Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A51952
|
A brief enquiry into leagues and confederacies made betwixt princes & nations, with the nature of their obligation composed in the year 1673, when England and France were confederates in a common war against Holland, and England made a separate peace with Holland, leaving France engaged in the war / by Sr. P.M.
|
P. M., Sr.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing M64; ESTC R17527
|
10,436
|
28
|
break his Faith with an old One and where Contracts prove repugnant one to another the first stands good the second is a nullity If it be said there has been a violation of the League on the part of that Prince by his giving Assistance to an Enemy As in the Case now before us Spain assists Holland with whom England is at War To this will be answered Spain assists not Holland against England but against France And never did any League or Treaty forbid a Prince or can forbid him to assist his Friend against his own and his Friend 's Common Enemy for this were utterly to subvert the fundamental Principels and Maxims of all Political Prudence and Reason But Secondly though this Accident of a new War arising with another Prince was supposed yet many others as weighty as that may fall out wholly unforeseen for t is not possible for humane understanding to Enumerate all future Contingencies Peradventure the disposition of a Prince's Affairs at home the temper of his People some important Considerations of a private nature and not sit to be Published may render a peace Absolutely Necessary of which the Prince is the sole Judg. And if upon serious and mature thoughts he finds his Inducements Real not Feigned Weighty not Frivolous not Levity or Inconstancy in the Case but Necessity and such a one as he suffers under not sought for by him to palliate a fraud If upon such Circumstances he Treats a Peace exclusive of his Confederate who upon notice given him refuses to be Included especially if just and honorable Conditions be offered him from his Enemy the adequate End of all just Arms and which when rejected may make a War Originally just become unjust I say in so doeing the Faith and Honour of the Prince remain unblemish'd Nor is it any more Imputation to him then to the Master of a Ship bound upon a Voiage though it requires haft not to put out to Sea when the Wind is contrary or to put back to Port when the Storm arises For no supposed Covenants Stipulations or Conditions may be admitted to interpose betwixt the safety and welfare of a Prince or People all such are directly contrary to the Intention of the Contractors and the End of the Contract And are nothing but Words depraved and distorted from their genuine meaning by the Artifice of them who would either preserve or aggrandise themselves by anothers Ruine And as no humane understanding can Enumerate all future Accidents so no finite being can engage its self against all future Invents This is a task onely for Omniscience and Omnipotence for an infinitely extended Wisdom which overtakes Futurities and for a Power Commensurate to that Wisdom The Honour of a Prince which is his moral Conscience is too Nice and Delicat a thing for the ungentle touch of a private hand And t is difficult to give a particular solution to all the Phaenomena without an exact knowledg of the Original Treaties with their Relatives Dependencies and Circumstances wherein the Honour of the Prince is supposed to be concernd But this may be confidently affirm'd if one Prince shall measure the obligation of his Leagues and Treaties with forrain Nations by the Standard of his own Interest and no longer abide by them then they abide that test And in so doing justify himself by the Common Practice and Usage of the most Civilised Nations in all ages whilst the other is tied up to all the niceties punctilios of Words heightned by an Interessed Casuist this scrupulous Prince will be subjected to mighty disadvantages and be fast bound when the other is lose Now that the Practice and usage of Nations has been such is a plentiful Topic in History and a larg Feild to expatiate in It may suffice in this place slightly to touch some few Instances See Thuan. Cambd. Ann. Henry the Fourth of France made a League offensive and defensive with Queen Elizabeth of England and the States Gen. of the United Provinces with Express Covenants that no one should make Peace with Spain without Consent of both the others The Treaty was solemnly ratified at Paris with many Vows and Protestations made by the King in the presence of the Earl of Shrewsbury the English Ambassador and repeated in sundry Letters under his own hand to the Queen to whom he also owed a great debt of gratitude for many signal kindnesses and seasonable supplies of Men and Moneys Yet afterwards finding his People tired and exhausted with continual Wars which had lasted Forty Years and having good Conditions offered him from Philip of Spain he signifies to the Queen and States his disposition to a Peace And though secretary Cecil from hence and Barnevelt from the States were sent expresly to him to confirm him in the League who spared not to press home upon him the Faith thereof and that not without some sharp expostulations Yet that King excused himself by the importunity of his Affairs protesting that his refusal of a Peace with Spain would involv him in Commotions at home That the Law of Nature prefer'd self preservation That the Kingly office will'd his Peoples good should be the supreme Law That Christian Duty required the sparing of Christian Bloud And so concluded a seperate Treaty at Vervins and left the Queen and the States to prosecute their War against Spain In the Year 1635 began the open rupture of the Peace made at Vervins and War was solemnly proclaimed betwixt the two Crowns of France and Spain From which time sundry Treaties were made betwixt France and the States General for carrying on a Common War against Spain their Common Enemy with defences of the one to make a separate Treaty without comprehension of the other Yet the States Gen. awakened at length to discern that the Lower the Spanish Scale was depressed the higher that of France would be lifted And that whiles they enlarged their Border upon the Spanish Netherlands They fought themselves the nearer to France And that as it was necessary for them on the one side to maintain Banks for securing their low Countries against Inundations of the Sea so it was as needful for them on the other side to preserve a Spanish Barriere in Flanders interpofed betwixt them and the Impetuous overflowing torrent of a French Power They at last embraced the Honorable and Advantages Conditions tendred them and Concluded a Peace with Spain Which though France resented and Monsieur Servient the French Plenipotentiary at Munster could tel them That though he had but one eye he could see that one day they would Repent it Yet the States thought themselves out of Pupillage and Capable to Judg their own Concerns in the last resort Nor did they think it reasonable that France should be the sole Arbitrator of Peace and War not onely for themselves but for their Allies also They did nod exclude France from the Peace but France would not be Included And they conceived the French King had no more reason to formalise against them for Concluding a separate Peace then the States had to be offended with Him for carrying on a separate War which continued near twelv Years longer down to the Treaty at the Pirenees in the Year 1659 Both had equal Right of Judging and of Chusing what they Judged their proper Interest And Qui jure suo utitur nemini facit Injuriam Frederic the third of Denmark being confederated with the Pole and Brandenburger against Sueden under Strict defenses of entring into a separate Treaty without the inclusion of the other Allies yet the Suedish King having made that Miraculous March over the Frozen Seas into Zeland the Dane impelled by the Necessity of his affairs Concluded that memorable Treaty at Roschild which under the Mediation of England and France saved Denmark And his Father Christiern the fourth had done the like in the Year 1629 when worsted by the Imperialists after he had Confederated with the Princes of Saxony Pomeren and Mecklenburgh In both which Cases there was a force put and a-Moral Necessity which resolved into this Quicquid Cogit excusat But what shall we say to the aforementiond Treaty at the Pirenees where France Covenanted by Article to abandon Portugal and send them no more succours of Moneys Men Munition c. contrary to former Conventions with that Crown and that upon no Cogency of their Affairs for they were then in a Flourishing Condition but in exchang for several advantagious Concessions from Spain of which when France was in Possession that Article was soon superseded But this is nothing to my purpose Neither am I Willing to inlarge further because I did not design a ful Tract but onely a Brief and Modest Enquiry FINIS
unexpected Accidents fall out which Chang the reason of the Case such as if either of the Confederates could have had the foreknowledg of He would never have entered into the League here the cause of it ceases The foundation fails The Prince is to consult the present conjuncture to take other measures suited and adapted to the now State of things For to debar a Prince from accommodating his Councils to new and unforeseen Emergencies is equally absurd as to oblige a mariner not to shift his sails according to the variation of the Winds A Prince thinks it just and reasonable under his present circumstances to enter into a Society of Arms with another and be Confederate with him in a common War The Condition of his Affairs afterwards changes and as then considered renders the War unreasonable His people fall into distempers at home his Arms more requisite elsewhere The continuation of the War followed with a train of fatal Consequences at first not so easily discoverable In this Case the Prince needs none to dispense or absolv him if any other could do it besides the Person contracted with from the Tie and Bond of his Confederacy He was never obliged under these Circumstances nothing of this case was included in the League and therefore tacitly excepted the then State and condition of his Affairs which was the moving and leading cause to his consenting to it is now quite different and become another thing and the former motivs to a War are now changed into more powerful arguments for a Peace T is the same in all pacts and promises betwixt private persons they are all subject to the tacit condition of Things abiding in the same state Not as if humane Affairs could long abide without chang but t is meant onely of things relating to the Pact or Promise such as contributed to the Being of it and without which implied it had not been made Omnia esse dedebent eadem quae fuerunt cam promitterem ut promittantis fidem teneas Quie quid mâ—tatur libertatem facit de iutegro consulende meam fidem liberat Sen. de Benet lib. 4. cap. 35. For Example I promise my friend I will relieve him as long as I live and never suffer him to want But I was then in the possession of a plentiful fortune am now reduced to penury so that what I have barely suffices my own necessities Here my promise binds me not Nature teaching and Charity permitting to prefer my self Perhaps my friend becomes a Criminal to the State and by Law though a subsequent one I am forbid to relieve him Here my Duty to the Government forecludes my promise Or if an Usurper forbids me under Capital Penalties though I owe him no duty of Obedience yet self-preservation acquits me Nor can it be supposed that I meant to oblige my self to supply anothers wants with the loss or imminent hazard of my own life Perhaps I promised to a friend and he afterwards turns my enemy and what I intended for his good he perverts to my hurt here I may justly retract my abused benefit Infinite Cases may be framed wherein the chang of things shall change the Reason and consequently the Obligation of a Promise And though when I promised I did not caution expresly against such Accidents and Events under which I would be understood not to be bound because I could not know nor foresee them all yet common and universal Reason shall be pleaded in aid of the weakness of my private understanding For bare words ought not to be extended to over-rule the reason of things but on the contrary the reason of things ought to regulate the interpretation of words And all Stipulations and contracts consist as well of what is rationally implied as what is verbally expressed But if Common Reason and equity be justly pleaded in benefit of a private Person where his Life and Fortune lye at Stake how much more shall it be in the Case of a Prince where the Conservation of a Community is concern'd And if unforeseen Accidents fall out in the ordinary Occurrences of humane Life how much oftner in the Case of a War that Grand Scene of Vicissitudes and mutability The case of the Gibeonites recorded in Sacred History who by Surreption and not without a fraudulent Lye obtained a League wherein they yeilded their Persons Slaves and Bondmen to Redeem their Lives will if duly examined make nothing towards the invalidating of what 's before affirmed as may to his saitsfaction be seen by him who has the leisure to consult Grotius in his 2d Book de Jure Belli ac Pacis Cap. 13. Paragr 4. England is Confederate with France in a War against Holland and France at the same time makes War against Spain who is an Allie of England In Case two Princes be Confederates in a War against a third and one of them by Hostile Provocations Occasionally arising from this War or by Voluntary design Engages himself in a new War against a fourth Prince who is a Friend and Allie of the other Confederate to the Multiplication still of more Wars by a Superfaetation In this Case the state of Affairs is quite altered from what it was when the League was first entred into and that other Consederate will labour under a double disadvantage For first the Forces of his Confederate will by this new War be distracted and divided and consequently more of the burden and danger of the War devolv'd upon him 2dly The assistance which he gives his Confederate and which is intended for maintenance of the War against a Common Enemy will either wholly or in part be diverted to a War against his own Allie and by this means shall with one hand Fight against his Enemy and with the other against his Friend And in Case the Conservation of the Amity of that Allie be of great use to him and his People and his true Interest complicated therewith he shall now become Engaged in an unnatural War against himself But put the Case still Stronger Suppose it was caution'd in the Treaty of the League that if the War which the two Confederates were to make against a third Prince or State should occasion a new War against one of those Confederate from a fourth Prince that in such Case both the said Confederates should still assist each other in the Prosecution of the War and moreover declare that fourth Prince or State their Common Enemy Here an unforeseen Accident or unexpected change cannot be pleaded because this new War is not onely supposed but provided against by express Covenant To this I answer two ways First if one of the Confederates has already a League and Alliance with that fourth Prince against whom this new War is to be undertaken and no violation of the League on the part of that Prince that Proviso how express soever is absolutely Void For no Prince is obliged in compliance with his Word to a new Confederate to