THE Germane Spie Truly Discovering the DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF THE KINGDOM and SUBJECTS OF THE French King BEING An ABSTRACT of the several Years Observations of a Gentleman who made that the Peculiar Business of his Travels WITH A Continuation of Christianismus Christianandus LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691. THE Germane Spie TRULY DISCOVERING The Deplorable Condition of the Kingdom and Subjects of the FRENCH King A Certain German Gentleman a Subject to one of the Northern Princes a Person of great Uunderstanding and no less devoted to the good Cause being returned some Weeks ago by the Way of Italy from the Kingdom of France where he Travell'd a long time and took an extraordinary Care to inform himself of all things with an admirable Exactness has imparted to us in his own Language a Writing containing several Remarks of considerable Importance which he made upon the present State of France of which we find it to be our Duty and for the Interest of the Publick Good that the Nation should be inform'd To which effect we immediately with great diligence set our selves to Translate the same And this we do so much the more willingly because we find that several Persons have form'd in themselves such an advantageous Idaea of the Power of France by reason of the taking of Mons and Nyssa that we deem'd it proper to disabuse those People and all others that are led into the same Errour Our Author begins with a Discourse of the Beauty of the Country and Temperature of the Climate the goodness of the Fruits the agreeable Dispositions and Politeness of the Inhabitants and their Assability towards Strangers which in truth is very great and after he has entertain'd the Reader for some time with these things he tells us That the Miseries of those People are not to be express'd That there is not any Nation under Heaven so oppress'd even in a time of Peace neither excepting the Muscovites nor the Turks and that those distressed People are reduced to such a Condition of Poverty that though the merciless Exactors exercise in those Places ten times more Cruelty than an Hostile and Victorious Army is wont to do upon a People newly subdu'd nevertheless the King is not able to raise the half of his ordinary Imposts which he rais'd about three Years agoe because the People have no Money and for that the Kingdom lies so like a Desart in many Places That this Year there will be a Failure of above Thirty Millions upon the Score of Non-ability to pay That all Manufactures are at a very low Ebb as those of Silk Linen Paper c. And that all the Artificers are either dead or in the Wars and that their Trade is absolutely ruin'd as well by Land as Sea as well without as within the Kingdom and that Lewis XIV receives but very little Money by it Which is the reason he has been constrain'd to have recourse to violent Means which are never made use of but when the State is ready to perish such as are the Creation of a great number of new Officers the Borrowing of Thirty Millions the Augmentation of Officers Fees for large Summs the extraordinary Taxes upon the Clergy his Command to sell a great part of his Plate and the enhauncing the Value of Money by which means the King has rais'd above a Hundered Millions without which he could not have paid his Men this Year That all Provisions for the Belly as Corn and Wine are sunk above the sixth part of the Value which they were formerly worth and much less than what they cost the Husbandman That they who have Lands to Let cannot find Farmers and that the Houses tumble down and the Lands lie untill'd That they who have Offices have no Profit by them That they who have Money due cannot get the Interest of their Money iâ— a long time unless they be such who have lent Money to the King some years agoe because he thinks thereby to oblige all those that have Money to lend it him That all the Subjects of that Kingdom in general are all equally ruin'd as The Church-men who formerly were very Wealthy and Powerfull but now their Lands and other Estates no longer yeild 'em any Mony And for the inferiour Clergy they have nothing to doe for they neither Marry nor Baptize nor Bury all the Men being kill'd in the Wars The Grand Nobility live onely upon their Pensions and Court Employments The Gentry are a Body the most miserable in the World and which ought to curse the Reign of this King The Officers of Justice of the Politick Government and the Finances receive no Benefit either by their Estates or Emploiments and yet the King loads them every day with new demands The Universities Colleges and Academies for Riding Dancing and Exercise of Arms are all so low that the Masters die for Hunger That whereas prudent Princes never make War but with one Part of the Revenue of their Subjects and never Conquer but to Enrich and People their Dominions Lewis XIV has devour'd in War three Fourths of all the Funds of the Kingdom and is hastning to eat up the Remainder and that his own Subjects are a thousand times more miserable than the People which he has Conquer'd as appears First In that the Lands and the Houses one with another are not worth above the fourth Part of the Revenue of what they were worth besides that there is no Rent to be seen and to fell them they would not yield a sixth part That there is a fourth Part of the Houses that fall to ruin and a fourth Part of the Lands that are thrown up That the Husbandman who formerly gained 8 Sous a day living in the Country now gets not above two and that pay'd him in Corn of which a Bushel that was formerly commonly worth 30 Sous is not worth above five or six and withall that there is very little Corn in the Kingdom take it in general That by consequence the King has devour'd all the Money that was due to the Rich Men of the Kingdom by the Loans of Money to particular Persons and this exceeds above a third Part of all the Stock of the Kingdom For Lands Houses and Rents being eaten up the Mortgages must fail That he has several times devour'd the Offices and Employments of the whole Kingdom which he sold at dear Rates and which were to him instead of a Grand Principal Substance which produc'd nothing to the Officers That all these Offices of Judicature Civil Policy and the Finances could not have cost less than eight hundred Millions and that the small Wages which they receive from the King are swallow'd up in the Taxes which they pay from time to time That the innumerable multitude of these Offices and of their exorbitant Prices is such that these People having but small Wages and ill Paid cannot drain less than a hundred Millions a year from the People by
England was again betrayed and necessitated to declare War first and to expect the Assistance of his Confederate afterwards Nor is it less observable that the French King in conjunction with a Protestant Prince to render him odious among all the States and Princes of Europe whether Protestant or Roman Catholick gave it out that the War against the United Provinces was a War of Religion undertaken merely for the Propagation of the Roman Catholick Faith and as the French Minister expressed it in a Solemn Speech to the Emperor's Council that the Hollanders being Hereticks who had forsaken God all good Christians were bound to Unite to their Extirpation To confirm which the more the French Ministers no doubt not contrary to their Instructions declar'd and assur'd many Princes that to let all the World see how far their Master was from any such Ambitious designs as were laid to his charge and to satisfie the World that he entred into the War merely out of a Religious Zeal and for the Glory of God he was ready to part with all his Conquests and to restore to the Hollanders all the Towns he had won from them if they would but re-establish the True Worship they had banish'd out of their Dominions Such is the Most Christian King who scruples not to falsifie with Heaven so it may but support and colour his falshood upon Earth Well the Most Christian King having by his Ungodly Policy thus engaged us in a Bloudy War with Holland pursues his own design by Land with all the Vigour Imaginable in so much that the swiftness and force of his Motion seem'd to be somewhat Supernatural but all this while he leaves us to doe our own work by Sea 'T is true his Fleet appeared among us and made up a third Squadron under white Colours but under that Colour of Innocence they thought it such a crime to shed Bloud that they always kept out of harms way Rather they did us more mischief than good in regard that when our Admirals encountr'd the Enemy in hopes of their Assistance they always left the English in the Lurch to bear the Brunt of the Engagement against the superiour Numbers which it was their Duty to have attack'd A peice of Treachery so insupportable that only they who suffer'd it would have endur'd it by which the whole English Navy was absolutely betrayed by a faithless Allie and by which the Lives of great numbers of the English were lost which by their Conjunction might have been sav'd So that it was apparent that those sacred Ships of the French were a sort of Noli me Tangere's not sent to assist their Confederares but only to sound the English Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fighting to consume ours and preserve their own Navy to encrease their Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe having crush'd one another he might remain sole Lord of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Trade of the World Thus it happen'd that after three Engagements of Ours against the Dutch Fleet in one Summer while nothing was tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that as to us every thing at Sea was Impregnable which was not to be attributed either to want of Courage or Conduct but was only to be imputed to our unfortunate Conjunction with the perfidious French like the misfortunes that happen to Men by being in ill Company This Misbehaviour of the French rais'd the Indignation of the English to such a Pitch that the Parliament resolving to give no more Mony for the continuance of the War the King was persuaded to make a Peace with Holland which was concluded accordingly towards the latter end of the Year 1673. And to shew that the King of England had all the reason in the World so to doe we are to take a little farther prospect of the uprightness of the Most Christian King to his Friend and Allie who had at such a â—â—aâ—t expence of Treasure espous'd his Quarrel For the French Army having passed the Wale caus'd such a General Consternation all over Holland and the Confusion they were in was such they could hardly resolve whether to yield or continue to defend themselves The States therefore sent away several of their Deputies some to the King of England others to the Most Christian of Princes to know of both upon what conditions they would be willing to make Peace and Agreement Those that were sent to the King of England to shew how justly he intended to have dealt with the French or whether it were out of Fear of giving him any Jealousie or Offence were met as far as Gravesend and being forbid their approach to White-Hall were conveigh'd to Hampton-Court and there as it were honourably confin'd till his Majesty of England could hear from the Most Christian King whether those Deputies might be admitted But the other Deputies no sooner arriv'd at the French Court but two Secretaries of State were sent to them who without farther delay demanded in the first place what Power they had to Treat and next what Proposals they had to make in order to a speedy Peace The Deputies answered they came not to make Proposals but to receive Conditions from his Most Christian Majesty as it better became them Upon which to hasten them to a Conclusion the French Ministers told them in short That whatever his Most Christian Majesty had conquer'd in their Dominions he lookt upon as his own already and therefore would not part with it without an Equivalent as well for what he might farther subdue before the conclusion of the Treaty as for what he had already in Possession With this Answer Monsieur De Groet one of the Holland Deputies posted back to the Hague and with no less speed was sent back again with full Instructions and Authority jointly with the rest of his Colleagues to treat and conclude a Peace with them No sooner was he return'd but Monsieur Louvoy one of the French King's Secretaries gave the Deputies a Draught of a Treaty or rather the Pretensions of the King his Master upon the granting of which he was both willing and ready to return to his former Amity with the States and to conclude a firm Peace with them Upon which two things are Observable First that the Conditions themselves were such which if granted would have made the French King as perfectly Master of the Country as if he had Conquer'd it by the Sword And in the Second place That in all the Articles there was not the least word relating to England nor any more notice taken of the King of Great Britain than if he had not been at all concern'd in the War And farther to demonstrate that it was never the design of the Most Christian Prince that the King of England should be a gainer by the War Monsieur De Groet declared at his second return to the
which is made here by the small Quantity of French Wine which is consum'd at present by the several Fruits Dry and Green and French Sweat-Meats which are little esteem'd That England is at this day much more Wealthy than France and that if God had afflicted England with such a Government and a King of Lewis the Fourteenth's Humor she might doe much more than France does now That therefore all Princes that are tempted to imitate that King in his Humors to be a Conqueror and an Absolute Prince ought rather to swallow Poison and quit the World than to suffer themselves to be over-rul'd by such Barbarous and Cursed Passions That indeed in some measure Lewis XIV is to be excused for his Attacking Mons and Nyssa as supposing him to have a good Correspondence both in the one and the other and that his Design was thereby to re-establish or maintain the Reputation of his Great Power of which he began to be somewhat doubtfull and to prevent his Credit from falling as well among the Rebels in Ireland as among his own Subjects and at Rome where there is such Disputing about the Election of a New Pope and that he thought this would strike a Terror into the Confederates especially the Duke of Savoy who he troubles the most and therefore would oblige him to make his Peace apart and others after or together with him He was also willing to make the World believe that the Congress at the Hague of which he had Intilligence 8 Months before did nothing astonish him And therefore beleiving it was high time for him to Attempt something he pickt out Mons before any other in the Low-Countries and took all his Measures to Crown the Enterprize with Success And the Reasons why he pitch'd upon Mons were these Because it was a Place the most advanc'd toward France and for that the Confederates would sooner make an Invasion of his Country on that side than any other way because it was a Place which fetch'd great Contributions out of France and the Conquer'd Provinces and for that being large and wealthy it might serve to make a Magazine for K. William's Army and because that if the Confederates were so far weakn'd as to make a Peace to his Advantage the next Winter he would rather keep it than Aeth Oudenard or Charleroy which he had been once already oblig'd to quit to serve as a Bar to the Spanish Low-Countries besides that it is the Capital City of a large Province which the Conquest of that Town would reduce wholly under his Subjection As for Nyssa assuredly it was Bought and Sold for that otherwise it would have been a foolish attempt to have Attacqu'd it in the Heart of Winter being a Place Impregnable and that the Traitors were agreed to cover their foul Play to fire the Powder under the Favour of the first Bombs that Catinat should throw into the Town by which means they should take the French Money yet appear honest Men. That as for the Circumstances and the Soldiers kill'd by the Accident it might all be so manag'd as if the whole had happen'd fortuitously the better to cover their Intrigues Therefore 't is presumed that France went the best way to try whether she could by these means separate the Allies one from the other and farther that there is no question to be made but that France by other Intrigues supported with Money will do her utmost to make a Peace the next Winter for that otheâ—wise she is ruin'd for ever notwithstanding all the outward haughtiness she carries in her looks and that it is the Interest of the Allies not to be too hasty but to stand resolutely upon their Terms That whatever outward shew Lewis XIV makes it will be impossible for him to support another Campaign after this but that he must be oblig'd to constrain his Subjects to sell the last remainder of their Plate and to raise the Price of his Money at least half in half And that all this will hardly suffice for another Campaign for that the farther he goes forward in these Excesses and the more his usual Imposts decay the less Money he will have and the more the People will be ruin'd Having now given you a short but faithful Account of the Miseries and Calamities that the French King's Subjects groan under at home as also the sinking Condition of the State which we may modestly affirm to be the Effects of his Tyrannical Government on the one hand and of his Infidelity and Injustice towards his Neighbours and Allies on the other let us now examine the Particulars of his Transactions with each Neighbouring Potentate for some time past and then let the Impartial judge whether any thing but Oppression to his People and Ruin to his Kingdom are likely to be the Events of such perfidious Practices We will begin with England How happy was the King of England at his first Restauration belov'd by his People ador'd by his Parliament and in perfect Union with his Neighbours the Dutch What might not those two Potentates in close Confederacy have done France trembled at the thoughts of it and despair'd of grasping Universal Empire unless she could divide this solid opposition so pernicious to her soaring Projects The French King well understood that the King of England would he but put himself to the trouble of knowing his own strength and making a true use of it was in a condition not only to mediate but to force a Peace among all the Potentates of Europe For by a strict Union with the Hollanders he was absolute Master of the whole Ocean and consequently of the Riches of the World insomuch that the Mines of America were not safe to the King of Spain but by his Permission and by sending to the weaker side the assistance of his Land Forces formidable as well for their Courage as their Discipline he was able to have turn'd the scales of Victory which way soe'er he pleas'd Now then in regard that by the common Rules of Policy and Fore-sight the French King could not but be well assur'd that whatsoever Princes he assail'd the other would be as certain in the weakness of his Condition to have recourse to the two Grand Fortresses of Europe Potent at Sea and no less powerful by Land to prevent the Râ—vage of his Territories whether the Dictates of Achitophelism and Machiavilism might not in some measure justifie the most Christian King in pursuing the best Methods he could to separate such a Conjunction so prejudicial to his aspiring Ambition and Self-interest may not be so much perhaps the Question but whether he is not to be look'd upon as the worst of the whole Race of Cain and as a Mischief and Pest which all Mankind ought to eschew who besides the most unchristian like ways by which he sought to subdue his Enemies treated his most faithfull Friends and Allies with that infidelity that Treachery that base and scornfull Ingratitude as
he did the King of England By which it was plain that all the Kindnesses and Remuneration which the Most Christian Lewis intended the King of England for all his Services was only that he should have been the last that for all his Services and Assistences given to the French Crown to the over-sight of his own Interest and his True it is that notwithstanding the Convulsions that threatned his Kingdom during his Minority yet Mazarine having by a Conjunction with Cromwell surmounted all those difficulties much increased his Power and inlarged his Conquests by new Acquisitions For Cromwell whom for his pains Mazarine was wont to call a Fortunate Fool gaping after the Golden Mines of Peru to supply his empty Coffers contrary to all the Rules of English Policy was altogether for pulling down the distant Monarchy of Spain and advancing the neighbouring power of France Mazarine had the length of his Foot and therefore resolv'd to make the best of him by pampering up his Gold craving humour and fostering his Animosities against the Spaniard And so cunning was Mazarine that he granted the heedless Usurper whatever he demanded considering that when Cromwell had assisted him to doe his work in bringing under the House of Austria and by that means casting the Balance of Europe on the French side he should afterwards have leisure enough to recover what he had seem'd to part with which was afterwards too unhappily verified by the easie regaining of Dunkirk Thus Cromwell being the first that rais'd the Grandeur of the French to which he contributed not a little by the War which he made at the time with Spain the two Princes that succeeded him were so wheedled and bewitched by the French Kings specious pretencees and fair Promises that they did tho undesignedly too much assist him to get up to the Pinicle of Universal Dominion as if this Most Christian King had made use of Charms and Philters to fascinate their Eyes and Ears neither to see themselves so often abus'd nor to hear the advices of their most faithfull Counsellours How happy was the King of England at his first Restauration belov'd by his People ador'd by his Parliament and in perfect Union with his Nighbours the Dutch What might not those two Potentates in close Confederacy have done France trembled at the thoughts of it and despair'd of grasping Universal Empire unless she could divide this solid opposition so pernicious to her soaring Projects The French King well understood that the King of England would he but put himself to the trouble of knowing his own strength and making a true use of it was in a condition not only to mediate but to force a Peace among all the Potentates of Europe For by a strict Union with the Hollanders he was absolute Master of the whole Ocean and consequently of the Riches of the World insomuch that the Mines of America were not safe to the King of Spain but by his Permission and by sending to the weaker side the assistance of his Land Forces formidable as well for their Courage as their Discipline he was able to have turn'd the scales of Victory which way soe'er he pleas'd Now then in regard that by the common Rules of Policy and Fore-sight the French King could not but be well assur'd that whatsoever Princes he assail'd the other would be as certain in the weakness of his Condition to have recourse to the two Grand Fortresses of Europe Potent at Sea and no less powerfull by Land to prevent the Ravage of his Territories whether the Dictates of Achitophelism and Matchavillinism might not in some measure justifie the most Christian King in pursuing the best Methods he could to separate such a Conjunction so prejudicial to his aspiring Ambition and Self-interest may not be so much perhaps the Question but whether he is not to be look'd upon as the worst of the whole Race of Cain and as a Mischief and Pest which all Mankind ought to eschew who besides the most unchristianlike ways by which he sought to subdue his Enemies treated his most faithfull Friends and Allies with that Infidelity that Treachery that base and scornfull Ingratitude as he did the King of England By which it was plain that all the Kindnesses and Remuneration which the Most Christian Lewis intended the King of England for all his Services was only that he should have been the last that for all his Services and Assistences given to the French Crown to the over-sight of his own Interest and his Peoples welfare should have been rewarded with Invasion and Conquest To make this Separation therefore between England and Holland the most subtile Mercuries of France were sent abroad with their Silver Wands to lull the British Argos asleep and prevent his watching over the Hesperian Garden of European Liberty or rather with a deeper Intoxication of Aurum Potabile Draughts to allure his Ministers into a downright Falsification of their Trusts Nor was it possible for all of them to escape being befascinated or to resist those Golden Temptations but like People that must go through with what they have taken money to perform presently several artificial insinuations of Injuries receiv'd from the Dutch as to Amboyna and the Fishery were whisper'd about in England while at the same time the freedom of the Sea and the preservation of Trade were with the same subtilty to be disputed in Holland on purpose to exasperate the jealousie of those People Things that might so easily have been adjusted where there had been the least Condescentions to Reason that it was undoubtedly above the reach of most Mens understanding that the Policy of Great Britain should prefer a trivial Quarrel about Sprats and Herrings for the business of Amboyna had been compounded long before above the common safety of three Nations and that a Protestant Kingdom without being constrained thereto by some unavoidable necessity should ever fight with so much Rage and Fierceness for the Destruction of the Protestant Interest Or that English Counsellors should advise their Prince to run the Fortune of a French King without any rational Prospect of Advantage to himself But it was plain that the Most Christian King was then laying his most Vnchristian Trains for the Destruction of England and as palpable it was that the Dutch War was design'd by the French to ruine the naval strength of both Nations and thereby to break the Balance of Europe It was a Mystery beyond unfolding that the Chief Ministers of England should take such strange Measures so to mislead their Sovereign that in order to the making good his Title to the Kingdom of France he should enable the French King to invade all Christendom and to extend his Empire beyond all bounds or that to secure to himself and his People the Sovereignty of the Seas he should with so much industry endeavour to force all the Dutch Ships with all their Naval Power into the Arms of the French and rejoyce at their
Victories as if by Conquering the Land the French did not at the same time become Masters of the Havens Rivers and Fleets of the Dutch And yet such was the vast Predominancy which French Treason and the hidden Conspiracies of French Counsels had over these great Politicians and the Asscendent which they had over the King of England that he was so kind to the French King for setting him together by the ears with the Dutch that he sent him his Vice Admirals and other Sea Officers to encourage and promote the setting out of his Fleets and in pity of their want of experience in Sea Affairs took his raw Seamen by the hand train'd them up in his own Fleets among the best of his Seamen and taught them that skill which the English had been many Ages a learning and all this in hopes to enable the French King to assist him in beating his best and most secure friends wherein the French according to their wonted Treachery fail'd him too when they were put to the Tryall All the World would have thought the King should not have so soon forgot the Punic Faith of France in their kindness to his Person while he was abroad in Exile among them or if then they might pretend the Interest of their Kingdom and palliate their faithless and inhumane Dealing with him by necessity of Self preservation yet no such necessity constrain'd him to forget the French King 's opposing his Restauration with so much violence as he did and his Caballing with his greatest enemies to keep him out of his Kingdom more especially since he was then so sensible of it when it was recent in his Memory that upon his coming into England he commanded away Monsieur Bourdeaux the French Ambassadour and would not suffer him to come into his presence But the Most Christian King knew full well how to work himself again into the King of England's favour and at length by throwing a French Dalilah into his embraces quite cut off the Locks of the British Sampson All on a sudden France seem'd to be remov'd into England nothing but French Baubles and Gugaws pleased our English Gentry A French Faction prevailing at Court French Mountebanks for Physicians French Fashions French Hats French Lackeys French Fidlers French Dancing-Masters French Tooth-Drawers French Barbers French Air in our very looks French Legs French Compliments French Grimaces and French Debauchery to fit us for French Slavery And had the French Disease been then unknown in England 't is to be questioned whither it would not have been entertained with as general a Consent as the Sichemites submitted to the Pain of Circumcision though to the hazard of being all destroy'd by the French Simeon and Levi while sore and driveling under the Distemper Nor is it to be doubted but the French Christianity would have as easily made tryall of such a Design as they did of the rest of their Tricks had they thought it would have taken effect It is well known that before the first Dutch War was entred into the King of England sought to make Alliances with France and Spain but the Spaniards were so Cock-sure of the French Promises that they would not make any Approaches to Friendship with England without the giving up of Dunkirk Tangier and Jamaica As for the French a Project of a Treaty was offer'd them and promoted with all earnestness by the Lord H s at Paris but it was plainly discern'd that the principal designs of the Most Christian King was only to draw the King of England into such an Alliance as might advance his design upon Spain and therefore so soon as he had set the Dutch and us together by the Ears and saw that thereby the Balance of Europe was broken he no longer minded Alliance with England But after many Proposals of Leagues and many Arts used to highten the jealousies between Us and the Hollanders he at last sided with the Dutch though to so little purpose that his Intentions plainly appeared to be no other than to see the two most Potent Obstacles of his Ambition destroy one another to the end he might with less Opposition invade his Nighbours and increase his own Naval Strength Nay the Juggle went much farther for that in the heat of all the War he still kept Negotiations on Foot and made overtures and proposals of Peace by means of the Queen-Mother whom in the end he so far and so treacherously deluded as to ascertain her and by her means to assure the King of England her Son that the Dutch would not set out any Fleet the ensuing Summer and yet underhand press'd the Dutch with all the Vigor and Importunity imaginable to fit out their Men of War again with a promise rather than fail that he would joyn his Fleet with theirs against the English Now it was upon a Supposal that the Most Christian King was at that time a good Christian and true to his Word in pursuing his pretended Proposals of Peace and upon that faithless French Paroll it was that the King of England put forth no Fleet to Sea that Year upon which followed that Fatal surprize of our Ships at Chatham then which a greater Dis-honour never happened to the Nation since the memory of History But at last as we had been oblig'd to the Craft and Treachery for the War and the Shame we received by it so we were glad to receive the Peace that ensued from his favour which was concluded at Breda between England France and Holland By this Treaty of Breda the French were oblig'd to restore St. Christophers to the English in the same manner and form as is exprest in the Articles but instead of performing their Engagement according to the true intent and literal meaning of the Articles they from time to time upon several unjust and frivolous Pretences deluded and delay'd the English Commissioners that were sent to take Possession of it till finding there was a necessity to comply with us in so small a matter while we were preparing to venture a second quarrel in their behalf it was at last surrendred after four year's baffling to Sir Charles Wheeler However to shew the perfidiousness of French dealing before they deliver'd it they destroyed all the Plantations laid the whole Island waste and left it in a much worse condition than if it had never been planted And as if the seizure and detaining of the King of England's Territories had not been sufficient they interrupted also the Trade of his Subjects in those Parts and assuming to themselves the Sovereignty of those Seas would not suffer any Ships but their own to sail either by or about those Islands but as if it had been Criminal so to doe took and confiscated several Vessels upon that account From all which a Question will arise easie to be resolv'd whither any thing be recorded of the old Carthaginians more perfidious than this and whether the King of England might not have expected more
Honest and Christian dealing from the unbelieving Turk than from the Most Christian King 'T is true that after the Peace of Breda the King of England was at liesure to consider how the French King had abus'd him by engaging him in a War with his Protestant Nighbours and how he had seemingly taken their parts to prolong the War that while they were battering and bruising and weakning one another he might have the fairer Opportunity in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treaties to invade the Spanish Netherlands and observing with what a rapid Torrent of Victory he bore down all before him thought fit to interpose before the flame that consumed his next Nighbour should throw it's sparks over the Water and therefore sent into Holland to invite them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such farther Counsels as were most proper to stop the Fury of the French King which offer being by the Dutch embraced with open Arms a defensive League was concluded in five days time between Holland and England together with another for the repressing the farther Progress of the French Armes in the Spanish Netherlands In which the Sweeds afterwards making a third Party concern'd gave it the name of the Triple League This was no way pleasing to the French King however for a while he dissembled his resentment of the Affront though from the first moment he resolved to make use of all his Charms and Golden Magick to dissolve this Triple Knot whatever it cost him To this purpose the Duchess of Orleance is said by the French to be sent over hither believing no Instrument so proper as the King of England's own Sister to prevail with her Brother King Charles met her at Dover where their endearments one to another were so much the more reciprocally prevailing by how much it happens that Princes more rarely than private Persons enjoy their Relations And when they doe yet their kind Interviews are many times attended with some fatal disaster of which though there was no appearance here in England yet the first News we heard of her upon her Return to France was that she was dead However the Affair was so dextrously managed that a French Ambassadour was forthwith dispatch'd out of France and an English Ambassadour sent to Paris and as the French gave out a private League was clapt up to the ruine of the Triple Alliance to all the highth of Intimacy and Dearness as if upon dissecting the Princess there had some State Philter been found in her Bowels or that a Reconciliation with France could not have been celebrated with a less Sacrifice than that of the Bloud-Royal of England This supposed Treaty was a work of Darkness not to be div'd into in a great while but afterwards the French King caus'd it to be made publick as we shall see by and by 'T is true the Knowledg of this was of great Importance to England but the discovery was the most apparent Demonstration in the World of French Perfidiousness so enormous as it could not be imagined to have entred into the Breast of a Most Christian King so treacherously to expose the Secrets of his dearest Confederate after he had drawn him in by all the Assurances of his assistance imaginable And the reasons that induc'd him to make the detection were no less Impious though agreeable to the Practice of the French King who after he has made it his business to decoy in Princes that lend an easie ear to his Enchantments or with too much facility suffer themselves to be overcome by his Alluring Engagements into any unseemly and dishonourable undertaking believes he has them then safely tack'd to his Interests and that they will not dare to flinch from his Desings for fear of being exposed to their People which he takes care in due time to have artificially instill'd into their Ears a Maxim of Christianity which lies conceal'd from all other Men but the most Christian of Princes And thus it was that the French King having amus'd the Emperor with the Noise of a Treaty and at the same time brought the Turk into Hungary to joyn the Malecontents to excite his Private Confederate the King of England to follow his steps in Government Bare-faced causes a little Book to be Printed and Published with the Privilege Du Roy Entitl'd The History of the Transactions of this Age and therein ordered the Dover Treaty as they call'd it to be inserted and to that purpose furnish'd his Historiographer with Notes and Directions by the Hands of his Secretary Colbert to the end that the King of England being truly as he design'd set out in his Colours and despairing of being ever after trusted by his People might be enforced to take such Resolutions as Despair and Fury should inspire him withall to the Destruction of those he had so highly disoblig'd there being nothing more than the Subversion of England which the French King aim'd at 'T is true he was so kind as to recall the Book upon the loud complaint of the King of England's Ambassador however it was an apparent Demonstration to all the World how little trust or reliance there was in French Amity and plainly shews that there is no way to bind this mighty Sampson by Oath Promises Treaties or by any other the most Religious Ties and Considerations which are no more to him than Spiders Webs but by an absolute clipping off the Locks of his Power and disabling him so as never to rise more But to return to the Triple League In the end the French King by his wicked Policy so contrived the matter as to cause a new Rupture twixt the Dutch and the English and as if he had intended to be the Master of Iniquity and to make the King of England as bad as himself nothing would suffice till he had prevail'd with the King to attack the Dutch Smyrna Fleet returning home and dreaming of no such matter which as it was contrary to the Genius of the English Nation and to the Nature and Gentle Disposition of the King of England himself is wholly to be attributed to the Wiles and wicked Temptations of the Most Christian Prince who never ceas'd pealing it into the King of England's Ears that if he could but master the Wealth of the Smyrna Fleet he should never want Mony again And being thus betrayed by wheedling French Hallucination what can the French expect but the Severity of England's just Revenge wherein we may venture with the greater hopes of Success as being engaged with all in the common Cause of Christendoms Tranquillity Add to this that when the French King thought the King of England was engaged so far by the Smyrna Attack as that he must needs go forward the Most Christian King then openly declared 't was none of his Quarrel and that he only engaged in it to assist the King of England merely in respect to His Person By which means the King of
Doway the Fort of Scarp Turnay Oudenard Lille Armentiers Courtray Bergues and Turnes and all their Bayliwicks c. and restore to the King of Spain the County of Burgundy together with Alost And to this Treaty all the Princes of Christendom were invited to give the two Kings their Promises and Engagements of Warranty as to all the Contents of the Treaty And by another Article of the Treaty it was accorded that whatever should on the day of the Ratification of the Peace be found upon the Lands of France should appertain to Her and that whatever in like manner should be found upon the Lands of Spain should appertain to the Crown of Spain but as if it were an impossibility for France to keep her word the Most Christian Prince designing to make his Advantage of this Article before the Ratification came caus'd the Ax to be set to a Wood of Overgrown Trees which was upon the Lands of Spain and having fell'd the Timber transported it into his own Dominions that when the Ratification should come he might have an excuse for what he had done In like manner though he were to restore all Burgundy by the Articles of this Treaty without reservation and though he were Sworn upon the Cross the Holy Evangelists the Canons of the Mass and upon his Honour fully really and bona fide to observe and accomplish all the contents of the Articles yet he both dismantl'd the strong Holds and Places of the County carryed away all the Ammunitions and Warlike Provisions and would have destroyed the Rich Salt Pits of that Province but for the powerfull Interposition of England and Hâ—lland Nor could this Treaty of Aix so religiously sworn to tie up the French King from exacting heavy Contributions from the Duchess of Lymburgh and Luxenburgh from laying new claims to some Towns as important as any of those that had been granted him by the Peace nor from confiscating the Estates of the Subjects of the King of Spain that refus'd to forswear their Allegiance not sparing the Royal House of Mary Mont. And as if these Infractions and Incroachments had not been sufficient they forc'd their way with great Quantities of Merchandize through the Spanish Territories without paying Customs and not long after enveavour'd to surprize the Town of Hainault And in short they did whatever they pleas'd plunder'd even the most sacred Places and acted without remorce or pitty whatever can be imagined by insolent and unconscionable Men. This perfidious dealing of France with England and Spain spreading over Europe like a Gangrene as it prov'd extreamly prejudicial to some so it became no less pernicious to others of the Europaean Princes Among the rest the Duke of Lorrain by the Pyrenaean Treaty was to be restor'd to his Dukedom of Lorrain with all the Places and Towns which he had possessed in the Bishopricks of Mets Toul and Verdun But France after the Exeeution of the other Articles of that Peace delay'd as long as she could the performance of that part which related to the Duke and still refus'd to restore him to his Country till she had made him condeseend to another Treaty with her whereby he was constrain'd to part with several other considerable Places besides what had been granted to him by the General Peace Nor would that Usurpation satisfie her voracious Appetite for that after a Year and an half of an unsettl'd Possession during which time under several unjust pretences new quarrells were every day pick'd with him till she forc'd him with a considerable Army to surrender into her hands his Town of Marsul Nor was it long after before the French again compell'd him to sign a new Treaty still more disadvantageous than the two former nor could he then as little as before have any quiet Enjoyment of that little they had left him till they had worm'd him out of all For every day the French encroached upon his Jurisdiction the Liberties of his Territories and his Sovereignty it self He laid most Enormous Taxes upon the Duke's Subjects he constrain'd him to disband his Forces and then to raise new Men again as the Most Christian Usurper thought fit He was kept from revenging his own Quarrels to take part in that of others all his Enemies were let loose against him to stop the progress of his Armies as soon as he had gain'd the least Advantage And in few Words the Noble Duke who deserv'd a much better Treatment was all that while rather a Vassal to France than a Sovereign Prince Neither would this satisfie the Ambition of the French King who finding by many circumstances how highly the Duke resented such Despotick Vsage he sent one of his Generals to surprize and seize his Person and to bring him either dead or alive A new French Mode of dealing with Sovereign Princes not known in the more generous Climates of Europe and which may give us some Hopes of seeing the Northern part of the World govern'd by Basha's as well as the Eastern But 't is an infallible Maxim that every Prince dispossess'd of his Estate may hold for certain there will be nothing omitted on the Usurper's part or Conquerer in Possession to ruin him if possible and all his Generation Therefore 't is not strange that the French King should leave no Stone unturn'd for the Destruction of His Highness of Lorrain From hence it was that the Imperial Governour of Philipsburgh the same who afterwards basely and cowardly surrender'd up that Garrison to Crequi so notoriously and openly as he did attempted the Destruction of that Prince by a Trap-door which he cunningly caus'd to be contriv'd for that purpose in the Bridge of that Place through which the Duke not dreaming of any such French Treachery so near him fell head long to the Bottom of the Ditch For may it not be justly inferr'd that this Governour had capitulated and agreed with some Christian Minister of France to execute so greatfull a peice of Treason more especially since it was by the Power of the Favourers of France at Vienna that the Traitors escap'd altogether unpunish'd And now we are come to Vienna it will not be amiss to take a short view of the Most Christian King's behaviour towards the Emperor where he will be found nothing chang'd either in his Morals or his Politicks As for the occasion that ever his Imperial Majesty gave the French King to make such Bloudy Wars upon Him there is no body that can tell of any Nor is it probable that a Prince so good Natur'd so Piously inclin'd so much given to Repose and Peace and so averse from contending with his Neighbours or making War upon his Inferiours as he is said to be should be an Aggressor But all the World knows that it has been long the Ambition of France to grasp in his hands the Universal Monarchy of the fourth part of the Habitable Earth and this is that which makes the French King seek Occasions of Publick Universal
France dismiss'd their Guard of Switzers which were the chief security of their City But no sooner were the Switzers departed but Monsieur Louvoy with a powerfull Army invested the City and forc'd them to surrender upon such Conditions as he was pleas'd to prescribe them After which the French King made no scruple to violate those pitifull Articles which they granted them and to treat them as Slaves like the rest of his Subjects The Treaty of Nimeguen began in the Name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity and the end of it was that there should be an immoveable and unshaken Peace between his Imperial Majesty and the French King to stop the desolation of so many Provinces and the Effusion of so much Christian Bloud yet no sooner was the Emperor engag'd against the Turk and that Spain and her Allies had laid down their Arms and disbanded the greatest part of their Forces relying upon the Faith of the Treaty of Nimeguen but the Most Christian King fell in upon Flanders with a more than Turkish Fury Burning Plundring and Levelling with the Earth whole Towns and Villages on purpose to constrain the People to revolt and to become his Vassals to preserve themselves from utter ruin The Correspondence of the Most Christian King with the Ottoman Port is too well known and how it was at his Most Christian Importunity that the Grand Seignior broke the first Truce which he had made with the Empire to second the designs of Count Teckeley whom France out of a particular Zeal to the Catholick Religion assisted with Men and Money and that prevailing charm it was that wrought upon the Port to send back Count Caprara and reject the Propositions of Peace which he carry'd along with him Of which the Marquess of Seppeville then the French Ambassador at Viena fail'd not with all diligence to give his Master Notice who with no less sedulity dispatch'd another Person to the Grand Visier to oblige and encourage him to contrive the Seige of Vienna urging him that it was for his Honour not to quit it That the City was at its last Gasp and that it behov'd him to take it whatever it cost him for the sake of his Reputation and the publick Good of the Port for that the Seige having made such a noise in the World he could not leave the prosecution of it without Eternal Infamy to the Ottoman Empire and the Grand Vizier adding withall that to facilitate the taking of the Town and to divide the Emperors Forces his Master would enter into Flanders with a Puissant Army which would infallibly oblige the Princes of the Empire to recall their Forces for their own Security And in that point he was as good as his Word to the Turk entring Flanders at the same time with Fire and Sword as if he had been second to Mahomet But when Vienna was reliev'd he was so far from partaking in the general Joy of the rest of the Christian World that he forbid his Ecclesiasticks to observe any Thanksgiving for the Victory of the Christians upon pain of incurring his High Displeasure Nor is it only by the assistence of open and profess'd Infidels that the French King fights the Emperor abroad but by the means of his pretended Friends and nearest Counsellors who having finger'd the Gold of France become Traitors to their Lawfull Prince and betray his very Cabinet Secrets This occasion'd the misunderstanding that happen'd between the Duke of Brandenburgh and Montecuculi General of the Imperial Forces in the Holland War For in the Year 1672. when all Europe look'd upon the Vnited Provinces near the brink of Destruction the Elector of Brandenburgh fore seeing the consequences to be expected from the successfull enterprises of France took the Field with a considerable Army at what time Montecuculi was on his March with a design to act jointly Upon which Turenne was sent to oppose those two Armies but by the several Marches and Counter Marches which the Elector made Turenne's Army was so tir'd and harrass'd that about the end of the Campaigne it was in so miserable a condition that all Turenne could doe was to defend himself which caus'd the Elector to make a vigorus Remonstrance of all things to be made to the Imperial Council Which wrought so effectually that positive Orders were sent Montecuculi to join the Elector and fight Turenne without farther loss of time so that nothing but Treachery the mode of France could have prevented the Total Ruine of Turenne's Army But the French Instruments in the Imperial Court so order'd the matter that Montecuculi's Orders were chang'd and an express command sent him neither to joyn the Elector nor to fight Turenne The Elector who had receiv'd from the Court of Vienna a formal Letter which gave him an Account of the true Order which the Emperor had sent his General to joyn him and fight the shatter'd Enemies wonder'd when Montecuculi being by him summond to execute the Order refus'd to obey it But Montecuculi who knew nothing of the Letter sent the Elector could do no less than follow his own Instructions The Elector was concern'd in Reputation to make the Emperor sensible of Montecuculi's proceedings and if Montecuculi was strangely surpriz'd when at his return to Vienna his Imperial Majesty call'd him to a strict Account why he neither join'd the Brandenburgher nor fought Turenne the Emperor was no less amaz'd when his General produced for his discharge an Order in exact form forbidding him to doe either the one or the other This was a perfect Mystery however afterwards it was found out to have been a contrivance between the French Emissaries and some of the Imperial Ministers who having easily found a way to intercept the Original Order and in the same Dispatch to transmit a false one under a counterfeited Hand and Seal And thus perhaps it was that General Souches after the Battle of Senneff drew off from the Prince of Orange and left him in the Lurch under pretence of not having order to doe any more than what he had done Tarbrack was a Town upon the Borders of Germany that stood conveniently for the purposes of the French King and therefore he resolv'd to fortifie it On the other side the Imperialists complain'd of it to the French King as a Truce and Treaty both at one time but all the Answer they could get was that the Royal Chamber of Mets had irrevocably decreed it to belong to the Crown of France and therefore the Imperialists had no reason to complain of a Sovereign Monarch's fortifying his Frontier Towns His very proposals of Marriage are only snares to entrap such Princes as will accept of his Matches and because his main design is at the Empire therefore he strives to scatter his Circes and Medias among the Princes of Germany Believing Wives to be the fittest Instruments to betray their Husbands and the nuptial sheets to be the securest Harbours for Treachery Thus after