seems to be the only excuse that can be made for these extravagancies and groundless Aspersions so little suitable to the rules of true History wherewith it is filled up from the beginning of the Preface to the very conclusion Certainly if this Author's Intention had been to give a warrantable Account of Denmark it would have been much more glorious and consonant to the practice of all civilized Nations to have imitated the frankness and integrity of the antient Romans whom he seems so much to admire and more particularly that of Tacitus in his Book which he writ concerning the Germans in his Time Those who see this Author quoted not only in the Title page but also in several places afterwards will scarce believe that any other but the above mentioned Reason could induce our Author to recede so far from the Method of an approved Historian and the so much applauded moderation of him whom he himself praises as the greatest of Politicians of his Time Neither will the difference which some pretend to have found out betwixt those Times and our Age be a sufficient excuse for this new-invented way of writing since if our Author had been more taken with an Ambition to imitate Modern than antient Writers in this kind there are not wanting Examples among them of undeniable Sincerity and Modesty The Memoirs of Villeroy and the Letters of Cardinal Dâ— Ossat have deserved such praises from the most unbyassed and eminent Politicians that he need not have been ashamed to tread in their footsteps Even the Northern parts where our Author falsly imagines all Learning to be extinguished can furnish him with a Pattern of this Kind in their imcomparable Monzam bano of the State of the German Empire according to which if he had regulated himself he would not have scattered such abundance of ill grounded Reflections against many Illustrious Persons and had better deserved the Name of a true Historian But if nothing of Foreign Vertue could be charming enough to our Author the living Examples either of Sir William Temple or of the so much celebrated Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Salisbury in his Observations especially made concerning his Travels and published some years ago ought to have excited him to deserve the same Character except our Author has an in born Aversion to any thing that has the least relation to the North. To conclude this Author seems to be a great Admirer and to have adapted the whole Work to the Doctrine of some political Doctors among us who having gathered their phantastical Notions of a Platonick Government without Faults out of such antient Philosophers as used to fight Battels in their Studies and with florid Speeches infuse their Conceits of Governing into their Auditors do very industriously labour to spread their vain Opinion to the great disadvantage of the State And I think the whole Work may serve as a convincing Instance to shew the World how difficult it is to shake off such Prejudices as are implanted in our tender Age and have in process of time taken root with us so that it is manifest that notwithstanding our Author's Opinion in his Preface Travelling too late proves sometimes as ineffectual as going abroad too young This being what in general may justly be said of this Treatise I have communicated to you with the same freedom as I thought was becoming our Friendship and the satisfaction I always take in contributing any thing to your Curiosity But the particular consideration of the whole much exceeding the compass of a Letter I have in the enclosed Papers set down such impartial animadversions as seemed to me necessary towards the explaining of the chief points in the whole Treatise wherein if I have added any thing to your satisfaction it fully answers the ends of him who Sir always will be Your affectionate Friend and Servant January 16. 1693 4. REMARKS UPON THE PREFACE BOOKS without their Author's Names being like Bastards who cannot claim the least Prerogative from their Parentage ought questionless to challenge no other Authority but what is derived from their own Deserts And tho' it is not to be denyed but that sometimes the Circumstances of time and place may be a good Plea to some Authors who have disguised themselves under fictitious Names or else set none at all to their judicious Pieces Yet it must also be owned That whenever they have transgressed the Rules of true Sincerity and Modesty and endeavoured rather to recommend themselves to the Reader by their pompous Words than approved Truth they have deservedly incurred the Censures of all Judicious and Unbyassed Persons If the Author of the Treatise called An Account of Denmark had made the least Reflection as he ought to have done upon this certainly he would not have been so much pre-possessed with the Vanity of his own Inventions as to believe That the same tho' never so gaudily dress'd up with fine Words and adorned with fair Suppositions could be received as a Truth among the more sensible part of Mankind But to come to the Matter it self Health and Liberty are without dispute the greatest natural Blessings Mankind is capable of enjoying says our Author at the very beginning of his Preface That Health and Liberty duly considered are Two precious Jewels scarce sufficiently to be valued has never been questioned in this part of the World But since Physicians themselves do not agree in the true nature of the First as admitting of several Degrees and being scarce ever to be found in its due Perfection and the Degrees of the Second being by all Judicious Politicians adapted to the several Constitutions of those Countries and Inhabitants where the same is to be exercised our Author would have done very prudently to have have given us a more clear and satisfactory Notion of the true Nature of both So do we see Phantastical Ladies tho' according to their natural Constitution in good Health affect sometimes to be leaner sometimes fatter sometimes to nauseate a small Pimple or even their natural Colour sometimes imagining tho' falsely I know not what Indisposition in their Body and by Vomits repelling Medicines and other destructive Methods bring upon themselves dangerous Diseases And how often the mistaken Rules of Liberty have proved not only troublesome but also fatal the Histories of all Ages do abundantly testifie It had therefore in my Judgment been more suitable to the nature of an Historical Treatise and the Circumstances also of our present Enjoyment of sufficient Liberty under the Conduct of a Wise and Just King to have given a true Scheme of moderate Liberty than to represent to us at this time a Romantick Notion of the same by fetching the Italian out of his own Country and transferring of him into Greenland for these are his Words But as an Italian that passes a Winter in Greenland will soon be convinced how much Misery he endures in comparison of those who dwell in his native Country so he that knows
prepossessed with the conceit of a Gothick and tumultuous sort of Goverment will assert And here if we should enquire into the Originals of Princes and Kings which our Author pretends to have done in a few Lines at several Times and Places we should be obliged to go much beyond the design of these Remarks since to understanding Men it is apparent enough that if the Author 's whole Book had been employed upon that Point only it would not have been sufficient so much as to touch the chief Heads of so ample a Subject I will only say that I cannot sufficiently admire why this Gentleman is so mightily taken with these Times when Spain and England were divided the first into thirteen and the latter into seven or more peculiar Governments considering that they were perhaps the worst of Times ever these Countries saw neither could any lasting Peace be setled till instead of the same one Head had the Management of the whole Body But before we leave this Subject we must say something concerning Germany and Sweden For every one ought to know says he how great the Rights of the People were very lately in the Elective Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark If every one ought to know he might have said a little more of it since else few will know it for him What clear a Notion this Gentleman has concerning Elective Kingdoms will better appear hereafter when we shall have occasion to treat upon the Question Whither the Kingdom of Denmark has been Hereditary or Elective But as for the Rights of the People in Sweden why they should so much vary from the same that they were lately he would have done well to have explained a little I am not ignorant that the Wings of the Nobility that composed formerly the Senate there have been considerably clipt and that about fifteen or sixteen Years ago when that Kingdom during the Minority of this present King was partly through Mismanagement partly through the War with the Empire and Denmark miserably exhausted the Estates then finding themselves not in a Capacity to restore matters without extraordinary Subsidies which could not easily be levied upon the Subjects did then advise the King to oblige such of his Subjects as had by the Profuseness of some of his Predecessors or other means acquired to themselves vast Estates and other Advantages belonging to the Crown to restore the same which was executed accordingly some of the chiefest profering the same voluntarily the rest being obliged to follow their Example As by these means the King was enabled to restore the decayed State of the Militia and Army so it is not to be denied but that his Revenues were greatly encreased as well as his Power yet is from hence not necessarily to be concluded that the Rights of the People are lost since the four Estates of the Nobility Clergy Citizens and Peasants have thereby not surrendred any thing of their Native Rights tho perhaps some particular Persons have felt the smart of it Germany was freer than any other part of Europe says our Author but he ought to have remembred that this was in those days when every body being his own Master there they liv'd more like the Tartars do now than like any of the rest of the Europeans And if they had continued in that so much admired State of Liberty I am apt to believe Germany would not have come into that flourishing Condition it has been in since If it was for my purpose here to enlarge me self upon this matter I could shew easie enough that these whom our Author calls Captains Princes Electors Bishops c. were the first Restorers of the Liberty of Germany that they were the Founders of its Greatness and Upholders of the same after this Country was Conquered by Charles the Great I could shew him that there were the Bishops in Germany before the times of Charles the Great and that those instituted by him for all their double Sword of Flesh and Spirit have not been armed sufficiently so to subdue the Germans but that in the most parts the ancient Liberty has been preserv'd under their Jurisdiction and some have been able to find ways to free themselves quite from it And thus much I will only say in the Vindication of Charles the Great As he has laid the Foundation of what Germany is now whom our Author makes bold to call bigotted that as able Headpieces as this Gentleman and these some what better versed in the German Constitutions than he can pretend to have so greatly approved of the Methods that that Great Emperor took in uniting so vast a Country both in Laws and Religion that his vain and confident Assertions will prove ridiculous to all who have had any true insight into the Affairs of Germany I must add something more concerning Poland which he says is the only Kingdom besides this Island and Ireland where Parliaments are not lost to shew what sort of Parliament is to be found there that so every body may be able to judge how far the Polish Parliaments do differ from the English both in their Proceedings and fundamental Constitutions It is therefore to be known that there are but two sorts of People besides the King in Poland that can justly be said to have a Share in the Government viz. the Clergy and Nobility The Citizens and Peasants being totally excluded from the same and being for the most part subjected either to the Clergy or the Nobility the fewest to the King And though the Cities in the Regal Prussia enjoy a greater share of Freedom as having their own Constitutions and sending their Deputies to the Dyet yet is their Number so inconsiderable in comparison of the rest that it scarce comes into Consideration The King 's chief Advantage is That he has a considerable Revenue allow'd him and has the choosing of all the Officers both Civil and Military but the Great Officers especially those who by their Places are Members of the Senate of the Kingdom as also all the Senators have their Offices granted them ad Vitam so that when once put in Possession of the same they have not any Dependance further from the King The two Archbishops and other Bishops as they owe their Promotion chiefly to the Pope though they are nominated by the King and are exempted from the King's Jurisdiction so they having vast Possessions which depend only from them have therefore a great if not the greatest Sway in the Senate of the Kingdom But both the Spiritual Lords as also the rest of the Nobles who compose the Senate having the Places of the best Profit in their Possession and maintaining in their Palaces a great many of the poorer sort of Nobility become thereby so powerful that it may justly be said that these are the chief Governours of the Realm since the King cannot do any Publick Matter of Moment without them as being by their Constitution his constant Advisers and Directors the
Denmark Uindicated BEING AN ANSVVER To a late Treatise called An ACCOUNT of Denmark As it was in the Year 1692. Sent from a Gentleman in the Country to his Friend in London Corn. Nep. Haec praecipienda videntur lectoribus ne alienos mores ad suos referant neve ea quae ipsis leviora sunt pari modo apud caeteros fuisse arbitrentur Terent. Faciunt nâ—â— intelligendo ut nihil intelligant LONDON Printed for Tho. Newborough at the Golden-Ball and Ed. Mory at the 3 Bibles in St. Paul's Church-yard 1694. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS The Most Illustrious PRINCE GEORGE Only Brother to His MAJESTY the Present King of Denmark May it please Your Royal Highness AS true History transmits to posterity the good and bad Counsels not only but also the most Famous Actions of Great Men so Princes and Men of the first Rank seem more particularly concern'd in maintaining its Sacred Laws against such as prompted either by their Vanity or Malice endeavour too frequently to pervert the same I having undertaken in this present Treatise to vindicate in some measure the KINGDOM of DENMARK against a nameless Author who as much as in him lays has endeavoured to misrepresent the State of your R. H's Native Country and the most antient Rights of your Royal Family in Denmark I thought I should appear to the World to be wanting in my Duty to your R. Highness and to deviate from that profound Veneration which I have always paid to your R. H's most eminent Vertues of Valour Moderation and Love of Truth it if I should have committed this Work to the protection of another which I was sensible ought to implore no other but that of your Royal Highnesses My chief aim in this Undertaking has been to undeceive such as being not acquainted with the true State of Denmark might be apt to mistake fair shining appearances for the Truth it self wherein as I have soughtmore for the Satisfaction of being approved of by the most understanding sort than the multitude whose applauses I never sought nor valued So if I have been able to contribute any thing in this Matter which may meet with the least Approbation from a PRINCE who by his BIRTH and exquisite KNOWLEDG of the Constitutions of his Native Country and the Prerogatives of his Royal Ancestors is the most unquestionable judge of this Vindication I shall always esteem it as the greatest honour which I could pretend to in this undertaking Pompous words the common ingredient of our new-fashion'd Dedications being the Scorn of great Souls ought not to be brought into your R. H's Presence But instead of these I will offer my fervent Prayers to Heaven for the Prosperity of your R. H. and your most illustrious Family humbly intreating your R. H. graciously to accept of this as an unfeigned Testimony of my constant Zeal for your R. H's Service and begging leave to call my self Your Royal Highness's Most Humble and Devoted Servant J. C. A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN in the Country TO HIS FRIEND in LONDON SIR NExt to the most acceptable News of your health nothing could at this time have been more welcome to me in my retirement than the Book you sent me concerning the present State of Denmark which as it has with pleasure revived in me the remembrance of such Matters as formeâ—ly I had observed in those Northern Countries so the reading of it at such intervals as were free from the usual jollities of the Christmas Holy-Days has afforded no small variety to me when tir'd with the diversions this Season particularly allows us in the Country I had some days before I received yours heard a most advantageous Character of the said Book from some Gentlemen who being Fellows if not the Heads of a State-Reforming Society in London were come partly to pass the Holy-Days in the Country partly to communicate to their Friends here the Results of their grave Debates in their several London Clubs and had among other State Censuring Pamphlets as I understood recommended this Treatise as a singular piece fit to improve the Knowledge of all such as desired to be instructed in State Affairs The Truth is knowing these Gentlemen to be of a Society the Members whereof I know not by what antient Title which they deduce even from the times of the Romans claim a prerogative of Censuring not only foreign States but also our own in particular as often as Matters do not fully answer the ends of their wise Consultations I had a more than common Curiosity to peruse a Treatise which they seemed to be so fond of even to admiration But as soon as I found the Title Page not only without the Author's Name which seems so requisite to give an Authority to Historical Treatises that I do not see how any body can challenge a belief from his judicious Reader without it but also the Printer's omitted the work seem'd to me at the very first sight to carry with it a shrewd suspicion if not of downright falshood at least of an unanswerable partiality And to speak freely when immediately after in the Preface so disproportionable both to the nature and â—igness of the Treatise there appeared to me every where the foot-steps of a conceited Home-breeding and every Leaf almost stuft up with the Praise of This and the Diminution and Undervaluing of other Countries confirmed with far fetch'd Arguments devised on purpose rather to amuse and ensnare than impartially to instruct the Readerâ— I did conclude that our unknown Author's intenâ—ion was to give us a Novel such as the Turkish Spy or the like wherein of late years some have taken a priviledge to intermingle Truth with their own Inventions accommodating the whole more to their own Fancies or else to the Humors of such as they seek to please than to the sacred Laws of History but not a true and impartial Account of the present State of Denmark When soon after my Curiosity did lead me to make a true comparison betwixt the most remarkable passages related in this Treatise and such Matters as either my memory or observations which I had made some years ago when conversant in those Countries as also the correspondence of my Friends from thence had furnished me withal I was sufficiently convinced that in the most concerns of Moment our Author had endeavoured by an affected Stile rather to adapt the whole to his Conceits in the Preface than the Preface to the Work The gross and unaccountable Comparison especially made betwixt the Northern parts of the World and the Turkish Government nay even the preferring the latter before the others may I think serve as an undeniable Argument to all unbyass'd Persons That the Author did not intend to give us a just account of those Countries but under a Romantick Cover of Arbitrary Power to represent Tyranny in its worst shape to the English Nation And as this is plainly apparent out of several passages of the said Book so it