no longer now any ambitious Prince within the Kingdom to rob him of his Peoples Affection or that may dare to make any Alliance with the Pope to tumble him from his Throne and share the Crown We have this good fortune that we may set out to the life the ill aspect of Rome upon our Kings and that dangerous vigilance over France without any danger of abating the Courage of our Great King but on the contrary were his truly Royal Courage capable of an increase it would yet swell the higher from the consideration of the Evils that Rome has done and will yet do to France if he do not heartily oppose the Usurpations she exercises with impunity in all the parts of his Kingdom The honest French men that have the Honour to be near his Person might represent to Him the danger of this Doctrine maintain'd by the Popelings of His Kingdom That Jesus Christ committed to St. Peter as well the earthly as the heavenly Empire which are the very words of Pope Nicolas Therefore Cardinal Bellarmine Ch. 27. against Barclay holds absolutely That the Pope may dispose of all the Temporals of the World I affirm says he with confidence That our Lord Jesus Christ the time he was Mortal might dispose of all Temporal things and deprive the Kings and the Princes of their Kingdoms and Dominions and that without doubt he has left the same Power to his Vicar to be employ'd when he shall judge it necessary for the good of Souls The Pope Pius V. displays this Power with great Ostentation in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth of England wherein after that he calls Himself Servant of Servants he declares That God has establisht the Bishop of Rome Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to take destroy disperse consume plant and build and in the Power hereof he does Anathemize degrade and depose this Queen absolves all her Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made her and forbids them absolutely to give her Obedience Gregory XIV set out such another Bull against our Great Henry declaring him uncapable of the Crown and exposing His Kingdom to prey But both this and the other Bull were torn and cast into the fire by the hands of the Hangman Observe that the Pope exerciseth this Power over the Temporalties of Kings for the good of Souls and as a Spiritual Prince So that our French Statesmen may cease to have their Eyes wilfully seal'd up by that distinction of Spiritual power which they allow him and Temporal power that they deny him For that it is by virtue of the Spiritual Power that he exerciseth the Temporal See what Cardinal Bellarmin says De pont Rom. l. 5. c. 5. The Pope may change the Kingdoms take them from one and give them to another as a Sovereign Spiritual Prince when it shall be necessary for the good of Souls And of this necessity he shall be the only Judge as the Sovereign Spiritual Prince For 't is thus the Cardinal argues Apol. pro Garnet p. 84. If the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of Temporal things she would not be perfect and would want the Power that is necessary for the attaining her end for says he the wicked might entertain Hereticks and go scot-free and so Religion be turn'd upside down This reason charges imperfection on the Church in the Apostles time for that had no power over the Temporals These horrible Principles so strongly maintain'd by the Court of Rome were of fresh memory found so prejudicial both to the safety of our Kings and to the Peace of France that those of the third State an 1615. were mov'd to propose to the General States an Article containing the means to dispossess the people of that Opinion that the King might be depos'd by the Pope and that by the killing of Kings one might gain the Crown of Martyrdom Cardinal Du Perron in the name of the Clergy oppos'd this Article and employ'd all the strength of his Eloquence and Learning in two fair Speeches the one before the Nobility the other before the third State to perswade them that our Kings may be depos'd by the Pope offering himself to suffer Martyrdom in defence of this Truth The Lords of the Nobility to their great shame joyn'd with the Clergy for the putting their Kings Crown under the Miter of the Pope much degenerating from the vertue of their Ancestors those French Banons by whose advice Philip the August declar'd to the Cardinal D'Anagnia the Popes Legat that threatned him that it did not at all belong to the Church of Rome to pronounce Sentence against the King of France But the third State held firm to their Article that maintain'd the Dignity of their King and the safety of his Person and could never be won by promises nor affrighted by threatnings to depart from it shewing themselves in this more noble than the Nobility It is no wonder in this case that the third State shew'd more affection to their King than the Clergy seeing that the Clerks hold That they are not the King's Subjects for in effect they acknowledge another Sovereign out of the Kingdom And who can think it strange if they labour to heighten that Monarchy of which they make a Party But that the Nobility the Kings right arm that they should be so base to strike their Head and lay it at the feet of an Italian Bishop this is that which after Ages will reflect upon with astonishment and indignation and which Historians shall blush to relate and be vex'd that they cannot let pass in silence So the Nobility being joyn'd with the Clergy the Article of the third State was censur'd and rejected Whereupon the Pope writ Triumphant Letters to the Clergy and the Nobility who had been faithful to Him in this Cause glorying in His Victory and exalting the Magnanimity of these generoâ—s Nobles But in truth the Deputies of these generous Nobles deserv'd to have been degraded from their Nobility and they of the third State to have receiv'd their Titles The minority of the late King and the easiness of the Queen-Mother render'd them expos'd to these Injuries and apt to be circumvented insomuch that this Harangue made to the third State was printed with the Priviledge of the King and the Pope gain'd his point The false dealing of the Cardinal who made this Speech is remarkable namely that he had a long time followed King Henry the Great even then when he was of a contrary Religion and depos'd by the Pope and that a little before in an assembly held at the Jacobins in Paris he had resisted the Popes Nuncio who would that this Doctrine of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope might be held for an Article of Faith But in these two Harangues the Cardinal made a kind of a Recantation and pronounc'd himself his own condemnation Ungrateful wretch to have thus abus'd the tender Age of the Son of his King
confers them as a distribution made to His Creatures and that He may cause them by sensible means to experiment His Goodness The Magnificence of a Man renders him considerable if his Spirit in it be Great and Heroick But it is not enough to have spoken of that which constitutes Felicity we must take some account of the means which conduce unto it Nature Constancy and Reason do contribute to endue us with Virtue The two former do enrich the Mind and dispose it to receive Virtue then Reason being cleared by the light of Precepts makes it spring up and cultivates it Of all Precepts those of greatest efficacy are the Political which being indeed Laws do command and oblige Men to obey in a manner blindly necessitating and constraining us to live well whether we will or no. 'T is upon this ground it hath been said That there lies no servitude at all in submitting to the power of the Law and that it 's the proper act of Men truly free to reduce their inclinations and subject their practice to the same Forasmuch as the conforming of Life and Manners to the impulses of Virtue which is always right always uncorrupt is in truth a setting our our selves at full liberty and an enfranchisement from the Empire of importunate and irregular Passions But of these general Theses enough It is time at length to enter upon the subject which occasion'd my taking up the design of this present Treatise CHAP. III. 1. Of the French Monarchy 2. Of the Situation and Quality of France 3. Of the Nature of the French THE Monarchick Government doth not more excell other Governments than the French Monarchy doth all other Monarchies on Earth It is hereditary and for Twelve whole Ages there hath been seen Reigning from Male to Male upon the Throne of France the August Posterity of Meroue of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet For it is exactly proved that these three Races of our Kings are Branches issued out of the same Stock This very Succession so Legitimate as it hath been and so long continued makes at present the surest foundation of the welfare of the State and carries in it Splendor Reputation and Majesty Indeed to how many Ills are Elective Kingdoms exposed How many Cabals How many Complottings and in truth Wars are kept on foot by so many different agitations The one and the other Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Poles do administer sensible proofs of this Opinion If the Spartans heretofore did draw so great an advantage from the Honour they had to be commanded by Princes of the Blood of Hercules The French have far greater cause to glory since in the Catalogue of His Majesties triumphant Ancestors there may be counted an hundred Heroes greater than Hercules himself Is there a Monarch in the World whose just power is more absolute than that of our King and by consequent is there a Monarchy comparable to the French Monarchy It is necessary that the power of a good King be not confin'd within other bounds than Reason and Equity do prescribe otherwise there will ever be division between Princes and People to the ruin of them both What a disorder would it be in Man if the Eye or Hand should fail of following the impulses of the Soul this disobeying and rebellious Member would prove dead or seized with a Palsie If then the whole Body should fall into an universal revolt against the Spirit of Man all the Symmetry the Order and oeconomy would be utterly defaced Thus the Subjects in a Monarchy once ceasing to yield their King a full Obedience and the King ceasing to exercise His Soveraign Authority over them the Political Ligatures are broken the Government is dissolved by little and little all is reduced to extream calamities and oft-times to Anarchy and an annihilation Such are the inconveniencies that occur in Royalties of the Lacedemonian kind where the Prince hath but a limited Authority and if all that England suffer'd in the late times were pourtray'd here it would be easie to observe of what importance it is unto the felicity of a Monarchy that the Prince do in it command without restriction In fine the obedience of instrumental parts as those of Organical Bodies and the Subjects of a State is of so indispensible a necessity that the common good and conservation of that Whole which they compose depends upon it In Democracies even the most tumultuous and disorderly all must bow under the Will of the multitude though blind ignorant and seduced in like manner the parts of the Bodies of Brutes must act by their motions though they be in rage and madness And the reason of this necessity is that the Body and the Soul which is the form thereof are but one indivisible Whole so a King and Subjects are together but one whole that is one State In fine the French Monarchy is accompanied with all the mixture that can be desired for a compleat and perfect Government The Counsellors of State do compose an excellent Oligarchy in it The Parliaments and other Officers of Judicature do form an Aristocracy The Provosts of Merchants the Mayors the Consuls and the General Estates do represent rarely well limited Democracy so that all the different modes of governing by Laws being united in the Monarchy do render it as excellent and consummate as Reason can propose The Regality of France is therefore of the Oeconomick kind in which the King hath an absolute power in his State as the Father of a Family in his House and though he govern at His pleasure and without contradiction it is always for the good of His Kingdom even as the Master of an House does Rule it with an entire Authority and incessantly provides for the accommodating of this Family There is nothing Despotical nor Barbarous in France as in the States of the Moscovites and Turks In short our Laws are Holy and Equitable to a greater degree than in any Common-wealth that ever was and they are conceived with so much prudence and judgement that they are apt to make the People happy in the gentle times of Peace and enable them to triumph in the occasions of War The Situation and Compactness of France are known to all the World so that it would be a needless labour should I here expatiate to shew the Beauty and Richness of our Grounds and of our Rivers or declare how we abound in Wine in Corn in Silk in Wools in Cloth in Wood in Cattle in Salt in Mines and in Money how necessary we are to our neighbours and to what degree we may forego their Succors and their Merchandise I might justly be accus'd of a fondness for superfluous Discourse if I should particularly consider all these great advantages and as much if I should speak of the pureness of the Air and the incredible number of Inhabitants the most ignorant having a full and an assured knowledge of ' em I shall only say that it need not
a manner is to make a kind of Alienation 'T is a fetch of the Benedictine Monks to take up Money for Rent to be paid by them that so they may appear always poor and have pretexts to solicite the liberality of devout People also that they may have Protectors for the greater number of their Creditors is the greater is the number of persons interessed in their conservation Yet there is nothing more unjust than this Custom For there are Monastick Communities that owe more than all their Goods moveable and immoveable are worth The Monks care not though their House be ruin'd nor though they ruine some of their Creditors provided themselves subsist For by passing from one Convent to another they are quitted of all the Debts they have created It greatly concerns the Publick to Prohibit these kind of Contracts that Monasticks may be kept from defrauding any Man for the future and to decree that the Contractor shall pay the Rents Contracted for and they bound to do it both all in common and each of them in particular then that the Notaries be Fined and Declared incapable of bearing any Office Or if insolvent condemned to the Gallies for 101 years Moreover that the Purchasers of such Rents shall for their part pay a Mulct of 3000 Livres to His Majesty and the principal Money be converted to His use Besides it would be very fit to require all Notaries all Creditors of Monasticks and the Monasticks themselves to make Declaration of the Sums and Rents charged upon them bring in the Contracts for the same before Commissioners nominated by the King to be Registred and this within a time expresly limited which being once pass'd no more shall be received and all Contracts not Registred remain null and as if they were cleared This course would be very severe but excellent to reduce the folk of the Cloister to Reason There is an important Observation to be made too namely That all the Contracts which Church men have made are utterly null unless their Creditors can make it appear that the Money they lent did turn to the profit of the Church and that there was an authentick permission to make such Contracts This Doctrine is a point of Law for the Church is ever a Minor and all that it possesseth hath come from the liberality of particular persons without whose consent or at least the Magistrates and such as are capable of it the Ecclesiasticks can make no alterations in the Estates they have received So that the King may not only forbid Contracts for the future but also Declare those to be dissolved which have been made heretofore and discharge the Monasteries of them Debts have been annulled for less reasons often It must likewise be prohibited to Monks and to the Church to purchase any Estate in Land or High-rents upon pain of such Contracts being null and void in Law and the Sellers and Notaries incurring the forementioned penalties Our Lords the Prelates have lately bethought them and resolved to compell such Gentlemen as have Chappels in their Houses where the Sacrifice of the Mass hath been at any time performed to profane the said Chappels or endow them with Land for the maintenance of a Priest This would be a means to gain the Church more than Two hundred thousand Livres of Rent at one blow wherefore it will be fit to Ordain that this enterprize of the Bishops do not take effect except in case of Chapels built hereafter and built for other persons CHAP. V. 1. Of the Hugonots and whether it be for the good of the State to put them out of France 2. Politick means to extirpate their Heresie 3. Of their ancient Confession of Faith A King cannot have a more Illustrious Object of his Cares and Application than the preserving of that Religion which he hath received from his Ancestors in the States he governs because diversity of Belief of Divine Service and of Ceremony doth divide his Subjects and breeds Animosities among them Whence arise Contentions War and in the end an universal defiance Unity of belief on the contrary knits Men together and 't is seldom seen but that Fellow-subjects who call upon GOD in one and the same Temple and offer at the same Altars do also fight with the same Arms or under the same Banners If this Maxim be generally true in Christian Politicks and the Religion we profess the only one as it is that we can savingly embrace the Princes are obliged to maintain it with all their Might and employ that Soveraign Power for the Glory of the true GOD which they hold of his Goodness The Pagans whose particular conduct was so prudent and just and who have left us so many Examples of wisdom and virtue made it their principle not to suffer in their Republicks any novelty that thwarted the common and popular belief and they adher'd so peremptorily unto it that they would not so much as permit any man to undeceive them of their Errors The Books of Numa Pompilius which had been found near his Grave and contained the ancient Religion of Rome the Senate caused to be burnt because the Praetor Rutilius who had been commission'd to read them affirmed upon Oath That the Contents of e'm tended to subvert the Religion which the People observed at that time They refus'd even to open their eyes unto the light of truth though known to them when they apprehended it would be novel to the people They rather chose to stick to Fables which length of years had consecrated among them and the multitude was through custom addicted to Thus too the Athenians thought they did an act of necessary Justice in condemning Socrates to death for having taken on him to persuade the people that there was but one only GOD. They knew however that in truth this Philosopher was the Wonder of his time the Honour of the City and of all Greece the discerning men amongst them were convinc'd of the solidity of this Doctrine and the Sect of the Stoicks made profession of it so that it must be confess'd the fall of Gentilism and subversion of Idols is an effect of the hand of GOD who alone can work miracles of Grace and Omnipotence The Kings His Majesties Predecessors have set themselves with unwearied diligence to preserve the Catholick Religion inviolable They have never failed to be Protectors of the Apostolick See and the Church They expelled the Arrians they turned their Arms and exposed their lives against the Albigenses they vanquish'd e'm they destroy'd e'm they punish'd the Poor men of Lions In fine they have provided that Christianity receive no harm in any places unto which their Authority extended The last Age produced a new Monster to oppose the Church France saw him born in her bosom and unhappily bred him up with several complices of his Impiety and Revolt History will tell Posterity how much Blood was shed during the course of well nigh Fourscore years to quell this dangerous
of their Houshold-servants and paying an Arbitrary Fine besides because they ought to correct them In the Third place Provost Marshals and their Officers for all Robberies and Murthers committed on the High-ways Burglaries Counterfeit Coin and other the like Crimes within their district if they took not up the Malefactors and brought them to their Trial. This Law would hinder well-nigh all mischiefs of this nature it being as may be said of publick Notoriety that Provosts hold Intelligence with all persons of ill Life Again all Lieutenants criminal and Judges for the Crimes committed in their Towns by the same reason Masters of Inns and Houses of Entertainment for the Crimes committed by their Guests while they are in their Houses Owners of Houses for the Crimes committed by their Tenants during their term because they ought to know and answer for the good abearing of such as they entertain Captains and Officers for the Crimes of their Soldiers the Inhabitants of an House for those committed in it This is done in Spain In the Turkish Towns the Townsmen of each Street are responsible for what is done there And if a Man be slain the Townsman before whose door he falls is sentenced to pay for his Blood This Order is excellent For assoon as there is a noise in the Street all run thither and the Authors of the Fact whatever it be are seized brought before the Judge and forthwith punish'd according to the quality of the Crime In paralel to this Rule of Government in Turkie severest penalties must be imposed upon such as transgress the Laws and especially the Laws that relate to Publick Order and Policy those Penalties also speedily inflicted otherwise the said Laws will be of no use For example 'T is ordained in France that no Lackey wear a Sword that no Towns-man have Arms or that Bakers make their Bread of a certain Weight or other things of like nature They that obey not must be instantly punished the Rich by pecuniary Fines the Poor by Corporal Penalties The Turks cause Offenders who have not Money to pay their Fines to be beaten with a Lath. An Eighth Law All Printers and Booksellers must be forbidden and that upon pain of death to Print Sell Disperse set to Sale or keep any Book of what Quality or Subject soever without its having been Approved and Licence given them under Seal in due manner after which may nothing be added to the Book But as it is just to punish bad Subjects so it is reasonable to reward the good and them that out of love to their Country employ themselves in advancing its Reputation and Glory The King ought to be the sole Master and Arbiter of all Rewards and confer them himself so as they that receive any Beneficence of His may be convinc'd they owe it to His Bounty This would be an infallible means to attract to Him the hope of His Subjects and together with it their Respect whereupon every one would strive to please Him in doing of his Duty and no body promise himself any Grace or Advantage but by his Merit his Services and Diligence There are several kinds of Rewards with which His Majesty may Honour His Subjects I say Honour them because a Subject in receiving a benefit from the hand of the King receives withal a mark of the Esteem which is had of his Person and of the satisfaction he hath given in his Conduct Nothing can be more glorious to a Man of Worth nothing can yield him a truer Contentment A Gift from an ordinary hand is many times somewhat shameful to him that takes it and hence comes the adage That it is better to Give than to Receive But when a King is the Donor the Dignity of the Royal Hand doth add to the Gift a new quality which augmenteth the Worth and Excellency of it whence it is in such a case no less praise to receive than to give This now which I have affirmed cannot be doubted of yet it may be taken for evident that of these rewards there are some purely Honourable others only Profitable and a last sort both Honourable and Profitable too The reward purely Honorary is when the King confers upon a Subject some Dignity which he had not afore as upon a Plebeian the quality of Gentleman upon a Gentleman that of Knight or Marquess c. and permits him to carry Fleurdelizes in his Coat of Arms or some other Memorial of a great Action Or grants him the privilege to wear a Crown in his Crest or the like This kind of reward is unlimited because Sovereignty is a source from whence new Honours and Dignities incessantly flow as projections of Light do every moment issue from the Sun without exhausting its secondity and on the contrary the more rays that it emitteth the more resplendent is it in it self so the more Honours a King confers the greater Lustre He adds to His own Royal Majesty The Romans of any People upon Earth did most abound in conferring rewards of this nature and on that account brought into use Crowns Triumphs Statues Rings Inscriptions Publick Praises and stuck not to grant Deifications Temples and Sacrifices such a love they had for Virtue and so ingenious were they to inhance the merit of their Fellow-Citizens thus inciting them to worthy Persormances and principally to an advancing the power of the Common-wealth For any man that hath a Noble Spirit and is Virtuously dispos'd does more to merit a just reward than he would to gain the Empire of the World because in the issue 't is always Virtue that triumphs and oft-times but Fortune that rules In conformity to this example which both Antiquity and the Authors of it and Experience do render Illustrious the King may Honour such as serve Him best with Honourable Titles but ought to punish all those who without His Permission dare assume and usurp them 'T is necessary that there be a difference of rank between Persons and the distinguishing of them by their merit is to be preferr'd far before all discrimination made by their Wealth It would also be very commodious that as the Honour of Knighthood is purely Personal so the King should make the Dignity of Baron of Marquess of Count c. Personal likewise not real or annexed to Estates the said Dignities to become extinct by decease of the persons invested with them This Expedient to recompence Men of worth being well managed would produce a marvellous effect and an whole race thereby become Men of Merit For what would not the Son of one of these personal Marquesses do to prevent falling from that degree of Honour which his Father had and how could he choose but press vigorously on in the Court of Honour that has been thus mark'd out to him But in this case there is one thing to be further done which might much profit the State by laying a more Express Obligation on the Nobility to serve the King and that is that the
I suggested in the precedent Chapter is to be remembred namely That Conquests do afford a State one expedient to get Money In this the Roman Captains are to be imitated who made it a point of Glory to lay up extraordinary sums in the Publick Treasury and their Triumphs were as illustrious by the wealth they brought home with them as by the Enemies they had defeated in their Expeditions It would be very material therefore that Generals should account it a Glory to them to bring the Spoils of their Enemies unto the profit of the King and Kingdom or at least make the Conquered Countrys maintain and pay their Armies But the difficulty is not to make Conquests the Arms of the French will be Victorious wherever they appear All the trouble is to find out the secret how to keep what hath been gotten It is fit to say something on this particular The means to preserve Conquer'd Countrys which the Ancients used and that with good success are in a manner these Transportations and shiftings of the People As when the Chaldeans led away the Jews to Babylon The taking away of their Money of their richest Goods their Antiquities their Holy Things and things of Religion as was done with the ancient Idol-gods and as the Ark of the Covenant the Tables of Moses and the Israelites holy Writings were dealt withall The same for substance might be done among us by shifting of Saints Reliques and Consecrated Images The leading away of the ablest Men and such as have greatest credit with the People So did the Romans when they carried some of the Greeks out of their Country to Rome and treated them there with all possible kindness and civility In like manner as to Artificers the Turks drew at one time 30000 Work-men out of Persia The Romans out of their Enemies whom they had vanquish'd and taken in War reserved those whom they thought stoutest and made them fight on the Theatre the People being Spectators destroying them by that means Christianity suffers not such inhumanity Slavery was alway practis'd in the case of Prisoners of War and the ransom we make them pay is an Image of that old Custom Some People to this day stay their Prisoners or send them away to punishment after the fashion of the Ancients To proceed other means in reference to conquer'd Countrys are the mixing of the old and new Subjects by Marriage the Conquerors accommodating themselves to the manners of the Conquered taking up their modes eating with them as Alexander demeaned himself towards the Persians Then again the ruining the Fortifications of their Towns the taking Hostages of them the taking away their Arms and keeping them weak the abstaining from their Wives the giving them no jealousie in matter of Love To have little converse with them especially in their Houses and when any is to see it be with seriousness and decency to honour them to do them a pleasure on occasion not play with them not pick any quarrel with them not touch their Liberty nor the Goods that have been left them not disquiet them for matters of Religion To do them Justice maintain them in their Laws and Customs and in their manner of Government as the Romans did who permitted the People whom they had subdued to have their accustomed Laws To be diffedent of them and shew a confiderde in them To appear not desirous of their secrets not interrupt them in their pleasures make them pay the Tribute agreed upon with them exactly not at all augmenting it To keep word with them in all things seldom meddle in their affairs except it be to accord them to lend them no Money but owe them some and punctually pay the Interests of it not let them know the true State of affairs not give them entrance into strong holds which must always be well furnish'd with Men and Provisions That the Governor never come among them without being strongest or having Hostages To prevent their assembling and hinder as much as may be their having Commerce with Neighbours that are under another Prince's Dominion to keep off all kind Strangers from Houses and severely punish such of 'em as shall cause the least trouble or any motion that may tend to Sedition If our Conquerors had practis'd in this manner Italy and Sicily would have been French to this day CHAP. XII Of the Sea and its usefulness 2. Means to augment the Kings Power there 3. Of Commerce 4. Of Colonies THE Water of the Sea are wholly obnoxious to the humorousness of Fortune and the Wind that governs them turneth and changeth with as much inconstancy as that blind Goddess Yet it is certain that those States whose renown is greatest in Story did not establish their supreme Dominion but upon the power they attained to at Sea as if Virtue stout and undaunted had resolv'd to Combat and Conquer her Enemy in the very seat of her Empire The Romans are one instance whose example is ever to be follow'd with as peculiar a diligence as their conduct of matters was with singular wisdom and hard to be imitated They imposed not upon the World their Laws till they had forced the Seas to receive and acknowledge them Had they not set out War-like Fleets they had never accomplished their glorious Designs they had never extended their Frontier beyond Italy never brought down the Pride of Carthage nor Triumphed over all the Crowns on Earth The Aegyptians the Persians and the Grecians considered the Sea as the principal support of their Domination Xerxes having caus'd the Hâ—liâ—spout to be to punish'd as he termed it with Stripes accounted his Vanity satisfy'd in the sight of all Asia which he drew after him into Greece with so much Magnificence and Pomp that it seemed as if Jupiter Himself was come down from Heaven The Venetians still renew every year their Alliance with this Element by an old fond superstitious Custom casting into the Sea a Ring as if they espoused it perhaps by this use they would inform all the particular Subjects of their Common wealth that they should be content with the inconstancy and infidelity of their Women since the State of espousing the Sea espouseth inconstancy and infidelity it self The Riches of Tunis of Algier of Holland and England plainly prove the necessity there is for Princes to be Strong at Sea and do shew the Profit which does thence accrue These are petty States yet dare measure their Forces with those of the Greatest Monarchs The former of them are Turkish Slaves the others revolted Burghers and how insolent soever the English are they must confess that all the Brittish Isles laid together do not equal the half of our Continent either in Extent or in Fruitfulness of Ground or for Commodiousness of Scituation or in number of Men in Wealth in Valour Industry and Understanding yet they fear not to affirm themselves Sovereigns of the Sea Had they cast up the Wracks they have suffered and the Battles