sparing no Man's part and holding an equal proportion with every Man's Estate Only this Circumstance should be in it to make it easy That not only every Man should have the Offer and Pre-emption of his own but if upon refusal it should be sold to another Hand yet it shall be free for the Owner to buy it of him at any Time within a certain Space as of two or three Years and the present Purchaser to be content with the Profit he shall have made in the mean Time which will prove a great Interest for his Capital Thirdly A reducing of the Interest which the King pays from Ten to Eight in the Hundred with which the Bankers may very well be contented and must be I suppose if the King pleases and finds a Course to make them see their Security cannot fail them For two in the Hundred Gain is of all Reason enough for them where the Security they receive is as good as what they give as it is in this Case For the King's Security to the Banker is in effect the Banker's Security to his private Creditors and whenever one fails the other must Now the Bankers pay but Six in the Hundred at most for In-land Mony and less for some And I have Reason to doubt a very great Trade is driven with them from Holland by Dutch Merchants who turn their Mony through their Hands encouraged by the great Interest they gain there in lieu of so small here that the States have lately refused to take the Value of Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling of the Duke of Lunenburg's Mony at Two and a half per Cent. and Three is the utmost that any Man makes And if the King by granting good Security punctual Payments and the Reputation of good Order in his Revenue were gotten into Credit I do not see why he might not upon Occasion take up what he pleased at Six per Cent. as well as the States do here at Two and a half Fourthly To enable the King upon any Occasion to give better Security I know nothing would do so much as if the Parliament could be disposed to settle the Customs upon him for one Year after his Death as they are already for his Life but that being an uncertain Term Mony will not be readily or without Exaction of Interest lent upon that which may fail next Day And yet I conceive it to be the largest Branch of the Revenue and in all other Points the most certain Fifthly If any Thing were set on foot in Parliament towards an Act of Resumption of Grants of Crown-lands since a certain Time Use might at least be made of it towards drawing such Grantees to a voluntary Composition of holding their Grants at the Rent of a fourth or fifth part of the real Value to the Crown in Consideration of having such Grants confirmed by Act of Parliament or the King's Engagement to consent to nothing to their Prejudice after their Consent to such a Rent and Tenure Sixthly A View may be made at least of what has been gained by any Grants from his Majesty above what were really his Majesty's Intentions to grant As where the King intended to give Five hundred Pounds a Year and perhaps Seven or Eight or a Thousand Pounds is made of it And the same of Sums of Mony out of certain Benefits granted towards the raising them And what is found to be beyond the Intention of the King's Grant to be repaid Many smaller Particulars might perhaps be thought of All which with what has been mentioned will be made valuable by a good Order in the management and a stanch Hand in Grants hereafter till the King be as much before-hand as he is behind-hand now I am my Lord your c. To Mr. * Now Earl of Montague Montague Hague Jan. 2. S. N. 1669. My LORD IT is an ill Sign of the Dulness of this Place that I must have Recourse to the Complements of the Season for the Occasion of a Letter and that I can find very little to say from hence besides wishing your Lordship according to our good old Stile a merry Christmas The Spaniards have not yet had so much good Nature as to make ours here the merrier with their Two hundred thousand Crowns I doubt it has some Enchantment or other upon it and is not to be delivered but in some fatal Hour or by some charmed Knight All is here frozen up and the Bishop of Munster may march if he pleases but if he do as has been so much talkt will blow his Fingers unless he receives very great Influences from your warmer Climate For the good Pay of these States is in so much Credit among their Neighbours that I believe they will not want what Forces they shall have Occasion for besides what they have a-foot I should be very glad to hear what becomes of my Lord and Lady of Northumberland and how long they intend their Pilgrimage supposing your Lordship keeps some Correspondence with them of which I am out of the way but very much in that of being My LORD Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Hague Jan. 18. S. N. 1669. My LORD THE Baron d'Isola arriving here Yesterday I have this Afternoon had some Discourses with him upon the Subject of his Journey which he professes to be a Desire of advancing the Treaty of Guaranty as a Thing his Master has more Interest in than Spain it self which will be better able to subsist after the Loss of Flanders than the Empire can I find he came with Hopes of affecting much by his Eloquence and great Parts and by making others see more of their own Interests than they were willing to do And so the two Themes wherein he came provided were To make it evident that France would open the War again this Spring and within six Weeks attack either Burgundy or Luxenburg and on the other Side That the Councils of Spain as they are now composed if they saw not a solid and firm Assistance from their Neighbours would fall into the easiest way of ending that Matter by giving up Flanders upon the best Terms they could That they were as a sick Man that would not or could not help themselves and were so to be dealt with by those that were so deeply concerned in their Loss as these States in particular seem to be And that after the Disarming of the Duke of Lorrain which France had now resolved and the seizing of Burgundy which would be their next Work it would be impossible to maintain a War in what remains of Flanders when they could do it no longer by Diversion after these two Inlets into France stopt up From this we fell into the Story of the Suedish Subsidies and the Hardships put upon Spain in that Business all which I suppose your Lordship has heard a dozen Times already and are obvious enough and therefore I shall not repeat them not remembring any Thing
often over the Pleasures of the Air and the Earth and the Water but much more of the Conversation at Sheen and make me believe that if my Life wears not out too soon I may end it in a Corner there tho' Your Lordship will leave it I know in Time for some of those greater and nobler Houses that attend you I am obliged by the very pleasing Relations you give from those softer Scenes in Return of which such as I can make you from those of Business or War or Tumult must I know yield rougher Entertainment and therefore I have sent them in a Paper which shall pass rather for a Gazette than a Letter and shall content my self only to tell Your Lordship that 't is hardly to be imagined the Change which about three Weeks past have made in the Face of Holland's Affairs which are now esteemed here to be upon the Point of breaking into much such a Confusion as we saw in England about 1659 Nor can any Thing almost be added in these Parts to the Reputation of his Majesty's Arms and Affairs so far that it grows a Credit to be an English Man and not only here but in Amsterdam it self I am told my Lord Stafford who went lately thither about a Process has more Hats and Legs than the Burgomaster of the Town I will not increase Your Lordship's Trouble by any enlarging upon this Subject having offered you a much longer in the inclosed I wish I could give you some of another Kind by sending you a little Spanish Mistress from hence whose Eyes might spoyl your Walks and burn up all the green Meadows at Sheen and find other Ways of destroying that Repose Your Lordship pretends alone to enjoy in spight of the common Fate of Mankind But however your Friends suffer by it I wish it may last as long as it pleases you I am sure the Professions will do so of my being My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Brussels Aug. S. N. 1666. My Lord I Am not to be forgiven that endeavour by one Trouble to make Room for another and solicite Your Lordship this Way that my Wife may have Leave to solicite you in a Matter wherein I can never resolve to do it my Self Your Lordship's Friendship has left me little to desire or complain of unless it be when I find my own Fortune so disproportioned to my Mind in the Resolutions I have of doing His Majesty all the Honour as well as all the Service I can But how ill they agree in this Point tho' I was ever Rich while I was private even beyond my Desires is a Story I would rather any Body should tell you than I However I should not bring my Wife into this Scene but that I know she will ask nothing but my own is a Person not apt to be troublesome or importunate and in all kinds the best Part of My Lord Your c. Patri Gottenburg Brussels Dec. 16th S.N. 1666. Domine REctè per manus dulcissimae tuae sororis accepi Chirothecas elegantissimè consutas non minus politè contextas Literas per quas nec me elapsum memoriâ vestrâ nec planè exutum Benevolentiâ sentio gaudeo Utroque nomine me pulcherrimae istae Indoli per totam vestram Familiam diffusae potius quam ulli meo merito obligatum aestimo Habeo itaque ago gratias quamplurimas ut vero acceptiori quodam modo eas referre studeam sororem optimam exoravi quae me ut spero Officio Debito perfunctum brevi redditura est Valeat interim Reverentia vestra studiis propositis auspicatissimè incumbat ex Votis procedat meque semper teneat Amicissimum c. To Mr. Thynn Brussels Feb. 19. S. N. 1667. SIR ABout two Days since I received the Favour of Yours of the 16th past and am sorry to be put upon the Defence in an Encounter so much to my Advantage This had not arrived if I could as easily have found the Way of conveying my Letters as the Dispositions of Writing For those I have always had about me since I knew your Station and Character which I thought would help to bear me out in that Attempt The little Acquaintance you are contented to own I durst not reckon upon because it was so much more than I deserved and so much less than I desired but am very glad that may be allowed of among the Obligations we have to enter upon this Commerce tho' we need no other than our Master's Service which may on both sides be improved by the Communication of what passes in our different Scenes I shall not engage in answering the Complements of your Letter tho' I should have much more Justice on my Side but I am very ill furnished with that sort of Ware and the Truth is there is required so much Skill in the right tempering as well as the Distribution of them that I have always thought a Man runs much hazard of losing more than he gains by them which has made me ever averse as well as incapable of the Trade It will be to more Purpose to let you know the Confidence we have here of our Treaty with Spain being Signed in all Points to our satisfaction but whether Portugal has or will accept their Part in it which is a Truce of forty five Years I cannot yet resolve you only this I am assured that it is feared in the French Court as well as hoped in ours The current News at Antwerp as well as here is of the Dutch Merchant Fleet from Nantes and Rochel consisting of above a hundred Sail under the Convoy of six Men of War being fallen into a Squadron of about twenty of our Frigats and few are said to have escaped tho' this be doubted of none here and the current Letters from Zealand as well as Ostend make it probable yet I suspend my Confidence till the Arrival of my English Letters which are my Gospel in these Cases This Coldness I know makes me lose many Pleasures but on the other side helps me to escape many Disappointments which light Belief in the midst of so many light Reports is subject to The Councils or Dispositions of a subordinate Government as this is are not worth troubling you with but those in the Court here are in short what we wish them Those of the Scene you are in deserve much more the Enquiry and I should be very glad to know them from so good a Hand My Desires of serving you can I am sure never be known from a better than my own which can value it self to you by nothing else but by telling I am SIR Your most obedient humble Servant To the Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor Brussels Mar. 4. S. N. 1697. My Lord UPon the Arrival of the last Post from Spain which brought us the unwelcome News of our Treaty meeting an unhappy Obstruction when it was at the very
nihilominus ineatur hoc excepto ut liberum sit Regi Christianissimo suppetias ferre Regi Lusitaniae Foederato suo eique auxilio esse sive inferendo arma sua ut aliunde detrabat hostem sive alio quocunque modo quem sibi commodissimum atque maximè ex usu fore existimabit Et si Hispani adduci poterunt ut consentiant in Pacem sub dicta conditione atque ea proinde concluclatur Rex Christianissimus tenebitur à Belgica ut pacata atque neutrarum partium rebus implicata omnâ—ò â—bstâ—nere neque ei jus fa qâ—e erit quidquam adversus eam moliri neque palam virtute bellica neque clandestinis artibus ut ne petere ullam satisfactionem sub obtentu impensarum erog tronumque quae in bello Lusitanico erunt facienâ—ae tam ob delectum Mâ—â—tum quam alia Belli Onera Quòd si contingat mâ—nente dicto Bello per Auxiliares Regis Christianissimi Copias occupari loca quaedam in Hispania Italiave Rex Christianissimus simulatque Pax cum Lusitania facta fuerit eadem restituet Hispaniae Sed si praeter contra Expectationem Hispania recuset Pacem cum Rege Lusitaniae ut cum Rege Christianissimo ea cum exce tione ut Foederato suo liberum sit ei auxiliari quemadmodùm jam dictum est hoc inopinato casu Rex Magnae Britanniae foederati Ordines tenebuntur reapse id efficere ut Hispani omnimodò in id consentiant ita tamen ut reciprocè Rex Christianissimus se obstringat quemadmo◠ùm Casu primo quod non sit moturus Arma in Belgica III. Si praeter omnem expectionem Rex Christianissimus inducat in animum ut promittere nolit quod Tractatum Pacis signaturus sit simulatque Hispani cessuri fint omnia loca ab eo occupata in novissima expeditione vel aliud tantundem valens de quo mutuo consensu convenietur aut promissorum fidem non impleat aut detrectet respuatve cautiones praemunimenta in dicto Tractatu expressa quae necessaria sunt ut obviam eatur metui justissimè concepto ne Rex Christianissimuâ— arma sua victricia in saepiùs memorata Belgica ulteriùs proferat Quod omnibus istis casibus ut si per alia Subterfugia aut obliquas Artes conetur Pacis conclusionem impedire aut eludere Anglia foederatumque Belgium tenebuntur accedere partibus Regis Hispaniae omnibusque junctis viribus Terra Marique adversus Galliam bellum gerere ut compellatur non in leges duntaxat saepiùs jam memoratas Pacem facere sed si arma in eum finem sumpta Deum habeant faventem propitium atque de communi consensu id expedire visum fuerit etiam bellum continuare donec res in eum statum fuerint restitutae quo fuerunt tempore foederis in collimitio Regnorum in Montibus Pyrenaeis sanciti IV. Articuli hi separati omniaque singula iis contenta à â—icto Domino Rege Magnae Britanniae dictisque Dominis Ordinibus Generalibus foederatarum Provinciarum per patentes utriusque partis litteras sigillo magno munitas debita authenticu Forma intra quatuor Septimanas proximè sequentes aut citiùs si fieri poterit confirmabuntur ratihahebuntur mutuaque Ratihabitionum Instrumenta intra praedictum tempus hinc inde extradentur Actum Hagae-Comitum in Hollandia Die 23 Januarii 1668. Signed as before The Sweedish Act. WHereas the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands have earnestly desired that the King of Sweeden might be associated with them as one Principal party in that League which is this Day concluded and signed by their Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries whereby a speedy and safe Peace may be promoted and made between the two neighbouring Kings and the publick Tranquillity of Christendom by the Blessing of God may be restored And whereas the King of Sweeden himself even from the beginning of these Differences which have grown to such a height between the two Kings has acquainted the King of Great Britain and the States of the united Netherlands with his good and sincere Intentions and Desire to associate and join himself to them in the Business above-mention'd as well in regard of the strict Friendship and Alliances which he ackowledges have joined him in one common Interest with them as that by his Accession to them all useful and honourable Means and Industry may be used to establish a Peace between the two Kings Professing that no other Difficulty has hitherto restrained him from opening his Mind upon that whole matter than That he waited to be informed what firm and deliberate Counsels the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Netherlâ—â—ds would take in this Affair and what Assistance would by requisite with other things of that kind in which the said King of Sweeden desires to be satisfied to the end that he may proceed by the like Steps and in equal manner with the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Netherlands For these Reasons 't is thought expedient for the common good That the present Instrument between the Ministers Deputies and Plenipotentiaries of the said Kings of Sweeden and Great Britain and those of the said States of the United Netherlands be put down in Writing whereby on the one hand the King of Sweeden should be oblig'd after the fore-said Satisfaction receiv'd to embrace the said League to use the same Endeavours and to proceed equally and in the like manner as the said King of Great Britain and the said States of the United Netherlands think fit to do in order to promote and carry on so useful a Work and on the other hand the said King of Sweeden will be assured That a Place is reserved for him empty and intire to enter as one Principal Party into this League as by these Presents he is desir'd in the most friendly manner both by the King of Great Britain and by the States of the United Netherlands who on their Part will most readily employ themselves and all kind of good Offices towards the Emperor and King of Spain to the end that all such Differences as the said King of Sweeden may have with them be compos'd and determin'd according to the Rules of Equity and Justice And forasmuch as concerns the Aid which is required from the said King the States General of the United Netherlands will not be wanting to send with Expedition such necessary Instructions to their Ambassadors in the Court of England that between them and such Commissioners as the said King of Great Britain shall appoint to that purpose and the Extraordinary Ambassador of the King of Sweeden who is now ready to begin his Journey thither together with other Ministers residing there on the Part of divers Princes and States who are concern'd and interested in this Affair such Measures may be taken to settle all things which shall be
and their Pretensions in the same Condition they were before The same Liberty still remaining upon the last Article of the Marine Treaty to appoint Commissioners and alter or add any Thing when both Parties shall agree and will be but like taking so much by Advance upon Account of a greater Debt So that I am apt to conclude from all these Observations That they who influence our Merchants in this Prosecution either have no meaning this Treaty should end fairly and so they put it obstinately upon that single Point and in that Form which they know will never be granted or else they aim at gaining an Occasion of raising new Disputes with the Dutch whenever they find a Conjuncture for it there seeming some Reason for the Dutch Opinion that agreeing upon an Article as ours propose it we may fall into new Contests upon the Extent and Interpretation of it whenever we please If this last End be in the Bottom of this Business and it be taken up or countenanced by his Majesty or his Ministers upon Reason of State and we make our Provisions and take all our Measures accordingly for ought I know it is a wise and may prove an honourable Council in Time at least if the present State of Affairs in Christendom should change by any sudden or unexpected Revolution But if our Merchants or those who influence them in this Matter mean no such Thing as a Conclusion of the Treaty but only by the depending of such Disputes to leave an Unkindness and Weakness in our Alliance which may in time shake the Foundations of it and make way for new Measures on one Side or other which will in time prove destructive to both I cannot but interpret this as the Effect of their Distast or Envy at the King 's present Ministry and the Course of his Councils which have not gained greater Honour abroad nor perhaps Safety and good Will at home by any Thing than by our late Alliances so renowned here and thereby the Stop we have given to the Progress of the French Greatness And therefore it must come from the Influence of some who would be glad to see not only our Alliance shaken or changed abroad but our Ministry at home too which I shall be sorry to see till the King can find better Hands for himself and the Kingdom to place it in And whenever that happens as much as I am your Lordship's Servant I shall be very well contented and so I dare say will you too If your Lordship should imagine any particular Envy or Peek at me or my Employment here may have contributed to the Difficulties which have succeeded in this Business and that our Merchants or those that influence them believe it would thrive better in any other Hand I will beg of you not to be sway'd by Considerations of Kindness to me in a Matter of publick Concernment nor to fear that whenever this Employment falls you shall be troubled with me at home as great Ministers use to be with Men out of Office For while the King's Business goes well 't is not two Straws matter whether such a Body as I have any Share in it or no. And there 's an end of all the Reflections I have had upon the most troublesome and untoward Business that I thank God I ever had in my Life or I hope shall ever have again And perhaps I am mistaken in them all However if your Lordship can pardon this you shall be sure not to be troubled in haste with any more of it from My Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Aug. 7. S. N. 1669. My LORD I Was very glad to find your Lordship in your last upon your Journey into the Country because I very much doubt whether the Exercise or Diversions you usually allow your self are what your Health requires and what your Cares and Troubles deserve I am sure in the Prospect I have of them I am so far from envying them with all their gay Circumstances that I think your Lordship has a very hard Bargain of them altogether unless it be one Day made up to you by the Glory and Satisfaction of some great Success in the Pursuit you intend of his Majesty's and the Kingdoms Honour Safety and Happiness which I doubt will need some stronger Councils than Men seem at present disposed to But this is none of my Business I cannot give your Lordship any Account of what you say is made a great Matter of by Somebody to a private Hand about the Difficulties intended by Spain in the two last Suedish Payments with Design of making new Demands I am only in Pain at present to see the first Payment finished which is not yet arrived but expected by the first Courier When that is done and the Guaranty delivered by Sueden as well as us and Holland I shall be in no great Fear besides that of the Spanish King's Death or of Spain falling into some Agreement or other with France for the Exchange of Flanders by seeing so great a War still entailed upon it and their Neighbours unwilling to share so far in their Dangers as perhaps it were Our and the Dutch Interest to do I am sure in the present Posture of that Monarchy if I were of their Council I should be of Advice to do it whenever France would be content upon it to quit all Pretence to the rest of the Spanish Dominions And perhaps 't were wise for France to get Flanders by that or any other quiet Condition For within two Years after he were well possess'd of that little Spot of Ground I doubt no Prince or State in Christendom would pretend to dispute any more with him then than the Spaniard does now But these are Events to be considered by Men in greater Spheres than I am and perhaps deserve to be a little more thought on than they are I have received and returned a Visit with the French Ambassador so that we are upon as good Terms as can be My Lord Culpepper pass'd this way last Week and upon that Occasion I cannot but desire your Lordship to let me know more particularly from you how I am to treat any English Lord as to the Hand and Door in my own House For though the French Example is given me as to all publick Ministers yet there is nothing specified as to other Persons and if I am to follow it in this and other Particulars I desire to have something from his Majesty's positive Commands to bear me out as the French Ambassadors have and as methinks the Case deserves Since I am told the Innovation began in Monsieur Cominges's Time in England and that before the Orders he received in it he gave the Hand to all Gentlemen of Quality in England and to all Persons of great Quality or Families though of his own Nation And that my Lord St. Albans ever gave it to all English Lords while he was Ambassador at Paris Though it seems
you some Passages of Fact upon which I ground the Judgment I make of Affairs wherein I have no Part and which I am not so sollicitous to draw into the Light as I doubt others are to keep them in the Dark And when I have told you these I shall leave you to judge whether I take my Measures right as to my own private Conduct You know first the Part I had in all our Alliances with Holland how far my own personal Credit was engaged upon them to Monsieur de Witt and the Resolutions I not only acquainted Him and You with but his Majesty too that I would never have any Part in breaking them whatever should happen Tho' that I confess could hardly enter into any Bodies Head that understood the Interests of Christendom as well as our own I have given you some Intimations how cold I have observed our Temper at Court in those Matters for this last Year and how different it was thought abroad from that Warmth with which we engaged in them So as it was a common Saying at the Hague Qu'il faut avouer qu'il y a eu neuf mois du plus grand Ministere du monde en Angleterre For they would hardly allow a longer Term to the Vigour of that Council which made the Triple Alliance and the Peace of Aix and sent me over into Holland this last Ambassy to pursue the great Ends of them and draw the Emperor and Princes of the Empire into the common Guaranty of the Peace Instead of this our Pretensions upon the Business of Surinam and the East-India Companies have grown high and been managed with Sharpness between Us and the States and grounded as Monsieur de Witt conceives more upon a Design of shewing them our ill Humour than our Reason I was sensible that my Conduct in all these Matters had fallen short for many Months past of the Approbation at Court it used to receive and that Mr. Worden was sent over to me only to disparage it or espy the Faults of it tho' I think he returned with the Opinion that the Business would not bear it 'T is true both my Lord Arlington and Sir John Trevor continued to the last of my stay in Holland to assure me that the King still remained firm in his Measures with the States But yet I found the Business of admitting the Emperor into the Guaranty went downright lame And that my Lord Keeper was in a manner out of the Foreign Councils for so he writ to me himself and gave me notice at the same time that my Lord Arlington was not at all the same to me that he had been Which I took for an ill Sign in our publick Business and an ill Circumstance in my own and the more because I was sure not to have deserved it and found nothing of it in his own Letters but only that they came seldom and run more upon indifferent Things than they used to do Ever since Madame's Journy into England the Dutch had grown jealous of something between Us and France and were not like to be cured by these Particulars I have mentioned But upon the Invasion and Seizure of Lorrain by France and my being sent for over so suddenly after it Monsieur de Witt himself could keep his Countenance no longer though he be neither suspicious in his Nature nor thought it the best Course to discover any such Disposition upon this Occasion how much soever he had of it But yet he told me at my coming away that he should make a Judgment of us by the suddenness of my return which the King had ordered me to assure him of When I came to Town I went immediately to my Lord Arlington according to my Custom And whereas upon my several Journies over in the late Conjunctures he had ever quitted all Company to receive me and did it always with open Arms and in the kindest manner that could be he made me this last time stay an hour and half in an outward Room before he came to me while he was in private with my Lord Ashly He received me with a Coldness that I confess surprized me and after a quarter of an hours Talk of my Journy and his Friends at the Hague instead of telling me the Occasion of my being sent for over or any thing else material he called in Tatá that was in the next Room and after that my Lord Croâ—ts who came upon a common Visit and in that Company the rest of mine pass'd till I found he had nothing more to say to me and so went away The next Morning I went however to him again desiring to be brought by him to kiss the King's Hand as I had used upon my former Journies He thought fit to bring me to his Majesty as he was walking in the Mall who stopt to give me his Hand and ask me half a dozen Questions about my Journy and about the Prince of Orange and so walk'd on Since which Time neither the King nor my Lord Arlington have ever said three Words to me about any thing of Business though I have been as often in their way as agreed with such an ill Courtier as I am or a Man without Business as I found my self to be I have seen my Lord Keeper and Mr. Secretary Trevor And find the first uneasy and apprehensive of our present Councils the last sufficient and confident that no Endeavors can break the Measures between Us and Holland because they are esteemed so necessary abroad and so rational at home But I find them both but barely in the Skirts of Business and only in Right of their Posts And that in the Secret of it the Duke of Buckingham my Lord Arlington my Lord Ashly and Sir Thomas Clifford at present compose the Ministry This I tell you in short as the Constitution of our Affairs here at this Time and which I believe you may reckon upon You know how different Sir Thomas Clifford and I have always been since our first Acquaintance in our Scheams of Government and many other Matters especially concerning our Alliance with Holland And that has been the Reason I suppose of very little Commerce between us further than common Civility in our frequent Encounters at my Lord Arlington's for several Years past This made me a little surprized at his receiving me upon my first coming over and treating me since with a most wonderful Graciousness till t'other day which I suppose has ended that Style Upon the first Visit he made me after many Civilities he told me he must needs have two hours Talk with me at some Time of Leisure and in private upon our Affairs in Holland And still repeated this almost every time he saw me Till one Day last Week when we appointed the Hour and met in his Closet He began with great Compliments to me about my Services to the King in my Employments abroad went on with the Necessity of preserving our Measures with
Point of being perfected Count Marsyn came to me and after a Preface of the great Obligations he had to His Majesty and the Part he took in all our Interests as well as those of Spain he fell into large Discourses of the unhappy Influences any Interruption in the present Treaty would have upon the Affairs of both Crowns He insisted much upon the Hardship we put upon the Spaniards in not consenting to leave the Assistance of their Enemies which was all the Advantage they expected from this Treaty in stead of many they gave that the great Effect of it on both sides would thereby be lost which was a Return into mutual Confidence and at least the Beginnings of a sincere Friendship That Spain having consented to what Terms His Majesty thought reasonable and Portugal not only refusing them but entring at the same into new Dependancies upon France he could not see what could oblige His Majesty to more than offering Portugal an equal Peace and becoming the Warrant of it That at His Majesty's Mediation Spain had given them a Style as usual and as honourable as what they desired and if they could resolve to give them that of King in stead of Crown they had then no need or use of His Majesty's Mediation That whether we thought it our Interest to have a Peace or War in Christendome we must begin by adjusting the Business of Portugal for if we desired the first nothing could so much awe the French into quiet Dispositions as that Peace and ours with Holland to which that would likewise be an Ingredient If the latter and we had a mind rather to be Seconds in a War of Spain with France than Principals in any which he thought was our true Interest nothing could make Way for it or enable Spain either to begin or sustain a War with France but a Peace with Portugal That he was confident His Majesty's consenting to abandon them in Case they refused to be included in our Treaty would force them immediately to accept it that if not and His Majesty should hereafter find it his Interest to support them upon any great Successes of Spain on that side it would be easie to do it by Connivance by voluntary Troops of his own Subjects or by a third Hand provided it went no further than to keep Spain in the Temper of yielding to the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty shall have judged reasonable But for the present without His Majesty's Condescension to Spain in this Point he did not see how we could hope to effect our Treaty or to receive any Fruits of it where new Occasions of Diffidence and Distaste would every Day arise These were the chief of Count Marsyn's Discourses which he ended in desiring me that I would represent them to His Majesty's chief Ministers and particularly to Your Lordship from him as the best present Testimony he could give of his Zeal to His â—ajesty's Service and Affairs and which he would have done himself but for fear it might look like intruding into Matters and Councils he was not called to Besides this single Point upon which this Stop of our Treaty is wholly grounded I could not but represent to Your Lordship some other Circumstances which I imagine may have fallen in and helpt to occasion it I hear France has declared positively to the Spaniard that they will immediately begin the War upon the Spaniards Signing the Treaty with us and concluding the Truce or Peace with Portugal upon our Mediation To this End and to shew the Spaniards they are in earnest they busie themselves in making new Levies and drawing down many Troops upon these Frontiers as well as all sort of Provisions either for Sieges or a Camp Upon this I know not whether the Spanish Councils may be so faint as not to dare give the French any pretence of a Quarrel but preserve their Quiet rather by shrinking than making a bold Peace Or whether being composed of Men that hardly ever lookt out of Spain or consider any thing but that Continent they may not upon Foresight of War either continuing with Portugal or beginning in Flanders rather chuse the first where being Invaders they may give themselves what Breath they please imploy their own Natives in the Charges of Honour and Gain and keep all the Money spent in the War still within their Countrey whereas whatever comes into Flanders never returns and is swallowed up by so many foreign Troops as the Levies for that Service must needs draw together There may yet another and more prudent Consideration arise with these which may for the present delay the Conclusion of our Treaty and that is a Desire to sign it rather before the Winter than in the Spring and by that Means both gain this Summer to finish the Fortification of their Frontiers here and the next Winter to put their Army in a better Posture than they now are or I doubt will suddenly be for the beginning of a Campagne and if this Council should be taken by Concert with us that no Breach of Confidence may grow between us by these Delays but the French only flattered by vain Hopes of breaking our Treaty and thereby induced to let the Spaniard grow a Year older in their Peace with them and slacken the War of Portugal into as low Expence and as little Action or Hazard as they can I know nothing can be said against it and should be apt to believe it were the Councils there in the Breast of any one Person by last Ressort whereas the divided Interests and Passions of the Councellours cannot well suffer them to fall into such a Resolution with hope of Consent and Secret among them all This Reflection puts me upon another I hear from private Hands which may possibly have made some Change in the Course of our Treaty which is that the whole Management of Affairs in the Council of Spain seems at present to be devolved into the Hands of Count Castriglio the Confessor leaving it to him and reserving to himself those Things only which depend immediately upon the Will of the Queen and proposing to himself during his Ministry which cannot be long in regard of Castriglio's great Age to make Way for his own by growing older and practised in Affairs as well as the Knowledge Obligations and Dependances of Persons Now our Treaty having never passed through Castriglio's Hands but conducted by Sir Richard Fanshaw wholly through the Duke of Medina's his declared Enemy and since by my Lord Sandwich chiefly through Pignoranda's who is a third Party 't is not improbable that a new Hand may give it new Form either to add something of his own or to shew his Authority or perhaps to pursue his former usual Dispositions which have been bent upon the War with Portugal considering no Part of the Monarchy but Spain and the Indies and I doubt in particular not very partial to our Alliance or Affairs Upon these Intimations Your Lordship
for the Defence of this Place in Case of the Enemy's marching this Way The general Belief here of the most Intelligent is that France has had the Skill or good Luck de nous endormir both us and Holland in this great Conjuncture and by assuring us of Peace upon good Terms with the Dutch and at the same Time the Dutch of never According with us nor breaking with Spain to their the Hollanders Prejudice will amuse us both in a slow Treaty till they have made so great an Impression in these Countreys as will give neither of us the Liberty to take those Measures upon this Affair to which either of our Interests might lead us And perhaps find Means to divert the Treaty at last for coming to any Issue They say that delaying our Treaty for the Point of Poleroon is losing a Dinner for Mustard and that every Day it is deferred endangers an irrecoverable Conjuncture that Heaven hath given us of making our Selves Considerable to whom which way and to what Degree we please God send these Reasoners to be deceived and that we may not be so at least no more by the same Hands I am My Lord Your c. To Sir Philip Warwick Brussels June 21. S. N. 1667. SIR I Am very sorry that I must rejoice with You and condole with all your Friends at the same Time and upon the same Occasion for tho' the Retreat I hear you have made from Business must needs be a Trouble and a Loss to us all yet I know it is an Ease and a Happiness to your self or else a wise Man as you are ought not to have chosen it I will not tell you how great a Contentment I had in knowing my Business lay so much in your Way because I never intend to pursue more than what His Majesty pleases to make my Due and I have ever reckoned both upon your Justice and your Kindness But I must bear this Disappointment since you are the Author of it which is the best Consolation I can think of In the mean Time I hope you do not intend to retire from the Commerce of your Friends as well as that of Business for tho' you should lock your Self up within your Walls of Frog-Pool I shall ever pretend to have a share in you there it self and never omit any Occasions of assuring you that no Change you can make in your Course of Life can ever make any in the Resolutions I have taken of being always SIR Your c. To my Lord Arlington Brussels July 19. 1667. My Lord THE Diligence of the Posts or Favour of the Weather have given me two of Your Lordship's to acknowledge since my last of the 1st and 5th current with the good News of the Dutch being beaten off at Harwich for since we are in a Disease every Fit we pass well over is so much of Good and gives hopes of Recovery I doubt this is not the last for I hear De Witt is resolved that their Fleet shall not give over Action till the very Ratifications of the Treaty are exchanged In which he certainly pursues his Interest that the War may end with so much the more Honour abroad and Heart at home for commonly the same Dispositions between the Parties with which one War ends another begins And tho' this may end in Peace yet I doubt it will be with so much Unkindness between the Nations that it will be Wisdom on both Sides to think of another as well as to avoid it All Discourse here is of the Peace as a Thing undoubted and every Pacquet I receive from England confirms me in the Belief that a War abroad is not our present Business till all at home be in better Order no more than hard Exercise which strengthens healthy Bodies can be proper for those that have a Feaver lurking in the Veins or a Consumption in the Flesh for which Rest and Order and Diet are necessary and perhaps some Medicine too provided it come from a careful and a skilful Hand This is all that I shall say upon that Subject which I presume has before this received some Resolution by my Lord Ambassadour Coventry's Arrival for I confess my Stomach is come down and I should be glad to hear the Peace ended and our Coasts clear since it will not be better but all this while Multa gemens Ignominiam Plagasque superbi Hostis and I am sure would not desire to live unless with hopes of seeing our Selves one Day in another Posture which God Almighty has made us capable of whenever we please our selves I am sorry to find the Commerce between England and Spain so far cut off as it should seem by Your Lordship's Complaints of having received none of a Date later than May the 1st for mine holds yet pretty constant tho' I suppose visited by the French in their Passage On Sunday last I received one from Mr. Godolphin of the First currant where he told me the Treaties were sent Signed by several Ways into England and therefore concluded some of them arrived He seems to doubt still the Portuguees accepting their Share in it which is the likelier because the Marquess tells me he hears by this Ordinary that better Terms may be offered them tho' 't is pleasant the Spaniard should not have yet resolved to give them the Title when for ought I know without it all their own may be in Danger His Excellency assures me they are resolved in Spain upon declating a general War both by Sea and Land and that Way make the French unmask their Designs that they have sent Order already to sieze upon all that belongs to the French in their Indies who have a great Share in the Spanish Fleet that is daily expected home that they have remitted by this Ordinary to his Excellency a Hundred and Thirty Thousand Crowns which is the third Remise of about that Sum arrived since the War began and that they have negotiated with the Fregoni or some such Name being the ablest Merchants at Amsterdam for Nine Hundred Thousand more so that the Process seems well entered and I wish them a good Issue We have here no Certainty of the Progress of the French Arms nor can we say that Courtray is taken tho' the Report has continued more or less these four Days but the Marquess would not own any Advice of it on Saturday Night tho' he spoke very despairingly of the Town but confidently of the Cittadel's holding out at least fifteen Days if those within it did their Duty His Excellency makes a very different Story of the Baron of Limbeck's Defeat which was reported here and assures me that having carried some Relief into Courtray He retreated with only Two Hundred Horse and meeting a Party of Six Hundred of the French charged through them killed the Captain of their Vantguard with several others and came off with the Loss only of Fifteen Men. Yesterday Morning the Marquess went to Gant with
with our Conclusion For upon our first Conference with the Commissioners he had said Tout cela s'en ira en Fumèe que le Roy son Maitre s'eu mocqueroit The Day before our Signing being told we advanced very fast he replied Et bien d'icy á six semaines nous en parlerons relying upon the Forms of the State to run the Circle of their Towns Upon our giving him Part of the whole Business he replied coldly that he doubted we had not taken a right Way to our End that the Fourth Article of the Second Instrument was not in Terms very proper to be digested by a King of twenty nine Years old and at the Head of eighty Thousand Men That if we had joined both to desire his Master to prolong the Offer he had made of a Cessation of Arms till the Time we propose and withal not to move his Arms further in Flanders tho' Spain should refuse we might hope to succeed But if we thought to prescribe him Laws and force him to Compliance by Leagues between our Selves or with Spain tho' Sueden and the German Princes should join with us he knew his Master ne flecheroit pas and that it would come to a War of forty Years From this he fell a little warmly upon the proceeding of the States saying they knew his Master's Resolutions upon those two Points neither to prolong the Cessation proposed beyond the End of March nor to desist the Pursuit of his Conquests with his own Arms in Case Spain consented not to his Demands within that Term. He said His Majesty not being their Ally might treat and conclude what he pleased without their Offence but for the States who were their nearest Ally to conclude so much to his Master's Disrespect at least and without communicating with him the Ambassadour at all during the whole Treaty he must leave it to his Master to interpret as he thought fit Monsieur de Witt defended their Cause and our common Intentions with great Phlegm but great Steddiness and told me after he was gone that this was the least we could expect at first from a Frenchman and that I should do well however to give His Majesty an Account of it by the first that we put our Selves early in Posture to make good what we have said and that as to the Time and Degree of our Arming he would consult with the States and let me know their Thoughts to be communicated to His Majesty upon this Occasion I was in hopes to dispatch this away to morrow Morning but I shall be hindred till Night by the Delay of Signing of a separate Article with the Count de Dona whereby Place is reserved for Sueden to enter as Principal into this Treaty For I have gone along in the whole Business since my coming over with perfect Confidence and Concert with the Count de Dona upon his assuring me his Orders were to conform himself to His Majesty's Resolution in what concerns the two Crowns tho' before he absolutely engages he expects from the Spaniards by our Intercession some Supplies for Payment of his Troops and some other Adjustments with the Emperour which will be treated between the several Ministers at London under His Majesty's Influence In what I shall sign upon this Occasion together with the States I confess to Your Lordship to go beyond my Instructions but apprehending it to be wholly agreeable to His Majesty's Intentions and extremely advantageous to the common Ends and Affairs I venture upon this Excess and humbly beg His Majesty's Pardon if I fail Your Lordship will be troubled with some Postscript to Morrow before I dispatch an Express with the Copies to be ratified by His Majesty within a Month tho' I hope a less Time will be taken those of Holland having undertaken theirs on fifteen Days I am c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jan. 26. S. N. 1668. My Lord SInce the Close of my long Dispatch I have every Hour expected the Copies to be transmitted for His Majesty's Ratification without being able to procure them I cannot but imagine some Occasion of the Delay may have been a Desire in them here to interpose some Time between the Receipt of my last Friday's Letter and of this Pacquet to the End His Majesty may in the mean Time have dispatch'd his Orders to me about the Provisional Articles tho' I cannot think they should be of such Moment inserted or omitted to either Side I now dispatch the inclosed Copies of the Treaty in Order to His Majesty's Ratification which is generally desired may be returned as sudden as possibly the States having undertaken to have theirs ready in fifteen Days after the Signing and believing it necessary to proceed jointly and early to the mutual Councils of Arming in Case France continues the Dispositions they seem to be in at present of pursuing the War My Brother who will deliver this Dispatch to Your Lordship is able to add what particular Circumstances I may have omitted or Your Lordship shall think fit to enquire from this Place and what he fails Count Dona will supply who is a Person very well worth Your Lordship's particular Acquaintance and Assistance in his Negotiations or at least the Forms and Entrances of them being in all Points our Friend Yesterday the Spanish Ambassadour received the Communication of our Treaties from Monsieur de Witt and me with some Descants upon the hardship of it but I believe Satisfaction at Heart I have this Day written at large and with all the Instance imaginable to the Marquess de Castel-Rodrigo to induce his Consent and immediately upon the Ratifications shall away and pursue that Point at Brussels I cannot but rejoice in particular with Your Lordship upon the Success of this Affair having observed in Your Lordship as well as my Lord Keeper a constant steddy Bent in supporting His Majesty's Resolution which is here so generally applauded as the happiest and wisest that any Prince ever took for Himself or his Neighbours What in earnest I hear every Hour and from all Hands of that Kind is endless and even extravagant God of Heaven send His Majesty's Councils to run on the same Course and I have nothing left to wish since I know Your Lordship will continue to esteem me what I am with so great Passion and Truth My Lord Your c. To Sir Orlando Bridgman Lord Keeper Hague Jan. 27. S. N. 1668. My Lord THo' I know my long Dispatch by this Express to my Lord Arlington will give Your Lordship your Share of Trouble yet I could not omit the encharging my Brother with a particular Attendance upon Your Lordship from me nor accompanying him with these Acknowledgments of Your Lordship's great Favour and good Opinion even before I had the Honour of being known to you I will presume I have done nothing since to forfeit them as I had nothing before to deserve them and that my late good Fortunes at the Hague will help to
would answer if ever it did it should never be by my Hand and was as confident I might answer the same for Your Lordship and My Lord Arlington and that you would fall or stand upon this Bottom Monsieur de Witt seemed much satisfied with what I had said assured me for his Part he would give his Hands towards a good Conclusion of this Affair That he would trust His Majesty's Honour and Interest upon so great a Conjuncture as well as the Sincereness and Constancy of His Ministers whom he could judge of by no other Lights but what I gave him made me Compliments upon the great Confidence he had taken in me and my manner of dealing by what he had heard and seen of me since the first Visit I made him in my Passage here after the End of the War and concluded that I should see the Count Dona and try how far Sueden was to be engaged in this Affair I tell Your Lordship all these Circumstances that knowing where the Difficulties have been how they have been overcome and upon what Advances on my side this Knot has been tied Your Lordship and My Lord Arlington may the better know how to support this Affair and make any others easie by recovering the Credit of our Conduct in England so far lost by the Unsteddiness too truly laid to our Charge and at least by your own Constancy in what you have begun make good the Characters you have already in the World and the Assurances I have given Monsieur de Witt upon your Occasion That Evening I went to the Count Dona and run over all Ceremonies of our Characters by going straight into his Chamber taking a Chair and sitting down by him before he could rise out of his I told him I hoped he would excuse this Liberty upon an Errand wherein I thought both our Masters were concerned that Ceremonies were intended to facilitate Business and not to hinder it that I knew nothing to make my seeing the other Ambassadours at the Hague necessary and so was content with the Difficulties had been introduced between our Characters but thinking it absolutely for my Master's Service to enter into Confidence with His Excellency upon my Errand here I had resolved to do it in this Manner and if he gave me Leave would pursue it as if our Acquaintance and Commerce had been of never so long a Date The Count embraced me gave me great Thanks for the Honour I did him made me Compliments upon so frank and confident a Manner as I used with him and said he was ready to return it upon any Thing that I should think fit to communicate to him After this I entred into the Detail of my whole Progress to that Time both in England and here of His Majesty's Reasons of the common Interests of Christendom of the Reception my Errand found from Monsieur de Witt and the Hopes I had of succeeding Of our Discourses about engaging Sueden in the same Measures and a Desire of extending our League into a Triple Alliance among us for our own mutual Defence the Safety of Flanders and thereby of Christendom That I knew how the Crown of Sueden had been treated of late Years by France how close they had kept to the Friendship with His Majesty and how beneficial as well as honourable such a Part as this might prove to them by the particular Use they might be of to the Crown of Spain and that upon any good Occasion they might be sure of His Majesty's Offices and the States who resolved to enter into this Affair without any other Interest than that of the Preservation of Flanders and thereby of their own Safety and the common Good The Count Dona professed to applaud His Majesty's Council to be confident that Sueden would be content to go his Pace in all the common Affairs of Christendom which he was assured of by his own Instructions in general but that such an Affair as this not being foreseen he could have none upon it That if it succeeded he would make all the Paces he could to engage his Master in it as what he thought of Honour and Advantage to the common Safety But that he would return my Frankness to him with the same to me in telling me that he doubted my bringing it to an Issue That he first doubted Monsieur de Witt 's Resolution to break upon any Terms with France and close with England not only considering what had lately passed between us but the Interests of the House of Orange which he must ever believe would at one Time or other be advanced by us whereas he was sure to be supported against them by France Therefore he believed tho' he would not oppose it because the States and People might run into it yet he would find some Means to elude the Conclusion or Effect of it without appearing himself in any such Design That in the next Place since such a Treaty could not be made by the States general without first being sent to all the Provinces and Towns for their Approbation and Orders upon it to their Deputies he did not see how it was possible for the French Ambassadour to fail of engaging some Towns or Provinces against it and the Opposition of any one of them would lose the Effect since no new Treaty could be made by the Constitutions here without an universal Consent That however he would not discourage me but wish'd me Success with all his Heart upon many Reasons and among others as being so much a Servant to the House of Orange which could not but profit by a Conjunction between England and Holland And again promised whenever I brought it to a Period to use all his Endeavours and stretch his Powers as far as he could towards engaging his Master in the same Measures with us In the second Conference I had with Monsieur de Witt I acquainted him with what had passed with Count Dona which he seemed much pleased with and said tho' we could not expect he should have Powers so general as to conclude such an Affair yet an Instrument might be drawn up between us whereby Room may be left for Sueden to enter as a Principal into our Alliance and the Count de Dona had so much Credit at his Court to recommend it there so as to succeed especially upon the hopes we must give him of obtaining Subsidies from Spain which might countervail what they might lose from France upon this Occasion I then fell upon the Form of concluding this Treaty saying I could easily foretell the Fate of it if it must pass the common Forms of being sent by the several Deputies to all their Principals for their Result upon it That I knew this would take up a Month or six Weeks Time and that nothing would be so easie as for the French Ambassadour to meet with it in running that Circle and by engaging some one Member perhaps by Money thrown among the chief Persons in
d'agir qui comme vous savez est toujours franche ouverte moy je me loue infiniment de luy j'en ay toutes les raisâ—ns du monde je dois á toute sa conduite les eloges qu'il donne á la mienne Je le regarde comme un des plus grands Genies que j'ay connus avec cela trés homme de bien d'un commerce egalement aisé soit dans les negotiations soit dans la conversation Enfin la confiance est presentement retablie entre les deux Nations je la croy meme plus entiere que s'il n'y avoit jemais eu de guerre Pour les affaires generales je ne vous saurois dire autre chose si non que notre dessein unanime est de donner la paix la tranquilité a toute la Chretienté de sorte que si la France le veut elle l'aura ce printems si elle ne le veut pas ainsi que le dit Monsieur le Compte D'Estrades qui ajoute que du moins ce ne sera pas d'une paix de notre façon elle aura tout son soul de guerre Touchant la Convention á Aix jusq ' á ce que nous ayons responce de France de Brusselles je ne vous en saurois rien dire Nous leur avons deja donné avis de notre Ligue defensive de notre traité ou projet de paix Du moins cecy servira a fournir une nouvelle santé dans vos festins Allemans lors que les anciennes auront fait leur ronde accoutumée cela vous faira en meme tems souvenir de Monsieur Votre c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Feb. 12. S. N 1668. My Lord THE Arrival of the Ratifications here was received with the same Dispositions of general Satisfaction and Joy that the Treaty was concluded Those of the States will I doubt be something later ready tho' occasioned only by a Delay in the Assembly of the States of Friezland and Zealand but new Dispatches were Yesterday sent away for hastning both and Monsieur de Witt assures me the 20th of this Month will be the latest I shall expect them and he hopes all may be ready something sooner I shall press it all I can possibly and immediately after the Exchange made shall demand my Audience of Congè and away to Brussels to pursue His Majesty's Instructions there I cannot tell with what Success because I know not with what Meen the Marquess has entertained our Project of the Peace not yet having heard one Word from him in Answer to all I have writ upon this Subject I wish some of his Visions may not give it another Face than what it ought I am sure to receive from the true present State of the Spanish Affairs for in that Case I know his Way of arguing so well as to expect he should say there is no Reason for them to give Money to lose their Towns but that in Case His Majesty will enter into their Defence He shall want no Money the Indies can give him therefore he must be plied on that side by the Count of Molina and Baron de l'Isola as well as by me here and not only disposed to accept the Alternative but to receive it as the greatest Effect at present of His Majesty's good Will to the Preservation of Flanders and Step towards a future defensive League between Us and Them and Holland for the general Safety of the Spanish Crown Tho' I shall not fail of my Part in pressing all these Points on this Side yet the Impressions will be easier given the two Ministers there than the Marquess here as Persons something more substantial in their Conceptions upon this Point and will have more Weight upon His Excellency coming from their own Ministers than from me For the Point of Money to be furnish'd by the States upon the Towns of Gelderland the whole Matter was dismissed by Monsieur de Witt till the Marquess's Acceptance of our Project was declared upon which the Baron de Bargeyck will return to pursue it and in Case of a War by Obstinacy of the French Refusal I doubt not but the Matter will be easie the Marquess offering Ruremond and Venlo tho' Monsieur de Witt insists as yet upon the Fort of Gelre and two others by Sluys which the Marquess says he has no Power to treat upon For their Opinion of the French Expedition into the Franche Comptè they seem little startled at it believing it may the more incline the Spaniards to receive our Offices for the Peace according to the Treaty and that possibly some Exchange may be found convenient for the Spaniards between Parts of the Franche Comtè and those Towns of Flanders which are now in the French Possession and lie in the very Bowels of the rest of that Dominion which are Courtray Tournay Oudenard and Aeth for the rest they resolve to make good the Peace to the Spaniards without the Loss of any Thing more than was actually in the French Hands at the Time of our Treaty being Signed whatever new Progresses they may make before the Conclusion and in Case France shall refuse or seek Evasions I do not believe they will be the least backward from entring into the War I should formerly have marked that in all which is digested in our Treaty and that is to pass in our Negotiation with France upon this Occasion the States avoid calling our Parts a Mediation because they say That seems to import a Neutrality whereas upon failing of our Offices towards a Peace we are to take our Parts in a War For the Method and Manner of our joining together in pursuit of the War if it grow to engage us by the French Refusal Monsieur de Witt tells me frankly his Opinion is for us to enforce the Towns of Flanders by such of our Troops as will be necessary to defend them or at least to draw on long and expensive Sieges and in the mean Time with our several Fleets to make the sharpest Impressions we can upon some of their Coasts and seize some of their Towns and force them that Way to necessary Divisions and Diversions of their Forces as well as give Countenance to whatever Discontents may arise among them at home upon such an Occasion Upon my arguing that an Impression would be the sharper and the safer perhaps if it were made by our Fleets in one Place but with joint Forces he said he did not see how our Fleets could possibly join for the Point of the Pavilion and fell into a good deal of Discourse upon that Matter as the only now left that could ever occasion any Dispute between us being at length bottomed upon our mutual Interest and the wrangling about little Points of Commerce being taken away All I could draw from him upon the Point of the Pavilion was that
I Do confess I have since we parted receiv'd three Letters from you which I should be asham'd to acknowledge now if I had been faulty in not doing it sooner as I promise my self you have been informed from my Lord Arlington's Justice and Friendship It is now near three Months that the Pain of the Gout hath restrained me from the Exercise of Writing and I am hardly yet returned to it because not able to put my Head out of Doors or more than to stand rather than walk in my Chamber So that I would not have ventur'd to have given you this Trouble but upon the Absence of my Lord Arlington who hath transmitted to you constantly what we thought jointly But upon the Sight of your last Letter which came since his Departure I think it necessary to say a little to you upon a Particular or two I do in the first place think and believe the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo to be a very generous Person and a very useful Friend to the King our Master and one who will be the best Instrument to contribute to that firm Friendship between the two Crowns that is necessary for the joint Interest of both And therefore we must be careful to remove the least Umbrage which may dispose him to suspect our Prudence with Reference to our own Affairs or our Affection with Reference to Spain With Reference to our selves it is not possible we can be without a Sense of the almost insupportable Weight that lies upon us in the carrying on the War against the Dutch and preparing for a War against France And therefore we cannot but heartily wish to be fairly quit of one of them and would be very glad that any Advance were made to it by Holland I thought always that the Overture made by the Spanish Ambassador had come from Don Stephano and never heard the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo's Name But it being the very same in Terms that the French Ambassadors had made there could then be no Proceedings upon it But we have done all we can to invite the Dutch to an Address how privately soever Nor shall we make any Demands concerning the Prince of Orange lest it should do him hurt If we can bring them off from a Conjunction with France in which Spain is more concerned than England I confident we shall insist upon very reasonable Conditions We have great Reason to commend the Proceedings of the Bishop of Munster Nor are we jealous in the least Degree of him or his treating And as our Failing towards him has not proceeded from any Faults of ours but even from the Hand of God So we shall out of hand repair those Omissions And it is but reasonably expected that the Princes of the Empire should how secretly soever support him from a Dissolution lest before many Months past and the French Designs are a little more evident they would be glad to re-purchase the Advantage of the Bishop's being in such a Post as he now is at any Price There is nothing now ought to be laboured with so much Industry and Dexterity as the uniting Enland Spain and Flanders which would give and which only can give Peace to Christendom I am sure our Master is passionately inclined to it and truly I think Spain is well disposed to the main yet I know not how by the fatal Delay in Dispatch there and it may be their Expectation that in the Straits we are we shall buy their Friendship at a Rate we shall never pay for it there is not Haste made that the Affair required My Lord Sandwich who will be gone in twenty Days I hope will give Life to it You see how ill my Hand is though never legible by shaking and weakness somewhat worse than usual God keep you and I pray let me know that this is come to your Hands from SIR Your Affectionate Servant Clarendon From Late M. of Hallifax Sir George Savil. Febr. 5. S. N. 1666. SIR IT is a Sin against the Publick and a Trespass upon you at this time to clog you with such an idle Correspondence as mine But I find I consider my own Interest before yours beeing not able to make you an Expression of my Kindness at so dear a rate as the denying my self the Satisfaction of hearing from you And therefore I take hold of your Offer and beg you would sometimes bestow a Letter upon me which shall be as welcome for telling me you are well as it can be for the best News it bringeth in relation to the Publick For which if I can be concerned next to what I am for my best Friends it is the utmost I will pretend to in that Matter I find his Majesty of France will be an angry Enemy He doth not declare War like an honnête homme and therefore I hope he will not pursue it like a wise one I do not despair but that the English who use to go into France for their Breeding may have the Honor once to teach Them better Manners The League with Spain is a good Circumstance to make us able to do it It is so seasonably and so well done that I will suppose you had a Hand in it In the mean time we have great Alarms the Monsieur will invade us which makes every body prepare for their Entertainment And I hope they will neither find us so little ready or so divided as perhaps they expect I will not make this longer when I have assured you I am SIR Your most Faithful Humble Servant George Savill From the Bishop of Munster Munster Feb. 12 1666. SIR THE Favours you have expressed to me are such that nothing can add to my Esteem of you However it was very acceptable to find from yours of the 25th past that your Affection to me still continues In the mean time I am busie in preparing an Army against Spring Nor do I doubt but such Care is taken of the third Payment that I may have it all together at least that you have prepared 30000 Dollars ready at Brussels and that 25000 more may be returned with all speed by Exchange to Cologn For it is certain that by small Sums and paid by Parcels nothing can be perform'd worthy of such an Undertaking and that my Expedition will be as much obstructed by these as if the Subsidies were wholly delayed Besides I shall this Year meet with more Resistance by Enemies unexpected to whom the Elector of Brandenburg will join himself But that I hope will be recompensed by the Friendship of Sueden and his Majesty's Declaratory Letters communicated to me and to be kept secret Nor shall any thing be more unviolably observ'd by me than the League I have made with his Majesty from which nothing shall be able to force me Nor is there any Reason why the Offer of a Mediation from the Emperor and Princes should raise any Suspicions of the contrary since the present Conjunctures would not permit me abruptly to refuse
always inclin'd to Some of his Acquaintance say that extream Vanity was a Cause of his Madness as well as it is an Effect All Persons of Note hereabouts are going to their Winter-Quarters at London The Burning of the City begins to be talk'd of as a Story like that of the Burning of Troy At Sheen we are like to be bare Lady Luddal seems uncertain in her Stay and we hear that when Sir James Sheen and his Lady were ready to come from Ireland great Cramps took my Lady in her Limbs And Sir James's Servants doubt whether we shall see him this Winter I desire Sir your Leave to kiss my Lady Temple's Hands and my Lady Giffard's Hands by your Letter My Daughter and I were in dispute which of us two should write this time to Brussels and because I was judged to have more Leisure it fell to me and my Lady Temple is to have the next from her I wish you Sir all good Successes in your Businesses and am Your very affectionate Servant LISLE From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Septemb. 27. 1667. SIR THIS begs your Pardon for my not writing by the last Post and presents you my humble Thanks for that Letter I should then have acknowledged and another of September 7. S. N. which with many Advices very considerable and desirable to be known gives me one particular Satisfaction to hear that one Copy of the Treaty is in so certain a Way of getting home There are two more gone by Sea one from Cales August 2d S. N. the other express by a Vessel from Rigo in Gallicia August 31 S. N. designed to set a Gentleman of my Company a-shore in Ireland on the South Part which Course I directed as a certain Way to avoid the Danger of the Sea and no very tedious Way of Passage I suppose all these likely to arrive in England much about a time This Place affords not much considerable News to return you Our Portugal Adjustment keeps the Pace of the accustomed Spanish Gravity if it proceed forward at all They have here removed the President of the Hazienda or as they call it â—â—bilar'd him giving him his Salary still of 6000 Ducats per annum for his own Life his Wife 's and his eldest Son 's and also have given him some other considerable Mercedes And have made Don Lopez de los Rios President de Hazienda in his Room This last is Castillo's near Kinsman and Creature the other a near Kinsman of the Duke of Medina's de las Torres The Conde de Fwensalida is lately dead a Grandee of Spain my chief Business here is a longing Expectation to hear of the Treaty I have made here to be received in England which now I daily shall hope for and as any thing thence or here occurs worth your Notice it shall be presented you by SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Sandwich From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Dec. 1â— 2â— 1667. SIR I Hope from your Goodness to find Pardon for missing the other Posts but dare not adventure your Patience to fail this also though I am now hurried by Business so that I have not time so largely and considerately to write as I desire Be pleased then to know that Mr. Godolphin's Journey to Portugal suffered so much Delay until it was found necessary that I must go in Person thither and then he resolved to make use of the King my Master's Leave to return into England and began his Journey for Bilboa on Tuesday Morning last You know the Value of Mr. Godolphin so well that it is needless to tell you my Griefs in parting from one of the most accomplisht worthy and generous Friends that ever I met with And I am heartily ' glad that your Friendship and mine do also Convenire in aliquo tertio My Journey for Portugal hath almost met with as many or more Calms than Mr. Godolphin's and in good earnest I am not able to give you any Light whether it be likely to proceed or not The Spaniards have reformed two Regiments of Germans at Badajos very good Officers they say and are resolved never to serve the Spaniard more The King of Spain has had the Small-Pox but is so recovered as they fear no Danger In Portugal Don Pedro is made Governour to assist his Brother in the same Nature as his Mother did when she was Regent And the Addresses are made in the same manner The Queen is returned to a Convent asserting her self to be a Maid and the King has under his Hand and Oath delivered the same So the Queen pursues the Cause among the Church-men to have the Marriage declared null There are Cortes to be called there January 1. S. N. On the 7th Instant S. N. the Marquis of Sande the Embassador that brought the Queen was shot and kill'd in the Street with a Carabine and no body knows who did it I wish you a very merry Christmas and am most affectionately SIR Your most faithful and most humble Servant Sandwich Postscript IF I go to Portugal pray continue our Correspondence to Mr. John Werden a Gentleman worthy of your Favour and very able and securely my Friend who does me the Favour to continue in my House and manages the King's Business in this Court in my Absence and will send me your Letters From Monsieur Gourville Luneburg Jan. 28. 1668. SIR BY a Copy of the Letter written from the King of England to the States I understand you are a peaceable Man And the Memorial you have given to desire Commissioners in order to examine jointly with you into the Means for a good Peace makes us believe that you desire in good earnest to give Repose to Christendom You know how I have always desired it but however it will be the more agreeable to see it done by your Hands In good earnest I am glad the King of England has made choice of you for so great and important an Affair When his Majesty knows your Merit I assure my self you will be always in the greatest Employments and I assure you that I shall always be making Wishes for your Advancement till I see you made Chancellour of England In the mean time I shall be ever SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant Gourville P. S. IF you have a Desire to make the Peace I look upon it as very far advanced The Princes here shew their Desire of it I did not think to stay in this Country above 8 or 10 Days yet here I am after four Months Pray let me know whether you think the Assembly will be at Aix and near what time that I may keep my Lodgings there and if you will tell me in Confidence the Opinion you have of the Peace I shall be obliged to you Mine is that you may make it if you please but I am not yet convinc'd whether you can hinder it if Monsieur de Wit has so much Desire to make it as many People believe
him at large the whole Business of Commerce between us and the necessity of giving us some Reason and Ease in those Matters upon which tho' he seemed a little stanch as his Complexion is and jealous of our great Growth in Trade by a more parsimonious and industrious Genius among us of late than had formerly been yet I found what I said had Impression on him For he parted with great Professions of contributing all he could towards the Success of all Negotiations between us And went that Night to communicate all to Monsieur de Witt as I found by our Conference next Day It began with his having perused my Papers about the Guinea Company upon which he desired to know if I had no other Information than those gave me For by those the Matter seemed favourable to them by the Letters of their Director being particular and with Relation to Time and to the Articles of the Breda Treaty by which the new Settlements there were to be governed whereas what concerned our Pretensions was contained only in some loose Examinations concerning Possession or not Possession formerly by one or the other without any Reference to the Constitutions made by the Breda Treaty and without mentioning in any direct Terms what it was we complained of or what we desired The Truth is all the Papers concerning that Matter remitted to me by Mr. Secretary Morris were only the Guinea Company 's Petition the Examination of Mr. Thomas Crisp Captain Merbrooke and Mr. Be'ois with a Letter and Protest of the Director of the Dutch West-India Company I excused my being so little informed upon the Reasons I had alledged to Monsieur Meerman and press'd in the same manner the Reference of it to Commissioners He allowed his Majesty's Consideration of preventing the two Companies proceeding by Rules or Executions of their own to be very prudent and necessary and that he knew the States would second his Majesty's good Intention in it and that when he could find the Matter of Fact and Right but alledged in distinct Testimonies of known Persons he doubted not but he should easily find a Composure for all these Disputes and agree upon a constant Reglement hereafter And to this purpose he would send immediately to enquire among the Officers of their Company for any Papers that may have been remitted to them from our Officers to theirs in Guinea for he could not believe but that Letter and Protest of their Director had either been occasioned by some precedent Letters or Demands from some Officers of ours or at least followed by some Answers in which our Demands and Rights were asserted as those of the Dutch were in those Papers of their Director I answered all by insisting upon Commissioners according to my Instruction and argued its being a Matter much more proper for such to debate and determine as understood the Coasts Situations manner of Trade in those Parts former Possessions and Matters of Fact past than for him and me how willing soever we should be to inform our selves or to find Expedients and went so far upon this Subject that he seemed inclined it should be so at least when the Pretensions were stated so as it might appear what was to be referred to such Commissioners But upon this he fell into the Discourse of what Monsieur Meerman had told him or I had formerly written to him concerning some Exceptions to the Marine Treaty and how willing the States would be to alter the Form of Passports when they knew how we desired it And if the King wisht any more particular Definition of what should be esteemed a Town invested he did not doubt we might agree upon that too having found me always to propose only what I thought reasonable and to agree to what I found so and he was made after the same manner and so I should always find him I easily perceived that the Thing he would be at was upon occasion of this Guinea Matter to know at once the Bottom of all we pretended in point of regulating Commerce between us having I presume heard more than was need perhaps of all the Noise made by the East-India Company upon the Subject of the Marine Treaty or by their Patrons either out of Zeal to the Good of our Commerce or out of Envy at the Success of so great a Council and Conduct of his Majesty in which they had no Hand and upon which if we had lost a little in Trade by changing the Form of the Articles at Breda into a Marine Treaty wherein I do not conceive how we lost at all yet I am sure it was infinitely recompensed by the Necessity the unexpected Success and the great Consequences of those other Alliances to which that Circumstance of the Marine Treaty was made I thought but a Sacrifice of Smoak And this I could not but say for his Majesty's Satisfaction and your Lordship's Vindication with those other Ministers by whose Advice that Council was taken and pursued finding every Day more how highly it is applauded abroad while it is maliced by some and so little esteemed by others at home tho' his Majesty has reaped already from it both the whole Honour of giving Peace to Christendom and perhaps the only Safety of his own Kingdoms considering the Conjunctures in which that Council found us But to return to my Conference with Monsieur de Witt Finding him lead me so industriously into a Field wherein I had no Intention to enter I resolved however to take the Occasion and once for all to say all I had thought or your Lordship had infused into me upon that Subject And so I told him plainly That I was not yet instructed in that Matter of our Exceptions to the Marine Treaty but believed I might be in a little Time That the Particulars he mentioned were complained of in the Treaty it self and other Things thought to be admitted but that I could not enter into any Particulars till I had Instructions but since he gave me the Occasion I would enter once for all into the general I discoursed over to him the common Interest and indeed Necessity of preserving perpetual the present Alliances between Us especially on their Side while the Dangers were so great from the Ambition and Power as well as Neighbourhood of France The great Overtures would now be made us from thence to the Prejudice of this Alliance and at all other Times whenever they could hope we were ready to receive them That though I could give him no Jealousy of them now but on the contrary assure him he might be at Ease on that Side and that the King would only have the Honour by it of setting them an Example of his Sincereness and Constancy which he would expect they should follow when the Game begun with Them as it would after it ended with Him Yet I â—ould tell him That France was at all Times capable of making us such Offers and of giving us our present Account
they are and for ought I see all Businesses depend upon the Qualities of the Men that manage them which considering the ill Success of this is all I shall say in Answer of your Compliment to me That 't is in very good Hands I gave you an Account in my last of the bold Advance the Dutch had made to the Constable of signing their Part of their Concert alone immediately upon the Payment of the two hundred thousand Crowns We expect every Day the Answer of this Proposition and finding one Clause of my Instructions to command the suppressing them in case I find either before or after their Arrival that the Mony would be paid according to the Treaty of May last I thought it agreeable to what I conceive of his Majesty's Intentions for me to take no Notice of them till I see what this Return from the Constable will produce and in case it be followed by the Payment of the Mony to expect his Majesty's further Orders before I proceed upon them If the Constable still insist to have the Concert jointly signed I shall then fall into the Consideration of it with the Suedes and Dutch Ministers and endeavour to bring it to an Issue according to his Majesty's Instructions but so as not to prostitute our Offer till we have Assurance that no more Difficulties will be made by Spain nor any Changes desired in that Concert which has so long been framed and in which I have not observed the least Inclination in any of the Ministers here to admit of any Alterations I suppose it is not his Majesty's Intention I should consent to the Concert but in Conjunction with the Suede as well as the Dutch in case the first should not be induced to it or raise new Difficulties and according to this Apprehension I shall proceed In all which Points I am more distinct that you may find whether I understand his Majesty's Meaning right and may please accordingly to inform and direct me For the Paces as they are much more difficult so they ought to be much more cautious in a Minister when his Instructions are numerous and particular as mine are grown in this Affair And you may be very confident when they are once given they shall be punctually observed to the best that I can understand them And in that it self I thank God I have not yet failed and desire nothing of my Master and my Friends more than that I may be the first to hear of it when I do I did enclose the last Memorial I sent the States upon the Business of Surinam and spoke with Monsieur Van Beuninghen since my last upon it He protests that for his Part he is of Opinion and so are most of his Province to give us just what we ask in that Matter but that we must excuse the Delays of their Constitution when the Dissent of one Province makes the Resolutions of all the other lame He confess'd that though Zealand had consented to what I mentioned in two of my late Letters yet they had ordered their Deputies to delay the Conclusion of it for a while so as they had been forced to write once more to convince them of the Necessity which Holland thought there was to dispatch it speedily as well as effectually And he hoped for a sudden and good Answer from them The Ministers here have been earnest with me to propose to his Majesty to go the same or equal Pace with them in laying Impositions upon the French Commodities which they think would prove the greatest Parsimony that either of us could use and be a greater Blow to France than Armies could give And they say in case his Majesty should resolve upon it they would go as far as he pleased in it whereas without that they must be something tenderer than they would be They would fain engage me likewise to propose to his Majesty their joining with us in equal Proportion of Ships and Men for the carrying on a War against Algiers But I suppose their End is That they may be comprehended likewise in a Peace with them which may perhaps be our furthest Aim And so I tell them this might have been a welcom Proposal when we began to set out our Fleet but can signify little now the Action seems near an end However that such Things are fitter to be proposed by their own Ambassador in England than by me And I mention them that you may be prepared in case he receive Instructions to propose them there I am always as becomes me c. To Sir John Trevor Hague Dec. 13. S. N. 1669. SIR THOUGH I had Liberty given me by your last of the 2d past to make use of my late Instructions as soon as I pleased the Constable's positive Answer having satisfied you what we were to expect from thence Yet the Advance having since been made from the Dutch by the Offer I acquainted you with to the Constable I resolved still to pursue what I intended in my last in suppressing wholly this Instruction till I saw the Constable's Answer to the States Letter and what Hopes that would furnish us with of obtaining the Payment of the present Mony without engaging his Majesty in the Concert before his Measures were taken more fully with Spain Bat yesterday the Spanish Ambassador came to tell me That he had received a Letter from their Agent Fonseca which assures him that Orders were already sent me to sign the Concert and that his Majesty told him so at the same Time when he received News of Don Juan de Toledo's Death I told him the Authority was too too good to be disputed And therefore I confess'd I had received Orders to make a further Advance for the Satisfaction of Spain and the Confederates than his Majesty had yet thought fit to do or esteemed himself at all obliged to But I desired them to believe there was nothing to give them any the least Hopes of his Majesty's charging himself with any part of the Suedish Subsidies That if They and Sueden and Holland could agree upon that Point so as to dispose Sueden to sign the first Concert that was proposed at the same Time with the Guaranty His Majesty would go very far towards the Conclusion of the whole Matter But I assured him at the same Time That though I were agreed with Sueden and Holland to make him an Offer of the Concert yet we would not do any Thing towards it till he had Powers to consign the Mony immediately without any new Dispatches and Difficulties from Brussels I found the Spanish Ambassador had immediately upon Receipt of his Letters from England sent an Extract of them to Monsieur de Witt as the Baron d'Isola had done to Monsieur Applebome who were both in Pain till they knew the Truth from me and sent to me to that Purpose And knowing the Ambassador would be as diligent to inform the Constable as them and consequently influence any Answer not
as a simple Town in the Provinces since they pay half of all that is laid upon the Province of Holland as Holland does upon all that is levied on the Seven Provinces which makes them believe they ought at least in some Degree be considered in the Province as Holland is in the State which made them employ all their Strength to oppose the Faction of Leyden Dort Rotterdam c. who under Monsieur de Witt 's Influence have of late Years carried all before them in the usual Elections and join with the Body of the Nobility here to chuse Monsieur Mattenesse in Exclusion of Monsieur Meerman where the Contest was about an Office of the greatest Profit in these Countries and of great Honour though not Influence upon the Publick Affairs They have likewise succeeded well in the late Election of Officers for the new Levies and seem disposed to run on still in a String And amongst them there have of late been Overtures about making a new Minister under the Name of Secretary of State whose Province should be chiefly to receive the Addresses of Foreign Ministers and take the Care of all Foreign Dispaches and so ease Monsieur de Witt of that Attention he is fain to give to those as well as the Home-Affairs And this I suppose was calculated for Monsieur Van Beuninghen who has silently had a great Hand in all the Councils and Motions of his Town of Amsterdam and I believe will in Effect come to have the chief Part or at least Burthen in Foreign Transactions whether with any new Name or no. Monsieur de Witt in these late Brigues has very prudently avoided any Appearance of being a Party in them and contented himself with going his usual Pace but stickling no further in any of them seeming rather to intend and endeavour the Composure of all than the valuing himself upon a Division which I believe with his being so very necessary to the State will ever preserve him in his Consideration here without some violent Revolution to which nothing seems at all disposed Among the late Divisions of this Province one great Point has been about the intended Prohibition of French Commodities which has been violently carried on by Monsieur Van Beuninghen and his Town of Amsterdam but opposed and tempered by the Towns of the other Faction upon the Respect of their particular Interests in the French Trade and the Pretext of Danger or ill Consequences in such a Council unless it be taken in Concert with England So that whether it will go further than the Defence of the common French Commodities that are in Wear I know not tho' Monsieur Van Beuninghen reckoned not long since absolutely that it would be carried to French Salt and Brandy And if we would go the same Pace It should reach to their Wine too Which he believed would soon bring France into such a Consumption as would keep them from being so troublesome abroad But I entred no further with him into any Discourse of that kind because I doubt whether we are of a Temper or a Humour to resolve or execute any bold or smart Propositions how well soever conceived or conducing to our Health and good Fortunes Tho' I question not at all but God Almighty has given us the Power of going as high as the greatest of our Neighbours But perhaps as your Lordship says unknown to our selves and in another way than some of us would be glad to have had it But where-ever it lies I doubt it will never come out till his Majesty can find the Means to make an end of all fencing with the Bents of his Parliament or Discontents of his People and bring his Government into the Credit of having no other Aims nor Interests but those of his Subjects in general not in particular nor consequently any Eye upon their Mony but for those Uses they are willing to give it This I confess is my Opinion upon the whole and that all does not consist in a Parliament's being prevailed with to give what is asked in Point of Mony as I find many People think However I should never have said it to any but your Lordship nor to you neither but induced by the melancholy Reflections I observed in your Letter upon this Subject But whatever mine or another's Opinion is I am confident every Man that thinks at all must think it were not amiss if his Majesty and his Ministers would once for all consider and agree upon a general Draught of those Ways and Councils both at Home and Abroad as they judge will best answer the great Ends of the King and Kingdom 's Safety Honour and Quiet For when such a Scheme is once agreed upon all the Parts of it may be pursued in their Order and with constant Application till they are brought to pass at least such as fail not in the Trial and so are found to have been ill conceived But if it should prove as I find some Men think that we live only by the Day and content our selves to patch up Things as they break out and fly at the Game as it rises it is at the best but like Birding or Hawking which may furnish a Dish or two but can never keep the House If your Lordship can pardon all this Liberty and Trouble I will not run my self into the occasion of asking it again if not you must lay the whole Fault upon your own Letter or rather upon my not having heard from you or written to you of late and upon my perpetual strong Inclinations of returning into my old Correspondence just as a Man does into an old Love which lies still at Heart however diverted or discontinued But because I use so much Freedom in the Account of Dispositions here and of my own Thoughts I send it by Mr. Richard's Conveyance to your own Hands in which I shall ever think all safe that concerns me because I have been always and am with so much Passion My Lord your c. To the Constable of Castille Hague Jan. 23. S. N. 1670. My Lord I Doubt not but the Spanish Ambassador has by this Courier communicated to your Excellency the Project of the Concert for Particular Forces drawn up by consent of the Ministers of the three Confederates And I can assure your Excellency that to bring it into Form all the said Ministers have stretcht their Powers as much as possible so that there will be no room to press them further And it has been with Difficulty enough that we have resisted the Instances of the Suedish Minister to have his Guaranty rather than make this Pace after so many other unprofitable ones He assures us that he never advanced any Proposition of bringing Troops from Pomerania or Bremen because there are no more in those Parts than what serve for Garrisons and when he is pressed upon this Point he answers us That to maintain supernumerary Troops in those Parts they must have Subsidies
Lordship the Assurances how great a part I take in all your Fortunes and consequently how much I have shared in the general Satisfaction which I hear you have both left in England and found in Ireland upon your late entring upon the Government of that Kingdom I am not only much pleased with it upon a private Score as one of your Lordship's Servants but as having always had the best Wishes for the publick Good of that Country and his Majesty's Service in the Establishment of it Both which will I am confident thrive very much in your Lordship's Hands not only in regard of the great Experience and Abilities which are so generally allowed you but because you are too Rich as well as too Generous to lose the Merit and Glory of great and honest Actions in the Cares of your own private Fortunes For this has too often given an Alloy both to the Worth and Success of several of your Lordship's Predecessors and contributed chiefly to the Unhappiness of the Governors as well as of the Country both which I hope you will have the Honour to restore I cannot but observe to your Lordship That I find by a general Consent of the Merchants here that Ireland runs every Year an eighth part in Debt by Importing so much beyond its Exportation which being to be drawn out in Coin will be a certain though slow Consumption of the Treasure of that Kingdom unless remedied by Sumptuary Laws or Examples for lessening the Importation of Foreign Commodities or else Industry for increasing the Native which are either consumed at home or carried abroad The first is like Diet but the other like Exercise to an indisposed Body which is the way of acquiring Strength and Vigor whereas the former gives but barely Health I believe the two great Improvements to be made in Ireland are of the Fishing and the Linnen Trade This to keep our Mony at home and That to fetch more in from abroad If your Lordship thinks these Particulars worth your Care and that I can contribute toward them by any Lights and Assistances from hence I shall be glad upon that or any other Occasion to receive your Commands I have given my Secretary Order to make an Extract of the News which either arises here or comes to me by Letters from Foreign Parts which shall go Weekly to you if you think it worth the Trouble and will please in return to do me the Justice of esteeming me what I am with much Truth and Passion My LORD Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 3. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS extream glad to find by your Lordship 's of the 16th past some Assurance of your Recovery And whatever the Name of your Illness was will believe the Nature of it could not be very bad since it left you so soon After which I will trouble you no more with my Remedies nor shall I need any my self after so great a one as your Lordship has given me by the Knowledge of your own and my Lady's Health For which I make you my particular Acknowledgments By observing the Winds I guess Monsieur Van Beuninghen will before this arrives have given your Lordship the Account himself of his leaving the Hague on Sunday-night and setting Sail I suppose on Monday-evening unless Madam Honywood made him stay some Hours longer who had appointed to be with him by that time from Amsterdam I will say nothing in Favour of her Pretension but that she is Daughter to the ancientest Burgomaster of Amsterdam who has expressed the greatest Passion of any other of the States in Favour of the Prince of Orange's late Concernment and may perhaps thereby deserve some Mark of his Majesty's Favour which I assure you I say wholly of my self For my good Offices in her Business were not at all thought worth engaging since Monsieur Van Beuninghen undertook it as I suppose he has done by their joining Company Your Lordship will find nothing to lessen your Esteem of his Person unless it be that he is not always so willing to Hear as to be Heard and out of the abundance of his Imagination is apt sometimes to Reason a Man to Death Which I tell your Lordship before-hand that you may not fall into any Prejudice before you know him well And on the other Side I have taken some Care to prevent his employing that Talent too much in your Conversations For the rest you will find him Fort honnête homme one that puts all the Good of his Country upon maintaining and cultivating his Majesty's Alliance and who upon the Prince's Occasion will deserve the good Will of our Court. For his manner of Negotiating I am confident you will find him not ill-bred nor offering to impose his Measures as you call them upon us But after any Propositions and Reasons he shall lay before you will rather tell you that you are Masters of all and that the States will in all Things that concern our Neighbours perfectly follow those his Majesty shall take Whatever Reception the State 's Proposal about the Algerins meets with in England I wish to God some better Order were taken for preserving our Honour in the Mediterranean For what with the ill Conduct of our Captains that they say will turn Merchants leaving our Merchants to play the Men of War and with the late shameless Loss of the Saphire I assure your Lordship the Reputation of our Sea-Affairs and Men decays abroad to a Degree that is very sensible I am sure to me and I doubt will hardly recover without some new and severe Discipline or Examples The Prince of Orange was introduced into the Council of State on Saturday last and with the Circumstances which he is very well pleased with He resolves upon his Journy into England about the latter End of this Month or beginning of next But will not fix the Time till the Pensioner's Return from Groningue about ten Days hence I am my Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 17. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to hear this Morning of your Lordship's being well arrived in Town where I hope the Diversions of your late Journy have returned you with such an Encrease of Health as is necessary for the Support of your great Affairs Y para mi consuelo Many French have lately pass'd this Way since the Return of that Court some who attended Madame into England and extreamly applauded her Reception there and his Majesty's great Graciousness to those of her Train The Count d'Estrades came likewise three Days since but I think barely on a Visit to his old Home or if he has any Business it is particular and at Amsterdam I find they all agree in assuring Us of the Peace as long as we can assure Them of the King of Spain's Life But in giving us fair Warning that whenever that fails their Master will march into the rest
of Flanders without any Circumstance and possess himself of it if he can This Knowledge and that of the King of Spain's late Sickness have given Them some Perplexity here which is much relieved by this Days News of his Recovery But we find nothing yet towards the Redress of the late untoward Answer upon the Arâ—â—â—age The Prince of Orange continues still the Talk as well as the Desires of his Journy into England But has of late been very earnest to know my Opinion whether he be like to procure any Satisfaction in his Pretensions there saying as I guess Industriously that all his best Friends here are of Opinion that in Case that should wholly fail him his Journy into England would prove of great Prejudice to his Affairs here by letting his Friends see how little he is considered by his Majesty whose Countenance will be a great Support to him in the Course of his Fortunes I durst not offer his Highness the least Judgment of my own upon this Matter assuring him I was wholly ignorant of all his Majesty's Affairs besides what related to this Country and particularly of the present State of his Revenue or how much the late Supplies have contributed towards the Ease of it Upon which the Prince seemed very desirous that I would touch this Point to your Lordship so as to have your Thoughts upon it before he goes This I suppose proceeds chiefly from the Princess Dowager who declared her Opinion positively to me some Weeks ago upon this Matter to the same purpose and I hear persists in it which yet she does not in all Things For I can assure your Lordship she now professes to be the most satisfied that can be with my Conduct in relation to the Prince and makes me more Acknowledgments than are fit for me to receive since I pretend only not to have spoiled his Business which it had been the easiest Thing in the World for an English Minister here to have done I wish to God he do nothing towards the Prejudice of it himself by Advice of younger or warmer Heads For this is a Country where Fruit ripens slowly and cannot be preserved if it be gathered green I am very confident from his last as well as the present Dispositions I here discern that his Fortunes are in his own Hands and I hope he will make great Advantages in the Conduct of them by your Lordship's Advices when he sees you in England of whose Prudence and Virtues he will go over with a very full Persuasion Monsieur de Witt returned yesterday to Town after fifteen Days Absence at Groningue about the composing some Differences in that Province * This was a Year or two before he was massacred There is a violent Humour runs against him of late in the Town of Amsterdam upon Pretext of his growing too far into the Sway of all Affairs in this State by so long a Ministry and of advancing his own Friends into Offices and Places of Trust with too much Industry But I suppose the Bottom of this is the same with that of all Popular Humours That is a design in the Leaders to change the Scene that so those who have been long employ'd may make Room for those who have been long out I am not of Opinion they will succeed to prejudice him suddenly both because his chief Enemies acknowledge his great Abilities and Vsefulness to the State and because he will always have it in his Power to fall in very considerably with the Prince's Interest which the other Party pretends to promote Though in such a Case his Highness would have a hard Choice with which Wind to sail As indeed he is likely to fall into Conjunctures here that will require all his Prudence I thought fit to say thus much at once to your Lordship that so you may the better know what to make of twenty Reports that may arise upon these Occasions Tho' it will I think after all be our Parts both in England and here to seem the least we can concerned in them further than our Wishes to the perfect Union of a State we are so near allied to which we may I suppose own our Opinion of that it will never be compassed but by taking in the Prince's Interests as far as can consist with the Liberty of the State And making such a Person of him as may in Title Expence and other Circumstances represent the Dignity of their Commonwealth I am ever My Lord your c. To the Earl of Northumberland Hague Jun. 17. S. N. 1670. My LORD BY the same Post which brought me the Honour of a late Letter from your Lordship I received from other Hands the News of my Lord of Northumberland's having left you to the Succession of all his Honours and Fortunes Which gives me the Occasion of acknowledging your Lordship's Favour and Memory and at the same time of condoling with you upon the Loss of a Father whose great Virtues and Qualities must needs have made so many Sharers with you in this Affliction I hope the Help which is given your Lordship by so many of your Servants and Friends upon this Occasion will serve to ease your own Part in it And that after all that can be offered up to Decency and to the Memory of so great and excellent a Person this will find your Lordship rather taken up with the Imitation of his Virtues than the bewailing of his Loss Since this is but what he owed to Nature and to Age and to the Course of long Infirmities and the other is what will be due from your Lordship all your Life to your Birth your Family and your Self Nor indeed can ever so much depend upon so few Paces as will now upon those your Lordship shall make at your first setting out Since all Men will be presaging by Them the Course of your Journy as they will have indeed Influence upon the Ease as well as the Direction of it For my own Part I expect a great Increase of your Lordship's Personal Honour upon this Occasion And that having been so excellent a Son of a Family you will shew your self the same in being now a Father of it since nothing makes Men fit to Command like having learnt to Obey and the same good Sense and good Dispositions make Men succeed well in all the several Offices of Life Those I know will be your Lordship's Safety in entring upon a Scene where you will find many Examples to avoid and few to imitate For I have yet seen none so generally corrupted as Ours at this Time by a common Pride and Affectation of despising and laughing at all Face of Order and Virtue and Conformity to Laws which after all are Qualities that most conduce both to the Happiness of a Publick State and the Ease of a Private Life But your Lordship will I hope make a great Example instead of needing other than those of your own Family to which so much Honour
Greatness or from Youth we should have received a very sufficient as well as a very sad one by an Express which brought this Morning the News of Madame's Death by particular Letters both to the States and to the Prince of Orange The French Courier being not expected till to Morrow Morning I have not yet received any Letter of it from my Lord Ambassador at Paris and therefore shall give your Lordship the Relation just as it comes in the Prince's Letter which says That on Sunday last being the 29th of June N. S. Madame having eaten very well at Dinner and continued so some Hours afterwards about four a Clock in the Afternoon called for a Glass of Succory-Water which she used to take every Day about that Hour and having drunk it off complained that it was very bitter and presently after began to find her self ill and fell into violent Fits of the Colick upon which she said That she was sure she should die and immediately sent for her Confessor and with great Resolution disposed her self to it by passing through all the Forms of that Church upon such Occasions The News of her Highness's Illness was immediately dispatch'd from St. Clou where she lay to Versailles where the Court then was and occasioned the King's coming presently to her who arrived about Eight a Clock that Night and brought his chief Phisician with him who both began to comfort her Sickness and assure her that her Colick could not easily carry away a Person of her Age. But she persisted in assuring them of her Death spoke a good while softly to the King and afterwards said aloud That she had no Regret at all to die but that her greatest Trouble was by so hard a Separation to lose his Majesty's Friendship and good Graces which he had always express'd to her She spoke to Monsieur in the same Terms about her great Willingness to die which she said was the more because she had nothing to reproach her self of in her Conduct towards him The King left her about Ten a Clock at Night his Phisician assuring him she could not die of a Colick or at least not so suddenly as she seemed to apprehend But her Illness and Pain encreasing she expired about Two a Clock in the Morning leaving great Sadness in that Court and Regret in all those who had the Honour to know her Your Excellency will easily imagine how sensibly his Majesty will be touch'd by this Affliction and therefore I am sure you will receive the same Part in it that I and all the rest of his Servants ought to do Which I shall not encrease by enlarging upon so sad a Story further than by one Particular more of the Prince's Letter That her Body being opened in the Presence of several Persons and among them my Lord Ambassador they could not find the Cause of so sudden a Death Our News from Brussels is That the Constable was to depart from thence on Saturday last leaving the Count de Monterey Governor of those Countries by the Queen Regent's Commission for the Interim until a new Governor should be sent from Spain who they give out will be Don John and that he will be there in a very little time and take upon him that Government for his Life But the Certainty of this we must expect hereafter from Spain The Danish Envoy here tells me he intends to go very shortly for Copenhaguen and that he hopes to find your Excellency there wherein I confess I differ with him I should be very glad to know whether he did me the Right of conveying a Letter I wrote to Monsieur Guldenlew in answer to one I received from him upon his last Arrival in Denmark Your Lordship will oblige me to let one of your Secretaries inform himself from one of his whether such a Letter was received without drawing it into any further Consequence I beseech your Lordship to believe me always what I am with very much Sincereness My LORD Your Excellency's most faithful most humble Servant To my Lord Berkeley Hague July 11. S. N. 1670. My LORD I Received one from your Excellency of the 11th past by which you were pleased both to oblige and to inform me Nor could any Thing happen more agreeable to me than an Occasion of acknowledging as I ought the Favour you there express both to my Friends in Ireland and to me Of which I am equally sensible I doubt not but your Lordship will find in the loose Posture of Affairs in Ireland a great Subject for your Prudence and Industry in the Application whereof I wish your Lordship all Success and Glory being incapable at this Distance to make any Reflections on Particulars either the Evils or the Redresses Only as an old Servant I may have the Liberty of putting your Lordship in mind of one Point wherein your Reputation is much concerned and upon which I doubt you do not much reflect But if you should continue this luxurious Custom of getting a lusty Boy every Year People will think that you live like a voluptuous young Man of twenty Years old and not like a staid and wise Governor of a Kingdom Nor am I very well satisfied my self whether it be a Thing that consists with the Gravity of a Privy Counsellor much less of a Lord Lieutenant But when I consider that of so good a Race we cannot have too many I am forced to leave my Censures to give your Lordship much Joy of your Irish-man We have nothing here in Discourse but the sad and surprizing News of Madame's Death of which your Lordship will have the Particulars from so many Hands that I will not repeat them nor enter into the general Reflections that are made upon it in all Places I think I am sure here without Scruple or Dispute The Constable is gone for Spain and left his Government much as he held it Nor can I judge whether it came from his natural Temper or some contracted Indispositions For his Health has been of late the Cover for it But these six or eight Months past he has been obstinate to hear nothing of Business returning all that has offered by his nearest Officers with * Why do you kill me Quiere Matarme And passing his Time with his Virginals his Dwarfs and his Graciosoes Some say his Imaginations reached so far as to raise up Spirits and Assassins when he was alone If Spain has no greater Men its pity they have so great Use of them for I am sure Non tali Auxilio nec Defensoribus istis Tempus eget He has left the Government for the interim by the Queen Regent's Order to the Count de Monterey whom he hated and I hear Count Marsyn says he will not obey a Man * Who is but just born Qui ne fait que naître because he is but twenty eight Years old But they have succeeded so ill with one * Who thought of nothing but dying Qui ne songevit
qu' á mourir that I think it will not pass for a very just Exception and our Friend Count Marsyn who is hot at Hand will I hope come to himself and help to keep all Things quiet in Flanders till Don John's Arrival which is now talk'd of but I am not the easiest to believe it I beg your Lordship's Favour or rather Justice both to esteem and use me as My Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jul. 15. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to find that the great Measure of his Majesty's Grief upon Madame's Death was a little lessened by the Satisfaction he had received that it had passed without that odious Circumstance which was at first so generally thought to have attended it and of which I endeavour in my Discourse here to allay the Suspicions since I see his Majesty is convinced though it is a very difficult Matter to succeed in after so general a Possession which has been much encreased by the Princess Dowager's Curiosity to ask her Phisician 's Opinions upon the Relation transmitted hither to one of them from his â—rother who is the Dutch Secretary at Paris and pretends it came from Dr. Chamberlain tho' something different from what he transmitted into England However it happened it had certainly all the Circumstances to aggravate the Affliction to his Majesty which I am infinitely touch'd with as well as with the Sense of an Accident in it self so deplorable But it is a necessary Tribute we pay for the Continuance of our own Lifes to bewail the frequent and sometimes untimely Deaths of our Friends Et levius fit Patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nefas The Baron d'Isola parted this Day for Brussels from whence he told me he would answer your Lordship's last Letter by which he pretends to have drawn Confidence of his Proposals succeeding in England with the Temper the Dutch had given it here But he does not press the Matter much at present because he does not pretend that the Emperor's Resolutions are fully taken upon it nor will be till after the Enterview which is as he says about this time contrived between the Electors of Mentz and Triers where an Envoy from the Emperor another from the Duke of Lorrain and as the Baron pretends from some other German Princes are to intervene where the Measures will be fully taken among them In case his Majesty should fall into the Thoughts of admitting that Conjunction as Monsieur de Witt tells me he has likewise some Hopes given him from Monsieur Van Beuninghen I think it were best however reserving the Declaration of any such Consent until he were very well assured of the Emperor's and the other German Princes final and firm Resolutions which I know not whether we may be confident of learning from the Baron d'Isola whose Business seems to be rather first to draw out our Points and make them his Ground for persuading his Court to agree with them and thereby value himself both to his Master the German Princes and others upon his own being the Author of so great a Negotiation And perhaps if his Majesty have a mind to see the bottom of it and wishes it effected for common Interest sake he could not do better than to acquaint the Elector of Mentz privately with his Thoughts upon it and leave him to make use of that Knowledge towards the preparing all Pieces for the Work For I find That Prince must be the Spring of all the Motions that are made in it on the German Side So that all will depend upon his Dispositions and Conduct which for my part I pretend not to understand yet in this Affair For though his late Envoy here visited me with great Professions from his Master to his Majesty and much Civility to me yet I fell into no sort of plain or confident Discourse with him upon this Matter but finding him rather shy in it I resolved not to be behind-hand with him in that Point And so we parted as wise as we met By this Days Post I hear the Count de Monterey is declared Governor of Flanders by way of Interim which yet may last longer than is thought of according to the slowness or uncertainty of the Spanish Councils especially Don John having now finally refused to accept that Charge The Count Marsyn I hear says he will not obey a Man Qui ne fait que naître because the Count Monterey is but twenty eight Years old and therefore sets on foot already many Brigues against him both in Spain and Flanders which we here fear may produce very ill Effects by encreasing the Disorders of Flanders and thereby the Temptations of France though I hope our Friend who you know is something hot at Hand may yet come to himself For methinks his Exception against the new Governor is not very just after having so long obey'd a Man that thought of nothing but dying and for ought I hear was by that Apprehension rendred unfitter for his Post than any he could have met with to leave in it without very great Luck They much persuade me here to make a Journy to Brussels in this Conjuncture having heard me speak of it this Summer and of having his Majesty's leave because they know I am acquainted with those at present upon the Scene I find their Deputies have no Credit there and come back only with Dissatisfaction and Complaints I see nothing like to take me up here when I have observed this Assembly of the States of Holland and what they will do and promise further in the Prince's Business which a Fortnight will determine and therefore am well enough inclined to it But should be much the more if his Majesty should think fit to Complement the Count Monterey upon this Occasion and save the Expence of an express Person by sending him a Letter with me to be delivered as one that goes wholly Incognito and without any Character as was last Year intended I should have done to the Constable Of which your Lordship can easily satisfy me I find the Prince has put off the Thoughts of his Journy till towards the sitting of the Parliament upon what your Lordship last writ By whose Advice his Highness resolves to steer in the Course of his Affairs and Motions relating to England I am ever My Lord your c. To Sir John Trevor Hague July 22. S. N. 1670. SIR I AM at once to acknowledge both yours of the 1st and 5th current with the inclosed Names of the Scotch Ministers in the first and in the other the last Paper concerted with Monsieur Van Beuninghen concerning the Affair of Surinam Upon what concerns the Scotch Ministers I gave in yesterday a Memorial to the States upon which I received this Day a Message from Them expressing their Readiness to perform all Parts of their Treaties with his Majesty and desiring to know from me the several present Abodes of the said Persons to
their Officers But if I could send somebody that did to the Town-house they would send their Skout with him to execute what I desired This I presently did but the Person I sent found the Magistrates still unresolved and in very ill Humour about it and saying besides a great deal of what the two Commissioners had before told me That in case Joyce had said he would kill the Burgomasters or burn their Town yet they should never have thought of imprisoning him for it And that it was hard to be put upon Things so contrary to their Privileges and their Customs as well as their Interests My Agent finding these Difficulties desired Leave for me to seize him with such Persons as I could find my self But this they said could by no means be done and if it should be attempted without the Officers of the Town the Burghers would certainly rise and rescue him With these kind of Debates they put him off about an hour longer making him twice withdraw and come in again to them But at last when it was grown a very dark Night they gave Order to their Skout to go with him and apprehend the Fellow Hereupon they went and searched his House but without finding him and two other of his usual Haunts with the same Success but they found evident Marks of his having had Notice given him of his Danger For one at his House said He wondred I would search for a mad Man and that if he were assured I desired only to examin him perhaps it might be done but that for the present he knew not where he was having taken the Key of his back Door where he seemed to believe he was gone out By all that had hapned I found plainly the Magistrates of the Town had no Intention the Thing should be done and began to be assured of what I had always doubted that such a Pack of Rascals of so many Sorts as had been long nested in that Town more indeed than in all the rest of Holland had not made this Choice without some good Assurances from the Magistrates of being protected there I found as plainly that without their resolute and fair dealing in it 't was to no purpose for me to endeavour it and that my being there was already known and had given such an Alarm that some of Joyce's Crew were walking continually up and down the Streets thereabouts ever since it grew dark and others of them standing at his Door and his Windows And therefore seeing that till this Allarm was over there was no hopes of finding my Game I resolved to speak with the presiding Burgomaster and engage him as far as I could for the effectual Pursuit of the Business and make him see I understood well enough how it failed and where it depended and so leave the Town before Morning to give the Fellow the more Security I sent to the Burgomaster about Ten a Clock at Night desiring not to have it taken notice of when I spoke with him But he sent me his Excuse by saying he was in Bed After which I sent for the Skout and when he had confess'd he had Orders to take the Fellow and that he knew him very well contrary to what the Magistrates had pretended I said all that I could possibly to engage him in the Pursuit of it and told him as the best Argument that I would give him my self a hundred Duccatoons as soon as ever it was done besides representing his Diligence so to his Majesty as that he might expect a greater Gratuity And for the better effecting of it I desired him to get me the Keys of the Town-gate that was near me resolving then to go out of Town and to pass with Torches before Joyce's Door that so he might see I was gone and with me the Persons I had employ'd in this Business and thereby grow secure of any further Danger for that Night And I desired him that about an hour or two after he would once more search for him at his House and other Places where he used All this he promised very fairly and all other Diligences in it for the future but to say the Truth in such a manner that I perceived plainly the Fellow had his Instructions given him after another Fashion from those that had more to do with him than I. And though I have expected some News from him all this Day I yet hear nothing Since my coming home I have spoken again with Monsieur de Witt who professes to be very sorry for my ill Success says I did prudently in coming away after my first Attempt failed That he knows not what to judge of the Magistrates proceeding till the return of the Commissioners and hopes something may yet be done by them because they were not come back this Afternoon He says he writ two Letters himself to the Magistrates besides that of the Committee to dispose them more because he knew all would depend upon their hearty or faint Proceeding in it and assures me of all his further Endeavours For the Business of Surinam they will not believe their last Letter should not satisfy since Monsieur Van Beuninghen had represented that of Bannister's absolute Permission as a Thing desired by you but not insisted upon So that if it be further press'd it must be by your Orders after you received the last Papers I ask your Pardon for any ill Digestion of this Letter as well as for writing it in another Hand which my Eyes force me to and may all be attributed to the Want of Sleep these two Nights last past I am however Sir your c. To my Lord Keeper Hague Aug. 19. S. N. 1670. My LORD I HAVE lately received the Honour of one from your Lordship of the 26th past by which I was very sorry to find that any Occasions had at all withdrawn your Lordship's usual Concurrence in all great Affairs wherein his Majesty uses the Advice as well as Labours of his Ministers For the Steadyness of your Lordship's Judgment and Directness of your Application to his Majesty's and the Kingdom 's Honour and Advantage in all your Counsels gave me at my last coming over hither much Confidence in the successful Course of our Affairs both at Home and Abroad And the more your Lordship estranges your self from them the more my Confidence in that kind is like to abate because I am apt to think it not only an ill Thing but an ill Sign too I am glad to receive your Lordship's Opinion concerning the Continuance of our Measures abroad because I see not at present where we can take better And I the more need some such Encouragements as your Opinion gives me because to say the Truth I should not be very apt to concur with you in it from the Observation I can make from hence of several other Circumstances However nothing ought to discourage such publick Hearts as your Lordship from contributing all they can to the Firmness