the said advantages while every Man is invited by the Conjuncture to venture more and to inlarge his Trade while by a general trust in the Peace and Alliance your Majesty holds with all your Neighbours round about they are led to go abroad unarm'd and without defence we cannot but lament it as a great misfortune and disappointment to observe how these your Majesty's Subject are frequently made a Prey of and very evily treated both at Sea and Land Wherefore considering that the root of all these Disorders arises from the Violence and Rapine of the French-Capers who ought to be look't on as disturbers of the Publick quiet and Enemies of the good Friendship between the two Crowns we are humbly of opinion that your Majesty has just occasion from the injuries past and those which are now depending and which do every day increase to make a very serious Representation of all unto his most Christian Majesty and not only press for some better method of repairing the grievances mentioned but earnestly to insist on the calling in of all Privateers or else your Majesty must do right and give defence to your Subjects from all the Insolencies which they so frequently meet All which is most humbly submitted Council-Chamber 31. July 1676. Anglesey Bath Craven J. Ernle Finch C. Bridgewater H. Coventry G. Cartret Robert Southwell His Majesty taking into his serious Consideration the dayly Complaints of his Subjects and having a great sense and resentment of their ill usage hath thought fit to approve the said Report and is therefore graciously pleas'd to order as it 's hereby ordered accordingly That the Right Honourable Mr. Secretary Coventry do immediately transmit to his Majesties Embassador at Paris a Copy thereof that so the evil and the unhappy state of these things may be made known in that Court and the Remedies presst for in his Majesties Name which are proposed by the said Report and Mr. Secretary is also to attend the French Embassador here with the same Representation and to Expostulate upon all these Hardships and the little Remedy given to his Majesties Subjects either on the Merits of their Causes or the Recommendations of them by his Majesty That so his Excellency being made sensible of his Majesties Displeasure herein and the reasonable Discontent of his Subjects there may be by his Care such lively Impressions hereof fixed with the King his Master and the Ministers of France as may redress the Evils that are complained of and obtain the just Remedies which are proposed Phillip Lloyd To these Evidences I might add the List of several Ships belonging to our English Merchants taken by French Privateers since December 1673. which was also presented to the Right Honourable the Committee of his Majesties Privy-Council for Trade and by them to his Majesty together with the Names of their Owners and their other Circumstances but it would be too copious for this place Therefore 't is sufficient for me to shew you only an excellent Account of the Business it self and of the great Care and Pains of the Noble Lords of the Council's Committee for Trade and of his Majesties Royal resentment of the Sufferings of his Subjects and the Abuses put upon our Nation which may testifie that no Nation under Heaven can have better Reasons on their side to justifie a War than England hath against France for the many Dishonours Affronts and Injuries done us in recompence of his Majesties high Integrity and fair Carriage towards them But this Unfaithfulness of theirs towards us is ingrafted in their very Nature as may appear not only by what hath of late been observed but also by the Stories of old all the time that Scotland was under a Crown separate from England it having then been perpetually made use of by France when any Difficulties were upon us as a Back-door to enter disturb weaken and attempt us here in England Therefore having since the happy Union of the two Crowns under King James been at a loss all his Reign how to disturb us by their wonted way they at length got an Opportunity to plague us by bolstering up a boisterous Presbyterian Party in Scotland that might open the Back-door again to let into England not only Armies but the delicate Pandora with her Box of Beauty varnish'd over with the name of the Holy Discipline and fill'd with all the Plagues of Aegypt to make our Nation miserable I mean Presbytery the pious Mother Nurse and Seminary of Civil Wars and perpetual Factions among us and thus for the planting of War here we are beholden to France among the other good Deeds they have done to our Nation But that I may no longer talk in the Clouds the plain Story in brief is this The French having long had a Design of Conquering the Spanish Low Countrys and conceiving it was no time to discover or attempt it as long as England should be in a condition to hinder it therefore to remove this Impediment out of the way the best way for attaining their End was thought to be in the first place an Imbroilment of the King of England that instead of looking to Concerns abroad he might be held in Contest at home with a factious Party of his Scotish Subjects who before and in the year 1639. had shewn themselves very vexatious and troublesome to his Majesties Government about matter of Kirk Discipline and its Government by Bishops This was matter combustible enough for France to work upon and blow into a flame so that Cardinal Richlieu grand Minister of State to the French King by his Agents giving them large Promises and Encouragements got into a participation of Counsels with them whereby the Faction was agitated into a downright Rebellion there under the Name of seeking a Reformation and then followed Counsels also for an Invasion of England which was effected and they made their way with an Army to Newcastle possessing themselves of it But by the King's Prudence they were sent home again a Pacification being made and hoped it was that all would have remain'd quiet But this sudden matter not suiting with the mind of the French Ministry and Richlieu finding that there was a working up of the like Discontents and a likelihood of the same Designs in England for the cause or rather pretence of Religion the Bellows were blown here also by the same hand some of the heads of the Faction here were brought to a brotherly correspondence of Counsels and Resolutions with their Friends of Scotland a conjunct Design was laid for a Second Invasion upon England under the Name of Brotherly Assistance and the Platform of the great Covenant was then proposed approved by the Agents of their friend Richlieu to be set on foot first in Scotland and by Agreement it was afterward to be handed thence in due time back into England In the mean while the FORTY ONE Parliament being called matters then ripened apace for their purpose by means of a prevalent
Faction in Parliament which very much alarm'd the King and his Court insomuch that he conceived it was high time to rip open this Evil by discovering seizing and accusing some of the aforementioned Heads of the Faction viz. a Lord and Five Members of the House of Commons The Articles of the Charge against them were in number Seven One of which was That They had traiterously invited and encouraged a Foreign Power to Invade his Majesties Kingdom of England Which was so true that he desired a Tryal of them but their Party in the House not daring to permit it to be put to Proof they shock'd the King in the Business and so the Affair of the COVENANT and the other Effects of that Invitation ran the more roundly on to a ripeness and final Dispatch in Scotland by the time that the Sun in its course brought on the year 1643. And then came on a Second Invasion of England flourishing their Colours with this Rebellious Motto FOR THE CROWN AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS And thus you see how far we were beholden to France for all the Miseries of the ensuing Wars and the numerous Brood of Factions which issued thence in England Scotland and Ireland Of the certain Truth whereof we might have had undeniable Evidence upon the Tryal of those whom the King had then charged with Treason if the Temper of that time would have permitted a fair prosecution however it was I remember sufficiently talk't of in those days and I have now by me a Book in the French Tongue which was printed 24 Years ago by Adrian Vlac at the Hague in Holland in the third part whereof are eight Chapters and over the second Chapter is this Title Le Cardinal de Richelieu la cause des Desordres arrivez en Angleterre That is to say Cardinal Richelieu the cause of the Disorders befallen England Which he brought in as I told you by the way of Scotland to the ruin of our Peace the Royal Family the Church and the whole State and Government of our Kingdom But this tampering with and corrupting other Prince's Subjects is an old Game that the French Ministers have ever been playing all over Europ Let it be remember'd how the same Richelieu wrought the Revolt of Portugal from the Spaniard and the Rebellion in Catalonia and carry'd on the Wars in both those Countries to bring down the Power of Spain how he tamper'd also with the Swede under Gustavus Adolphus to invade the Empire and then with the Emperour's General Wallestein to betray the Imperial Army by whose suddain death the French King lost the great opportunity to work himself into a possession of the Imperial Throne How Cardinal Mazarin after him carried on the Popular Commotions raised by Masaniello in the Kingdom of Naples by sending thither the Duke of Guise to be their Head to the almost wresting of that Kingdom out of the Hand of the Spaniard and then also how he lurch't that Duke and deserted him Moreover how the last Year the French Intrigues so far prevailed in Spain as to turn the Queen-Mother out of her Regency drive out her Favourites such as she thought most fit and firm for the young King's Safety to put him into other Hands and turn all things in that Court topsie-turvy that being agitated and held in play by their own divisions at Home they might be less able to have regard to the preservation of the Flemings or to the carrying on a Joynt-war with the Hollanders How they have been the common Enemies of every State destroying the Peace of Government every where sowing of Factions in all Princely Courts their Councils or among such of the Subjects as are factious or else they jumble one Prince against another by turns as they did the Prince Elector Palatine against the Elector of Mentz starting up an occasion of Quarrel betwixt them one while to take part with the Elector Palatine against Mentz another while with Mentz against the Prince whose Country they miserably harassed and wasted It cannot be forgotten what they lately did to corrupt the Emperor's Council by means of his own Favourite Prince Lobcowitz whom they bought for Mony to betray his Master's Counsels and Affairs besides their Intrigue in the same manner with the Prince of Furstenberg and his Brother Also what they did in the Vnited Provinces to incommode his Highness the Prince of Orange by bolstering up the De Wits and their Louvenstein Republican party against the Princely What they have done to clog the Emperor by fostering a Rebellion against him in Hungary and how great charge they are at to sever the power of the Duke of Bavaria and of the Duke of Hanover from the common Interest of the Empire in this War How they have diverse times indangered all Christendom by confederating with the Grand Seignior to disturb both Hungary and Poland for which cause as My Lord Herbert writes in his History the Pope had like to have given away the Title Most Christian from their French King Francis the First to bestow it upon our Henry the Eighth before he had been dubb'd by his Holiness with that of Defensor Fidei What Artifices have been used by them to settle and nourish perpetual Faction among the Polish Nobility whereby other great Opportunities have diverse times been given the Turk to fall upon them In a word their common practice hath been to give the World all manner of disturbance and so to render themselves in its Opinion the common Enemies of its Peace a publick Pest among States and Princes in every Country they either find combustible stuff or else make it and then set fire to it they are at a mighty charge to find Fodder for the various Animals of Faction in all Places By this means Divide Impera makes way for them and thus they conquer more than by their Arms they inflame Countries thus as well as burn them as they did Alsatia that having enough to do to quench fires at Home they may have neither leisure nor power to hinder French Projects abroad Questionless then since we in England have seen and do see our Neighbours Houses fired one after another 't is high time to look to our own and secure our selves and all Europ from such Boutefeus and the sad Effects of their Impious Courses SECTION IV. That as the French have dealt falsly with us and all other Princes in the point of Peace There is no Security to be had for any one Party but by a Joynt War HIs Majesty of England having hitherto on his part preserved a fair Respect and Amity towards France passing by the many Indignities and Injuries done to himself and his Nation in hope his Patience might by fair means have prevail'd with the French King at length to do reason to us and the rest of his Neighbours and that to that end his Majesty might have perswaded him to have forborn a further prosecution of the War in
connivance But at length they began to act openly and notwithstanding the Treaty they had made with Spain they entred into an Offensive League with Portugal against all its Enemies in which the French had so well provided for themselves that by Agreement they were to have all the Sea-Towns delivered to them which should be taken from the Spaniard The truth of these things was not only manifest in Fact but it was also testified by Letters which the Ministers of Spain had intercepted that after the Peace made betwixt the two Crowns the Court of France had fomented the War of the Portugais hindred them from accepting those advantageous Conditions which Spain had offered them animating them by a hope of mighty Succours not only for their defence but also for carrying an Offensive War into the very heart of Spain Among these were many of those that had been written by the French Minister Monsieur de Lyonne and the Archbishop of Ambrun to Monsieur de Schomberg which proved the continual correspondence that was betwixt them for the direction of that War And to promote it 't is known that in 1672. the Duke of Beaufort came with his whole Fleet upon the Coasts of Portugal where he spent a part of the Summer to secure a passage of Victuals and Ammunition whereof the Portugais were in extreme want and this at the same time when they were offering Spain their Mediation to make an Accommodation with Portugal Not to omit how one of the Prime French Ministers Monsieur Colbert privately made several Voyages thither to encourage them and contract a more strict Alliance with them and to open a way for the bringing about a League Offensive Which in some time after was concluded with the Portugais with these following Conditions That they shall be the Friends of their Friends and the Enemies of their Enemies excepting England That France shall furnish them with as many Men as they need to carry on an Offensive War in Spain both by Sea and Land Shall advance to them by way of Loan the half of their pay for the entertainment of Auxiliary Troops and that they shall furnish them every Year under the same title of Loan with the Sum of three hundred thousand Crowns That all the Ports which they shall take in Spain either upon the one or the other Sea shall be put into the power of France That they shall not treat either of Peace or Truce without common Consent And that this League shall last for the space of ten Years By these particulars it is apparent how little credit is to be given to France in the most solemn Engagements that She can make to any Prince about any Matter whatsoever For that a Treaty managed in order to a Marriage between Princes which is one of the most Solemn Subjects that can be handled among Men and confirmed by Oath with the most Sacred Mysteries of their Religion at the High Altar for a Punctual observation should be thus palpably broken is not to be parallel'd by any Instance or Example in all the World beside But 't is not in this Business of Portugal alone that a Breach was made that which is more considerable is That as soon as the French saw Opportunity after the Death of the late King of Spain they started up a Claim for their King in the Right and Behalf of his Wife the Infanta notwithstanding her Solemn Renunciation formerly mentioned which was entred into the Body of the Treaty and as sacredly sworn to pretending that a great part of the Spanish Low-Countreys was devolved to him in her Right by the Municipal Laws of those Countreys whereas 't is known that when Princes enter into a Treaty it is regulated and confirmed according to the Law of Nations common to all and being so to be understood it is ridiculous among Civilians to imagin that a Consideration of Laws Municipal or Customs belonging to any particular Country under the Dominion of either of the Treating Princes can intervene or be admitted afterwards to the over-throwing of the Treaty or the depriving either of the Parties of the Benefit and Security which he hath thereby It is a thing not to be named among States-men For without the Renunciation the Treaty had never been agreed on and it was so carefully penned as if a Grand Council of Civil Lawyers had been called to out-do all former Expressions used in such Contracts and to find out new binding Clauses to take off all possibility of Evasion And yet against the very Sence and End of that Renunciation the French as all Men know under that so slight pretence of a Claim fell foul on a sudden upon Flanders and other parts with their Army which was their First Invasion upon those Countries after that Treaty But 't is further observable That this Invasion so contrary to the French Engagements and so destructive of the very Essence of the afore-said Pyrenean Treaty was attended with some Circumstances no less surprising than the Breach it self The one was that which passed at Paris between the Marquis de la Fuente Ambassadour Extraordinary of Spain and the French King And the other was what the Archbishop of Ambrun Ambassadour of France in the Court of Spain declared there in his Master's Name As to the first Fuente having received a Call Home to Spain and being jealous that the great Preparations then made in France were intended against the Spanish Dominions he thought fit to press the French King to give his Mistress the Queen-Regent of Spain some new Assurances that might quiet and settle her Mind against the many strange Reports of his intended Preparations Thereupon that King did with all possible Asseveration engage His Royal Word and Faith that he would Religiously keep the Peace and continue an entire Amity to her and the Young King her Son As to the second note that whereas not long after the French Army took the Field and had possessed it self of Charleroy about four or five days before the News could arrive at Madrid yet the said Archibishop of Ambrun being expostulated with about it did in verbo Sacerdotis and upon all that is most sacred among Roman Catholicks protest and vow to the Queen-Regent that his Master intended nothing less than what was reported of him And that he knew he would never break with the King of Spain nor invade any of his Dominions as long as he was Vnder Age. Sic saevis inter se covenit Vrsis Oh how well do the French Ministers and their Ambassadours agree with one another to effect their Master's Business and their own For it was not many days after this that News was brought to the Spanish Court how fairly the French had kept their word having entred and practised all manner of Hostilities upon Flanders firing many considerable Towns and wasting the Countrey proceeding so outrageously and so far that England and the Neighbour Princes taking the Alarm and expostulating the
from Waterford or some other Town of Ireland or Scotland That the whole Ships Company deposes they were sent to Holland that we have found on Board three or four Vessels Bills of Accounts by which it is seen the English took two three and four per Cent for owning of Ships and although it is impossible to avoid confiscating them yet these are the Ships which make such a noise in England In answer to which remarks though it be true that all respect imaginable ought to be given to what Ministers of that consideration do pronounce yet there being some differeuae between them who feel the smart and those who feel it not we shall insist on some particulars that your Majesty may discern whether your Subjects are fortunate in their Freedom of Trade at Sea or in the helps of Justice when they are seiz'd as the Report and Information of the Letter will seem to make out for as it magnifies the favour which is exercised in France the facility in all Addresses and the tenderness to relieve English Men in all Complaints so we cannot on this subject but own to your Majesty the very different resentments we have thereof for we understand that when English Ships are brought into the Ports of France many of the Mariners complaining of ill treatment and some of torment their Papers being seized and their Persons in restraint till all examinations are prepared then are all their Writings sent up to the Privy-Counsel at Saint Germans and there Judgment definitively given seldom are any of the Reasons of Condemnation mentioned in the Decree and never any Appeal or Revision admitted of so at last it was untill the 20th of June last and whether this be the tenderness or the Justice which is mentioned we do not know but we are well assured that the Methods of your Majesty's Clemency and Justice on like occasions have been far otherwise and we appeal to the present Ambassadour Monsieur Courtin if almost in all Cases that he or any of the Ambassadours thought fit to own when his Excellency was here before and your Majesty in War with Holland seizing many Ships as Prize and under great suspicion claimed by the French whether it were not very customary to have a short reference and a Summary Examination of all Papers by the Judge of the Admiralty in his Chamber and that if any thing appeared fair in the Case whether the Ships were not immediately releas't without Law charge or delay and 't will not be out of Season we hope to annex hereunto the Copy of an Order of the 22. of July 1665. signed by the then Lords Commissioners of Prizes where it will appear that eighteen French Ships which were laden with Wine and Brandy being at Dover and detained as Prize were all eighteen by one Order discharged without any Law or even the Ceremony of the Judge's Examination being singly on the Credit of the mba Assador's Word affirming that they belonged unto the French As for the matter of Revisions or Appeals after Sentence in the Court of Admiralty here we know his Excellency will also remember That never any Man was deny'd his Liberty therein but on the contrary your Majesty gave a standing Commission for Appeals in all Cases of Prizes and fill'd it with the Lords of your Council only that every Case might receive a candid as well as unquestionable Determination We might also put your Majesty in mind That during the whole Term of your late League with France whenever any French Ships were seized by the Hollander and afterwards retaken by his Majesty's Frigats such French Ships were always restor'd on Demand no consideration being had of the time they were in possession of the Hollander whether a Month two or three as sometimes they were and when the French owner as it hath happened knew not of such retaking but that the Ship was according to Law condemned to your Majesty and sold with other Prizes yet the Claimer appearing your Majesty hath ordered the Mony and product of the Ships to be restored unto him Such various Methods of Justice and of Clemency might have intituled your Majesty to a different acknowledgment and more advantageous Effects As to the other part of the said Paper it seems to contain very harsh Imputations on the Trade of your Majesty's Subjects and from some ill Practice perhaps found out as every where there may be Instances of the like General Rules are made and severe Impressions taken which having entered the thoughts of some Eminent Ministers we must not wonder how frequent and how multiplied soever your Majesty's Recommendations for Justice are that the events of Tryals prove so unfortunate if your Majesty will but vouchsafe to cast your Eye on the Causes here annex'd you will soon see Whether as it is imputed all the Ships taken are Dutch-built Whether they are all such as never were in England Whether all the Masters and all the Mariners are Dutch Whether the Documents be for Persons unknown and often-times not named Whether in the whole List there be more than one Ship from Waterford and but six from the rest of all Ireland but from Scotland not so much as one Wheher it is credible all the Ships Company do swear they are sent to Holland when so many are taken even coming from Holland Tour Majesty may see how many Ships in the List are English-built taken with English Colours English Mariners English Owners some of them known to your Majesty and to whom the best Papers your Majesty or your Ministers can sign or the Treaties do require are given but all in vain So that if the Case be in the general quite different from what in the general is represented we hope it will be no crime for your Majesty's Subjects to make some noise in England when they are hurt and when they see their goods taken from them by violence and that violence rather justified than redress'd by Law 'T is not for the Condemnation pass't on these very ill Cases enumerated that your Subjects do complain for it were to their advantage if all such were punish't and deterr'd from Trade who by collusion take share in that profit which the favour of the present Conjucture seems wholy to appropriats to this Kingdom And surely your Majesty and the whole Kingdom did reckon upon this Advantage and the extent of Trade that would naturally flow as one of the greatest Fruits and Blessings of your Peace so that your Majesty being sensible of great decay and loss of English Trading Ships in the late War did think it advisable to admit your Subjects to repair themselves on the suddain by purchasing of Foreign Ships and your Majesty by your Authority made them free and fit to partake in the benefit of English Ships to the diminution of those higher Customs which otherwise such Ships were obliged to pay and while your Subjects with these and with their own home-built Ships are in prosecution of
they were not bound by Treaty to procure the English any Advantages And thus no more Notice was taken of his Majesty nor greater care of his Interests than if he had never been concerned in the War or in no League with the French at all So that if by wonderful Providence this Separate Treaty had not been broken off Europ might have been in greater hazard of its Liberty and we of our Safety by a settled Domination of the French in the Vnited Provinces Much more might be added to shew the foul play of the French with us at that time and afterwards also when the Duke of Buckingham and My Lord Arlington were sent hence into Holland but I must be brief this being enough to discover their friendly behaviour during the Joynt-War An. 1673. In the next place let us see how they have carried themselves since the Year 73. For we have an Account that notwithstanding the Amity betwixt us hath been continued to this Day yet that Nation hath never ceased to do us one Injury or other and no sufficient Redress at all hath been obtained though Complaints have been made and Reparation earnestly sought for Witness especially the many Affronts and Violences done to us upon our Merchants Ships at Sea by the French Privateers For but very few of them have been restored and those that have been have found the Remedy worse than the Disease because the tedious delay of it brought such charge to the Merchants that the benefit coming by the Restitution would not countervail their Expences in attendance at the Court of France For the Clearing whereof it cannot be amiss to give here at large an Account touching the Event of such Applications as have been made to his Majesty for Redress at the Council-board and with the Commitee of Trade belonging to his most Honourable Privy-Council excellently penned and now come to my Hand newly printed and dispersed therefore I reprint it And it here followeth At the Court at White-Hall the 4. of August 1676. Present The King 's most excellent Majesty in Council The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Trade did this Day present unto his Majesty in Council a Report touching the Injuries which his Subjects did sustain by French Capers in the Words following May it please your Majesty There was presented unto your Majesty in Council on the 31. of May last a Petition in the Name of all the Merchants of London and other places concerned in the several Ships taken by the French Privateers and carried into several Ports of that Kingdom and their Complaints consisted of the Points following 1. That the Ships and Goods of your Majesty's Subjects though manned according to the Act of Navigation and furnished with all necessary Passes were daily seized carried into Dunkirk Calais Sherbrook and other Ports the Masters and Mariners kept close Prisoners to force them by hardship to abuse the Owners or else for Relief of their own necessities being commonly stripped and plundered to enter into the Privateer's Service which great numbers have done with very pernicious effects 2. That the delay and charge of prosecuting the Law in France does commonly make the Owners to become losers of half the value when ever they are successful 3. That there is no Reparation ever gotten from Privateers for what they plunder and imbezle which makes them freely seize upon all they meet and perpetually molest the Navigation of your Subjects Wherefore your Petitioners humbly imploring your Majestie 's Protection and Relief your Majesty was hereupon graciously pleased out of a sence of your Subjects sufferings to command that some Frigats should sail forth to clear the Coast of those Privateers to seize them and bring such as had offended to make Restitution And your Majesty did further order that the Committee of Trade should well take notice of the particular Cases and Complaints depending that such of them as were of weight and merit might be fitted to receive your most gracious Recommendation for Relief as to survey the whole number of Seizures which have been made on your Subjects in order to lay before your Majesty what hardships have been sustained at Sea and what sort of Justice hath been administred in France with their Opinion of what is sit to advise your Majesty therein In obedience to which Command we have hereunto annexed a list of such ships as have bin seized to the number of 53. and the Cases wherein the Owners have repaired unto your Majesty either in your Council or by your Secretary of State for Relief which as in the general it supposes a Justice in such Complaints so it leaves a suspicion of great hardship in the Methods of Redress and the number of Captures is no small proof of the facility of Condemnation How many other helpless Men there have been besides the said Cases who have not had ability to prosecute or how many of these Cases have been favoured with Redress we cannot certainly understand till the Information we have sought for comes from Paris which may also enable us to compleat their Circumstances of every Case But in the mean time such of all the Instances of Redress as are come to our knowledg we have not failed in the Margin to make mention of them being in number seven While we were in the midst of this Prosecution Mr. Secretary Coventry does on the 6th instant present unto the Committee a Paper which he received from the French Embassadour Monsieur Courtin relating to these matters and the Contents thereof were as follow An Extract of a Letter from Monsieur Colbert to Monsieur de Pompone one of the French King's Secretaries written the 28th of June 1676. For what concerns the Prizes it would be a difficult matter to answer to all the Cases contained in Monsieur Courtin's Letter What I can say is That the Council for Marine Affairs sits every Friday at Saint Germans That all Privateers and Reclaimers know it That Sir Ellis Leighton nominated by the English Embassadour hath always notice of it and is always present at it That not a Week passes but I give him two or three Audiences and often-times I send for him on purpose His reasons are all reported read and examined As likewise are all Petitions of Reclaimers and I shall tell you more I acquaint him wiih the Reasons upon which Judgment is given In giving Judgment all Vessels which have any appearance of being English are realeas'd and very often and almost always although we are satisfied that the Ships are Dutch yet they are released because there is some appearance of their being English and every thing is judged favourable for that Nation and it is true that all Ships that are taken are of Dutch-built that they never were in England that the Masters and all the Equipage are Dutch that the Documents are for Persons unknown and which are not often-times so much as named that they carry with them only some Sea-Briefs