cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
extravagance he had always an Enthusiastick Conceit that God had raised him up to pull down the Whore of Babylon the Man of Sin the Antichristian Pope of Rome and this led him into a War with Spain believing that Prince to be the only Bullwark of the Papacy and his Attempts upon the Islands in the West Indies and the Plate Fleets belonging to Spain not having that success he desired by reason of their distance or perhaps being out-witted by the French Ministers he fell in the next place in Conjunction with France upon the Spaniards in Flanders in which War Dunkirk was taken and cunningly Surrendred to Oliver by the French in hopes to encourage our silly Upstart to go on and help them to Conquer the rest but tu … â—atal mischiefs attended this The first was that our Spanish Trade which was one of the best and most profitable the English then had left was interrupted and in danger to be totally lost as all the Eastern Traffick was rendred very unsecure by the Ostenders The Second was That the Ballance of Christendom was broken and the French Interest brought to that height as to over-power all the Neighbouring Princes and in some sort to Compel His Majesty before he was well setled after his Restitution to resel them Dunkirk But these things were above the Politicks of our Oliver who was a better Souldier than a Statesman How the Domestick Trade of England was likely to flourish in this Mans time may be easily conjectured by any man that will but reflect on the Vast Taxes were then Arbitrarily raised without Parliaments and the Standing Armies that were then kept on Foot only because he durst not Disband them who had no other Title than the Sword had given him and when God called him in the Year 1658. to give an account for all the Villanies he had perpetrated with so much Treachery Perjury and Impiety neither his Son Richard who Succeeded him nor any of those various Governments which within the space of Two Years followed were able to Establish themselves so that during that time there was nothing but Treachery Rapine Confusion and Distrust to be found in the English Nation and it was only Gods infinite Mercy and Goodness which rescued us and our Trade from total Ruine by the peaceable Restitution of our Now most gracious Soveraign When His Majesty returned he brought nothing over with him but a Vast Debt contracted in his Exile to preserve him and his in a mean Condition from starving and he found nothing here at home but an empty Exchequer a People exhausted with Twenty Years War and Misery all his Pallaces disfurnished his Magazines rifled his Armory wasted his Ammunition spent or imbezzel'd and the remainder of the Army which had great Arrears due to them to be Disbanded and Paid off All these things call'd for large Supplies and they were as Loyally and freely granted by our Parliaments as Generously imployed by His Majesty to these uses But then these Good-Common-Wealth-men who had Taxed and Plundered the Nation without mercy for twenty years before all on a suddain turned tender hearted and begun to bemoan the good Peoples hardships in the payment of such Sums as their own Villanies and Treasons had made necessary and not contented with this Skynneri Motuus Compositi encited the Dutch by large Promises of Assistance to enter another War with us which though we prevailed had fatal Consequences the Plague falling in with it Bedloes nar of the P. Plot. for the Burning of London pag. 14. Oats his Nar. Arti. the 34. and a great part of the City of London being Burnt at the same time which Fire is said to have been began by some of these godly Male-Contents on purpose without doubt to promote Trade though the whole blame is now laid upon the Jesuits who might possibly put the Fifth Monarch-men upon it and hath been since owned I Consider That I am Writing a Preface to a small Book and therefore endeavour to be short and for ought I know may be dark but if all this be reflected on as it ought it will be a wonder not that our Trade is so little but that it is not totally Ruin'd But then my dear Countrymen may not Heaven and Earth stand amazed at our Stupidity and folly if we shall still go on stubbornly in those very ways which we have found so destructive to us but there is a greater wonder in it yet we stabb and wound our own Vitals our Trade and Commerce and at the same time pretend we are horribly afraid others should ruin us many years hence we caress and cherish these very Men and Factions that once before Impoverished us to almost Beggery we are hard at Work to ruine that Government by making it odious to the People under which England hath flourished in Wealth and Power in Reputation and Peace at home and abroad so many Ages and to set up one in the stead of it which within the memory of Man so narrowly missed of Ruining us forever Do you think another domestick War will encrease the Wealth or Trade or Navigation or Reputation of England Consider your Sea coast Towns from Dover to Barwick and observe how many of them are falling down or empty of Inhabitants or possest by Men that are able to drive no Trades Consider the Fishery of all sorts consider the falls of your Rents and Farms and when you have thought seriously of them think once more whether the pretended fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government ought so to possess you and to keep you intirely from reflecting on what doth more immediatly concern you and which if but a little longer Neglected will end if not in Popery in Beggery if not in Arbitrary Government in Anarchy War and Confusion But though Men may Consider these things as much or as little as they please yet I crave the Liberty to Conclude upon the whole That whoever promotes Factions in Church or State is an Enemy to Trade and Commerce and that when ever the Government of this or any other Country is indangered the Traffick of that place will suffer proportionably so that let them pretend what they will to the contrary they that promote our present Disturbances are as great Enemies to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation and all that are any way concerned in Trade as they are either to the Crown or the Church THE SECOND PART OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty had no sooner declared the Long Loyal Parliament Dissolved and by His Royal Writ Commanded another to be chosen to meet the Sixth of March following but the Subjects in every place became divided amongst themselves and there being men not only of different but of opposite Interests offered to the People the choice was rendred very difficult and uncertain but the Opposition Feuds and Passions of the Contending Parties was apparent and certain enough The Dissenters
THE SECOND PART OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN AND FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION By the same Author LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford for George Wells at the Sun in St. Pauls Church-yard 1682. THE AUTHOR to the READER THE kind reception the former Part of this Discourse found in the World hath drawn forth this Second which had otherwise expired in as much Secresie as it was written Nor am I concern'd for the future fate of either of them But if I might be so happy as to discover the Errors of those courses which have brought these three Potent Kingdoms and this most Excellent Church into a dis-esteem abroad and great danger at home and so might contribute in the least to the prevention of those Mischiefs that in time may hazzard the Ruine of them I should then account my self blessed and my undertaking prosperous what ever effect it might happen to have upon my private Fortunes Next the Preservation of the publick Peace of any People the Advancing Trade and Commerce and the Effects of these Wealth and Power Reputation and the Conveniences of humane Life are chiefly to be reguarded and if I can shew that the contrary of all these will attend the proceeding any further in our late Methods I shall not question but all that have any kindness for themselves will see that it is their Interest to desert them Commerce and Trade spring Naturally from Peace and Setled Governments and are cherished and preserv'd by the mutual Trust and Confidence Love and Kindness which Men have in and to each other and where these fail there is a stop and sometimes a total ruine of the former A very small reflection on the Inconveniences that do attend a War of any Kind will satisfie a person of mean Capacity That Trade will stand still when the Sword is in Motion for Men will not care to venture their Estates or Persons abroad when they may justly expect to fall into the Hands of Soldiers who purchase the richest Commodities with their Swords and pay off the Traders with ready Blows instead of Mony The same Effect though not so visibly must attend any Government that reels and staggers and seems every day likely by violence to be changed into another for who would imploy his Time Stock and Thoughts to encrease that Wealth which a Stranger and it may be his Mortal Enemy may ravish from him in a moment after many years toyl and labour to acquire it Besides it is not unusual for Merchants who are quick sighted when they perceive a Storm to hang over any People to take Care betimes to lodge their Fortunes or a considerable part of them in places that are better secur'd the Consequence of which is that not only what was imported is wasted but much that might have been brought in is diverted and the Neighbour Nations are by that means Enriched whilst the Miserable People languish and feel one of the worst Effects of War Want even in the time of a suspicious Unsetled Peace But this though bad enough is not all the richest Men in such Countries who have any Considerable quantities of Treasure will be likely too to secure as much as they can well spare abroad not knowing how soon that which they have by them may fall into other Hands who will give them but small thanks for it and it may be destroy them as they do Bees towards Winter that they may rifle the Hive with the greater Security Thus will much more be Exported that might better have been Kept at Home and the Wealth of the Nation be insensibly Wasted And without either of these the distrusts and fears of men amongst themselves will lessen their Industry and make them court even Poverty it self when it promiseth more Security than an Inviduous Fortune But if this Effect be not usual especially when Dangers are at a distance yet I suppose few men are so ignorant as not to have observed that some shaken Governments have endeavoured to secure themselves by the Poverty of their People who are commonly easiest Govern'd when like a Ship they are not over-loaden with the weight of too much Wealth and this must of necessity have a mischievous Effect upon any People when their Governours contrive their Impoverishment and promote it in such ways that they shall feel the Effect and yet never see the Cause it is true we have had nothing of this yet but who knows how soon we may if we go on still to provoke it I wish I could as truly say that the Trade and Commerce of these Countries have not designedly been diminished and impaired by them who are opposite to the Establisht Government with intention to render it uneasie and hated and the People discontented and ungovernable but the truth is there have many things been done of late years or omitted when they might have been done which I believe no Mortal can give any sound reason for if this were not at the bottom and this hath and will have the same Influence upon us as if those that are properly called our Governours had done it But not to drive this any further It is a known Method of promoting broyls in Governments to stop the Supplies that should preserve and maintain them and then if a People be really very rich yet if the Government that should preserve their Wealth be so poor as not to be able to protect them the People have been always in danger and sometimes actually ruin'd Thus was Charles the Martyr brought to yield so much that at last he was forc'd to defend the rest and himself with his Sword which besides all the Blood shed occasioned the Expence of a vast Treasure and went very near to the ruine of these Three Nations I shall not need to determine how far this Course hath been of late pursu'd but I say it tends to the ruine of our Trade and Commerce by the same degrees as it makes our Government weak and contemptible in the World When the dangers to any Government have arisen from Contending Parties or Factions within it self nothing is more usual then for those Parties to endeavour the impoverishing of each other by interrupting diverting and hindring each others Trades and refusing each to other the Aid and Assistance that is absolutely necessary for the promoting them and that this is every day done among us is too apparent to be denyed and the Effects this hath upon the whole Trade of the Nation are such as no man can penetrate to the bottom of them or tell where the Mischief will end That I may make these general Reflections more useful to my Country-men I will take a short view of the state of the Trade of England since the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory The State of England was then very low and its Condition Deplorable when God brought that Excellent Prince from the Miseries of a Prison to Support and Restore it I