Selected quad for the lemma: king_n
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A49823
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A French conquest neither desirable nor practicable dedicated to the King of England.
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Lawton, Charlwood, 1660-1721.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing L739; ESTC R20684
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28,805
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32
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I believe if the King of France should promise to protect the Protestant Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal People subject to him justly to establish equal Laws and to see them duly executed we should not take his Word nor would his own Subjects be well pleased It is King William only that is allowed to have a Religion for his several Dominions that may be a Synod-of-Dort-Presbyterian in Holland an Episcopalian in England of the Kirk in Scotland and a downright Favourer of Popery in Ireland as is apparent by the Limerick Treaty and the Pamphlet put out by the Irish Gentlemen concerning the Proceedings of their late Parliament and the Depositiâ—â—â— that are before the House of Lords I have told over our former Conquests somewhat tediously and will add very little about them however I desire the Reader will reflect That the Neighboring Princes because they did not animadvert how much Greatness consisted in Naval Preparations and Trade and because we had not begun to make a Figure in either never thought themselves so much concerned as all the Potentates of Europe will now what becomes of us None of our Neighbors ever help'd Us formerly some of 'em did our Invaders Let the Reader farther reflect that it was not necessary for any of our former Invaders to make such a total Subversion of all our Laws as it will now be for the French King and consequently Composition and Treaties more easily succeeded Battles The former Alterations rather meliorated than overthrew our Constitution They bundled up and refin'd our By-Laws into National Statutes and introduced Forms where the Methods of Justice seemed less articulate And lastly Let it be considered though there are great Divisions amongst us some few for keeping the Prince of Orange others for restoring the King and several for something that they have not yet licked into Form yet all Persons that make the respective Parties of these Divisions will all of 'em joyn together to obstruct a French Conquest There will be such Divisions whenever Men will commit Violence upon the natural and ancient Constitution and I must confess these Divisions are the most fatal Symtom that attends our distemper'd State and may and will certainly subject us though not to a French Conquest to great Calamities and Devastations unless we restore the King I suppose I have sufficiently prov'd a French Conquest to be neither Desirable nor Practicable yet God knows what infinite Mischiefs we may have brought upon our selves by reviving a sort of Quarrel which by the Mercy of God has been so long extinguished A Dispute for Title which has in the days of our Forefathers had so fatal an Effect which has so dismally wounded our State and is left bleeding in the Histories of so many Reigns Because you shall not think I aggravate the Calamities that were occasioned by the Contention of the Two Roses I will only transribe some Passages out of Trussel who is a chast and cautelous Writer and it cannot be supposed his History was written to serve a Jacobite-Turn Page 257. he says There were in the Quarrel of the Two Roses Fourscore Princes of the Blood destroyed and twice as many Natives slain as were lost in the Two Conquests of France Pag. 260. he says In the Battle of Townton there were killed Thirty five thousand ninety and one English-men and of Strangers One thousand seven hundred forty five beside Two hundred and thirty slain the Day before at Ferry-bridge In his last Page his Words are these The total of private Soldiers that perished in these Civil Wars and suffered Punishment of immature Death for taking part of the one side or the other was Fourscore thousand nine hundred ninety and eight Persons besides Kings 2. Prince 1. Dukes 10. Marquesses 2. Earls 21. Viscounts 2. Lords 27. Lord Prior 1. Judge 1. Knights 139. Esquires 441. The Number of the Gentry is uncertainly reported and therefore Trussel omits them but says That for the most part they are included in the Number of private Soldiers set down to be slain to which he says you must add the Number of Six hundred and thirty and eight the total of all the Persons not therein accounted and then there appeareth in all to be slain Fourscore five thousand six hundred twenty eight Christians and most of this Nation not to be repeated says the Historian without grief nor remembred without Deprecation that the like may never happen more He concludes his History with this Saying Pan una Triumphis innumeris potior The whole History of that Quarrel sets before us such apposite Lessons for our Times that I wish all who love England would seriously read and ponder it It is time to draw to a Conclusion I am not willing to prophecy the Destruction of my Countrey and I beseech God Almighty to incline our Hearts to the Things that belong unto our Peace to our Peace in this World and to our everlasting Peace in the World to come I beseech God to incline the Prince of Orange not to forfeit an eternal weight of Glory for a momentary Crown which has nothing of good in it if it is not got by the Acts of Goodness God grant that he may consider it as a more valuable Character to be a Virtuous and a Christian Prince than a Romantick Heroe and God grant that he may be so Wise that his Days may not end in Tragedy I wish he would review his own Declaration and the Memorial of the States and that he would pursue those excellent Ends for which he came for which the States said they lent their Ships and which King James would have comply'd with and is ready to comply with still The King is willing to secure the Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and had not the Confederates made their Quarrel â—â—â—ult by giving way to an unnatural Ambition in the Prince of Orange and dispossessing King James whilst they pretended they formed this Confederacy to repair the Injuries done to them by the French K. JAMES the injured King JAMES would have checked the Growth of France and kept Namur and Mons. He was far from a French League and would have perform'd the part of a true Guarrantee for either the King would have prevented France coming before them by reminding their King of the Treaty of Nâ—miguen or our Arms would have had doubtless success when we had Justice on our side and the Wishes and Prayers of all English-men joyned with the undertaking of our rightful indisputed King How far he was from a French League how unwilling to think ill of the Pr. of Orange and how unwilling to be too much beholding to France his disbelief of all the Advices of d'Avaux and of many of his Friends his Answer to Bonrepos and his refusal to the last of any French Assistance sufficiently witness and as much as he has been beholding to France during his Troubles I am satisfied that
even in his exil'd State he thinks himself as King of England so naturally the Arbiter of Europe that he will mediate as soon as his Affairs a little more recover his Figure a reasonable Peace for it But the KING needs not much solicite it for I am satisfy'd the King of France is willing to come into such a Peace upon Condition that the King's Restauration may be one of the Terms of it and that he will not be brought to make Peace upon any other Terms so that 〈◊〉 Restauration of King JAMES would give a happy Issue to the Troubles of Europe and our own which our Experience after all the Blood and Treasure spilt and spent to humble France may shew us will be the only Expedient to save us from the Power we have so much envy'd and this we may learn from King William's own Speeches to these two last Sessions of Parliament for he does not only make the obtaining an Honourable Peace from France to the Confederates instead of our Conquest of France the Bounds of his Hopes in this War but allows the Growth of France during this War so much as to increase his Stile from the Great Power of France which were the words of his Speech Michaelmas was Twelve-months to the Excessive Power of France in his Speech of the last Sessions This very Consideration should move us But farther Into what Shambles are all the Parts of Flanders the Rhine Catalonia and Piedmont turn'd What Slaughter-Houses may be erected in the unhappy Isle of Britain Unhappy because she will blind her self against her own true Interest and only Cure Our Taxes grow heavy but we have pay'd our Blood but we must pour it out yet more plentifully before this Reckoning is over if we will not return to our Wits and our Duty Civil Distractions will overtake us Foreigners both on the one and the other side will be poured in upon us and we shall become the Cock-Pit of the World and though all the Jacobites abhor a French Conquest and so does the King too yet if the Nation will not come to such a Temper as to restore him without their Help the KING's Friends cannot be blamed for being willing to admit of such a moderate Number of French or any other Forces as may be necessary to cover Them when they come to him till they get together and as may give them Opportunity to rise We had rather the Nation looked so directly towards Him as that there should be no occasion for One Man in Arms to come with Him We had rather He had much rather nay the King of France declares HE had rather his Restauration should be wholly owing to his own Subjects We will never agree that he should bring such a Force as may give any the least just Jealousie that either He or France design to Conquer and he is perfectly resolv'd to come in that manner that shall be agreed to by such Friends of his as the World must allow to be Men of Honour regardful of the British Rights and of the Protestant Religion With such Men he will adjust the Manner and Time of his coming They will see that his coming shall be safe to all those dear Concerns for which we have so often struggled and the Measures and Condescentions such as that they may answer to God and Men their engaging in his Quarrel Can any Man of Sense believe that the Earl of Middleton who could never during his whole Ministry be drawn into any one irregular step would go over upon any other Errand That Great Man is known to understand his Duty to his Countrey as well as his Prince and thinks he ought at the same time to be the Minister of both and his Affection and Firmness to Protestancy was never once suspected He will neither betray our Laws nor his own Religionâ— nor will he to do the King but Justice be tempted to either for all that we have mislik'd in the King's Measures abroad has proceeded from Misrâ—presentations from hence and my Lord Middleton is so fraughted with the genuine Interest as well as Sense of these Nations that the most inveterate of our Enemies will have hereafter no Opportunities to clamor and exasperate This is a Truth which in a short time will want no Vouchers The future Acts of State that come from that Court will prove he has discoursed many of the Leading Men and compromised the Grievances of all Parties And whereas some of the Prince of Orange's Ministers have declared what great Expectations they have from the Quarrels at St. Germains I can assure them they will be deceived in their Hopes for there is so good an Understanding between my Lord Middleton and those who had before entire Credit with the King that they don't only personally agree but concur in Sentiments relating to the British Affairs which is a â—ull Evidence that what we misliked there cannot be charged upon the Disposition of the King nor upon the depraved Tempers of those about him as even some of his Friends were apt to suspect but proceeded meerly from their want of a True State of these Nations and the knowledge of what would satisfie us till the Eart of Middleton went thither Every day will make this Truth plainer than other I cannot but wish that all Men would so avowedly own their Mistake would so willingly sit down under our Ancient Legal Limited and Hereditary Monarchy would so openly tell their Dâ—ssatisfactions and what they think Proportionate Securities so fairly state the Differences between the Crown and People so unanimously express their Willingness to Re-establish the Old and Natural Frame of our Government that it might be advisable that we might advise him wholly to depend upon his British Subjects I like neither French nor Dutch nor Irish upon our Island though I cannot be afraid of any such Numbers of either or all as will be much out-numbred by those of our Fellow-Subjects and Fellow Islanders who resolve to repair to the King as soon as he is landed Oh 〈◊〉 that we would recant our Mistakes that we would repent of our Folly that we would yet let our Moderation our Civil and Christian Moderation be known unto all Men Oh! that a nice Security for the Church of England as the National Church and best Church too as I think as nice a Security for our English Libeâ—ties and Liberty of Conscience were our only Aims that Party and Picque Faction and Friendshâ—pâ— Fears and Fancies did not predoâ—inate neither on the One nor the Other Party 〈◊〉 at the Ends and not the Forms of Things were what we 〈◊〉 â—ord that our Afflictions would make us Wise then the King would as little need as he wishes to bring any Foreign Force See you any end of your Troubles Is your Deliverer a fit Instrument for so great a Work Do his Measures hold any resemblance with his and your Pretences Are his ministers Gâ—â—r n. and Not m Tr r Roch