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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	secretary_n	sir_n	thomas_n	3,258	5	9.1476	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64310	Letters written by Sir William Temple during his being ambassador at The Hague, to the Earl of Arlington and Sir John Trevor, Secretaries of State to K. Charles II wherein are discovered many secrets hitherto concealed / published from the originals, under Sir William Temple's own hand ; and dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Littleton, Speaker of the House of Commons, by D. Jones, Gent.; Correspondence. Selections	Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.; Jones, D. (David), fl. 1676-1720.	1699 (1699)	Wing T640; ESTC R16660	86,762	226

LETTERS WRITTEN By Sir William Temple During His being AMBASSADOR AT THE HAGUE TO THE Earl of Arlington and Sir Iohn Trevor Secretaries of State to K. Charles II. VVherein are discovered many Secrets hitherto concealed Publish'd from the Originals under Sir William Temple's own Hand And Dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Littleton Speaker of the House of Commons By D. Iones Gent LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by A. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1699. TO THE Right Honourable Sir Thomas Littleton Speaker of the House of Commons SIR THE following Letters containing the Particulars of some Part of the Foreign Negotiations of one of the Ablest and most Accomplish'd Ministers we had then in Being I 'll presume upon your Goodness to Pardon me in adventuring to Address them to your Honour since you move in so Publick a Sphear and are so competent a Judge both of their Use and Genuineness whereof had I not been more particularly assured I should not have been so Unjust to the World nor so wanting to my Self as thus to expose them to Light much less would I have been so Audacious as to prefix Your Name before them To these two Considerations Your Honour will allow me to beg the liberty to subjoin the Irresistible Weight Your Publick Usefulness has added to my Inclinations herein whereby I cannot forbear to give my poor Testimony this being the first Opportunity of the Veneration I have for those excellent Vertues that have enabled you to the no great Credit of some of Your Predecessors and Emulation of such as shall come after to carry it with so Even an Hand between Court and Country which however they have been distinguished are inseparable in their Interests and none but ill-minded Men will go about to disunite and that to their equal Benefit and mutual Satisfaction as well as suitable Return of both's Affection to you for it Insomuch that as the Philosopher of old indefinitely called Man Fibula Mundi in regard to his two constitutional Parts of Soul and Body whereby as it were Heaven and Earth the most distant and disagreeing Parts of the Universe were united into one Individuum So by a Peculiarity of Management in Your Honour you may as justly and truly this day in your Station be termed Fibula Angliae and that you may always continue to be so and a constant Ornament to the Chair you fill is as little doubted of as it shall ever be rejoyced in by Your Honour 's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant D. Jones The PREFACE IT is more out of a Prevalent Regard to Custom in this kind than any Consciousness I am under of the real Necessity there is to premise any thing concerning these Letters written by Sir William Temple during some part of his Publick Ministry at the Hague in a Reign which in many parts of it has been as obscure as some have thought it contemptible and little For as to what regards the Genuineness of them against which in things of this Nature the greatest Objections are usually made I think no Person that has any tollerable Acquaintance with or Idea of the Transactions of those times they refer to but will acknowledge they are Self-justifying and carry their own Light in so clear a manner along with them as to be beyond all Contradiction or Dispute To say nothing of the whole Contexture and Evenness of the Stile so fully expressive of his Mind that wrote them which was so peculiar to himself and wherein never any Gentleman was more happy which of it self being as it were inimitable is next to a Demonstration of their Truth But for a further Testimony hereof and that as far as in me lies I may leave no Scruple unanswered I have the Originals by me under his own Hand which any Gentleman may freely see for his further Satisfaction I shall not enter into a Detail of the particular Discoveries contained in them but herein will wholly leave them to answer for themselves Only I cannot but observe that the Years to which they relate being the obscurer Part of King Charles II's Reign the Publication of them I can look upon no otherwise than as a Debt we owe to History in general the most useful Part of Humane Learning and to our own Nation in particular who is more immediately concerned and then seemed to be in a struggle whether as in Ancient Times she should continue to hold the Ballance of Europe in her hands though the Defection afterwards both in her self and her other Confederate Crown wherein each of them proved much less Scrupulous in breaking the Triple League than they seemed unresolved to enter into it are but too notorious and cannot be thought on by a right English Heart without some sort of Indignation But how unsteady soever at any time things went at Home our Learned Author will be found to be ever constant to himself and to retain the same English Spirit in this as in all his other Negotiations Which is so much the more Glorious to his Memory when he had so few Cotemporary Ministers either at Home or Abroad of his Temper of which yet the Honourable Person to whom most of these Letters were directed I mean Mr. Secretary Trevor for the other I have nothing to say to was deservedly one and who will be ever remembred by those that know his true Character with the greatest deference It remains therefore for me to observe That as it appears by Sir W. Temple's Memoirs already published he had also written others relating to the times of these his Letters whereof there is now but little Appearance and many Iudicious Persons have given over any Expectations of their ever coming to publick View It is some sort of Satisfaction to my self as it is a Benefit to Mankind to be in any Measure able to supply that Defect by the Publication hereof concerning which I have nothing more to say but that the three last Letters written also upon Publick Occasions though by other Hands and of a latter Date having something of Curiosity in them I thought it not unseasonable to annex them hereunto as being all I am at present able to communicate for the Publick Good which I would always in my Station endeavour to promote with all Application and Sincerity From my Lodgings over-against the Paul's Head in Paul's Chain May 11. 1699. LETTERS OF Sir William Temple c. LETTER I. Hague Octob. 2. S. N. 1668. My Lord SINCE my last I have received your Lordship 's of the 14th and in one Letter from Mr. Williamson an Account of what was Resolv'd at the Foreign Committee to whom your Lordship only referr'd the Determination of what manner the Amendments of the Marine Treaty should be pursued And accordingly I have since fallen into the Debate of that Affair with Monsieur de Witt in all its Particulars and the Differences between us are not great and some of his Exceptions seem

out of all Cavil upon the Validity or Performance of the Articles But they seem much unsatisfied with all the first part of the Kings last Answer which justifies all my Lord Willou●●by's proceedings and seems to revoke all Orders formerly given for Reparations in that point So that they say it will come in among the other Expences which his Lordship has forced them to that their Ships will have gone to the Barbados with the Kings Orders for sending back the 200 Slaves and will be forced to return without effect They seem to wonder likewise that his Majesty has not thought fit to take any notice of the Letter sent by the States-General upon this matter I shall expect the Letter of His Majesties you promise me concerning the Merchant Adventurers though if His Majesty gives me leave I shall make use of it or not as I see occasion and as those of the English Company of Dort think will be most for the benefit of their Affair which yet sleeps and while it does so they are well and I suppose it will not be our part to wake it Monsieur Mareschall who is joyn'd in the powers Sent to Monsieur Appleboom from Sweden upon the Affairs of the Tripple Alliance has been with me and though the Secretary they expect with the last Orders be not yet arrived they are ready they say however to begin a Conference which may possibly be on Thursday The chief of his Discourse with me was in General upon that Crowns esteem of His Majesties Alliance and Disposition to comply with his Counsels and Resolutions in this Affair which was the occasion of his Orders to see me first upon his Arrival That which I could gather out of the rest was that they would be willing to proceed as tenderly as they could towards France in either offering the Guaranty at the same time to both or rather giving it particularly to neither but only in general against him that shall break the Peace Next that they would have nothing to do with Spain but only with us in the whole Affair of Subsidies and leave us to order all that concerns us with Spain And Lastly that they would have the last Term of eight Months for the last portion either taken away wholly or else shortned But I suppose I shall know more plainly what they will be at upon our next meeting for this Morning they sent me word they had received the Letters they expected with farther Instructions though not the last which come by the Secretary I have nothing to bear me out in the encrease of this Trouble from SIR Your most Faithful Humble Servant W. Temple LETTER XXXI Hague April 19. S. N. 69 SIR I am to acknowledge yours of the 2d current with an enclosed from His Majesty to the States upon the Subject of our Merchant Adventurers at Dort to whom I shall give notice of it and make use of this Letter as they judge will be most for their Advantage It is certain as you say that this Attempt of the States of Holland has been very unseasonable and upon that Argument alone I had the good fortune to stop the current hitherto which was very strong by a Confluence of all the Towns of Holland except that of Dort But I do not think there was ever any thing intended of what it seems the Merchants represented to the Council that the States did it with a design of laying such Customs upon our Woollen Manufactures as might wholly discourage the Transportation of them for all which those of the Company save is but a Guilder on every piece of Cloath besides the Priviledges as to the Expence and Living of the particular Merchants and I look upon the Trade of coarse Cloths to be a thing which can never fail us since no other Nation can make them so strong and cheap as we so that the Dutch knowing they will ever find a Market abroad will rather aim at drawing them always through this Country that so they may be the Retailers of them to other Nations than endeavour to Discourage their Importation which will but divert their current through Flanders by Emden and other parts of Germany where they are chiefly vented The Pensionary of Zealand has been very earnest with me to endeavour the restoring of the Scotch Staple to Treveur which will be of good consequence to the English Company much satisfie the Prince of Orange and the States of Holland too I believe and indeed how a thing that was of 200 years standing came to be alter'd without great change of Circumstances I could never tell I wrote about it lately upon the Princes particular desire but received no answer upon it The States of Holland are retired and the Deputies of Zealand likewise having concluded nothing more upon their Differences then only to meet again about the beginning of May so that in their Conferences hitherto there has been no occasion of mentioning the Princes interest which must fall into debate I suppose before the other ends I hear the Province of Zealand has much distracted the Intentions of sending Monsieur Van Benninghen over as believing it a design in those of Holland to alter the Ancient Disposition of that Ambassy which has been appropriated to Zealand as also to compose the business of the East-Indies though at the cost of the other difference about Surinam in which Holland is little concern'd as Zealand is in the other Yesterday I had a Conference with the Ministers of Sweden and the Deputies of the States upon the Acts of the Guaranty and Subsidies where after some offers by the Swedish Ministers at the change of any Expressions that might seem hard towards France and the reading over the Act of Guaranty wherein they could six upon nothing that could bear much of that Interpretation they at length consented to it in the very Terms which were Transmitted over to his Majesty and approved by him as well as by the States They debated likewise the Terms of the Subsidies but at last concluded it either necessary to have the whole Sum paid or else good caution given for the two last Terms upon which they might as I gather hope with small loss to raise the Sum and leave those they deal with for the advance to any further Risque and in these points they desire our further Interposition with the Spanish Ministers professing to have nothing to do with Spain in the end no more than the beginning of this Affair and declaring upon all occasions with great Nicety that their Master was content to give the Guaranty only in pursuit of his part in the Tripple Alliance and his publick regards towards the Repose of Christendon and not induced by any consideration of Gain or Advantage which might be pretended to be made them by the Subsidies which were grounded upon a particular promise of ours and Holland after the Tripple Alliance was concluded As for the Instrument about the concert of Forces