this King at Rome receiving Information that some of the Pope's Marshals were got within his Quarters he ordered his Men to seize them and commit them to safe Custody the Cardinal de Estree has endeavoured to alleviate the matter and mollifie his Holiness Resentments saying That certain Persons who were no great Friends to France had set them at Work with a design to irritate Matters yet further between the two Courts that he might be pleased to consider that in the Posture Affairs then stood that is after his Holiness had accepted the Mediation of the King of England it would look ill to admit any Innovation but the Cardinal was asked Whether the King of France was Sovereign in the City of Rome And supposing he had been really so was there any Justice to arrest People as they passed along the Streets that had a Design to make no manner of Attempts upon any That it was never yet known in any Country or heard of in the World of any Law that condemned a Man upon a bare Suspicion but supposing that were true as it was not yet it was most certain that the Punishment was reserved to the Sovereign and not to an Embassador who whatever Latitude he would have allowed to his Authority could not pretend to any more than to be independent in his own Person that as for his Domesticks if they pretended to the same Exemption with himself it was no farther allowable than they demeaned themselves Regularly as they ought to do for if they did otherwise they were subject to the ordinary Iurisdiction of the Place they were in That there were a Thousand Examples for it though there had been some Embassadors who had endeavoured to extend the Privilege of their Domesticks so far as to maintain that they ought to be affranchised That this pretended right of Sovereignty by Embassadors was so far from beng true that they had not as much as Power to punish their own Servants for there could not be any one Example produced that any Embassador has intruded so far as to condemn any Person whatsoever to Death tho' there have been many who have justly merited such Punishment That it was true they had sometimes reclaimed them when fallen into the Hands of ordinary Iustice but that at the same time it had always depended upon that of the Sovereign to concede that Favour to them or refuse them according as they were more or less just These things being granted which could not be otherwise for they carried their own Light with them how could it be justified that a bare Embassador should dare to arrest not only his own Servants but the Officers of a Sovereign Prince and that even in his Capital City and to heighten the Extravagance of such an Action even in the very Sight of him Thus my Lord has the Old Gentleman resented the Injury and I am afraid our King will have but little Joy of his Embassy and in this Particular come short of his Grandfather's Motto of Beati Pacifici however his Zeal here for the Good of the Roman Catholick Church is highly applauded but whether it be a Zeal without Knowledge I le leave to your Lordship to determine and think my self happy in any Opportunity to serve you who am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris July 2. 1688. S. N. LETTER XXXIX Of the Seven Bishops being committed to the Tower of London and the French Intrigues to embroyl that matter My Lord THE Commitment of the Bishops to the Tower and the Birth of the Priuce of Wales are things so agreeable to the Gusto of this Court that they are overjoy'd at it about the former of which this Court has been very busie I will not positively say the Presbyterians had the first hand in it tho' they have taken care to enter it into our Minutes so and that they being willing to make some advantage of the Contests of the Court got it suggested to the King by the means of the Romanists That in order to engage the Parliament to establish Liberty of Conscience it was necessary the Bishops should be order'd to injoyn the reading the King's Declaration in their respective Diocesses That the matter could not be scrupled by them since the publication of the King's Orders had been at all times an Usage in England as well as in other Countries But however this matter was first started my Lord I will not take upon me to determine but it was carried on by strange Instruments for as soon as ever the Bishops had refused to read the Declaration and addrest themselves to the King upon that account with their Reasons for noncomplyance the Jesuits about him egged briskly on by such as are entirely at this Court's Devotion represented to him the great Affront offered to his Authority and the Regal Dignity itself by such a Refusal and how if he suffered the same to go impunedly it might open a Gap for it to be trampled upon without reserve and who could tell where it would terminate That since he had already in all other points carried the Rights of Soveraignty to a great height surely it was not now time to dissemble and wink at an Adventure that put such narrow Bounds to his Regal Authority That there was therefore an absolute necessity to call them to a severe account for such an audacious Act That they might be tryed by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission and with as much Justice everywhit suspended as the Bp of London was and what would be a mighty Advantageous Consequent thereon was that the Privation of the Episcopal Authority would advance the Regal Authority to such a pitch as to be held in veneration by all the People You know my Lord the Success these Remonstrances have had but the variation of the Bishops Tryal is disavowed by this Court and the cause of their being brought into Westminster-Hall attributed to the Chancellor's swaying the King and for which some have gnashed their Teeth at him Upon the Acquitment of the Bishops the English Jesuits were horribly spighted and the French Emissaries laughed in their Sleeves and that they might embroyl the Nation more had Orders to insâ—uate into any whom they thought fit for their purpose That the Regal Authority had that Property in it that it oftentimes subsisted more in Imagination than Effect That if the People did but once know their own Strength they would find it an easie matter to shake off the Yoke which certain Puissances imposed upon them and with a great deal more but in general Terms to the same purpose with which I shall not at present trouble your Lordship But they have at the same time spirited up the Jesuitical Court-Faction to importune the King without any Intermission to review the Bishop's Cause and bring them on to another Tryal alledging to him That such a Failure would undoubtedly add a Triumph to the People whereof they had already given but too clear Signs and
THE SEâ—â—â—T HISTORY OF White-Hall FROM THE Restoration of Charles II. Down to the Abdication of the late K. James Writ at the Request of a Noble Lord and conveyed to him in Letters by late Secretary-Interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois who by that means had the perusal of all the Private Minutes between England and France for many Years The Whole consisting of Secret Memoirs which have hitherto lain conceal'd as not being discoverable by any other Hand Publish'd from the Original Papers By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVII THE PREFACE I Do not question but the Reader will expect somewhat should be premised by way of Satisfaction to such Scruples as may be suggested in general concerning the Authentickness of the ensuing Letters which as I conceive they are reducible to the following heads viz. An Account of the Author and the Means whereby he got his Intelligence the Verity of the Matters related the Nature of the Correspondence and what part the Methodizer has had in the Undertaking so I shall endeavour to give as distinct and satisfactory a Solution of each Particular as may reasonably be expected from me or the Circumstance of the Things will justly admit of First then for the Author and his Intelligence The first time he went over into France was in the Year 1675 where he had not stay'd above a Year but that the place of General Commis or Clark of the Dispatches and Particular Commis Interpreter to that great French Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois for the Affairs relating to our Three Kingdoms falling vacant by the Death of one Mr. Kilpatrick a Scotchman ' s Son that same Imployment was conferred by him upon a Frenchman a Favourite of his named Belou Who understanding no English and therefore not being able to manage the Affair without an English Man our Author was recommended to him for that service as he hints in his first Letter which yet you are to Note by the way was not the first he writ from that Country to that Noble Person he corresponded with and to whom he was previously engaged to transmit all the Intelligence he could learn of the Proceedings of the French Court before he entred upon the said Imployment but they being not very material he took no care to reserve the Transcripts by him and continued to be Interpreter of the English tongue till after the time of our Grand Revolution when he came over into England where his stay was not long but that he was imployed by the same Noble Person to return into France again where the dangerous part he was to Act may be better conceived than now exprest but concerning which you may hear more hereafter It s no hard matter to imagine what Qualifications were necessary to recommend our Author to the Imployment afore noted and how far his out-side must differ from his in-side during his aboad there which together with that part which he has Acted in that Kingdom since his present Majesty King William ' s Accession to the Throne and that he knows not how soon he may still be engaged to return though he be at present in London are Reasons of themselves without superadding any other of the many that might be produced more than sufficient for the suppression of his Name and of my being engaged in the Work which yet rather than Truth should suffer I am satisfied he will be as forward to render as well known to the World as 't is to that Noble Person who has imployed him I am of Opinion the Reader will be much better perswaded of the verity of the Facts as well as much more pleased with the new Discoveries of State-Mysteries he will meet with here by the perusal of the Work himself than by any thing I can pretend to say in the Defence of the one or the Commendations of the other And were it not to obviate a vulgar Error and Objection that I foresee would be made upon this Subject That all that could be Writ has been written already concerning the late Reigns I should dismiss it But now I am necessitated not to single out but promiscuously to call to mind a few Heads for to make an Enumeration of all the remarkable Particulars were to run through the Contents of every individual Letter and to ask the Objector where it is he meets with an exact Account of the Private League between King Charles the Second and the French King The Duke of York ' s secret Correspondence with that Court Coleman ' s interventien with both for his own Advantage The Interest the French made both in England and Holland among the several Sects and Parties of Men to prevent the late Queen's being married to his present Majesty The Methods concerted to Trapan her into France with her Father's concurrence and how prevented Father St. Germain's attempting King Charles the Second in his Religion with the King's Answer c. His unseasonable boasting of it the Occasion of his flight into France and the Censure he underwent from those of his Order for it Coleman ' s Wife's Petition to the French King the Answer and her destroying her self Monsieur le Tellier ' s Speech about the Invasion of England the Duke of York his pervertion to the Church of Rome King James his Private League with France when Regnant the Essay made by Don Ronquillo the Spanish Ambassador to draw him into the Austrian Interest with his Answer and Refusal in savour of France How Father Petre came to be made a Privy Councellor wherefore Mr. Skelton was imprisoned in the Tower c. which to name no more though the rest are of equal curiosity as they had in all likelihood been for ever buried in the profoundest Oblivion had not the Fate and Address of this Gentleman led him to fetch them out of the Dark and almost inscrutable Recesses of the French Cabinet-minutes so the Reader will find they carry so much Evidence of Truth with them not only by the Connexion they have with many material Passages in Sir William Temple ' s Memoirs Mr. Coke ' s Detection of the Court and State of England during the Four last Reigns c. but by so natural an unfolding of what is obscurely or but transiently hinted at by those learned Authors who could not see beyond their light and yet so remote from those Scurrulities as well as Inconsistencies to say no worse which occur in some other pieces of the same Reigns that it were a Crime to make any farther Apology for them Yet it may be noted by the way that this same doth evince the necessity of this Supplemental Part as well for the detecting of past Falsities as for the perfecting of past Discoveries And 't is hoped no body will quarrel that this Piece which is Entituled by the Name of a Secret History c. should be written in an
Native Papists of England c. That their designs in regard to the Popish Plot might not be prevented My Lord HOw far the Subject-matter of my last to your Lordship hath relished your Palate I am altogether ignorant but adventuring for once to presume its having proved grateful I have in this as it were subjoyned those Instructions the French Agents have received for the amusement of the Native Papists of England in order to the carrying on of their Designs under the covert of the Popish Plot against our Native Country To them therefore they were to use in substance the same pretences as to the other but with some further additions as That the King and the Duke of York were both certainly gained over to the Church of Rome That the most Leading-Men of the Kingdom and the Men of most Power and Interest both among the Clergy and Gentry of the Church of England were Popishly inclined and would without all doubt come galloping over tantivy to the Church of Rome when it should be a proper time for the King to declare himself upon that Head as being well convinced that Monarchy and Prelacy had no other way to defend themselves against the restless and violent practices and efforts of the Sectaries and Republicans and others their Adherents in the Kingdom but by seasonably re-uniting with the Roman Catholick Party from their unjustifiable Separation and Schism from whence innumerable incurable and endless Divisions Distractions and Factions had proceeded That for their comfort and support it was now much otherwise than in the late Civil Wars against King Charles I. That the present King of France being in a condition to give their now Sovereign King Charles the Second a most powerful and numerons Assistance and being a most Generous Prince and withal most cordially and well-affected to their King as well as to their Cause there was no manner of question to be made but he would effectually do it without any by-ends of his own as soon as a general Peace should give leave by which time things would be ripe in the Kingdom to favour his good Intentions to go on with the Conversion of our Nations yea and would take care to provide a sufficient Body of Troops for the abetting of so hopeful a Work in case there should be any such need of Force but that it was reasonably to be supposed there would need none For that by the help of safer Methods and of Mony which that great and zealous Prince would not let them want for so good a Work the number of the Roman Catholicks must needs be so mightily encreased in a few Years that the King might venture to declare himself in their favour and then by the voluntary return of the Church of England to Rome their Mother Church and by the very dread of the formidable Power of Lewis the Great who was known to be a sure and fast Friend to our two Royal Brothers the other dissenting Factions would be so over-powered with the number of their Opponents and so terrified at their Strength that if it had not the good effect to work them up into a complyance it would at least into such a tameness that they would neither be able to hinder nor have the rashness to oppose what Changes and Innovations the King should afterwards have a mind to make in Church or State and make them Triumphant in England And thus they were to lead them on till they had noosed them fast in a Correspondence with them but not a word was to be told them till they had first sounded them whether they were fit to hear it of any design they had to subject England or enslave the rest of Europe to French Tyranny or of the Murder of King or Duke or both in case they found them not pliable enough to their Instigations or that their abominable Ends could be compassed no other ways to which if they would not be compliant they were then by those Tools to have some of their Correspondence with them discovered and have them accused as if they had been really guilty of what they were only tempted to And so by this means all the considerable Men of them besides some Rascals to make Tools of were to be drawn into a close Correspondence with France and beaten quite off from any application to Rome or correspondence with the House of Austria sliely insinuating that France was the only Power in Christendom that could preserve or support them But the full design they had upon the Nation as before hinted was a Secret imparted but to a very few nay it was not as much as communicated to the Jesuits of the two British Nations but kept almost to the last as an Arcanum among such of them as were Native French except only two or three Irish Fathers and some very few more of that same Nation whom they thought averse enough to the English Name and Nation to be heartily true and constant to any Foreign Interest and Power capable to support and effectually to back them in the bloodiest and blackest Contrivances against their detested Conquerors for rather than fail to such horrid Tragedies they were determined by some means or other to proceed if they could no otherwise effect their wicked Purposes and could have found a way to fix the Crime as they had projected on some other Party and Nation My Lord I have been tedious but could not avoid it I design without a Countermand to transmit to Your Lordship in my next the applications made to rhe Protestant Party upon the same Head and in the mean time remain My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Mar. 17. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the French Artifices to amuse the Protestants of the Church of England while they carried on their Designs My Lord PUrsuant to my Resolutions in the close of my last Letter without I received a Countermand from your Lordship which I have not I am to acquaint you what this Court 's Maxims were and what Methods they went upon either to make the Protestants of the Church of England helpful to their Designs or at least to do them no disservice and be no obstruction to them therein To the Clergy therefore and Gentry of the forementioned Church whom they imagined there was any likelyhood to pervert they were to alledge most of the same things as before as Arguments to perswade and induce them to return to the Bosom of their Church and would argue much from the agreement in many things of both Religons and were Instructed sometimes not only first to insinuate and then affirm the King was actually Perverted but were moreover impudently to assert That such and such Bishops such and such Eminent Doctors such and such Peers of the Realm and such and such remarkable Gentlemen for Interests Estates and exquisice Parts c. were to their knowledge certainly and infallibly so too tho' at present but covertly and That a greater part of
it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
just pretensions about the Regale nor the franchises of Quarters but that he was resolved to be Pope in France and Sovereign in Rome from which no Force should ever make him depart or flinch back the least degree whatever Dangers he were exposed unto This great Constancy My Lord in the old Pontiff hath not a little appalled the exorbitant Pride and Fury of this Court however they have put the best Faâ— they can upon it and seem resolved to break through all Opposition and outbrave whatever shall be in their Way and divert their Resolution and I am assured the French Embassador Lavardin at Rome hath already pursuant to his Orders from hence highly menaced the old Dad who in a third Letter to the King has made answerable Reply of which I am pretty confident I shall in my next transmit to your Lordship the Particulars but in the mean time remain My Lord Your Faithful Servant Paris june 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVIII The Contents of Pope Innocent XI's third Letter to the French King in answer to that of hâ—â— wherein he shews his Folly and Mistake in his Pretentions and Demands and threatens the Censure of the Church against him and shews the Inconveniency and Danger of setting up a Patriarch in France c. My Lord I Wish your Lordship as much Satisfaction in the perusal of this Letter as I have in keeping my Promise made to you in my last about the Pope's third Letter in getting Sight of the Minutes whereof I have met with much greater Difficulty than I expected or was usual with me I have already hinted Monsieur Lavardin's Menaces made at Rome upon the subject matter of the former Letter and therefore the Pope begins his with answering those Menaces that imported that the King should affranchise France from the Roman See nominate a separate Patriarch there â—and elect Bishops of his own without having any Recourse to the Bishop of Rome and in the mean while invade the Pope's Territories with his Arms and force the Franchises for his Ambassador and fiercely replying That he is resolved as in Conscience bound to do to transmit the Franchises and all other Rights of the Apostolick See to his Successors as he found them That he would recognize or allow of no Bishops of the King 's nominating till he had Satisfaction about the Regale that if he would be so heady as to proceâ—d â—o nominate a new Patriarch it would make a greater combustion in his Kingdom than he was aware of to which his Persecution of the Protestants would not a little contribute which he should find would be very unseasonable for him and would in all likelihood raise all Christendom against him as well as his own Subjects that thereby he would make a wide Gap to let in an Inundation of Heresies which he pretends to keep out and would teach the People after they had once trampled on the Pope's Authority to trample at last on that of the Bishops and King 's too and even on their very Persons as they had done in England and that when he had pulled down the mighty Dam of the Papal Power and let that raging Sea in it would be out of his Power to stop it where and when he would wherefore he conjured him and his Clergy to consider seriously yea twice and thrice of that weighty Project before they went to put it in Execution lest they might when they found it too late repent it and in vain attempt to recal the same That he must not think to fright him with the Noise of an Invasion for that tho' he would neither arm himself nor the rest of the Princes of Italy against him as he might do but oppose only Prayers and Tears yet if he desiâ—â—ed not from his pretended Regale and Franchises he would excommunicate Lavardin his Embassador and interdict his Kingdom and and set it in such a Flame about his Ears as should make him glad to go tamely back again and look after his own Home that after all should he sack and Plunder Rome captivate his Person and have all other Successes he could imagine it would be a very inglorious Expedition for Lewis the Great the eldest Son of the Church and such a pretended Bigot for it for to ravage its Territories and assault the supreme Pastor of it with those Arms with which he was bound to defend it and but a small Triumph to so great a Conqueror to over-power and martyrise a poor helpless and unarmed old Man as he was for whom some of his Predecessors would have been content to have become Martyrs themselves and therefore conjures him to think once more very seriously of it and then to act as he pleased but withal assures him That neither his Menaces nor his Arms shall make him flinch an Hair's breadth from those his last Resolutions wherein he was fully resolved to persist to the last Drop of his Blood Thus my Lord you have the brave Resolution of a Roman Pontiff who tho' the Title and Dignity of Christ's earthly Vicegerent be falsly ascribed to him yet undoubtedly he is possessed of a Soul above that of common Mortals and whom I therefore honour and esteem as I have always done and ever shall your Lordship who am My Lord Your most humble Servant Paris June 28. 1687. LETTER XXIX Of the Tryal and Suspension of the Bishop of London by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission My Lord I Have once and again intimated to your Lordship some Methods that were proposed to be prosecuted in order to the setting up of the King 's Dispensing Power and among other things to the best of my remembrance taken notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission with the Reasons urged to the King for making use of it and now you have seen the Effects of it upon my Lord of London whom some of them have said They were resoved to be revenged on for doing his Duty in the House of Lords by moving after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King for his Speech to that Session after the death of the D. of Monmouth in his own and his Brethren's Name That the House would take the King's Speech into consideration and debate the same but this way was not then resolved on but several others projected which yet they found impracticable when the Commission was agreed to be erected they had even then an Eye to the Bishop tho' no plausible Pretence for the Prosecution of him and therefore the said Commission lay dormant for some Months till such time as they might see the Effects of another Project to be put in Practice which was That some Reglements made in the late King's Reign in the Year 1662. importing among other things The Clergy in their Sermons should not meddle with State Affairs nor enter upon any Question that concerned the Rights of the King's Subjects nor to treat of some Points in Divinity which formerly had created great Troubles in
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
Interest as I mentioned to your Lordship in my my last have failed tho' he were briskly seconded therein by the Lord Marquess of Powis the Pope's Nuntio and Emperor's Minister whose Reasons or rather Remonstrances to the King upon that Head for want of better Intelligence I shall at present take notice of to your Lordship as entred in our Minutes and which indeed were such that 't is a wonder he should withstand them sed quem Deus 1. They prest it very home upon him That such a War against the States of Holland could not be attempted with any apparent Advantage to his Majesty without a junction with the French Power which yet in all human Probability would never enable him to conquer those Provinces since both the Crown of Spain and the Emperor nay the Empire would be obliged to protect them to war with whom especially with Spain whose Trade as he well knew was most beneficial to England of any in the World would be attended with such manifest Disadvantage as all the Power of France were that King a faithful Ally would never be able to make the Nation amends for and that supposing he should be able to conquer the said Republick by the Assistance of the French Arms yet to conquer it by French Force would necessarily but make himself as well as that Nation a Tributary and Underling of France 2. That in all likelihood a War with Holland and against the House of Austria would disgust his Subjects and set them all against him yea and perhaps move some hot Spirits to form Designs to dispossess him of his Throne or at least so far to make Opposition as to knock on the Head all his fine Projects for the Advancement of his own Religion in England and engaging of his very Catholick Subjects against him 3. That if his Majesty intended the re-establishment of the Catholick Faith in England it was to be considered that the same was a Work of Time and required great Moderation but that they were sure the hot and furious Methods of France and the Jesuits would never effect it 4. That to them for the effectual bringing about of the said Work there seemed a kind of necessity that he should stay till the Discords between the Catholick Princes were so far appeased as to be without Danger of breaking out in a long Time for that all their Concurrence would be found to be little enough to enable him to accomplish his Ends therein 5. That if he should chuse rather to enter into a strict Allyance with the House of Austria against the French he would thereby render himself secure of his People's Hearts and Affections of the Dutch Naval Force to strengthen him at Sea as occasion required and of all the other Allies Forces to divert the French Armies by Land And that if he should lose upon that account as 't was likely any Remittances from France they assured him the Pope would allow him a much better Pension to countervail it and that being engaged against France his People would be so intent against the French and upon that War so agreeable to their Inclination that they would not be so very jealous of and so prying into the Advances he should make in the Change of Religion at Home and that if by that means than which nothing could be thought on more feasible he could not settle that Religion he might at least secure it and make Matters easie to those of his own Perswasion 6. That if his Majesty persisted to make War against Holland which would inevitably draw on one with the House of Austria if his Arms did not prevail so far as to come to an entire Conquest he was certainly ruined and all the Catholicks in the three Kingdoms along with him without resource and would perish unpitied and without any Hopes or possibility of Succour from any Catholick Princes but the French King alone and that if on the contrary as it was the most unlikely thing in the World he should prevail to a Conquest over Holland and his own Country that yet thereby he should under the colour of an imaginary establishment of the Catholick Religion in the Brittish Kingdoms but settle an irreligious Tyrant over all Christendom worse to the Catholick Religion and Christianity in general than any Heretick in the World nay than the very Turk himself and who would insolently trample upon the Pope's as well as his Fellow Princes Power and set up a new Empire and a new Religion of a third sort neither Catholick nor Protestant but such as suited with his own ambitious Designs as the Steps he had already made that way did sufficiently declare And so instead of resettling the Roman Catholick Religion where it had lost Ground and in the Soil of Great Britain which would prove but a Quick-Sand to it he would destroy it all over Europe where it was now established in terra Firma c. I le leave it to the Decision of your Lordship's Judgment whether these or the French Remonstrances carried most of Reason Probability and Truth in them as I ever shall all that comes from My Lord Your Honours most humble and obedient Servant Paris Apr. 30. 1688. LETTER XXXVIII Of the Differences continued between the Pope and the French King and of King James sending am Embassador to Rome to reconcile them My Lord I Have already transmitted to your Lordship the Contents of his Holiness's Letters to the French King about the Regale and Franchises but there seems now to be a Disposition in these two high stomach'd Princes to come to an accommodation and the Conjuncture of Time lies so to the Heart of this Court that I am apt to believe they will precipitate an Agreement however because their forwardness therein might be disguised as much as French Policy could effect they have by their Agents insinuated to our King That an Embassy to Rome from him about accommodating of the foresaid Differences must be very grateful to his Holiness who paid more deference to his Majesty and would further regard his Mediation than any Prince in Christendom and that tho' the French Court stood very stiff upon their Rights yet it was not to be doubted but as they had so high a Valuation for his Friendship at all Times and Occasions so he might be confident that in so critical a Juncture of Time they would not be so purblind as not to see wherein their true Interest consisted It was no sooner my Lord proposed to the King but accepted by him and my Lord Howard is already arrived in this Kingdom in his Way to Italy as the King's Embassador extraordinary on this Errand but notwithstanding this Court has so far prevailed by their Artifices in England to procure the Kings Mediation yet an Accident if it may be called so has lately happened at Rome which may perhaps blast all the blooming Hopes entertained from this mighty Negotiation For Monsieur Lavardin Embassador from
to procure a more familiar Intercourse between the Reformed and Catholicks Secondly That they should be Rewarded with Estates and Honours that would be Converted and to have a Fund setled for that end which should ne'er be alienated that for the exciting of their Ambition and not suppress that Passion in them which might serve as a Sting to their Conversion He was of Opinion that they should be permitted to Exercise the smaller Offices But not to give them great Places but to the Catholicks only for to Allure the Reformed to a Change of their Religion in hopes to attain unto them Thirdly To Embroil the Affairs of particular Persons so as to make them attend the Council and principally the Gentlemen concerning all the Dependances of the Exercises of their Families Fourthly To oblige them to Rebuild the Chappels they had Demolished or Prophaned and that not by proceeding against them in general upon that Head but by Suing of particular Persons upon that Score and to Recommend it to the Care of each Bishop in his Diocess Fifthly To hinder the Deputy-General to interpose therein which he believed might be easily effected because the Hugonots could not form a Body in France and that particular Cases ought not to pass for publick ones and that the King would Administer Justice without any Intervention he would not have the Office of Deputy-General supprest but reduce it only to a Name without any effect and that no regard should be had to the General Remonstrances of the Deputy Sixthly To order it so that none of the Reformed should be suffered to dwell in Cities or the Seigniories which did appertain to such as were of their Religion and he would have it so as they could never want specious pretences to colour that Innovation 7thly To suppress by Death the Charges of Councellors among the Reformed Eighthly To send Catholick Commissâ—ries into the Synods and to chuse such Persons for that end as understood Controversie and knew how to foment any Differences which might arise in the Assemblies to allow no National Synods and to require Money of the Ministers for the King's Use under pretence of Loan Tythes or some other Imposition Ninthly To Commence some Law-Suits against them for their Debts in common and to cause some of their Churches to be Sold. Tenthly To Enjoin all the King's Subjects not to depart the Kingdom without leave for the Reformed would be comprehended under such a general Order Eleventhly To prevent any Catholicks by means of the Confessors to put themselves into the Service of the Hugonots Twelfthly To oblige them to observe the Fasting Days under pretence of State Policy for the same reason as they were obliged to keep Holidays Thirteenthly To endeavour to Marry the Reformed into Roman Catholick Families and to take Care that all the Children proceeding from such Marriages were brought up in the Roman Religion Fourteenthly To hinder the Reformed to Sell their Estates in Land for that such sort of Estates being not to be carried away it would oblige them to keep within the Kingdom And Lastly he advised That the University of Saumur should be removed to some other more inconvenient place for which he furnished them with several pretences and he was of Opinion that for lessening the number of Ministers that the Candidates before they were received should be obliged to go through a Course of Philosophy or Study Divinity for Two Years that they should be Examined before no other Commissioners than such as the King should name and that none should be suffered to take the Function upon them till they were twenty-seven Years of Age. I have troubled your Lordship with a long Letter upon this ungrateful Subject but I hope you 'll pardon me since I think it 's not altogether Forreign to what I have some time since writ to your Lordship about the French Courts procedure in reference to the Reformed whom they made it their chief Business to Cajole into a profound Severity that they might have leisure to carry on their Villanous Designs more securely and therefore it was that this Book and the Author of it run the Fate I have already recounted to your Lordship whom I shall always endeavour to oblige to the utmost of my power who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 8. 1676. N. St. LETTER XIII Of the French Preparations for the War in the Year 1672 and how they compleated their Levies My Lord HAving in some measure traced the Methods the French Councils used to settle their Affairs at Home so as to receive no Molestation from Intestine Motions when they should carry their Arms Abroad they began now to set their Instruments more closely to work in their Neighbour Nations but more especially in England and Holland not only to amuse and play upon those that were at the Realm of Government but to feel the Pulse of and tamper with all the several Factions among the People and to make Creatures among them that might manage them upon occasion as might seem most for their purpose while in the mean time they made vast Preparations underhand for War both by Sea and Land and the better to supply the Defects which seemed to be natural to their Native Soldiers caused Levies to be made for them little or great in all the European Nations insomuch as by a List which I have seen it did appear they had in all of Strangers only about an Hundred and Sixty Thousand Men besides Seamen of whom they had likewise Debauched a considerable number from Holland England Denmark and Swedeland These mighty Preparations without any visible Pretension Alarmed all the Powers of Christendom but the most because of the small Contests then in being with the Pope about the Regale and of some Differences then depending about Lorrain and Alsatia as your Lordship well knows imagined the Storm would break towards Italy and part of Germany till the Preparations of the then Bishop of Munster and the Admission of French Garrisons into the Archbishoprick of Cologn and the Naval Preparations which appear'd last of all filled them with Apprehensions somewhat different from the first among which neither England nor Holland were without some Fears both which they took Care to allay as the Minutes shew by exasperating of them afresh by Secret Agents and Emissaries one against another resolving according as their Instruments should prevail on either to join with one against the other But which of the two they should Attack was a long time the Debate of the French Council for one of them it was resolved without Contradiction must be Invaded it being impossible to make any Successful Attempt upon the Empire as long as those Two Countries maintained the Figure and Power they did then and in that untoward Scituation for them too England was then in a very unprepared condition having almost no Navy at Sea and none but the ordinary Forces at Land whereas theirs were all ready
help him to compass it and he was to urge closely 1. That tho' his Britannick Majesty had been by the intollerable Insolencies and base Outrages of the Dutch Nation constrained and necessitated much against his Inclinations to depart from so much of the tripple League as concerned the Hollanders yet he would not fail to retain still his Inclinations to promote as much as lay in him the chief Intent and Purport of it which was in Substance to hinder the French from aggrandizing themselves to the Diminution of their Neighbours but more particularly to the Prejudice of the Catholick King during his Minority provided he would stand Neuter 2. That his Neutrality would be a firm Security to him of what he yet possest in the Netherlands by obviating and taking clean away from the French all manner of pretences to molest his Subjects 3. That the destroying the Hollanders who were base Rebels to him and whom it was as much Scandalous as Pernicious for any Crowned Head to suffer to flourish and prosper in Wealth and Greatness as they had but too manifestly done to the Diminution of their Neighbours and much less to abet would be highly Beneficial and of manifold Advantage to his Catholick Majesty For that the vast Trade of Amsterdam and other great populous and flourishing Towns in Holland and the other Provinces being ruined and depopulated many of the Inhabitants at least all those of the Roman Catholick Religion or Perswasion a great many of the Deists and other Adiaphorites who were very indifferent and careless whether they frequented any publick Worship at all or no but chiefly and above all other things adored Trade and Gold with which the Dutch Territories swarmed above any other Nation either on this or the other side of the Hemisphere would without all doubt refugiate themselves as being nearest and most commodious for them in the Spanish Territories and Provinces especially Flanders and would quickly multiply and encrease in them not only People but Trade and Riches from whence encrease of Power and Strength both by Sea and Land would be a necessary and infallible Consequence And that then the now almost abandoned City of Antwerp once the most famous and most flourishing City in Trade of this part of Europe should have free liberty to lay open her Scheld again now damm'd up by the Hollanders and recover her former Riches Glory and Strength as would necessarily all the other Spanish Cities and trading Towns in that Country in a proportionable degree which would be a means to make Spain herself become much more Flourishing and Populous 4. That the Crown of Spain would by this means have her Hands quite rid of the most troublesome as well as dangerous Rival in Trade and Conquest in the East Indies of any other Europian Nation whatsoever in which respect neither England nor France tho' trading Nations as being Monarchies had not been nor indeed could possibly be or become so prejudicial to it However they might perhaps afterwards be fortified with new Accessions of Strength and Power as that one single Republick which tho' scarce of one age's Growth had yet already to the Amazement as well as Detriment of their Neighbour Nations and especially the Kingdom of Spain and Territories belonging to it monopolized into her own Hands the advantageous and incredibly gainful Trades to the great Kingdoms of China Iapan and many other Parts both of the East Indian and African Coasts whither in former times no other Nations in the World besides those of Spain and Portugal had any manner of Access 5. That the Power of that upstart Republick was already at that exorbitant Greatness and Grandure that there was no possibility either of humbling or depressing it and much less of a total Subversion of it by any other in Christendom then the united Powers of the Kingdoms of England and France and yet things were brought to that pass that if timely care were not taken to have the said Republick removed out of the way or at least mortified to a very great degree it must of necessity in a short time rise up as Old Rome did to such a prodigious Strength Power Dominion and Grandure that it would give Law to all the Crowned Heads in this part of the World and perhaps at last devour them since it well appeared and was conspicuous to all that did not wilfully shut their Eyes that by such little Blows as the Kingdom of England alone was able to give them in the late War and Sea Engagements they had with them their Experience numbers of Seamen Power Strength and Riches were every day advanced and encreased after the Respite of a small breathing time of Peace And that consequently if his Catholick Majesty the King of Spain or rather the Queen Regent and Ministers as also his Imperial Majesty should suffer themselves to be so over-ruled by such a needless as well as unseasonable Jealousie so far as by their Interposition to obstruct and hinder the now probable Downfal of that usurping and encroaching Republick what could they expect and hope for in the Revolution of a few Years but to see those very People whom by their needless Solicitude they had saved from Destruction be so adventurous as to seize into their own Hands by way of Retaliation for their Kindness their precious Mines of Gold and Silver in the Countreys of Peru and Mexico when it should be quite out of the Power either of the Kingdoms of England or France or indeed both of them together should they find themselves so disposed to prevent their inevitable Loss which would be not only a most pernicious Blow but as might very well be feared even a deadly one to the illustrious House of Austria as well as a very sensible one to all the other Princes and States of Christendom And therefore it could not but be a matter even of high Importance and greatly for the Interest and Benefit of his Catholick Majesty and his Subjects in general for him to resolve to remain and continue neuter in this War that was to commence shortly against the united Dutch Provinces and to connive at and give way to the Success of the French and English Nations since it was evidently as necessary and requisite for the Safety and Grandure of the Kingdom of Spain ut deleatur ist a Carthago as it was for that of England and France from whom a mutual Jealousie which as it ever was could not but be still continued would sufficiently secure Spain to all future Ages from offering any such Violence or making any such Attempts on their Golden and Silver West Indies as would certainly as well as unavoidably be made in less then half an Age upon them by the Republick of Holland If his Catholick Majesty the Emperour and his other Allies should stand so far in their own Light and become guilty of so much Imprudence which could hardly be thought of them as to give any divertion unto
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
chosen by this Court purely for his Capacity is not to be admitted of You know my Lord the Triple League stuck then close in the French King's stomach and that the danger Religion was in as well as Property from the progress of the French Arms before in the Netherlands contributed very much to the cementing of such an Alliance which this Court were labouring tooth and nail to break to pieces and more especially to get the King of England out of it and to that end Monsieur Ruvigny's Religion he being a Protestant highly recommended him How well he discharged his Commission then I need not recount to your Lordship the Event has sufficiently discovered it to England as well as to Holland's sorrow and to the no small regret of some of those of his own Religion and Fraternity in France It was much about Six years after that the same Marquess was entrusted with another Negotiation at the English Court to no less pernicious an end than the former and I fear at long run with worse effects They had my Lord besides the Instruments I have formerly mentioned for some time before this imploy'd several of their own Hugonots in England for the carrying their Intrigues more effectually on among our Protestants which Hugonots have been the more forward to please and obey the Instructions of their Prince and his Ministers in that they have believed them very compatible with their own particular Interests wherefore they have done all they could to contribute to the Elevation of the Presbyterian Government in our Nation which because the same with their own they have naturally had some desire to see established in a Kingdom so able to protect them and which had hitherto been the great impediment to their extirpation in France But to return from this Digression for which I beg your Lordship's pardon to the Marquess de Ruvigny his Instructions were to endeavour to possess the Protestants in general in our Nation which were now my Lord full of fears of some Secret Designs a brewing between the two Kings in prejudice to their Religion and Civil Rights too that they needed not to be so much concerned at Appearances that it was far enough from the thoughts of his Master to make their King great to his Subjects prejudice and that he was not so zealous for the Roman Religion as they might imagine whereof he was to urge several instances and to endeavour to throw off all the odium from him upon the Pope and the Court of Rome and thereby make them level all their Fears Jealousies and odious Reflections that way to the end that by the Royal Church-Party who had the King's ear they might still secure him further in their Interests and have their helping-hand to carry on those Points they aimed at that way viz. the hindring the Princesses matching with the Prince of Orange and the Offensive Alliance so much feared then and now with the Confederates c. But this was but one Party of the Protestants his Instructions also were to make a particular Interest among the Dissenters and such as inclined to them at the same time that in case they were defeated in the one and saw no likelihood of staving off the other they might have them ready prepared to enter the lists against the former and when War was ready to be declared against France to push them on if possible to raise a Civil Combustion at home and to insinuate into them That the King his Master was willing privately to assist them as his Predecessor had done theirs in the late Civil Wars upon occasion c. in which sort of Negotiation the Marquis was effectually enough seconded by his Countrymen Hugonots then in England and particularly by a man of singular Parts and Learning and exceedingly well versed in Intriegue named Monsieur but on the contrary in case they should have been able by the Royal Party to have been strong and successful enough to gain the two said Points and hinder both the Match and the War which was their business and is still in part to oppose they had Orders to have the same Dissenting Party still ready when King Lewis and his Cousins of England should have had that part of their ends of the Conforming Party to make use of them against them if they would not humour them so far as to suffer themselves to be carried quite back to Rome And because all our Protestants however differently denominated should take no umbrage at any of this Court's Proceedings they thought fit once more to let their Sun as they so often term him to cast some warm beams on the Hugonot Party at home and to entertain them awhile with some Courâ—ly Smiles whereby they have designed to amuse our people and at the same time make their own Protestants to be their Instruments to carry on the Divisions of those who while united are their only Protectors for hitherto while they have had War with the Confederates and chiefly with Holland and are in fear of one with England it being yet out of their power to destroy these people they have thought it their interest not to exasperate them whereby they may be tempted to run over to the Enemy but rather for the present to court them and make them serviceable unto them by working in the very Mines which in all human probability are designed to blow them up withal I will not intrude When Captain E returns I should take it as a singular favour to receive a line from your Lordship and particularly your Sentiments of our Home-affairs by him whom I shall expect with utmost impatience who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 20. 1678. LETTER XXXVI Of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced by the Emperor for Corresponding with the French about the Year 1674. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot be ignorant that during this Intrieguing in England and Canvassing of Designs against our King and Kingdom the War went on on this side with various success but I find England is not the only Country that has been bubbled by the French Emissaries and had its Secrets betrayed I cannot tell any one part of the Confederates that have been exempted but Germany more particularly has suffered in this kind variously but in nothing so remarkably as in the business of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced some time since by the Emperor and which has made so much noise in the World that your Lordship could not but hear of it That he corresponded with this Court there is nothing more certain though when the business was once winded their Emissaries thought it adviseable to be the first Rumorers of it but related the same with Particulars so extraordinary that were scarce credible that thereby they might turn the whole at length into a ridicule But the way of their Correspondence with the said Prince and others in the Empire was so intricate to be fathomed that 't is no wonder the matter
side of the Water for besides that this Court were then and are still at variance with the Papal See There is not the least Instruction transmitted from hence as far as I can find either to England or Rome concerning that matter but perhaps he might receive them in transitâ— and by word of mouth only from M. L. who failed not to see him But as for Count Dada the Apostolâ—ck Nuncio as they call him they have shewed some Concern here that he should have an honourable Reception in England and have order'd it so as to get our King to dispense with that Ceremony which Henry VIII and even his Daughter Queen Mary insisted upon that he should wait like a Mumper at a French Port till he had Leave granted him to enter into England And that the English Nation who had not seen such a Vision for near an Age and a half might not be overterrified with it the French Agents were instructed to suggest unto those Lords and others whom they should think most susceptible of their Sophistry That since the King as a Roman-Catholick Prince could do no less than send an Ambassador to Rome to salute the Pope tho' it were but for form-sake and that his said Ambassador had had such an extraordinary Reception and great Civilities shewed him there it were but very equitable the King in his turn should shew the like to his Nuncio who was a Layman and in that quality came to congratulate his accession to the Throne from his Master not so much as he sate in St. Peter's Chair as he was a Temporal Prince to whose Ministers as such the Law of Nations required a just Deference should be paid That to send a solemn Embassy to the Great Turk who was a Mahumetan and a sworn Enemy to all Christians however denominated was never so much as boggled at by any English-man or other Christian Nation whatsoever either in this or any preceding Age That the Ambassadors of the Emperor of Morocco had been lately received in England most honourably and yet their Master both a Mahametan and a Barbarian Prince in whose Countries Christians were treated more like Brute-Beasts than Men and should they disdain to concur with their Prince to receive with some Ceremony and if not by way of a publick and pompous Entry yet privately in his Palace a Minister from him to whose Civilities many of our English Nobility and Gentry were highly obliged in their Travels to Rome and Italy But what Success they have had in this petty Agency your Lordship can tell much better than I at this distance but the Duke of Somerset is as highly exclaimed against here for refusing to perform the Ceremony of introducing the Nuncio as the Duke of Grafton is applauded for doing of it who I hope for all that will never have the Thanks of a House of Commons for it I am My Lord Your very obedient and humble Servant Paris Nov. 2â— 1â—87 N. S. LETTER XXXIV The French Politicks to embroyl England My Lord THE French Emissaries having gain'd severat Points and particularly that mentioned in my last they have lately turn'd their Batteries another way They have been most of this while endeavouring to compass their Ends by putting the King and those who have most influence over him upon desperate courses whereof the most material I have as Occasion has served noted to your Lordship It will hardly be believed that they would offer to propose any Maxims to the Legal Party in England that are really for their advantage Did not their Instructions make it appear to be so tho they have proposed far different Ends therein I do not question but your Lordship has observed the Uneasiness of the Nation under the present Proceedings of the King and Court-party but tho they have just cause of suspicion I must assure your Lordship the same has been and may still be aggravated by the Agents of this Court who teach them to infuse into the People That the Protestant Religion is in great danger That the reduction of the Roman-Catholicks to the Bounds establish'd by the Law of the Land is highly necessary and without the latter be effected it will be impossible for the former long to subsist That it was visible the Privileges of Parliament were infâ—inged more than in any time of their Ancestors That Arbitrary Power was already acted and without timely prevention would get such rooting that all the power of England could not dethrone it That there was not scarce one made a Nobleman since the Kings accession to the Throne in the Three Kingdoms but such as were Pâ—pâ—sts and That all Honours and Offices of Profit either in Court or Camp were shared amongst such whilst the Protestants lay neglected as useless persons and such as were deem'd to have no Share nor Lot in the Government That the person of the King it 's true was sacred but at the same time it was not only justifiable but an incumbent Duty upon them as Englishmen as they would answer it to God and their Country timously to think of the Danger and to apply the Remedy for without the removal of such Ministers as then managed the State it would be in vain to expect their Grievances could be redressed and their Religion and Liberties secured and if they find themselves harken'd to and their Propositions approved they have further Instructions to hint an Association for one Expedient c. God Almighty knows what will become of poor England amidst so many Designs upon her Religion and Liberty both by foreign and domestick Enemies who continually prey upon her Vitals I can but pray for her as I do and always shall for your Lordship who am My Lord Your most devoted Servant Paris Dec. 13. 1687. LETTER XXXV King James tho' already much disposed put more out of Conceit with the Prince of Orange who is represented by the French Agents very illy to him My Lord I Have in my last suggested to you some of those Arguments the Emissaries of this Court have and are to use to the Church of England-men as they find occasion and a disposition to receive them for to put them upon violent courses to their own and Nation 's destruction But at the same time they have entertained an incurable Jealousie of the Prince of Orange and construe the most just and generous Actions of a Prince who was always so in the worst sense imaginable and as such represent them to the King whom they cunningly whistle in the Ear saying That he could not but know there were some persons in the Nation who were not pleased with his way of proceeding and therefore would be sure to take all Opportunities to oppose him That indeed now Monmouth was cut off they had no plausible Head to retire unto That for the Prince of Orange tho' he had apparently omitted nothing since His Majesty's advancement to the Throne for the maintaining of a fair correspondence with him and