Sea have constrained the weaker to the tendering of that honour and that also somtimes the necessity and the form thereof is constituted by a contract So is it then concerning that also agreed between the King of England and this State by the 19th article of the Breda's Treaty in conformitie with former Contracts made both with the present King and with the Protector Cromwel that the Ships and Seafaring vessells of the Vnited Provinces so well those of Warr and such as are raised for defence against the might of the Enemy as others which shall come to meet any Ship of Warr of the King of Great Britain in the British Sea shall strike the Flagge on the top of the mast and let fall the Mars-sail in the same manner as hath at any time formerly been usual That the right sense of this Article may be well apprehended the Reader may please to observe that the same originally proceeded from the Treaty made between this State and the Protector Cromwel in the Year 1654. and that the same was not at that time concluded in such terms but upon a heavy debate upon some words * Sintve singula sive in classibus whetâ—er they be single Ships or ranked in a Fleet. which the Protector Cromwel would have to be there with joined not onely thereby to oblige single Ships but the whole Fleets of the State unto the foresaid salutation in case of meeting any Ship of warr of England which words afterwards upon the earnest instances of the Ministers of this State were left out of the foresaid article and so must the 19th article be taken out of the 10th article of the Treaty of the Year 1662. which 10th article was granted on the Kings side from the 13th article of the Year 1654. not to be so understood that a whole Fleet of the State should by vertue of the foresaid Treaty be bound to give that salute for one Ship of England but the article aforesaid must be taken for a Regulation according to which the single ships and sea-faring vessels of the State must deport themselvs in regard of the salutings towards the English Ships of Warr. Now for to apply the foresaid article according to it's true meaning to the insisted on case of the Lord van Gent this is First remarkable that the Yacht of the King of England being supposed that in respect of its mounted guns it might pass for a Ship of Warr which we will not dispute not having met one single Ship or sea-faring vessel of the State but being sailed into a fleet then lying at anker doubtless with an evill design for to seek matter of quarrel the King can have no foundation whereon to maintain that the Lord van Gent was bound to strike by vertue of the foresaid article The second thing is aequally considerable that the foresaid article speaking of a meeting is not applicable to the making of a quarrel upon a formed design by the requiring civility and respect upon the uncivillest manner in the world And lastly it is sufficiently ly known that the foresaid occasion passed in the North Sea not farr from our coast being aequally evident that the North Sea is not the British Sea not onely for that the same is in all Sea-charts or maps even those of the English themselvs distinguished from the other but also and that especially which is in this case an invincible argument for that they are in the 17th article of the foresaid Breda's Treaty distinguished from each other where 't is expressly said that the Ships and Merchandizes which within the time of Twelv days after the Peace are taken in the British Sea and in the North Sea shall abide in the propriety of the conquerour whence then certainly it clearly appears that according to the King of England his own sense the North Sea is truly not the British Sea and vice versa so reciprocally but that the North-Sea is made the British-Sea and consequently distinct cases are confounded when men are enclined to embroil and trouble the world And although hereby the States Generall had right to abide by the 19th article of the foresaid treaty according to the foresaid genuine interpretation yet have they over and above declared to the King of Great Britain that upon the foundation of a solid friendship and being assured of the reall and upright performance of the fifth article of the Triple alliance in case th' excessive armature of France should come to fall upon this State they would willingly cause even their whole Fleet as they come to meet any Ship or Ships of Warr carrying the Standart or the Pavilion of his Majesty to strike the Flagge and let the Top-sail fall for an exuberant proof of the respect and honour which they upon all occasions will openly show to so trusty a friend and so great a Monarch saving that from thence no occasion may be taken now nor hereafter neither thereby any the least introduction may be given for hindering or in any part incommodating the inhabitants and subjects of these Vnited Netherlands Provinces in the free use of the Sea Which declaration the King of England takes ill because that by the same he should be bound to the upright performance of the Triple Alliance that is to take heed to his honour and word together with the assurance of doing no prejudice in regard of the free use of the Sea being an infallible argument that the King of England is as little enclined to let us have the free use of the Sea as to perform his word Here have you worthy Countreymen a short confutation of a Declaration which refutes and shames itself and by the Bell-mans noise as that of Drums and Trumpets not onely upon the open places and streets of London before the ears of the Nation but before all the World cryeth out a design of Warr which will be as dreadfull in it's execution as it is unrighteous in its undertaking and hath without doubt in it's contrivance no other end than the limits of a boundless ambition of an endeless coveting and of an unappeasable wrath We see the fire of Warr kindled about our coasts and borders a fire whose flame will consume the Christian World if God disappoint not the undertaking of our enemies and extinguish not the flame in its rising up All Lands and people except haply the Barbarians of Africa may well shake and tremble and from henceforth with terrour behold devastion coming upon their Lands and Cities if the troublers of the World be as prosperous in their proceedings as they are wicked in their design Let every one look himself in the glass of our example and well think that if we be unhappy his turn shall be to be unhappy also And you subjects of the King of England to whom we are bound by the bond of Christian Love and a higher than an earthly interest pour out your tears over the distress that threatens us and the misery
CONSIDERATIONS UPON the Present State of the UNITED NETHERLANDS Composed by a Lover of his Countrey For the encouragement of his Countreymen in this troublesom time Exactly translated out of Nether-dutch into English By a most cordiall Lover of both the Nations Printed in the Year 1672. CONSIDERATIONS UPON the present State of the UNITED NETHERLANDS WHosoever will take a narrow inspection into the beginnings of the State of the Vnited Netherlands and attentively observe the Histories thereof considering by what means the Structure of the said State is risen from the lowness of its original to it's present height must needs acknowledge that the Divine Providence which is not always evident before the Worlds eyes though it move all things by secret wheels and engins hath so clearly sparkled forth in the building up and heightening of this State that they may upon good grounds averr that God Almighty hath been apparently and manifestly the Builder of this praise-worthy Commonvvealth It is novv just an * 100. years Age ago since that vvhen the Land through the unhappy Government of that time vvas fallen into a lamentable confusion William Earle Vander Mark Lord of Lume Admiral of the Fleet of the Prince of Orange being through a hard and sharp order of the Queen of England refusing to permit his abode or the supply of his Mariners vvith necessaries in her Lands enforced to leav England vvas beyond his design through a contrary vvind but indeed a vvind of Gods direction brought before the Bril vvhich he took in vvithout much trouble not vvith intention to hold the place but onely to plunder it and leav it again Nevertheless being informed of the convenient situation and importance of that City He brought it into a posture of defence and kept it for his Principals and Commanders And on this wise is the first Stone of this excellent Building laid or rather cast by accident in regard of the outward instruments but in truth through the direction of the highest Master-builder in whose Almighty hands men are often as blind work-tools of his wonderfull determinations It is not my intention here to make a relation of the progress of our affairs and in what manner our Ancestours have wrestled through the mischiefs and misfortunes and mounted up to the height of the prosperity which we at present through the goodness of God enjoy but my design is onely in this short discourse to persuade my worthy Countrey men to trust that that God who hath raised us up from a low condition to such a State as hath now for a great while procured through its welfare so much envy as it did before compassion through it's misery will graciously preserve the work of his Almighty hand whereupon after the example of our Ancestors we do in this season jointly propose two things which are never to be separated That is a perfect resignment and yielding ourselvs up to the Divine providence and an undaunted mind valiant couragious resolution for the performance of so much in this troublesom time for our preservation as our Ancestours have don for their first deliverance And I desire my Countreymen that in comparing and likening our present incumbrances with the perplexitie of our Ancestours and the dangers which have been in our days they would look back into the Histories from the first times of our Ancestours and into their own knowledge of things since that time which to this day we have retained in our memory In the Histories they shall find that the affairs of our Ancestours were reduced in their first rise to such inconvenience that the consideration thereof prevailed upon the greatest Man of that time who had with an indissoluble bond linked in his own welfare with the lot of these Lands to give that hopeless counsel of breaking open the Banks and Damms to cause the Land to sink into an irrecoverable lake and casting themselvs on the meer mercy of God with the small remainder of a ruined Fortune to seek out some other Lands beyond Sea where they might either live more happyly or die less miserably We shall pass by how often that the Commonwealth after it was by the hand of God freed out of that desperate estate hath shak'd and trembled both through fear of an enemy from Without and of confusion from within The Histories will tell us that not alone the State of the Vnited Provinces but all the Netherlands who where engaged to each other though not in so strict a bond as those called The Vnited vvere sufficiently reduced to the utmost extremity by the unfaithfulness of the Duke of Anjou Brother of the King of France and that afterwards The Vnited Provinces were got into a heavy confusion and in a posture wholly deprived of defence through the artifices and ambitious designs of the Earl of Leicester sent hither for our defence by the Queen of England We shall also in silence pass over the time in which many of ourselvs have liv'd when the whole Land was through a sudden surprize upon the Veluwe and the taking in of Amersfoort so alarmed as Rome was when they saw Hannibal before the Gates And for so much as is within our own memorie we have yet a fresh remembrance of the Warr with the Protector Cromwel wherein we were by a certain fatality and an interest without our interest entangled in a time when the Land through want of ships and Canon was brought into a perplexity of which we cannot think without alteration of mind We are now through Gods grace wrestled through those difficulties and innumerable more and had wished by a long-during Peace which is the true and harmless Interest of our peace-loving Commonwealth to tast the fruits of our sorrowfull labour but it hath otherwise pleased God who by his righteous ever to be adored Judgements neerly approaching us makes us to see that we now stand need of his protection so much as ever seeing we find ourselvs at present put upon the necessity of resisting the utmost violence of the greatest power of Europe and that with a force which indeed is contemptible in comparison of that of our enemies by which ne'retheless we despair not of being able to subsist for that we trust that God will look upon the justness of our innocent cause with the eyes of his Righteousness and on our sins and weaknesses with the eyes of his Compassion And in truth if ever the sword were drawn for the necessary preservation and blameless defence of our worthy Countrey it is so at this time wherein the mighty Potentates of the World seem to have concluded the ruin of our Vnited Netherland in the councel of the powers of darknesse in which they have engaged with them all those who regard Christian bloud no more than the bloud of Sheep and Goats and who delight their eyes with the laying wast of Lands and Cities as they use to do at a Stage-play where themselvs are at once both Actours
of it than what was don by the Canon We shall also not speak of the successes of that Warr over which the King of England so highly vaunts on his side but concerning that we shall onely say that we should have matter enough to give thanks to God Almighty for if the conclusion of the present Warr should not be unhappyer for us then was the end of that in the time aforesaid Proceeding then to the examination of the substance of the Declaration itself if there can be any substance in sensible untruths evil-minded surmisings and gross impertinencies we shall briefly run over all the points over which the King of Great Britain shows or at least feigns his discontents and for the satisfaction not onely of our inhabitants and all unbyassed persons but of those of his own nation also we shall demonstrate that the foresaid pretended reasons have not been the moving cause of this Warr but onely pretexts and ill cemented covers of an intention which is older than the invention of the pretended motives which are no causes but contraryly are effects and products of the design of making warr upon us First the King complains to wit feignedly as we have formerly said that the States Generall by force of one of the Articles of the Breda's treaty as he holds it forth being obliged to send Commissioners to London there to regulate the trading in East-India should so farr have failed therein that they could not by a three years urgency of his Ambassadour be prevailed upon to acquit themselves of their word and promise given on that behalf and further to give the King satisfaction for the injurie which those of his nation in East-India should have suffered from ours Whereunto we shall not otherwise answer than shortly thus That we most exceedingly wonder that the pennner of the manifesto who doubtless is no small perswader of the Warr should set forth a Declaration which must come under the eyes of all the World having not once beforehand taken the pains to look over the treaty in which there is not found one article that obligeth the States General to send Commissioners to London for the end aforesaid but an article indeed there is viz the third of the appendix of the said treaty mentioning the commerce and navigation whereby it is set down that the King of England and the States General should with all speed by Commissioners on both sides form an expedient for regulating the navigation and Commerce and that mean while and by provision they should be ruled by that which was agreed on by the King of France and the States General on that behalf the Maritin treaty between the King of England and this State being principally since that concluded in the Year 1669. Hence now can the World see haw farr the desire of Warr an affection of all other the most irregular the most inhuman the most accursed darkeneth and destroyeth the understanding but praised be God Almighty who through his All-wise direction confoundeth and ashameth the wickedness and clearly discovers that the Authors of this Warr are inspired and blown up by the Spirit of him who is a Liar and a Murtherer of mankind from the beginning That which is said of the wrong that the English nation should have suffered by ours in the East-Indies is of the same nature that is untrue and Calumnious and should there also be made a specifical and particular expression of the said unjust things as they call them 't would make the dictatour of the manifesto ashamed who makes his complaint in General terms to deceiv the World which the English Courtiers I speak of those who are councellours of the Warr judge to be as sottish as themselvs are both sottish and wicked Touching the work of Syrinam Which is the second pretended grievance in the foresaid declaration 't is in the first place very remarkable on that behalf that the said work concerns the King wholly not at all but is onely taken up by him to stretch out a matter of quarrell which that the Reader may so much the aptlier apprehend be pleased this to know that the foresaid Colonie of Syrinam having been in March in the Year 1667. overmasterd by one Abraham Crijnsen of Zeeland with the Weapons of the State and in this manner by a certain capitulation brought under the subjection of the same was by the English in the month of May next following retaken but that it was by vertue of the 6th article of the treaty of Breda requiring that all Lands Cities strong holds and Colonies taken by one of the contesting parties from another during the Warr and retaken after the 10 20 of May 1667. should be restored to the first taker again put into the power of the State After the said restitution complaint was made by the King of England that the effect of the capitulation made with the forenamed Crijnsen was not made good to the inhabitants of Syrinam for that the in-dwellers of the said Colonie as they gave it out were denyed permission to depart with their persons and transportable effects otherwhere Now what right was the King of England ever born to to capacitate him with any reason to further the accomplishment of the capitulation made with the inhabitants of the said Colonie who by the right of the Warr are become subjects of the State What doth the foresaid Capitulation concern the King of England more than the King of Spain Do the inhabitants of Syrinam even after the conquest of the said place by vertue of the capitulation continue subjects of the King of England Hath any man ever heard that by a capitulation the jus imperii and the old right of the first Lord is continued over those who are conquered by Weapons onely because they capitulate and make conditions upon their giving over it is certainly notorious and beyond all controversie that conquering is a lawfull title which altereth the places and goods from the owner and the subjects from the Soveraign which right is especially established by the 3d. article of the Breda's Treaty whereby it is agreed that each party should with an absolute right of lordship propriety and possession continue to hold all the Lands Islands Cities Colonies and other places by them taken in and mastered during the Warr. 'T is indeed true that through the capitulation the right of the absolute disposition of the conquerour is circumscribed but no â—ound reason can be brought that the jurisdiction of the former â—ord should thereby be preserved over the capitulating subjects Is â—t ever com'd into the thoughts of the King of Spain that the inhabitants of Mastricht the Bosch and Breda who with their Cities by the right of Arms were renderd upon capitulation to the States General should by that capitulation continue to be his subjects Or pretends the King of England the right aforesaid in reference to those of English Colonies because of the nation and their birth as
difference between the King of England and this State about the abovesaid pretended right of the Flagge which by those of that Nation is made a concernment of the most important ground of quarrel in which the glory of the people should be interessed is not a controversie about the salutation and striking of the Flagge and therefore no quaestion touching the right understanding of the 19th article of the Breda's treaty but onely a contest about the dominion of the Sea which the State attributes onely to God Almighty and the King to himself though haply per Dei gratiam by the Grace of God by which also the most absolute Princes govern their Lands and Kingdoms And in conformitie to the foresaid meaning hath the Ambassadour Dowing by a memorial delivered over in the name of the King desired of the State a round and clear acknowledgement of the foresaid pretended dominion of the Sea Now may every one of our inhabitants and the impartial World certainly see that 't is not the denying to strike the Flagge in pursuance of the forementioned Treaty which is by the State done to the full as will be shown in what follows but onely a refusing of the foresaid acknowledgement that is the subject of the complaints of the King of England and it may also easyly be apprehended that the same acknowledgement is urged upon the State in this time not out of a conviction of the right of the pretended business buâ— onely out of a formed design to make warr upon us which design could not be brought to execution otherwise than by the demanding impossible satisfaction for which cause also the Ambassadour Downing propounded to the State nothing else but onely the fore-mentioned acknowledgement fearing that if he had proposed other cases he might touching them have obtained satisfaction for his King who he well knew would not be satisfied Well do all the subjects of this State whose onely subsistence is commerce and consequently the freedom of the Sea know of what importance the foresaid so much urged acknowledgement is I beleev not that thâ—re shall be found one single Fisher in our Countrey let him be as simple as one can imagine but he will apprehend the interest of his very being to be herein included and cannot but understand that those people would fetch the forementioned acknowledgment out of the throat and thereupon cause the effects of the pretended dominion to follow or bind up their throats which is one and the same case really that there is no other difference between both than is the difference between a hasty and a lingring but indeed a certain death for that upon the foresaid acknowledgement there were at the highest no other to be expected of the favour of the King of England than the wish and choice of a speedy end or of a consuming sickness which is worse than a hasty death And although the King of Englands pretended jurisdiction extends not further than over the British Sea yet is it notorious that the limits of the said Sea are by the King so wide stretched out that there would not be left to us the least part for a passage out of our Land which should not be subjected to the King in respect of his praetended Lordship according to his own sentiment it being observable that the King of England doth not onely hold the Channell for the British Sea but also the North Sea and a very great part of the Ocean So that we should not be able to use the Sea without our Land otherwise than upon the mercy of the King of England of which we could less assure ourselvs than we can now be secured upon his Faith and word We shall not at present enter upon the confutation of the foresaid pretence of the dominium maris dominion of the Sea not onely because that would be too long for a short treatise but also and especially for that it cannot be accounted needfull to refute that which all the World holds to be irregular except the King of England who will so little be convinced with arguments as he Will be satisfied with reasonable praesentation we shall onely say that it is untrue and can never be made evident that we have ever fished in the Sea with a Licence or Permission from the Father of the King of England and that as is said in the foresaid Manifesto upon a tribute We do well acknowledge that in the Year 1636. some Ships of Warr of the King of England fell upon our defenceless Hering-boats and that by meer violence they forced some money from them to which they gave the name of imposition-money but we disoâ—n that from thence any right can be drawn not onely because force can make no right no not by the continuance of it but also for that the foresaid violent exaction was not continued sith that upon complaint made in England of the foresaid exorbitance the same hath not been any more committed since that time We shall then with permission of the benevolent Reader passing over to the business of the Flagge so as it is regulated by the 19th article of the Breda's treaty which article must be decisive in this controversie briefly show that there was nothing done by the Lord van Gent in the so much talked of encounter against the foresaid treaty and moreover that what hath been by the State without and beyond the obligation of the same treaty presented to the King of England is a yielding so abundantly convincing that we should not fear to abide the judgement of the English Nation itself thereupon as promising ourselvs so much from the discretion of the said Nation that they seeing that the State hath in point of their honour given abundant satisfaction will with us detest and abominate the demand of the acknowledgement of the dominium maris dominion of the sea proceeding out of a desire of warr It is well known and beyond dispute among all sorts of Nations that the salutation which is given on the Sea whether by the Canon the striking of the Flagge or letting down a certain sail must not be accepted for a mark of subjection but onely for an outward token of respect civility and courtesie which is thereupon answered with a contra-salutation of the like civility And for so much as relates to the salute or first greeting of which onely we shall here speak it is generally so received that sith commonly they who give the first salutation acknowledge themselvs in rank and worthynes to be inferiour to those whom they meet though they be not subjected to them the ships of Common-wealths meeting upon the Sea the Ships of Warr of crowned Heads must give the first salute with one or other token of outward respect Which respect like as all other courtesie although it should come from a free-willingness and an unconstrained will of those who show it yet have we often seen it come to pass that the stronger on the