of till some of your Country-men came and inhabited them Besides it were madnesse for those who may live quietly in Ireland to venture fighting for an estate in Holland Neither is our alliance likely to change if once firmely established Whereas there is no longer hold with France then whilest the two potent factions of Protestant and Papist shall subsist by the clashing of which you are no lesse then the Spaniard able to kindle the fire of a Civill Warre so as when you have throughly scan'd your alliance with France you shall find it signify more danger then Protection It having been alwaies the humour of that People to swagger with their Neighbours for roome upon the least enjoyment of quiet being seldome or never willing to serve their Allies but when they are in the worst case to help themselves If this afflicted people were sensible of their own condition that the most scorching Slavery in all Christendome lies under the Line of their Kings And animated by our example and yours should procure their freedome Yet you would be worsted on that hand too for after their Liberty attained the conquest of you or your Neighbours were likeliest to be their next imployment there being no Peace with them at home unlesse they be at Warre with other States Which makes it none of Englands smallest blessings that they are not able to come hither on horseback The French are not so sutable to your Nature as the English who look upon Merchants as Gentlemen they as Pedlers I know you are too wise to expect reall friendship from Spaine or a continuance of the agreement made with Him if you break with Vs It not being likely he should oversee the advantage will be offered him of catching Gudgeons in your inland Waters whilest we are out at Sea scuffling for Spratts If you be prohibited trading hither I pray what will you doe with French Wines the most staple commodity they have to barter for The East countries being as unable to take them off by reason of cold as you to consume them in Brent Wine Monarchs neither doe nor can look upon you under a milder aspect then Traytors without a tacit consent of the like power resident in their People to explode them as conscious of giving the same cause Whereas England cannot but esteem you in a more honourable Relation For though you like the Diall of Ahaz recoyled so many degrees back in the Sphere of Policy It is naturally more proper for the hand of power in a Free State to be touched with an inclination towards a Common-wealth then a Monarchy Though the advantage that may accrue to you from an English confederacy is made apparent from by-gon experience yet if you consider how honourable it would be to Spaine who hath long endeavoured it And convenient to France in regard of her clayme to Artoys and Hannault to convert you into a Colony you would not be so intent upon Profit esteemed by all prudent Nations inferior to safety Therefore let your pretences be what you will The incroachments you made through the remisnesse of our Kings and corruption of their Councell are the Silver Smiths that doe really raise all these clamours it being otherwaies unpossible that Monarchy should be such a Diana in your eyes Your Alliance with Denmarke is likelier to adde number then weight to your Frindship being liable to be whisled off or on according to the inclination of his Imperiall Majesty so twisted in Marriages with the Catholick King That the difficulty is as great to distinguish between their Interests as Consanguinity Besides those Eastern Countries have ever been looked upon not only as a store-house wherein God hords up the miseries of Winter But also the cruell Plagues of Incursions apparent in the Goths and Vandals whose barbarous hands assisted Time in the destruction of such Monuments in Italy as she alone had not been able to demolish To conclude with a few Queries Let me humbly desire you to consider First whether such as may or shall foment this division doe not act the policy of the Wolfe in the Fable that perswaded the Sheepe to give over their Mastives 2ly What other Alliance can afford you so safe Harborage in case of foule weather at Sea as England Scotland and Ireland if none whether Contingencies driven in by stormes under our shelter may not exceed all the English prizes you shall make by Van Trump 3ly In case the match with the Infanta had proceeded or Prince Charles miscarried in Spaine through detention whether your old patrons our Kings might not easier have been perswaded to have renounced your friendship or delivered up the Cautionary Towns had they been then in their power then c. 4ly If Venice may not unproperly be called the Signet on Neptunes right hand whether England and the Netherlands being in a straight Confederacy may not be stiled his two armes by which in relation to their Shipping he imbraceeth the universe 5ly Whether your Maiden Townes as you call them May not longer enjoy that title under the Alliance of England who hath many as rich and beautifull Harbours as of France that cannot justly bragge of the like plenty or conveniency for situation 6ly Whether a breach between us may not conjure up a third party of Pirats formidable to us both Dunkirke being in so wavering a condition and fit to make an Argiers of c. 7ly Whether in case a difference should happen some of your Provinces irritated by the inconveniences must in Reason follow may not be tempted to divide and adhere to the stronger part and which that is may be easily resolved from the great assistance England hath given you and the small dammage she hath through the mercy of God received from yours through out the whole Series of our Warre 8ly Whether during our Monarchs They or the English Parliaments were aptest to put a more favourable construction upon your worse or better actions in relation to-us if the Kings what signified the bleating of such of your Countrymen as they daily fleec'd if the Parliaments who ever rendred themselves rather partiall then severe on your side Are they not well requited Lastly Whether the World may not afford Us and You sufficient Trade without intrusion or in case our Heardsmen should foolishly differ is not Abrahams answer ready are we not Brethren in Language Nature and Religion If you adde to this the Parallel of the causes of your and our taking Armes you shall find your King a stranger by Birth wilfull by nature and apt to be led away by the seldome Auspicious counsell of Church-men The Peoples advice neglected Petitioners Imprisoned All dear-sold to the Natives by Courtiers so as Injustice it selfe could scarce be afforded without Mony There a Woman made an ingredient in the Court Here the Regent of our Councels Yours the wisest King in his time in all things but thinking himselfe so Ours no lesse prudent had he but known it Yours happy in all but the losse of you Ours successefull in nothing but his returne from Spaine Yours inscrutable to all but tried friends Ours patent to none but such as deserved the name of Enemies Yours spent immense treasure in such buildings as may strive with Time for continuance Ours in Playes and Maskes more transitory then a Winters night Tours a better King then a Man Ours a better Man then a King You won freedome by mingling patience with the valour of Strangers in long Sieges which spun out the War to a chargeable length Our liberty the Natives obtained in the Field with a miraculous celerity by trusting providence with their endeavours Our wants were So true a friend as you found of England and at first such trusty Commanders as your Prince Borne to those titles which our present Generall hath more abundantly deserved having been followed with so uninterrupted successe as you are no where able to sing of thousands but may be matched by us with ten thousands But for this as all good things else let glory praise and honour be first given to God next all thankfull obedience to those who have or shall be instrumentall in reforming what is amisse in both FINIS One made a Lord the other a Knight at Oxford Lampries
Conclave avoyded both the hornes of this dangerous Dilemma Either to own so high a conceived impiety as the rejecting the returne of one of the mightiest Kingdoms in Christendom for worldly respects thought by few of those who pay them his due or by leaving to this Sheep that was lost a full fruition of his fleeces to give the other Ninety and nine Catholike Potentates a just occasion to make the like demands A fatling of more value in that Luxurious Court then would be parted with for the conversion of all the world But to return I cannot in zeale to the conscience and duty I owe to the honour of this Nation but aske who made you so farr our Survayers as to limit out the extent of Their conveniences that are found to have laid out them selves to purchase Yours Was ever so high an Intrusion offered as for a Neighbour to prescribe how another should be regulated in matter of Trade And what Bottoms are fittest to be imployd would you not scorne the like Usurpation though made by your France or new sworne Allye Denmarke who for so many yeares hath ground your faces with a Tole never yet imposed upon you in our Seas For the proof of whose Propriety I leave you to learned Selden in his Mare Clausum a book entituled Dominium Maris c. lately translated out of Italian by an Honorable Person And if you were not unwilling to bribe Our Kings and their Minions so long for your Fishing why should you be so tetchy now with such as inquire whether it was worth your cost and though I was pleased to hear so rich a Towne as Amsterdam could be Founded on Herring-Bones the Lord of Hosts is my faithfull witnesse how afflicted I should be to see it hazard the reducing into its first principle by a Warre with England And thus much I understand of your Trade that the late Kings did not only give you the Fish but bayts to catch them loaden by Boats full out of the Thames which they would never have done had they been as full of Circumspection as that creature is reported to be of eyes Now this considered I pray why may not we assume to our selves the Rights of Disposure and Regulating that which undoubtedly is our owne and why may not we take the humble stile of a Parliament and Councell of State as well as you That strive with your Maker who shall be most High and Mighty If only the time of the Change of Government be made Umpier of Precedency Geneva must take the right hand of You And many poore small Townes in Germany That freely sent their demands to King Philip When your Messengers scaped hanging hardly if at all for only delivering your most humble Petitions There are three things principally insisted upon by which the Vnited Provinces pretend to have fixed an Obligation upon England expung'd their former score which neverthelesse upon an impartiall debate will rather prove wholy chargable upon their own accompt then Ours so farr are they from having given a full satisfaction for all the Love Cost blood expended by us in their Preservation The first is the assistance lent us in 88. which was no more then the profest Antagonists to the quiet of Italy did freely contribute against the common enemy in the battell at Lepanto who did there oppose the Grand Signior in relation to their respective safeties Besides it was a true received Maxim in the wise Counsell of Spaine and holds so still that he that desires to subdue the Vnited Provinces must first Conquer England or draw her from their succour And finding the latter unpossible they fell upon the other as more feacible The Second is your Entertainment given to the distressed King and Queen of Bohemia which according to the rest of your pretended curtesies unto England you have strain'd farre higher then the string is able to bear in its naturall extent Therefore I shall take leave to tune it right in the eares of all impartiall judgements and after setting open the Cabinet give men free leave to value the Jewell which in truth amounts to no more then giving house-roome to a Vertuous Princesse undone by your Counsells and the rest of the Vnion that had most unsuccessefully chosen Iames of England for their Head who proving totty They thought to ballast him by Imbarking his Son in Law in this desperate designe especially the Netherlands finding the twelve years Truce spent little to their advantage and knowing the whole weight of Spaine would fall upon them unlesse they could waken us whose King was clog'd with too much Fleagme to harken to the voyce of any thing but ease and pleasure And I cannot but take notice here of the Spaniards ingratitude that hath so long deferr'd erecting his Statue in Gold since upon a strict accompt it may appeare that the wise Councell of the Catholike King did not contribute so much to his greatnesse as the Folly and Corruption of Ours For the 3d which is a Navall Victory obtained in our Sleeve Ao 1639. the depth of which designe remaines yet in the pocket of the King of Spain and some few confidents in England I can say but this that if their errand was Hither Our King betray'd Vs if to Holland You for which you were tied in reason rather to have assisted the people that exclaimed against the partiality they observed then the King that owned it Therefore this cannot be put up on the Parliaments accompt For the businesse of Amboyna cast into the Ballance by such as bear you lesse respect against all things urged in your favour I am so charitable as to look upon it as the Cruell and inconsiderate act of a private person rather then a true Scheme of the States Motion Not doubting but upon a serious reflection of your Wisdoms on your own Interest you will easily returne to a more straight Alliance with this Nation unlesse God in his anger hath suffered you to mingle Lethe with the rest of your Liquor And since it may seem impossible for you to subsist without contracting a streight Alliance with England France or Spaine give me leave humbly to propose which in reason is likeliest to disturbe your Counsells with the least jealousy from whence may be the easier deduced the fittest choyce not only for conveniency but safety it being very hard to be securely protected by those you cannot cordially trust which cannot be Spaine or France one laying claime to what you possesse the other to what you are ambitious to obtaine whereas England stands free from all such pretences Queen Elizabeth refusing to hold you in grosse only accepting of Flushing and the Brill which King Iames was so weary of as he returned them for a farre lesse summe then they were pawn'd Neither as a free State are we likely to imbrace contrary Counsells because we have more Marish grounds already of our own then we well knew how to dispose
probable for a stranger to be a Tyrant then that the naturall Inhabitants should upon a slighter cause cast themselves into the no lesse bloody then scorching flames of a Civill and uncertaine Warre Seeming rather to forget the Obligations shee owed him as a private person when he was King of England then her Neighbours oppressions I shall not here draw blood in your faces by application Yet I doe not find any tumults raised before the gates of your Messengers who were then too modest to owne higher titles then of poore Petitioners casting themselves prostrate at the feet of a no lesse potent tribunall then you have been admitted to in the quality of Embassadors An honour you could never have attained but through the mediation of those who have been so farr from receiving a like Retaliation as to their griefe they perceived most of the stormes and Thunders fell upon this Nation were first formed in your Region by which houses and Churches were demolished wherein your Ancestors had receaved shelter and Contribution And instead of opposing our Enemies and screening us by the power you must owne under God from England You rendered your selves Arbitraters of our cause And to which side you did propend appeares by the titles of Honour your Messengers partiality was branded with by the other Party Besides what a lesse respective Relator might suppose they carryed home in their Portmantos Covering under the glorious habit of Embassadours An ingratitude so ugly as can not be represented to the world without shame Were not the promises of Neutralitie extorted from you by our Agents at the expence of so much trouble treasure and time drawn up so ambiguously as if they had come from jugling Delphos not the deeply engaged Hague whose repute in relation to a just repayment of former debts hath been next her alliance with England the greatest security for her future hopes Did not the disaffection of some transport them so far beyond all extent of prudence as to avoid the countenancing of so much Ingratitude in their owne persons by conniving at the liberty the Prince of Orange took The inestimable Banck at Amsterdam was almost surprised And Fetters ready to be formed for them out of the States Silver so as they were in a faire way of loosing their owne Liberty in seeking to impede ours For this branch of the House of Nassau was so deeply rooted in this fourth descent as he began to struggle for more roome and overshadow the power of the State And apprehending this Nation too full of Gallantry and Policy to let a Servant inslave a people they had redeemed from his Master by their blood he rendered himselfe First our late Kings Sonne in Law and so our enimy till Providence had bound him up with the rest of our Opposers By what mediation we are not inquisitive our businesse being only to participate of our Neighbours felicities without arraigning the cause by which they attained them And here I desire leave to mingle my thoughts with some reports made by no strangers in the affaires of those times to whom it appeared that Queen Mary did not at first Cordially intend the Match with Holland unlesse the Prince of Orange was able to attaine the Regality which the Catholike King was so farr from being likely to hinder That a small acknowledgment would have perswaded him out of his part long looked upon by that wise Nation as a trouble to keep And after she had by the contemplation of this Marriage assured her selfe not only to receive no opposition in her designe from that corner but all the assistance his mony and power could afford she had the young Ladies consent ready either to break or confirme it who was then under yeares And to shew they feared foule play in case K. Ch. had prospered the Princesse was bedded somthing sooner then stood with ordinary custome and the Lady Stanops protests who married a Dutchman and was assigned her Gardionesse And if any consider how unsuitable this was to the high minde and Religion of the Queene of England What plenty of freer and richer Princes resided in Germany And that she never had been put in to their hands but that those new breaches called for new Counsels He cannot blame the conjecture though as things fell out she could not have been sold to a greater advantage Neither can it be rejected out of any great difficulty resides in raising a considerable party in the Netherlands by one lesse powerfull then the Prince of Orange because every severall Province or chief Town hath free Liberty of conceding or rejecting what propositions they please that in a manner they are so many free States independent one of the other Therefore not likely to combine against England who yet is as well Able to spare their Alliance as willing to Imbrace it And that this Match sprung rather from the Sinister and clandestine ends then any palpable affection The Queene carried to the Dutch is more then probable by the faint reception she formerly gave them upon all occasions suffering the Buffoons at Court to gibe their Embassadors as if they were not able to afford themselves Cuffs out of the masse of Holland they sold to others And upon consideration of the severe justice they mett with in the Star-Chamber for transporting of Gold it might have obliged them rather to have assisted the Parliament whose indulgence inabled them to committ the fault then the Crowne that had so severely punished it Yet you were so farr from managing this Partiality within the ordinary Carere of prudent Princes who upon a lesse desertion of Fortune then you observed withdraw their assistance from all parties looked upon but with an unbiass'd aspect That you adhered to the King of Scots after providence had measured out the Land in quiet before us As if nothing were more indifferent to you then who were happy so England were miserable Nay after our good God had broke their Swords and knapt their Speares in sunder you let the ribald Penne vomit out floods of reproaches in hope to destroy this Nation who was then in strong labour with peace amongst a wildernesse of distractions Forgeting that nothing could be said to their disparagement that would not in an indifferent light delineate your owne No Indecency being observable during our proceedings that is not easily to be matcht with an Enormity in Yours So as the Pope proved by accident more our friend and made better use of reason of State For finding his faction here was able to return him no more then a bare compliance in Church Ceremonies withont the welcome addition of profit The English Miter no lesse then the Crowne resolving to retaine an absolute power to dispose of all dignities both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall wheel'd about and was never found by any I could be inform'd from to foment the adversary with considerable supplyes though earnestly sollicited both by Letters and Messengers In which the wise