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
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
Party hath yet prevailed and affrightned him from venturing upon such things without he had been able as he found he was not to have succeeded in pulling down the Militia of Kingdom or at least in getting such an Army which he could fully rely upon and that he hath not yet got neither but till then he could not pretend to declare the Grand Charter void as obtained by Force of Arms and since infringed and nullified by several Rebellions but especially by that in his Fathers time on the Subjects side and now rule by a Council only without troubling himself with any thing more like unto a Parliament as his French Friends Advised him to your Lordship will excuse the Freedom I have now and always used in my Correspondence and accept of my humble duty who am and ever intend to continue My Lord Your Honours to Command Paris April 7. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVI The substance of Pope Innocent XI First Letter to the French King about the business of the Regale I Cannot think but it will be acceptable to your Lordship to understand what the Contents of the Pope's Letters to the French King are especially in such a conjuncture as this is and when I believe you cannot be furnish'd with a genuine account by any other hand after the prefatory part which is short and concise and somewhat different from others of his Predecessors he comes close to the matter and says that he could not but reflect with no small Astonishment as well as great Grief and sadness of heart upon the late unaccountable Conduct of so great a Prince who would be thought to be and called himself the first Son to the Catholick Church and withal the most Christian King against the holy See of Rome that he should as much as pretend to so much Zeal for Religion and yet at the same time to invade the known rights of the Catholick Church not only in the Kingdom of France but even in the City of Rome herself by pretending to a pernicious Freedom of Quarters which all other Catholick Princes had freely and generously renounced as a gross abuse That his Persecuting the Protestants in the Kingdom of France ought no ways to priviledge him to put affronts upon the holy See it was very plain that was not the way to reunite those people to the Church when he himself was so ill a Pattern and shewed them so bad an Example by contemning and outraging that same Authority which he used Force and Violence to make them own That he was much in the wrong and acted preposterously to Prosecute them for not believing what he himself so Scandalously opposed And that for himself at the bottom he was not of a Persecuting Spirit and Principle but that he was fully convinced it was never Christ our Saviour nor any of his Apostles way who themselves never were nor ever used any Preachers with long Tails Boots and Spurs c. That such a practice had done most disgrace to and created as well it might more implacable prejudice against the Roman Catholick Religion than any thing else whatsoever and so by Consequence had much more obstructed than advanced the propagation of it That it ought never to be used in any Kingdom already infected with heresie tho' it 's true it were a very good fence against its creeping in where it had yet got no footing That it would be a means to blast all the blooming hopes of the Catholick Cause in the Kingdom of England and ingender pernicious Jealousies and a most cruel Opposition in the English a stiff necked people and the most Jealous of their Religion and Liberties of any Nation upon the Earth against their King who was a true Son of the Church and break the Neck of all his designs for the Introducing of it into his Dominions And in a word that he was so far from approving of it that he every way disliked it and that it should not throw dust in his Eyes from inspecting into and opposing of his incroachments upon the holy See which he was resolved to defend to the utmost extreamity and so concluded with a short admonition and with which concludes this Letter to your Lordship from him who is My Lord Your most Devoted Servant Paris June 3. 1687. LETTER XXVII An account of Pope Innocent XI Second Letter to the French King about persecuting the French Protestants c. My Lord SInce my last I have had the opportunity to take the Heads of another Letter written soon after that I have already sent you by the Pope to the French King and is to this purpose In the first place he takes upon him to refute the Answers and frivolous Complaints of the French King and then descends to ridicule his vain pretence of Piety in persecuting the Protestants of his Kingdom for denying him Obedience while he was no less severe to the Bishops of Alet and Pamiers and some other Ecclesiasticks and even to some poor Abesses and their Nuns for paying that Obedience which was due to the papal Authority that this â—id not only look like it but really was nothing less but building up the Church with the Left Hand and at the same time pulling it down with the Right That he was well informed what writings came out in France against his Authority which he well knew was that of the holy Apostolick See what Theses were there maintained and what was done by his over awing the Assembly of the Clergy of his Kingdom how and what method he had taken to vel the French Jesuits against him and imployed Maimburg to represent his supremacy as precarious Itineran and Ambulatory and not fixt to the City of Rome herself but only to the Capital City of the most powerfull Christian Prince in the World for the time that is gallice to Paris in the present Age that he well understood not only this but also the designs that were formed by him to erect a new Religion which should Totally swallow up and deâ—our both Roman Catholicks and â—rotestants and how far he purposed to imitate King Henry VIII of England who writ a Book for the Pope's supremacy and not long after Burnt aed Beheaded people for owning it when also at the very same Time he persecuted the Protestants for opposing other points That it very ill became and it was not the part of a Dutifull and Religious Son â—s he pretended to be and would have the Woâ—ld believe to abuse his supream Pastor to dispoil him not only of his Ancient rights granted him by his Pious Predecessors but even of those very ones which he then injoyed and were derived by Universal consent and constant tradition of all good Catholicks and of the rights of his just Sovereignity in the City of Rome herself That however let him the French King do what he pleased yet all that ever he should or could do should not make him abate the least jot or tittle of his
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
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a son-in-Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against
him to see the Prince and thus Matters stood when the late King died but the Brother succeeding he set all his Engines on work how he might get the Duke of Monmouth into his Clutches Dead or Alive But the French Agents my Lord did not think that now their Interest which in the late Reign they would have given any Money to have effected and therefore by their Correspondents in Holland they got the Duke secretly Advertised of the Danger who thereupon withdrew to Bruxels I know my Lord they gave it out that the Prince of Orange by his Favourite Monsieur Bentink got the Duke made acquainted therewith and that he gave him Money to go to Bruxels it was both Honourably and Charitably done of him if it was so to a distressed Gentlemen with an intent to make the King his Father-in-law more irreconcileable to him now he was King then when Duke of York tho' he was to dissemble it for a time and upon his Accession to the Throne to testifie to the Prince the sincere desire he had to live with him rather as a Father then an Ally and Neighbouring King I have had sufficient Experience my Lord of your great Honour Integrity and good Affection which makes me thus bold in a matter so nice at this time and so concludes My Lord Your humble Servant Paris March 17. 1685. N. St. LETTER III. Of King James's being Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury My Lord IT has been a matter of much discourse and reflection here that our King should be Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and not by one of the Roman Communion it was expected that since he had begun so briskly and openly to declare Himself for Rome that he would not have stuck at being Inaugurated by a Roman Bishop I find by the return made hither upon this Subject that his inclinations were violent enough for the latter but that the Reason of his Non-compliance was that having at his assumption of the Crown declar'd to the Council and by them to his People That he would maintain the Church and State of England as by Law Establish'd and that the Ceremony of his Coronation was such as the Laws of the Land did prescribe The thought it was a little two Early to begin and that by so publick an Act which to be sure would be interpreted not only as the most manifest Violation of the National Constitution but the Preludium to a despotick Power which no man knew the end of I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Repetition of the Arguments used here by the Gentlemen of the Roman Church pro and con upon the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of such a Compliance by a Catholick King to the Church of England which tho the Establish'd one they look upon to be false to the Truth as being matters which I suppose your Lordship cares not for and therefore having nothing further wherewith to entertain you that is worth Transmitting I conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris May 6. 1685. N. S. LETTER IV. Of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle's Invasions and Overthrows and of the Prince of Orange's offering to serve against the former but his offer was Malitiously Interpreted and so Rejected My Lord THE Reason of my long silence to your Lordship I hope will not be interpreted by you as any forgetfulness much less neglect of your Honours Commands and Expectation I am too sensible of the many Obligations that have been heap'd upon me from time to time to be guilty of so Notorious a Crime but the want of somewhat that was Solid and Grateful to your Lordship has been one genuine Cause that obstructed my Correspondence to which I may add what your self knows very well the private Orders given in England to open all Letters whether Domestick or Foreign and since I had for so long a time continu'd to write to your Lordship and that undiscover'd I was not willing for want of a little prudent caution and suspension in such a juncture either to expose your Lordship to any hazard or thereby for ever to exclude my self from any farther Correspondence with you whom I so much Love and Honour But now my Lord understanding that the Storm is over in England by the defeat and death of the Duke as we have had some days ago an Account from Scotland of the like misfortune to have attended the Earl of Argyle I have adventured to Salute you with these Lines and to tell my thoughts freely upon the matter I must confess I never had any great opinion of either of the Expeditions because concerted by Men who had very different ends in what they did the Duke and some others for Monarchy but the greatest part Republicans and therefore I do not wonder the whole hath miscarried especially when I can assure your Lordship both the one and the other were tho' very privately Abetted by French Agents to undertake such an Expedition such a procedure may well be wondred at I confess since there was apparently so little advantage like to arise to the French Court therefrom but besides their loving to fish always in Troubled Waters they have somewhat in them that is very like the Devil who loves to do Mischief tho' with no benefit to himself But whatever the World may think hereof those who are fled that escaped from either Kingdom after the Defeat are as kindly received here as those who formerly fled from the Popish Conspiracy but yet they are daily sifted and examin'd by the Spies that continually haunt them I would gladly know might I have the honour your Lordship's Sentiments of both Descents and the Miscarriage of them to be plain with you I own I have very different apprehensions of them now they are over than I had at first and the rather because the Prince of Orange so much resented it tho' most Maliciously interpreted by the King and his Popish Council whetted on by Gallican Agents When the Prince had the first News of the Duke's Landing in England he acquainted Mr. Skelton the King's Ambassador that the Duke of Monmouth though he were a Person but of indifferent Parts yet he had a Warlike Genius and had more Experience and Skill in the Art of War then most of them employ'd against him That for his part if the King his Father-in-Law pleased he would assist him not onely upon that occasion with his Troops but with his Person also and to that end was sending Mr. Bentinck over to England to know the King's pleasure But Skelton malevolent enough of himself and farther influenc'd with Malice against the Prince by French Incendiaries took care to inform the King before Bentinck came that such Assistance as was proposed by the Prince was very dangerous and much to the same purpose so that upon Mr. Bentinck's Motion the King answered That their Common Interest required that the Prince should stay in Holland and gave such
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