France since I first heard of it And I am confident to have succeeded with the most Rational and Intelligent For common Authors they are not to be dealt with being too many and too credulous to be reasoned with upon such Points The best is their Credit is of as little Weight as their Belief and at last Truth will ever out I hear the Count Molina parted from Madrid upon his way through France into England about sixteen Days since so as he ought to be by this Time well advanced The Spanish Ambassador is likewise upon his return from Brussels hither Which with other Marks confirm me in the Opinion of the Count de Monterey's being likely to find a long Interim in the Government of Flanders I have nothing more to encrease your Trouble besides the Profession of my being always Sir your c. To Mr. Williamson Hague Aug. 12. S. N. 1670. SIR I AM to acknowledge the Favour I have lately received of two from You of the 22d and 26th past with the Advices you were pleased to give me of what passes with you in my Lord Arlington's Absence And know not what better Return I can make you from so barren a Scene as this is at present but continuing the Orders I gave upon Mr. Blaithwait's going out of Town for all the Prints as well as the Papers of Occurrences to be constantly transmitted to you by my other Secretary Mr. Downton who tells me he does not fail you in these Points no more than I shall do in any other wherein I can serve you here I thought in a time of so little Motion or Talk to have used his Majesty's Leave for a short Journy into Flanders but some small Matter still arises to keep me from being wholly idle and among others the Shadow of the Surinam Business haunts me still tho' Monsieur Van Beuninghen assured me he would Lay it upon his going over I should be glad to know if you find him as eloquent in a Court as they do in an Assembly of States here and that he proves as good at Concluding as at Reasoning I know to a Person of so much Business an empty Letter is an Interruption therefore will add nothing to this but the Profession of being SIR Your most humble Servant To Sir John Trevor Hague Aug. 15. S. N. 1670. SIR UPON Tuesday-night Monsieur de Witt returned to Town and the next Morning I went to him upon the Affair wherewith you had charged me in your two last Letters whereof that of the 29th past gave me notice of the Yatcht's being dispatch'd away I related the Occasion to Monsieur de Witt and his Majesty's Desire upon it as near as I could in the Manner and Terms you had imparted them to me adding of my own whatever I could think of concerning the Interest of this State in such Compliances to his Majesty especially where his Person was concerned and how fit it was for them to pass over the Want of small Circumstances and Obligations of Treaties in Matters of so great Importance to a King so nearly ally'd to them and in whose Safety and Quiet they were so deeply concerned He allowed all this latter Part of my Discourse and for the Matter it self which I desired he told me That whatever the States were obliged to by the Treaty they had Power to enjoin the Execution of because every Province had already given their Consent to it But in other Matters the States General had no Power upon any Point wherein the Jurisdiction of a particular Province was concerned The Union consisting of seven Provinces whose Sovereignty remained still entire to each of them That for this Reason it was impossible to seize upon a Man residing in Holland and send him over to his Majesty by any other Power but that of the States of Holland who were not now assembled That the seizing those Criminals by Sir George Downing hapned to have been desired at a time when the States were assembled who gave their general Consent to it Whereas if the Town wherein they were had dissented and stood upon their Privileges it had not been in the Authority of the States of Holland themselves to command it After my Expostulations upon these Forms in their Government which made it much harder to Treat with Them than They found it to Treat with other Princes and Monsieur de Witt 's Deduction of the several Sovereignties of their Provinces and Privileges of their Towns from their Original as well as the framing them into an Vnion rather than a Government for their common Defence We fell at last into the Consideration of what could be done upon the present Business since we had found what could not And he told me with great Professions of his own Desire to see it succeed That if I put in a Memorial to the States General besides the Danger of having it grow publick I should lose just so much Time whereas all they could do would be but to recommend it to the Committee de Raedt of Holland to dispose the Magistrates of Rotterdam to seize upon the Person
I desired and keep him safely guarded without suffering any Approach to him but by my Order until the next Assembly of the States of Holland which will be about a Month hence And this he said the Committee might do of themselves and he hoped they would upon my writing a Letter to the President especially if I would take the Pains to speak before-hand to the several Members of it And in this he promis'd me his Assistance and withal that if the Magistrates of Rotterdam would seize and guard him till the Assembly of the States of Holland he would then use all his Endeavours to dispose the said Assembly to send him over to the King though he doubted much Difficulty in it and that the Town of Rotterdam would never consent to it without an Act from his Majesty to the States that he should be remanded to their Town after he had been examined For without such an Act he said the Town of Dort had absolutely refused to send a Person within their Jurisdiction to the States themselves Upon all these Discourses I resolved as the best I could do to speak severally that Evening with all the Members of the Committee de Raedt that were in Town which I did as late as I could so as to give the least Time for the Matter 's taking vent They all agreed in the same Account of the Constitution of their Government which Monsieur de Witt had given me and assured me they would act as far in this Business as they could do if it came to them from the States General But withal agreed that they could do no more than recommend it to the Magistrates of Rotterdam upon whose Resolutions it would wholly depend While I was late in these Visits on Wednesday-night Captain Harris came to my House and told me of the Yatcht's being come to the Briell but so ill used by the Storms she had met with that she would need some Repair before she could go to Sea again which I was very sorry for considering how ill her Voyage was likely to succeed and that I had no hopes of sending her back with her intended Charge The next Morning being Thursday I sent my Letters to the President just upon his going into the Committee And within an Hour after Monsieur de Witt 's Brother who is a Member of it came to me and told me That they had written a Letter to the Magistrates of Rotterdam to the same Purpose I desired and with all the Earnestness they could and to enforce it the more upon them had appointed him and Monsieur Voorburgh another Member of the said Committee â—o go immediately thither and dispose the Magistrates all they could to the effectual Execution of what was desired I acknowledged the Care and Compliance of the Committee and because I knew all depended upon Suddenness and Secrecy and that I had been assured the Day before of Joyce's being in Town I told him that I was resolved to go my self but as privately as I could and be there as soon as they And while they were disposing the Magistrates of the Town I would endeavour to set the Fellow so as to be sure of him when the Scout should have Orders to apprehend him After this I went strait to Rotterdam and got privately into a House within three Doors of Joyce's and had not been there an hour when the Agent I employ'd to find him out had met with him in the Streets and staid with him till he saw him go home to his own House I sent immediately to my two Commissioners who I heard had arrived some time before me in Town to give them Notice of it in hopes of their being ready for me But I found they were at the Town-house where the Magistrates had been assembled ever since their Arrival and they could not be spoke with by the Person â— sent to them till about an hour after And then they told him That they had been dealing all that Time with the Magistrates who made great Difficulties in the Business and they could not yet give me Account what they would resolve but as soon as they could they would come themselves and give me notice of it After this I waited with great Spight and Impatience till about five hours after the Magistrates had been first assembled The greatest part of which Time I could not have failed of my Prize if they had sent their Officers But after seven a Clock at Night my two Commissioners came to me and told me they had never seen the Magistrates in greater Perplexity which had kept them so many hours unresolved what to do That they said It was absolutely against the Privileges of their Town to seize upon any Man without a particular Charge being ready against him That this Man they heard was a kind of mad extravagant Fellow That having long resided in their Town he could be guilty of nothing towards his Majesty unless it were of Words which People were very free of in their Country and amounted not to a Crime that was thought to deserve Imprisonment That they should have been glad to know the Words he was accused of and that if they should seize a Man without any particular Charge the Surety and Protection of their Town would be discredited upon which much of their Trade depended And that they were confident no Town in Holland would do what was desired of them That however for his Majesty's sake and at the Instance of the two Commissioners they had at last resolved he should be seized on and that I should have the examining of him if I pleased But that if I could exhibit no particular Charge against him and he did not make himself guilty by his own Confession they must release him the next Day I replied plainly this was just nothing to the Purpose and was only so much Noise without any Effect That the King's Demand was to have him sent over and that since that could not be done without the Assembly of the States of Holland my Desire was to have the Man seized upon and kept till the said Assembly or at least till I received further Orders from his Majesty And less than this was nothing at all Hereupon one of the Commissioners seeing how much I stomack't this Dealing told me the Magistrates had not absolutely said they would release him But the other reply'd That it was true they had not absolutely said it but that he must confess he found it was their Intention For my Part I thought it was best at a venture to be once seized on him if I could and try whether I could get any Thing out of him upon his first Surprize and leave the rest to further Endeavors and therefore I desired however that he might be seized They told me the Magistrates doubted he was not in Town but when I had taken off that by Evidence to the contrary they said the Magistrates did not know the Man nor any of
Letters to my Father I resolved this should be to you tho' upon a Subject wherein he has been very desirous to be informed which was more than I could pretend to from any Notices of my own having been Young and very New in Business when I was first employ'd upon the Munster Treaty All I knew of the Grounds or Occasions of our late War with Holland was that in all common Conversation I found both the Court and the Parliament in general very sharp upon it complaining of the Dutch Insolencies of the great Disadvantages they had brought upon our Trade in general and the particular Injuries of their East-India Company towards Ours And it was not easie to think any should better understand the Honour of the Crown than our Court or the Interests of the Nation than the House of Commons One Thing I confess gave me some Reflections which was to observe that three of my Father's greatest Friends and Persons that I most esteemed upon many Accounts were violently against the Councils of this War which were my Lords of Northumberland of Leicester and Sir Robert Long tho' two of them were of the Privy Council and the third in a great Office and ever bred up in Court. For my own Part when I entred into that Affair all I knew was that we were actually in a War and that the best we could do was to get out of it either by Success and Victories or by a fair and reasonable Peace which I believed our Treaty with Munster would make Way for and I found some of our Ministers had no other End by it having given over the Thoughts of any great Advantages we would find by pursuing the War how that succeeded and how it ended You all know there as well as I do here Upon Conclusion of the Peace at Breda my Sister took a very strong Fancy to a Journey into Holland to see a Countrey She had heard so much of and I was willing to give her that Satisfaction after the melancholy Sence we have had here ever since the French Invasion of this Countrey We went Incognito with only her Woman a Valet de Chambre and a Page out of Livery who all spoke Dutch I leave it to her to give you an Account of what Entertainments she met with there which she was much pleased with especially those of the Indian Houses For me who had seen enough of it in my younger Travels I found nothing new but the Stadt-House at Amsterdam which tho' a great Fabrick yet answered not the Expectation I had from so much Time and so vast Expence as had been employed to raise it Which put me in mind of what the Cavaliero Bernini said of the Louvre when he was sent for to take a View of it that it was Una granpiccola Cosa The chief Pleasure I had in my Journey was to observe the strange Freedom that all Men took in Boats and Inns and all other common Places of talking openly whatever they thought upon all the publick Affairs both of their own State and their Neighbours And this I had the Advantage of finding more by being Incognito and think it the greatest Piece of the Liberty that Countrey so much values the Government being otherwise as severe and the Taxes as hard as among any of their Neighbours At our Return from Amsterdam we lay two Nights at the Hague where I made a Visit to Monsieur de Witt I told him who I was but that having pass'd unknown through the Countrey to all but himself a I desired I might do so still I told him mâ— only Business was to see the Things most considerable in the Countrey and thought I should lose my Credit if I left it without seeing him He took my Complement very well and returned it by saying he had received a Character of me to my Advantage both from Munster and Brussels and was very glad to be acquainted with me at a Time when both our Nations were grown Friends and had equal Reason to look about us upon what had lately happened in Flanders he seemed much to regret the late unhappy Quarrel between us which had made Way for this new War among our Neighbours He laid the Fault of ours wholly upon Sir George Downing who having been Envoy from Cromwel at a Time when the States were forced to observe good Measures with him Sir George had made use of that Disposition to get a great deal of Money from the East-India Company who were willing to bribe his good Offices in some Disputes that remained between the two Companies That having been continued in the same Employment by the King he thought to drive the same Trade but finding the Company more stanch he had taken upon him to pursue a Dispute about the old Pretensions upon the Loss of the Bonadventure as an Affair of State between the Nations whereas it was left by our Treaties to be pursued only as a Process between the Parties That in their Treaty with Cromwel all Pretensions on both Sides were cut off but with this Clause Liceat autem to such as were concerned in that Affair of the Bonadventvre Litem inceptam prosequi That this Treaty having been made the Model of that concluded with His Majesty soon after His Restoration that Clause continued still in the New Treaty and the Process which had been begun long before Cromwel's Treaty before the Magistrates of Amsterdam had still gone on after their Treaty with the King according to the true Intention of that Clause That Mr. Cary. who was employd to pursue it in the Name of Courtin's Executors had brought it very near a Composition demanding Forty Thousand Pounds for all Pretensions and the Dutch offering Thirty That he Monsieur de Witt to end this Affair had appointed a Meeting with Mr. Cary who had since confess'd to his Friends that he was resolved to end it at that Meeting and rather to take the Dutch Offer than let the Suit run on but that very Morning Sir George Downing sent for him told him it was a Matter of State between the two Nations and not only a Concern of private Men and therefore absolutely forbid him to go on with any Treaty about it otherwise than by his Communication and Consent That he would put in a Memorial to the States upon it and instead of Forty Thousand Pounds which he demanded would undertake to get him Fourscore and that he was sure the Dutch would give a great deal more rather than venture a Quarrel with His Majesty This Course he pursued made extravagant Demands and with great Insolence made the same Representations to our Court and possess'd some of the Ministers that he would get great Sums of Money both for His Majesty and them if they would suffer him to Treat this Affair after his own Manner for he was sure the Dutch would go very far in that Kind if they saw there was no other Way to avoid a War with England
Region has no Share in the Storms of that below And besides as Men have more Curiosity to enquire how a great Man sleeps than what a mean Man does all day long so the very Rest and Idleness of that Roman Court seems among the Discoursers more worth knowing than the busie Motions of many small ones in this Northern Continent who yet at this Time pretend to be considered and to make a Noise This is all I can say to excuse my Inclosure of such Papers unless it be that to tell a plain Truth I was very glad of the Occasion to assure you that I am ever with very much Passion as well as with much Reason SIR Your most Faithful humble Servant The Triple Alliance was made in January 1668. To Sir John Temple London Jan. 2d S. N. 1668. SIR YOu will wonder to see a Letter from this Place my last having been from Brussels without any thoughts of such a Journey And because my Stay here is like to be very short and my Time extremely filled I take the first Hour I can find to give you some Account of this Adventure Soon after my last an Express came to me from His Majesty commanding me to come immediately into England with all the Speed I could possibly make but to take the Hague in my Way and there upon the Credit of a Visit I made Monsieur de Witt last September and which passed very well between us to make him another and let him know His Majesty had commanded me to do so on Purpose to inform my self of the Opinions he had concerning the French late Invasion in Flanders their great Success there and the Appearances of so much greater this ensuing Spring the Thoughts he had of what was the true Interest of His Majesty the States and the rest of Christendome upon this Occasion That His Majesty by knowing his Mind should believe he knew a great deal of that of the States and thought He might thereby be enabled to take such Measures as might be necessary for him in this Conjuncture I obey'd this Summons spoke with Monsieur de Witt entred into great Confidences with him made Report of all to His Majesty at my Arrival here gave Monsieur de Witt the Character I think he deserves of a very able and faithful Minister to his State and I thought a sincere Dealer very different from what Sir George Downing had given of him at Court who would have him pass for such another as himself but only a Craftier Man in the Trade than he Upon all this His Majesty came last Night to a Resolution of the greatest Importance which has yet passed I think here in any foreign Affair and begun the New Year I hope with a good Presage and in which the new Ministry particularly My Lord Keeper and My Lord Arlington have had a very great Part Mine will be to return immediately upon it into Holland where if it please God I arrive and succeed I expectâ—â— great deal of Satisfaction by my Errand and much the greater by knowing that you will have a great deal in it too as in an Affair I remember to be so agreeable with what have been always your Opinions The Season of the Year is bad and the Weather ill and yet my Sister has been so kind as to come with me hither from Brussels and to resolve to return with me at this short Warning to the Hague which will be a great Ease to me as well as Satisfaction and by freeing me from all domestick Cares leave me the more Liberty for those of my Business which I foresee will be enough to take up a better Head than mine My Wife and Children continue here till I see where my wandring Planet is like to fix but my Brother Harry resolves to be of the Party and take this Occasion of seeing Holland and what is like to pass in the World upon this great Conjuncture I am called away and left Time only to add the constant Professions of that Duty wherewith I am and shall be ever SIR Your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jan. 24. S. N 1668. My Lord UPon last Friday at Night I gave Your Lordship the Account of what Advance I had then made in my Negotiation and of the Point where it was then arrested with Desires of His Majesty's Pleasure whereupon having spent that whole Day in Debates I had little Time left for that Letter but intended to make some Amends for the Haste of it within two Days by a Dispatch with the Yatcht and tho' delayed a little longer will not I hope be more unwelcome by bringing Your Lordship a fuller and final Account which may be allowed to surprize you a little there since it is look'd upon as a Miracle here not only by those that hear it but even by the Commissioners themselves who have had the whole Transaction of it which I shall now acquaint Your Lordship with Upon my two first Conferences with Monsieur de Witt which were the Tuesday and Wednesday I found him much satisfied with His Majesty's Resolution concerning our Neighbours but of the Opinion that the Condition of forcing Spain was necessary to our common End and to clear the Means towards it from all Accidents that might arise For the Defensive League he was of his former Opinion that it should be negotiated between us but upon the Project offered His Majesty at Schevelin by which all Matter of Commerce might be so adjusted as to leave no Seeds of any new Quarrels between the Nations After two very long Conferences upon these Points we ended with some Difference upon the Necessity of concluding both Parts of my Projects at the same Time but for the rest with great Confidence and Satisfaction in one anothers sincere and frank Way of Treating since the first Overtures between us The first Time I saw him he told me I came upon a Day he should always esteem very happy both in respect of His Majesty's Resolutions which I brought and of those the States had taken about the Disposal of the chief Commands in their Army by making Prince Maurice and Monsieur Wurtz Camp-Masters-General and the Prince of Tarante and Rhingrave Generals of the Horse each to command in Absence of the other He told me all the Detail of that Disposition but the rest I remember not well I laid hold on this Occasion as indeed I thought was necessary to say what His Majesty gave me Order concerning the Prince of Orange which he took very well and said was very obliging to the States that for his own Part he never failed to see the Prince once or twice a Week and grew to have a particular Affection for him and would tell me plainly that the States designed the Captain-generalship of all the Forces for him so soon as by his Age he grew capable of it The next Day was my Audience which passed with all the Respect that could be given His
new Agreements were in Effect as strong as perpetual which might it self be changed by new Agreements That this would be esteemed an Artifice of his especially since he had declared upon my asking him that it was his own Opinion and that he would tell the States so if they demanded it not to conclude without Insertion of those Articles which yet he could not deny to be of present Force for that they allowed but seemed to doubt that referring in the Treaty of Breda to a new Treaty they would be invalidated if a new Treaty should pass without their Confirmation I found Monsieur Isbrant was content with my Reasons and said he would undertake his Province should be so but Monsieur de Witt said Holland and Zealand would not I told them at last that I was sure the States would not think fit to lose the Effect of the League proposed upon such a Point as this and that they intended only to have the Advantage of seeing His Majesty's Resolution in Answer to my Letter before they concluded with Resolutions however that this should not hinder at last that I foresaw many Things might arise in ten Days time to break all our good Intentions and some more than I had told them or could at present that if they knew me and how far I was to be trusted where I gave my Word I would propose an Expedient to them but being so new among them I thought it was to no Purpose There I paused They desired me I would propose however and so I did which was that we should proceed to draw up the whole Project and Sign as soon as was possible and that in Case I afterwards received His Majesty's Leave in Answer of my Fridays Letter to insert those provisional Articles I would freely declare it to them and insert them in a separate Article to be a Part of the Defensive League They both looked a while one upon another and after a Pause Monsieur de Witt gave me his Hand and after a Compliment upon the Confidence he had taken in my Face and in the rest of my Dealing since our first Commerce told me that if I would promise them what I had said en Homme de bien they would ask no further Assurance of me and provided the Treaty of Breda might be confirmed in the Preamble of this to take away all Scruples of those Articles being of less Force than they were before for his Part tho' he could promise nothing what the States would resolve yet he would promise that he and Monsieur Isbrant would use their utmost Endeavours to induce them to proceed upon my Proposition And so we fell immediately to digest our Project of the whole Treaty For I made no Difficulty of the Confirmation proposed knowing that new Treaties use to begin by Confirmation of the old I am the larger in this Relation that His Majesty may know upon what Reasons I engaged my Word to them in this Point and thereupon may give me Leave without more Circumstances to be true to it in Case His Majesty's Pleasure in the Point be dispatch'd away to me upon the Receipt of my former Letter After this Difficulty well evaded we found none but in this Expression In Case our Persuasions to Spain should not prevail and we should come á la Force á la Constrainte which I moderated at first by the Words aux moyens plus durs and afterwards aux moyens plus efficaces For we drew it up first in French The other Additions or Enlargements I dare presume His Majesty will not be displeased with no more than that Article about Portugal tho' I had no Instruction in it If I have failed in enlarging upon very short and hasty Instructions I most humbly beg His Majesty's Pardon because I am sure I kept my Self as close as was possible to what I apprehended to be His Majesty's Sense upon the whole and every Part. That Evening being Saturday or rather that Night and Sunday Morning we agreed upon the Project in French and gave Order for the translating of it into Latin which was done and perused by me and agreed to between Twelve and One that Night and engrossed by Eleven next Morning being Munday and at a Meeting with the Commissioners jointly was Signed and Sealed and mutually delivered between two and three that Afternoon after that Time spent in comparing the Instruments and adjusting the Sums computed as the Value of the several Aids After Sealing we all embraced with much Kindness and Applause of my saying upon that Occasion A Breda comme Amis icy comme Frerâ—s and Monsieur de Witt made me a most obliging Compliment of having the Honour which never any other Minister had before me of drawing the States to a Resolution and Conclusion in five Days upon a Matter of the greatest Importance and a Secours of the greatest Expence they had ever engaged in and all directly against the Nature of their Constitutions which enjoined them Recourse to their Provinces upon all such Occasions and used to draw out all common Deliberations to Months Delays and added upon it that now it was done it look'd like a Miracle I must add three Words to do him Right in Return of his Compliment that I found him as plain as direct and square in the Course of this Business as any Man could be tho' often stiff in Points where he thought any Advantage could accrue to his Countrey and have all the Reason in the World to be satisfied with him and for his Industry no Man had ever more I am sure for these five Days at least neither of us spent many idle Hours neither Day nor Night After the Conclusion I received Yesterday the Visits of all the publick Ministers in Town except the Ambassadors between whom and Envoys Extraordinary some Difficulties were arisen they say here first begun by Sir George Downing which have in a manner spoiled all Commerce None of the other failed to rejoice with me upon the Conclusion of my Business and to express their Adoring His Majesty's Resolutions which in this Conjuncture they say have given new Life to all the Courts of Christendom whose Councils were before in the greatest Perplexities and Disorder that could be They say His Majesty will have the sole Honour of giving either Peace to Christendom or a Ballance to the Wars and has shewn that all must follow what he gives a Head to Much more of this Kind I hear from all Hands and have no Reason to doubt their Meaning what they say Thus far I have given Your Lordship the smooth Side only of this Conclusion and now you must receive the rough for having concerted with the Commissioners that Monsieur de Witt and I should give Part of our Treaty all but the separate Articles to the French and Spanish Ambassadours the first we performed this Afternoon the last we intend to morrow Morning The French Ambassadour had been much surprised
between him and the States for their own mutual Defence and to this Purpose had sent me over as his Envoy to the States with full Powers and the Draught of a Defensive League between us but refers the rest for what touched Flanders to what the States and I should agree Monsieur de Witt received this Discourse with a Countenance pleased but yet as I mark'd something surprized and as if he expected not a Return from His Majesty so sudden and so resolute He said that the States would be much pleased with the Honour His Majesty did them and the Overture he made them that I should chuse my Time whenever I desired it for my Audience and would pass the Forms of demanding it from the President of the Week That he was still confident the States would enter with His Majesty into the Mediation tho' France gave them Hopes of succeeding by their own That the Provinces differed in Opinion upon what Terms the Peace should be made That Utrecht was so bold as to think nothing but Justice ought to be considered in the Case that all that France had conquered should be restored to Spain and their Pretensions be referred to Judgment or Arbitrage But Holland with most of the other Provinces were of another Mind and considering their own present Condition as well as that of France thought it best to keep the French to their own Offer but he believed would come to Means of more Force if France should recede from what they themselves had advanced to the States That for the Defensive League between us he did not know whether the late Sore were yet fit for such an Application but would try the Mind of the States That he doubted they would think it like to prove too sudden a Change of all their Interests and that which would absolutely break them off from so old and constant a Friend as France to relie wholly upon so new and so uncertain a Friend as England had pâ—â—â—ved I told him that the doing what he said would be the Effect of any Treaties of this Nature between us let them be as tenderly handled and composed as we could That France would take it as ill of us of them to be stopp'd in the remaining Conquest of Flanders as to the forced out of all they had already gained That he knew very well it had been long their Design at any Price to possess themselves of the Spanish Netherlands and he knew as well that it was their Interest to do so considering the Advantages it would give them over all the rest of Christendom that it was as much our Interest to hinder it and that nothing could do it but a firm Conjunction between us That the States Part would be next after Flanders was gone and therefore they had now as much need of being protected by England against France as they thought they had three or four Years ago of being protected by France against England and that they had no other Choice but either continuing their Friendship with France till they should see both Flanders and themselves swallowed up by such a Neighbour or else change their whole Measures and enter into the strictest Alliance with His Majesty for the Preservation of both and let France take it as they pleased Monsieur de Witt confessed the Design of France for the Conquest of Flanders spoke of the Treaties they had made with the States in Cardinal Richlieu's Time and lately offered again for partaging it between them and said he understood very well the Danger of such a Council and Neighbourhood or else he should have fallen into them but the Ventures were great on the other side too that the States were much more exposed than the King that the Spaniards were weak and ill to be trusted by the States between whom there had never yet been any better Measures than barely those of the Munster Peace after so great Rancors and long Hostilities That tho' he believed the German Princes would be glad of what His Majesty proposed yet he knew not how far Sueden might be engaged in the Measures with France who lay here at their Backs in the Dutchy of Bremen And last of all tho' this Resolution seemed now to be taken by His Majesty and his Ministers upon the surest and wisest Foundations which were those of true Interest and Safety yet no Man knew how long they might last That if they should break all their Measures with France and throw themselves wholly upon His Majesty by such a Conjunction any Change of Councils in England would be their certain Ruine That he knew not this present Ministry and could say nothing to them but that he knew the last too well Upon which he said a good deal of our uncertain Conduct since His Majesty's Return and concluded that the Unsteddiness of Councils in England seemed a fatal Thing to our Constitution he would not judge from what Grounds Mais que depuis le temps de la Reyne Elisabet il n'y avoit eu qu'une fluctuation perpetuelle en la Conduite de l'Angleterre avec laquelle on ne pouvoit jamais prendre des Mesures pour deux Annèes de Temps After this ended with some Melancholy that looked a little irresolute I told him that as to their own Interests he knew them and could weigh them better than I that after my Audience and first Conference with Commissioners I should quickly see how the States would understand them in which I knew very well how great a Part he would have That for our Danger I confest they would be first exposed to France and we the last which made it reasonable they should make the first Pace to their Safety That for Sueden I had no Orders to negotiate with them but being fully instructed in His Majesty's general Intentions I should be glad to see them strengthened all I could and to that Purpose if he thought fit I would talk with the Count de Dona the Suedish Ambassadour here and see whether he had any Powers to engage their Crown in any common Measures for the Safety of Christendom that if by such a Conjunction we could extend it to a Triple Alliance among us upon the same Foundation I believed he would think it too strong a Bar for France to venture on That for the Unsteddiness of our Councils I would rather bewail than defend it but that I should not have made this Journey if I had not been confident that had been ended and we now bottommed past any Change or Remove That I could not pretend to know any Body's Mind certainly but my own but that upon this Matter I was as confident of His Majesty's of Your Lordship's and My Lord Arlington's as I was of my own Upon this Occasion I said a great deal not only of the Interests but Resentments that had engaged His Majesty and His Ministers in this Council and concluded that I was confident it could never break but
I shall always contribute by my good Wishes and whatever Services I may be capable of to the Support of this good Intelligence so happily restored between both Nations In the mean time God Almighty take Your High and Mighty Lordships inot his Holy Protection A mon Audience de congé aux Estats Generaux Hauts Puissants Seigneurs SA Majesté le Roy de la Grande Bretagne mon Maitre ayant vn conclurre si heureusement en si peu de jours trois divers traitez avec V. H. P. S. par lesquels la seureté commune des deux Nations vient d'etre retablie les semences de toutes les nouvelles discordes entierement deracinées le chemin á la paix au repos ouvert pour la Chretienté en cas que nos voifins s'y portent avec la meme foy la meme franchise qui nous la deja fait acheminer sa Majesté croit n'avoir plus besoin de moy en ce lieu puisque les Ministres ne servent ne sont propres qu'a cimenter entretenir la confiance mais la notré se voit etablie sur de si solides fondemens qu'elle n'aura plus besoin des appuis ni des aides ordinaires C'est pourquoy sa Majesté ordonne mon retour a Brusselles pour y poursuivre de concert avec V. S. en faveur de nos voisins ce que nous venons de conclure icy pour nous memes Máis elle m'a commandé sur mon depart d'assurer V. S. de sa part que comme une chose n'est jamais mieux conservée que par les principes qui l'ont fait naitre aussi sa Majesté ne manquera pas d'observer constamment tout ce qui vient d'etre conclu cela avec autant de bonne foy avec la même sincerité la meme droiture de coeur qu'on luy a vû temoigner lors qu'elle l'a fait negotier Et sa Majesté ne doute point que V. S. ne soient entierement resolus á tenir la même conduite á son egard c'est lá le dernier sceau qui doit etre apposé de part d'autre á nos traitez pour preuve d'une parfaite confiance Pour ce qui me regarde en particulier je ne saurois sortir d'icy sans me louer hautement de la judicieuse sincere conduite de Vos H. P. S. dans tout le cours de cette Negotiation particulierement de l'extreme prudence que vous avez fait paroitre dans le choix de Messieurs les Commissaires que vous m'avez donné Leur candeur leur capacité consommée leur ardeur leur application pour l'affaire proposée n'ont pas peu contribué au bonbeur á la rapidité de la conclusion de nos Traitez Pour moy comme je me souviendray toute ma vie avec joye meme avec tendresse du court espace de tems que j'ay passé prés de V. S. aussi dans quelque lieu du monde que je sois appellé á passer ma vie je ne negligeray jamais de contribuer par mes voeux par toutes sortes de soins de services dont je me croiray capable au maintien de cette mutuelle intelligence que je vois si heureusement retablie entre les deux Nations Cependant je prieray Dieu ardamment de prendre vos H. P. S. sous sa sainte protection A Letter from the States to the King of Great Britain Feb. 18. S. N. 1668. SIR IT is merely in Compliance to Custom that we do our Selves the Honour to write to Your Majesty in Answer to the Letter you were pleased to send us relating to Sir William Temple For We can add nothing to what your Majesty has seen your self of his Conduct by the Success of the Negotiation committed to his Charge As it is a Thing without Example that in so few Days three such important Treaties have been concluded so we can say that the Address the Vigilance and the Sincerity of this Minister are also without Example We are extremely obliged to Your Majesty that you are pleased to make use of an Instrument so proper for confirming that strict Amity and good Intelligence which the Treaty at Breda had so happily begun And we are bold to say that if Your Majesty continues to make use of such Ministers the Knot will grow too fast ever to be untyed and Your Majesty will ever find a most particular Satisfaction by it as well as We who after our most hearty Thanks to Your Majesty for this Favour shall pray God c. and remain SIR c. Lettre de Recreance de la part des Etats Au Roy de la Grande Bretagne Le 18. de Feur S. N. 1668. SIRE CE n'est que pour satisfaire á la coutume que nous nous donnons l'honneur d'ecrire á Votre Majesté en response de la lettre qu'il luy a plû nous ecrire au sujet de Monsieur le Chevalier Temple car nous ne pouvons rien ajouter a ce que Votre Majesté meme a vû de sa conduite par le succez de la Negotiation qui luy avoit eté confié Comme c'est une chose sans example que dans si peu de jours trois si importans Traitez ont êté ajustéz aussi pouvons nous dire que l'addresse la vigilance la sincerité de ce Ministre sont aussi sans example Nous sommes bien fort obligés a V. M. de ce qu'il luy a plû se servir vir d'un instrument si propre á achever d'etreindre le noeud d'amitié de bonne intelligence que le traité de Breda avoit commencé á serrer Et nous osons dire qui si elle continue d'employer des semblables Ministres le lien deviendra indissoluble Elle en tirera toujours une satisfaction toute particuliere aussi bien que nous qui aprés l'avoir remercié de tout notre coeur de cette faveur prierons Dieu SIRE c. A Letter from Monsieur de Witt to my Lord Arlington Febr. 14. S. N. 1668. My Lord AS it was impossible to send a Minister of greater Capacity or more proper for the Temper and Genius of this Nation than Sir William Temple so I believe no other Person either will or can more equitably judge of the Disposition wherein he has found the States to answer the good Intentions of the King of Great Britain Sir William Temple ought not to be less satisfied with the Readiness wherewith the States have pass'd over to the concluding and signing of those Treaties for which he came hither than they the States are with his Conduct and agreable manner of Dealing in the whole Course of his Negotiation It appears My Lord that you throughly understand Men
assistance either for the whole or a part at the choice of the said King All these Aids shall be furnish'd within six Weeks after they shall be demanded and the said King shall reimburse the whole charge to the said States within three Years after the Conclusion of the War II. That if any Prince State or other Person whatever without exception shall under any Pretext invade or attempt to invade the United Provinces or any Places situated within the Jurisdiction of the said States General or garrison'd by their Soldiers or shall exercise any act of Hostility by Land or by Sea against the said States general or their Subjects the said King shall be obliged as by Virtue of these Presents he is obliged to send forty Ships of War well furnished with all things necessary to assist the said States General to oppose suppress and repel all such Insults and Acts of Hostility and to procure due Reparation for any Damages sustained by them That is to say Fourteen of the said Ships shall carry from sixty to eighty great Guns and four hundred Men a just Allowance and Computation being made as well with regard to those Ships that carry a greater as those that carry a lesser number of Men Fourteen other Ships shall carry from forty to sixty Guns and one with another three hundred Men at the least Allowance to be made as before and none of the rest to carry less than six and thirty Guns and a hundred and fifty Men. Besides which He shall assist them with six thousand Foot-Souldiers and four hundred Horse or shall pay a Summ of Money with due regard to the just value of such an Assistance either for the whole or a part at the choice of the said States All these Aids shall be furnished within six Weeks after they shall be demanded And the said States shall reimburse the whole charge to the said King within three Years after the Conclusion of the War III. The said Ships of War and the said auxiliary Forces of Horse and Foot together with the Commanders of the Ships and Forces and all the subaltern Officers of both that shall be sent to the Assistance of the Party injured and attack'd shall be obliged to submit to his Pleasure and be obedient to the Orders of him or them who shall be appointed to command the Armies in chief either by Sea or Land IV. Now that an exact Computation may be made of the Charges that are to be reimburs'd within the space of three Years after the conclusion of the War and that the value of such Assistance may be adjusted in ready Money which possibly the Party attack'd may chuse either for the whole or a part of the said Ships Horse and Foot 'T is thought expedient That the fourteen Ships carrying from sixty to eighty pieces of Cannon should be valued at the Summ of eighteen thousand six hundred and sixty six Pounds sterling or of English Money the other fourteen which carry from forty to sixty Guns at fourteen thousand Pounds sterling and the remaining twelve at six thousand Pounds of the same Money Six thousand Foot at seven thousand five hundred Pounds sterling and four hundred Horse at one thousand four hundred Pounds for one Month The Money to be paid by the said King of Great Britain at London and by the said States General at Amsterdam according as the course of the Exchange shall be at the time when Payment is to be made But in consideration of the six thousand Foot-Soldiers the Summ of six thousand Pounds sterling shall be pay'd within the first Month to defray the Expence of listing and providing the Men. V. This League with all and every thing therein contained shall be confirmed and ratified by the said King of Great Britain and the said States General of the United Provinces by Letters Patents of both Parties sealed with their Great Seal in due and authentick Form within four Weeks next ensuing or sooner if it may be and the mutual Instruments of Ratification shall be exchang'd on each part within the said time Here follows a Copy of the Powers granted by the most Serene King of Great Britain c. Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all c. A Copy of the Powers granted by the High and Mighty Lords the States General of the United Netherlands The States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands To all those c. In Witness and Confirmation of all and every part of this Treaty We whose Names are underwritten have subscribed and sealed the same at the Hague in Holland the 23d of January 1668. Signed on the King of England's Part W. Temple On the Part of the States Gellicom Asperen J. de Witte Crommon Vnkel Jacob Van Coeverden K. Isbrants Factum tripliciter conventum QVandoquidem pactis non ita pridem Bredae inter Magnae Britanniae Regem foederati Belgii Ordines generales conclusis pristina inter utramque Nationem Amicitia ac bona Correspondentia annuente divina gratia restituta ade ó â—ue ad praecidendam omnem omninò in posterum novis dissidiis ansam atque ad praevenienda nova inter utriusque partis subditos accidentia quae dictam amicitiam ac bonam correspondentiam turbare aliquando possint in Articulos quosdam Legesque navigationis ac commerciorum ibidem consensum atque speciatim undecimo dicti Tractatus Articulo statutum sit uti dictus Dominus Rex dictique Domini Ordines Generales maneant Amici confoederati Necessitudine Amicitiâ conjuncti astricti ad Jura atque Immunitates Subditorum alterutrius contra quoscunque demum tuendas qui utriusve status Pacem Terra Marive disturbare conabuntur vel qui infra alterutra Dominia degentes publici utriusque status Hostes donunciabuntur neque tamen specificè definita reperiantur media auxiliave quibus Foederatorum pars una alteri tali in casu succurrere debeat Dicto autem magnae Britanniae Regi dictisque Ordinibus Generalibus stet Sententia ist haec Pacta corroborandi magis magisque perficiendi Placuiâ— imprimis atque ante omnia dictum Tractatum Bredae conclusum dictasque Leges Navigationis ac Commerciorum eo spectantes confirmare quemadmodum per praesentia confirmantur obligatione mutua atque indissolubili eas bona Fide observandi atque adimplendi jubendique ut à subditis utrinque exacte atque religiose observentur atque adimpleantur juxta genuinum dicti Tractatus dictorumque Articulorum Sensum ac Tenorem Vt autem praeterea de specialiore auxiliorum mutuo praestandorum designatione prioribus Pactis omissa pro Amicitiae inter dictum Dominum Regem dictosque Dominos Ordines Generales Incremento majori câ—nstet utque securitati defensioni mutuae utriusque status contra infâ—stos conatus vel insultus Hostiles à quoquam fâ—rte quâ—cunque demum sub praetextu instituendos
Januarii 1668. Signed as before Separate Articles which shall be of the same Force and Authority as if they had been inserted in the Treaty concluded this Day between the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands I. Iâ— in the procuring of a Peace between Fâ—ance and Spain any Difficulty should arise about the Point of the Renunciation 't is to be so contriv'd That either no mention at all is to be made of it in the Treaty or at least the Form is to be conceiv'd and set down in such Words as nothing may accrue to either of the two Crowns on account of the said Renunciation nor any Prejudice be created to either of them in Point of Right But if either the King of Spain or the most Christian King refuse their Consent to this Expedient then the King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall proceed against the Refuser as is agreed by the third and fourth Article of the Treaty and in the last of these Articles respectively with this Condition however That in case such refusal proceed from the King of Spain the most Christian King shall oblige himself not to make War in the Low-Countries according to the Tenor of the fourth Article II. That the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands to the end that all Parties may be satisfied shall oblige themselves to use their utmost Endeavours that a Peace may at the same time be establish'd between the Kings of Spain and Portugal but with this Condition That the most Christian King shall also oblige himself in case this Negotiation cannot be so soon accomplish'd that such a Delay shall no way hinder on his Part the Peace between him and Spain except only That it shall he free for the said most Christian King to give Succour and Aid to the King of Portugal his Ally either by way of Attack that he may draw the Enemy fron other Parts or by an other means which he shall judge to be most convenient and advantagious And if the Spaniards can be brought to consent to a Peace under the said Condition and the same be concluded accordingly then the most Christian King shall be oblig'd wholly to abstain from the Low-Countries as possess'd of Peace and not involv'd in the Disputes of either Party Neither shall it be lawful for him to form any Designs against them either by open force or clandestine Practices nor to require any Satisfaction under the Pretext of Charges and Expences to be sustained on account of the War in Portugal either for raising Men or any other Burdens of that War And if it should happen that during the said War the auxiliary Forces of the most Christian King should possess themselves of any Places in Spain or Italy the said most Christian King shall restore them to Spain as soon as the Peace with Portugal shall be made But if beyond and contrary to Expectation Spain should refuse to make Peace with the King of Portugal and also with the most Christian King under that Exception of leaving him free to assist his Confederate as has been already said In this unexpected case The King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall be bound to employ themselves effectually to procure the Consent of the Spaniards yet with this Provision That the most Christian King do also oblige himself not to make War in the Low-Countries as in the former Case is already said III. But if beyond all expectation the most Christian King should entertain such Thoughts as shall induce him to refuse to promise That he will sign the Treaty of Peace as soon as the Spaniards shall consent to give up all those Places which have been acquir'd by him in his last Expedition or such an Equivalent as shall be agreed by mutual Consent or in case he shall not accomplish his Promise or shall disallow or reject the Cautions and Provisions that are express'd in the said Treaty which are so necessary to obviate the Fears and Jealousies that are most justly conceiv'd of the most Christian King's Intentions to make a farther progress with his victorious Arms into the said Low-Countries so often already mention'd In all these Cases and also if he should endeavour by any Subterfuges or oblique Practices to hinder or elude the Conclusion of the Peace Then England and the United Netherlands shall be bound and oblig'd to join themselves to the King of Spain and with all their united Force and Power to make War against France not only to compel him to make Peace upon the Conditions aforesaid but if God should bless the Arms taken up to this end and favour them with success and if it shall be thought expedient to the Parties concern'd to continue the War 'till things shall be restored to that Condition in which they were at the time when the Peace was made upon the Borders of both Kingdoms in the Pyrenaean Mountains IV. These separate Articles with all and every thing therein contain'd shall be confirm'd and ratified by the said King of Great Britain and the said States General of the United Provinces by Letters Patents of both Parties sealed with their Great Seal in due and authentick Form within four Weeks next ensuing or sooner if it may be and within the said time the mutual Instruments of Ratification shall be exchang'd on both sides Done at the Hague in Holland the 23d of January 1668. Signed as before Articuli separati qui ejusdem erunt Virtutis atque Authoritatis ac si inserti forent Tractatui hodierno Die intra Regem Magnae Britanniae Ordines Generales foederati Belgii concluso I. SI in procuranda pace inter Galliam Hispaniam se offerat aliqua difficultas super puncto renunciationis ea ineunda est ratio ut vel nulla ejus in pactis fiat mentio vel ut ejusmodi Verbis concipiatur Formula ut neutrae duarum Coronarum quoad praedictam renunciationem eo quicquam accedat aut etiam inde creetur aliquod juris detrimentum Quod si verò Rex Hispaniarum vet etiam Rex Christianissimus in id consentire nolint adversus recusantem Rex Magnae Britanniae foederati Ordines procedent conventum est Articulo tertio quarto dicti Tracitatus ultimo horum Articulorum respectivè Ea tamen Conditione ut in casu Recusationis Regis Hispaniae Rex Christianissimus se reciprocè obstringat quemadmodùm in Articulo quarto se nullatenus arma moturum in Belgica II. Quod Rex Magnae Britanniae Ordines Generales foederati Belgii ut prolixiùs ab omni parte satisfiat se obligabunt omnem sedulò operam daturos ut Pax inter Reges Hispaniae Lusitaniae eodem tempore sanciri possit ea tamen lege ut vicissim Gallia se obstringat si tam citò non possit id negotium perduci ad exitum uti Pax inter se Hispaniam
requisite and necessary that the said League may acquire the substance as well as the Form of a Triple Agreement To which the respective Parties shall make it their Business to invite their Friends and Allies if any of them should desire to be admitted Done at the Hague 13 23 of January 1668. Signed Christopher Delphicus B. and Count of Dhona Haraldus Appelboom CVM Magnae Britanniae Rex ac Ordines Foederatarum Belgii Provinciarum valdè desiderarint Regem Sueciae unà cum ipsis in partem principalem adscisci illius Foederis quod hodierno Die per Deputatos ac Plenipotentiarios suos conclusum signatamque est quo promta atque tuta Pax inter Reges duos vicinos promoveatur quoque Divinâ adspirante gratiâ Orbem Christianum publica tranquillitas instauretur Praeterea cùm Rex ipse Sueciae jam ab initio eorum motuum qui inter duos designotos Reges cruduerunt tam Magnae Britanniae Regi quam Foederatorum Belgarum Ordinibus sit testatus bonum sincerumque suum propositum ac studium quo tenebatur sese cum iis in hoc negotio modo supradicto sociandi ac jungendi idque respectu arctissimae necessitudinis horum Foederum per quae communibus cum iisdem commodis adstringi se agnoscit ut per hunc interventum perque modos utiles quoscunque ac honestos Paci inter binos Reges stabiliendae insudetur Nec per ullam difficultatem sese hactenus cohibitum mentem suam super re totâ aperiendi nisi quòd praestolatus est dum certò resciretur quid deliberati atque firmi confilii Rex Magnae Britanniae Foederatorum Belgarum Ordines super omni hoc negotio essent capturi tum quousque promoveri subsidia aliaque id genus nonnulla possent per quae dictus Sueciae Rex sibi satisfieri exoptat ut pari aequato cum Magnae Britanniae Rege ac Foederati Belgii Ordinibus passu in hac re procedat Ea propter ex commodo communi visum est fore si hoc instrumentum inter Ministros Deputatos at Plenipotentiarios dictorum Regum Sueciae Magnaeque Britanniae nec non dictorum Foederati Belgii Ordinum scripto consignaâ—etur Quo unâ ex parte obligaretur Rex Sueciae mediante satisfactione praedictâ ad amplectendum designatum Foedus ad eandem navandam Operam eodemque passu procedendum quo dictus Magnae Britanniae Rex dictique Foederatorum Belgarum Ordines procedendum sibi esse existimant ut negotium tam salutare promoveatur Necnon parte ex alterâ dictus Rex Sueciae certus ità fieret locum sibi vacuum ac integrum relinqui Foederis hujusce inter partes principales amplectendi quemadmodùm id ut faciat à Magnae Britanniae Rege ab Ordinibus Foederati Belgii per hasce praesentes maximè amicum in modum rogatur qui ipsi libenter apud Caesarem Hispaniarum Regem omne officii genus eo convertent ut Controversiae nonnullae quae dicto Sueciae Regi cum iis possint intercedeâ—e quamprimùm componantur secundum jus fasque è medio tollantur Quantùm vero ad subsidia quae à dicto Rege praetenduâ—tur Ordines Foederati Belgii Generales non defuturi sunt mandatis necessariis confestim ad Legatos suos in Aulâ Britannicâ mittendis ut hos inter Commissarios quos dictus Magnae Britanniae Rex eam in rem designabit interque Legatum Regis Sueciae extraordinarium qui iter jam nunc eò meditatur ex Belgio aliosque illic degentes Ministros Principum Statuumve quos id negotium quoque tangit atque concernit concilia ineantur super necessariis ac requisitis omnibus constituendis sic ut Foedus jam dictum consequatur quamprimùm substantiam atque formam Pacti tripliciter conventi ad quod invitandis Amicis Confoederatis si qui ejus in partem admitti volent omni ex parte opera quam diligentissimè dabitur Actum Hagae-Comitum 13 23 die Januarii 1668. Signed Christophorus Delphicus B. ac Comes in Dhona Haraldus Appelboomius The Negotiation of the Peace at Aix la Chapelle To my Lord Arlington Antwerp Febr. 27. S. N. 1668. My LORD I Did not expect to give your Lordship another Trouble from this Town but having been detain'd here some Days by the Marquess's Stay 'till this Morning and intending at Night to follow him for Brussels I know not whether my Arrival there may be time enough to write by the Pacquet that parts from thence to Morrow at Evening and therefore will not venture by any Omission to forfeit my Charter of writing every Post I had yesterday a joint Audience with the States Deputies and will refer your Lordship for what pass'd there to the inclosed Memorial on our Part and Answer given us by the Marquess which we have dispatcht this Morning to Sir John Trevor and Mr. Bouningham at Paris by a joint Express in hopes by their Endeavours there to bring the business to a Suspension of Arms upon the Marquess's having now accepted the Truce to the shorter Term offered by France as well as the longer propos'd by his Majesty and the States For the Alternative we can yet draw no Resolution from him upon it defending himself by the Necessity of first concerting with us how he shall be assisted in case of France refusing both the Truce and the Alternative This is in the Marquess an Aim of engaging us by advance in the Party and thereby exasperating France by being threatned more directly and so imbarque the whole Affair into the necessity of a long ensuing War For That Spain would much rather engage in with our Assistance than be forced to a Peace upon our late Project and I think pursues its own Interest right in this Point That of Holland is certainly opposite to theirs and leads them to nothing so much as the Composure of the Quarrel with some security of France growing no greater at least on this side The Marquess is large in arguing to me That our Interest lyes in a joint War rather than a Peace between the two Crowns and that our end must have been hitherto only to engage Holland with us in the Quarrel and reasons from Story and the present Genius of our People and Parliament I endeavour to quiet him in this Point by assuring him That whatever other Kings have thought or done and whatever the People wish or talk the King in whose sole Disposition all matters of Peace and War lye will by no Arts nor Considerations be induced to break from Holland in the Management of this Business nor make one Pace further in the Spaniards Defence than the Dutch are willing to join in That his Interest as well as Honour lyes in this Resolution agreed by so many solemn Treaties and that we as well as the Dutch can very well content our selves with a Peace and Pursuit of our
a leur merite a leurs qualitez personnelles M'accorderez vous la liberte de vous prier d'envoyer une copie de cette Lettre aux Ambassadeurs d'Hollande a Londres avec ordre de la faire voir a Milord Arlington car je me defie extremement du courier de Nieuport trop expose a la rencontre des François je ne suis pas encore assez grand Maître dans mon chiffre pour m'en servir dans les affaires d'un aussi long detail Je vous prie de m'aider a me conserver dans le souvenir de mes amis de la Haye de me croire toujours autant que personne du monde Monsieur Vôtre tres humble tres affectionne Serviteur The Memorial given to the Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo Febr. 1668. My Lord THE under-signed Resident of the King of Great Britain and the Deputies Extraordinary of the States General of the Vnited Neitherlands find themselves obliged to represent to your Excellency That his Majesty and their High and Mightinesses having lately concluded a Treaty by which they have not only provided for their proper Security but also for the Peace and Quiet of Christendom in case their Neighbours proceed in it with the same good Intentions wherewith the said Allies have begun this Affair His said Majesty and Their High and Mightinesses for the better perfecting so Christian a Work having given Orders to their Ministers residing at the Courts of both Kings at present in War to endeavour by all means and by a common Concert to dispose both the said Kings to accept the means proposed by the said Allies as the readiest and most necessary for arriving at so happy an End that is to say to accept the Peace upon the Alternative already proposed And to prevent the Accidents that may intervene to hinder the Progress of the Treaty to consent also immediately to a Truce 'till the end of March and in the mean while to send their Plenipotentiaries to Aix la Chapelle furnish'd with Instructions and Powers necessary to treat and conclude a Peace upon the said Alternative that the Fire at present kindled and whereof in all appearance the Sparks are ready to fly through the greatest Part of Christendom may be soon extinguished and give place to a general and lasting Peace to the safety of all those who find themselves engaged in the sad Effects or Consequences of the present War The said Resident and Deputies extraordinary are more particularly obliged by the Orders of their Masters to represent to your Excellency how glorious it will be to you how advantageous to the common Ends of the Peace and how necessary for preserving to Spain the remainder of Flanders that your Excellency by virtue of your Powers would make the first Step in this great Affair by consenting readily to the said Alternative and to the said Truce and to the dispatching of the said Plenipotentiaries to Aix la Chapelle and for the better entring into this Negotiation and the said Truce That your Excellency will declare immediately your Acceptation of the Truce which the most Christian King has proposed from the 18th of November to the last of March 1668. And upon all these Points the said Resident and Deputies extraordinary do pray your Excellency with all possible Instances to give them a speedy and plain Answer agreeable to the good and holy Dispositions wherewith his Majesty and Their High and Mightinesses have begun and pursued this glorious and Christian Design of a general Peace Memoire au Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo Anvers Fevr. 1668. Monsieur LES sous-signez Resident de la Grande Bretagne les Deputez extraordinaires des Etats Generaux de Provinces Vnies de Pâ—ï bas se trouvent obligez de representer à V. E que sa Majesté leurs Hautes Puissances ayans depuis peu conclus un traité par lequel ils n'ont pas â—eulement pourvû a leur propre seureté mais aussi á la paix repos de la Chretiente en cas que leurs voisins y procedent avec les memes bonnes intentions dont les dits Alliez on t entame cette affaire sa dite Majeste leurs Hautes Puissances pour mieux acheminer un ouvrage si Chretien ont donné ordres à leurs Ministres auprés de deux Couronnes à present en guerre de tacher par tous moyens par un Concert commun de disposer les dites deux Couronnes à accepter les moyens proposez par les dits Alliez comme les plus prompts les plus necessaires pour arriver à une fin si heureuse c'est à dire de consentir à la paix sur l'Alternative deja proposée pour prevenir les accidens qui pourront survenir pour empecher le progrez d'un traité de consentir aussi promptement à une treve jusqu'é la fin du mois de Mars en attendant d'envoyer leurs Plenipotentiaires à la Ville d'Aix la Chapelle munis des Instructions de pouvoirs requis pour y traiter conclurre la Paix sur la dite Alternative afin que le feu qui se voit à present allumé duquel les estincelles se vont en apparence jetter dans la plus grande part de la Chretiente se puisse bientôt etouffer faire place a une paix generale durable salutaire a tous ceux qui se trouvent enveloppes ou dans les effets ou dans les consequences funestes de la guerre presente Les dits Resident les Deputez Extraordinaires se trouvent plus particulierement obliges par les ordres de leurs Maitres de representer a V. E. combien il luy sera glorieux avantaguex a la fin commune de la paix necessaire a la conservation de ce qui reste a l' Espagne dans les Pais bas que V. E. en vertu de ses pouvoirs fasse le premier pas dans cette grande affaire en consentant promptement a la dite l'Alternative a la dite Treve a la depeche des dits Plenipotentiaires a la Ville d'Aix la Chapelle Et aussi pour mieux acheminer cette Negotiatiation la dite Treve que V.E. se declare promptement d'accepter la treve que sa Majeste Tres Chretienne a proposee le 18 de Novembre 1667 jusqu'au dernier jour de Mars 1668. Et sur tous ces points les dits Resident les Deputez Extraordinaires se trouvent obliges de prier V. E. avec toutes les instances possibles de leur donner une reponse prompte nette agreable aux bonnes saintes dispositions avec lesquelles sa Majeste leurs Hautes Puissances on t entame poursuivi ce dessein glorieux Chretien de la Paix commune To my Lord Hallifax Brussels March 2. S. N. 1668. My Lord IT would
their Game well they will be sure to retort the Address of France upon them and lay the Blame of the War at their Doors without which they have no Hopes of Holland's falling into their Party who whether they are partial to the French or no in this Quarrel are certainly partial to the Peace and will not be drawn to share in the War but upon the last Necessity Therefore my Business will be at present to induce the Marquis to clear those two Scruples made by the French upon His Powers and the Choice of one or other of the Alternatives in which I know not what Success I am like to have after so many Advances made already as He conceives on His Side and so near Don John's Arrival at least according to the present reckoning here which perswades us that He parted from Madrid upon the 22d past I know your Lordship has the same Papers I received from Sir John Trevor and for what occurrs upon them here I beg your Lordship's Leave that I may this once refer you to the enclosed Copy of my Letter this Evening to Him upon that Subject having not Time left Me to repeat it here â—o at large as I ought to do The Truth is I never had so hard a Part upon me as I have at this Time to keep all in good Temper between the Marquis and the Deputies of Holland For besides that their Ends may perhaps be a little different their Complexions are extremely so He is not the easiest of Access nor the quickest at Dispatch And His Officers are at the same Rate The Dutch Deputies are all upon the Spur and when they demand an Audience or a Paper if they have it not within half an Hour they say the Marquis Se mocque d'eux et Ils se trouvent obligez de l'escrire ce Soir aux Estats et que le Marquis ne cherche que des Retardements par la ' de les engager dans la Guerre When they receive Orders to move the Marquis in any Particular they must have it granted the first Time it falls in Discourse and in the very same Form and Words it runs in their Letters and think the Marquis ought to observe the States Order and Directions as punctually as They And will reason Him to the Death upon every Point The Marquis who uses to owe no Man any thing in that Kind grows ten times more difficult by that time they have talked an Hour than He was at first and engaging in large Discourses gives them twenty Occasions of growing Warm upon the Place and Wise afterwards by Interpretations that God knows were never in the Case so that in their Audiences between the Marquis's Eloquence and their Leyden Philosophy the Cards commonly run high and all is Picque and Repicque between them and I am to go to one and t'other next Day to set all right again and endeavour to make them agree asunder upon Points which they could by no means agree upon together But if I go on I shall weary your Lordship as much as they weary Me And therefore I shall break off this Letter with telling You only that the Talk here is of an Attempt for the Relief of Genap and that the Horse are drawing together for that Purpose with what Success I know not but am sure the French deserve none there for continuing an Attempt so long after the Suspension of all Enterprises was accorded I am ever c. To Sir John Trevor Brussels March 13. S. N. 1668. SIR I AM two Letters in your Debt since my last by the Ordinary one of the 8th the other of the 12th but I must needs say that your last has left you nothing in mine That King's Answer is full and fair in my Apprehension what it will appear in the Marquis's I know not For since that Court cavils at His Acceptation of the Alternative and calls it captious I know not whether He may not have His Revenge at theirs Besides Monsieur Lionne's Letter I confess looks of a very different Style from His Master's and in my Judgment Artificial Nor do I understand great Ministers reasoning upon the Intentions of Crowns rather from common Report from Passages of private Mens Letters or of Books made for Argument than from the open and positive Declaration of Ministers who ought to know their Powers best and how to use them Besides they give the Spaniards very fair Play against them in this kind of War by an Action I am very much unsatisfied in which is beginning and continuing the Siege of Genap about four Leagues from hence now the eighth Day after the Accord granted by France for the Suspension of Arms notwithstanding our Signification of it to the Commander of those Troops Besides the seizing of another Castle five Days after the said Accord though the Courier came in two Days from Paris and the same Haste might as easily have been made upon the other Errand In short if France pretends to be believed here they must give Deeds as well as Words and will shew the Sincerity of their Intentions for Peace by consenting to the Truce till the End of May accepted already here Since if there should be any Defect in the Marquis's Powers it may be easily supplied with a little Time and any Delay in the Choice of the Alternative repaired In the mean while I will hope by the next Courier to give you Satisfaction in those Points For I neither know why the Marquis should be difficult in making His Choice upon the Alternative or exposing the material Clauses of His Powers which I will assure you are as full in my Apprehension as can be granted In the mean time this Courier goes to you with a Duplicate of Monsieur Colbert's Pass which was sent some time since to the Internuncio at Aix with the Orders sent out for the Suspension of Arms and with the Marquis's naming a Day for the Baron de Bergayck's coming to Aix in case Monsieur Colbert can be ready in that time Though I do not see how the Treaty can begin till His Majesty's and the State 's Ministers can be there as well as two Principals And in that Regard as well as many others it will be absolutely necessary to obtain France's Consent to the Truce if they would have Us believe they intend the Peace and in the mean time to procure Orders for the Suspension of Arms before Genap as well as all other Places To morrow I expect an Audience upon the Choice of the Alternative though I confess I did not think any more than the Marquis that such a Declaration was necessary before the Ministers meeting at Aix but the Compliance must be on the weaker side and to that Purpose I shall use my best Endeavours And remain Sir c. To my Lord Arlington Brussels Mar. 16. S. N. 1668. My Lord BY Your Lordship's of the 28th past I am put out of Pain for the Merlin
Yacht and Return of the Ratification upon the last Treaty The Error in the Forms of the preceding Instruments sent over for His Majesty's Ratification was I suppose occasioned as your Lordship says by the Omission of Signing both Parts which I confess was offered Me by the Dutch Commissioners but being unpractised in those Forms I chose to follow the Ambassadors Example at Breda who Signed but one Your Lordship sees how ill a Minister I am likely to make if ever I must enter upon new Forms or a Character that requires being more punctual in them I shall however say no more in answer to what your Lordship has hinted to Me about the Journey to Aix having written from Antwerp all that occurred to me upon it after which I know very well it becomes Me to leave all to the King's Pleasure I have asked the Marquis with what Character He will send the Baron de Bergayck He says in Quality of Plenipotentiary but in the rest with Power to take upon Him that Character the French Minister shall assume He plainly acknowledges that in Right He cannot send any Man with the Title of an Ambassador which lies only between two Soveraigns and I know not why the Character of Plenipotentiary may not agree with that of Envoy Extraordinary on all Hands But the Light in this Point must be drawn from France and not from this Place Last Night at an Audience joyntly with the Dutch Deputies which I had disposed in the Morning with the Marquis and with Difficulty enough His Excellency was content to declare His Choice of the Alternative which was to leave France their Conquest of last Campagne and likewise to promise Us a Transcription of the most material Clauses both to be sent to Sir John Trevor and Mr. Van Beuningham at Paris to enable them to give that Court Satisfaction upon their last Objections against the Marquis's Acceptation of the Alternative So that we have now gained the utmost Point that can be desired here in pursuit of our Treaty and must leave the rest upon their Hands at Paris The Marquis took occasion at the same time to complain hard of the French breaking the Suspension by the Attempt upon Genap which was yielded to them two Days since upon Conditions after a large Breach with their Cannon and seems to be designed for a Post to block up this Town which they would certainly do if they could possess themselves of Terveur and Vilvorde the first being an abandoned Place and the second not tenable without Forces to relieve it I do not see how His Majesty and the States can refuse to oblige France to restore Genap within the Time of the Suspension since no Pretence of Mistake or Delay in the Orders can appear at all sincere without the Restitution the Siege continuing to the eighth Day after the Accord made for the Suspension at Paris The Marquis seems to apprehend that the Effects of our having obtained from Him all that France can demand in pursuit of their former Proposals or We in Pursuit of our Treaty will be a sudden throwing off the Mask on the French Side and making what Advances they can in the War before We and Holland are in Posture to enter upon Defence of this Country and therefore presses all that can be our arming and concerting how to proceed in such a Case And I suppose His Majesty may think fit to encourage Holland that is so near and already armed to furnish them here with three or four thousand Foot for Defence of their Towns upon the first Motions of the French to attack any of them with assurance that His Majesty will fall into the same Course with all possible speed and vigor and in the ways that shall be concerted For the supplies of Money from hence I can yet say no more than in my former though I omit no Instances upon that Subject But I doubt in the present Posture Here the King must lose His Right which they say will be where Nothing is And I cannot yet find any Thing drawn to a Conclusion in the Negotiation with Holland for the Money upon their Towns The Marquis shewed Me Don Estevan's last Letters Yesterday upon that Matter which say that the Dutch insist peremptorily upon all the Spaniards hold in Gelderland and besides upon Damme and two other Forts in Flanders On the other side the Spaniards are unwilling to conclude if a Peace be like to ensue by which means parting from those Places to the Dutch and at the same time so many other to the French would leave them hardly any thing here they would think worth their pains to keep So that the Conclusion of this Money matter between them will depend upon the Fr. King's Answer to the Truce till thâ—â—â—d of May and fuller declaring the Continâ—â—â—â— of His Satisfaction upon the Alternativâ— And even then I doubt it may be necessary for Me to make a Journey into Holland for the perfecting that Treaty between them and the Marquis who has not yet found out the Persons or Ways of treating to any purpose with them In the mean time if I knew how far I might engage His Majesty to arm in the Defence of these Countries since Spain has accepted all We propose in our Treaty I would endeavour to induce the Marquis to conclude a Treaty to that Purpose and for furnishing His Majesty thereupon with certain Sums at certain Times thereby to make the Debt at least from Spain a certain thing whenever the Money could be found I hope to receive some Light from your Lordship upon this in answer to a former of mine and the mean while will prepare the Matter with the Marquis I am sufficiently warned upon the Point of the Pavilion and will hope His Majesty's Constancy therein proceeds from a Resolution to take those Courses and Councils which may make Him as much feared abroad as any of His Ancestors were in whose Time that Point was first gained For without That our Pretensions will grow Vain at present and in time Obsolete In the mean while I hope some Expedient will be foreseen that may prevent the Inconveniencies or Unkindnesses which may happen between Us and the Dutch upon this Point in the present Conjuncture and in case of Necessity to joyn our Fleets The Indignity offered Us by la Roche in landing armed Men in England and the rest seems the greatest I have ever heard of that Kind And how far Moderation in resenting and revenging Injuries is a Vertue in a Prince or a State as well as in a private Christian I will not take upon Me to judge That which I know best is that I am ever c. To my Lord Arlington Brussels Mar. 20. S. N. 1668. My Lord THE Day after the last English Pacquets Arrival I received Your Lordship 's of the 2d by the Dutch Resident's Conveyance which together with some Expressions I made out of your Letter gave Me occasion to
conclude that your Lordship at the writing of it believed Me in Holland I know not whether upon something written by the Marquis or Me but that Journey I see the Marquis would have depend upon the French Answer to our last Dispatch and their consenting or refusing the proposed Truce till May from which He supposes it will be easie to guess a Peace or a War In the mean time I was in hopes to receive some particular Commands or Instructions for my Carriage in Holland not desiring to be left so much at large and 't is very possible I ought to have received them by your Lordship's last But that new Cypher will at one time or other cast Me into Despair for by all our skill we cannot make out one Syllable of the two long Paragraphs though making out the last short one very easily makes Us see the Fault must be on the Writers side And I am apt to imagine the Exactness required to this Cypher is more than can agree with the Haste often necessary in your Lordship's Office having observed frequent Mistakes in the Use of the old Cypher which yet never hindred my Collection of the Sense whereas the least of this is mortal to the whole Paragraph I cannot yet come to any Adjustment with the Marquis upon the chief Point recommended to Me though I have often fallen upon the Discourse and endeavoured to engage it further by the offer of a Project I have drawn up to that purpose But He assures Me your Lordship is fallen upon it with the Count de Molina and Baron de l' Isola in England and when you have agreed it will send it over hither for His Excellency to perfect which I confess I think were the better way since I am but very generally instructed in it However His Excellency desired Me this Morning to perfect the Draught I had projected that in case we found it not concluded in England it might be ended here I doubt He will not be induced to part with what the Dutch demand in Gelderland till He foresees plainly an inevitable War And till that Conclusion or Don John's Arrival all will be Misery here what could be spared being gone out upon new Levies and Recruits and the very Spaniards late arrived here falling already into Want which is a piece of Husbandry of all others I cannot understand the old Troops every day diminishing as the new Levies advance But they assure Me Don John brings with him in Bars a Million and a half of Crowns and another Million and a half of the same Money in Remises which is the Life of all Hopes here though we cannot yet be certain of His having lest Madrid The last Letters of the 29th past mentioning His Indisposition at the same time with His design of parting three Days after Your Lordship will have sound that all I could uncypher in your last was already performed here both upon the Choice of the Alternative as well as Satisfaction in the Powers and Disposition of the Baron Bergayck's parting for Aix However I failed not to mind the Marquis of the last this very Morning who assured Me the Baron should certainly be there by the Day appointed which is the 27th of this Month and that His Equipage was already well advanced but however the compleating of it should not hinder His Journey The Baron tells Me that France upon des gning Monsieur Colbert declared His Character to be of Ambassador Plenipotentiary with Reserve of joyning another to Him as chief of the Ambassy in case of the Marquis's going but that He the Baron knows not yet in what Quality He shall go leaving it wholly to the Disposition of the Marquis I have this Week a long and hearty Assurance from Monsieur de Witt of the State 's Resolutions to pursue the Effects of our Treaty with all the Vigor that can be and for that End of their having given the first Rendevous to their Army near Bergenop Zoom from whence they may easily fall into the Defence of the Spanish Towns upon the first Attempt of the French after they have refused the Peace which they must now suddenly unmask themselves in one way or other no further Pretences being left since our last Friday Pacquets which were repeated by an Express on Sunday and shall go by another this Week for surety sake and your Lordship may be assured we omit no Cautions we can use in the matter of our Dispatches of which none yet has failed us The Suspension of Enterprises is owned by the French Commanders since the taking of Genap So that there is little now that furnishes Talk here besides the shameless Treason by which Burgundy was lost and of which the Marquis d' Yenne the Governor his Nephew the Count de St. Amour and Don John de Batteville have chief Honor the last being employed by the Marquis to treat with the Suitzers for the Protection of that Country The Villany and Foulness of this Action make the Spaniards say here that a great King should rather have sent His Lacquays than gone Himself to receive such a Conquest I am ever c. To my Lord Keeper Brussels Mar. 23. S. N. 1668. My Lord I Believe You may wonder on that side as well as many do on this both here and in Holland at the Election the Marquis has lately made of the Alternative offered by France after so long a Deliberation as might have served him to make a wiser Choice For if Spain had parted with the County of Burgundy Cambray Air and St. Omer tho' they had furnish'd France with a better Frontier yet they had kept a good one for the rest of these Countries on both sides whereas parting with the late conquered Places besides their large Dependancies which straighten their Territories that should maintain their Armies their whole Frontier is laid open on the side of Flanders by the loss of Douay Lisle and Tournay and on the other side by that of Aeth and Charleroy which leaves the Spaniards the open Towns of Lovain and Brussels for a Frontier on this side and those of Ghent and Bruges on the other and the Country so pierced by the French Conquest as what remains will be the Work but of one Campagne whenever the Councils or Forces of England and Holland shall fail or delay to defend them The Reasoners here pretend to say that Spain could not part with the * Burgundy French County because they must with it quit the Title they yet retain of Dukes of Burgundy and besides they would thereby lose their Communication wholly with Lorrain and in a great measure with the Empire This last is indeed of weight though the first be but airy But neither of them I take to have determined the Marquis in his Choice And having in various Conferences penetrated his inmost Thoughts upon this Subject I judged it necessary to acquaint your Lordship with them that His Majesty knowing perfectly the
Dispositions of his Neighbors may the better take his own Measures in this great Conjuncture But to explain this Matter I must run it up to the Original Your Lordship remembers that after the French Invasions and Successes last year in Flanders and the Peace at Breda when they found how much both England and Holland resented the Progress of their Arms in Flanders They sent a Declaration to the States General that they were willing to make a Peace with Spain either upon Spain's quitting all their Right to the late conquered Places or else to the County of Burgundy Cambray Air and St. Omers and would leave to Spain the choice of either of these Alternatives The Dutch were perplexed what Use to make of this Declaration being frighted at the Danger of Flanders but newly and faintly reconciled to England and not knowing how we would take the Invasion of Flanders In these Doubts I found them when His Majesty sent me first to sound their Intentions and immediately after to enter into Leagues with them for our own mutual Defence and that of Flanders The King would have joyned with them for the recovery of all the Spaniards had lost in Flanders either by a Peace or a War The Province of Utrecht was for this Resolution but the Pensioner and the other six Provinces were for accepting the Offer of the Alternative made by France and obliging Spain to make their Choice as well as France to stand by their own Proposal Upon these Terms the Triple Allyance was concluded but with different Views both of Holland and of Spain The truth is Holland was unwilling to break off their antient Amity with France and embark in a War with the Conjunction of such an old Enemy as Spain and such a new Friend as England They reckoned on a Peace upon one of the Alternatives and were sollicitous only to preserve Flanders as a Frontier for Holland against France without considering the Interests of Spain further than as they appeared to be their own They reckoned certainly upon Spain's chusing to part with Burgundy Cambray c. which lay far from Holland and recovering the Towns they had lost in Flanders by which their Country would be left defensible at least with the Assistances of England and Holland On the other side Spain though they profess'd the greatest sense that could be of what they owed His Majesty upon the late generous Advances he had made in their Favour yet they were enraged at Holland for seconding so ill His Majesty's Resolutions and turning it upon the Choice only of an Alternative by which the Spaniards were to lose so great Territories and part with their Right to them instead of recovering the Possession they had yet only lost They took it as the greatest Indignity in the World that Holland should pretend to oblige the Crown of Spain to accept the very Conditions of France after an Invasion so unjust as they esteemed this last They were at first upon the thoughts of parting with all they had in the Low-Countries to France upon some Equivalent on the side of Spain and thereby both end the Charge of keeping Flanders and be revenged upon the Dutch by leaving them open and exposed to the Neighbourhood of France The Marquis once assured me that most of the Council of Spain were for making this desparate Peace and that for his own part he was inclin'd to it though more out of spight to the Dutch than what he thought was the true Interest of Spain After some Pause this heat of the Spaniards began to cool They saw the Spanish Crown by parting with Flanders must abandon all Commerce with the Princes and States on this side that Country and that upon a new War with France about the Succession they should have no way left of diverting the French Forces from falling upon Spain it self And so with much ado they resolved to accept the Alternative but left the Choice to the Marquis here as best inlightned in all the Interests of Flanders as well as the Dispositions of their Neighbours The Marquis hated the Peace upon either of the Alternatives and desired nothing but the continuance of the War with the Assistance of England and Holland to which he saw His Majesty inclinable and thought the States would be induced to rather than venture an Agreement between Spain and France for the Exchange of Flanders He thought that if they yielded Burgundy and the remote Frontiers Holland would be secure and France would perhaps be contented to let the Peace rest upon those Terms during the King of Spain's tender Life But if he yielded all the late conquered Towns to France Holland would be in perpetual Allarm for the Danger of the rest England would be likewise the more concerned and both being obliged to be continually armed to prevent the Danger or Flanders would find it their Interest rather to enter into such a War as might end in a safer Peace than by a patcht Peace to lie always in danger of a new War whenever France should be in a Condition of carrying the rest of Flanders by any sudden Invasion or by any Disconcert of Councils or Interests between Us and Holland Besides the Marquis imagines that France will either endeavour to avoid the Peace now offered or if they conclude it for the present that being possess'd of the Frontiers of Flanders they will not long resist the Temptation of carrying the rest being in a manner but open Country and thereby engage both Us and Holland to assist Spain with all our Forces which he thinks must make the War prosperous or a Peace secure So that upon the whole the Marquis has chosen this Alternative not from any desire of making the Peace at present but only in the view either of carrying on the present War or of making another with the Strength of his Neighbours Your Lordship may easily judge how much the Dutch are like to be disappointed and offended with the Spaniards for this Choice So that I cannot pretend to guess what is like to become of a Peace which both France and Spain come to so unwillingly and which England and Holland promote upon Conditions which they both dislike And so I leave this perplexed Affair and ask your Lordship's Pardon for this long Deduction which I should not have troubled your Lordship or my self with but that I thought you would come to know the true Springs of it no other way And which I could not have known if the Marquis were not a very warm Talker and sometimes further than he intended I am ever c. To Monsieur de Witt. Brussels Mar. 25. S. N. 1668. SIR BY Monsieur Van Beuninghen's dispatches of the 21st you will have known the Answer of the French Court upon the Truce we desired which in my opinion seems to make the War inevitable and that all the Appearances France has made of desiring a Peace are levelled at no other Mark but to slacken
Maitre elle est assés connue á V. A. et n'a pas besoin de mon temoignage En même tems je donneray á V. A. une nouvelle bien agreable puisque je luy apprendray que la paix est conclue et qu' á l'heure que je luy ecris lestraitez en sont entre mes mains l'un signé en presence de l' Ambassadeur d' Hollande et l'autre en la mienne ce que j'ay eté bien aise d'obtenir par precaution et afin de surmonter les difficultez survenues lors qu'on á livré les Instruments á Monsieur le Nonce Je donne á V. A. toute la joye d'une affaire qui importoit au bonbeur de l' Allemagne comme elle la donnera avec justice au Roy mon maitre car quoy qu' eloigné et á couvert des flammes qui devoroient tant de païs on dira pourtant avec justice qu'il á seul plus contribué á eteindre cet embrasement que tous ceux qui en etoient et les plus voisins et les plus alarmez Et puisque cette paix aussi bien que celle de Portugal á si legitimement place sa Majesté dans le plus haut rang entre les Pacifici V. A. joindra ses prieres aux miennes afin que le bon Dieu y ajoute aussi les Beati Et comme elle á tout lieu de croire le Roy mon Maitre des ses amis je la prie aussi de m' estimer toûjours Monsieur c. To my Lord Arlington Aix May 8. S. N. 1668. My Lord SInce my last I have received your Lordship 's of the 17th and 20th which both complain of the ill State wherein the Suedish Treaty then stood and command my Applications to the Marquis for a Remedy I have infused it all I could possibly into the Baron de Bargeyck at his return from hence to Brussels which was in haste and immediately after the signing and dispatching away the Instruments of the Treaty Some here attribute his Haste to an Intention of avoiding any Speech of a general Guaranty for the Peace which with so many other Difficulties and Delays before the Signing as well as so many Declamations against the Violence and Injustice in pressing him to it are Evidence enough of the Force by which the Spaniards have been compelled to it Though I doubt of their being this Age in a Condition to make any better Use of it For my part I was of opinion that since Don John was neither arrived with Supplies nor hardly expected in any Time Since Holland was so desperately bent upon the Peace without any Respect to the Spanish Honour or Interest further than joyned immediately with their own Since Spain had not been able to find Means to engage His Majesty or Sueden in their Quarrel by Supplies necessary to both Crowns And since His Majesty was not in any Condition of entring into the Business single upon Considerations of Honour Justice or a remote Danger And consequently since upon the Projects made both at a Time in Paris it grew evident to Spain Qu'il faloit passer par là ou par les fenestres Upon all these Considerations I say I was of Opinion that the Spaniards Business was to end franckly and immediately upon my arrival here thereby to have more Time for bringing the Ratifications of the Treaty signed here from Spain within this Month and so avoid all Pretexts which I expected of France's breaking the Business and which I knew they would be strongly tempted to by the Spaniards want or neglect of Preparations and by our Disconcert for their Defence Upon these Considerations I confess I have press'd as hard upon the Baron de Bargeyck as the Dutch Ambassador himself to finish the Affair ever since my arrival and was at an end of my Patience to see him stop it upon such slight and unreasonable Pretences as his two last which were first not to insert his Powers because both his and those of France were sharp upon the Rise of the War But Monsieur Colbert's were sent in that Stile since his arrival here and only in Return of the Marquis's since those he brought with him were soft and without any Reflections The Baron had been advised by Monsieur Beverning at his first coming to have them changed had three Weeks to do it and yet made no Difficulty upon it till after the Treaty was Signed and the Powers came to be inserted which he refus'd to suffer saying He expected new and softer Powers within two or three Days and in the mean time would have had the Instruments dispatcht away without any Transcription of the Powers though in the Treaty mentioned as inserted And I believe France would not have wish'd a better Occasion to delay the Business beyond a possibility of being ratified within the time This Difficulty took up a whole Day after the Signing and when the Baron was beaten out of it by main Force he threw Us upon a worse For whereas his first Powers and all he had ever given Copies of or mentioned to any Minister here had only run as deputed from the Marquis with the same Power to Treat and Conclude as if His Majesty had been here in Person When he inserted his Powers after having made Monsieur Colbert's express Stay a whole Day he brings the Instrument with a Power agreeing in all Words with the first but only those of Ambassador and Plenipotentiary joyned to his Deputation which put Monsieur Colbert into such a Rage that he was ready to tear all in Pieces and for five Hours Monsieur Beverning and I could draw no other Answer from the Baron but that 't was impossible for him to do any otherwise protesting he had no other Power here the first having been returned to the Marquis upon the Transmission of this the Advice of which he said he had received from Monsieur Beverning With Monsieur Colbert we had no hopes of prevailing to have his new Style allowed nor had we indeed any reason to press it being offered upon a Surprize and there being no Colour for the Marquis being qualified to send an Ambassador upon this Occasion I was five Hours upon the Rack with the Opinion the Business would absolutely break by the Delays This world occasion and indeed out of all Patience with the Baron not believing it possible he could be without his first Powers by him And Monsieur Beverning and He were at those Heights that they were several times upon the Point of drawing their Swords in my Room and I believe had done it in any other Place But after all the Baron confess'd he had his first Powers and Order to insert them if he could not make the others pass but Instructions to endeavour That to the utmost which to give him his due he acted to a Height that I could never have done without straining my
believe you know already from the said Marquis Now since it concerns me very much that his Majesty should know these Soldiers are kept in his Service I should be extremely satisfied if you would inform the King of it at the same time that the said Baron de Rosenback will be arrived at London And that it be represented as Mark of my eternal Devotion to his Majesty In which you will highly oblige me And in Confidence thereof I remain SIR Your most Obliged Servant Chr. Bernardus Ab Episcopo Monasterii Lugderio Maii 21. 1666. Generose Domine NON dubito officiis Dis Vrae additum in Aulâ Regis ablegato meo Baroni de Rosenback ita praeparatum ut S. Regiae Majestati ratio consilii me praebetur quod Dom. Vram ita continuaturam spero ut Rex persuasum omnino habeat istam necessitatem quae mihi pacis lages imposuit nihil prorsus detraxisse de animo quo S. Majestatis observantiae gloriae utilitati aeternùm devotus sum Eumque in finem mandavi Agenti meo Rintorf intimam meo nomine cum Dne Vrâ. Communicationem mearum rerum amicitiam colere intentus semper in occasiones omness futurus pro servitio S. Majestatis quem in finem copias Brabanticas in circulo Burgundico conscriptas Domino Marchioni de Castel Rodrigo integras remisi jam itineri in Belgium Hispanicum accinguntur legiones aliquot Germanorum fortis sanè exercitatus miles de quorum virtute ipsi foederati Belgae testari poterunt uti Dom. Vram jam ex praedicto domino gubernatore latiùs cognovisse arbitror Cum autem meâ plurimum intersit ut Regiae Majestati suae constet militem hunc in suo servitio conservari pergratum mihi foret si Di◠Vra. de eo facillitandae intentioni meae quamprimum fine morâ hoc ipso tempore quo dictus Baro de Rosenback Londinum appulerit S. Majestatem certiorem faciat tanquam indicium ratum aeternae meae in Regem fide contestetur Quo me Dio. Vra. sibi summopere obligabit Et hà c fiduciâ manes Dominationi vestrae addictissimus Chr. Bernardus From my Lord Arlington Whitehall July 30. 1666. SIR WHAT I received in yours of the 2d was written to me at large from him whom I suppose to be the Author of it but not exactly with the same Circumstances whether his Meaning or his Imagination fail him is a great Question here His Name to speak freely with you is able to discredit any Truth And against the Grain I employ'd him in Holland not to make him the Instrument of Peace but to send us News However I do not yet discourage him from writing though I wish what he saith came from any Hand rather than his Accordingly you shall do well to handle him And this is enough upon this Subject when I have so much a better to entertain you upon Here enclos'd you have the effective Truth of what I sent you the Symptoms in my last I durst not hazard any of my Acquaintance with the putting it into French because of the Sea-Terms wherewith it abounds But if you can get it well done and quickly published you will do his Majesty a good Service and may fairly put the Cost of it into your Accompts Moreover I have promis'd his Majesty to charge you with the writing of some small Paper and publishing it in French that may pleasantly and pertinently awaken the good Patriots in Holland not only to Thoughts and Wishes of Peace but to a reasonable Application for it assuring them his Majesty continues still to wish it and would gladly receive any Overtures for it from the States here in his own Kingdom not expecting less from them in this kind than they did to the Usurper Cromwell This done in any Form you like best wou'd certainly operate well in Holland and be a Work worthy of your Pen which I know has Sufficiency very much greater One thing especially it will good to mind them of the considerable Succors and Advantages they have had by the Conjunction with France which hath not been remakarbly visible in any thing more than in getting their Narratives to be believed in all the Courts of Christendom and helping them to make their Bonfires for their Successes His Majesty is going this Night to visit the Queen at Tunbridge for which he had not Leisure till now I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant Arlington POSTSCRIPT LET your Emissaries give you a particular Account of the Condition of the Dutch Fleet gotten into Zealand and of the Readiness they are in to come out again with an exact Account of their Strength if it be possible Monsieur Nypho will help to convey it speedily to us From the Earl of Clarendon Worcester-House Aug. 2d 1666. SIR I Have many Excuses to make you for not acknowledging all your Letters punctually when I received them which I suppose would give you some Trouble And I am sure all I can say to you by way of Information or Advice is constantly and abundantly supplied by the Diligence of my good Friend my Lord Arlington The last Favour I receiv'd from you was of the 23d of this Month since which time it hath pleased God to give a wonderful Improvement to our Affairs And yet I am perswaded that you there know more of the full Extent of the late great Victory than we do In all Mens View it is very great and noble and in one Respect very wonderful that almost the whole Fleet that went from hence rides now before the Enemies Harbours without being compelled to send any considerable Number of their Ships to be repaired And I believe this Success will change the Measures of most of the Councils in Christendom I wish with all my Heart it may work upon them from whom your Court must receive its Orders to move with a little more Vigor in their Resolutions the want of which will at some time or other prove fatal to that Monarchy They have it yet in their Power to secure themselves from ever receiving Prejudice from the French which I take to be the only Blessing they are to pray for in this World But it will not be always in their Power to do so I presume my good Friend Ogniate is before this time arrived there with good Satisfaction And I will not deny to you I always wished well to those Transactions the Concessions being in truth no other than what in Justice ought to be granted except we would declare to the World that whilst we have a War with Holland we will have no Peace with Flanders I wish with all my Heart that it may be punctually and religiously observed on our Part by the exemplary Punishment of those Persons who in the least Degree violate the Protection agreed upon And though there will be as you say a great Latitude for them to cover the Dutch Trade yet that cannot be long done without
other do wish they had When you are at leisure I wish to know what kind of Fort is raised at Charle-roy and what Number of Men Horse and Foot it will contain I am with all reality SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant Ormonde From the Duke of Ormonde Dublin Jan. 29. 1667. SIR THE Success of your Negotiation gives no Man greater Satisfaction for the Part you had in it than to me The happy Consequences which may reasonably be expected from the Conclusion of that Treaty may extend further and last longer than I have had time since I received yours of the 24th Instant to consider I confess my first Reflections were upon the good Effect it will have at home and the good Humour it is likely to put the Parliament in at their first Meeting which I look upon as the Foundation of all other Advantages to be derived from it by Reputation and all the good Effects of that amongst our Neighbours I shall be glad to hear where or when you are like to fix that my Letters may be conveyed to you when I think they may be worth your receiving from SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant Ormonde From my Lord Ambassador Coventry Breda July 4. S. N. 1667. SIR YOurs of the 29th July I have received and thank you for it I doubt not but by this time you have heard of the several Treaties of Peace signed here the 21 31st of July We were so very busie in dispatching away Sir John Coventry for England with the Treaties that I had not leisure till now to give you an Account of it That betwixt the States and us consisteth in an absolute Abolition of all Pretences on either Side each to remain Masters of what they were in possession of the 10 20th of May 1667 what since taken to be restor'd as to Lands and Fortresses Ships are yet liable till after Publication when all Hostilities are to cease within twelve Days in the Channel and so proportionably in other Seas then the whole Treaty of 1662 renew'd and we both to make use of the Articles betwixt France and this State for contraban Goods till such time as we can agree of one betwixt our selves The rest is a restoring of the Treaty in 1662 as to all its Articles except the eleventh wherein our Pretensions are contained As to the Act of Navigation you will hear much Noise that That is repealed There is no such thing neither doth the Article about that Matter give the States any more Advantage than as I conceive the Act gave them before As to the French we restore all to each other that each hath taken and all things done put in Oblivion As to Denmar .... the Debt he owed the Hamburgh Company France standing very firm to him upon the Point and their greatest Argument was That it was not a Debt contracted by him or his Father but on the contrary imposed on his Father for having assisted the late King And besides they gave us our Choice either to agree thus or to account for what had been taken on each side and render The latter was thought the more prejudicial to the King our Master and so this hath pass'd And there is I think the Substance of the three Treaties How or where this Letter will find you we know not For we here believe Brussels besieged and that according to the Fashion of this Year 's Campagne is little less than taken All publick Ministers have or will have left this Town within a Day or two except our selves To morrow Fortnight they all meet here again expecting the Ratification I am Sir with very great Sincerity Your most faithful humble Servant Henry Coventry From my Lord Hollis Breda July 4. S. N. 1667. SIR I Have received yours by my Lord Sfafford's Servant and see you have put off your Journey hither in Expectation we might be removing hence and for which it seems the Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo is pleased to express himself with so much of Civility and Kindness towards us for which both my Lord Ambassador Coventry and my self do return our most humble Thanks But it will not be possible that we can remove so soon so as assuredly you will have time enough to do us that Favour and very gladly we shall shall receive it from you when we may at leisure discourse of the present Posture of our Affairs and make those sad Reflections which they deserve and which will be much fitter for a Conference than to be set down in Paper I shall reserve them till then and in the mean time and ever remain SIR Your very affectionate and most humble Servant HOLLIS From my Lord Ambassador Coventry Breda Aug. 12 27 1667. SIR I Am very thankful to you for the Buck you sent us and it came very well and so seasonably that I made use of some of it the very Morning it came We have no News to send you from hence but that we are now altogether imployed in Jollity and expect our Ships to give us some Sea-Physick to purge the Excesses we make Your Health is not only what we drink but what â—e pray for The first part hath already been useful to help us to digest our Venison and the other we reserve for more important Considerations In Conclusion we hear more of Drums and Trumpets since the Peace than we did in the War though I hope this will not be so fatal a Noise as they make at Lisle I am sorry both for the want of your Company and the Reason of it Now our own Peace is done I could wish with all my Heart Christendom's were so to Sir I pray believe me to be what I very sincerely am Your most faithful humble Servant Henry Coventry From * Late E. of Leicester my Lord Lisle Septemb. 26. 1667. SIR SInce I had your last Letter I have made you no Acknowledgement of it A Retirement is in several Respects like the Night of one's Life in the Obscurity and Darkness and in the Sleepiness and Dosedness Which I mention to put you in mind that I am only by my Posture of Life apt to be failing towards you What is of Court or Assembles near us is at my Lord Crofts's Sir Thomas Ingram this Summer hath made no Noise at all Old Lady Devonshire keeps up her Feasts still and that hath been of late Mr. Waller's chief Theatre The Assembly of Wits at Mr. Comptroller's will scarce let him in And poor Sir John Denham is fallen to the Ladies also He is at many of the Meetings at Dinners talks more than ever he did and is extreamly pleased with those that seem willing to hear him and from that Obligation exceedingly praises the Dutchess of Monmouth and my Lady Cavendish If he had not the Name of being mad I believe in most Companies he would be thought wittier than ever he was He seems to have few Extravagancies besides that of telling Stories of himself which he is
fait croire le premier et si on ne veut point de moy en France je m'en vay prendre mon party pour le reste de mes jours Je ne doute point que l'on ne me laisse faire un tour á Paris pour voir si je pourrois m'accommoder mais je crains que l'on ne me fasse des difficultez insupportables Je vous supplie de me croire toujours Monsieur Vtôtre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Gourville Je pourray peut être vous voir á la Haye plûtot que vous ne pensez From Monsieur de Wit Hague Feb. 25. 1668. SIR THE Bearer hereof delivered me the Letter you did me the Honour to write to me from Antwerp of the 24th Instant wherein I behold with Pleasure your Zeal and Diligence for the Advancement of our common Affair as also the good Dipositions that your Offices have already raised in the Mind of the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo and the Appearance of a more satisfactory Declaration we shall receive upon the common Request to be made him from the K. of Great Britain and this State I delayed not to communicate and deliberate the Contents of the said Letter with the States Commissioners deputed upon the Subject of our last Negotiations and we hope you will judge as we do that it is absolutely necessary for his Excellence to declare himself without further Delay or Reserve agreeably to what his concluded between England and this State without desiring before-hand any Concert more particular than that which is made signed and ratified between us and our Masters For since the King of France has seen by his last Conquests how weak and negligent the Spaniards are 't is to be feared that if the Marquis lets the Month of March expire without plainly declaring himself as we desire the King of France may be very glad after the Expiration of the said Term not to be oblig'd by virtue of his Word given to make the Peace upon the Alternative but may make use of the Time and Disorder of the Spaniards to surprize Luxenburg and a great part of what remains to the King of Spain in the Netherlands and to order his Affairs afterwards as Occurrences shall happen The States General are oblig'd and entirely resolv'd in case of Refusal from the King of France or any Evasions from that side after it has been insinuated to him that the Marquis has accepted either part of the Alternative to execute in the most vigorous manner possible what is contained in our third separate Article and by consequence jointly with England to break into open War against France to act in concert not only for Defence of the Netherlands but also and above all to attack and infest France by Sea by Descents Invasions into the Country and all other Ways But because it must be presupposed in publick that the King of France after having given his Word to the States and afterwards by a circular Letter not only to the King of Great Britain and the said States but also to many Princes of Germany will not break a Promise so solemnly made we cannot by any means enter into Concert and League with Spain before this Case effectually arrives And we think that such a League and Concert made before the Season would be likely indeed to produce the Effect the Marquis desires but which is far from his Majesty of England's Aim or that of the States for you cannot but know that his Excellence would prefer the Continuance of the War with our Assistance to the Conclusion of the Peace upon the Alternative and his Majesty as well as the States prefers this Peace before the Continuance of a War whereof they must bear all the Costs and all the Profit be to the King of Spain Now we comprehend very well that such a Concert and such a League as his Excellence desires would put the King of Erance upon an absolute necessity of continuing the War because if he should comply after such a League made with his Enemies it would appear publickly that he was obliged to it by this Bond and consequently by his Enemies themselves And therefore the Matter is judiciously enough propos'd by his Excellence for arriving at his End but since it would make us miss of ours we hope you will put the Marquis off it and make him quit all Hopes of engaging us by the force of his great Genius to enter of our own accord where we have no mind to come but upon a fatal Necessity I think his Excellence does wrong to the King of Great Britain and the States in not trusting their Affection and their Honour which are concerned as well as their Interest after the Alliance and the Peace they have already made together but if after his Excellence has accepted our Propositions the King of France shall happen to draw back or seek Evasions then the King of Great Britain and the States General entring into the Party and even into a Rupture with France it will be very just and proper to concert with his Excellency after what manner to act in the Territory of the King his Master and yet in the mean while not omit entring into Action without the least loss of time Therefore it will be no way necessary for me to be upon our Frontiers towards the End propos'd by his Excellence which besides will be wholly impossible for me much less to send any body from hence to Brussels since the States Deputies who are there at present are the same we should chuse for the End desired For I assure you I can name no body in whom the States as well as I in particular can have greater Confidence whereof I do not doubt but they will give you Proofs as well as of their Sincerity and good Conduct I desire you therefore Sir to use them with as much Freedom as me and I will engage they shall do the same by you And if you have been at all satisfied with my manner of transacting as I have been extremely with yours that you will be also satisfied with that of the said Deputies For the rest we approve extremely the Diligence you make on all sides in sending to the Ministers of the King of England and the States now at Paris And from your common Offices we promise to our selves an Universal Peace in Christendom to the great Advantage of the Publick and the Eternal Glory of your selves which no Man desires more than he who is SIR Your most humble and most affectionate Servant de Wit A Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 25me Fevr. 1668. Monsieur LE porteur de cellecy m'a bien delivré la Lettre qui vous a plû me faire l'honneur de m'ecrire d'Anvers le 24me de ce mois et j'y ay veu avec agrément le zele et la diligence que vous avez apporté pour l'avancement de nôtre affaire commune
their Intention clearly exprest in the Agreement of the 25th Instant which would have hapned if we had left him the liberty to delay the signing or sending his Power till he had provoked the French to move or if then signing or sending the Power he had the right of employing our Troops against those of France before the K. of France could have had Intelligence of the said signing or sending of the said Power and by consequence before the said King could have finished the Treaty and continu'd the Suspension of Arms. I hope and am assured that after this Pace which is the last the States are capable of making in this Conjuncture the Marquis will not delay a Moment the signing and sending of the Peace to Paris but if contrary to all Appearance he should be capable of doing so I desire you to let him know that neither England nor the States can assist one who nifestly refuses and consequently that he will be abandoned on all sides and also that we shall find our selves under a Necesssity to reduce him by more effectual means to accept really and effectually by signing of the Treaty the Alternative he has already acepted by a separate writing And I even apprehend that by the Delays already pass'd the Affair is reduc'd to a Point not to be redress'd as in truth we shall find our selves embarassed enough if the King of France be already gone from Paris to his Army before the Project signed or the Power be arrived there I cannot tell by what Politick his Excellency desires his Conduct should be decryed by all Men or that his Government should be lost for to think us so ill advised that he can engage us in a War against France when they on their side are earnest for concluding a Peace is what I cannot suppose and if he thinks France will draw back or refuse the Suspension then why he would not let it appear publickly to the World by a ready signing on his Side this is what I cannot comprehend In the mean time Monsieur Colbert at Aix has loudly made appear the Easyness and even the Complaisance of his Master by the Protestation he has publickly made that he has order to sign the Alternative without excepting against the Preamble of the Marquis's Power upon the Defect of a Faculty to substistute or upon any other whereas on the contrary the Baron de Bergeyck is not authorized to do any thing at all And I assure you the positive Advices we receive of it make every Body's Head turn Therefore I desire you so much the more to endeavour effectually that the Marquis should finish the Affair without any more delay For if this last Compliance of the States does not satisfy him I confess to you I shall think no further but of some effectual means to reduce him to Reason and of some Expedients by which the King of Great Britain and Their High and Mightynesses may take Measures with France for preventing the Miseries of the Neighbourhood in which I hope you assist with as much Application according to the intent of our Agreement as I believe you will by all means endeavour to prevent a Case so desperate and so destructive to Spain And for me I shall remain ever with much Passion Sir your c. De Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 16me Mars 1668. Monsieur APrés que je vous ay ecrit le 4me je me trouve honoré de vos deux depêches du 9me et 14me de ce mois La maniere d'agir la Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo nous deplaît infiniment et nous croyons penetrer assés dans ses visées pour conclurre que son but est de delayer la signature du projet et l'envoy du pouvoir jusques á ce que les François commencent á se remuer de signer en même temps ou d envoyer le pouvoir desiré et de nous sommer en vertu d'une promesse prealable d'opposer nos armes contre celles de Franee qui commenceront alors d'entrer en action et par ainsi nous mettre en guerre ouverte par provision Neantmoins pour donner au dit Marquis une asseurance plus ample et pour achever de le mettre dans le tort nous avons bien voulu nous conformer-entierement á vôtre âvis et autoriser nos Deputez á passer avec vous la promesse en bonne et deüe forme par ecrit y inserant les mémes paroles du troisieme de nos articles separés et je juge que vous avez tres judicieusement consideré que la condition de la promesse doit estre non seulement la signature du projet et des pouvoirs mais si apres la signature c. la France refuse ou d'y consentir ou de continuer la suspension d'armes Nous croyons avoir grand sujet de nous plaindre du Sieur Marquis en ce que non obstant la promesse solennelle faite par les Etats Generaux et delivrée á Don Estevan de Gamarra dans leur resolution du 5me de ce mois il a dilayé de signer et de depêcher le pouvoir d'autant que si cela eut esté fait d'abord nous nous trouverions deja hors de toute obscurité car ou la conclusion en auroit este suivie á Paris avec la suspension d'armes ou en cas de refus l'Angleterre et cet Etat agiroit deja de bon coeur et en bonne conscience pour l'Espagne Et je vous supplie de faire voir á son Excellence le plus vivement qu'il se pourra faire que si á cette heure aprés la signature ou l'envoy du pouvoir vere Paris et avant qu'on en puisse avoir averti le Roy de France il reçoiue quelque disgrace que ce sera á soy même á qui il le devra imputer Car l'Angleterre et cet Etat ne peuvent pas luy donner en main un moyen asseuré pour les enveloper mal á propos et contre leur in intention clairement exprimée dans la convention du 25me de ce mois dans une guerre ouverte avec la France ce qui se feroit si on luy laissoît la faculté de dilayer la signature ou l'envoy de son pouvoir jusques á ce qu'il auroit provoqué les François de se remuer ou qu'alors signant ou envoyant le pouvoir il eut le droit de faire agir nos troupes contre celles de France avant que le Roy de France eut pû avoir nouvelle de ladite signature ou de l'envoy duit pouvoir et par consequent avant qu'il eut pû faire achever le traité et continuer la suspension d'armes J'espere et je me tiens asseuré qu'aprôs le pas qui est
le dernier que les Etats sont capables de faire en cette conjoncture Monsieur le Marquis ne dilayera plus un moment sa signature et l'envoy d'un pouvoir vers Paris mais si contre toute apparance il fût capable de le faire je vous supplie de lui faire voir comme il faut que-ni l'Angleterre ni les Etats ne peuvent pas assister un refusant manifesse que par consequent il sera abandoné de tous cotés qu' aussi nous nous trouverons necessités de le reduire par des moyens plus efficaces á accepter reellement en effect par la signature du traite l'alternative qu'il a deja accepté par un ecrit separé Et j'apprehende même que par les delais deja passés l'affaire ne soit reduite á un point pour ne pouvoir pas estre redressee Comme en verité nous nous trouverions bien embarassés si le Roy de France fût deja parti de Paris vers son armée avant que le projet signé ou le pouvoir y fût arrivé Je ne say pas par quelle politique son Excellence trouve bon de faire decrier sa conduite par tout le monde de perdre le pais de son gouvernement car de nous croire si mal avisés qu'elle nous pourroit engager dans une guerre contre la France lors qu'elle de son côté veut tout de bon conclure la paix c'est que je ne puis pas presupposer Et si elle juge que la France reculera ou refusera la suspension pourquoy qu'elle ne l'aye pas voulu faire paroître publiquement devant tout le monde par une prompte signature de son côté c'est ce que je ne puis pas comprendre Cependant Monsieur Colbert á Aix a fait paroître hautement la facilité voire la complaisance du Roy son Maitre par la protestation qu'il fait publiquement qu'il a ordre de signer l'alternative sans faire exception sur le preambule du pouvoir du Marquis sur le defaut de la faculté de substituer ou autres lá ou au contraire Monsieur le Baron de Bergeyck ne se trouve autorisé á rien Et je vous asseure que les avis positiss que nous en recevons font tourner la tête á un chacun Ce pourquoy je vous supplie d'autant plus de tenir la main efficacement á ce que Monsieur le Marquis acheve l'affaire sans plus de delay Car si cette derniere complaisance des Etats ne luy satisfoit pas je vous avoue que je ne songeray plus qu'aux moyens efficaces pour le reduire á la raison aux expedients par lesquels le Roy de la Grande Bretagne leurs Hauttes Puissances se puissent entendre avec la France pour prevenir les malhenrs de son voisinage En quoy j'espere que vous cooperez avec autant d'application selon l'invention de nôtre convention que je me tiens que vous tacherez par toute sorte des moyens de prevenir ce cas desesperé ruineux pour l' Espagne Et moy je demeureray á jamais avec beaucoup de passion Monsieur Votre tres humble Serviteur Johan de Witt. From Monsieur de Witt. Hague April 27 1668. SIR YOU ought to be well satisfied with your whole Conduct since the Success so well answers your good Intention and that your Work has so excellent an Agreement with the Foundations you had laid All Christendom owes You the Glory of having first disposed the King of Great Britain's Mind to so strict an Alliance between his Majesty and this State for the universal Good and Peace of Europe It is upon this Principle you have continued to labour with so much Application and so successfully with the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo that it is chiefly to You we are obliged for the good disposition he is in at present and for the enjoyment of so great an Advantage to Christendom as results from it I speak of it as a thing we possess already because I see nothing that can hinder us from it it being likely that the Baron de Bergeyck has already executed the Power we have sent him and that the Court of Madrid in order to deliver Flanders from its troublesome Guests will no longer defer to ratify the Treaty For the rest I agree extreamly with your Sentiments and am of Opinion some exchange of Places should be negotiated immediately after the signing of the Treaty I writ about it before to Monsieur Beverning so that I do not doubt but you have been entertained with it already I confess also with you that this Negotiation will be more conveniently managed afterwards at Paris than any where else at least if the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo can resolve to have confidence enough in the King of Great Britain's Ministers and those of this State to refer to them the Negotiation of an Affair of this Nature Tho' if he considers it well he will find that we both have the same Interest in it You have nothing else but to go on your own way upon the Foundation of the Agreement of January the 23d to support the Peace made by a Guaranty of all who are interessed in it either in general or particular never fearing that those who shall negotiate jointly with you in the Name of this State will disorder the Harmony that has appeared in the whole Course of this Negotiation What they do is as well from their own Inclination as in pursuance of their Orders For me I shall ever second your Zeal with Joy and shall take all Occasions to shew with how much Passion and Sincerity I am Sir your c. A la Haye 27 Avril 1668. Monsieur VOus devez estre bien satisfait de toute vôtre conduite puisque le succez repond si parfaitement á vótre bonne intention que vótre ouvrage a un si excellent rapport aux fondemens que vous en aviez jetté Toute la Chretienté vous doit la gloire d'avoir donné la premiere disposition dans l'esprit du Roy de la Grande Bretagne á une si êtroite liaison entre sa Majesté cet Etat pour le bien le repos universel de l'Europe Sur ce principe vous avez continue de travailler avec tant d'application si heureusement auprés de Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo que c'est á vous principalement á qui l'on est obligé de la bonne disposition en laquelle il se trouve presentement de la jouissance d'un si grand avantage pour la Chrêtienté qui en resulte J'en parle comme d'une chose que nous possedons deja parceque je
affectionné tres humble Serviteur Johan de Witt. From the Lord Keeper Bridgeman July 26th 1668. SIR I Received yours yesterday morning after you were gone hence and am afraid the Letter which I sent you from Mr. Williamson might come unseasonably to discompose you It not being so intended by me nor I believe the Message from the King to be otherwise intended than out of Kindness and Respect to you to hasten you away that you might know how important he held your Negotiations might be for his Service at this critical Time And therefore I should be glad that you would take this by the right Handle I had a Letter this Night from Sir Thomas Clifford who writes that they in the Treasury have a great Desire to accommodate you And though it be not in the Privy Seal that you shall have three Months Advance besides the 1000 l. yet they will be careful that you receive the Mony as it is due The Draught of the Instructions are sent away to my Lord Arlington and expected back on Tuesday-night and the Foreign Committee appointed to sit on Wednesday to dispatch them Really Sir I do not think that there is any Intention in pressing your Departure for Holland but just and honourable towards you and with respect to the Greatness of the Employment and the Urgency of the King's Affairs at this time to have you at the Hague And if you will take my Opinion I would not have you take other Measures of it even for your own sake In the mean time while you do stay you may press on the Business of your Account tho' I should not advise you to retard your Journy upon that score It may be as well pressed on by your Lady if she do not not accompany you or else by your Sollicitors among whom I will be one who if any Obstructions be may write to you to remove them But you will find the Vice-chamberlain dilatory and then your stay at last upon this new Business for so I may call it may beget a Misconstruction You will pardom the Freedom I take in imparting my own Thoughts to you in this Case I wish You and my Lady to whom I recommend my humble Service a happy Journy and all other Felicities as I wish to my self who am ever Your faithful and very affectionate Servant Orl. Bridgeman C.S. The End of the First Volume LETTERS Written by Sir W. Temple Bar t AND OTHER Ministers of State Both at Home and Abroad CONTAINING An ACCOUNT of the most Important Transactions that pass'd in Christendom from 1665 to 1672. In Two Volumes VOL. II. Review'd by Sir W. Temple sometime before his Death And Published by Jonathan Swift Domestick Chaplain to his Excellency the Earl of Berkeley one of the Lords Justices of Ireland LONDON Printed for J. Tonson at Gray's Inn Gate in Gray's Inn Lane A. and J. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row and R. Simpson at the Harp in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCC Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE's First Embassy AT THE HAGUE Begun August 1668. VOL. II. To the Elector of Mentz Hague Aug. 31. S. N. 1668. SIR I Did not receive the Honour of your Highness's Letter till some time after my Arrival in England with the inclosed for the King my Master which he received with that Esteem his Majesty always bears to what comes from your Highness and having promised me an Answer upon my Return for Holland which has been put off from day to day I have deferred my particular Acknowledgments to your Highness till I could value them by the Honour of accompanying a Letter from his Majesty I send it now inclosed and desire your Highness to believe that I resent as I ought the Honour you have done me and that I will preserve your Highness's Letter among the greatest Marks of Honour to my Family and shall not fail upon all Occasions to shew how much I shall cherish the Title I pretend to with so much Justice of being SIR Your Highness's c. A l'Electeur de Mayence De la Haye le 31 Aout S. N. 1668. Monsieur LA Lettre dont V. A. m'a honoré qui est datée du 14 de May ne m'a eté rendue que quelques jours aprés mon à rrivée en Angleterre avec elle j'ay recû l'envelopé pour le Roy mon Maitre que je luy ay porté qu'il a reçû avec les memes marques d'estime que sa Majesté a toujours fait paroitre pour tout ce qui vient de la part de V. A. le Roy m'ayant promis la reponse pour le tems de mon retour en Hollande qui a toujours trainé de jour en jour J'ay differer de marquer a V. A. ma reconnoissance en particulier jusqu ' á ce que j'eusse l'honneur d'etre porteur d'un Lettre de sa Majeste Je l'envoye á cette heur je supplie V. A. de croire que je ressens comme je le dois l'honneur qu'elle m'a fait que je conservera sa Lettre la conteray parmi les titres les honneurs qui elevent la glorie de ma famille Je ne laisseray echaper aucune occasion de temoigner combien je cheris cheriray toujours la qualité que prens avec tant de justice de Mr. De V. A. c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Sept. 7. S. N. 1668. My LORD SINCE my last I have not stirred out but had the Favour of several Visits in my Chamber among the rest one from Monsieur Meerman on Wednesday and one of three Hours from Monsieur de Witt yesterday I fell into Talk with the first upon the Matter of the Guinea Company who said my Lord Holles and as I remember Mr. Secretary Morris had spoken of it to him before but only given him a general Relation upon which he could not sufficiently inform the States That they had likewise mentioned some other Parts of the Marine Treaty by which the East-India Company thought themselves aggrieved but remembred nothing particular besides the Form of Passports in which we might receive what Satisfaction we pleased and the better Definition of what was meant by a Town invested I told him the Business of Guinea was distinct from any Thing of the Marine Treaty though he was unwilling to understand it so that I was very little instructed in the first because his Majesty's Commands in that Point were only to procure the Reference of it to Commissioners for the proposing Rules by which both Companies should proceed and thereby preventing the said Company 's acting wholly by Rules and Officers of their own which had been the first Occasions of the unhappy Disputes between us and might possibly prove so again For the Marine Treaty I told him I had yet no Instructions upon that Subject but might have in a little Time and thereupon took occasion of discoursing to
him at large the whole Business of Commerce between us and the necessity of giving us some Reason and Ease in those Matters upon which tho' he seemed a little stanch as his Complexion is and jealous of our great Growth in Trade by a more parsimonious and industrious Genius among us of late than had formerly been yet I found what I said had Impression on him For he parted with great Professions of contributing all he could towards the Success of all Negotiations between us And went that Night to communicate all to Monsieur de Witt as I found by our Conference next Day It began with his having perused my Papers about the Guinea Company upon which he desired to know if I had no other Information than those gave me For by those the Matter seemed favourable to them by the Letters of their Director being particular and with Relation to Time and to the Articles of the Breda Treaty by which the new Settlements there were to be governed whereas what concerned our Pretensions was contained only in some loose Examinations concerning Possession or not Possession formerly by one or the other without any Reference to the Constitutions made by the Breda Treaty and without mentioning in any direct Terms what it was we complained of or what we desired The Truth is all the Papers concerning that Matter remitted to me by Mr. Secretary Morris were only the Guinea Company 's Petition the Examination of Mr. Thomas Crisp Captain Merbrooke and Mr. Be'ois with a Letter and Protest of the Director of the Dutch West-India Company I excused my being so little informed upon the Reasons I had alledged to Monsieur Meerman and press'd in the same manner the Reference of it to Commissioners He allowed his Majesty's Consideration of preventing the two Companies proceeding by Rules or Executions of their own to be very prudent and necessary and that he knew the States would second his Majesty's good Intention in it and that when he could find the Matter of Fact and Right but alledged in distinct Testimonies of known Persons he doubted not but he should easily find a Composure for all these Disputes and agree upon a constant Reglement hereafter And to this purpose he would send immediately to enquire among the Officers of their Company for any Papers that may have been remitted to them from our Officers to theirs in Guinea for he could not believe but that Letter and Protest of their Director had either been occasioned by some precedent Letters or Demands from some Officers of ours or at least followed by some Answers in which our Demands and Rights were asserted as those of the Dutch were in those Papers of their Director I answered all by insisting upon Commissioners according to my Instruction and argued its being a Matter much more proper for such to debate and determine as understood the Coasts Situations manner of Trade in those Parts former Possessions and Matters of Fact past than for him and me how willing soever we should be to inform our selves or to find Expedients and went so far upon this Subject that he seemed inclined it should be so at least when the Pretensions were stated so as it might appear what was to be referred to such Commissioners But upon this he fell into the Discourse of what Monsieur Meerman had told him or I had formerly written to him concerning some Exceptions to the Marine Treaty and how willing the States would be to alter the Form of Passports when they knew how we desired it And if the King wisht any more particular Definition of what should be esteemed a Town invested he did not doubt we might agree upon that too having found me always to propose only what I thought reasonable and to agree to what I found so and he was made after the same manner and so I should always find him I easily perceived that the Thing he would be at was upon occasion of this Guinea Matter to know at once the Bottom of all we pretended in point of regulating Commerce between us having I presume heard more than was need perhaps of all the Noise made by the East-India Company upon the Subject of the Marine Treaty or by their Patrons either out of Zeal to the Good of our Commerce or out of Envy at the Success of so great a Council and Conduct of his Majesty in which they had no Hand and upon which if we had lost a little in Trade by changing the Form of the Articles at Breda into a Marine Treaty wherein I do not conceive how we lost at all yet I am sure it was infinitely recompensed by the Necessity the unexpected Success and the great Consequences of those other Alliances to which that Circumstance of the Marine Treaty was made I thought but a Sacrifice of Smoak And this I could not but say for his Majesty's Satisfaction and your Lordship's Vindication with those other Ministers by whose Advice that Council was taken and pursued finding every Day more how highly it is applauded abroad while it is maliced by some and so little esteemed by others at home tho' his Majesty has reaped already from it both the whole Honour of giving Peace to Christendom and perhaps the only Safety of his own Kingdoms considering the Conjunctures in which that Council found us But to return to my Conference with Monsieur de Witt Finding him lead me so industriously into a Field wherein I had no Intention to enter I resolved however to take the Occasion and once for all to say all I had thought or your Lordship had infused into me upon that Subject And so I told him plainly That I was not yet instructed in that Matter of our Exceptions to the Marine Treaty but believed I might be in a little Time That the Particulars he mentioned were complained of in the Treaty it self and other Things thought to be admitted but that I could not enter into any Particulars till I had Instructions but since he gave me the Occasion I would enter once for all into the general I discoursed over to him the common Interest and indeed Necessity of preserving perpetual the present Alliances between Us especially on their Side while the Dangers were so great from the Ambition and Power as well as Neighbourhood of France The great Overtures would now be made us from thence to the Prejudice of this Alliance and at all other Times whenever they could hope we were ready to receive them That though I could give him no Jealousy of them now but on the contrary assure him he might be at Ease on that Side and that the King would only have the Honour by it of setting them an Example of his Sincereness and Constancy which he would expect they should follow when the Game begun with Them as it would after it ended with Him Yet I â—ould tell him That France was at all Times capable of making us such Offers and of giving us our present Account
so well tho' in Exchange perhaps of Danger to come in case of no new Revolutions that whenever there should be in England a Prince less direct or less foreseeing than his Majesty or either a weak or corruptible Ministry I could not answer what Measures we should take That upon this Ground I thought they could not do wiser than to root this Alliance in the very Hearts of the People and current Genius of the Nation and not rely wholly upon the present Inclinations or Judgment of his Majesty or the Dispositions of the Ministers For if there were any Thing that lay cross to it in the common Interest or Humour of the People it would be upon all Occasions breaking out to disturb it and whenever that should concur with the Dispositions of the Prince they would be able to make a great Noise in the World I told him That many Persons in England either to make way for the French Alliance by weakning or breaking this or else perhaps to discredit the most applauded Councils of the present Ministry had made a Noise about the Marine Treaty as if it had been a ruining the Nation and from thence took Occasion to infuse into all People as far as they could that we should never find any Fairness or Directness or Equality in all we treated with the Dutch but Subtilty and Hardship and Injustice and when Occasion was Obstinacy and Injury in all Matters of Commerce between us while we gave them Reason to believe we thought their Friendship necessary or very convenient to us That I had ever since I knew him maintained the contrary to his Majesty assured him of the Sincerity I had found in their Proceedings and been always made confidently believe by them that his Majesty should find them ever reasonable and easy in what should be offered in reducing Matters of Commerce to an Equality and to be reciprocal between us That it was a small Matter that all my Credit and perhaps Fortune lay at Stake upon their making this good But I was sure it was considerable that the very Safety of our Alliance might at one Time or other come to lie at Stake upon it too And therefore for my Part I thought they could not do in the World a wiser Thing than to give us all reasonable Satisfaction in these Points by consenting to any Reglements of Commerce which might import Equality and be reciprocal between us That any Equality it self would be the same Advantage to them that a long Arm against a short would be between two Men with equal Swords for considering their Parsimony Industry Necessity of turning all their Stock to Trade for want of Land and multitude of People and on the other side our native Luxury want of Order or Application and our Extent and Cheapness of Land and Ease of Taxes which made People chuse to turn their Mony that way They could never fail of Advantage enough in any Equality and upon it would find the surest the most commodious Ally and the best able to protect them that they could have in the World being without any Ambition or Designs among our Neighbours further than to keep the Ballance of Christendom And yet on the other Side the only Power that was feared by France and that were able in Conjunction of our Fleets with theirs to awe them by what they might suffer from Sea into some Consideration of what was fit for them to act at Land During this Discourse which I enlarged the most I could to the Purpose resolving to bend all my Force upon the Effect of it I found Monsieur de Witt very attentive and willing to let me go on with Marks in his Countenance of relishing and as I thought approving what I said which made me resolve to go yet one Point further and to the Root of all that could spring into any Jealousies between us I told him it was true That there wanted not some among us that would be so wise to know that it was impossible for us ever to fall into any firm Confidence with the States upon their present Constitution nor particularly with him upon the Prince of Orange's Occasion That for my part I was not at all of that Mind That tho' the King could not lose the Affection he had for his Nephew yet he was of Opinion he could not express it better than by infusing into him the Belief That he could make himself no way so happy as in the good Will of the States and trusting wholly to Them in the Course of his Fortunes and not to private Factions or Foreign Intrigues and Applications That his Majesty was of an Opinion himself That Princes were not apt to do themselves more Hurt and make themselves less any way than by affecting too much Power or such as was directly contrary to the Stomach and Genius of the Country which fell to their Share And besides this I knew his Majesty was so just and so reasonable that tho' he should take kindly of the States any Respects they should shew his Nephew yet I did not believe he would offer That to any other King or State which he should not take well that any other should offer to him and I did not believe he would ever be put upon any such Designs by his Council or his People's Inclinations For they who lookt upon the Prince in a possibility of one Day coming to be their King and that loved a Prince who grounded his Power in the Affections of his People and loved to Rule by Laws had rather perhaps see the Prince of Orange happy in the good Will of the States and such moderate Power as they should think consistent with their Government than of a Humour and Aims at any Thing that might tend to subvert their Civil Constitutions So that I saw nothing of Danger to them upon this Chapter either from the Judgment and Disposition of his Majesty or the Humour of the Nation But was confident in case we could agree upon Matters of Commerce nothing could ever intervene to break an Alliance that was so useful to our Selves and all Christendom besides And so I left it with him Upon this Discourse Monsieur de Witt with very great Signs of Satisfaction told me That all I said was so reasonable that he agreed with me perfectly in it And upon that said a great deal of the Sympathy he had ever observed between us and how easy That would ever make any Thing we should fall in Treaty of That he knew from Monsieur Meerman I had been the occasion of giving him any Credit in England of an honest sincere Man and he would never lose mine upon that occasion by giving the King Cause to believe other of him That he confest he had often told me That the States would be ever contented with an Equality with us in point of Trade and that provided they might know what it was we would be at and that we proposed nothing
but what was equal and reciprocal between us he would give me his Hand as he did that he would use all his Endeavours to give us Satisfaction in it and he thought he knew the Minds of the States so well that he durst almost promise it me in their Names by Advance and without knowing what it was That for any Thing amiss in the Marine Treaty he did not see how any Complaint could be made of what I had done in it But that the Ambassadors at Breda ought to answer for That if there were any Thing ill in it ours being but Word for Word the same with theirs and both Parties Consent being necessary to alter what was then provisional as what is now more formally establisht That for the Form of the Passports let me but bring one drawn up as we desire it and in Terms current with the Forms of their State and it shall be immediately agreed to That for defining what Towns shall be said to be besieged he is very willing that should be done too since it imports the same for one as t'other And even for any other Matters that were thought necessary to be added to the Marine Treaty since nothing else was desired to be altered If his Majesty would instruct me fully in all Points and that they proved as I said equal and reciprocal he would once more undertake we should agree upon them and desired me to assure his Majesty so much and he thought the sooner I was instructed in it the better But desired that no use might be made of this to encourage either the East-India Company or others to make new Exceptions or Demands but only I might be instructed in those which had been made already And that I said I durst promise him for they had been already digested before the Council From this he fell to discourse of our Alliance and the Considerations we had to strengthen and continue it and how much he was pleased with what I said of the King's Resolution upon that Point of his shewing them an Example of Constancy and that I could never doubt their following it And among other Things said The States had suckt That in like Milk which was already pass'd into the very Flesh and Substance of their Body And we might be the more confident of it since the Minister they employ'd in France and through whose Hands all such Matters must pass and be represented to the States by the Lights he should give them was as firm and earnest upon it as any Man could be That he knew France would try Them as well as Us and would not say but they might possibly gain some one of the little Provinces but for Holland in particular and the Provinces in general it was not a Thing to be thought on From this he fell to speak of the Prince of Orange and seemed very much pleased with what I had said on that Subject both of the King's Dispositions and the People's Humors and Thoughts especially that of the King of doing as he would be done by He said The States Intentions were to make him Captain-General of their Forces and Admiral too though it was not mentioned and to this purpose they would already have brought him into the Council of State in order to fit him for those Charges had it not been for some of the Provinces that had hindred it upon pretence of more Kindness to him and designing greater Matters for him That it was indeed agreed those Charges were inconsistent with that of Stadtholder which gave as much Authority in the Civil as the others in the Military Part of the Government That considering the smalness of their State and Greatness of their Milice there was an End of their Republick when both was in one Hand That for his Part if he had been born under a King he could never have consented to what his Ancestors did towards the King of Spain but being born under a Common-wealth and sworn to maintain it he could consent to nothing that should destroy it and he wondred how it had subsisted so long in that Danger which was to be attributed to their constant Wars abroad and to the great Moderation of those Princes among whom none had Thoughts of it but the last nor would he ever have fallen into them without having been put upon them by the French who had his Breeding and his Conversation That if he had lived he would have been the ablest of all the Race And from thence fell into Commendations of this young Prince's Parts and Dispositions And so this Matter ended For the Business of Spain he was scandalized as well as your Lordship at that Queen 's slight Answer and pleased with his Majesty's Letter upon it He said the Talk of Don John's coming began to renew and that in the mean time the Marquis neither answered upon the Suedish Subsidies nor press'd them upon the Guaranty because they had refused to give it without the Compliance of Spain in the other Point I pursued that no further having not yet heard from the Marquis nor from the Spanish Ambassador here upon it The Treaty between the Emperor and Sueden is not yet ratified upon a Disagreement in the private Article about Mony to be furnish'd them by the Emperor who stands upon giving but one hundred and eleven thousand Dollars a Year upon some Calculations made by some certain Quota's upon the several Parts of the Empire and the Suede demanding one hundred and fifty thousand which would make one imagine the Spaniards had not one of their five Senses left to hazard or delay for such a Sum a Treaty wherein your Lordship will observe a particular Clause leaving Room for Spain to enter into it as they please While I am writing I receive this inclosed from the Suedish Envoy here by which you will see how unhappily a poor Ambassador is Embarassè by the Ceremonies that hinder him from seeing those that have so much Mind to it and with whom he must have so much to do What Expedients I shall find hereafter I know not yet but shall let him know that being Incognito till my Entry Et ne faisant pas l'Ambassadeur if he pleases to come and be content that as Incognito I neither receive him nor conduct him out of my Chamber I shall in it give him all the Civilities he expects as I have hitherto done upon the same Pretence of being yet Incognito to all Persons of Quality that have seen me here Your Lordship will tell me if I do well or ill and in Recompence I shall only tell you That I shall not think I do well longer than you esteem me what I am so much Your c. To the Count de Molina Hague Sept. 9. S. N. 1668. My Lord AFter a tiresome Passage by Sea the pleasure of your Excellency's Letter was not a little necessary to divert and relieve me renewing with the Spanish Language at least the memory of my
past Happiness at Brussels I read the Paper that came with it and much esteem the Honour the Marquis does me in still preserving me in his Memory and Favour which I shall not fail my self of acknowledging with the first Occasion I am much pleased with what they tell me here of the good condition of the Army in Flanders and that they begin with the Mony they have received to recover new Life if they have too much I wish it were imployed in Sueden to bring that Nation into the Spanish Interest I pray God to preserve your Excellency many Years and give me many Occasions of serving you I kiss your Excellency's Hands c. Al Sennor Molina La Haye Sept. 9. S. N. 1668. Ex mo Sen r. SEnnor mio Despues de un passaje de mar muy enfadoso no me era menester cosa de menor gusto que la carta de V. E. para recrearme y con la Lengua Espagnola refrescar al menos la memoria de mis passados contentamientos de Brussellas He leydo tan bien el papel adjunto con mucha estima de la honra que me haze el Sennor Marques de no haverme olvidado ny echado menos en sus buenas gracias lo que le he de agrdecer como devo con la primera occasion Mi huelgo mucho di entender loque me dizen aqui delas lindas tropas que se hallan aora en Flandes y que comiençan a cobrar la vida con el dinero lo que ay de sobrado quisiera mucho que fuesse en Suecia para enterar los de esta gente en los interesses Espanoles Guarde Dios a V. E. los annos que la desseo y me de muchos Occasiones di servir le Ex mo Sr. B. L. M. D. V. E. Su mayor Servidor To my Lord Keeper Hague Oct. 2. S. N. 1668. My LORD I Received the Honour of two from your Lordship of the 4th and 10th past together in one Packet from Mr. Williamson about the time of my last Dispatch into England which was the Reason of my not answering them the same Day besides that I had written to your Lordship a long one about another Subject by that Post For all that touches the Marine Treaty I must refer to my Lord Arlington's Letters by this Ordinary As to the Point of my treating Envoys I think it is better to let it rest as it is than for your Lordship to move any further in it and be content we should follow since we are not at present of a Humour to lead I believe I could order it so as Spain and Sueden and this State should alter the Custom by Consent with us but that which I wish'd was that his Majesty might have said singly he would follow no other Prince's Rules but the old ones which he had used and seemed to approve by Sir George Downing's Demands and so given me Order at my first coming to give the Hand and Door as all Ambassadors did till the French Caprice changed it about eight Years ago And this I took to have been of more Honour as well as Advantage to his Majesty but it seems I did not understand it right it may be others would have understood it so too if they had seen both Spain Sueden and these States and all others except France follow his Majesty's Example which I could have held a fair Wager of and is every Bodies Opinion here as it is many Peoples that France it self would have fallen in too upon the Advantage in Commerce with other Ministers which would have followed it For if I had given it not one Resident would ever have seen the French Ambassador without it whereas two or three of them now do both Him and Me. I am sure if France understand it right they will take an Occasion to change it themselves and to reap the first Profit and all the Honour as well as Pleasure of seeing us all dance after Them both up and down as our Leaders in a Country Dance and I am sure I had as lieve be lame as do so and cannot tell why his Majesty should not think of being in the Head both of the Affairs and Forms in Christendom as well as any of his Neighbor Kings I acquainted Monsieur de Witt both with the Examinations and what your Lordship writ about the Prisoners from Surinam He is of Opinion the Complaint lies still on their Side as it did at first That Captain Needham's Person who had first left my Lord Willowby to come to the Dutch and after them to my Lord Willowby made them expect nothing Friendly from him That his Commission was very extraordinary and to be executed upon Indians who were their Subjects That he knows not what can be done further than to send Offenders to be both examined and punish'd by their own Prince That if they were ill used by the way the Dutch were very much to blame in that and 't is a Thing he abhors but we have yet only their own Words for that and he will inquire as far as he can into the whole Matter In the mean time I having no Instructions upon it either to complain or demand had nothing more to do than acquaint him with it till I should receive any further Orders I hear the same here which your Lordship does there of the Marquis Castel-Rodrigo's Intentions to pass through England into Spain which I should be glad of I believe with your Lordship he will have Credit in the Councils of Spain and since you would have me think of what I judge fit to be proposed to him I will give you my Opinion concerning our Affairs with Spain though I am likely enough to be prejudiced in it by so particular Acquaintance with the Weakness of their present Conduct and Division of their Councils as well as the Consequences of them which are want of Order in their Government their Armies their Revenue and I doubt at present even of Genius in their Nation which ever rises and falls according to that of the Prince or Ministry For if Men see the way to rise is by Worth and virtuous Qualities the Genius of a Nation will run that way and produce great Subjects If they can hope to do it by vicious Humors by little Arts by warm Pursuits every Man of his own Interests the whole Spirit runs into those Courses and perhaps the faster from the Propension of our Natures rather to Ill than to Good After all I am of Opinion That our present Interest and that of all Christendom besides in some measure is the Defence of Spain and not only in Flanders but in all other Parts where it shall not be able to defend it self against the Power and Ambition of France from whence alone we have all our present Fears and shall find our Dangers upon any further Growth For if a great Accession should come to them in Navarre Catalonia Italy
accordingly I have since fallen into the Debate of that Affair in all its Particulars with Monsieur de Witt And the Differences between us are not great and some of his Exceptions seem so reasonable that I must be furnish'd with Arguments to maintain the Points against him if they must be insisted on for I confess I can find none of my own Upon the First he consents to the Change of the Form of Certificates and will accept of such as we shall draw up so they run equal on both sides Mutatis Mutandis But to that which the East-India Company say of their Desire that Trade may rather be carried on without any Certificate at all he says he does not see how that can be or to what purpose all the Articles are against counterband Goods since it is by the Certificate whereby it is known what the Ship is and what the Goods are she carries and thereby all further Trouble of Search is avoided He says He should be content and the Advantage would be theirs to have all Trade free and none to ask at Sea what another Ship was whether it went or what it carried but since that cannot be there is no way of avoiding Disputes beside that of Certificates And indeed I doubt the Merchants in that considered not the main End of the whole Regulation which was to avoid Quarrels between the Nations but only their own private Interests in saving the Trouble and Charge of Certificates which made them likewise desire it might be from the Magistrates of the Ports from whence the Ships parted and not from the Admiralty Upon the second he consents to the Proposal in the Margin with only the leaving out those two Words of India so as the Rule may be generally to all Places and not confined to the Indies which I had nothing to say against believing those Words fell in only by the Matter coming from the East-India Company without notice of any other Traders Upon these two Points I had given your Lordship the Account formerly of my having at several Discourses gained his Consent And I do not find that any Thing he excepts at in them is different from what we mean our selves For the other Points which are wholly new and Additions to the Treaty they cost us a great deal more Debate which I shall not trouble your Lordship with but only the Result at least of the Opinion he gave me leave to write to your Lordship as his upon them tho' the first second and fourth were all of more difficult Digestion and such as I doubt would have given some Work to Commissioners in pursuance of the Breda Treaty so much as to have touch'd For the Truth is our Trade in the Indies being so little and theirs so much all Equalities of this kind are Gains to us and Loss to them For the first of the four Particulars not provided for in the Marine Treaty he consents to the one half of the Period ending with the word Government But for the other allowing Liberty to pass any River or Pass leading to any Place of Trade altho ' the other Company have a Fort or Castle upon the said River or Pass he says it cannot possibly be nor would it ever be executed tho' the States should consent to it for in those Passes the very end of either Company 's building a Fort or Castle was to secure the Trade of such a Country to themselves so as they would by this Article lose all the Benefit of the Expence they had been at That if to such Nations there were any other way found not under the Reach of their Cannon that Passage should be free But under a Fort built to the aforesaid Ends he did not believe any Orders would compel those in it either of our Nations or theirs to see the Trade they had secured to themselves drawn away to the other Nation by a free Passage The second Particular I got wholly agreed to tho' with much Difficulty as importing I suppose more Advantage to us than any of the rest considering how many more Nations the Dutch trade with than we by Virtue of such Agreements The third was without Difficulty importing as we both conceived no more than was before provided by the Marine Treaty and more particularly For the fourth he could not consent it should extend further than to Ships belonging to either Company or to any Nations or People subject to either Company and consequently under Protection of the said Company for the making it run in the Words of our Article To any Nations with whom either Company shall trade and not in Enmity with the other Company would occasion only either Company 's selling their Passports to all the Nations that would buy them leaving it afterward to dispute upon any Accident should arrive whether such Nation were in Enmity with the other Company or no the Natives maintaining the Negative and perhaps the Company the Affirmative and it may be upon pretence of some new Injury which had lately given the Occasion of the Enmity And where such Disputes should be determined was difficult to find Besides he argued from common use of Nations that Passports operated only toward those who were subject to such who granted the Passports or else by Alliance and Accord between Nations to such as were one anothers Subjects and under their Protection But how it should extend to other Nations because they were not in Enmity with our Ally he could not see any Reason nor had heard any Example But on the other side it was ever to be supposed that there would be no need at all of Passports from the one to such as were not in Enmity with the other Nations being to be esteemed as just in their Actions and not likely to disturb or seize another without at least pretence of Enmity which would be a sort of Pyracy at Sea or Robbery at Land but in case such a Thing should happen no other Nation concerned themselves in it unless it were offered to their Subjects and consequently to Persons under their Protection I thought his Reasoning seemed good and besides I imagined the Thing was not of Weight for where one Company found a Nation not in actual Enmity with the other and had a mind to protect their Navigation they might do it by receiving that Nation into their Protection and then giving them Passports as Subjects to them Where Nations will not submit to such a Subjection they must protect themselves And this was the Result of our Conference which came to no sort of Agreement on either Side since I neither had Power to do it from his Majesty nor he from the States So that we can only represent on each Side what pass'd and attend our Orders upon them and he in the mean time dispose the States to his Opinion when we meet and conclude formally upon them When I receive Instructions I suppose it will be necessary to know the
ne pretendra autre satisfaction de la Debte hormis lesdits droits du Sel de Setuval pour ledit terme de vingt années Que la Valeur du Sel sera conté par Cruzados sans egard á quelque autre monoye puisqu'il n'y a eu mention dans le Traitté d'aucun autre espece Et qu'en cas que le Portugal trouvera á propos de se decharger de quelque partie de la dete par quelque autre moyen la Hollande retranchera aussi ledit terme en proportion To my Lord Arlington Hague Sept. 2. S. N. 1669. My LORD HAving received his Majesty's Letter to the Constable from your Lordship's Hands I thought it was fit for me to return his Answer by the same way And that not having Matter enough to furnish two Letters this Ordinary your Lordship would be content to receive the whole Trouble of what I have to say since you were of course to have a Part of it I received at the same Time with this for his Majesty the other for my Self and the same Express brought another for the States I doubt all in the same Stile by which your Lordship will understand the ill State of our general Business here Monsieur Marechal came yesterday to visit me and told me his Errand was to know whether I could propose any new way of drawing their Satisfaction from Spain if not whether I would give any Hopes of their having it from his Majesty and the States And if neither of these what I could propose as the best way * To get out of this Affair with the best Grace and without too much Noise Pour sortir de cette Affaire de la meilleure Grace sans trop de Bruit I told him For the First I was at an end of my own Invention but should not fail however of consulting with the Dutch Commissioners whom I had not seen since our Answer from the Constable For the Second I knew he was so sensible of Sueden's having no Right to demand of us more than our good Offices in this Particular that he would never think fit to press us any further and those he should not fail of For the last it was a Point I was very loth to think of but when it was necessary I would join with him in that Consideration but would fain believe the Affair was not yet desperate He fell into great Complaints of the Spanish Ministers here and of their laying several Discourses to his Charge which he never made particularly of their being willing to take a verbal Engagement from Spain for thirty thousand Crowns a Month in time of War which he protested was contrary to his Orders that were to stand firmly upon having Assurance for the whole sixty thousand pretended from his Majesty and the States and leave us to find our Security from Spain with whom they had not had any thing to do in the whole Business But he said he would tell me in Confidence that they had represented the Impossibility of this Pretension to their Court and the necessity of taking the Assurances for thirty thousand from Spain and expect Answer upon this Point by the very first Letters And in Case of their Court 's consenting to it he was in hopes all Difficulties would be overcome for we might finish the Concert before the Payment of the Mony and give the Spanish Ministers Assurance of our signing it suddenly after And though Holland had hitherto declared against assuring any part of the sixty thousand Crowns without real Security from Spain yet his Majesty having resolved to assure Sueden of his Part Holland could not avoid following his Measure and Example I easily perceived the first Part of this Discourse was brought in only to usher the last and to sound me about his Majesty's Intention in this Point And so I told him I did not remember to have heard his Majesty had ever declared any such Resolution That there were indeed several Projects framed by several Hands about that time some of which contained what he said But I asked him whether he had ever seen any of them signed He confessed he had not but their Court ever look'd upon it as a Thing agreed to by his Majesty I said I wondered at it because they could not but consider his Majesty as very little more concerned in this Affair than themselves And being so it would be very hard for him to engage in the Defence of Spain without any Hopes of Reimbursement for his own Part and withal to furnish Sueden with so great a Share of the Subsidies they expected upon a bare Promise from Spain of repaying it after the War ended That for my Part having not then been in England I would not affirm his Majesty had not agreed to it because he seemed to affirm he had But if he had not I thought it would be a very hard Thing to expect it from him He replied He would not dispute whether it were hard or no but was sure in Sueden they made no manner of Doubt upon it and that in his Instruction which mentions their solliciting Our and Holland's assuring the whole Sum there are these Words The King of England having consented to assure one fourth Part. That if there were a Question upon this though their Court should consent to accept an Act from Spain for Thirty thousand yet he saw there would be another Difficulty less surmountable than all the rest and so lookt upon the Affair as desperate But having frankly communicated to me his Instructions whenever I desired it he intreated me freely to communicate mine to him upon this Particular that they might know what to trust to I told him frankly that I had none upon it That his Majesty being so near had only ordered me when they and Holland should be agreed about the Particulars of the Concert that I should communicate it to him and should receive a sudden Answer upon it We broke up this Conference very Friendly resolving only that I should discourse with Monsieur de Witt upon the whole State of our Affair while they expected their next Orders from Sueden after which we should all have a Conference together and take our last Measures This Day Monsieur de Witt came to me upon the same Occasion shewing me the Constable's Letter to the States which contained nothing more than mine from Him besides desiring them to employ their good Offices towards the Ministers of England and Sueden for the Accomplishment of this Affair After having asked me two or three times what I thought was to be done and I protesting I knew not at last he said That though he was never for plaistring up an ill Wall and he was confident if Sueden trusted to Spain for the thirty thousand Crowns a Month they would never be paid and so their Assistance would fail in case of a War unless Spain gave such a Security as might certainly raise the Mony Yet considering
that the very Reputation of this Business concluded might very well prevent a War might hinder Spain's taking their Measures with France to our Disadvantage and in case of a War Sueden's having received the Subsidies already due would hinder them from taking any Measures with France though they should not furnish their Assistance to Spain for want of the future Subsidies For his Part he could wish the Thing done and though it had ever been against his Opinion yet if his Majesty should think fit to assure Sueden of a fourth Part he believed the States would be induced to do the same rather than endanger the breaking of the Business After I had deduced to him the great Differences there were in his Majesty's Concernment and theirs upon this Matter and how hard it were for his Majesty that had his Seas and Fleets to defend him to contribute in all Points as much as they who had the French Armies at their Gates so soon as Flanders was over-run And finding him still firm as I had done so often before that this State could never go other than even Paces with us in this Matter nor look upon themselves as nearer concerned in the Greatness of France than other Neighbours till they saw the Danger fall directly this way I at last told him plainly what I had told Monsieur Marechal before concerning my Instruction Which he received with his usual Temper and said We must refer all to a Conference with the Suedish Ministers and in the mean Time each of us should think what Expedient is to be found in the Case Concerning our Business of Surinam I am in great Hope yet to come to some good End of it though they will not hear of it in Point of Right as to his Majesty's Intercession But that it is fit to give his Majesty greater Testimonies of their Deference than in such a Matter as this is already the declared Opinion of Mr. V. B. the Pensioner of Harlaem and some others I have pursued And Monsieur de Witt promises me if those two will second him he will endeavour to bring the Province of Holland to it this Assembly and then we may deal with Zeeland I hope well enough by one way or other The Paper Mr. V. B. has made me expect two or three Posts upon the Account of the Places we have specified in the Indies he promises shall not fail me by the next Post and should have come sooner but that he was resolved to be the most exactly informed that could be in all Particulars Monsieur de Witt has writ to those of the East-India Company at Amsterdam in pursuit of your Lordship's Letter and Sir John Worden's Desire concerning one Cary coming over to offer an End of a Suit upon the Pretensions of Courtin's Heir Their Answer is That I might be secure they will give no Mony for an End of that Business since all further Pretensions are clearly cut off by the Treaty at Breda And I find Monsieur de Witt is of the same Opinion Yesterday died Monsieur Weymenum a great Man in this State but very little bewailed I believe your Lordship may hear Reports of Discontents growing and Parties changing here But I doubt it is not in Discourse further than among those that are in the Skirts of Business which makes me hope there may be no more Ground for all that is so lavishly talkt of here and of the same kind among us in England If it should be otherwise I am at least glad to be ignorant of it being of so much Disreputation abroad to our Councils And all the Persons in Consideration here I am sure are sorry for what they hear of it professing to be as much concerned in our Union as their own and placing all their Hopes of taking any constant Measures with us upon the Steddyness of his Majesty's late Councils and the Dispositions of our present Ministers before whose time Monsieur de Witt says * That there was nothing but wavering in the Councils of England Que ce n'estoit que Fluctuation dans les Conseils d'Angleterre I am Your Lordship's c. To the Constable of Castille Hague Sept. 4. S. N. 1669. My Lord I Sent the other Day in the Spanish Ambassador's Pacquet a Letter from the King my Master to your Excellency in favour of Monsieur Taaf and am obliged to second that Affair by all my good Offices though I hope they will not be necessary and I hope that this Gentleman shall not be reckoned the less capable to serve his Master for having already well served his Friend I cannot let pass this Occasion without representing to your Excellency the undoubted Necessity there is to give Order with all speed for the Payment of the 200000 Crowns to the Ministers of Sueden who have expected them with so much Patience and are ready to deliver into the Spanish Ambassadors Hands the Ratifications of the Guaranty jointly with me and the States General They assure me also that they are ready to enter into a particular Concert of Forces as soon as this Affair is finisht but are resolved not to mix one with t'other and are so ill satisfied with some Difficulties that the Spanish Ambassador has raised upon this Matter that I believe it will not be possible to keep them here two days longer if your Excellency sends them an Answer not according to the Act signed by the said Ambassador and since ratified by the King of Spain that is to say to order the Payment of the Mony upon the mutual Delivery of the Guaranty This is what they told me two Days since and may perhaps ruin an Affair that has been so long negotiated and brought into the Port through so many Difficulties Your Excellency will judge better than any Body how you can answer to the Court of Spain and to all Christendom the loss of so great an Occasion for establishing the Security of the one and the Repose of the other For all this depends upon your Resolutions to which the three Confederates as well as so many others will entirely attribute any Misfortune that shall arrive And as I have not failed since the beginning of this Affair to contribute all my Cares to it so I would not be wanting towards the End to represent the pressing Necessity of this Conjuncture It is left to your Excellency to make what use of it you please from whose Conduct every one will form Presages good or ill to the Affairs of Spain I am Your Excellency's c. Au Conetable de Castille De la Hay le 4 Sept. S. N. 1669. Monsieur J'Envoyé l'autre jour dans le Pacquet de Monsieur l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne une lettre du Roy mon maitre a V. E. en faveur de Monsieur Taaf je me crois obligé de l'aider de tous mes bons offices mais je croy qu'ils ne luy sont pas necessairs que ce Gentilhomme n'en
already given to the Dutch Letter I resolved to go and talk with them both upon the Business and concert with them what Course to hold in the Progress of it I could not get a Time of speaking with Monsieur de Witt to day but did with Monsieur Applebome and much to the same Purpose as I had yesterday to the Spanish Ambassador but plainer and in more Confidence All I could get from him was That he would read over that first Concert to day and consider whether he could sign it That it was true Monsieur Marechal had offered to sign something like it but containing in the same Act the Security of their future Subsidies which they were to insist upon before they sign it I told him all the Difference would be that whereas they contented themselves before with Spain's Promise of one half to take it now for three Parts if the Spaniards would be persuaded to it and they had the same Security for one as for t'other which I knew they reckoned upon of not furnishing more Troops than in Proportion to the Mony they received He seemed a good deal unsatisfied that the Spanish Ambassador had received the Advice from England before the Answer was returned from the Constable For since we will make no Part of the Security for their future Subsidies I find they would very fain touch the two hundred thousand Crowns before they give the Concert which they might then sell dearer to Spain or at least make it the Price of their Satisfaction growing due by the two next Payments of the four hundred eighty thousand Crowns already due All ended between us with this Promise of acquainting me with his Resolution so soon as he had considered it and the Proposal of a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I find now the Want I always feared of Monsieur Marechal who is not to be retrieved so that we must make our best of what we have and do all we can to put him out of his Pace The Baron d'Isola came to me this Afternoon and his Business I found was to persuade me to sign Monsieur Marechal's Projects and thereby charge his Majesty with the fifteen thousand Crowns to Sueden but upon a Promise from the Constable of Spain supplying his Majesty with the Sums we should furnish upon that Engagement But I cut him off short in that and all other Expedients and told him if his Majesty were induced to sign the Concert as it was more than they had any Reason to expect from him so it was all they were to hope in this Matter and therefore I desired him to reckon upon it and take their Measures accordingly I suppose by what he said his Intentions are to go away for Brussels within a Day or two and bring us a positive Resolution of what we are to expect from thence as to the immediate Payment and their Promise to Sueden of three Parts of the future Subsidies But he will first endeavour to know Monsieur Applebome's mind who will at least be stiff in this that the Promise be made by Spain to the Confederates and not directly to Sueden Since my last the Lunenburg Envoy came to desire me that I would let his Majesty know how much his Masters esteemed themselves honoured by the Overtures his Majesty made them of entring into an Alliance of which he was the Head That thereupon they had ordered him to attend here ever since in hopes of some further Proposals towards the engaging them in it But that his Masters hearing no further from hence and finding that by the ill Posture of our Triple Alliance other Princes of Germany were seeking other Measures they had commanded him to return which he should do about three Weeks hence but first to endeavour by my Hand to give his Majesty the best Testimonies of their Affections to his Service and good Intentions towards the Ends he had so gloriously engaged in I promised him to perform the Message and employ'd the rest of my Discourse in convincing him how much more the Princes of Germany were concerned in the Defence of Flanders than his Majesty and that however if his Masters had any Expectations besides their own Interests towards engaging them they ought to be from Holland and not from Us since the most important Use of their Troops would be to awe the Bishop of Munster who might otherwise be able by the French Assistances to divert all or the greatest part of the Dutch Forces that way and thereby leave Flanders open to the French He confess'd both these Points and I promised to do him any good Offices I could towards the Dutch Ministers The Deputies of the States came this Day to me to assure me of their Desires and Resolutions to satisfie his Majesty in the Business of Surinam but that they could not yet come to a final Conclusion and therefore desired me to have Patience for a little longer time after which I might assure my self of a good End in it They pretended Monsieur de Witt 's and their chief Ministers being so much taken up at this time but upon Discourse confess'd the Zelanders Aim to have their next Ships arrive from Surinam Upon which I fell into some Heat with them and told them I would never send such a Message to his Majesty such Delays being fitter for Law-Suits than publick Negotiations At last concluded that because I would a little consider their Ministers being so much taken up at this Pinch about Levies and other Affairs agitating in the States of Holland I was content to stay six Days longer for their Resolution in this Matter upon Condition I should have it in that Time to his Majesty's Satisfaction To make short of a long Conference this they agreed to at last and I will hope may keep their Words since there was one of the Zeland Deputies among them The Task you give me in the End of your Letter is as you say a hard one for whatsoever is planted of that kind will not grow long or well but out of a good Root at home however I shall venture at it here all I can and dare undertake it shall not thrive worse in this than in other Neighbour Soils I am c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Dec. 24. S. N. 1669. My LORD THO' Monsieur Overkirk wants nothing to make him welcom every where but especially at the Hague yet I confess he was the more so to me by a Letter he brought me from your Lordship whereby I found my self to be not altogether forgotten where I desire most to be remembred and would deserve it if I could I am very sensible that the Right you say he has done me there may rather prove an ill Office than a good But however I am not the less obliged by his good meaning nor the more touched by their ill who are not content I should gain a little Esteem whilst I am content to gain nothing else and where
even in time of Peace and upon this Condition Sueden will be content I think what he promises is sufficient that is to bring into the Field the 16000 Men in three Months after the Attack for there is no Appearance of employing so great Forces unless by way of Diversion since the Troops to be furnish'd by his Majesty and the States General joined to those of the Catholick King will be as many as can be well employ'd for the Defence of Flanders for it is not designed they should be Masters of the Field Your Excellency sees that you may reckon if you please upon 10000 Men from the States in 15 days time and tho' there be no Term specified by the King my Master I think your Excellency need make no Difficulty upon it since the Words As soon as possible signify the shortest time one can desire And I confess that not having observed any Reflection upon the Time in the Orders of the Queen Regent of Spain which were communicated to us by the Ambassador Gamarra I gave no notice of it to his Majesty thinking my self sufficiently guarded by my Powers to sign the same Project which had been sent into England as well as Spain I hope that as soon as your Excellency will have sent Powers to the Spanish Ambassador to deliver the Mony there will be no Difficulty in signing the Project as it has been communicated to him And I do not think from what I can judge by the Minister of Sueden that the Affair is likely to suffer any further delays whereof I thought good to give your Excellency this Intelligence which you may make use of according to your Prudence and the Interests of the King your Master I am My Lord your c. Au Connetable de Castille La Hay le 23 Jan. S. N. 1670. Monsieur JE ne doute pas que Monsieur l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne ne communique á V. E. par ce Courier le Projet du concert des forces particulieres lequel a eté arreté icy par le consentement des Ministres de trois Confederez Je puis bien assurer V. E. que pour le reduire á la forme ou il est tous les Ministres se sont relachez á l'envi autant qu'il leur a eté possible Il seroit inutile de les presser de nouveau pretendre en obtenir davantage Nous avons trové assez de difficulté á l'emporter sur les Ministres de Suede pour avoir sa Guarantie avant que d'aller plus loin de faire de nouveaux pas inutiles aprés tous ceux que nous avions faits Il nous asseure de n'avoir jamais rien proposé qui tendît á faire venir de Troupes de Pomeranie ni de Breme qui sont des lieux ou il n'y en a pas un plus grand nombre que ce qu'il faut pour les garnisons que si l'on le presse sur ce point il nous repond que pour entretenir des Troupes supernumeraires en ces lieux lá il faut des Subsides en tems de paix même qu'a ces conditions la Suede en sera satisfaite Il me semble que c'est assez qu'il promette de faire agir le 16000 hommes trois mois ecoulez aprés l'attaque car il n'y a guere d'apparence d'employer de si grandes forces que par voye de diversion Les Troupes qui doivent etre fournies par sa Majesté les Etats Generaux etant jointes á celles du Roy Catholique leur nombre sera suffisant pour la deffense des Paîs-bas car on n'a pas dessein de se repandre dans le paîs de s'y elargir ni de paroitre maitre de la campagne V. E. voit que quand il luy plaira quinze jours de tems la rendront maitresse de dix mille hommes de Troupes des Etats Generaux á l'egard du Roy mon Maitre quoy que le terme ne soit ni exprimé ni precisement specifié il me semble pourtant que V. E. ne peut former de difficultez sur cela Car ces mots Au plustot que faire se pourra emportent bien un terme limité quelque court qu'on veuille le sousentendre personne n'ayant jamais exigé une chose plutôt qu'elle ne se peut faire J'avoüeray que les ordres pleins pouvoirs de la Reine Regente d'Espagne qui nous ont eté communiqués par l' Ambassadeur Gamarra ne faisants aucune mention de cette petite difference je n'en avois pas donné avis á sa Majesté me croyant assés muni assés autorisé par mes pleins pouvoirs pour signer le même projet qui avoit eté envoye en Angleterre aussi bien qu'en Espagne J'espere que dés que V. E. aura depeché les Pouvoirs á l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne de delivrer l'argent il n'y aura plus de difficulté á la signature du Projet tel qu'il luy a eté communiqué Et autant que je le puis juger sur tout par rapport au Ministre de Suede je ne croy plus que cette affaire trouve de retardement C'est dequoy j'ay voulu donner avis á V. E. C'est á elle á en user selon sa prudence les interets de son Roy á m'estimer comme je suis c. To Sir John Trevor Hague Jan. 24. S. N. 1670. SIR I Am to acknowledge yours of the 7th with an enclosed to Monsieur Van Beuninghen which I have sent to Amsterdam having first perused it as you pleased to give me leave I shall say nothing upon it till I have spoken with him and seen how we agree in Matter of Fact Because the Weight of all seems to lie upon the use of those privative Contracts to the Exclusion of our Trade having been disowned if not invalidated by the Treaty between the two Nations after the first War and upon the Practice having been exercised accordingly for several Years after and till within few Years of our second War Which two Points if they can be evidenced by the Treaty and by sufficient Testimonies of the subsequent Practice we have certainly all the Reason in the World for our Demands But if we must rely upon the common Equity in Freedom of Traffick between Friends we are engaged in the Question upon which we cannot yet agree whether the same Rules are current in the Indies as in Europe To which I suppose we shall hardly our selves consent if the West must be comprehended as well as the East But I shall be able to say more upon this when I have got a Sight of the Treaty after the first War and heard Monsieur Van Beuninghen upon your Letter And in the mean time shall assure you of all the Offices I can possibly render towards
the obtaining of what we pretend I can add nothing to my last upon the Business of Surinam being engaged in my Endeavours of disposing those of Zeland to let it pass smooth when it comes to the States General Such Stops being easier prevented than removed while Men are so apt to persist in what they have once said In the mean Time the Pensioner of Zeland presses me to procure the Names of such as his Majesty intends to employ as Commissioners before the Orders here are consigned me according as they desired in their last Letter Wherein you may observe the Names of three Men to be inserted on purpose that his Majesty might decline them in this Commission If you please to send me the Names I suppose it may be necessary to the expediting of these Orders unless you should think of any Inconvenience in it which occurs not to me In Pursuit of the late Conferences whereof I gave you Account in my last we have agreed upon this enclosed Project to be sent the Constable as that which he may hope will be signed upon the Mony being paid and wherein I am sure there is not any Thing of the least moment changed as to what concerns his Majesty though the changing of the Form that you sent me could not be avoided because it was without Introduction or Conclusion and besides it went a Step further than the Suedish Minister was willing to do in making it an Act to the Spaniards whereas this runs only as an Instrument between themselves of which the Spanish Ministers are to have only an Authentick Copy And since the Suedes had rather have it this way I thought best to agree with them at least if the Spaniards will be contented with it But I would not be induced to engage his Majesty in point of Time though I was never press'd with more Earnestness to any Thing both by the Spaniards and by the Dutch who sent their Deputies twice to persuade me to it because they were unwilling to leave the Constable that way of escaping us And to say the Truth in my own Judgment I thought it very little material but I had no Orders to go further in it and have to the Spaniards taken upon my self the not having given his Majesty any notice of that Pretension early enough to have it included in my Powers as you will see by the inclosed Copy of the Letter I yesterday wrote the Constable in Conjunction with another from the States to press Conclusion in this Affair For particular Occurrents I refer to what goes to Mr. Cook being unwilling to charge my self with the Credit of current News which I have ever found so uncertain that a Man may be considered more for what he does not write than what he does Yet I will trouble you with two small Matters whether they deserve it or no. Monsieur de Rohan Brother to the Duke de Mombaçon having sold his Place of Grand Veneur for four hundred and odd thousand Livres came hither last Week to dispose of a hundred thousand Crowns in this Country tho' Interest is not half so high as in France and has done it Which I reflected on because I had heard formerly he was a Person as well with his Master as almost any at Court There was executed this Week at Amsterdam a Person of very good Quality and Credit among them only for having engaged the Copies of an Obligation he had from the Admiralty instead of the Original to some Persons from whom he took up Mony upon them And tho' he was Nephew to one of the Burgomasters of that Town and Brother to the Treasurer of Zealand and all the Instances that could be were made for having him condemned all his Life to a Hole where he could neither see nor stir with offer of repaying all the Mony he had taken up And afterwards a thousand Pounds would have been given to have had him executed in Prison yet he could not escape losing his Head with the common Forms in Publick to the Loss of his Creditors who were as much concerned to save him as his Friends Which I observed as a remarkable Strain of the Justice here so much different from the Style of most other Places I am Sir c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Feb. 7. S. N. 1670. My LORD SINCE my last I have received your Lordship 's of the 28th past and doubt not but before this arrives you will be fully satisfied by the late Accounts I have given of our Progress here towards the Conclusion of what had so long depended between Us and the Spanish Ministers I cannot yet say the Mony is paid but I see nothing that wants towards it only the adjusting of that Conjunction demanded by the Constable of Merchants at Antwerp For the Spanish Dealings are in so ill Credit that 't is hard to find any who will give Caution for such a Sum to the Spaniards and in their own Dominions where they can plead and judge themselves I believe the States must at last engage to the Merchants here that they will indemnify them from all that shall fall out on this Occasion though after the Arrival of the Ratifications from England and Sueden the Spaniards should make a Querelle d'Allmand with their Correspondents at Antwerp and force them to any Prejudice without any Pretence I gave Monsieur de Witt the first News of the French King's Declaration to remit the Judgments of the Differences depending on the Peace to his Majesty's and the Crown of Sueden's Arbitration He thought the leaving out the States was something discourteous on the French side but said however he was very glad of the Thing being done and hoped as the Business should receive no Hurt by any Resentment on their Side so it would receive none on our Side by any Effect of the great Cajolry of France especially since this Resolution appeared by the Time to have another Source than only the Civility or Deference of that Court towards his Majesty I doubt the Confidence in this Declaration will stop the Levies which were intended for this Spring though these Ministers are not the most believing in the French Promises and I am not very confident the Effect of this last may not be spoiled by some unreasonable Answer from Spain upon it having been confirmed in such a Suspicion by the Baron d'Isola's Opinion who told me he would write to the Marquess Castel-Rodrigo to advise that the Queen should accept this Offer of France * Provided the most Christian King would refer to the same Arbitrage all the Contraventions of the Peace whereof Spain complain'd at the Conference of Lisle Pourveu que le Roy tres-Chrêtien remettroit au méme Arbitrage toutes les Contreventions de la Paix dont l'Espagne s'estoit plaint á la Conference de Lisle Which concerns the Spoils of Burgundy and which France would never admit to give jointly in the Conference with their Pretensions about
Lordship the Assurances how great a part I take in all your Fortunes and consequently how much I have shared in the general Satisfaction which I hear you have both left in England and found in Ireland upon your late entring upon the Government of that Kingdom I am not only much pleased with it upon a private Score as one of your Lordship's Servants but as having always had the best Wishes for the publick Good of that Country and his Majesty's Service in the Establishment of it Both which will I am confident thrive very much in your Lordship's Hands not only in regard of the great Experience and Abilities which are so generally allowed you but because you are too Rich as well as too Generous to lose the Merit and Glory of great and honest Actions in the Cares of your own private Fortunes For this has too often given an Alloy both to the Worth and Success of several of your Lordship's Predecessors and contributed chiefly to the Unhappiness of the Governors as well as of the Country both which I hope you will have the Honour to restore I cannot but observe to your Lordship That I find by a general Consent of the Merchants here that Ireland runs every Year an eighth part in Debt by Importing so much beyond its Exportation which being to be drawn out in Coin will be a certain though slow Consumption of the Treasure of that Kingdom unless remedied by Sumptuary Laws or Examples for lessening the Importation of Foreign Commodities or else Industry for increasing the Native which are either consumed at home or carried abroad The first is like Diet but the other like Exercise to an indisposed Body which is the way of acquiring Strength and Vigor whereas the former gives but barely Health I believe the two great Improvements to be made in Ireland are of the Fishing and the Linnen Trade This to keep our Mony at home and That to fetch more in from abroad If your Lordship thinks these Particulars worth your Care and that I can contribute toward them by any Lights and Assistances from hence I shall be glad upon that or any other Occasion to receive your Commands I have given my Secretary Order to make an Extract of the News which either arises here or comes to me by Letters from Foreign Parts which shall go Weekly to you if you think it worth the Trouble and will please in return to do me the Justice of esteeming me what I am with much Truth and Passion My LORD Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 3. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS extream glad to find by your Lordship 's of the 16th past some Assurance of your Recovery And whatever the Name of your Illness was will believe the Nature of it could not be very bad since it left you so soon After which I will trouble you no more with my Remedies nor shall I need any my self after so great a one as your Lordship has given me by the Knowledge of your own and my Lady's Health For which I make you my particular Acknowledgments By observing the Winds I guess Monsieur Van Beuninghen will before this arrives have given your Lordship the Account himself of his leaving the Hague on Sunday-night and setting Sail I suppose on Monday-evening unless Madam Honywood made him stay some Hours longer who had appointed to be with him by that time from Amsterdam I will say nothing in Favour of her Pretension but that she is Daughter to the ancientest Burgomaster of Amsterdam who has expressed the greatest Passion of any other of the States in Favour of the Prince of Orange's late Concernment and may perhaps thereby deserve some Mark of his Majesty's Favour which I assure you I say wholly of my self For my good Offices in her Business were not at all thought worth engaging since Monsieur Van Beuninghen undertook it as I suppose he has done by their joining Company Your Lordship will find nothing to lessen your Esteem of his Person unless it be that he is not always so willing to Hear as to be Heard and out of the abundance of his Imagination is apt sometimes to Reason a Man to Death Which I tell your Lordship before-hand that you may not fall into any Prejudice before you know him well And on the other Side I have taken some Care to prevent his employing that Talent too much in your Conversations For the rest you will find him Fort honnête homme one that puts all the Good of his Country upon maintaining and cultivating his Majesty's Alliance and who upon the Prince's Occasion will deserve the good Will of our Court. For his manner of Negotiating I am confident you will find him not ill-bred nor offering to impose his Measures as you call them upon us But after any Propositions and Reasons he shall lay before you will rather tell you that you are Masters of all and that the States will in all Things that concern our Neighbours perfectly follow those his Majesty shall take Whatever Reception the State 's Proposal about the Algerins meets with in England I wish to God some better Order were taken for preserving our Honour in the Mediterranean For what with the ill Conduct of our Captains that they say will turn Merchants leaving our Merchants to play the Men of War and with the late shameless Loss of the Saphire I assure your Lordship the Reputation of our Sea-Affairs and Men decays abroad to a Degree that is very sensible I am sure to me and I doubt will hardly recover without some new and severe Discipline or Examples The Prince of Orange was introduced into the Council of State on Saturday last and with the Circumstances which he is very well pleased with He resolves upon his Journy into England about the latter End of this Month or beginning of next But will not fix the Time till the Pensioner's Return from Groningue about ten Days hence I am my Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 17. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to hear this Morning of your Lordship's being well arrived in Town where I hope the Diversions of your late Journy have returned you with such an Encrease of Health as is necessary for the Support of your great Affairs Y para mi consuelo Many French have lately pass'd this Way since the Return of that Court some who attended Madame into England and extreamly applauded her Reception there and his Majesty's great Graciousness to those of her Train The Count d'Estrades came likewise three Days since but I think barely on a Visit to his old Home or if he has any Business it is particular and at Amsterdam I find they all agree in assuring Us of the Peace as long as we can assure Them of the King of Spain's Life But in giving us fair Warning that whenever that fails their Master will march into the rest
of Flanders without any Circumstance and possess himself of it if he can This Knowledge and that of the King of Spain's late Sickness have given Them some Perplexity here which is much relieved by this Days News of his Recovery But we find nothing yet towards the Redress of the late untoward Answer upon the Arâ—â—â—age The Prince of Orange continues still the Talk as well as the Desires of his Journy into England But has of late been very earnest to know my Opinion whether he be like to procure any Satisfaction in his Pretensions there saying as I guess Industriously that all his best Friends here are of Opinion that in Case that should wholly fail him his Journy into England would prove of great Prejudice to his Affairs here by letting his Friends see how little he is considered by his Majesty whose Countenance will be a great Support to him in the Course of his Fortunes I durst not offer his Highness the least Judgment of my own upon this Matter assuring him I was wholly ignorant of all his Majesty's Affairs besides what related to this Country and particularly of the present State of his Revenue or how much the late Supplies have contributed towards the Ease of it Upon which the Prince seemed very desirous that I would touch this Point to your Lordship so as to have your Thoughts upon it before he goes This I suppose proceeds chiefly from the Princess Dowager who declared her Opinion positively to me some Weeks ago upon this Matter to the same purpose and I hear persists in it which yet she does not in all Things For I can assure your Lordship she now professes to be the most satisfied that can be with my Conduct in relation to the Prince and makes me more Acknowledgments than are fit for me to receive since I pretend only not to have spoiled his Business which it had been the easiest Thing in the World for an English Minister here to have done I wish to God he do nothing towards the Prejudice of it himself by Advice of younger or warmer Heads For this is a Country where Fruit ripens slowly and cannot be preserved if it be gathered green I am very confident from his last as well as the present Dispositions I here discern that his Fortunes are in his own Hands and I hope he will make great Advantages in the Conduct of them by your Lordship's Advices when he sees you in England of whose Prudence and Virtues he will go over with a very full Persuasion Monsieur de Witt returned yesterday to Town after fifteen Days Absence at Groningue about the composing some Differences in that Province * This was a Year or two before he was massacred There is a violent Humour runs against him of late in the Town of Amsterdam upon Pretext of his growing too far into the Sway of all Affairs in this State by so long a Ministry and of advancing his own Friends into Offices and Places of Trust with too much Industry But I suppose the Bottom of this is the same with that of all Popular Humours That is a design in the Leaders to change the Scene that so those who have been long employ'd may make Room for those who have been long out I am not of Opinion they will succeed to prejudice him suddenly both because his chief Enemies acknowledge his great Abilities and Vsefulness to the State and because he will always have it in his Power to fall in very considerably with the Prince's Interest which the other Party pretends to promote Though in such a Case his Highness would have a hard Choice with which Wind to sail As indeed he is likely to fall into Conjunctures here that will require all his Prudence I thought fit to say thus much at once to your Lordship that so you may the better know what to make of twenty Reports that may arise upon these Occasions Tho' it will I think after all be our Parts both in England and here to seem the least we can concerned in them further than our Wishes to the perfect Union of a State we are so near allied to which we may I suppose own our Opinion of that it will never be compassed but by taking in the Prince's Interests as far as can consist with the Liberty of the State And making such a Person of him as may in Title Expence and other Circumstances represent the Dignity of their Commonwealth I am ever My Lord your c. To the Earl of Northumberland Hague Jun. 17. S. N. 1670. My LORD BY the same Post which brought me the Honour of a late Letter from your Lordship I received from other Hands the News of my Lord of Northumberland's having left you to the Succession of all his Honours and Fortunes Which gives me the Occasion of acknowledging your Lordship's Favour and Memory and at the same time of condoling with you upon the Loss of a Father whose great Virtues and Qualities must needs have made so many Sharers with you in this Affliction I hope the Help which is given your Lordship by so many of your Servants and Friends upon this Occasion will serve to ease your own Part in it And that after all that can be offered up to Decency and to the Memory of so great and excellent a Person this will find your Lordship rather taken up with the Imitation of his Virtues than the bewailing of his Loss Since this is but what he owed to Nature and to Age and to the Course of long Infirmities and the other is what will be due from your Lordship all your Life to your Birth your Family and your Self Nor indeed can ever so much depend upon so few Paces as will now upon those your Lordship shall make at your first setting out Since all Men will be presaging by Them the Course of your Journy as they will have indeed Influence upon the Ease as well as the Direction of it For my own Part I expect a great Increase of your Lordship's Personal Honour upon this Occasion And that having been so excellent a Son of a Family you will shew your self the same in being now a Father of it since nothing makes Men fit to Command like having learnt to Obey and the same good Sense and good Dispositions make Men succeed well in all the several Offices of Life Those I know will be your Lordship's Safety in entring upon a Scene where you will find many Examples to avoid and few to imitate For I have yet seen none so generally corrupted as Ours at this Time by a common Pride and Affectation of despising and laughing at all Face of Order and Virtue and Conformity to Laws which after all are Qualities that most conduce both to the Happiness of a Publick State and the Ease of a Private Life But your Lordship will I hope make a great Example instead of needing other than those of your own Family to which so much Honour
souvent necessaire de negotier d'avoir quelque chose á demêler avec le Gouverneur de Flandres je seray fort aise d'avoir une liaison d'affaires avec celuy avec qui j'ay deja des liaisons d'amitié je me felicite d'avoir á faire á un sage dispensateur qui m'a deja donné tant de marques de sa noble judicieuse maniere d'agir Avec quelle joye n'ay je point vû votre penchant particulier á affermir l'alliance entre les deux Couronnes de nos Maitres votre inclination á avancer des interêts qui ne tendent aujourdhuy qu'á procurer le bonheur le repos de la Chretientié Comme sa Majesté ceux de la Triple Alliance ont fort a coeur l'et at des affaires de Flandres aussi bien que la Couronne d'Espagne je me fais un plaisir de penser que par la bonne conduite de V.E. on fera enfin quelque bon reglement touchant la milice des Pais bas qu'en même tems on mettra fin aux plaintes aux miscres des habitans puis qu'un Gouvernement n'est jamais si sûrement etabli que lors qu'il a son fiege dans le coeur des Sujets Rien n'est si difficile á ebranler qu'un Etat ou la multitude du peuple aussi bien que la Noblesse n'apperçoit point d'avantage dans un changement Je ne doute point que V. E. ne se soit deja proposé toutes ces fins qu'elle n'y reussisse ayant une elevation d'ame assés grande pour n'y laisser point entrer ses propres passions ni aucun interêt personel Vne telle conduite ne luy sera pas moins glorieuse qu'elle sera utile pour la Chretienté outre le profit que l'Espagne en tirera elle luy sauvera le soin de songer á un nouveau Gouverneur luy fera prendre le parti de prolonger un si heureux interim Mes voeux ne manqueront jamais á V. E. mes services seconderont mes voeux toutes les fois qu'ils luy seront necessaires car il n'y a personne qui soit avec plus d'estime de verité que je suis Monsieur Votre c. To Sir John Trevor Hague July 29. S. N. 1670. SIR I AM to acknowledge one from you of the 12th and hope the Dutch Captain you therein mention is before this time arrived and will prove what you desire him and thereby deserve the Encouragement you intend him I know not why Monsieur Van Beuninghen should at present receive the Proposition concerning the Emperor's Admission since Monsieur confesses he thinks there will be Difficulties made in it by the Emperor himself who has not yet declared himself to the Elector of Mentz nor I believe to the Baron d'Isola neither tho' it be true what you observe that it ought to be authentickly demanded on that Side I hear no Hopes at all from France of admitting this State into a Part of the Arbitrage So that if Spain persists in the Demand of it as France no doubt will do in the Refusal we shall be as much to seek in the End of the Year as we were in the beginning For what concerns the Commands I received about the three Scotch Ministers though I cannot find out their present Abodes yet I question not to obtain what is desired against them There can only be one Scruple if these States will adhere strictly to the Treaty which is the Authentick Knowledge of their being declared Rebels by his Majesty which I should be glad to know if it be so tho' I shall in the mean time pursue it as if I expected no further Informations I have so far press'd them here upon assenting to the last Paper transmitted by Monsieur Van Beuninghen upon the Affair of Surinam that the States of Holland have agreed to it and appointed three Persons to endeavour either to dispose or to quiet the Zelanders and to pass it in the States General and I hope it will succeed the Town of Amsterdam concerning themselves particularly in it for the Support of Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Credit The Assembly of the States of Holland will separate on Friday next and are yet likely to agree in the long agitated Impositions upon the French Commodities before they part the Town of Rotterdam having as I hear this day at length assented but with Condition that it shall not be executed till after Monsieur de Groot's Arrival in France and account from thence whether that King be disposed to dispence with the late Rigors there used for discouraging all Dutch Commodities Though nothing has been yet mentioned this Assembly concerning the Prince yet I am made believe they may before they part settle a Pension upon him though a small one of twenty four or thirty thousand Franks a Year being only in Consideration of his Session in the Council of State I am always Sir your c. To Sir John Trevor Hague Aug. 12. S. N. 1670. SIR SINCE my last the States Agent brought me a Copy of the Letter they had agreed on to the Governor of Surinam which I suppose they delay'd till about the Time of their dispatching it away because they knew I would except against the Limitation given to Major Bannister's landing though they assure me the Governor shall have Orders not to hinder it without very evident Knowledge of the ill Consequence it may have upon the Peace of the Colony and that the Zelanders were so sharp in this Point that they could not pass it in any other Form I have likewise since my last been assured from the several Ministers here that the Orders I desire concerning the Scotch Ministers would be granted But that the Thing being proposed to the States of Holland then assembled whom it most concerned the Persons being supposed to be in their Province several of the Deputies declared they would not resolve without communicating it first to their Towns among whom those of Rotterdam were the chief But their Pensioner Monsieur de Groot upon his departure from hence last Saturday towards France assured me of his Endeavors to clear all Scruples in it before he left that Town I have since received your Commands in one of the 24th past concerning * Mentioned in the Histories of K. Charles I. for removing that King by force from Holmeby Cornet Joyce to which I can yet make no return Monsieur de Witt being out of Town and not expected till to Morrow And I must first break it to him by whom I can best know what I may hope for from the States in it and withal contrive how it may pass with such Circumstances of Secrecy that the Noise may not go before the Shot By the next I hope to give you an Account how I am likely to succeed and in the mean
of such Counsels as they esteem most Just and Safe at least if we are not in Condition to think so far as Glorious Multa dies variusque Labor mutabilis Aevi Detulit in melius We have nothing new nor material in present Agitation upon this Scene The last little Commission I had was as troublesome as unsuccessful and proceeded certainly in the Manner of it from want of knowing or considering the Constitutions of this Government which makes me confident your Lordship had no Part in directing it no more than my Lord Arlington who was out of Town I wish your Lordship perfect Health and Satisfaction and that when neither of these make it necessary you may not be too much at your Country-House Tho' in all Places I shall be ever with equal Constancy and Truth My LORD Your Lordship's c. To the Duke of Buckingham Hague Aug. 21. S. N. 1670. My LORD AS your Grace will I hope meet with many new Entertainments on this Side the Water so you must I fear be content with some new Troubles For both usually happen upon all Changes I wish your Grace all that can be of the first and should not have given you any of the other but to rejoice with you upon your happy Arrival at Paris From so little and so barren a Scene as this is at present I cannot offer at informing your Grace of any Thing especially since Men expect here to receive all their material Informations from your Motions where you now are and from what shall succeed them at your Return But to leave these People in their doubtful and mystical Reflections I shall not interrupt either your Grace's Business or Leisure with any Thing but what is plain and certain for nothing is more so than that I am with equal Passion and Truth My LORD Your Grace's most obedient and most humble Servant To my Lord Falconbridge Hague Aug. 22. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to find by your Lordship 's of the first current that the Suddenness of your Return therein mentioned was owing to the Dispatch of your Business in Italy and to the Care of your Health and consequently that you receive from it both Honour and Satisfaction I shall esteem it a great deal of both to me if you continue so favourable Intentions as you express of taking this Place in your way where your Lordship may promise your self whatever my Services can be worth to you I expect my Lord of Essex with my Lady here every Day unless they have changed their Design since their Arrival at Hamburgh where they came about ten Days since after my Lord's having dispatch'd all his Affairs in the Danish Court Our Treaty with Spain for regulating the Affairs of the Indies came signed to London last Week from whence I doubt not it will be suddenly remitted with its Ratification All here is in great Quiet and Silence and like to continue so unless France furnish us with some new Discourse I have hitherto writ by Mr. Perwich's Conveyance but chuse to send this by Sir John Finch's who is like to be a nearer Observer of your Motions But I will not give your Lordship a long and an empty Interruption which has little else to bear it out besides the Profession of my being My LORD Your Lordship 's most faithful humble Servant To the Great Duke of Tuscany Hague Aug. 25. S. N. 1670. SIR I Received almost at the same time the Honour of two Letters from your most Serene Highness one of March the 31st with an entire Vintage of the finest Wines of Italy and the other of the 5th Instant with your Highness's Condolences upon the Death of Madame The great Delay of the Ship that brought the Wine and your Highness's great Dispatch to make a Compliment so sad and so obliging were the cause that two Letters of so different date arrived almost together For I have very much reason to commend the Diligence of Monsieur Ferroni in conveying me all your Highness's Favours I find the Wines admirable and seeming to resemble their Prince in having lost nothing of their natural Tast or Goodness by the length of their Voyage or the Extreams of Heats or of Colds And herein I am more obliged to your Highness than you imagine not only for having made me tast the Delights of so fine a Climate in so miserable a one as this but also for having by the same Means given me the Talent of a Drinker a Quality I wanted very much to acquit my self of an Ambassy in Holland I cannot tell whether your Highness by your moving Expressions upon the Deplorable Death of Madame has more discovered the Beauty of your Wit or the Greatness of your Affection to the King my Master Therefore I hope your Highness will not take it ill that I have sent his Majesty a Copy of your last Letter by which you have given such sensible Proofs of the Part you take in whatever happens to the Royal Family The States General are very much surprized at the News brought them this Day from France in an Express sent them from their Minister at Paris which assures them of the march of the French Troops towards the Frontier to the number of 30000 where they are to rendezvous at Peronne But it is not yet known whether their Design be upon Flanders or this Country or whether they project any other Measures However the Alarm is here so great that they have immediately resolved to continue six thousand Men which they were just going to disband They have also ordered the Council of State to compute what Forces and Provisions they shall judge necessary in case of a Rupture with France and have dispatched a Boat from Scheveling to England with Orders to Monsieur Van Beuninghen who is upon the Point of departing to stay till further Orders from the States For my self I know not what to judge of these Appearances I shall ever complain of any Events that are like to endanger the Quiet of Christendom to which I have for some time under the Orders of his Majesty dedicated all my Cares And without doubt if the War opens at present great Conjunctures will arise whereof perhaps there will be Reason to give your Highness Joy not for being out of the Noise of them but because great Princes only wait for great Occasions I am Sir Your Highness's c. Au Grand Duc de Toscane De la Haye le 25 Aout S. N. 1670. Monsieur J'Ay quasi reçû en meme tems les deux Lettres que V. A. Sme m'a fait l'honneur de m'ecrire l'une datée du 31 de Mars accompagnée des plus riches vendanges d'Italie je veux dire de ses vins les plus exquis l'autre du 5 du courant avec les complimens de condoleance de V. A. sur la mort de Madame Le long retardement de navire qui a apporté les vins
the Chevalier de la Fourrille who had been dispatch'd secretly from Court some Days before the breaking up of the Camp at St. Germains and with the Troops quartered near the Borders of Lorrain made a sudden March into that Country and seized upon the City of Nancy and that by so unexpected and quick an Attempt that he failed very little of surprizing the Person of the Duke and had taken the Dutchess That the Duke escaping had retired to a small but strong Place called Bidsch where he busied himself in assembling what Forces he could for his Defence That the Mareschal de Crequy being dispatch'd from Paris had met this News upon the way and returned with it to Court from whence he was dispatch'd in haste the second time to Lorrain That the French Camp near St. Germains was marched towards Peronne under the Command of Monsieur Vaubrun but that by Orders sent after them upon the way they were to be divided into two Bodies of which one was to march away to the Mareschal de Crequy in Lorrain and the other towards Sedan where they should make a stand and face any Attempts that might be designed from Flanders or this Country towards interrupting the Success of their Affairs in Lorrain Monsieur de Witt told me further That the States having considered these Advices had ordered them the Commissioners immediately to acquaint me with them And further that though the States esteemed it a Matter of so great Importance that all the Parties of the Triple Alliance ought to concern themselves in it as wholly destructive to those Ends of conserving the Spanish Dominions which were mutually proposed in the said Alliance yet they the States should not nor indeed could not proceed to any Resolutions thereupon without first knowing those of his Majesty and being assured of his vigorous Conjunction And hereupon they desired me to give his Majesty Notice immediately by an Express to the End that I might know his Sense and Intentions upon this Conjuncture or at least be instructed to confer with the States upon it After this much was enlarged by Monsieur de Witt and the Commissioners concerning the very great Importance of the Seizure of Lorrain as the cutting off Burgundy wholly from the rest of the Spanish Dominions as well as all further Communication between any of the Netherlands and many of the Princes of Germany with the Suitzers So as they compared Lorrain to a Cittadel in a Town from which all the rest would be commanded at pleasure They added That the Dutchy of Luxemburg would be in a manner block'd up and maimed in their mutual Assistance with the rest of the Spanish Provinces That the Electors of Mentz and Tryers would have the French Feet upon their Throats And consequently that whenever France should begin with Flanders after the Possession of Lorrain the County of Burgundy would be their own in an Hour and Flanders in a very short Time without greater and readier Assistances than there seemed to be any reasonable Hopes for After this they told me They had received likewise a new Account by this Post of all the French Preparations at Sea and the present Estate of their own Fleet of which they gave me this inclosed List And by all I can gather from their Discourses I judge they are capable of any vigorous Resolution that his Majesty should think fit to inspire them in Conjunction with us But that without it they are resolved as they express it * To leave it to God and to see the French at their doors without stirring a-foot De laisser agir au bon Dieu de voir la France á leurs Portes sans se remuer Upon all which they pretend that the Disposal and Ballance at this Time of all Affairs in these Parts of Christendom lie before his Majesty from whom both the Empire and Spain as well as Sueden and this State will receive their Measures Three Days since the Baron d'Isola was with me to communicate a Letter he had newly received from the Emperor declaring his Resolution to join with the Triple Alliance in the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix which he desired me to give his Majesty part of by the Post But having told me at the same time that he resolved to give your Lordship the same Account I omit to trouble you with any further Particulars He came to me again just upon the Close of what I have written and shewed me a Letter from Monsieur Louvigni at Brussels containing the Particulars of what has hapned in Lorrain and little different from those I had before received by Monsieur de Witt only that the Duke of Lorrain resolved to retire with all his Forces into the Mountains and hopes to defend himself some time provided he might be sure of not being abandoned I am ever my Lord your c. To my Lord Keeper Hague Sept. .... S. N. 1670. My LORD I Lately gave my Lord Arlington the Account which was given me by the States Commissioners of the Seizure of Lorrain with their Reflections upon it and the Consequences it must needs have upon all the Affairs of Christendom and their Desires of my communicating all from them with Speed and Care to his Majesty which I did I have since received by last Post and by a Letter from his Lordship the King's Orders for my immediate Repair into England and for my acquainting the States with it and that it is only with Intentions of my informing his Majesty better in the several Points that concern the present Conjunctures of my Station here This I have done in a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I found him at first very pensive upon the News of it and apt to reflect upon this hapning so soon and unexpectedly after the late Seizure of Lorrain and both after the many Delays and Difficulties raised by us as he apprehends in admitting the Emperor to the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix in conjuction with the Triple Alliance which we formerly so much desired He remembred at the same time the many Instances we have made for many Months past about such a Trifle as the carrying off our Planters from Surinam whom he takes by the Articles to become their Subjects and the invincible Difficulties in which we have engaged Matters between our East-India Companies in which he says he is assured our Merchants have no Part but as they are instigated by some Persons at Court whose ill Intentions he fears towards the late Alliances contracted between his Majesty and these States both for our own mutual Safety and that of all Christendom He reflected upon a Coldness in all our Negotiations of that kind ever since Madame's Journy into England and upon the late Journy of the Duke of Buckingham's to Paris which he could not think was * To see the Country or learn the Language Pour voir le Pais ou apprendre la langue And desired I would
tell him what I could make of all this laid together For on the one side there were Circumstances enough to awake a suspicious Man and on the other side he could never think it possible for any Nation or Court it self to quit so certain a Point of Interest and great a Point of Honour as must be forfeited by our breaking our Alliances with this State or entring into any with France whose Greatness had occasioned our Measures for our own as well as our Neighbour's Defence He said I knew the best of any how all these Matters had pass'd How his Majesty had engaged these States in those common Measures and even prevailed with them to make a Sacrifice of the ancient Kindness and Alliance this State had always before with France to the Considerations of the present Danger from the Greatness of that Crown to the rest of Christendom though they might have had what Terms they pleased from them for the dividing of Flanders That I knew with how inviolate Faith and Firmness the States had constantly observed for these two Years past their Friendship and Alliances with his Majesty and how great a Part I had in contracting and pursuing them by the particular Confidence the States and He especially had in my Person as one that was persuaded of our common Interests that knew my Master's Mind and would not be an Instrument to deceive those that trusted me For these Reasons he said he desired to know my Opinion upon this whole Matter especially that of my Journy into England which he said would be very surprizing to every Body here and therefore he would be glad to give the News of it to the States in the best manner he could I protested to him that I had hitherto received constant Assurances from both the Secretaries of State of his Majesty's Resolutions to observe constantly the Measures in which he was engaged to this State And that I knew not a Word more of the Reasons of my sudden Journy into England than what I had told him That I had Orders to leave my Family behind me And that his Majesty might possibly think it necessary for his Information to speak with me upon the present Conjunctures and to return me immediately according to my Lord Arlington's Letter That I confessed I was apt to make many of those Reflections that he had done but could not believe it possible for any Crown ever to enter into Councils so destructive to their Honour and Safety as those he suspected That if such a Thing should ever happen I desired him to remember what I told him upon the Scruples he had made in trusting our Court upon the Negotiations of the Triple Alliance Which was that I told him then what I thought of his Majesty's Dispositions and Resolutions as well as those of his Ministers That I could not believe it possible for them to change in a Point of so evident Interest and which would be so understood by the whole Nation That however I could answer for nobody besides my self but this I would and that if ever such a Thing should happen I would never have any Part in it That I had told the King so as well as him and would make it good That for the present there was nothing more to be said but that I must go away for England That if I returned he would know more and I doubted by what he said that he would guess more if I returned not Monsieur de Witt smiled and said I was in the right That in the mean time he would try to cure himself and Others of all Suspicions upon my Journy And would hope on t'other side it might be of use to the common Interests by possessing his Majesty of the great Importance of the late Seisure of Lorrain and of the States Resolutions to stick close to him in all Measures he should take upon it And so we parted I would have gone away immediately upon this Summons but that it found me very ill and uncertain whether it would end in a Fever as it seemed to begin but since a great Swelling fallen upon my Face I hope it may pass However being forced to delay my Journy some few Days I could not but give your Lordship this Account before-hand and leave it to you to make what use of it you think fit without expecting any Answer since I hope so soon to follow it But I know your Lordship fully persuaded of our Interest to preserve our Alliances here and the present Measures of Christendom which depend upon them And tho' you have said nothing yet to make me distrust our Counsels in that Matter yet I confess I have not the better Opinion of it from what I find of your Lordship's estranging your self of late or being estranged from the Consultations of them I have likewise reflected upon the kind Hint your Lordship gave me some time since of my Lord Arlington's not being the same to me which he had formerly been and constantly since our first Acquaintance Which made me I confess then doubt rather some Mistake in your Lordship's Observation than any Change in his Friendship or Dispositions From himself I must needs say I yet find nothing of it and tho' his Style seems a little changed in what concerns our Publick Affairs yet not at all in what is particular to me When I come into England I shall soon know the Truth of your Conjecture and tell it you because by that I shall judge the Truth of mine For having never said or done any Thing to deserve the least Change in his Lordship's Friendship to me since it first began I am sure if it happens it can be derived from nothing else but a Change he foresees in those Measures at Court which he has been with your Lordship so deeply engaged in and which he knows as well as your Lordship that I will never have any Part in the Councils of altering till I can be convinced that any others will be more for his Majesty's Honour and Safety All this I say in Confidence to your Lordship without touching any Word of it to my Lord Arlington or any other Person And shall increase this Trouble no further because I hope to have so soon the Honour of seeing you and assuring you a nearer way with how much Passion as well as Truth I am and shall be ever My Lord your Lordship 's c. To the Great Duke of Tuscany London Nov. 4. 1670. SIR I Should not have satisfied my self barely to resent all the Favours of your most Serene Highness and particularly the Honour of your last of September the 30th if I were any way capable of acknowledging them as I ought either by my Expressions or my Services But your Highness being pleased to oblige so many ways so unprofitable a Person can hope for no other Returns than the Pleasure of your own Generosity and the Devotion of a Heart so grateful as mine I
Holland and the mutual Interest both Nations had in it And concluded with wondâ—ing why the States should have shewed â—o much Difficulty upon those two Affairs of Surinam and the East-India Company wherein our Demands seemed so reasonable And how it came about that I had failed in compassing his Majesty's Satisfaction in those two Matters after having succeeded so much in all my other Negotiations I thought he might not have understood the Detail of those two Affairs and so deduced it to him with the Dutch Reasons which I confess seemed to me in many Points but too well grounded He seemed unsatisfied with them all and told me I must undertake that Matter again and bring it to a Period and asked me whether I did not think I could bring them to Reason I said plainly I believed I never could to what we called so and therefore was very unwilling to undertake it That I had spent all my Shot in vain and therefore thought their best way would be to employ some Person in it that had more Wit or Ability than I. Upon this he grew a little moved and replied That for my Wit and Ability they all knew I had enough and all the Question was whether I was willing to employ them upon this Occasion which so much concerned the King's Service and the Honour of the Nation Hereupon I told him how I had used my utmost Endeavours in it already how many Representations I had made the States how many Conferences I had had with their Commissioners how long and particular Accounts I had given them hitherto and how I had valued all the Reasons transmitted me from hence and how all to no purpose And being I confess a little heated after so long and unpleasant a Conversation as well as he I ask'd him in the Name of God what he thought a Man could do more Upon this in a great Rage he answered me Yes he would tell me what a Man might do more and what I ought to do more which was to let the King and all the World know how basely and unworthily the States had used him and to declare publickly how their Ministers were a Company of Rogues and Rascals and not fit for his Majesty or any other Prince to have any thing to do with And this was a Part that no Body could do so well as I. My Answer was very calm That I was not a Man fit to make Declarations That whenever I did upon any Occasion I should speak of all Men what I thought of them and so I should do of the States and the Ministers I had dealt with there which was all I could say of this Business And so our Conversation ended Upon all these Passages and some others not fit for a Letter I have fixed my Judgment of the Affairs and Counsels at present in Design or Deliberation here I apprehend Weather coming that I shall have no mind to be abroad in and therefore resolved to get a warm House over my Head as soon as I could And neither apprehend any Uneasiness of Mind or Fortune in the private Life I propose to my self unless some publick Revolutions should draw both upon me which cannot touch me alone and must be born like a common Calamity I cannot find them willing yet to end my Ambassy in Form or give me leave to send over for my Wife and Family which I easily apprehend the Reason of and must go through as well as I can tho' my Expence at the Hague be great and my Hopes little here of getting my Pay as I find Affairs go and Dispositions too in the Treasury where all is disposed in a manner by Sir Thomas Clifford In the mean time I have sent over for my Spanish Horse and intend to send a Groom away with him to Dublin in hopes you will be pleased with him I can be so with nothing more than the Occasions of expressing always that Duty wherewith I am Sir your c. To Monsieur de Witt. Sheen July 25. 1671. SIR BY yours of the 14th Instant I received the Marks you were pleased to give me of your Friendship and Memory which I value as I ought and as coming from a Person who has already acquired the Esteem of all the World and by that the Right of doing much Honour to others to whom he gives any Testimony of his own I can pretend to no other Part in it than what your Goodness gives me and am afraid that this may do Injury to your Judgment But knowing that your Opinion of me is solely founded upon your knowledge or my good Intentions I shall defend my self no longer because in this Age there is so little Honour in being a good Man that none are suspected to employ their Vanity about it any more than their Pursuits I should quit my Residence at the Hague with much Regret if I were of your Opinion in what regards me for I think I should be wholly useless there and find I am better turned for making a good Gard'ner than an able Minister However I shall ever bear much Respect and Esteem to those who are well qualified for the latter and therefore cannot fail of both for your Person in particular any more than of my Acknowledgments for your Civilities to me at the Hague whereof I shall ever preserve the Remembrance as well as the Passion wherewith I am SIR Your c. A Monsieur de Witt. De Sheen le 25 Juil 1671. Monsieur J'Ay reçû dans votre lettre du 14 de ce mois les marques que vous avez bien voulu me donner de votre souvenir de votre amitié je les estime ce qu'elles valent comme venant d'une personne qui s'est deja acquis l'estime de tout le monde par la le droit de faire beaucoup d'honneur en donnant des marques de la sienne Je n'y sçaurois pretendre d'autre part que celle que votre generosité m'y donne je crains même que cela ne fasse quelque tort á votre jugement Mais sachant que le bonne opinion que vous temoignez avoir de moy n'est fondee que sur la connoissance de mes bonnes intentions je ne veux plus me defendre car au reste dans un siecle comme le nôtre il y a trop peu de gloire á etre homme de bien pour s'attirer le soupçon d'avoir tourné se veues á ce coté lá borné sa vanité á si peu de chose Je quitterois avec beaucoup de regret le sejour de la Haye si j'avois de moy même l'opinion que vous voulez que j'en aye mon sentiment est que j'y serois tout-á fait inutile je me sens beaucoup plus propre á pratiquer l'art d'un bon jardinier que celuy d'habile Ministre J'auray pourtant toujours l'estime le respect qui sont dûs á eux qui savent bien ce dernier par lá je croy dire assez clairement que je n'en manqueray jamais pour vôtre personne en particulier Je say de plus quelle reconnoissance je dois á toutes les civilitez que j'ay receues de vous pendant mon sejour á la Haye mon coeur en conservera eternellement le souvenir ainsi que la passion avec laquelle je suis Monsieur Votre c. To Sir John Temple London Sept. 14. 1671. SIR I AM sure you will be pleased with knowing that my Wife and Family are safe arrived from Holland after a Passage that might very well have met with other Dangers besides those of Wind and Weather I could not obtain Leave to send for them till July though I had for some Months sollicited both That and the ending of my Ambassy But then his Majesty was pleased to grant me both that Liberty and also of writing to the States and to Monsieur de Witt to take my Leave of Them and end my Ambassy as upon my own Desire and my own private Occasions which were indeed enough to engage me in that Pursuit considering the Charge of maintaining an Ambassador's Family at the Hague while my Payments from the Exchequer went so heavy and so lame 'T is true I had other Reasons long about me which I kept to my self For soon after my coming over my Wife writ me Word That Monsieur Gioe the Danish Envoy there had told her in Confidence and out of Kindness to me that Monsieur Pompone the French Ambassador at the Hague had acquainted him That new Measures were taken between our Court and that of France among which one was that I should be recalled and return no more At the same time Monsieur de Witt had upon the Delays of my Return told my Secretary Mr. Blaithwait that he should take my stay or coming back for certain Signs of what the King's Intentions were towards the preserving or changing the Measures he had taken with the States And had desired him to let the Court know what he said This I suppose made them unwilling to make a Declaration by my recalling of what they intended upon this Occasion before all Things necessary were more fully agreed or better concerted Therefore they continued not only my Family there for so many Months and the Talk of my Return but entertained the Dutch Ministers here with such Language as gained in them an Opinion of our Measures still continuing firm upon the same Bottom and with such a Credulity as was enough to make one doubt whether they were willing to deceive their Masters or to be deceived themselves
Manner as well as the Matter we are to agree in that is whether a new Marine Treaty to be made with these Particulars to be digested into the Body of it or else those to be perfected in an Instrument by themselves as Additions to the Marine Treaty For the doing it with or without Commissioners I can say nothing since so great Authors are on both Sides but if both seem necessary one to the Substance and the other to the Form I was thinking whether two or more might not be joined in Commission with me to treat and conclude it with Commissioners of theirs and those to be acquainted before-hand with what was to be expected upon this Matter But I know not how our Expectation of having the Commissioners meet at London would be satisfied by their meeting at the Hague nor how Forms go in joining Commissioners to an Ambassador for a particular Business and so I leave it I am c. To the Duke of Buckingham Hague Oct. 12. S. N. 1668. My LORD THO' I could not think it became me to interrupt your Grace's Business or Entertainment by empty Letters and I know you have what Share you please of the constant Troubles my Lord Arlington receives upon the Account of my Negotiations here Yet having this Inclosed sent me to convey to your Grace I was in hopes a good Letter may keep an ill one a little in Countenance and bear me out in taking this Occasion of preserving my self in your Grace's Favour and Memory which I esteem among my best Possessions and should be glad to find ways of continuing them rather by serving than by troubling you Whilst I can do nothing towards the first I will do the less towards the other and content my self to assure your Grace in the Language of a plain Man that none can wish you happier than I do in the Course of your Fortunes and Honours nor rejoyce more in the Presages I make of both from those wise and generous Dispositions I left you in of employing those many great Talents and Advantages given you towards his Maiesty's and the Kingdom 's true Service and Happiness I am still of the Mind nothing is more necessary to both than the Continuance and Encrease of that Harmony which we used with so much Reason to wish so well to and which I think has at this time more Operation than that of the Spheres was thought to have upon the good Temper and Order of the World For I believe the Spring of all the Motions or Quiet we are like to see round about us lies in that Point and those Councils which proceed from it I beg your Grace's Pardon for this Trouble which I should not have begun but to end with my being My Lord Your Grace's most obedient and most humble Servant To the Constable of Castille Hague Oct. 19. S. N. 1668. My Lord HAving passed so much time and with so much Satisfaction to my Self in his Majesty's Service at Brussels 't is impossible for me to lose the Concern I have ever had for the Interest of that Country nor to avoid rejoycing with your Excellency upon your succeeding in the Government wishing you all Honour and Satisfaction as foreseeing many Advantages to his Catholick Majesty in so prudent a Choice But with the Plainness that has been always natural to me I must confess that it has not been at this time without some Regret that I have lost the Correspondence of a Governor of Flanders with whom I had contracted so great a Friendship and had so entire a Confidence finding my self in such a Conjuncture after having so disposed the States of Holland as to be confident of having it in my Power to do something if not something very considerable for the common Good and Repose of Christendom as well as for the Interest and Safety of the Spanish Monarchy if there were at present a Governor of Flanders that had full Powers joined with his own desires and Confidence between us to agree together in the Concert of such a Negotiation I doubt it will not look prudent to enter further into such Reasoning with your Excellency to whom I am so wholly unknown tho' perhaps you may have heard at Brussels that I am not a Man used to build Castles in the Air no more than to engage my self unseasonably in Affairs of this kind But your Excellency may believe me that at this time nothing is more absolutely necessary nor that more concerns the Interest of Spain than that absolute Powers should be sent either to your Excellency or some other Minister to treat and conclude with the three Allies and which is likewise as necessary for the pretended Satisfaction of the Suedes as for the Advantage in so much greater Proportion that it may be to Spain and the common Interest of Christendom The same that I say on one side to your Excellency I come from saying on the other to the Suedish Minister Resident here For 't is too plain to be seen that with the length of the Journies and Returns from Spain and Sueden nothing can be hoped for but the loss of Time and Occasions the first of which never returns to mortal Man and very rarely the other At least it is certain that if we do not this Winter make our Advantage of the present posture of Affairs for the common Good we are never again to hope for the same Occasion I beg of your Excellency That this Advice may be only to your self or those in Spain who are most concerned in it What is most necessary I have told your Excellency is to hasten the Powers and that needs no Consultation the rest Time will shew and 't is not necessary the Spanish Ministers here should concern themselves in it till the Powers come I engage my self to dispose things so here that whenever they arrive your Excellency shall be able to make the advantage of them for your Master and the Countries you govern Your Excellency will not look upon this Letter as coming from an Ambassador but from a Man extreamly desiring the Publick Good and that has been a little enlightned by having so much part in what has been design'd towards it And I hope will pardon my having entertained you so long in a Language that I begin now to forget and had never learnt well But I had no mind what I have here said to your Excellency should pass through another Hand Pray God preserve your Excellency and give me the Occasions of serving you I kiss your Excellency's Hands c. Al Condestable de Castilla De la Haye Oct. 19. S. N. 1668. Ex mo Senr. SEnnor mio Haviendo stado tanto tiempo y con tanto gusto a Brussellas de la parte del Rey mi Sennor no me es possible perder el encarecimento que he siempre tenido por las cosas y interesses deste pays ni dexar de dar a V. E. el parabien de su