brought our Nation under such Convulsions that without the help of kind Heaven must end in a total Dissolution Sed futura nesâ—imus I am My Lord Your Constant and Faithful Servant Paris Decemb. 16. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXVI The Opinion of the French Court concerning the five Persons that made up the Cabal in England in the Year 1671 2. My Lord THE Ministers of this Court are not only the most inquisitive Persons in the World into the Affairs of other Courts but even into the Persons that manage them whose Natures Dispositions Religion Natural and Acquired Abilities as well as Respective Infirmities they endeavour to sift out to the quick that so they may use them or shun them as they find occasion and for this reason it is that they make some Remarks upon them in their Minutes as well as upon the Affairs transacted by them And therefore since the Five Persons who made up the Cabal in England a few years ago and who your Lordship may remember were the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale the Earls of Shaftsbury and Arlington and the Lord Treasurer Clifford were very distinguishable for the Stations they were in the Offices they held and the Parts each of them acted in the Government I find this Character given of them For the Duke of Buckingham as he was the Kings Favourite so he really deserved to be so as being very capable to be a Minister of State if his application to business had been answerable to his Talents if his mind which was furnished with excellent Endowments had not been distracted with Libertinism which was in him to an extream degree and by a love to his Pleasures which made one of those Persons in the World that was fittest for great and solid things vain and frivolous Of the Duke of Lauderdale there is little or nothing said but that he is a great and quaint Politian and no question but he has merited that Character at their hand Of my Lord Clifford they are as profuse in their Praises as I doubt they have been too of their Money saying he was a Person who wanted nothing but a Theatre where Vertue and Reason had been much more in use than it was in his Country in the Age wherein he lived for to be superiour to and overtop the rest My Lord of Arlinton they make to be a Person of a meaner Capacity and more limitted Genius than any of the Five but say his Experiences supply the Defect and has acquired him especially a very great knowledge of Forreign Affairs last of all they bring in Anthony Ashley Cooper the Renowned Earl of Shaftsbury of whom they say he was by far the fitter Person of any of them to manage a great Enterprize and so was as the Soul to all the rest being endued with a vast Capacity clear Judgment bold Nature and subtil Wit equally firm and constant in all he undertook a constant Friend but an implacable Enemy with many other Expressions such as his not being terrified neither with the greatness nor the multitude of the Crimes he judges necessary for his own preservation or the destruction of others much to his Lordships dishonour which is a clear Argument he was not for their Interest and for which he is much beholding to them Your Lordship will pardon the freedom I take with You and accept of the sincere endeavours to serve you of My Lord Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVII Of the Methods practised by the French Ministers to corrupt our Embassadors My Lord HAving given your Lordship some account of the opinion the French Court have had of some of our Statesmen it may be it will not be unacceptable to recount to your honour in this place some of those ways they have taken here to corrupt and pervert our Embassadors And I can boldly affirm that there has been hardly any one Embassador sent from our Court hither since the Restoration whom they have not endeavoured to corrupt and to get into a private Intreague to traverse not only what he was to Negotiate but even something of what themselves prest on our Princes by their own private Agents and on some of whom I have named one to your Lordship formerly they have made very great impressions to our Nations detriment for matters of main Consequence were treated of by private Ministers or Messengers between both Kings which were not as much as mentioned to the Embassadors sent in Publick who have been on our side sent only for Parade to Negotiate many times things whereof the contrary had been most commonly agreed upon especially in private only to blind by that piece of Formality the Eyes of our Subjects at home and of our Neighbours abroad or else to treat about matters of meer Complement or of but ordinary concern and tho' what has been privately treated on between the Two Kings or but only proposed was of great Concern to be kept secret and that for that very reason they knew our Embassadors were not made acquainted with it yet such has been their Malice and Treachery to our King and Country as to discover to our Embassadors or Envoys and their Secretaries such parts thereof as they have thought being once known to them would be most proper and effectual to induce our Ministers to enter into a particular Cabal with them for by-ends and many times to affirm things more invidious than ordinary to have been agreed upon between both Courts which were only proposed which kind of Communication of theirs had a very powerful influence by the curiosity that is natural to all Mankind to work upon our Ministers to entertain such a Correspondence with them to the dishonour and detriment of their King and Country for they have told them sometimes that not only the Points proposed by the Dutchess of Orleans but other things of as bad and dangerous consequence for the Subjects and Religion in England were absolutely concluded on between both Crowns unknown unto them and that our King and Duke of York had taken such and such Measures to put themselves into a Condition to do what they pleased and that the King their Master was willing to flatter them in such hopes and feed them with a little Money to keep them from taking part with his Enemies yet that truly at the bottom he had no such Zeal for Religion nor for the Pope of Rome as he had not for the King of England's over great Power and Absoluteness in Rule being things which could not but be prejudicial and very incompatible with his own greatness and therefore he should not fail underhand to favour the People of England in supporting their Liberties and Rights and defending their Religion and confining the Kingly or Regal Power to its own due limits And therefore if they Viz. our Envoys or Ministers would serve him in that design they might assure themselves they should be well gratified for
further expressions of his Mind upon that occasion that plainly discover'd that such a Zeal in the Prince was esteem'd unseasonable and not free from Suspition With which and a grateful acknowledgment of all your Lordship's Favours to me and my Family upon all occasions I shall now conclude and for ever remain My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant Paris August 24. 1685. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Methods proposed and Arguments used to King James for carrying on the Dispensing power My Lord THAT the King intends to Assume a Power into His Hands of Dispensing with Penal Laws against Recusants I believe your Lordship may be sensible of by this time since it 's manifest that notwithstanding the Parliaments Remonstrance to the contrary he retains the Popish Officers still in his Service and that it is so far from being a Secret here that I can oblige your Lordship with some of those Methods and Arguments suggested to him by the Agency of this Court to carry it onward wherein it 's more then whisper'd here he has fully acquiesced It was thought advisable considering the violent Humour of the Nation against the admission of such Persons either into Military or Civil Offices and that all the Cry was That the King had not kept his Word but did thereby Infringe their Laws and Liberties to bring the matter into Westminster-Hall to have the Dispensing Power there Argued upon a particular Case but to make sure of the Judges before-hand to Favour such a Procedure the King was told could he gain such a Point his business were done for ever tho' at the same time it was his undoubted Prerogative to dispense with Laws being an Essential right and an usage in England as ancient as the Kingdom that it was in being at all times and in all Reigns that there were several Acts wherein there had been Provision made for such a Reservation to the King that the Term of Nonobstante which was so common was always a Dispensing with some Law that the Commutation of Punishments are no less a proof thereof And how much more were Remissions Pardons the Restoration of Criminals to their Goods again c That there were Presidents to be met with wherein the King 's of England had suspended the Effects of Laws not only by Dispensations regarding particular and single persons but by a general Suspension in regard to the whole Kingdom That his Brother had done so in cases of the Statute relating to Carriages whereof there was not the least complaint in Parliament neither was it so much as once said that he had thereby exceeded the Just bounds of His Authority That the same had been done by Henry the Seventh his Great Ancestor and Solomon of England in respect to the Act that prohibited the Continuation of Sheriffs in their Office above One Year which in Council was declared null and impracticable because that thereby the King was divested of of his Regal Power in disposing his Subjects I do not question my Lord but you will soon hear of the effects of such Council but whether to your satisfaction therein I have as great reason to doubt as I have a desire to promote it and ever shall to the best of my power who am My Lord your very humble servant Paris Nov. 13. 1685. N. S. LETTER VI. Of the Unjust Complaints of the French Clergy against the Reformed in France My Lord THE Ruin of the Reformed in this Kingdom is as much precipitated as that of a Protestant Church is designed somewhere else and which I believe your Lordship by this time is pretty well perswaded of and to this end the Popish Clergy have accosted the King with a severe Remonstrance against them the sum whereof for want of more entertaining News I shall write to your Lordship at this time They began with the hardiest Lie they could have invented saying That there was nothing included in their Complaint but what was most necessary and could be most clearly jnstified and made good Whereas it is most evident that every title of it tends to Destroy and Persecute and is grounded upon the most manifest Falsities in the World then they begin to charge the Reformed with Calumniating and falsly Accuting the Catholicks that they did not believe the Truths of the Faith as they express it whereas the Protestant Divines here have so far been complyant as to testifie from time to time that the Roman Church retained still those Truths that were Essential to Christianity In that she makes Profession to Believe in one God in three the Incarnation of the Son of God the Redemption of Sinners by the Price of his Blood and divers other Articles contained in the Antient Creeds then they proceeded saying That the design of the Pastoral Advertisement in 1681 was to oblige the Reformed to acknowledge that their Separation was not grounded but upon Suppositions and Jealousies and they hugged themselves that the many Conversions which had been wrought since that time have been almost all procured by this consideration which they call an Invincible Argument that as there could never have been any Just Cause of Separation all those alleadged by the pretended Reformed could never have any sollidity That the Protestant Ministers did their utmost to hinder the People to profit by that same Advertisement either by deterring of them from Reading of the same or else by giving false Explications thereof as they were wont to do of the Holy Scriptures and Works of the Fathers Adding farther That the Exercise of the Reformed Religion had been permitted by the King's Predecessors provisionally only and by reasons which have no longer subsistance that tho' the Clergy had very good Reasons to urge it so as to require a Revocation of the Edicts which contained this permission yet that it was not their present design to insist upon that Point that it was now the only favour they pray'd for for to repress the Calumnies of the Reformed against the Roman Church which were not and which could not be allowed by any Edict being an unhappy Liberty which the Ministers themselves might be ashamed of that such a supposition and Calumny were Crimes Condemn'd by all Laws both Humane and Divine and that the Reformed durst not maintain that those excesses ought to be permitted nor to make their Complaints if the King should forbid them to commit them Then they went to speak of the Method they had thought on to make the King acquainted with the truth of their Complaints they drew up in Two Collumnes the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that which they said the Reformed imputed to them to the end it might be easier for the King to compare them and said most Malignantly That they had avoided the Relating of many thing which exceeded all the bounds of Modesty and which St. Paul himself would not have as much as named amonâ— the Faithful to the end they might create a Suspicion by these
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
sourdene but with instructions after all their industry if they could not succeed in obstructing the peace yet not to fail to elude it which how well they succeeded in the first for a time and when that could not be warded off no longer how much more fortunate success they have had in the latter I shall endeavour to make your Lordship acquainted with at another time when I hope they may be no less grateful to your Honour's gusto from him who desires to approve himself to be My Lord Your Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 9. 1678. LETTER XXXIII Of the Negotiating a Marriage between the Duke of York and the Princess of Inspruck in Germany How that Match came to be broke off and how the French gain'd their Point in Marrying the Princess of Modena to him My Lord THings continuing in the same posture I mentioned in my last to your Lordship between England and France the latter having the full ascendency over our King and Court to keep them from the Peace with Holland and to enter into a War in Conjunction with the rest of the Confederates against them and the Duke of York happening to be a Widower who was entirely as they thought in their Interests at this time which was the year 1673. there was an Intrigue started up and carried on that in all appearance was â—eady to break the Thread of all their Contrivances and irrecoverably to overturn all they had been so long and with so much pains about but another as lucky a hit interposed timely in their Aid which salved all their drooping Interest in our Court again sounder than ever tho' like the Beast in the Apocalypse it seemed to have received its deadly wound For when a Negotiation was now not only set on foot but in a manner concluded for Matching our Duke with a Princess of the Austrian Family an Alliance which would certainly have broke the neck of all Leagues with France and make England once more the Ballance between those two mighty Powers I say just when a Match was concluded with a Princess of the House of Austria and nothing seemed remaining to the accomplishing of it but celebrating the Espousals and bringing over the Lady into England to remain the gage of a close and lasting Alliance between the Royal Stem of England and that Illustrious and Potent House and the Monsieur at biting his Nails for spite to see his Interest there desperate and past retrieval it most luckily happened to him that in that very interim the Empress died and the Emperor coming to want a Confort and finding no other worthy his Choice according to the usuâ—l practice of the Austrian Families whose Branches intermarry frequently with one another he retain'd the Lady for himself and so defeating our Prince of his Spouse and putting of him in a new quest gave the French an opportunity to prosser him a Female who they knew descended from a right Intriguing Breed and would be sure to do their Work throughly and thereby not only renew but make sure against all Events that Alliance that hath since proved so pernicious to all Europe and so vexatious to the one as well as to the other of our Princes This Match they knew might be of great importance to them not only as to the promoting their Ambitious Ends in England but in Italy too and if they could once ensnare the Duke into it would as fixedly tie him to their Interests as it would infallibly lose him every where else and engage not only the Protestant Subjects of these Kingdoms but even all the other Powers of Christendom as well of the Roman Communion as the Reformed to oppose his future Elevation that so he might be wholly dependant upon them She being a Lady not only Italian by Nation but a Relation of the Pope and in that Quality most odious to England and also of the late Cardinal Mazarine and in a word of a Prince Pensionary to the French and an adopted Daughter of France which last Quality they honoured her with to render her compleatly hateful to all the World besides most liberally paying her Portion Pentioning the King and greasing the Ministers to have the Parliament Prorogued that in the interim the Match might be huddled up with all the precipitation imaginable for fear upon the least delay by contrary Sollicitations from the Austrians or any other Potentates abroad or any black and grumbling Clouds at home the unstable King might be over-persuaded or frighted from letting his Brother go on with that destructive Alliance These my Lord were their Contrivances and Precautions upon this Subject and they succeeded so well in their Endeavours that mauger any Reasons the King might have to the contrary or any Opposition made by some few then about him that Match was concluded from which England may in a very great measure date the commencement of her ensuing Grievances and which according to the Parliament's Prediction of it caused such terrible Earthquakes in the three Nations already and God Almighty alone knows what the dire Effects may be and where things will terminate at long run though it may at the same time prove better than our fears For after it was once done they cared not what Storms it produced amongst us for if the endeavours of an Alliance cemented with so charming a Female unwearied in enticements could not allure nor the sugâ—ed Professions of a constant Amity and Protection besides the powerful Spells of continual Supplies of Money engage sufficiently yet they were confident the troubles it would cause would necessitate him for Self-preservation to keep close to their Interests and to be content perhaps for the preservation of the rest to give them part of his Estates whenever it should succeed and make them Executors of his Will or at least at all Adventures keep up such Divisions as by the care they would take to balance the respective Parties concerned in them would both divert and disable the Nation from exerting their Resentment against them to any great purpose These my Lord were the Improvements they proposed to make by this Match and herewith I shall conlude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's very humble Servant Paris Aug. 30. 1678. LETTER XXXIV Of the Peace made between England and Holland in February 1673 4. The Motives to it and the French Methods to elude it by retaining the Irish still in their Service with our Courts connivence My Lord I Have formerly taken notice to your Lordship of the Methods and Precautions the French used to keep our King from making a Peace with the Dutch-States and how they made it their business to dispossess all those and particularly my Lord Shaftsbury of the King's Ear and Favour who were concerned for His and the Nation 's Interest by promoting such a Peace but though they prevailed therein as well as in that of the Duke's Marriage with a Female of their own chusing yet my Lord you know very well
they failed to stem the Tide that broke in as a consequent upon that Vote of the Commons Octob. 31. 1673. That considering the Condition the Nation was then in they would not take into further consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear the obstinacy of the Dutch should render it necessary c. For the French Emissaries had taught the King and his Juncto their Lesson to wit to give out that the Dutch were full of Sullenness and Obstinacy and would come to no honourable Terms and therefore there was a necessity of further humbling of them but now the Court of England were as hasty to make up the Peace with Holland as e're they were to declare War against them which was concluded by the 9th of February 1673 4 but though the Dutch came hereby to enjoy Peace with us at Sea yet they found the pernicious Effects of the Valour of the English Troops which continued in the French Armies and gained them several Victories after that Peace till upon the earnest and repeated Instances both of the Foreign Powers concerned and of our own Parliament some redress was given to that Grievance but never a total one a Proclamation being obtained for recalling our Forces from the French Service which yet was construed not to extend to the Irish Nation who after that by that foul connivence of our King not only continued there in Bodies as formerly but drew over Recruits from time to time and were most highly cherished and caressed as indeed were the Irish Nation all along with a sensible difference above the English and Scotch especially when a War was expected with us they having a secret design upon that Kingdom by one Method or other ever since their first drawing our King into League with them which they did not obscurely intimate when by way of encouragement they would now and then say to the Irish Roman Officers among them as likewise to other qualified Gentlemen Travellers of that same Nation That the King their Master had an esteem of them above all other Nations for their Antâ—quity Generosity and Invincible Conâ—â—â—ncy to their old Religion for above a Century of Years after their Masters the English had abâ—ndoned it and that the Scots and the Wâ—eish Britains by the contagion of their Example with sufficient Derogation from their former unviolated Claims to Antiquity and unconquered Liberty had done the like and would assure them from him That the time would come when he would shew them marks of his Esteem by conferring the Hereditary Guard of his own and his Successor's Persons on their Nation instead of the Scots who were now departed from their Interests and that as a Catholick Prince and the Guarantee of their Treaty with King Charles when in Banishment for restoring to them their Estates whenever he should be restored he would see them righted and would one day free them from the Tyranny of the English Nation But notwithstanding all underhand Compliance of our Court with that of France as our Peace with Holland had already displeased them This recalling of our Troops as partially executed as it was quite put them out of humour so that though they durst not shew their Resentments too far for fear of increasing the Evil they fretted at yet they did what they could by allurements to debauch and by hard Usage and all imaginable Discouragements both to deter as many as they could of our Soldiers from paying Obedience to the said Proclamation and to disable those who were fixedly bent to return from being serviceable to their King and Country Among the rest mighty Advantages were offered to my Lord Dowglas afterwards Earl of Dunbarton to intice him to stay and some time after he was gone upon hearing he had no Preferment under his own King by reason of the severity of our Laws against Men of his Perswasion there were very great Rewards proposed to those they thought had any influence over him to perswade him to return and particularly to my self in case I could find any who could so far prevail over him but all in vain yet most of the Irish remained to the last and were very serviceable at the brisk Action of Gyrone and on some other Occasions and after the fear of the War with us was blown over by the Tempest raised among our selves whilst we blinded our Parliament and People by seeming to observe exactly the Articles of Neutrality agreed upon between our King and them they for a long time and even till now have refused to receive any English and Scotch Officers and Soldiers to their Service tho' contrary to their Allegiance to their King and Country several of them and some of them Romans of tried Affection proffered themselves yet still as many Irish as presented themselves were readily entertained And thus My Lord Tho' these subtile Politicians missed of their first point in hindring our Peace with Holland they succeeded but too well in the second through our Court's weakness and base Prevarication which was eluding it by corrupting our Neutrality with such a partiality on their side that it was an Honey-Comb to them whilst it was but a Spunge of Gall and Vinegar to the Confederates but foreseeing that in time this jugling conduct of our King would make all Europe murmur and render his Friendship or Mediation suspicious every where That it would make him odious to his People and blow into a Flame those old jealousies that already began to rekindle and afford ample matter for the Emissaries of the Confederates to work upon in our Nations and consequently to actuate our People so violently to a League with the said Allies against them that it would be impossible for the King with Safety to resist them for of his good Will to them by this time they were pretty confident they therefore were careful to make a timely Provision against an inconvenience so much dreaded by them and to endeavour to make use of those very Jealousies Fears and Animosities whose Effects they apprehended against their Adversaries by dexterously catching them up like Fireworks before they brake and returning them back upon our selves and this difficult sort of Game they managed by several Stratagems of which I have neither room nor opportunity to advertise your Lordship at present but must defer it to a proper season and remain as I truly am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris July 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXV Of the Marquess de Ruvigni a French Protestant his being sent Embassador into England and what the Politicks of France were therein My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship does remember the first time of the Marquess de Ruvigny's being sent Envoy from this Court into England which was in the Year 1669. and which I think I have in one of my Letters hinted already That he was a Person very capable for such an Imployment none can doubt that knew him but that ever he was
at that time as well as his own and that if he would effectually espouse that Affai◠he might reckon upon what he pleas'd himself from the Generosity of the King their Master whose constant Character it was never to let the least Merit go unrewarded But if it should so fall out that Sir William proved stiff in the matter as it seems he did by the sequel they were to turh the same Batteries upon Pensioner Fagel with a variation of Phrase and Complement agreeable to the Person and Circumstances and more especially to try what the force of the French Pistols might effect that way And if so be matters were carried so far as that the Prince was found to give any ear to it then he was to be rounded briskly what mighty things the French King would do for him in relation to his future Greatness both in England and Holland That for his Principality of Orange he should have it restored to him again or such a compensation nigher Home as he would reckon on himself as also for his Lands in Burgundy and any other Losses Damages c. Nay they were ordered to offer him a very large annual Pension if he would have complied But half these things were never actually Proposed because the said two Ministers and the Prince himself more than any were as so many 〈…〉 for they would not so much 〈◊〉 hearken to the Voice of those dangerous Charmers A rare Instance My Lord to withstand such great Temptations and not to be parallell'd perhaps in any other young Prince of our Age as it was indeed also in the two Ministers many of which England at this time is not over-fruitful of I wish it were our Affairs would have been in a better posture than I hear they are and I dread much worse to come I pray God avert it and preserve your Lordship from all Dangers which shall ever be upon the Heart of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 19. 1678. LETTER XXXVIII A Summary of the French Methods to get the Dauphin made King of the Romans My Lord PErhaps since all the noise of the Western World at this time is the Affairs of Hungary between the Turks and Imperialists the particulars whereof I need not trouble your Lordship with it will not be amiss to look a little back and remark what influence this Court has had upon this War and what Designs they have long since hatched under the Covert not only of this but all the other Broils they have engaged Germany in I find by Patin's Letters so far back as 1671. that it was a matter then not questioned but that there had been Designs concerted to have the Dauphin created King of the Romans which made me endeavour after a more particular information in that Intriegue which at last I have found to be inserted in this manner according to the distinct Heads that follow I. All the Designs which they had concerted in the Wars between England and Holland for the weakning and destroying them if possible as I have already given your Lordship a particular Account of first terminated in that ultimate end Of advancing the Dauphin as before-mentioned II. The former Wars against the Confederates was attempted for the same Ends in a great measure all their Designs against the Spanish Monarchy having a tendency that way III. Their unspeakable Pretensions in the Palatinate on the behalf of Madam the present Dutchess of Orleans IV. All their open and secret Practices in Hungary from Arch-Duke Joseph's being made King there and by making Overtures to another King underhand John Sobieski by name to oppose the Emperor therein promising their utmost Interest to get that Crown and Country conferred on him and his Posterity rightly judging that if the Arch-Duke were balked in Hungary it was not likely he should prevail in Germany 5. They have now for the same end their Emissaries in Turkey being partly Jews and partly Jesuits who incited the Turks to begin the War and to push it on even to the Capital of the Empire and did at the same time by other Agents both in Poland and at Venice all they could that they might hinder those Countries to come into the Confederacy against them as thinking themselves Cock-sure that if Vienna had once been taken the German Princes would have been in such a Consternation that as the only remedy they would have called in the French Power to oppose against such a dreadful inundation of Infidels as would thence have followed and for which they could have done no less than to have declared the Dauphin King of the Romans and have made the French King Guardian and Protector in the interim of the Emperor and Empire especially having the Electors of Cologne Mentz and Triers either inclined for or over-awed by them and it being easy in that juncture to have forced the rest This my Lord is the substance of what I have found they have projected upon this Subject from time to time as the circumstances of Affairs gave way and occasion and nothing more certain than that they have had it all along in their view to advance the Dauphin to that Dignity which they have hitherto failed in and I hope ever shall I did not think to have entred upon this subject which is also somewhat remote from the Affairs of our own Country but that the sight of the forementioned Author excited my curiosity and the fondness of the discovery made me also fond to communicate the same to your Lordship tho' perhaps no very grateful part which yet I trust your goodness will pardon in him who is My Lord Your very humble and obedient Servant Paris Jan. 14. 1684. N. S. LETTER XXXIX Of Don John of Austria's being hindred to take upon him the Administration of the Spanish Affairs in the year 1676. My Lord IT 's not long since I have given your Lordship an account of the advances made by this Court towards a Peace but you know since that the War went on with various successes and perhaps your Lordship has heard of the Business of Don John in Spain How he was prevented from having the Administration of the Affairs of that Country by a Letter under the King of Spain's Hand when he was just going to embark for the relief of Messina there was at that time an expectation in the Confederates of mighty things to be perform'd by him to their advantage and the preventing him from a share in the Government was esteemed generally to be a French Trick and so it was but I believe the Confederates were guilty of a grand mistake in their expectation of him for the French Memoirs say Don John was perfectly their Creature and that it was the violent hatred of the Queen Mother of Spain as well as a jealousie to have her own Power invaded that put him beside the Administration That it was through his means the Matching of the King
Engagement with him that all he can say or do will never convince them of the contrary or induce them to trust him with Money to make War against France for fear he should use it against themselves and not only so but it would make him as suspected among the Confederates that none of them from hence forward would trust him either for an Assistant Allie or Mediator and so would render him of insignificant force to thwart our Designs But the King did for once Trick the Trickers by the care he had taken of the Princess as I shall note elsewhere to your Lordship and by his sudden marrying her to his Highness the Prince of Orange so much to the surprize and disappointment of this Court that I cannot express it and therefore must conclude subscribing my self My LORD Your Lordship 's most humble and most devoted Servant Paris Dece 7. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXIII Of the Popish Plot and Father Kelley's Menaces My LORD THE discourse about the Plot cannot be more in England than 't is here but the Particulars of the prosecution of it your Lordship must know much better than I I do not question but there is Villany enough at the bottom of it but our Ministers are as deep in the sudds as any other whatsoever who by their slights and wicked practises have drawn the English Papists into such Combinations as hath put the Nation into such ferments incurable Jealousies and divisions as hath effectually diverted the English from hunting the French in Flanders by imploying them to hunt the Papists and Jesuits at home as they have been pleased to word it My Lord It may not perhaps be unpleasing to give your Honour an account of some passages that happened between one Father Kelley an Irish Priest and my self in this City lately concerning the King c. I know very well that there were and and perhaps may be still some of that name in England but this same has lived for some years at Paris by St. Jean de Greve and tho' a Priest is a great Banker paying most of the pensions for secret service transmitted to the English Romanists but chiefly to Irish Papists in England and Ireland and who by his discourse upon the late English Fleet and Armies being ready and the War likely to be declared against this Kingdom was pleased then to say somewhat in relation to this Conspiracy that I have little thought on till very lately and that may give your Honour some light into the designs of this Court say'd he the King of France will find him meaning our King work enough by Divisions at home and discovering if needs be his and his Brothers intreagues in France and does not care tho' he expose all the Roman Catholicks in the three Kingdoms to a general and hot persecution so long as like the Turkish Asaphi they serve to blunt the English Men's fury and divert them from thwarting the designs of the potent Catholick Kingdom of France which would afterward set all right again but that he was in hopes by their hunting of Papists they would never leave hunting the King and his Brother too if they proved refractory till they had brought them to take Sanctuary in a stricter Alliance with the French King than ever as their only Safe-guard and that it was in the French King's power to spring up a Plot next day to give the King of England Game enough for his life time for that the Mines and Trains were already lay'd and that there needed only putting fire to them c. I am very sorry I could not have oblieged your Lordship sooner with these passages which yet I hope comes not too late but it may in some measure be grateful from My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1678. N. S. LETTER LXIV Of the Duke of York's being Commanded to retire to Bruxells in the Year 1679 and of the Promises made him by the King before his departure My LORD I Know not how Matters go in England nor what the Sence of the people is in general concern the Duke's retiring to Bruxells but I can assure your Lordship they seem to be mightily allarmed here at it tho' they put a good meen upon it Perhaps your Lordship may know much more of the Secret of this Journey than I can inform you but if what is transmitted hither by the Agents of our Grand Minister be acceptable they give us this account That the Earl of D was the person who advised the King to remove his Royal Highness from his presence and that his Reasons for it were that the Parliament might have no pretence for to complain of his Majesty that he had not taken all the Measures necessary for the Security of their Religion and Liberty but they tell us how true I leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to determine that the Earl by the foresaid Advise did not so much consult the King and Kingdoms true Interest as he did to please the Parliament with whom he was at odds because of the Money received to disband the Army and the French Alliance finding now by Experience that that Artifice of his in bringing the Plot upon the stage in order to amuse them had failed They further inform us that the Duke was mightily surprized at the Message for his departure and made some difficulty to bring himself to resolve to obey it but that at length recollecting a better Temper it gave his fast friends an Opportunity to advise him That though it were at that juncture necessary he should obey the King yet it was no less prudent that he should in so doing take all necessary Precautions not to abandon his Fortune to the discretion of his Enemies that they did not doubt but that the Duke of Monmouth would push hard to get himself declared Legitimate by the ensuing Parliament That the business of the Exclusion would be renewed and that there was room enough to fear least his Retreat might be rather interpreted for the flight of a guilty Person than for the Obedience of a submissive Subject that therefore it was expedient he should get the King first to promise him that he would declare and get it Recorded too in the Courts of Justice that he had never been Married to the Duke of Monmouth's Mother That he would by no means consent to the Exclusion that was now likely to be prest upon him and lastly that he should give him express Order in writing to require his Retirement All which they say he has happily accomplished the truth whereof time must determine whereunto I leave it who am My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Apr. 6. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXV Of the Noise of King Charles's Divorce from Queen Katherine My LORD THE business of the King's Divorce has made a mighty noise on this side and I cannot with any certainty inform your Lordship which way this Court stands affected for I find on the one hand
Dominions that were Romdâ—-Catholicks and especially Frenchmen would wound his Reâ—â—tation very deep and quite alienate the Nations Affections from him and be a confession of all the Rumors which had been seatter'd abroad of a private League made between him and France for oppressing both the Liberty and Religion of his Country And besides the King had Forces enough of his own and to spare for the resisting of all the Efforts of Holland That his Fleet alone was able to stop them and that let it be as it would his Land Army could not fail of being Conquerors over them being both much more numerous and withal better disciplin'd had entirely fixed him in the said Resolution I do not question but this Court will do the Earl all the Disservice they can for spoiling so brave an opportunity of their getting â—ooting with their Troops in England however he has served his Country and deserves well of it whatever his Fate may be I am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris Nov. 2. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of Mr. Skelton's Negotiations in France with the Reasons of his being recoeli'd and committed Prisoner to the Tower of London My Lord I Cannot conceive but they are as much in the dark with you about Mr. Skelton's Imprisonment in the Tower upon his arrival in England as they are concern'd for it here I have already given your Lordship an account of some of his Negotiations both in Holland and at this Court and with your Honour's leave shall endeavour a little further to unriddle this Mystery of his Imprisonment When all the Arguments of this Court used by Monsieur Bonrepos to induce the King to admit of some French Troops into his Country under pretence of assisting him against the Prince of Orange were obviated by my Lord S 's Remonstrances and Assiduities you cannot conceive the concernedness that appeared here at the grand Disappointment Mr. Skelton was almost oppress'd with Enquirers into the reason of such a Procedure not knowing well then from what Quiver the Arrow was taken that shot down the Goliah of all their Hopes of once nestling in England who examin'd interrogated him and almost laid it to his charge that their Advice was not follow'd But having at length found it to be otherwise they resolved to put him upon another Expedient mention'd first by himself to serve his Master as they said tho' nothing is more certain than that it is their own Interest they design'd mainly thereby For one day after Monsieur de Croissy had prest him hard still to sollicite his Master to accept of the Troops and Ships offered him by France and that Mr. Skelton answer'd That it was in vain he having Orders to meddle no further in that matter and therefore durst not move in it He also added That yet he was of Opinion that if his most Christian Majesty would order his Ambassador to acquaint the States-general what share he took in the Affairs of the King his Master and to threaten to attack them in case they undertook any thing against him he did believe that would quickly put a stop to the intended Invasion and spoil the Measures the Prince of Orange had concerted thereupon without giving the English occasion to complain their King had called in Foreigners into their Country That this would be an effectual means to keep part of the King's Enemies on this side the Sea and they might have leisure enough to break off the Cabals which the other formed at home against him This Discourse made Monsieur de Croissy hasten to acquaint the King with it who liked it so well that he immediately dispatched away a Courier to Monsieur the Count d'Avaux his Ambassador at the Hague with Orders to declare to the United Provinces That they could not attack the King of England who was so intimate a Confederate with him but that he must be obliged to succour him with all the Assistance he could The States having paused a little for an Answer to this Memorial and presently upon it being encounter'd with another from the Marquess de Albeville the English Ambassador there they answered the latter They were long since convinced of the League between the two Kings That they had armed in Imitation of other Princes c. which being interpreted here that the States were resolved to go on with the Invasion It raised the Expectations of this Court that the tender of their Troops would be still accepted of by the King But the vigilance and sagacity of my Lord S disjointed also this Project and ended in the Recalling and Imprisonment of Mr. Skelton for moving in an Affair for which he had no Orders And this also my Lord has stopped Verace the Genevese whom I have formerly mentioned to your Lordship who is come to Paris from proceeding on his Journey for London as supposing it to no purpose to give such Informations as would not be regarded and he is now I hear about returning back to his own Country I hope things are well with your Lordship in these times of difficulty had it been otherwise I do suppose I should have heard it that I might have stopped my Intelligence and that all may continue to be well with you is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord Your Lordships most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 8. 1688. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Prince of Orange's landing in England and Success with King James's Speech to his Chief Officers My Lord THo' the French Arms this year have had mighty success on the Rhine yet the landing of the Prince of Orange in England without any opposition and the success he has met with since his arrival together with the desection of some Horse to him under my Lord Cornbury tho' they say here but a very small number has damped all their Rejoycings And indeed if we may judge of their Hearts by their Looks we may see plainly that they have given over not only their own Game on that side of the Water for lost but that they look upon that of the Kings so too almost beyond all hopes of recovery but yet that they may make some semblance of Zeal still for his Service their Creatures have advised him to call together his chief Officers and to tell them That he had given Orders for the calling together of a Free Parliament as soon as a more setled time would give him room to hope for such That he had resolved to provide for the Security of the Religion Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects as far as they themselves could desire or wish for Could there any more he expected from him he was ready to grant it but desired if after all this there was any one dissatisfied that they might declare it That he was ready to give unto such as thought not fit to tarry with him Pasports to go to the Prince of Orange and that he would freely pardon them their shameful Treason This Speech and the effects
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
Charles IId's Restoration with their Answers to the Queen-Mother's Resentments thereupon My Lord ACcording to the Expectation I may have raised in your Lordship by my last of some Notable Intelligence from me I am to acquaint you with what perhaps you will hardly believe that this Court considering the near Alliance between the Burbonian and English Royal Family should as much as once think to obstruct the King's Restauration to the Throne of his Ancestors but for my part I clearly find there is neither Father Brother nor Cousin between Kings and Kingdoms and that France used the utmost of her Policy at that time to keep us Embroiled at Home while she might have her Hands loose to play her Game Abroad but because I conceive it may not be ungrateful to your Lordship to understand what those Stratagems were which they own themselves to have practised upon that Occasion I shall briefly hint them unto you as I find them entred here in their Cabinet-Minutes Monsieur Bourdeaâ—x was then their Ordinary Embassador at London whose Instructions were both by himself and several other Emissaries which they had there to raise all the Jealousies imaginable in the several Factions of Monk and his Adherents and at the same time to make Overtures to Monk to assume Oliver's Post and Power urging with great vehemency that he might with much more Justice and Security do it as having what the other had not a President before him but tho' that General refused the Proposal and was proof against all their Attacks of that kind saying he would not split his Family upon that Rock against which the Cromwell's had dasht but would wave all Ambitious Projects of his own Grandure that were indirect and pursue only those that consisted with his Countreys good and that they saw at last it was in vain to attempt the Union of the stronger Factions at Home either against Monk or the King's Restoration they resolved to try what might be done Abroad to work them into a Temper and therefore to raise Jealousies in them from their Neighbours they did in March 1660. Defile several Battalions of Foot towards Calais giving out at the same time that their Design was to Besiege Dunkirk in Conjunction with the Spanish Forces and that after the Place was taken by them it was to be delivered up to the Spaniards pursuant to an Agreement made between them that the latter had consented to give up Cambray and some other Places to the French in lieu of it at which proceedings of theirs the Queen-Mother then in France taking the Alarm she briskly remonstrated unto them the unnatural part they acted considering the near Ties of Blood in her Person between the Royal Families of France and England and how dishonourable it was to oppose the Restitution of a Prince which they were bound to promote even by Arms tho' he had been no ways Allied to them but she was answered that there were many Reasons of state which superceded all those Scruples that for her part she might be assured she should be as well provided for as otherwise that it was not safe for her Son to be brought in purely by his own Subjects but that if they both would have a little patience they did not question but they had taken such Methods so to embroil and weaken England that there would be quickly room enough for the French King to bring him in in a much more Glorious manner so as that he might be Absolute Master of his Subjects and have his Royal Authority no more to depend upon the fickle and changeable Temper of a Perfidious Nation nor be in danger to receive any check from Parliaments that would sooner or latter prove Factious and Dangerous to his State that it was visible the Spaniards had a great hand in promoting such a Revolution in England and therefore they desired her to consider how dishonourable it would be to the House of Bourbon to suffer it and how dangerous such a Conjunction of England and Spain which would naturally follow against them would be she her self might judge and that therefore since a little patience would Infallibly retrieve the whole Game to their Interest and much more to her Satisfaction they could do no less than pursue the Methods they had taken and make both her and her Son happy tho' it were against their Wills that she was much in the wrong to judge of Things by present Appearances that they were assured however Matters might be concealed from her the Conditions proposed to the King her Son by his Subjects were little to her Satisfaction when they imported no less than that her two younger Sons of the Elder of whom she had conceived greatest Hopes and her self must never set footing on English Ground and that the King himself must Marry a Protestant Heretick and suffer no Roman Catholick to live in his Dominions But when they found all their Politicks had failed them and that the King was restored in spight of them according to his Hearts Content they afterwards fell upon other Stratagems put in due time in Execution to work upon his Easie Nature and to render his Power more serviceable than hurtful to their Designs tho' the King who was yet sensible of the Injuries done him upon his Arrival in England ordered Bourdeux to withdraw out of his Dominions this is the substance of what I find entred here in reference to this particular and all I have now to Communicate which if I find it relish with your Lordship I shall not fail to lay hold of all Occasions to demonstrate how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble c. Paris Feb. 19. 1676. N. St. LETTER III. Of several Matches proposed to King Charles the Second by the French Court with his Answers and Rejection of the same My Lord IT 's not unknown to your Lordship that one Topick in the French Politicks has been now for many Years to bring their Neighbour Princes into their Interests by procuring them Wives and the French Women have had an Excellent Faculty to bring over their Husbands into the Gallican Noose tho' apparently to the hazard of themselves and their own State so that quite failing in their end to obstruct the King's Restoration they now attempted to Entrap him with a Wife I understand there were several French Matches proposed to him during his Exile and among others a great Lady whose Name I cannot now remember who had like to have been afterward Married to the Prince of Conde and whom the King hotly Courted when in France but because he was refused by her then he in his turn refused her when Restored tho' in reality such a proffer on their part was no more than to sound his Disposition towards Marrying a French Woman in general for if he had consented to have taken this Lady to Wife the French Court would not have suffered it because she was a Martial Lady and of the contrary
all their Hopes dashed to pieces and therefore they stood still for a Time to see what so mighty a Revolution in England might produce and what mighty things a King in the Vigour of his Years whom they had sufficiently provoked during his Exile so high in the Love of his Subjects the ancient Emulators of the French and the People now in the most Martial Posture that ever they were in since England was a Nation would undertake but finding all were Haleyon Daâ—s and that then there was no apparent Disposition in our Court to make any Incroachment on their Neighbours the French Ministers began to re-assume fresh Hopes and to consider what Expedients might be proper for to promote their Designs which now for some time had lain Dormant one Project was that of the Match mentioned by me to your Lordship in my Last which succeeding so well and finding still that the King was far enough from designing any War for the enlargment of his Territories they resolved to make an Essay and see whether he was willing to part with any thing that was already his own I do suppose your Lordship may have heard of Cardinal de Retz being in disgrace at the French Court of his being forced to flee the Kingdom of his being at London incognito some time after the Restoration what he was publickly accused for in France was that he had favoured the Adverse Party about the Point of the Legitimacy that he had invited Madamoisell d' Orleans to aspire to a Match with our King and Abetted the Pretensions of Rome against those of the Court about the then growing Difficulties concerning the Regale but what ever the Reasons were they were never Published nor suffered to be so much as entred in the Minutes of other Secrets but this is certain that our King interceded with the French King on his behalf and that he was admitted to return and I have been assured it was by the way of Dunkirk and was sent afterward Embassador to Rome but whether all this was a Juggle to carry on a Negotiation about Dunkirk I will not positively affirm but it looks as much like a French Trick as one Egg does another That the Spaniards pressed our King very early for the Restitution of Dunkirk is uncontroulably true and made pretty large offers and it is as true that the King rejected their Proposals which yet did not discourage the French Emissaries of whom they had by this Time many in England as the Minutes shew who having ingratiated themselves with the Chancellor and other hungry Courtiers made also their Overtures and told the King withal that Cromwel was to have that Town only for a Temporary Caution for so much Money due to him for his Assistance against the Spaniards and that therefore it was a Matter of Right they insisted upon seeing they were now ready to lay down the Summ with more then Interest nay and they were so bold as to tell him farther that if he refused to give it for Money they would endeavour to recover the same by a War and questioned not the Junction of the Hollanders with them both by Sea and Land in that Case they being as unwilling as the French that the English should have footing so near them on the Continent and in effect they made use of the Dutch Faction and some Jews their Emissaries in England more then any Body else to bring that Affair about and because they would be sure to meet with no Obstructions from the Spaniards by renewing their Instances to the King and alleadging a greater right to the Town then the French they amused them with a Design they had to restore it to them again upon a reasonable equivalent in Flanders and gave it out that they had entred into a Treaty already with them upon that Head but whether it was so in Reality I cannot tell and this is all that I am able to inform your Lordship concerning our parting with that Important Place Only that the summ paid for it was two Millions and five hundred thousand Lirves and so I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 4. 1676. N. St. LETTER V. Overtures made to King Charles II. for the Sale of Tangier to the French and how prevented My Lord THe French having as I have given your Lordship an Account in my Last gained their Point in the buying of Dunkirk whereof the French Forces took Possession about October in the Year 1662. they paused a little to see how the English would resent it before they would make any further Paces for the Promotion of their Cause to our Disadvantage but finding the Memory of the Anarchical Times together with the Nation 's according the Example of the Court daily degenerating from the Severity of Manners in Former Times had in a manner laid them fast asleep and quite obliterated all Thoughts of Military Glory so far as if there had been a sudden Transmutation of the Genius of the People they resolved to make another Essay upon the easie temper of the King and try whether he would also part with Tangier unto them but whether it were that the King was sensible already of his Mistake in parting with Dunkirk or that this very Motion of theirs put him upon considering what he had done and the great Error he had committed in Policy thereby it is certain he gave them an absolute Denial and that their Minutes speak but say withal that to be revenged of his Denial and make him odious after their usual Manner this Court ordered it however to be reported as if he had been willing for it and further add that the Kings real Answer was that Tangier being his Queens Dowry to whom he had not long been Married it would not at all suit with his Honour to sell it neither could he well part with it unless he parted with Her that it was by Parliament annext to the Imperial Crown of England and so could not be Sold without them that if both He and his Parliament too might be willing to sell it at another Time yet to be sure it was not proper to think of it just then when after so much Treasure and Blood spent upon it already it might if ever prove of some use to the Nation in the War then like to begin with the Dutch that he could not part with it to the French King so well as to any other Christian Prince nay not so well as even to the Moors themselves without giving a very just and therefore a dangerous Cause of Jealousie to his People especially in that Juncture when by the Carriage of the French he had great Cause to suspect they were Jealous of his grandeur at Sea and would joyn with the Dutch against him which refusal of his I must tell your Lordship was indeed one of the secret Causes among others why they soon after actually joyned with that Nation to diminish our Power to sham
them and weaken and undermine us both as well as to hatch up a Navy of their own and since I am entred upon this Subject your Lordship will pardon me if I proceed a little further and acquaint you that they did afterwards renew their Instances about the Sale of the said Place with much more earnestness then before and that at a Time when their Interest was much stronger and more prevalent at our Court and yet even then tho' the Parliament had denied him the supplies which he demanded extraordinary as your Lordship well knows to be appropriated for the maintenance of Tangier and that he was in great streights for Money he would not sell it to the French nor restore it to Portugal but chose rather to demolish it and abandon it to the Moors why he would not sell it to the French I have already given the Reasons but there was perhaps another more prevalent Argument for it viz. the strong Vote of the House of Commons to that Purpose which your Lordship knows better then I can pretend to inform you to which perhaps I may subjoyn another in due place and therefore now can only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Octob. 24. 1684. N. St. LETTER VI. Of the first Dutch War begun in 1664 My Lord I Have no Reason to doubt but your Lordship knows most of the Particulars relating to that unhappy War begun between England and Holland in the Year 1665. but it may it will not be unpleasing to recount what the French designs might be in it how they promoted it and what Advantages they drew from it which I shall do very briefly when they found our King did not lay hold of those Advantages put into his Hands upon his Restoration to render himself great at home and formidable abroad and made not the least meen of a Martial Designing and Ambitious Humour they made it their first business by their Instrumen's at our Court to hinder his closing with Spain or any other in the Interest of the House of Austria by making up the Portugal Match as I have already hinted to your Lordship next by gaining the Duke of York timely over to their Devotion and then by other Emissaries and Pentioners whereof they had good store both in England and Holland to stir up such Disputes between the two Nations as might end in a War and so divert the first Essays of the Power of our new Monarch from themselves In this how admirably they succeeded is well known the Dutch on the one side being secretly incited and encouraged to Insolencies and Encroachments and the English to as deep Resentments insomuch that a War was hotly urged against them by our Parliament it self the French Court in the mean time playing Bopeep with them both for it does manifestly appear by the hints that I have seen that they promised Succour to both Parties in Case of a Rupture though it were really resolved to see us fight first and then succour the weakest and so kill two Birds with one Stone that is divert and weaken both our Naval Forces and make use of one of us to increase their own Naval Strength till which War was very inconsiderable which they most effectually did for they no sooner saw the Ballance incline to our side by the first great defeat given the Hollanders in that War but contrary to all the Assurances before given to the King they not only sided with the Enemy but drew the Dane too into their Confederacy tho' they never did either of them any good by fighting for them at Sea but only by bribing one at that Time in the highest Favour in our Court I need not Name him got a part of our Fleet sent on a blind Errand after theirs where 't was sure not to be found while the Dutch and the rest of our Ships and Commanders were left to batter one another to pieces to make them sport having gained their Ends in this Point they proceeded and gained also another of yet more dangerous Consequence and that was to get the unthinking Hogens to build them most of the best Ships they now possess and with which they have since scourged the Dutch both before Palermo and otherParts and with which they have pretended since to Match either them or us this appears my Lord by the Minutes of the Lists we have of their Navy whereof some Copies were Printed but at present I cannot help your Lordship to one but therein were exprest the Dates and Places of the building of every Ship whereof of near an 160 Men of War of all sorts near an 100 of them were built in the Ports of Holland in the Time of the said War during which Time also they bought such quantities of Gun-powder Salt-Petre and all sorts of Warlike materials there as so strengthned them and exhausted the other who ne'er dreamt they intended in a little Time to carry the War to them that it much facilitated the success they had afterward in Invading that Country that War ended with all the success to their Designs they could desire both by the Treacherous Compliance of Corrupt Ministers they had gained in both Nations and the Discouragement the English had received by the perfidious falling off of the Bishop of Munster from us Junction of the Dane against us and the Chatham disaster in having our Ships burnt there which they effected by procuring the Queen-Mother to write a Letter to her Son that she was assured the Dutch would have no Fleet out that Summer I need not remonstrate to your Lordship our ill Conduct herein I am sure our Enemies have both blamed and ridiculed us sufficiently for it though it tended so manifestly to their Advantage and was a Pig of their own Sow and let me tell your Lordship they did never believe our King would so easily take the bait till they saw the blow struck and this I can assure your Lordship so heightned their Hopes and whetted them in the pursuit of their Ends upon our Court and Kingdom that they almost never left any Motion they had made for their turn till it were Effected as much to their plenary Satisfaction as to the Kings Dishonour and the Nations Ruine and from hence forward you shall find them drive on their Designs upon us Jehu-like the Particulars whereof I shall not fail to transmit to your Lordship as often as I can have access to take them out with out Suspition from the Minutes where they are Deposited and shall therefore now only subscribe my self as I am in all sincere Devotion My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 29. 1676. N. St. LETTER VII Of the Firing of the City of London in 1666. My Lord I Am fully satisfied by what I have both seen and heard at Paris and elsewhere that the Duke of York was in the Year 1666. brought quite over to the French Interest and I have heard strange Stories
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
and well Disciplined and Commanded and this unpreparedness of ours was a great Incitement to most of the French Council to put their King upon the Immediate Invasion of England with his whole Force having already fore-felt the Hollanders and found them if not Inclinable to join with them in such a War yet content to sit still and be quiet they moved it so hotly that they had like to have carried it which had they England had run a very great risque at that time of being Ruined for said they If we make sure of England first we shut a Back door fast against all Danger and may then securely Attack the Austrian Potentates having first Trampled down the Hollanders in our way of whom having made sure of the De Wits their then Chief Ministers we shall find an easie prey But just as the Ambition of that Monarch was ready to take Fire at those so specious Motives Monsieur Le Tellier since Chancellor and Father to Monsieur Louvois the Eldest and Ablest Statesman and Minister of France interposed the substance of whose Speech I shall take Care to transmit to your Lordship in my next who am My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris August 23. 1676. N. St. LETTER XIV Containing an Account of Mons. Le Tellier's Arguments to disswade the French King from the Invasion of England My Lord ACcording to my Engagement in my last I shall now entertain your Lordship with Mons. Le Tellier's Remonstrance upon the Advice given the French King to Invade England He did acknowledge that the Counsel proposed was in it self very good supposing there were a certainty of effecting it but it was to be considered that it would prove of most pernicious Consequence in case the same were Attempted without Success That England was the Rock against which the late formidable Power of Spain had dasht in pieces its Aspiring Fortunes and that the like Expedition now by the House of Bourbon would prove alike Fatal to its Rising Power unless they were Infallibly sure of their Blow For to meddle with England at all unless they could absolutely Conquer it would be but to rouze a sleepy Lion slur the Reputation of their Arms and singe the Wings of their growing Greatness before they were fully fledg'd That it was impossible to make such a Conquest but by Intestine Divisions or Surprize unless they were first Masters of its Outworks the Low Countries That for a Surprize he thought it almost impracticable and that tho' it was possible they might â—ure the Hollanders to join with them and England was then indeed unprovided of Forces both by Sea and Land yet there was no trusting to that because there were no Factions then whose Designs were ripe enough to Favour such an Enterprize And that tho' they should prove so Successful in that Advantagious Juncture as to enter England they could expect no greater Advantage by it than just to frighten the King and the Nation and plunder them of a little Wealth and so be gone making but a Tartarian Expedition of it Because the universal and strong Antipathy of the English People both High and Low against the French Name and Domination would be an Invincible Obstacle to their setling there and would quickly make that Island too hot for them That therefore meerly to Attack and Pillage them without being able to reduce them totally would but whet the Animosity of those Warlike Nations whose Courage had always been wont to be heightned by Disgraces and was always Victorious when once fired with Indignation That such an Enterprize would for ever alienate the Heart of the then King and the whole Royal Family from the French Interest and make them by Inclination as well as Interest not only give way to but passionately to abet and make most Advantagious use of the Natural Animosity of their most Warlike Subjects against France That it would Unite the Peoples Hearts so firmly to their King and create so much mutual Confidence between them that it would be impossible afterward to divide them and so raise the Power of that Monarchy to a pitch from which it could not chuse but prove both formidable and fatal to them That it would rouze up the King then almost Drowned in Voluptuousness and Sensual Delights and make him a Man both of War and Business against his Will and cause him to enter into such Alliances with the House of Austria and other Powers as must needs be of Pernicious Consequences to the Designs of their great Bourbonian Hero That therefore it was better not to think of any such Attempt England being like a Flint sooner broken by soft than hard Methods That the King himself and also his Brother were much French by Inclination at present that the former was very Indulgent to his Pleasure that he was that way so Profuse and Prodigal that he would always be Necessitous of Money which his Parliament beginning to grow weary of giving him it would e'er long cause such strugglings between the Courtiers and Patriots of the Country as would give them ample Scope to compass their Ends in England by a more sure and less dangerous way than by a War which in all appearance would defeat all the Advantages they might otherwise reap there by other Methods That therefore the best way was to endeavour to take Advantage of the King's Infirmities to try whether there were a Witty French Beauty that could be Fortunate enough to gain on his Affections for that such an one would be a most Admirable Instrument for them That they should offer him Money and feed his Extravagance that way send dexterous Persons well furnished with Golden Charms to work on all the Leading Men among all their Factions and secretly to keep some Pensioners both among their Courtiers Patriots and Church-men and blow up and foment new Divisions That they should send thither some very able Embassador and keep him there a long time That they should incite the Hollanders to a new War with the English and the English with them and treat with and Promise Assistance to the former to the last Moment but in Conclusion join with the latter if it were possible to perswade the English King to a War And that on that pretence they might procure such numbers of English Forces especially Foot as might not only amend the Defects of their own Soldiery which still came very short in good Infantry but bring their own Native People by degrees inferring daily Examples of Strangers Bravery to imitate their Courage and Firmness in Set-Battels and to get a Stock of good Infantry by Land by drawing the English to them against the Dutch as they had already done of good Ships by Sea and Warlike Munitions by joining before with the Dutch against the English in the former Wars Yet that they might so order things that whatever Stipulations were made with the King of England to his Advantage to allure him to such a War should
to be Charmed and ever since favoured the French Interest either with or against his Prince as Occasion or Policy directed In fine he was told that the French King indeed tho' he had great Temptations from Opportunity and Interest to Attack England yet such was his Respect and Inclination for our King that he was more disposed to imploy his Forces against Holland And that he might with the surer Success undertake such an Expedition his Majesty earnestly prest the Duke to do his utmost to Influence his Master to join his Naval Forces with him in that War by which means he might Revenge the Disgraces received in the last especially that of Chatham as likewise the fresher Insolencies of that Saucy Republick whose Vicinity and Power was so much the more dangerous to the Brittish Monarchs than to any other Crowned Heads as the Subjects of these Nations were more prone to hanker after the Liberty Enjoy'd by the Hollanders and to imitate their Successful Example That by so doing his Excellency would do his own Prince very great Service and have the Honour of Obliging a great Monarch who was as Generous in his Resentments as Formidable in Power c. The Duke returned Home well satisfied and brought a pleasing Answer to our King and plyed him warmly with the Proposition aforesaid tho' at first he was not much harkned too but how when and by whose means their Designs were afterward Accomplished your Lordship may expect to hear when Conveniency serves from My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris Nov. 30. 1676. N. St. LETTER XVII Of the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans's being sent Anno 1670. from the French Court to dispose the King to a second War with the Dutch in Conjunction with the French My Lord THe French Court having as I told your Lordship in my Last gain'd the Duke of Buckingham entirely to their Interests they began now to conceive some hopes to bring our King to joyn with them against the States at least wise with his Naval Power of which they had most need and therefore to strike while the Iron was hot they deliberated of sending over an Embassador of their own into England to negotiate the Matter but to colour the Intrigue as if they had no Design of their own thereby and to give no Matter of Jealousie to their Neighbours especially the United Provinces It was agreed it should be a Female Embassadress the Kings fair Sister Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans and so give out at the same time she went over purely on a visit to her Royal Brothers and that it was with some seeming Reluctancy the French King upon her earnest Application to him to that Purpose gave his Consent But she was furnished with such Proposals which they knew well that sent her none could with equal safety and privacy Advance nor none with equal Power and Influence recommend and to secure the whole Transaction from the very Suspitions as well as the Penetration of any not of their Cabal and to make it appear as a pure visit and the effect of natural Affection and void of all Intreague her return was limited to so short a Time and in so peremptory and notorious a Manner that it might induce the World to believe them too Suspitious of the natural Inclinations that Princes might still retain for her Royal Brothers and for the Weal of her and their Native Country so incompatible with the exorbitant grandeur of France to entrust her with any of the mysterious Arcana's of their Politicks and so might prevent all Jealousie in England at that critical Juncture of that interview by shewing so great an Apprehension of it themselves She was charged with the same Message partly and with some of the same Arguments which they had endeavoured to insinuate by the Duke of Buckingham but having an incomparable Advantage above him or any other Embassador to back whatsoever she advanced with all the Charms that a most accomplished and lovely Princes and an only and most beloved Sister could be armed with she who had Wit and Dexterity enough to manage those Priviledges to the utmost Advantage not only prest the said Matter and more home and with infinitely more Freedom and Efficacy but adventured to propose yet higher things and of a much more extended Consequence For addressing her Speech to the King though not without intermixing some Expressions equally affecting also to her Brother the Duke of York she told his Majesty that as she hoped neither of her Royal Brothers had any Reason to call in Question her natural Affection to their Persons and inseparable Inclination for whatsoever did or should at any Time appear to her to be conducing to their true Interest so she believed they had as little cause to doubt but she could see as far as another into the French Monarchs Heart who loved her and admired her to that Degree though innocently as gave no small Umbrage to Monsieur his Brother and her Husband And that she did sincerely represent both as his most Christian Majesty's Sence and her own that the only way to secure to his Majesty and the present Royal Family of England a stability in the Throne they were lately Restored to afâ—er so dismal an overthrow of the Monarchy in the Reign and Person of their unhappy Father and to reinstate the Majesty of the Brittish Kings in its former Splendor and Security enjoyed so long and gloriously in Catholick Times was by all Wise and Politick Mâ—ans to labour to introduce into these Kingdoms the Catholick Religion and to re-assume by Degrees absolute Power â—or that the Church of England by woful Experience had been found too weak alone to defend the Crown and that the Dissenters were so stifly Principled for a Common-Wealth that they would never leave till they had once more overturned the Monarchy unless his Majesty would timely provide for his Security by Methods â—o be proposâ—d to him by her and the most Christian King who she knew had the atmost tenâ—erness for his Interest as was clear enoâ—â—h by all Expressions of his real Inclinations â—â—nce they were emancipated from the â—estraints laid upon them under the Tutelagâ— oâ— a Cardinal who was a Master in pure Politicks and altogether unacquainted with those nobler and more heroick Sentiments of Honour and Generosity which are no less natural and unextinguishable in a born Prince then common Reason is in the â—est of Mankind The chief of which expedients were flattering of the Church of England and first persecuting by Act of Parliament the Protestant Dissenters and wheedling with them again by a Prerogative Lenitive and so by the not to be Questioned acceptance of the Suffering Protestants on the one hand and the no less assured Non-opposition of those of the established Church on the other as by an irresistible Charm to lay asleep that watchful Dragon that had so long kept the golden Apples of Contention between the King and People
from the Ravishment of the most enterprizing Monarch and break that mischievous Devil that had of late been so busie in asserting pretended Liberties and advancing the Soveraignty of old hateful Laws above the more Sacred Majesty of the Princes the only rightful Legislators whilst the Crown as securely as unregardedly might seize and seizing â—or all Perpetuity appropriate as to it sell the important Jewel of Dispensing Power which would fix and fasten the whole Chappelet of unbounded Soveraignty by making usâ— of that Popular Relaxation to indulge the Faction esteemed the most dangerous to the Monarchy and to decoy them into a favouring of those Encroachments upon the Laws and upon the Peoples Fundamental Right and therein the Legislation who seemed of all Men the most deeply principled against them And so in effect to make those very Persons the tools for the Erection of Absolute and Despotick Sway who otherwise could hardly be reconciled to the most Just most Legal and most Moderate Royalty So far were the measures to be observed at home and those which she and their Brother of France advised to be used abroad were 1. To endeavour by all possible means the Subversion of the Republick of Holland the perpetual Source of Rebellion in England 2. In order with so much the more Expedition certainty and Safety to effect the Reduction both of his own People and of that â—ntâ—ward Neighbouring Nest and receptacle of Plotters and Rebels To resolve upon a firm and inviolable adherence to the Interest of the most Christian King who in that Case would no way desert him but vigorously and powerfully aid him and carry him through all Difficulties But in Case added she his Majesty could not satisfie his Conscience weâ—l enough to attempt any such Change in Religion as she just now had mentioned or notwithstanding all remonstrances to the contrary should continue over-perswaded of the two great Difficulty or impracticableness of such an enterprize that however as a Protestant of the Church of England which was firm to Monarchy if he desired to put himself into a Condition to Protect and that Reciprocally to Defend him and his Successors in time to come It would be absolutely necessary for him at least to concurr with his most Christian Majesty in Subduing the Republick of Holland That besides the Advantage of such a Repartition of the Conquered Country as he could reasonably expect he should find upon the reduction of it that the Commonwealth Faction in England and her Two other Sister Kingdoms would dwindle away of it self and so the King would not only become Absolute Master of his People but as his Christian Majesty would concert the Sharing of those Provinces with his Brother of England the Naval Power and Trade of Great Brittain would receive an incredible augmentation by the Destruction of a State that was her only Competitor at Sea and for Commerce and Riches promoted thereby For that not only their Shipping and Seamen together with their Chief Sea-ports and beâ—t Sea provinces all entire would be his Majesty's but also that all the most Wealthy and Substantial Merchants and Industrious and Ingenious Tradesmen and Artificers even of the Provinces and Parts that should fall to the Share of the most Christian King would in all appearance transplant themselves either into England or Ireland as lying more convenient for Trade than their own Country or at least into those Parts of the Netherlands which should be reduced under the Power of the King of Great Brittain To whose Domination as approaching nearest the Sweetness and Freedom of that they now were under they would certainly more willingly submit their Persons and Fortunes than to that of the more Absolute one of the French Monarch for which they had entertained a Thousand Prejudices In fine she most earnestly and affectionately besought him to take those Matters into his most serious Consideration and to return a speedy and if it might any ways be a favourable Answer that she might have the Happiness to return back the Messenger of good News and such News as might prove a Foundation of a lasting Felicity to both the Illustrious Families from which both his Majesty and her self were descended The King after a little silence told her by way of Reply to the things she had represented to him That it was impossible for him to doubt of the ardency and reality of the Affection of a Sister so Amiable and who had always exprest so much Tenderness for his Interest That he as little questioned but that she had penetrated as far into the Interiors of his Brother of France as it was possible any one could into the Heart of a King and therefore upon her Representation of him chiefly which he assured her would induce him to give the more Credit to the Favourable Conjectures he had made of his Temper during the little time he had the Honour to Converse with him whilst in Exile and to the general Character he had since his Personal Administration of Publick Affairs obtained in the World of being a Prince of great-Honour and Generosity and thereupon passing by some former unhandsom and unkind Treatments in his Court as pure Effects and Influences of the over-ruling Ascendant of the then Regnant Mazarine and not of that Prince's own Inclination he should put much Confidence in the sincerity of the most Christian King and accordingly desired her to return his said Majesty his Royal and most Hearty Thanks for those obliging Expressions of Amity and Affection he had signified to him by her and to assure him in his Name he should ever have his Friendship in high Esteem and would go as great lengths as in Prudence and Interest he could to serve him and to comply with his Desires But that the Matters proposed being of the highest Consequence he must beg his Excuse if he required more time to give him a positive and satisfactory Answer thereto than the short space limitted for her stay in England would permit however that he would with all convenient Expedition give him a better Account In the mean while he should Request his most Christian Brother by her to do him the Justice to believe he was as sincerely affectioned to his Person as he could be to his and should ever persist to be as far as a King of Engl. could his constant and most Obsequious Friend The like Complement as far as it was agreeable to his Circumstances was returned by the Duke After which the Princess renewing the Charge in the Business of Religion the King freely told her That as to that Point tho' he had entertained very kind and favourable Thoughts of the Roman Religion and its Professors for several Reasons he instanced and did believe that if it were Re-established in his Dominions the Monarchy would be safer and easier than it could be under the present state of Protestancy yet he was not so fully satisfied in it as to make it his own Religion and
Alliance in that disadvantagious Posture of the British Affairs and rather inclined to joyn with his Majesty against those sawcy Republicans and sworn Enemies to all Crowned Heads Ordering him withall to tell him that the Obstinacy he perceived in his Majesty in refusing to vindicate his own his Families and his Kingdom 's Honour and Interest against them had prevailed with him to push on a Treaty with them so far as to get it by Address Signed by them afore-hand that he might have wherewithal to give his Majesty an undeniable Proof both of their malicious and dangerous Intentions and of his own sincere Inclination to his Majesty and delude them into a security that might hinder them from providing for any Defence by Land against the Forces he had ready to pour in upon them in case his Majesty would please while it was yet time to joyn with him And further to add that for his part he had not Sign'd it yet but was ready to Sign one much rather with his Majesty and would on that condition so protract the time with delatory Answers and Excuses that their present Naval Preparations should be eluded and they attacked when they least expected and when his Majesty might have time enough to make sufficient Provision to second him therein by Sea to both their certain and glorious Advantage And lastly ordering the said Ambassador in the close to tell his Majesty roundly that tho' indeed he had carried on that sham League for the Reasons afore-said viz. For the Interest of his Brittish Majesty as well as his own for the better conviction of him of the Necessity as well as Convenience of joyning with him and lulling the Enemy into that security that was necessary to the Success of the Arms of both Crowns yet if after all these steps his Majesty would still persist to be deaf to his own Interest so visibly and plainly made out to him that truly his Master then would be forced to decline those of his Majesty take new Measures consonant to his own and in a word turn the sham Alliance into a true one by immediately Signing and Counterchanging it and at the same instant joyning with those Enemies against him without giving him time to make any tolerable Preparation that might enable him to weather their first Attempts for that it was his Masters undoubted Interest to keep great Forces on foot and not to keep them idle And that therefore if the King of England would not joyn with him to employ them where he had most Inclination and much Interest too to employ them he would be forced by Interest against his Inclination to employ them against him being resolved to employ them some where and so the Ambassador concluded his Harangue as I shall conclude this Letter having been tedious I am afraid to your Lordship and so remain My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris March 19. 1677. N. S. LETTER XIX King Charles II. being at length brought over to a Compliance with the French Intreagues and to make War upon the Dutch the French Council make all the Alliances they can among the German Princes c. and where they could not prevail use their Endeavours to perswade to a Neutrality My Lord HAving in my last to your Lordship set forth the successive Intrigues of France to bring our King into their Interest and to come to a Rupture with the Dutch States their Artifices especially the last as how could it choose unless he had been indeed the Log he has been resembled to wrought so effectually with him that he then without Reluctancy consented to the French King's Overtures and an Alliance was tho' very privately concluded on wherein were inserted Articles for a projected sharing of the States Dominions already Conquered by our Army as we had been before by theirs and now both Courts concert Measures to continue the Amusement of the Enemy and to gain some other Neighbours into a Concurrence or Neutrality The French King after some Demur to gain time and to finish his Intrigue in England had no sooner concluded it but after his usual way of Dissimulation sent back the Instrument of the Treaty with Holland to the States but with such Additions and Amendments as he knew would take up time to debate tho' couched in most suggred Words and backed with large Promises of continuing and augmenting Friendship And having in the mean time gained the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster and some others on the Rhine partly by Money and partly by deceitful Pretences to joyn with them They had also the vanity to attempt tho' the very Thoughts of such an Overture were charged with insuperable Difficulties to delude the very Spaniard if not into a Compliance yet into a Neutrality with them while their Forces should be acting such Tragedies as were intended in their view and not without passing through their Country they having such Creatures and Factions in Spain as they much confided in but after all their Wheedles and Intrigues there they found such strong Opposition made by the Queen-Mother who was a great Enemy to France as gave them little grounds to hope for any great Success in that Negotiation so that they began to content themselves with what they thought they were sure of viz. By gaining of so much time in keeping of Matters in suspence both in the Spanish and Imperial Councils who were naturally slow enough in their Deliberations as might suffice them to accomplish their design upon Holland before they could be in a readiness to hinder the finishing Stroke If so be they should declare for the States against them as was to be suspected they would after which secure of Success they concluded they should be in a condition to attack rather then to expect the whole Austrian Force tho' fortified with the Succours of all the rest of Christendom My Lord I am not at present furnished with the Topicks they went upon to bring the Spaniards to a Compliance in this Matter but I hope I shall be able to give your Lordship a good account of them in my next which shall be with the next conveniency but in the mean time I am My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 15. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXII Coleman being engaged in the French Interests here follows the Topicks he went upon to induce the Spaniards to a Neutrality in the War in 1672. My Lord THat the French Ministers are Gens audax omnia perpeti is very manifest by what I have written to your Lordship before but to be so adventurous as to form Topicks for the engaging those in the Spanish Interest to favour their Designs by deluding that Nation to a Neutrality seems to be a Master piece of their Policy as well as Audacity Having therefore gained Mr. Coleman whom they judged of any other the most proper Instrument to carry on such a Design they formed the following Topicks for him the better to
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
has been as it were dubious in the World to this day for little did the Councellors of State and other Princes and Grandees at the Court of Vienna think that those very Jews who sold them Jewels Pearl and other rich Moveables were wont at the same time to bring and carry Letters to the forementioned Prince Lohkowitz and other vile Traytors to the Emperor and Empire and though these sort of Vermin have been banished the Emperor's Territories and Dominions yet for filthy Lucre-sake to which they are addicted above any Nation or People under Heaven and to serve the French whom above any other they value for the Reasons I have formerly given your Lordship upon another occasion They make no scruple of assuming those Shapes which they outwardly would most seem to abhor and whose Principles they have disbeliev'd above these Sixteen hundred years I mean Christians and to this day drive on the old trade But our private minutes relating to this Country and which I have had the opportunity lately a little to inspect tell us positively That at least two of the Emperor 's own Confessors of the Iesuitical Order the much more dangerous Traytors than any other could be were guilty of the same Crime The next year after the Disgrace of this Prince happened that memorable Success the Emperor's Forces had upon the Rhine against the French but it is no less memorable after such a signal Victory against the Mareshal de Crequi c. that Montecuculi the Imperial General should after he had besieged Sabern and was in a fair way to carry the Place so suddenly rise from before it re-pass the Rhine with his whole Army and leave the French after all wholly in possession of Alsatia where he might easily have Wintered his whole Army The World were then and have ever since been occasionally very busy about the reason of this Action which is very unaccountable to this very day It was whispered then that Montecuculi was so far from offering to do this of himself that he had express orders from the Emperor or at leastwise from Vienna to do it and which he obeyed with a great deal of reluctancy and ill-will but little have the World thought that it was chiefly the influence which Father la Chaise had over the Emperor's Confessor that produced those positive though most noxious Orders so far the Minutes mention that Affair and no farther I would not have troubled your Lordship with these Foreign Affairs had I been supplied with any that was domestick though I hope they are not so unacceptable but that you will freely pardon him who is desirous to serve and honour you to the utmost of my power and remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris June 20. 1678. N. St. LETTER XXXVII Of the French Ambassador's the Mareschal d'Estrades and Monsieur Colbert's Instructions to attack Sir William Temple and Pensioner Fagell to engage the Prince of Orange into the French Interests and to promote the Peace My Lord THis Court have left no Stone unturn'd neither in England nor Holland in order to the winning of the Prince of Orange over to their Interests but they have met with more constancy in him than could be expected from a young Prince of his years which has plainly manifested him to be an Inheritor as well of the Vertues as of the Fortune of his great Ancestors and when they found there was nothing to be done with him directly by any of their own Emissaries they resolved to attack him in the most sensible part by the Ministry of two persons whom they knew he as much valued as any other on this side and they were the English Ambassador Sir William Temple and Monsieur Fagell Pensionary of Holland Their Agents in this hopeful business were Monsieur Colbert and the Mareschal d'Esâ—rades their Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty of Nimeguen who quickly began their attack upon Sir William according to the Instructions I find they had given them I. To insinuate slily what a value the French King their Master had for his Person and Character and that therefore during the course of the Negotiation they were to enter upon they had Orders to make their application to him That they knew how much he was in the confidence of the King his Master and of his chief Ministers and therefore how filly qualified he was to put the finishing-stroke to a Treaty he had had the greatest hand to set on foot and of which he must needs reap all the Glory That he might reckon very much upon the facility of the King their Master in that weighty Affair but yet so far still as to have a just regard had to the great Successes of his Arms during the War II. They were to make a Mien of their being fully possest of the States great forwardness to strike up a Peace which their Allies must comply with tho' they might for a time retard it That therefore the only way they could see for to give Europe Tranquillity was for the Prince of Orange to interpose his Authority which was so great with all the Allies that they were very well satisfied in their willingness to agree to whatever terms he should be resolved on in proposing the Peace That therefore in order to bring that grand affair to an happy and sudden issue it was their Opinion there was no other or better way for it than for his Highness first privately to agree with France upon the Conditions and what each Party's Proposition should be and when that was once done afterterwards in the course of the Treaty which was to be supposed could not spin out to any great length of time then to draw all matters by concert together to the scope agreed upon between them III. To seem very confident this Method would do but that if it should so happen that the unreasonable pretences of the Allies should obstruct or delay a General Peace that then the Prince might make use of the usual Temper of the States to bring it to a sudden issue and make a separate Peace that if the Prince pursued this method it would be in his power to do great things for himself and his Family for which they were to produce as many instances as they could of parallel cases And that as for what concerned the Prince's own personal Advantages and Interests the King their Master had given them full power to assure him That he might set down his own Conditions and they should be accepted IV. That tho' they had many others to make these Overtures to his Highness some whereof they were also darkly to intimate yet that they were to pursue their Master's Orders which was to apply themselves to none but to him if he thought fit to charge himself with it That they were very sensible of the Credit and Confidence he was in with his Highness and how much deference he had to his Judgment in what concerned the publick Interests of the Allies
of Spain with the Emperor's Daughter was put by and that with the Duke of Orleans's Daughter effected and that he was going to act mighty things for the French Interest for which he had large Promises made him of their powerful and effectual Assistance to obtain the Crown of Spain for himself after the Decease of the present King upon condition he should quit the Spanish Dominions in the Indies Low-Countries and Italy to the Crown of France for the performance of which they had sufficient Assurances from him I am further to observe to your Lordship from the said Minutes That they have attributed his Death to a Dose of Poison administred by the order and particular prescription of the Queen-Mother and that out of a fear she had he would one day Poison the King her Son and because he had against her Will been the instrument to make the French Match They further add how true the one or the other I will not take upon me to determine That the Queen Mother's hatred to Don John was inveterate that she had attempted once before to have Stab'd him and at another time to Pistol him As for the fore-mentioned Letter from the King of Spain to stop the Don's passage for Messina they say it was sent by the Instigation of the Duke de Medina Celi then in the French Faction with an intent to make him miss that stroke and secure him in their Interests by letting him know that it was by their Intreague he was admitted to Court I could further enlarge upon this subject did I judge it pertinent or agreeable to your Lordship's humour as I am affraid it is not and therefore I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris July 2 1679. N. S. LETTER XL. Of General Instructions given to the French Agents in England to carry on the French Designs upon the Duke of York's Second Marriage My Lord THo' the French Agents in England have had address enough to get the Match with the Duke effected according to their Desires yet foreseeing that even this point could not elude the Peace between England and Holland they endeavoured to make the best advantage they could by making a Counterpoise of it to the said Peace and to a War we might afterward intend against them as having thereby linked the Duke faster to them than ever and laid a sure foundation for such Distractions both in Church and State as would give them large opportunity if not to compass all the Designs they had upon us yet at least to secure themselves from any great inconveniency from us They were not ignorant what good effects several previous Intreagues of theirs had to our disadvantage they saw plainly the second Dutch War had much more impoverished us than the First and the ill conduct of it much more sunk the King's Reputation besides the Divisions in the Fleet and the Jealousies and Factions in the Parliament and among the People about the Duke's Religion produced him great disgusts every day That the shutting up of the Exchequer had ruined his Credit and his Majesty in proclaiming Liberty of Conscience by Virtue of his own Prerogative and his levity afterward in flinching from it so unexpectedly had so disobliged and wounded with Jealousie the Church of England and all Patriots in Parliament tender of their Priviledges who held the Peoples Purse-strings on the one side and so incensed with a fresh Animosity the baffled Dissenters on the other that being over-whelmed with Debts opposed by dangerous and powerful Factions and yet Bankrupt both of Money and Credit too they fairly concluded he could have no other recourse but to them which odious remedy they supposed would but more and more heighten the mutual Jealousies and widen the Breaches till they grew large enough for them to enter by at long-run upon some part of the English Monarchy so famous hitherto for checking theirs above any other in Europe since the Decadency of the Western Empire from rising to the like exorbitant greatness And now this more than Magical Dose these Quacks in Policy had given us began to work every day more and more violently and with Symptoms more visible till almost mortal Convulsions followed The ablest Statesman we had at the Helm the Earl of Shaftsbury was discarded for his vehemency in opposing the said so pernicious Match of which I may give your Lordship an account another time and others of the same Sentiments discountenanced which by the French Agency begat the Prorogation of the Parliament dangerous Factions and pernicious Fractions even among the most zealous Assertors of Monarchy and best affected Friends to the Royal Family so that now imagining this Master-experiment of theirs had made way for them to execute what Projects they pleased on our Court and People for the future to lose no advantage for want of Managers they began to put their Designs in form which before lay somewhat perplext and out of order to which end they sent over their Instructions to some Domestick Agents whom they had chosen and placed on purpose about the New Dutchess and to their other assisting Ministers and Emissaries as they thought in that disposition of both Head 〈◊〉 Body of both Princes and People 〈…〉 could not but succeed and produce in due time the full effects by their Mischief-Brooding and Ambitious Consultations And their Instructions in substance were as follows They were now to make actual use of the several Parties they had as I have hinted already but as yet prepared to make Tools of and to this purpose they were to influence them partly by French Jesuited Instruments partly by French Hugonot Agents and of our own Nation their Instruments were to be I. Atheists and loose principled Men who yet could act rarely well the Zealots for that Religion or Cause which they were to Espouse II. Such Persons as they found to be conceited of their Parts and of Mercenary Spirits III. Hotspurs for Prerogative and the Church of England IV. The fiercest Spirits of the other Factions V. Some Bigots of the Roman Communion that were English and particularly those that had been bred up or had travelled in their Dominions and were well Jesuited VI. The leading Irish Papists in particular VII Men Ambitious of Greatness or Idolizers of Money and that chiefly in Scotland VIII Men disgustful or disabliged IX Men of desperate Fortunes and lost Reputations Of all these they were with great confidence to imploy and highly to oblige and flatter some while they were for their turn and disoblige others and then when they had done with them vice versa to disoblige and cast off those whom they had obliged and seemed to have trusted and court oblige and receive others who were before disoblig'd knowing how to work their Ends by those they disobliged as well as by those obliged But yet none of these except some of the first sort were to know the whole of their Designs nor be informed
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
their Church whatever they might suggest with themselves to the contrary than they were aware of or was easily indeed to be imagined were of the same Sentiments but that they were under a restraint and durst not declare themselves to be such for fear of the Mobile and of the Presbyterians other Sectaries and Republican Parties which like so many evil Spirits presided over those Savage kind of Animals and stirred them as they pleased themselves against their Superiors But to those My Lord whom they found to be of the more inflexible sort they were instructed to make use of great Flatteries and Complements and to acquaint them that they had a great deal of reason to love the Roman Catholicks as the Roman Catholicks had to do so by them for that they had had for a long time the same Common Enemies had suffered much with them conjointly for the same Royal Cause in the late Rebellions that their Adversaries were numerous enough to require their united Power and Strength against them and that their subtilty was no less to be dreaded by them whose effects could not be warded off without such a double Force that there was much more danger to the Church and State of England and to the Monarchical Government now from the Sectaries than from their Church for it was plain to any one that was but willing to see That it was now no more the Roman Catholicks Interest since they were out of all hopes of being the predominant Religion in the Kingdom to act against the Church or State of England under whom they had such mild Treatment but much rather to join and fall in with them against the Sectaries and Common-wealth's-men under whom they could never expect any thing but utmost Rigour and Cruelty That it being impossible for them alone to support and maintain themselves in England against so great a number of Sectaries as were with the greatest inveteracy imaginable animated against them without the Protection of the Church of England and the Monarchy tho' but by way of Connivence It was therefore so much their Concern and real Interest to Pray for and endeavour after the Prosperity of both Parties tho' different in Perswasion that they had no reason to fear any thing from them nor be alarm'd at the Conversions they had happened to make which were so few and inconsiderable as never to be able to do them hurt had it been so designed as it was not That there was no danger neither from the French King's Friendship or close Alliance with their King it being the only Foreign Security as matters then stood that he could have against the intriegues and power of the United Provinces who not only ruined their Commerce by Sea but were the only People that buoyed up and supported the Sectaries and Republican Party and harboured and abetted all Designs both against the Church and State of England under the then Monarchy it being their inseparable Interest in all things to thwart the English almost in every particular they valued themselves upon in the present Establishment Whereas there was no exception to be made but that it was his Most Christian Majesty's undoubted Advantage and fixed Interest to cultivate by all good Offices the said Friendship and Alliance and to avoid by all manner of means any Rupture or Mis-intelligence with England and to oppose above all things the change of our Monarchy into a Republick In the last place continued they Whereas there had been for some time Reports spread not only of the Duke's but the King himself 's being of their Perswasion they were to give out to this sort of Men that that was only a suspicion and as they really believed ill-grounded enough for tho' they had reason to wish them and all Mankind else of their Opinion in that case yet they had no such reason to think them so but that the King 's having shewed some favour to them upon the score of their Sufferings for and Fidelity to his Father and himself and out of respect to the Most Christian King with whom he was so closely Alli'd for his better support and establishment against the enemies of Monarchical Government was the only grounds People had had for such Rumours which were industriously fomented only by the Authors of the former Fears and Jealousies against his Father in order to get an opportunity thereby once more to destroy the Regal Government And that they made this noise indeed against Popery but levelled it only at Episcopal and Kingly Government not at such contemptible Adversaries as the Roman Catholicks were at that time of day Then as for the Duke they were to affirm They thought and had reason to believe he was no more a Catholick than the King but that being a Prince of an high and inflexible Spirit and Heir presumptive to the Royal Diadem disdained to be compelled by any Subjects either to take an Oath or give any account of his Religion only to gratifie their Humours and Fancies and chose rather to forbear acting in any publick Employment But that for their part as he had not yet declared against the Church of England so he had as yet made no profession of the Roman Catholick Religion as they knew of but took care to keep himself as much reserved towards them as towards those of the Protestant Perswasion By such sort of Sophisiry and cunning Artifices thrse French Incendiaries were instrumental to endeavour to Keep up the Stiff Church Party in a perpetual Animosity against the Protestant Dissâ—nters and Dutch Party as both of a Party and to stir up the Government to side still with the French Interest against the power and growth of the one and provide with severity against the Practices of the other in order to exasperate as much as possibly they could the Spirits of both Parties against the other and widen the Breaches beyond all possibility of restoring them again Which how well they have already effected is but too well known and no less sorely felt in the Bowels of the Kingdom for me to take upon me to Descant upon and therefore I shall forbear and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant to Command Paris Mar. 28. 1682. LETTER XLIV Of the French Intrigues to raise a good Opinion in the Protestant Dissenters of England of the French King 's Proceedings and to Calumniate their own King My Lord I Am come to the last Body of Men within the Kingdom whom this Court by such like Engines as I formerly mentioned has endeavoured to manage for to serve their own turn to the Kingdom 's disadvantage and they are the Protestant Dissenters but they were necessitated to give the less umbrage to change their shapes and form of expression to those of that Party whom they had the design upon and to whom they closely and warmly remonstrated That they had no occasion to be jealous of the Proceedings of France and be animated so
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
abroad should fall to so abject a State as to become a French Pensioner which without the addition of any other Crime is more than enough eternally to blast the Memory of an English Monarch but I know this Subject can be ungrateful to no one alive more than to your Lordship and therefore I shall forbear further insisting upon it and remain My Lord Your Honour 's to Serve and Obey Paris Jan. 27. 1680. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of King Charles II's Politick's upon his Entring into the fore-mentioned private League with France as represented by the French Court. My LORD IN my last your Lordship had the substance of the Private League entred into by our King and this Court it may not be now unworthy your curiosity to know the Censure they have past upon him in relation to that head they have said they understood well enough that what ever their Design might be in obtaining such a point that the King and his Brother 's too upon them was to draw as much Money out of them as they possibly could thereby and yet not to venture too far on any of those important and ticklish Points proposed without very large Summs to secure every Step made forward and that by advance too for that they both concluded that the best and only way to make the French stick close to them was to be always considerably before-hand with them not without reason as they imagined fearing that if they were not still before-hand when they had engaged them in Difficulties and saw them fast they would leave them in the lurch As for the King tho' they knew him to be no more a Papist than he was a Politician yet he was of the Opinion if the Popish Religion could be handsomly made predominant it might suit better with the Monarchy yet having no Children to succeed him that he was but careless in that point and his Brother only being concerned in that matter he moved only as he was spurred on by his importunity the Temptation of Money the Diffidence he had of his People and among others the Fears he had either of having his days shortned or his Crown very much endangered by the Intrigues of his Brother or the French King should he not keep fair and humour them both in some tollerable measure since he found himself so far intangled in their snares For as for his Nephew the Prince of Orange that he had no aversion for him but rather an inclination through Nature and Policy and therefore was of himself willing enough the Match should go on yet that he would have been glad if the Prince could have been drawn over to the French Interest for that then he thought he would have compassed many desirable Ends in one business and made a very great advance to have satisfied all parties in the greatest part of their several Pretensions because that then he supposed he could have satisfied the French King in bringing over a Prince to his Interest so very capable to serve him in that juncture of time that he would have satisfied also those of his own Subjects who were well affected to the English Monarchy as he would have likewise our Trading Companies by marrying our Princess to a Prince of the Protestant Religion whom he by separating from the Interests of the States of Holland and drawing into a League with two great Kings should have put into a condition to depress that Republick which was so ill a Neighbour to the Monarchy so much our rival in Trade and so great a fomenter of the Schisms and Factions in England that thereby he should have laid grounds to hope that if ever he succeeded to those Crowns he might be able to subject the Belgick to the British Lions and transfer the magazine of the Riches of the World from the Netherlands into England and that fie thought to have satisfied the Duke his Brother in a great measure by so satisfying his friend the French King and likewise by depressing a Republick so well scituated and inclined to abet his deadly Enemies that in all appearance would way-lay his Succession to the Throne and thereby cutting off all occasion from that Male-content party that continually sought occasion to stir up against him the old Devils of Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Power And that he thought to oblige the Prince too by putting him into a method to become a Sovereign in time And lastly that he was perswaded if the Prince complied with those Methods the Match could disoblige no body but the States of Holland and the sympathizing Factions of the Sectaries in England and the Republicans whom he thought inconsiderable but that how desirous soever he was of such a Compliance with France as they desired yet it was not in his inclination to break the Match for that he having in reality a much greater mind to the Alliance with the Prince of Orange than to that with the Dauphine in which he did imagine he foresaw unfurmountable Difficulties and such as might endanger if not over-turn his Throne ruine his Brother and the whole Royal Family and at last make Great Britain but a French Province however that knowing the Temper of the Duke his Brother and the vindicative humour of the French King he was willing to seem almost all complaisant and temporize for a while whereby he might appease them and at the same time get what Money could be drawn from France both for his own security and pleasure and when he had done that that he knew wheeling about and concluding the Match when they least thought of it or expected it would please his people again tho' never so unsatisfied by the delay These my Lord are the Sentiments of this Court concerning him which if true in all points I conceive they are more beholding to him than many persons in England are willing to believe of him but I shall leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to revolve upon the particulars and remain My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 1. 1680. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Duke of York's Politicks upon his entring into a close Correspondence with France as the French Politicians represent them My LORD AS I have transmitted to your Lordship the exactest Particulars I could learn concerning the King's entring into a private Treaty with France and in my last the Censure of this Court thereupon I have also to the best of my remembrance given you likewise an Account of the Duke's being drawn into a close Correspondence with them some time before but whether it were that the Ministers on this side conceived such a Judgment of the King as I have already related and such of the Duke which I am just about to relate I cannot possitively determine but thus it is they censure him saying That though he was so much a Bigot in Religion that he was totally averse to the Aurangian Alliance unless it could be
reconciled to those ends which he proposed to himself thereby and especially about Replanting both the Popish Religion and Absolute Power in the three Kingdoms and incline rather to the Match suggested with the Dauphine with an intent the more friendly to oblige his Most Christian Majesty to assist him through all the difficulties he fore-saw he had to pass yet he was not a little affraid of the great Resistance he knew would necessarily be made against such an Alliance which many in England looked upon as the most pernicious that ever could befall their Nation being also of himself not a little jealous that if once such a Match between his Eldest Daughter and the Dauphine were concluded some sly practises might be carried on by the French Court against the Issue he should have by his now Dutchess in favour of that his Daughter might probably have by the Dauphine and therefore that he was much more willing and desirous if it might be compassed that a Match might in time convenient be concluded between his said Daughter rather and his Dutchesses Brother the Duke of Modena or some Italian Prince of no power enough to be apprehended to entertain any such Designs and that as much French as she was before his Dutchess was now of the same Sentiments too being married and in hopes of a numerous Issue by the Duke These are all the Particulars I have hitherto met with in relation to the Duke and his Dutchess's Sentiments and with which I conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 14. 1680. N. S. LETTER LI. Of Coleman's Intelligence and private Correspondence with France to the King and Duke's Disadvantage and his Motions and Pretences for Money My LORD WHen I acquainted your Lordship with the Censure past by this Court upon the King and Duke's Sentiments in reference to their League and Correspondencies with them and especially the business of the Match I could neither determine whether it were purely their own Suggestions collected from the Circumstances and natural Positions of things as they then stood which I was inclined to or to some secret Information from another hand but now I find the latter to be true for whatever the King Duke and Dutchesse's true Sentiments were so they were represented under-hand by Coleman to the Juncto here and by some other self-ended Confidents of theirs of whom but more particularly of Mr. Coleman I find it thus inserted in our Minutes That being entered into a close and separate Correspondence of his own with this Court besides that known to their Highnesses whose Agent he was he was therein to give them intelligence of all that was transacted at White-hall and St. James's that possibly he could but more especially of the Comportment of the King and the Duke as to the Points agreed on between France and them as also of the Disposition of all the Factions in England and of the foreign Ministers c. to obliege himself to make Parties to cross his Master the Duke or the King or both in case either or both of them should go about to deviate from the Measures prescribed them by the French Court. I find my Lord he was besides this a great Undertaker for Conversions and Proselyting Men to Rome or rather France and his Agreement with them was to have allowed him as an Annuity the Summe of Twenty Thousand Crowns punctually to be paid and for Extraordinaries as should be calculated according to the emergency of the Occasions His Pretenses for Conversions were manifold and extravagant enough in the relation of them and did slily at first insinuate and when he had once broken the Ice warmly urged that whereas the Duke had very large Remittances made him upon the account of Conversions wherein he was an Undertaker that it were more advisable for the future to entrust him with a moderate Summe for that purpose and thereby save themselves that deal which they must have sent to the Duke upon that Account if they should send any and so moved them entirely to wave that point with him for that he could do much more in that nature than the Duke could ever pretend to because more imperceptibly He promised them likewise for the gaining of Members of Parliament over to their Interest great and mighty things and then discreetly insinuated those things already spoken of about the Designs of the King and Duke towards them and thereupon advised them to transmit unto them both only but moderate Summes and let him have but moderate ones according to a private Man's fortune and he would take effectual care both to manage them and do their business in England more to purpose than they would do without him He also added That to give the King and Duke great Summes would be no other than to enable them to buy the Parliament's Votes for themselves and not for the Interest of France and to get such store of Money of them that they would afterward take such measures as they themselves pleased without any regard to France being sure to please the People at any time whenever they were minded to go contrary to them and much matter to the same purpose with which I shall no farther trouble your Lordship but subscribe my self as I unfeignedly am and ever shall be My LORD Your most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1680. N. S. LETTER LII The Duke of York moves the French Court for Money according to the private Agreement My LORD YOu have heard what a Spoke Mr. Coleman was pleased to put in the King and even the Duke his dear Master's wheel which they poor Princes knowing nothing of moved hard for the Summes promised by France the Duke as supposing his Credit the better being the forwarder of the Two and whose Pretences were that he had been forced to lay out by advance the greatest part of the Money already pay'd to make Creatures for their mutual Interest and future advantage all such Enterprizes being much more chargable to begin then to carry on and perfect that when Correspondencies were begun they must be carried on and that still by advance if any thing of service were expected or hoped for That he had a most difficult and uneasy Task to deal with the King his Brother 's timerous and changeable Disposition and was and had been at a very great Expence to greaze Favourites of more Kinds then one that might influence and perswade him to and hinder others that might disswade him from what they in France did expect from him or urged him to as also to appease and quell Enemies on all sides which his late Match with their adopted Daughter and change in Religion had stirred up violently against him and that to keep the King his Brother steddy in a favourable Neutrality in regard to France and yet at the same time either break off the Match quite with the Prince of Orange defer it so long as
they desired or negotiate a private Treaty with that Prince in their favour and to their advantage with that power and good effect desirable required as they might well imagine more than ordinary Summes of Money and all ready and in Specie too But that if besides his ordinary Allowance according to the Agreement which he expected should be punctually pay'd him every six months he could but have a Summ of a Million of Crowns again seasonably advanced him for Extraordinaries before the time of the next prorogation of the Parliament were expired then he did believe he might bring matters so to bear by such a Reinforcement so as to be able to gain Votes enough even in the Parliament it self to carry it against all others both in respect to the Neutrality and to the gaining their Consent for deferring any Foreign Allyance by way of Marriage of either of his Daughters till a General Peace was concluded and work very much with the Prince of Orange too to comply with their desires when he should see the Parliament gave him no hopes otherwise of compassing his Aims or if not yet at least he should be able hereby to keep himself still strongest in the Privy Council and in the Court where nothing should be transacted to their disadvantage That both his own Friends and theirs had been so very successful and made such wonderful progresses in Conversions of all sorts and Ranks of People as that of such and such Peers of the Realm I will not say your Lordship was one named among the rest such and such Courtiers and Members of Parliament c. that such and such Bishops Eminent Doctors in Divinity and other dignified Clergy and such and such Gentlemen who were remarkable for Interest and Estates or Eminent for exquisite Parts though they have learnt here since there was nothing more false were either already converted and quite brought over or extraordinarily well inclined and that there was no doubt to be made of it but by an augmentation of about four or five hundred thousand Crowns more for the Cause and Interest of Religion they might be able so to dispose of the greater and more noted part of the Conforming Church of England which was the main of their Work as to bring them over to their Religion yea and even to declare for it publickly too as soon as they should be freed from the Fears of the English Mobile and of the Fanatical Sectaries and see a General Peace concluded and the King himself declare for it being back'd with so powerful a Prince as his Most Christian Majesty was that however many of them were already brought over to the French Interest against the Dutch and many more might be so if timely Liberality were offered with many other Allegations set off with Coleman's usual flourishes on the behalf of his Master though he had countermined all before as I have already hinted And lastly that he had once more attacked the King his Brother as to Religion and that with great hopes and that if he could have but Money enough to carry on the Point with the Church of England he questioned not but by that time a General Peace were negotiated his Majesty would be induced to declare too when besides his support abroad from the Most Christian King he should see himself backt by almost all his Royalists then numerous enough in the Nation and so great yea more than a probability of an Accommodation between the two Churches of Rome and England and his potent Brother of France then by the Peace at full Liberty to lend him all needful Help My Lord you see here what little Sincerity there was in all their mutual Proceedings May the Reward be suitable is my unfeigned Wish as it has been already to some But I am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Mar. 9. 1680. N. S. LETTER LIII Of King Charles II's urging the French Court for his Remittances according to the private League between them My LORD YOU have heard what pressing Instances His Highness has made for his Remittances according to Agreement and what mighty Encouragements he has given this Court of gaining their Ends both in Court and Parliament And now 't is fit the King should put in his Plea at last which he did in this manner as their Minutes represent it That for his part he had advanced rather more than less Money than he had already received from them for carrying on their Work and that not to enumerate many Particulars he would observe to them that when he saw there was no other Probability of obliging his dear Brother of France in preserving the Neutrality so much desired by him but by Proroguing of his Parliament which they knew well enough was a tender Point That yet not to be wanting to his Brother's Interests and his own Engagements he had adventured so far as even twice to Prorogue them and had withal expended most of his own Moneys in endeavouring if possible against the next Meeting or Session of Parliament to make a Party so as to be able in a Parliamentary Way to over-match his Adversaries and those of the Most Christian King his Brother and not only that but to be in a Condition to support himself during their Recess in the Figure he ought as King of England to make both at home and abroad for his own Advantage as well as that of the Most Christian King 's and so carry on the Work of Mediation between him and the Confederates as his Brother of France would have as likewise the desired Negotiations in Holland to induce the Prince of Orange to a Compliance c. That they could not but know he was much involved in Debts by the last War in Conjunction with them against Holland and other extraordinary Occasions by Troubles arising and fomented chiefly by his adhering to his Brother of France's Interest and that he having Prorogued his Parliament upon his Account and thereby put himself under an absolute Necessity of being deprived of the Legal Assistance of his People it was but very reasonable and just they should advance such a Sum as might enable him not only further to gratifie His Most Christian Majesty's Desires but also to satisfie in part his own extraordinary Necessities and recompence him for the Subsidies he miss'd of thereby again and again from his own Subjects And Lastly He demanded at least such a Re-inforcement as he had before received at the Conclusion of the Treaty with France and that by way of Extraordinary besides his Annuity punctually paid And of this he expected an exact Performance before the besides another Advance at the Beginning of that Session that so he might be able to make his Party good against all Opposers at their next Meeting or else Prorogue them without fear of wanting Money during their Recess And did further insist beside some other Proposals not worth mentioning upon his having Five
King would be involved in equal Trouble on that Account as on the other For that if she were given to the Prince of Orange without first engaging him in the Interests of France that thereby he would have a double Claim to the Crown that of Course the King his Brother must be drawn into a War with France and that by so doing both the Royal Brethren would lose for ever the French King's Friendship and Support in case of Extremity which they would infallibly be reduced to by such a War or by but making a Shew of it For if it went on whether there were Cause or no there would be Jealousies of the Duke 's Corresponding with France yea and of the King too And that after all such a Match would be interpreted but for a piece of Policy only to hide from the People their Correspondence with France and would never cure their Jealousies nor take off the Fears they had of a Popish Succession by his new Dutchess but add Strength and Courage to them to oppose Remedies against it That thereupon when they had the King once in a War they would not give him any Money to carry it on unless they saw the laying of it out and had in a manner the Administration of the War in their own Hands in which His Highness would be but a Cypher and would never be trusted That then not content with that it was not to be doubted but that the Exclusion of himself and of his Heirs by the Second Bed unless educated in the Protestant Religion would likewise be hotly urged in the next place in favour of a Protestant Prince so doubly Allied to the Crown of England a professed Enemy of France and a Native of Holland the Country next their own so much adored by them That such an Alliance would strengthen that Faction that was already but too strong That such an Exclusion being press'd the King must either grant it or deny it if he granted it as it was to be feared he might then was His Highness and the Heirs of his Religion lost without Recovery and then it would be out of the French King's Power as well as Inclination to assist him after having been so disobliged against the Power of England and Holland united neither could he propose that Advantage to himself be it as it will That if the King should resist the said Importunity about Exclusion that then he would expose himself to the Distractions of a Civil War which might end both in the Ruin of the Royal Family and the Monarchy it self for that the Republicans would not fail to lift up their Crests again in those Troubles And that besides the Interest of the Prince of Orange the Duke of Monmouth being already very popular might be tempted by so fair an Opportunity to put in for a Pretender to the Succession and that it was not impossible that the King if he saw him favoured by the People might be tempted too to prefer the Interest of a Son before that of a Brother and a Brother too for whom he must be necessitated to undergo so much Vexation and Trouble and run so great a Risque to defend That in the mean while England being in a War with France that King instead of helping him must be obliged in his own Defence to foment those Troubles and abet his Enemies That perhaps he might think some of these Fears but imaginary but that His Highness might assure himself they had better Intelligence than he in that Case and were very well satisfied that all the said Parties were ready disposed and had concerted all their Designs against him and that they were abetted by Men of the greatest power and Interest in the three Kingdoms and then of what Power and Influence such plausible and popular Pretensions would be among the People when promoted and advanced by such Men His Royal Highness could not be ignorant of That therefore all summed up and duly compared the Dangers attending the Espousing his Daughter to the Prince of Orange were as great if not considerably greater than those that would be incurred by giving her up to the Disposal of the French King for more could not be feared from that than what had been mention'd Therefore they conjured him as he tender'd his own Good and Safety or that of his Posterity or of his Brother or lastly of the hopeful Beginnings of the Catholick Religion in these Kingdoms that he should be persuaded and also persuade his Brother to take the Council of France both in the Disposal of the Princess and other things relating thereto for that the Danger of adhering to the French King was no greater than that on the other side but that the Assistance on his side would be great and powerful as well as Cordial whereas it never could be in the other Party's Power much less in their Interest or Inclination to afford him any Succour in his Troubles but rather to add Oil to the Flame And above all never to be so rash as to suffer himself to be tempted to consent to a War against France for that the Factions would then have their Ends of him as having a full Opportunity put into their hands thereby to compleat his Ruin without Controul These were the Arguments used to His Royal Highness against the March with the Prince of Orange And with which I shall at present conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble Servant Paris Aug. 4. 1679. N. S. LETTER LVIII Proposals made to the Duke of York about consenting to have his Daughter the Lady Mary privately Trapanned into France c. My LORD I Gave in my last to your Lordship a Relation of the Remonstrances used to the Duke in general against his consenting to have his Daughter married to the Prince of Orange I shall now endeavour to oblige your Lordship with some new Proposals made to him upon that Head 1. That the Duke should use all the Power and Interest he had with the King his Brother to let his Daughter the Lady Mary take a Voyage into France to take the Waters of Bourbon or else to consent she might be privily sent away by the Duke as against his Knowledge and Will and that then they would get her speedily married which putting things past Retrieve Matters might the better by good Management be composed and made up to all their Satisfactions 2. That to this purpose the French King would send a most splendid Embassy into England of one of the chief Peers of his Realm with a very numerous Train of choice Nobility But if the King consented publickly to that Proposition the Princess might go over in the said Ambassador's Company Or if he gave private Consent she might be conveyed away as in the first Article 3. If the King should by no means consent to it that then the Duke should contrive a Way to get her seized and shipped off at the Ambassador's Departure without
LORD Your Honours to serve You. Paris Aug. 23. 1679. N. S. LETTER LX. Instructions given to the French Emissaries whereby to manage the Dissenters and Republican Party in England in reference to the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary My LORD I Have in my last given your Lordship an Account of the French Intrigues in managing the Royal and Church of England Party in respect to the March with the Prince of Orange here follows their Instructions to their Agents with the Dissenters and Republican Party upon the same Head To them they were to use many of the Arguments used to those of Holland of which hereafter and make them believe if they could that if the P. of Orange should come to the Crown of England notwithstanding his Humility now he would fly higher at Absolute Power than any before him or that the present King or his Brother could that under an humble appearance he subtilly hid an aspiring Mind and that having in many things encroached already upon the Power of the States General he would totally oppress them and by that accession of Strength raise his Authority in England to what pitch he pleased and Adieu to all hopes of a Common-wealth there when that of Holland should be subject to his Scepter and Adieu to all expectation of making Presbytery the predominant Religion there for that it was almost incompatible with a moderate Monarchy much less with Absolute Power and that whatever Principles the Prince had been bred in as to Religion though he might like them well enough as a Member of a State with whose Constitutions they perfectly agreed it was not to be doubted that when he came to be a Monarch and so powerful an one too as the United Provinces thrown into the weight of three Crowns would make him but he would like most Princes make his Religion conform to the Model of his Politicks and when he became a Monarch and so great an one too take up Monarchs principles which could be no other than Popish or such as exceed them if possible in malignity viz. Those of the Tantivy Sons of the Church of England none else agreeing with despotick Rule so that whatever hopes they might flatter themselves with from such a Match and the Prince's accession to the Throne they should find themselves so far disappointed as not to have any reason left them to expect as much as a Tolleration in Religion and the Freedom of their Consciences Which with my humble Respects to your Lordship is all I have to Communicate at this time who am in all lowly Observance My LORD Your Honour 's to Command Paris Sept. 5. 1679. N. S. POST-SCRIPT My LORD SInce I had finished my Letter I happening occasionally to run over some of our Minutes I thought fit to sub-join what I meet with there briefly inserted in order to the management of meer Politicians and Adiaphorites in Religion upon the account of the Prince's Match and to them the forementioned Emissaries were to suggest on the contrary that the Prince though he should in time by virtue of the said Match come to be King of England yet that it could not be thought but that still he would continue a Dutch-Man in all his Inclinations sacrifice our Commerce and Interest to those of that Nation yea and perhaps part with the chief Prerogatives of the Crown to make the King of England like a Doge of Venice or Dutch Stadt-holder c. which though sufficiently ridiculous I could not forbear noting to your Lordship who am My LORD Yours c. LETTER LXI The Arguments used in Holland by the French Emissaries to the Lovestein Faction against the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary c. My LORD IF it was any pleasure to your Lordship to peruse the Accounts I have already given you of the Stratagems of this Court to incite the Church of England and Dissenting Parties against the Match with the Prince of Orange as I am desirous and I hope not unwilling to interpret your silence in that regard to imply it I cannot think it will be less to your Honour's satisfaction to understand how they managed the same Affair in Holland where no less Subtilty and Address was wanting than in England to divert a Match that predicted no good Omen to France as they imagined the Party in that Republick which their Emissaries had Instructions to work upon were the Lovestein Faction to whom nevertheless they were to address themselves very cautiously and covertly and first to insinuate to them and by them to the State-Party That indeed it was true the Illustrious Princes of the House of Nassau had not only been the first Founders but also the great preservers of their Common-wealth and that it could not be denied but that the present Prince of Orange had very much contributed to its late Recovery after it had been brought to the very brink of Destruction and that they were fully convinced that same Family must remain a necessary Bulwark to their Common-wealth so long as their Interests should continue inseperably intwisted with those of the State but if they should be so blinded as to consent or but tacitely give way to any Steps that might alter those of the Prince into any other Channel that same House might in process of time prove the fatal Cadency and Dissolution as it had been the happy Rise and Glory of that flourishing State That the implacability of the Spanish Royal Family against those that have once offended them and their bloody and unjust Proscription of the noble House of Orange had so firmly cemented the Interests of the Princes of that Family with those of the States during the Wars with Spain that there could not possibly any Danger arise to them from that House how much soever they were intrusted with the Authority of the States they being then best secured by the Greatness and Power of that Nay and that after the Peace made between that Republick and the Crown of Spain there could be no Danger from those Princes neither so long as they matched into inferior Princes Families as those of Germany c. which might add Strength but never could Power enough to the Princes of Orange to crush the State or in the least divide from its true Interests But that it might be of the dangerousest Consequence if any of them were suffered to match into the Family of any Crowned Head and especially of any near Neighbour to the Republick for that would be an effectual Means to fill their Heads with aspiring Thoughts and great Designs to Aggrandize themselves and might afford them Power enough to put them in Execution a Temptation too strong for almost any active spirited Prince to resist And therefore such an one as this present Prince ought by no means to be exposed to by any wise States-men whose Interest it was to keep him from it and who had Cunning enough to put him by it That
never any of His present Highness's Predecessors have been ever as much as suspected of aspiring at any Power over the Commonwealth but what tended to its greater Security and for the Elevation of the Majesty of the Republick without the least Glances of assuming any to themselves unless it were His Highness's Father who in all probability was animated thereunto by his matching with a Daughter of England And that his Ambition might have proved fatal to the Republick beyond Retrieve if his immature Death and other seasonable Providences had not intervened That the Influence of that Match had proved very detrimental to that illustrious House by stirring up such a Jealousie in the States against them as would not suffer them to admit the present Prince for a long time to enjoy the Places of Honour Authority and Trust formerly so well maintained and officiated by his noble Ancestors And that at the same time it had proved as pernicious to the States themselves in creating and nourishing Factions among them and Endeavours to keep up the Republick upon a new Model without Captain-General Stadtholder Admiral c. and to deprive themselves of the so necessary and Auspicious Assistance and Conduct of that most Illustrious House and thereby exposed even almost to be made a Prey to the dangerous Ambition of the French Monarch And therefore now when they had so newly re-enter'd into their true Interests and happily re-fixed all things on the old Foundation by restoring the present Prince to the Dignity of his Ancestors and calling him to the Helm of the Tempest-beaten State and had by his Courage Conduct and Interest recovered the Common-wealth to a very hopeful Condition of Power and Prosperity again it would be no less than a Madness to venture the Ruin of all those fair Hopes by a second Match with England when by the former they had been almost all Shipwrack'd and to suffer a Prince who was now wholly their own to espouse in such a Marriage as was then in Agitation a Foreign Interest and such as in all probability could not in time but interfere with theirs And therefore desired it might not be 1. Because though the Prince's Intentions should happen to continue never so right and firm to the Interest of the Republick yet this Match could not but be still very detrimental both to him and them by causing incurable Jealousies Factions and Animosities amongst them without end and which could not but be of pernicious Consequence to them both 2. That by reason of the little probability of the Duke of York's having any Vivacious Male Issue this would give the Prince such a near Prospect of the British Crowns that it could not but engage him in that View upon all Occasions to strain his Power and Interest in the United Provinces to the utmost for the advantage of the English Nation to the prejudice of the Dutch increase of Power and Interest 3. That if he ever came to be King of England the Power he would thereby obtain added to that he had already in the United Provinces as Stadt-holder Captain General c. and to the great Influence he had among the Soldiery in the States pay would undoubtedly be a great temptation to him for to reduce that State under the English Crown and influence the others to assist him in it And that if he should have Issue by his Princess as it was likely enough he might the danger under that Circumstance would be in a manner inevitable It s likely my Lord our Politicians here forsaw very great Difficulties would arise in making any manner of Impressions upon the States against the Prince's Match for by the foresaid Remonstrances it does appear to me their Master-battery was turned on that side but though all their Politicks have failed them for the prevention of the Marriage yet they have not failed to put some of these Arguments foâ—â—ards to render the Prince and all his Proceedings suspect to the States and they have already bragged that all the Constancy his Highness is well known to be Master of will find work enough to ver-come the Jealousies entertained of him and which they are resolved never to be wanting on their part to foment and to make it believe that all he has acted since his marriage has been to the aggrandizing of himself and his Authority and the Diminution of that of the Republick I fear I have already too much transgrest by my tediousness and shall therefore only subscribe my self as I am in sincerity My LORD Your Lordships Most humble Servant Paris Sept. 20. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXII Of the Solemn Embassy sent by the French King to King Charles II. in the Year 1677 in order to break off the Match with the Prince of Orange c. My LORD PUrsuant to what I have already mentioned to your Lordship of the Designs concerted between his Royal Highness and the French King about getting of the Lady Mary by a Stratagem into France if their other Measures about hindring the Match were broken was the late solemn Embassy sent over from hence into England whereof the Count d' Estree was the head accompanied with the Duke de Vendosme the Archbishop of Rheims one of our great Minister the Marquiss de Louvois's Sons and at least fifty Lords more of principal Note and whose publick instructions tho' they imported nothing more then a great Complement and some overtures about forbiding any recruits to be sent over to our Land Forces in the service of the Confederates yet privately they were to endeavour a French match and if they saw they could not succeed therein to concert closer measures with the Duke about puting in practise what he had before consented to about geting the Princess his daughter privately convey'd away in Company of this Embassador into France and perhaps your Lordship will not be dissatisfied if I recount what I have heard discoursed one day at this Court between our Commissioner and some other Courtiers concerning the Embassy Said one of them to theother What needed so splendid and costly an Embassy at this time of day to the King of England when there is so little hopes that he durst give his Consent to what we desire of him if he were of himself disposed thereto Yes says the other 'T will be well worth the Cost let things go as they will upon this occasion for 't is a greater honour our King now does to the King of England than he has ever yet done to any other Prince or ever to the Emperor himself when at Peace with him and such an Honour cannot but work sensibly upon the heart of a Prince who is so easily wrought upon and may work some good Effects for us in time if not for the present And however if the worst come to the worst this extraordinary Honour now done him by our Monarch will make his Parliament and People so fully persuaded that he hath entred into an extraordinary
inspired into the heads of the most Stirring and Active Members of the House that the Pretence of War against France was only a Court-trick to get Money and a Standing Army to Enslave the Nation and therefore it were not their best way to trust the King with Money for that purpose unless it were at certain moderate Sums and with such Limitations as might Secure them from any Arbitrary Deligns and from Intrigues with the French and at the same time it was Infused with much Artifice into the King's Head That if he once ventured on a War against France without an Unconditional Vote for sufficient supplies and that in very considerable Sums at once as for example of so much yearly as long as the War lasted that he was an undone and lost Man and would by that false step be infallibly unhinged by which Artifices a Declaration of War against France was so long protracted till the Hollanders despairing of any good from England were necessitated to clap up a Separate Peace which the French with all diligence proposed to them whilst the King and Parliament in England were disputing the Case about Funds for the War My Lord I have been necessitated to recapitulate some things here which I remember I have Written a Larger Account of to your Lordship and that because I could not well otherwise have brought in the succeeding part of Mr. Coleman's History who to say nothing of the Duke having effected the foremention'd Divisions Jealousies and Disputes claim'd his Promised Reward of Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador at London having yet received but one Payment of it but the slie Monsieur finding his Business was so far done that he was able to go on with the rest himself without their assistance put him off at first with Fair Words but Coleman still Renewing his Instances Barillon began to slight his Applications and at last told him in Down-right Terms he had no Orders to Pay him any more Money That he had Receiv'd enough for the Business he had done since there were other Instruments which he had there who had done more and been much more Serviceable in it than himself and in a word That his Master the French King had no further occasion for the Service of such a Sawcy Impertinent and Inconsiderable Fellow as he was Coleman was Netled to the Quick at this Unexpected Treatment which he conceived he had not deserved at their hands and therefore he reply'd again as warmly saying That for his part he had neglected much greater Rewards then what he demanded of him and which was his Iust Due which he might have had from the Confederate Party and that now since he found he was so slighted he should take care to let them see they should find the miss of his Services by what he would and was resolv'd to do for the other side and that he question'd not but to bring the Duke his Master to be quickly of his Mind Barillon thereupon answer'd That his Master would be sure to find them such Imployment in a short time that they should have no leasure to think of serving the Confederates or hunting the French in Flanders having already such a pack of Hounds in a readiness as would quickly snap him and hunt his Master too off his Legs if he did but offer to depart so much from his own Interest as to quit theirs After this mutual Huff Coleman going to take his Leave of Monsieur Barillon the Frenchman retaining still a spice of French Civility came to attend him to the Gate where seeing Coleman's Coach standing right before it Sir said he briskly to him What is the meaning of this that your Coach stands right before my Door that is no place for a person of your mean station and quality That 's strange Monsieur Answer'd Coleman I should be of meaner quality now then I used to be there you know well enough it used to stand But pray where would you have it to stand then continu'd he Two or three doors off cry'd Barillon So indeed said Coleman I used to place it when I went to a Bawdy-house but I did not take yours to be such till now and so adiew It was but a few days after this rencounter my Lord that Coleman was seized for the Popish Plot at the news of which the Discourse was at the French Secretaries that Coleman would certainly pay dear for having adventured to displease the King their Master for that they had perswaded the Conceited Fool to keep his Papers all by him which they flatter'd him were Rare Compositions and Specimens of incomparable Wit and Parts in which they said were things not only enough to hang him out of the way but so to hamper the King and Duke too and involve them in such Troubles that they would be glad to quit all their thoughts of leaning towards the Confederates and so return again to their interests at last as most expedient for them and that they had imployed such Tools as would not fail to Discover all their Inttigues and be in spight of their Teeth forc'd to acts of Repentance and sorrow for what they had done And in fine when Coleman was Condemn'd and the Duke would have interpos'd for a Pardon for him Monsieur Barillon oppos'd it Tooth and Nail and said He ought to be Sacrificed upon that occasion and that if he were not the King his Master would find means to have a worse Discovery made than all that had yet been made to appear out of his Papers or otherwise After Coleman was Hang'd his Wife reduc'd to a forlorn state retir'd into France and presented a Petition to the French King to this effect That whereas her late Husband besides his many other good and timous services done to his most Christian Majesty had upon his instances by his Minister at London hired an House in Deans-yard in Westminster of a considerable Rent some time before that Session of Parliament wherein the matter of a War against the Kingdom of France was to be debated and agitated for the better convenience of Treating some Members of Parliament and some other Gentlemen that had influence over them That he had expended considerable Sums of Mony that way as he had done in like manner among other useful instruments he had in the Country as well as the City for promoting his Majesties Service in England for which he had declined much greater Rewards from the Spanish Imperial and Dutch Ministers and other Agents than he expected or desired from him whom he served more by inclination than Interest and that he had had the good Fortune happily to effect the great task imposed on him by his most Christian Majesties Commands in dividing the King of England and his Parliament and breaking the neck of the intended War against France that yet for all that when his work was accomplish'd Monsieur Barillon had refused to pay him his expences and never had given him one
quarter of the Suâ— he was to have had for that Affair and much less the Expences he had been at And that now at last he had lost his dear Life for serving his Majesty by which sad disaster she and her Family being ruin'd and reduc'd to misery and great want she therefore humbly besought his Majesty if he would be pleas'd to do nothing else for her that he would order her the payment of her Husband's Arrears c. To which Petition my Lord this Court Reply'd That Mr. Coleman her Husband had had more Mony from them than he deserv'd That he had been a false inconstant Rascal and had brought himself to that shameful end by his own Folly and Knavery having had the impudence to threaten his Majesties Embassador to turn Cat in Pan c. That his Majesty had nothing to say to her and would not give her one Farthing which surly Answer so thunder-struck the Poor Woman that she return'd over into England so enrag'd and in such a dreadful Fit of Despair that she miserably cut her own Throat at her Lodging in London which relation and Coppy of the Petition I had delivered me by an English Priest who was Coleman's Wife's Confessor and which after I had Transcrib'd it I delivered to the English E to be sent to King Charles the Ild. that he might see how his Brother's Creatures served him but how he represented it is beyond my knowledge to tell I have been tedious and am affraid troublesome to your Lordship by a long Epistle but the Curiosities whereof the various parts of it are Composed will I hope be as powerful a lenitiue against any Displeasure I may have incurred from your Lordship as they have been incitatives for me to write it who am My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Apr. â— 1683. N. St. LETTER LXVIII Of the Marquess de Louvois's being in England several times in King Charles the II. Reign and about what Business My Lord IN my last to your Lordship I have given some intimations concerning the Dukes being in France and Closetted by the French King and of Mr. Coleman's Negotiations and imbroylments with this Court together with his Wifes Calamitous life and Tragical death which I believe were wholly new to you And I cannot think but that of the Marquess de Louvois our great Minister of State here his being again and again in England and Closetted there with the King and Duke must be equally strange and surprizing to you but tho it be a secret I verily believe to all other persons on your side except the two foremention'd persons yet it is not so entirely such here especially in our Office that he has been wanting sometimes and hardly any of his Family knew what was become of him is most certain and upon such occasions it was sometimes given out he was indispos'd in the Country sometimes that he was sent into Handers Alsatia c. whether he afterwards went actually with so much expedition tho he rode in a â—â—tter that his Journeys into â—â—â—land were never perceiv'd I find two several occasions wherein he was Closetted 1. About a year before the breaking out of the second Dutch War when he was sent particularly to help the King and his Brother to concert the Preparations for and manner of Carrying on that War 2. To concert measures how to stave off the effects of the Popish Plot by remitting of Mony to dissolve Parliaments and by other methods when they saw they were carrying things farther then the French Interest required to have them driven but upon condition the two Brothers should not depart from their Interests for the future To complot measures how to ensnare the Protestant Party and especially the high Patriots in a Plot that should quite extinguish the Popish one and give the Duke of York opportunity to cut off all those who stood in the way between him and the Crown and between the Crown and absolute Power All which Closettings have been very short as well as private and performed with incredible diligence and of which 't is all I am able to inform your Lordship and with which I conclude remaining My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris May 16. 1683. N. St. LETTER LXIX Of that called the Presbyterian Plot. My Lord I Was not a little transported with Joy to find your Lordship's Name was not incerted in the List I have seen of Persons taken up for the Plot I have had the vanity to flatter my self that some things that I have Writ lately to your Honour concerning Monsieur Louvois's Negotiations in England may inspire you with a more than ordinary Caution upon such an occasion wherein when it shall lye with your Lordship's conveniency to let me have a Line from you I do not desire so much to be satisfied as what Rules I am to observe for my future conduct in respect to my Correspondence since I have some reason to suspect your Honour may be uneasy under the present Circumstance of things and I have heard â—â—settled too I have little to say at present how far the Ministers of this Court are engaged in starting of this Conspiracy what I have formerly Written concerning their Management of the several Factions in England may give your Lordship some view of their Designs but what they generally say of it is That it was now seasonable to set up a Protestant one as a fresh game and since by their strong concurrence when they saw it time they had enabl'd the King to stiffe the other Popish one and thereby diverted the current of his Arms ready to fall upon them it was necessary having new Designs of Conquests in view and what can it be but Luxemburg block't up by them last year to raise a new Disturbance in his Dominions which could not be better effected now than by starting a Plot of another Stamp which would not only incapacitate the King to interpose and put a stop to their career but would also be an effectual means to make the holding of Parliaments impracticable at least for a time and make him quite fast in a manner to their King's Purse-strings towards which they had by the other Plot made such considerable Advances I do presume your Lordship retains the same English Spirit you were ever Master of and are as constant notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of State which have happen'd in your time which is the Reason I retain still my usual freedom who am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris July 21. 1683. N. S. LETTER LXX Of the Model of Ships sent by King Charles II. to the French King c. My Lord I Do presume it is a matter no longer doubted of that our King is fallen in more than ever with the interests of this Court the many Models and Draughts of Ships which he has sent over hither and some whereof I have seen at the Marquess de Louvois is a convincing proof of
Principles of the Reformed Churches that without I had had it from incontestable Testimonies I should not abuse your Lordship and hazard my Reputation with you so far as to mention it to you I know not whether I have formerly given your Honour to understand that it has been a frequent Practise here to put young Maidens of the Protestant Faith into Religious Houses to be tutor'd there in the Catholick Faith and where they have found the grossest Ignorance both of their Principles and Practises as ever would have entred into the Thoughts of rational Animals They have looked upon and entertained them as if they were such as had no Belief in JesusChrist and not only so but as such as did not pray to God but invoked Calvin or Luther only by others they were looked upon as Jews that had not been circumcis'd or did not eat any Swines-flesh With a thousand such Chimera's and Absurdities have the crafty Priests fillâ—d the Noddles of those simple Women who think all they say an Oracle But tho' many distressed persons have been extream Sufferers and felt the Effects of these Prejudices in a most rigorous manner yet we are not without Examples of others who when by their Piety Innocence and Knowledge they had disabused those who have the charge of them have been treated by them with much Tenderness and Humanity I would not my Lord have continued a Correspondence so little to your Honour's Information had I not lain under your Commands for my so doing and that you have always express'd your Satisfaction with my Endeavours to serve you who am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris July 7. 16â—6 N. S. LETTER XX. Of Mareschal Schomberg and the M. de Ruvigni's Retreat out of France and of the Favour shew'd to the Marquess du Quesne with the Reasons thereof My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship had acquaintance with Mareschal Schomberg when some Years ago in England you may perhaps see him there again in a short time for he hath with very great difficulty notwithstanding his many and signal Services for this Crown obtained Leave to depart the Kingdom but under very hard Restrictions the number of his Domesticks being limited and the Vessel wherein he embark'd view'd very narrowly The Court before his departure appointed him Portugal for his Retreat that so that same Country where he has been known for so many Victories might become unto him rather a place of Exile than Retreat The Marquess de Ruvigni had always some measure of the King's Favour but that together with all the Interest he has had with his Ministers of State were little enough to procure him Leave to retire with his Family into England but whether arrived there your Lordship can tell much better than I. As for the Marquess de Quesne tho' fourscore Year old and a person that hath deserved so much for his long and glorious Services and under whose Conduct the Naval Power of this Kingdom heretofore so inconsiderable was become formidable to all the World yet he hath not been able to obtain Leave to go finish his Days in a Protestant Country But the Court have complemented him seemingly with a great Favour viz. to continue in this City with Assurance he shall not be molested upon the score of his Religion but no doubt but this Favour hath proceeded more from Court-policy than any Good-will for they are it 's very likely afraid that had they granted him Leave to depart the Kingdom he might go and inform Strangers of the state of their marine affairs the Weakness and Defects whereof he knows as well as he can discover the Strength and Power of the same and as for the Liberty of his Conscience granted him they found that also expedient to hinder him to practise his escape by one Artifice or other if he were menaced with any Constraint I did not think once matters would have been brought to this pass here but when they are at the worst there will be Hopes they will mend as I hope I shall in my Intelligence to your Lordship who am My Lord Devoted to serve you Paris Sâ—pt 4. 1686. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Claude's Book entituled A Protestation in the Name of the Reformed winked at in France and King James made their Drudge to burn it in England My Lord TO think that your Lordship hath not seen and read Monsieur Claud's Protestation in the Name of the Resormed were to judge very disrespectfully and diminitively of your Curiosity and therefore for me to descant upon it cannot but be nauseous but give me leave to observe to your Lordship the different Procedure of the two Courts at this time tho' it s not doubted here and I hope in a short time to give you a further account of it but that they are entred into very close Measures and Designs together which will appear in due Place Nothing can be heard on this Side but the loud and dreadful Cry of Constrain them all to come in while our Emissaries in conjunction with their Popish Leyitical Brethren on your Side are a preaching up a general Indulgence to tender Consciences and a Sovereign Duty to grant equal Toleration to all Opinions and one would almost believe both are sincere But my Lord the Burning of the foresaid Book which is an Abridgment of the History of the Persecution by our King's Order under Pretence of its containing a Doctrine contrary to the Authority of Kings is an ill Proof of the latter and an half-sighted Man cannot but see that maugre all the Inclination that seems to be in the Court towards granting Indulgence to others their Designs must have quite another Tendency but I find this Court has got the Ascendency for they have cunningly enough judged it more profitable to dissemble the Injury they conceive they have received by the foresaid Book than to take a Publick Revenge for fear lest all the World should come to read a Piece that was so dangerous to them and obnoxious to their Interest and when they well knew they had formed a Tool to do that to their Hands with less Envy to themselves and more to When ever they required it I heartily beg your Lordships Pardon for my Freedom with you who am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Nov. 6. 1686. LETTER XXII Of the League made between King James II. and the French King Lewis XIV My Lord I Have once hinted to your Lordship That both Courts were entred into very close Measures and Designs for to establish themselves to the Prejudice of their Neighbours as I should have been and am very sorry to have disappointed your Expectations after such Intimations given you I do now as much rejoyce that I have tho' I may say surreptitiously got the Heads of the League lately made between them for it is here with our Minutes as with other things when they are fresh they are more choice and fond of
them And it was agreed in general That our King should joyn with the French King in a War against Holland both by Sea and Land but in order to carry the same effectually on it was more particularly concerted I. That they shall both endeavour to draw the Prince of Orange to connive at such a War and to consent to the Abolition of the Penal Laws and Test against the Roman Catholicks with specious Promises of making him Prince of Holland secure his Succession in England and of many other great Proffers and Advantages but in case he proves stiff to endeavour to make a total Conquest of that Country and share it between themselves as was projected in the last Dutch War And whereof to the best of my Remembrance I have give your Lordship a particular Relation and then to find out some effectual Expedients to put the Prince of Orange by too of his Succession in England II. That upon supposal that the Prince shall refuse to comply with them in their projected Designs that then the English and Scotch Forces shall be recalled out of the Dutch Service and be sent immediately into that of France to be employed for a Time in remoter Campaigns towards Spain or Italy and for want of such Service in Garrisons for fear they shall turn Tail and revolt and so the Prince and the States of Holland shall be before-hand weakened and the French considerably strengthened III. That some thousands of the French choice Men as of the King's Gentlemen Musqueteers and others shall insensibly be brought into Enland if the King finds his Occasions so require it to be mixt with the English Troops under Pretence of learning the other a more perfect Discipline IV. That they shall both joyn their Forces at Sea with all Strength possible V. That a good Body of French English Scotch and Irish Troops shall be put on Board both the Fleets that so a Mixture may be made in both to the end it may create less Jealousie and that the rest of the English and other Brittish Troops that can be conveniently spared from England shall be employed in the Land-Armies against the Republick of Holland VI. That after the War be once declared such French Refugees as will shew themselves willing to serve under the English Banner against Holland shall enjoy the Revenues which they had in France tho' they shall not be suffered to dwell there VII That neither side shall desist from the War till a total Conquest be made of the said Country which they think themselves sure enough of And that when Holland shall be subjected by their united Force there will then be no more Fear of any Opposition in England to prevent the King from raising Arbitrary Power and the Roman Catholick Religion there to the same heighth as it is in France nor from concurring with the French King till he shall obtain the Empire for himself VIII That the French King shall pay all the Brittish Forces in Flanders and elswhere and be content to defray half the Charges of the War that our King with his Pecuniary Assistance may be enabled to hold on the War with Vigour and Constancy enough for to make a Conquest but that afterwards for a Recompence he shall be obliged to assist France in any future War with thirty Capital Ships and twenty thousand Men at half Charges born Your Lordship knows much better to make a a Judgment of such a League than I can pretend to but I perceive the effect will be dreadful not only to poor Holland but to England too without the neighbouring Potentates be timemously awakened to ward the Blow and that such worthy Patriots as your self rowse up and stand in the Gap But I pretend not to dictate to your Lordship what every generous English Man's Duty is to God and his Country upon such an occasion and so conclude with subscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 24. 1687. S. N. LETTER XXIII Of Methods to be practised by King James for keeping up the Dispensing Power and and particularly about discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord I Have upon another occasion hinted somewhat to your Lordship of those Arguments urged to the King for the promoting of the Dispensing Power and you know very well since it has been put in practise in Westminster-Hall in the Case of Sir F. H. and how that matter terminated to the King's Satisfaction and further heightening of his Perogative Royal and how the same was established by the Concurrence of the Judges of the Land if they may be so called who authorized the same These Points being gained another Matter and that of an higher Consequence was agitated in the Cabinet Council viz. to use some means totally to discard the Militia of England and in liew of them to retain standing Troops in the Nation and to throw a little Dust in the People's Eyes and amuse them so as that they might take little notice or at least not oppose those their Proceedings it was advised to act these previous things In order to Ballance the great Power of the City of London it was projected to grant a Charter to that of Westminster and that under the Pretence of its being the Royal Residence of the Kings of England and of the supreme Court of Parliament and therefore ought to be dignified with as ample Previledges as any City in the King's Dominions London it self not excepted and to have a Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen Sheriffs and all other Officers necessary both for the Support and Grandure of it that great Encouragement should be given to rich Merchants wealthy Tradesmen c. to dwell there and to transport a great part of their Trade thither which would cause them to stick close to the Court and Interests thereof And had this same Project gone on it was also projected to have a new Stone-Bridge imitating that of London but built much broader and more convenient erected between the Palace-yard and the Horse-Ferry and the King seems very eager and forward to promote so useful a Work Then the Mews was to be ditched round and great care taken as well as Expedition used to have it filled with Stabling and other Buildings fit to receive and lodge a good Body of Horse and to be made a Cittadel under Pretence that such Troops should not be Troublesom and a Burthen to the said City And when all this was accomplish'd which was concerted to have been brought about in a short Time then the Militia of the Kingdom was to be new modelled two or three Times over and the new Lords Lieutenants of Counties and other Officers chopp'd and chang'd to the Court's Mind who should shew themselves willing to obey the Orders they were to follow which were to this effect That the Militia should be ordered to meet in their several respective districts and there the Lord Lieutenants for the Time being were to acquaint them That since to
the Kingdom particularly those of Predestination and Free-Will nor yet to mixt Invective Reproaches Railleries and scandalous Expressions with their Controversies should be republished under a very strict Injunction of all Parties concerned to the observance of them and the least Transgression in that kind to be punish'd with the utmost Severity they did not question in the mean while but that in so ticklish a time there might be some one or other especially in the Diocess of London whom this Bird-lime might catch your Lordship knows how it fell out accordingly in the Case of Doctor Sharp Tho' they were mighty jealous of the old Gentleman of Canterbury that if he were nominated in the Commission and should chance to act which was the least of their Thoughts he should he might rather thwart than promote their Designs yet being pretty confident he would not concern himself with it they adventured to put him in not for his Authority but his Name-sake only for considered they should we get the Bishop of London once into the Toyl he will have no room to plead to the Jurisdiction of the Court seeing the same was founded upon the concurrent tho' in truth but nominal Authority of his Metropolitan to whom he owed Canonical Obedience these things your Lordship may know much better than I but I cannot forbear giving you any Hints of the Court-Designs which whether projected here or on your side we have constant Intelligence of in our I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. â—0 1687. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the Liberty of Conscience first granted in Scotland and then in England by King James II. My Lord YOur Lordship may call to mind what I have before written to you concerning Tolleration in Religion as necessary to facilitate the King's Designs and now you see it hath sprouted up in Scotland and the Buddings of it are visible enough in England that the Parliament of the former as well as the latter opposed the Dispensing Power is notoriously known so that there was much less Hopes they would have concurred to the Indulgence a Point as necessary to be gained every whit as the other that the Scotch Nation were more modelled to the King's Hand than the English the King himself well knew as having a personal Share in it when high Commissioner in that Kingdom in his Brother's Reign and the French and English Jesuitical Faction knew this as well as he and therefore I am assured both of them concurred to have the Indulgence given there first and that also in so partial a manner in favour of those of the King's Religion that the rest have hardly any Share therein which manifests plainly the Design of the English Catholicks whatever specious Pretence they may otherwise use is to bring the People of England also under the same nay a worse Yoke of Servitude and to have their own Religion predominant quickly and in Time the only one in both Nations And as for the third they are cock sure of that already but that of the French Emissaries is not so visible and above Board for they hope such partial Proceedings must at last incense the People of both Kingdoms and that to so violent a degree that the King must of necessity have recourse to call in French Force to quell them and then my Lord when they have once got sure Footing who can guess at their farther Aim however they have not with all their Intrigues been able to prevail with the King to use the same Partiality in England who according to the Transmission of their Intelligence hither seemed very much inclined to it upon their urging the Tractableness of the Scotch Council in the Matter and what a great Pattern they had set to them of England whom they did not doubt but would abrogate the Laws made against Roman Catholicks c. in imitation of them but a Roman Catholick Lord whom I have formerly named to your Lordship to have interposed upon the like Occasion thwarted them therein he deserves well of his Country in some respects and I do not question but your Honour is of that mind and so shall I be till I see more than I do now to incline me to the contrary who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and obedient Servant Paris Sept. 5. 168â— N. S. LETTER XXXI Of the French Projects to put King James upon desperate Measures in Ireland and their Ends therein My Lord YOur Lordship may remember how I have formerly given you the state of the Irâ—sh Soldiers in the Service of France during the late King's Reign and what Encouragement they have had here from time to time above any of the rest of the Brittish Nations and the large Promises that were now and then made That they should be reinstated in their ancient Possessions in their native Country But this King hath no sooner ascended the English Throne but that they have as readily return'd into England and Ireland as they were willing before even contrary to their Allegiance to remain in the French Service the Reason whereof your Lordship must needs know they having already devoured with their Eyes the most valuable Preferments in England and Ireland in the later whereof they have got a Lieutenant of their own stamp and more than all the Lands which they have been debarr'd from by the Act of Settlement having as I can assure your Lordship a previous Promise from this Court That the King will use all imaginable endeavours to get his Brother of England to consent to abolish it and which has put the Irish so hotly upon renewing their Importunities to the King against the said Act that he hath in a manner agreed to those measures that are pursuant thereunto in which motions the Irish were order'd to be effectually seconded by the Emissaries of this Court who at the same time have encourag'd the Irish privately with a Promise That if after all the King would not give his full Consent or durst not do them Right their Master was resolv'd to do it provided they would chuse him for their Protector which they might lawfully do being at best but a conquer'd Nation against their Conquerors for the recovery not only of their Native Rights in that Land but likewise of those afresh confirm'd to them by the Treaty whether pretended or real I will not determine upon that Head with the late K. Charles II of which the French King was Guarrantee and therefore justly might and ought to be call'd in as a Vindicator And this my Lord is confess'd here That they had form'd so strong a Party among the Irish that if the King had not in some measure comply'd or does not for the future but fail'd their Hopes by keeping it as the Interest of his Kingdom one should think naturally leads him to that side of the Ballance against France and maintaining the Act of Settlement they had bid fair as I have
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
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
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
Officers of his Navy Royal to become Catholicks for me to make a Relation of that Transaction to your Lordship I fear may be but Crambe bis Cocta but your Honour being now remote from the Court at your Country Habitation and that I believe we have here a truer account of that Affair transmitted to us by the Agents of this Court perhaps your Lordship will not think your Time ill spent in perusing of it Its seems the Commissioners which the King has sent to the several Counties of the Kingdom to dispose Men's Minds to a Willingness to take off the Penal Laws and Test having generally found a grand Aversion in the People to that Matter the King was so incensed at the Report they made of it and the invincible Stubbornness of the Nation that he convened his Cabinet Council and with them resolved to cashier all such out of his Service as would not fall in with his Designs But that all things might be opportunely executed it was agreed he should make himself sure first of his Fleet and his Army without whose Assistance they saw it was in vain to effect so sudden a Change at once wherefore he gave Orders that Mass should be said on Board his Ships but there was such Opposition made thereunto both by the Officers and Seamen that the Priests who went thither for that end were forced to hide themselves for fear of being thrown over Board which they had been like to have undergone had it not been that the Principal Officers who maintained still the Respect that was due to the King's Commands had done their utmost to hinder it But when the matter came to be represented to the King his Fury was raised to an high degree tho' he had for the Time the Artifice to dissemble his Resentment wherefore he resolved to try whether his Royal Presence might not operate more than his Orders and therefore he went on Board the Fleet himself and having commanded all the Officers to bring him their Commissions he there asked them Whether they were not resolved to change their Religion and imbrace his who had bestowed their Offices upon them in Expectation that they would do whatever he commanded them They were surprized at the Complement and expected no such thing nevertheless being resolved not to be frightened either with Menaces nor be gained by Flatteries they generally answered That how devoted soever they were to his Majesty's Service and their own Fortune yet they could not be enduced to any thing against their Consciences To which the King replyed That what he required of them could by no means be Prejudicial to them whatever their Ministers might tell them to the contrary that there was more of Opinion than Reason in the Religion which they professed that they should take the Pains to reflect duely thereon for which yet he would grant them but the Space of 48 Hours But tho' most of them did believe from Words so positive by the King they should certainly be casheered yet they resolved to split upon that Rock rather than alter whatever came of it The King in the mean Time who had trusty Spies in all the Ships having learnt their Resolutions for all his eagerness in the matter did not think it advisable to push on Things over far at that time wherefore he ordered they should be told when he sent them back their Commissions That the 48 Hours which he had alloted being not sufficient for the determining of an Affair of so great Importance he was pleased to allow them some further time to think of it but that they would please him to conform themselves to his Will on that occasion but in the mean time tho' the Politicks of this Court have been much used in England yet herein they have been laid aside and there is an essential Difference between the one and the other for in the Choice which our King makes of Officers he had rather they should have Service than Profit whereas in France they will have both the one and the other if they can and for want of which Profit is always preferred before Service I 'll not censure such an Attempt but I am ashamed we should be laughed at both here and in other Countries for our Politicks and your Lordship knows as well as any Man living that when wise and experienced Statesmen have sate at the Helm they never would suffer the Regal Authority to be put upon such an Hazard well knowing the least Resistance made thereunto is a Triumph to the People but speramus meliora I am My Lord Your Lordships to Command Paris Sept. 25. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the Count d'Avaux acquainting the French King with the Prince of Orange's Preparations against England My Lord THe Embassador of this Court Monsieur the Count d'Avaux at the Hague hath transmitted a positive account hither of the great Preparations made in Holland for some grand Expedition especially by Sea intimating that the Prince of Orange seems to have other Designs in his View than those of a vigilant Statholder for the maintaining the Dutch Fleets and Armies in a good Posture now other neighbour Nations are in Arms. You know my Lord Mr. Skelton is now Envoy in this Country from England as he was some time ago in Holland who while he was there whether really or maliciously I will not determine was pleased to transmit an account to the King of the Prince's holding Correspondence and carrying on some Intrigues with his Subjects to his Prejudice he had some Relations in the Princesses Family by whose means he had an Opportunity to inspect into some Letters from which he took upon him to pick out as much as gave him to understand that there were some Matters agitated underhand that tended to the King's detriment but as far as I could learn the King gave little hâ—â—d to his Informations But what the Count d'Avaux has given his Master an account of hath been esteemed worthy of Consideration and added here some Reputation to Mr. Skelton's Agency whatever it may do in England and I am assured my Lord from such Authority as I dare rely upon that the French King has prest his Brother of England to give that Heed to it which it deserves and to take seasonable Precautions to defend his Dominions from a powerful Invasion wherewith they are threatened My Lord I desire to know with the next Conveniency whether I may be free to continue my Correspondence with your Lordship especially if I find Matters of this Nature transacted for I would not for any thing in the World bring your Lordship into the least Praemunire but in all things study to serve you with exactest Diligence and humblest observance which I shall always strive to do who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Octob. 6. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIV Of the means whereby Mr. Skelton came to know of the Designs in Holland against King James and of
Prince of Orange's Arrival at London My Lord THis Place is very barren of News tho' there is something I am satisfied a brewing which will appear in Time and all that is novel and extraordinary seems to have been tranplanted to the Brittish I sles from whence we hear That the Prince of Orange who they say is always intent and ever was to improve favourable Conjunctures hath taken Advantage of these Movements to make his Entry into London where 't is confest but with much Regret he hath been received with great Demonstrations of Joy and publick Applause but they say it is nothing but what is usually done to New-comers having been felicitated upon the Success of his Enterprise and thanked for the Zeal which he had testified for the good of the English Nation 'T is also reported That the Nobility have met together and pray'd him to take the Administration of the Government upon him till the Estates of the Kingdom can be called together which is dreaded here by both Courts I can assure your Lordship there have been Instructions issued out from hence already to their Agents at London where they have a great Number tho' under various Disguises for to countermine what ever Projects may be on foot for the establishing a Settlement in England and of which I shall endeavour to transmit to your Lorship the Particulars I am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 27. 1689. S. N. LETTER LIII Instructions given to the French Emissaries to infuse into some English Peers upon the subject-Matter of King James's Deserting of the Crown in Favour of his Interest My Lord IT s not doubted here but that there will be strong Efforts made for the Advancing of the Prince of Orange to the English Throne and by the Returns made of Members to serve upon the present Occasion in the Lower House it is concluded that their Procedures will be much in favour of his Interest and consequently to the Disadvantage of this Court and therefore they have taken care to give them a Bone to pick tho' I know not well what it is for the present But of the House of Lords they have entertained a more favourable Opinion but foreseeing that whatever is agitated among the Commons is also likely to creep into a Debate among the Lords and that the King's Resigion his Evil Administration his Retreat out of the Kingdom and the Compact between him and his People may be called in question They have by way of Precaution given Instructions to their Emissaries slily to infuse into any such Peers as they judge susceptible of such Insinuations but I cannot think your Lordship of that Number That it was true the King's Religion had been a very main Cause to bring those Misfortunes upon himself and the Nation which they laboured under but hereby it could not be thought that should be as much as once debated for a sufficient Ground to exclude him from his Throne That this would appear strange in the Sight of all Nations that a Popish Prince was incapable to sway a Scepter when even in England it self there had been no less than Forty Roman Catholick Kings who had governed England from King Egbert to Queen Elizabeth That it was but the other Day that all the Kingdom had by Addresses on purpose disavowed that Maxime That the two Universities had condemned the same for an Error and that the Parliament in One thousand six hundred and eighty five did believe it to be a thing so pernicious and destructive to a State that they were minded to brand with Infamy all those who would have excluded the Duke of York from the Succession That all the Nation having acknowledged this Prince at a Time when he made open Profession of the Popish Religion it would be a ridiculous inconsequence to pretend that that same Religion was an Hindrance to his reigning as King of England and that as for any previous Compact that might be alledged by ill disposed Men to have been between King and People iâ— was a pernicious chimerical Notion often condemned as a Gap opened to seditious Practices for the imbroiling of the State That surely that Retreat could not be called a Desertion in the King full of Discontent and finding himself abandoned by his Subjects to the Mercy of a Foreign Nation especially seeing the Royal Character the bore did but expose him to the Insults of the People and his Person into the Hands of a Prince that imposed Laws upon him seized him in his own Dominions and gave him Umbrages that ought to presage greater Dangers unto him That the Offers he had again and again made to the Nation and even to the Prince of Orange who protected it to treat with them amicably to leave nothing undone for the redressing of their Grievances could not but be adjudged Reparations sufficient for those Faults that were imputed to him That the Letter he had writ left behind him at Feversham and ordered to be printed with several other Letters which he had actually writ to diverse Persons asserting his Authority and Claim And that the Protestations which no doubt he would make against any Acts of the Assembly to meet if any such should happen in disfavour of him which could hardly be credited and the Measures which he had taken and whereof they heard enough every Day and would doubtless more and more dayly for the Recovery of his Dominions were evident Demonstrations that he had not renounced them And that if they were deserted by him it was because his Person was in no Security there and not the Throne which he still looked upon as a Property appertaining to him alone That he was not the first and only King even of England that had made this Step That Ethelrede in the Time of the Saxon Kings retired into Normandy and that among the Royal Stem of the Plantagenets Edward IV. past over into Flanders without King Henry VI. his Competiter his believing that he had thereby acquired a new Title to the Crown That as to the present conjuncture the King found himself in the Condition of Kings would be very hard if they of all Mankind were the only Persons who were not allowed the Favour to shun a Danger they were exposed to and which could not be avoided but by fleeing from it and that surely it was a Man's Prudence when he saw his House on Fire beyond a possibility of extinguishing it to save his own Life and attend an Opportunity to rebuild it again since he could not save it from burning What Successes my Lord these Remonstrances have met with or may still it may be your Lordship can tell But I can tell you if this fails there is another Mine to spring whereon they rely very much and on which they intend to work with utmost Diligence but I pray God to keep my poor Country from falling again into their Shares from which it now is in so fair a way of being