they were not bound by Treaty to procure the English any Advantages And thus no more Notice was taken of his Majesty nor greater care of his Interests than if he had never been concerned in the War or in no League with the French at all So that if by wonderful Providence this Separate Treaty had not been broken off Europ might have been in greater hazard of its Liberty and we of our Safety by a settled Domination of the French in the Vnited Provinces Much more might be added to shew the foul play of the French with us at that time and afterwards also when the Duke of Buckingham and My Lord Arlington were sent hence into Holland but I must be brief this being enough to discover their friendly behaviour during the Joynt-War An. 1673. In the next place let us see how they have carried themselves since the Year 73. For we have an Account that notwithstanding the Amity betwixt us hath been continued to this Day yet that Nation hath never ceased to do us one Injury or other and no sufficient Redress at all hath been obtained though Complaints have been made and Reparation earnestly sought for Witness especially the many Affronts and Violences done to us upon our Merchants Ships at Sea by the French Privateers For but very few of them have been restored and those that have been have found the Remedy worse than the Disease because the tedious delay of it brought such charge to the Merchants that the benefit coming by the Restitution would not countervail their Expences in attendance at the Court of France For the Clearing whereof it cannot be amiss to give here at large an Account touching the Event of such Applications as have been made to his Majesty for Redress at the Council-board and with the Commitee of Trade belonging to his most Honourable Privy-Council excellently penned and now come to my Hand newly printed and dispersed therefore I reprint it And it here followeth At the Court at White-Hall the 4. of August 1676. Present The King 's most excellent Majesty in Council The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Trade did this Day present unto his Majesty in Council a Report touching the Injuries which his Subjects did sustain by French Capers in the Words following May it please your Majesty There was presented unto your Majesty in Council on the 31. of May last a Petition in the Name of all the Merchants of London and other places concerned in the several Ships taken by the French Privateers and carried into several Ports of that Kingdom and their Complaints consisted of the Points following 1. That the Ships and Goods of your Majesty's Subjects though manned according to the Act of Navigation and furnished with all necessary Passes were daily seized carried into Dunkirk Calais Sherbrook and other Ports the Masters and Mariners kept close Prisoners to force them by hardship to abuse the Owners or else for Relief of their own necessities being commonly stripped and plundered to enter into the Privateer's Service which great numbers have done with very pernicious effects 2. That the delay and charge of prosecuting the Law in France does commonly make the Owners to become losers of half the value when ever they are successful 3. That there is no Reparation ever gotten from Privateers for what they plunder and imbezle which makes them freely seize upon all they meet and perpetually molest the Navigation of your Subjects Wherefore your Petitioners humbly imploring your Majestie 's Protection and Relief your Majesty was hereupon graciously pleased out of a sence of your Subjects sufferings to command that some Frigats should sail forth to clear the Coast of those Privateers to seize them and bring such as had offended to make Restitution And your Majesty did further order that the Committee of Trade should well take notice of the particular Cases and Complaints depending that such of them as were of weight and merit might be fitted to receive your most gracious Recommendation for Relief as to survey the whole number of Seizures which have been made on your Subjects in order to lay before your Majesty what hardships have been sustained at Sea and what sort of Justice hath been administred in France with their Opinion of what is sit to advise your Majesty therein In obedience to which Command we have hereunto annexed a list of such ships as have bin seized to the number of 53. and the Cases wherein the Owners have repaired unto your Majesty either in your Council or by your Secretary of State for Relief which as in the general it supposes a Justice in such Complaints so it leaves a suspicion of great hardship in the Methods of Redress and the number of Captures is no small proof of the facility of Condemnation How many other helpless Men there have been besides the said Cases who have not had ability to prosecute or how many of these Cases have been favoured with Redress we cannot certainly understand till the Information we have sought for comes from Paris which may also enable us to compleat their Circumstances of every Case But in the mean time such of all the Instances of Redress as are come to our knowledg we have not failed in the Margin to make mention of them being in number seven While we were in the midst of this Prosecution Mr. Secretary Coventry does on the 6th instant present unto the Committee a Paper which he received from the French Embassadour Monsieur Courtin relating to these matters and the Contents thereof were as follow An Extract of a Letter from Monsieur Colbert to Monsieur de Pompone one of the French King's Secretaries written the 28th of June 1676. For what concerns the Prizes it would be a difficult matter to answer to all the Cases contained in Monsieur Courtin's Letter What I can say is That the Council for Marine Affairs sits every Friday at Saint Germans That all Privateers and Reclaimers know it That Sir Ellis Leighton nominated by the English Embassadour hath always notice of it and is always present at it That not a Week passes but I give him two or three Audiences and often-times I send for him on purpose His reasons are all reported read and examined As likewise are all Petitions of Reclaimers and I shall tell you more I acquaint him wiih the Reasons upon which Judgment is given In giving Judgment all Vessels which have any appearance of being English are realeas'd and very often and almost always although we are satisfied that the Ships are Dutch yet they are released because there is some appearance of their being English and every thing is judged favourable for that Nation and it is true that all Ships that are taken are of Dutch-built that they never were in England that the Masters and all the Equipage are Dutch that the Documents are for Persons unknown and which are not often-times so much as named that they carry with them only some Sea-Briefs
be able to oppress another And that we ought ever to hold it even betwixt France and the House of Austria and if either of them exceed to reduce it to an Equality this was accounted a principal part of the Ancient Grandeur of the English Nation King Henry the Eighth first well setled it in managing the Differences betwixt Charles the Fifth then both Emperor and King of Spain and Francis the First King of France the two Grand Competitors of that Age. That excellent Princess Queen Elizabeth well improved it and so it continued till the time of Cromwell who first erred in this matter of Publick Interest to serve his own private by greatning of France beyond due proportion so that he interposed the Difficulties which since lay in the way of Reducing it By the Influence of this old piece of policy it was that England was always in a condition whensoever she pleased to dispence Peace or War to every Nation and thereby great Honour redounded to our own throughout the World and there is nothing but War can restore it by curing the overgrown Dropsie of the French Greatness VI. You had before an Intimation of another most considerable Reason drawn from a consideration that no Peace that can be made can give us any security of enjoying it long to which I may add That a Peace will but betray us to the next Opportunity the French shall please to take Besides in the interval we should but give him the opportunity to reinforce himself ramass his Treasury and thereby inable himself to prosecute the old Artifice of corrupting other Princes Ministers Officers and Governors and work his Ends so as to alienate and separate as many of the Consederates as he can from their holding Counsels in common for Mutuall preservation to embrace such terms as he shall under a specious shew of Advantages think fit to propose unto them which if obtained would utterly break them one after another and induce this Inconveniency upon England to be left alone or with but few Participants to joyn in the Work of Reducing France into its former legitimate moderate Condition VII Another Reason is to be derived from a Consideration of the great increase of the Naval Power of France whereby they are enboldened to give disturbance to our Merchant-men in our own Seas such an Indignity to his Majesty and Violation of our Rights by Sea as is not to be indured and which the Kings of this Island have from all Antiquity possessed as far as the very shores of France exclusive of any Pretentions of Right of any other Nations within the FOUR SEAS The Evidences whereof were collected and with Arguments drawn from all sorts of Learning and Records digested into one excellent Book by that most famous Man Mr. Selden entituled MARECLAVSVM Among the particulars whereof I remember that the Addition of the Port-Cullis to the Royal Badges of the Crown of England which is yet to be seen upon many of the Royal Houses built by our Kings was made for this Reason even to signifie to all the World That we had a just Right and Title at pleasure to shut up and open the Sea when we thought fit as it were with a Port-Cullis to all Passengers passing by Sea And by the same Evidences it is there proved that our Title to our Propriety in the Sea is as good as any Title the French King hath to any part of his Dominion by Land His Grand-Father wrote divers Letters with his own Hand to King James which I have formerly seen in the Paper-Office at White-Hall to ask Leave for some few Vessels to fish for Soales as he should have occasion for his own Table Which was a sufficient Acknowledgment where the Soveraignty lies by Sea There have been also in former time brisk Messengers sent to the French Kings requiring them as soon as they had but begun to lay the Carcass of some pitiful Ship upon the Stocks to forbear building Which shews the present Presumption of the French in making so grand Naval Preparations to invade our Seas And our Honour as well as our Right calls aloud for a Vindication VIII There is Reason also to be drawn from a Consideration of the hazard of Religion 1. As concerning the Protestant about which I shall not use any more words to clear this point than this short Proverb now used in France and by them attributed to their own King That his Grand-Father loved the Protestants his Father feared them and he himself hated them Which any one that beholds the Ruines of their demolished Churches and the hard Conditions under which they are oppressed in every point within that Kingdom too large here to recite will easily believe 2. As touching the Roman Catholick Religion how that is like to fare may readily be prognosticated Tros Rutilúsve fuat nullo discrimine habebunt Be a Papist or be a Protestant the French make no difference in usage wheresoever they come Witness to this how they have dealt in Catalonia Alsatia the Spanish Low-Countrys and divers other Roman Catholick Countrys where all men exclaim against the Domination of France 3. Whereas it was of old a Doctrine instilled into the minds of the Romanists by their Father-Confessors that they ought to adhere to Spain and the House of Austria rather than to promote the French Empire because Spain being then much the greater Kingdom and esteemed the dearer Son of the Church by reason of its greater Zeal and more strict and intire Imbracement of the Romish Faith and through the diligence of the Inquisition kept without any mixture of that which they call Heresie and therefore more likely to continue firm to the Roman See now of later time the State of Empire being altered Spain brought much lower and not able to give such Protection and Defence as formerly to the Roman Cause in these parts of the World the Pope and his Priests and Jesuits are so far altered too that having since seen the French go on like Conquerers they have quitted the former Reasons on Spain's side and like the Men of the World are turned Courtiers of Fortune crying up France altogether now though if they please to remember how not many Years ago France upon a petty Quarrel in Rome betwixt some of the Pope's Souldiers and the Duke of Crequi's Servants then Ambassador there ruffled the Pope himself with such unheard of Insolence that for meer fear he was constrained to abandon divers of his Friends and Kindred and to the perpetual disgrace of the Holy-Chair and of their Religion and of the Adored-Father of Christians as they would seem to repute him they made him cry like a Child and erect a Pillar in Rome with an Inscription signifying the pretended Affront to France engraven upon it and it continued some Years standing till the Tears of his Holiness prevailed for the demolishing of it Notwithstanding all this I say the Roman Priests do venture to magnifie France as
and contrary to their Treaties as well with the Elector of Brandenburgh as with himself and to their iterated Promises and Vows both by word of Mouth and in Writing they did by their Creatures and Agents oppose the said Duke's pretensions and endeavoured with all Industry to have gotten the Prince of Condé preferred before all his Competitors a particular Account whereof would if published without any other Instance be a sufficient warning to all other Princes and afford them a perfect Character of the French Court. But 't is remarkable That it is not with Princes alone that they thus finely deal but they observe also just the same measure of Faith toward such Rebels and Traytors of their making as they have gained for Money to betray the Concerns of their own Country by serving the Intrigues and Interests of France For when after the beginning of this War they saw the Emperour setting himself in good earnest to assist the Dutch then to disswade and divert him from his purpose and to engage him if it had been possible not to concern himself or take part in the Quarrel they very fairly offer'd him to deliver into his hands all the Original Letters and Papers they had received from time to time from their bribed Friends and Creatures in Poland to the end that both his Imperial Majesty and his Brother-in-Law the King of Poland might take what course they thought sit with those Traitors Which handsom Story may serve as a fair Warning and Fright to all those that prefer French Money before their Loyalty and the true Interests of their Country And truly this piece of Insidelity in the French is the only Piece of Justice that I find them guilty of in the management of Affairs with their Friends and Correspondents But withal I find that this piece of their kindness to his Imperial Majesty was to make him amends for another prank of Treachery that had been plaid him a while before For the most Christian Ministers pretending a courtesie to assist him against the Turk and accordingly having sent Forces to joyn with the Imperial Army they at the very same time began to settle a Correspondence with Count Serini Frachipani Nadasti and Tottenbach as did afterwards appear upon the breaking out of the Conspiracy when the Depositions and Confessions of some of the Accomplices were produced who had been instrumental in carrying both Monies and Letters from the French Minister resident at Vienna to the said Conspirators Next let us have recourse to the Swedes and examin whether they having been many years their very good Friends and humble Servants have had better luck in treating with them than others in point of dealing But surely Siveden cannot forget that almost twenty Years ago they had occasion to make a Treaty with them whereby they were to receive by way of Gratuity or Pension Sixteen Hundred Thousand Crowns Nevertheless upon second thoughts the French finding their Treaty with Sweden to be but of little use to them at that time refused to ratifie it and sent Monsieur de Trelon his Ambassadour to them to tell them in short That the King his Master declared it to be void Which is a fine Court-stile for one Prince to use to another in Treating and a tart short Majestick way of rescinding Treaties It were both needless and tedious to tell how well they have observed their Treaties with Holland seeing they cannot so much as assign the least Cause of the War they now make against them forasmuch as in their Declaration they told us only of a Mauvaise satisfaction and that they were ill pleased and that it would tend to a diminution of the Glory of the most Christian King unless to please himself he put all Europ in a Flame and endeavour to bring all under his subjection It is pleasant likewise to observe how they practised their Art also upon that notable Fox the Bishop of Munster how they not only lurch't him during his Contest with the United Provinces but their French Troops fell also upon him and indangered the loss of his Country How they another time brought him about to lurch us in England by reducing him to a necessity of separating from our Interest after he had received assistance from us in a good Sum of Money How they hindred the Swedes from arming in our favour and sway'd Denmark from our Party during our War with the Dutch even at the same time when France seem'd to forward and favour us against Holland and it hath been often published that they then spurr'd on the Dutch and were in with them in the contrivance of that Affront which they did us in the River of Thames thereby reckoning that so severe an exasperation would necessarily follow in our Minds against Holland as might render us irreconcileable to them and engage us in War so long till we should waste and wear out one another's Men and Shipping that we might at last be the less able to oppose France who was at that time meditating and forming such a mighty Advance of her own Naval Power as might inable her to contend against us both when We should see it our Interest to unite against her hereafter And the truth is the French Ministers did herein act according to a right understanding of their own Business For they did and do very well know that in order to the main End of grasping All they ought to dread nothing more than a durable and firm Friendship between us and the United Provinces as that alone that can set bounds to their Ambition and redeem Europ from that Toke which they are framing and devising how to put about our Necks Therefore it was dextrously done of them to find out a fine Artifice of Treachery to delude us both and to spin out that War For in the very heat of the War they kept Negotiations still on foot both in England and at the Hague put on a disguise of Mediation pretending to make us Friends and to that purpose made Offertures and Proposals of Peace It might be told who were said to be the Instruments on both sides to push on this project of delusion upon us so far that we in England were assured by the French that the Dutch were so well inclin'd to Peace that for that time they meant to lay up their Men of War but then afterwards the French under hand pressed the said Dutch with all vigour and earnestness imaginable against us and to fit out their Men of War again promising that rather than fail they would joyn theirs to them against us It was upon a supposal the French were true to us at that time in carrying on their pretended Proposals of Peace that we were made secure slackned our Preparations that Year and so a surprise followed upon it for the Dutch having been Tarantulated with a French Brieze in their Tails danced after the Lesson they had set them and so entred our River as high