any pretended inconvenience of the delay of entrance But to proceed Moreover If notwithstanding these Reasons any one of those men of Intelligence should yet mischievously Object That last Summers delay hath been the ruine of Flanders and made the recovery of it in a manner impossible and should endeavour to perswade others 't is so because of the loss of some few Towns there since let such consider that the Spaniard by his not closing yet with us in our friendly Inclination seems not to be of their Opinion or that Flanders is yet so near ruine seeing that he himself hath made a further delay by not coming up to our reasonable Demands at this time whenas he hath of late so much pretended it and all men expected he would accordingly have done it out of hand Besides Let those News-and-Mischief-Mongers remember it is not long ago since they themselves in one of the Canary-Clubs were of a mind that the Confederates if we were joyned with them would be able to work Miracles in Flanders against the French but it now seems that the loss of St. Ghislain or of a Town or two more hath in a moment deprived us and the Flemmings of all Power to do what is fit to preserve the Country It hath been told me that very lately the like Discourse being boldly bandied at a certain Cable of Coffee-mongers one that sate smoking hard by in a Corner of the Room stept in and said honestly That he wonder'd there should happen among some men such a sudden Change of Opinion and that it must needs give a suspicion there is some invisible Spring that moves them some Secret Intrigue and Reserve in the Heart when the Tongues go at so rolling a rate and that they are a sort of people tutor'd to this Tune to argue Pro and Con by Turns as their own Occasions alter That they are resolved to dislike whatsoever the King may judge is reason for him next to do in his publick Affairs and that they put on the approbations and disapprovements of a War according as they are influenced and as the WORD is given out by their envious Mal-contented Leaders and as it may serve to please or irritats and to render themselves gracious in their eyes unto whom they are Retainers I do remember said he what Joy the People had and Bonfires as soon as the Marriage of the Prince of Orange was declared and not many days after this sort of frequent Changelings raised I know not how many Scandals about it How far the French have had an influence on such petulant Talkers I cannot say but other men more honest speak broad enough about it Which having been thus roundly utter'd the Gentleman laid down his Pipe paid for his Dish of Coffee and went his way leaving them all in an amaze to guess who this Man should be Now no sooner was this Gentleman gone but another who over-heard the Discourse drew near to them for all are free over a Coffee-dish and sitting down said Gentlemen pardon me if I tell you I was here t'other day and heard some others of you discoursing about Money to carry on the War and methought it was much any among you should think it reasonable and most necessary to have War and others yet be of opinion That the Point of Money should be cumber'd with Delays or Disputes about it What would the Event of this be Would it not render us ridiculous to the French and make them scorn us Would it not dishearten the Confederates and make them jealous that whatsoever Resolutions we take to give them hope of assistance yet as soon as they are taken they will by one Accident or other be made impracticable In time of Necessity and when Hannibal was at the Gates or any other Enemy nigh coming the Romans ever instituted a Temporary Officer whom they called Dictator and to him the Senate and People gave during the publick danger but not longer as full Power as the King of France now enjoys to do and take whatsoever he should judge necessary to secure the Publick State of the Nation by which Policy they avoided all Disputes and Debates about the Concerns of the War and so they generally came off with Success Be it far from me to urge at this time that we should in this occasion of ours imitate them but yet methinks we should so far learn of them as to do all we can to avoid and lay aside disputings especially about the very Life and Sinews of a War constant supply of Moneys and other Necessaries and to come as near the Roman Policy as the publick Constitution convenience and State of our Government can possibly permit if we mean to obtain the like happy Success A trust must be lodged some where therefore 't is best and safest to place it where and in what manner the Law hath placed it The Law obliges the People as well as the King It obliges the King to make War where and when he shall judge it needful And on the other hand it obliges the People readily and cheerfully to give him necessary supplies otherwise this absurdity would be implied in our Law that it should oblige the King and leave the People loose in this matter which can by no means be supposed because then it would oblige him to an Impossibility it being impossible for him to do his part unless they on their part shall sufficiently supply him Which 't is not to be imagined the People can be so mad as to decline because 't is for common Safety The Supreme Law which is a further Tie upon them and if they observe not that it is not only to be wanting to the ends of Gubernation but in effect a Frustrating both of Law and Government it self and at this time an unnatural abandoning of our selves and a giving up of that most noble cause wherein whole Europ is so deeply concerned I thought Gentlemen to have spoken no more at this time but craving your Pardon pray Sirs let me tell you I over-heard also here t'other day what some of your Company said reflecting upon some State-Particulars past the reviving whereof would better become the mouth of a Common Enemy than a true English-man being matters altogether Foreign to the Business of War which is now The Unum Necessarium The one Thing Necessary and till all fit Resolutions upon that be taken why should any matters inferiour that may cause discontent or division of minds be discoursed among you I will not so much as name them to give you cause to over-heat your selves to answer me I resolve to bury them and all that you then said about them For I am no Spy upon you I am a Gentleman and if any other person that is an Informer may have taken notice of what you said and should chance to call me to witness any thing against you know I have a Gentleman's Memory very apt to forget all upon such an occasion This Discourse as I have been told surprised them more than what was said by the other Gentleman insomuch that the Company stared on him with silence being most of them I suppose of Opinion that what he said was Reason but as there is are all Companies some whom no Reason can satisfie so there were it seems among them some few Emissaries Trotters and Mischief-mongers belonging to the Canary Cabals who began to grumble but presently broke up and went to the several places of Caballing and communicated the matter there to their Principals among whom there hapning to be a false Brother or two by that means I got the Story Now for a Conclusion Let me answer one Objection which I hear walks about like a Bugbear to affright us viz. That though our Chronicles tell us that Edw. the Third conquer'd France and his Son Edward called the Black Prince brought their King Prisoner into England and though Henry the 5th made a Second Conquest of them more compleatly being Crowned King at Paris and his Son Henry the 6th also Crowned there and Reigned over them many years yet the Case is alter'd now France is quite another thing it is now one compact Body it in those days was shared by diverse Sovereign Princes which made the French King but little in comparison of what he is in these days being become exceedingly more potent and more difficult to subdue by reason of his present Lordship over all those Sovereignties To balance these Advantages of his note that England also is through God's good Providence become much more powerful than it was in those days For though in those days we had Ireland yet it was but a miserable halfplanted Country alwaies rebellious against us so that it was an extraordinary charge and a clog rather than a help to us but now we have it improved to the height and the Irish in good order with our English also the Accession of the Kingdom of Scotland a numerous and warlike People which then also was another great Clog upon us now united with us To these Considerations add That by addition of the Confederates if they please to be plain with us we may I suppose be contrepoise enough to answer all the French Advantages and no Man that knows what England is at Sea and what an English-Seaman is will doubt especially Holland joyn with us that we may be a Match sufficient for that King and that we over-match him in this that we have a Better Cause and therefore God pardoning our Iniquities in other matters have a better hope of Divine Benediction Which being well weighd we may very aptly invert the old Saying of Cicero Justissimum Bellum iniquissimae Paci antefero That is being a little paraphrased in English I upon the whole matter conclude That a most just War is to be preferred before a most unjust Peace most dangerous to us and all the rest of the European Nations FINIS
the said advantages while every Man is invited by the Conjuncture to venture more and to inlarge his Trade while by a general trust in the Peace and Alliance your Majesty holds with all your Neighbours round about they are led to go abroad unarm'd and without defence we cannot but lament it as a great misfortune and disappointment to observe how these your Majesty's Subject are frequently made a Prey of and very evily treated both at Sea and Land Wherefore considering that the root of all these Disorders arises from the Violence and Rapine of the French-Capers who ought to be look't on as disturbers of the Publick quiet and Enemies of the good Friendship between the two Crowns we are humbly of opinion that your Majesty has just occasion from the injuries past and those which are now depending and which do every day increase to make a very serious Representation of all unto his most Christian Majesty and not only press for some better method of repairing the grievances mentioned but earnestly to insist on the calling in of all Privateers or else your Majesty must do right and give defence to your Subjects from all the Insolencies which they so frequently meet All which is most humbly submitted Council-Chamber 31. July 1676. Anglesey Bath Craven J. Ernle Finch C. Bridgewater H. Coventry G. Cartret Robert Southwell His Majesty taking into his serious Consideration the dayly Complaints of his Subjects and having a great sense and resentment of their ill usage hath thought fit to approve the said Report and is therefore graciously pleas'd to order as it 's hereby ordered accordingly That the Right Honourable Mr. Secretary Coventry do immediately transmit to his Majesties Embassador at Paris a Copy thereof that so the evil and the unhappy state of these things may be made known in that Court and the Remedies presst for in his Majesties Name which are proposed by the said Report and Mr. Secretary is also to attend the French Embassador here with the same Representation and to Expostulate upon all these Hardships and the little Remedy given to his Majesties Subjects either on the Merits of their Causes or the Recommendations of them by his Majesty That so his Excellency being made sensible of his Majesties Displeasure herein and the reasonable Discontent of his Subjects there may be by his Care such lively Impressions hereof fixed with the King his Master and the Ministers of France as may redress the Evils that are complained of and obtain the just Remedies which are proposed Phillip Lloyd To these Evidences I might add the List of several Ships belonging to our English Merchants taken by French Privateers since December 1673. which was also presented to the Right Honourable the Committee of his Majesties Privy-Council for Trade and by them to his Majesty together with the Names of their Owners and their other Circumstances but it would be too copious for this place Therefore 't is sufficient for me to shew you only an excellent Account of the Business it self and of the great Care and Pains of the Noble Lords of the Council's Committee for Trade and of his Majesties Royal resentment of the Sufferings of his Subjects and the Abuses put upon our Nation which may testifie that no Nation under Heaven can have better Reasons on their side to justifie a War than England hath against France for the many Dishonours Affronts and Injuries done us in recompence of his Majesties high Integrity and fair Carriage towards them But this Unfaithfulness of theirs towards us is ingrafted in their very Nature as may appear not only by what hath of late been observed but also by the Stories of old all the time that Scotland was under a Crown separate from England it having then been perpetually made use of by France when any Difficulties were upon us as a Back-door to enter disturb weaken and attempt us here in England Therefore having since the happy Union of the two Crowns under King James been at a loss all his Reign how to disturb us by their wonted way they at length got an Opportunity to plague us by bolstering up a boisterous Presbyterian Party in Scotland that might open the Back-door again to let into England not only Armies but the delicate Pandora with her Box of Beauty varnish'd over with the name of the Holy Discipline and fill'd with all the Plagues of Aegypt to make our Nation miserable I mean Presbytery the pious Mother Nurse and Seminary of Civil Wars and perpetual Factions among us and thus for the planting of War here we are beholden to France among the other good Deeds they have done to our Nation But that I may no longer talk in the Clouds the plain Story in brief is this The French having long had a Design of Conquering the Spanish Low Countrys and conceiving it was no time to discover or attempt it as long as England should be in a condition to hinder it therefore to remove this Impediment out of the way the best way for attaining their End was thought to be in the first place an Imbroilment of the King of England that instead of looking to Concerns abroad he might be held in Contest at home with a factious Party of his Scotish Subjects who before and in the year 1639. had shewn themselves very vexatious and troublesome to his Majesties Government about matter of Kirk Discipline and its Government by Bishops This was matter combustible enough for France to work upon and blow into a flame so that Cardinal Richlieu grand Minister of State to the French King by his Agents giving them large Promises and Encouragements got into a participation of Counsels with them whereby the Faction was agitated into a downright Rebellion there under the Name of seeking a Reformation and then followed Counsels also for an Invasion of England which was effected and they made their way with an Army to Newcastle possessing themselves of it But by the King's Prudence they were sent home again a Pacification being made and hoped it was that all would have remain'd quiet But this sudden matter not suiting with the mind of the French Ministry and Richlieu finding that there was a working up of the like Discontents and a likelihood of the same Designs in England for the cause or rather pretence of Religion the Bellows were blown here also by the same hand some of the heads of the Faction here were brought to a brotherly correspondence of Counsels and Resolutions with their Friends of Scotland a conjunct Design was laid for a Second Invasion upon England under the Name of Brotherly Assistance and the Platform of the great Covenant was then proposed approved by the Agents of their friend Richlieu to be set on foot first in Scotland and by Agreement it was afterward to be handed thence in due time back into England In the mean while the FORTY ONE Parliament being called matters then ripened apace for their purpose by means of a prevalent
enlarging their own Lordship laid hold upon all opportunities to disturb Mankind and they could never yet set any bounds to their Ambition Thirdly That this Ambitious humour of theirs supported by the greatness of their Power would long before this time have brought all Europ under Subjection if their own Divisions and private Quarrels had not from time to time put back their Designs for many years or had not their greatest Princes been cut off before they could have finished their intended work Fourthly and lastly as a consequence of the three former That it was and ever will be the true Interest of all Princes to oppose the French Designs or if they have at any time occasion to use them against other Oppressors yet still to remember That no Oppression is like theirs and that they meditate it alwayes even in the midst of Friendship and therefore that they are not to accept of their Assistance longer or further than meer necessity or publick utility requires it but to cast them off as soon as the danger is over as it was practised in the Peace of Passaw in the time of Henry the Second and that of Munster in both which the French were prevented of further Progress by the Jealousie of their Allies However in all such occasions they ever made acquisitions and came off with great advantages In the Stories of such glorious Pranks of their Princes it is that the French Ministers do pride and delight themselves and to their Monarchs when youthful they propound them for imitation To this end it was the Care of Cardinal Mazarine in the Minority of the King now regnant to provide him an agreeable Tutor that might form and fix in the mind of his Majesty the greatest Idea's of Glory and Warlike Enterprizes This was the Bishop of Rodes his first Governor who as soon as his young Master came to understand Letters instead of diverting him with Romances entertain'd him in reading the Lives and Actions of the greatest of his Predecessors but above all recommended to him the Story and Model of a great Prince in the high Atchievements of his Grand-father King Henry the Fourth as may be seen in a Book of his written to that purpose which hath since been published This Prince as well by his own Genius as by the happy Success of his first Undertakings hath relished such Instructions and hath solely proposed to himself that Example for the Rule of his Actions The History of that Great King hath been his most ordinary Study He hath in imitation of him taken care to accumulate a vast Treasure and setled a mighty Revenue sought for Alliances abroad and successively rais'd many most numerous Armies It 's evident therefore That he acts upon the very same draughts and that all we see at present are but the Old Projects of his Predecessors renew'd and the Effects of those Impressions which he hath suck't in with his Milk Do but read the Book call'd the Memoirs of Henry the 4th with those of the President Jeannin and of the Bishop of Rodes and then conclude that whatsoever his most Potent Grand-Father had conceived in his Imagination this King intends to bring forth by the Power of his Armies viz. A Wondrous Theatre of Vnchristian Glory planted upon a Mountainous heap of Christian Sculls to amaze and terrifie Mankind into an Vniversal Slavery For as the desire of Glory hath no bound and in regard his Years and present Condition put him into a capacity to run a longer course than did Henry le Grand so we cannot reasonably expect otherwise than that he who hath so often cross'd the Rhine with his last Summer's Successes will also when he hath over-run the Continent cross the Narrow Seas to make his Visits His Pen-men have taken a great deal of pains to nourish these Thoughts in him and have no other study but to feed this Natural Humour of his Majesty and transfuse it also into his Son the Daulphin having wholy sacrificed their Pens to infuse it and tickle that Native desire of Glory which they have discovered in them both The great rewards that have been given them for it are authentick markes of an acceptance of their Service and surely such acknowledgements from a young High Spirit that believeth himself to be in a posture to execute all that pleaseth him and who hath drunk down this Maxim That to take possession by the Sword any Title is sufficient must needs be a dangerous fore-running Sentence upon all the rest of Mankind against whom his Ministers shall perswade him that he hath any thing to pretend Which yet more clearly to make appear to Us We only need read the printed Books not long since dedicated to him among which is one that carries this Title viz. The Just Pretences of the King of France to the Empire which Book having laid down this for a Ground That the Dominions of Soveraign Princes have always been the Dominions and Conquests of their Estates and that the Dominions and Conquests of Crowns can be neither alienated nor prescribed at length draws out these two Conclusions First That the greatest part of Germany is the Patrimony and ancient Inheritance of the French Princes Secondly That Charlemain did possess Germany as King of France and not as Emperour What may not be drawn from such kind of Assertions Nihil est quod credere de se Ambitio laudata nequit ......... If these things be believ'd in France what may not the Scribes of France persuade their Master May they not as well prove and persuade him That he wears the Titles of all other Princes within the Pomel of his Sword If one may judge of what is to come by what is past all Europ will have cause enough to stand upon their guard and take the All'arm to prevent the Machinations of the French Ministry whose sole business 't is To blow up the Glory of their Master to a mighty Bubble and 't is indeed no more but a Bubble which he gets he is at the Expence whilst they collect for themselves mighty Fortunes out of the Ruines of Mankind and feed the Marshals and the other Great Military Commanders with Expectations of sharing other Princes Principalities and as fast as they can Conquer to be all made Princes SECTION II. Shewing how far the French Ministers receded from the known Rules of Justice in beginning this War HIstories tell us That the Heathens made it a main point of Conscience never to begin a War upon their Neighbours or others till they had for it good Justifying Causes Among them for this Principle the Romans were most eminent and therefore such Causes they in their Language termed Principia that is to say Beginnings or Principles intimating thereby that no War could be well begun without them nor luckily end Thus in Livy said the Rhodian Ambassadors in their Oration made to the Senate of Rome Certè quidem vos estis Romani c. Certainly ye are
Faction in Parliament which very much alarm'd the King and his Court insomuch that he conceived it was high time to rip open this Evil by discovering seizing and accusing some of the aforementioned Heads of the Faction viz. a Lord and Five Members of the House of Commons The Articles of the Charge against them were in number Seven One of which was That They had traiterously invited and encouraged a Foreign Power to Invade his Majesties Kingdom of England Which was so true that he desired a Tryal of them but their Party in the House not daring to permit it to be put to Proof they shock'd the King in the Business and so the Affair of the COVENANT and the other Effects of that Invitation ran the more roundly on to a ripeness and final Dispatch in Scotland by the time that the Sun in its course brought on the year 1643. And then came on a Second Invasion of England flourishing their Colours with this Rebellious Motto FOR THE CROWN AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS And thus you see how far we were beholden to France for all the Miseries of the ensuing Wars and the numerous Brood of Factions which issued thence in England Scotland and Ireland Of the certain Truth whereof we might have had undeniable Evidence upon the Tryal of those whom the King had then charged with Treason if the Temper of that time would have permitted a fair prosecution however it was I remember sufficiently talk't of in those days and I have now by me a Book in the French Tongue which was printed 24 Years ago by Adrian Vlac at the Hague in Holland in the third part whereof are eight Chapters and over the second Chapter is this Title Le Cardinal de Richelieu la cause des Desordres arrivez en Angleterre That is to say Cardinal Richelieu the cause of the Disorders befallen England Which he brought in as I told you by the way of Scotland to the ruin of our Peace the Royal Family the Church and the whole State and Government of our Kingdom But this tampering with and corrupting other Prince's Subjects is an old Game that the French Ministers have ever been playing all over Europ Let it be remember'd how the same Richelieu wrought the Revolt of Portugal from the Spaniard and the Rebellion in Catalonia and carry'd on the Wars in both those Countries to bring down the Power of Spain how he tamper'd also with the Swede under Gustavus Adolphus to invade the Empire and then with the Emperour's General Wallestein to betray the Imperial Army by whose suddain death the French King lost the great opportunity to work himself into a possession of the Imperial Throne How Cardinal Mazarin after him carried on the Popular Commotions raised by Masaniello in the Kingdom of Naples by sending thither the Duke of Guise to be their Head to the almost wresting of that Kingdom out of the Hand of the Spaniard and then also how he lurch't that Duke and deserted him Moreover how the last Year the French Intrigues so far prevailed in Spain as to turn the Queen-Mother out of her Regency drive out her Favourites such as she thought most fit and firm for the young King's Safety to put him into other Hands and turn all things in that Court topsie-turvy that being agitated and held in play by their own divisions at Home they might be less able to have regard to the preservation of the Flemings or to the carrying on a Joynt-war with the Hollanders How they have been the common Enemies of every State destroying the Peace of Government every where sowing of Factions in all Princely Courts their Councils or among such of the Subjects as are factious or else they jumble one Prince against another by turns as they did the Prince Elector Palatine against the Elector of Mentz starting up an occasion of Quarrel betwixt them one while to take part with the Elector Palatine against Mentz another while with Mentz against the Prince whose Country they miserably harassed and wasted It cannot be forgotten what they lately did to corrupt the Emperor's Council by means of his own Favourite Prince Lobcowitz whom they bought for Mony to betray his Master's Counsels and Affairs besides their Intrigue in the same manner with the Prince of Furstenberg and his Brother Also what they did in the Vnited Provinces to incommode his Highness the Prince of Orange by bolstering up the De Wits and their Louvenstein Republican party against the Princely What they have done to clog the Emperor by fostering a Rebellion against him in Hungary and how great charge they are at to sever the power of the Duke of Bavaria and of the Duke of Hanover from the common Interest of the Empire in this War How they have diverse times indangered all Christendom by confederating with the Grand Seignior to disturb both Hungary and Poland for which cause as My Lord Herbert writes in his History the Pope had like to have given away the Title Most Christian from their French King Francis the First to bestow it upon our Henry the Eighth before he had been dubb'd by his Holiness with that of Defensor Fidei What Artifices have been used by them to settle and nourish perpetual Faction among the Polish Nobility whereby other great Opportunities have diverse times been given the Turk to fall upon them In a word their common practice hath been to give the World all manner of disturbance and so to render themselves in its Opinion the common Enemies of its Peace a publick Pest among States and Princes in every Country they either find combustible stuff or else make it and then set fire to it they are at a mighty charge to find Fodder for the various Animals of Faction in all Places By this means Divide Impera makes way for them and thus they conquer more than by their Arms they inflame Countries thus as well as burn them as they did Alsatia that having enough to do to quench fires at Home they may have neither leisure nor power to hinder French Projects abroad Questionless then since we in England have seen and do see our Neighbours Houses fired one after another 't is high time to look to our own and secure our selves and all Europ from such Boutefeus and the sad Effects of their Impious Courses SECTION IV. That as the French have dealt falsly with us and all other Princes in the point of Peace There is no Security to be had for any one Party but by a Joynt War HIs Majesty of England having hitherto on his part preserved a fair Respect and Amity towards France passing by the many Indignities and Injuries done to himself and his Nation in hope his Patience might by fair means have prevail'd with the French King at length to do reason to us and the rest of his Neighbours and that to that end his Majesty might have perswaded him to have forborn a further prosecution of the War in