Great Britain's TEARS Humbly offered to the Consideration OF THE LORDS and COMMONS in Parliament Assembled London Printed in the Year 1695. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled IF we look into the World and but view the Actions of Men and see what violent Oppression there is of the Poor and the eager pursuit after Riches we shall be apt to conclude Men are become lunatick or infected with the gross Errors of the Sadduces of old otherways one would think they would never dare to break through the Laws of God and Man at the rate they do so much the more considering the Nation has so lately receiv'd such a signal Deliverance and hath ever since been in imminent Peril yet these things have made no Impression on the Minds of some Men but only serv'd to heighten and encrease their Ambition and Covetousness which hath been the occasion of many Evils for which the Land mourns as will appear by the ensuing Matter but it must with all due Acknowledgment be confest that in Parliament there hath been all imaginable Care taken to prevent Frauds and the Imbezlement of the Publick Money but all hath not been sufficient Yet there hath been one thing wanting that is the inspecting into the Actions of the Court from whence the greatest of our Evils have sprung Our Fore-fathers ever look'd upon them with a jealous Eye as being sensible what Temptations they lay under and what great Opportunities they had of inâ—â—â—hing themselves especially in the time of War to the Prejudice of the Nation and how prone and apt they were to pursue their own Interest notwithstanding their great Pretensions to Loyalty and this is certainly a sore and great Evil the Nation now labours under Therefore vain and fruitless will all Endeavours be as long as there 's so many great and various Corruptions in the Government and we can expect nothing but Poverty and Misery to attend There are many Instances both in Holy Writ and History wherein God hath been pleased to make use of weak and mean Instruments for the bringing his Purposes to pass and finding a general Silence the sense of my Duty and the Apprehension how fatal these things may prove to the Kingdom is that which hath made me thus presume to address my self to this most August Assembly from whom alone it is under God the Nation can expect Relief We are happy in a good Prince who will deny nothing that 's fit for good Subjects to ask and who will be very ready and willing to remove all Grievances or any thing else that may obstruct the Glory of his Actions or the happy Settlement of the Kingdom in Peace I am my Lords and Gentlemen your Honours most humble faithful and obedient Servant Robert Crosfeild GREAT BRITAIN's Tears THIS Nation hath long lain under a great and dangerous War His Majesty's Royal Person expos'd to the greatest Hazards and vast Sums of Money rais'd for carrying on the same yet we have not made use of those Opportunities God hath put into our Hands of improving them to the Advantage of the Kingdom but have all along taken quite different Measures from what our Fore-fathers have done under the like Circumstances of Affairs which is obvious and plain to the Eye of any intelligible Man and there 's a general Complaint thereof through the Kingdom but I find none inquisitive after the Causes from whence these Evils should arise therefore I conceive it would highly conduce to His Majesty's and the Nation 's Interest if we could discover the Fountain from whence they spring which I shall endeavour to do and hope my Labour will not be altogether in vain but shall forbear all Personal Reflections as knowing many honest and worthy Persons may be engaged who have not been able to withstand the Current and Course of things but been oblig'd to go with the Stream neither press harder upon any than what the natural Construction may be upon such and such Actions And when the Kingdom is engaged in War all Men well know that the great Affairs of the Kingdom pass through the Hands of the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury the Admiralty and the Commissioners of the Navy and so long as the War 's on foot it makes those Employments as likewise many others at Court much more advantagious than in the times of Peace and it must be allowed they have a very great Influence upon the Government so that as they are inclin'd they may be the Authors of much Good or Evil. By which it appears of what mighty Importance it is to the Happiness and Well-being of the Kingdom to have Persons of Honour and Integrity in those Stations to whom his Majesty commits so great a Trust we can no ways better judg of things present than by looking back to those which are past and it can be no Crime but a Duty in me to make somâ— Inspection into the Publick Actions of the Nation during this War God among many other Blessings hath surrounded us with the Sea as with a Wall whereby we are not expos'd to the Insults of the common Enemy and the Oppressor and hath also given us great and numerous Shipping more than ever our Fore-fathers could boast of who notwithstanding perform'd great Actions which sounded into all Parts of the World and by the Power thereof for many Ages gave Law to Europe and were properly and truly the Ballance thereof Now it 's highly worth the Enquiry to see whether we have followed their Footsteps and made a right Use of that Blessing we have and do enjoy and upon View it will be found that we have fallen far short of their Actions and greatly blemish'd the Glory of them which cannot be attributed to our Pusianimity for the same Native Courage remains but to other Causes which I shall endeavour to demonstrate and then leave the Nation to judg Upon the first breaking out of this War his Majesty by his great Prudence and Industry had drawn most of the considerable Kingdoms and States of Europe into an Alliance thereby to put a stop to the growing Greatness of the French King and has to the highest degree expos'd his Royal Person to the greatest of Dangers and by reason of this Alliance hardly to be parallel'd gave this Nation a mighty Opportunity of humbling that proud Monarch who by reason of drawing so great Armies into the Field could not spare any great number of Troops for the Guard of his Maritime Coast by which means it lay expos'd and we might have done him infinite Damage and committed great Spoil and Waste which had not possibly been in his Power to have prevented for where there 's a commanding Fleet at Sea and a competent Army on Board ready to make a Descent when and where they shall see fit and not send Men to a Slaughter-house it could no way possibly be in the Power of the Enemy to prevent their
landing and making great Depradations before they could draw a Strength together able to oppose them but yet before that could be done they might if they saw it requisite retire and be gone by such like means the Enemy might have been driven to the greatest Extremity and this hath always been the Opinion and Practice of all Ages and Nations that have been strong at Sea But unhappy poor England during this War has fallen from the common Notions of Men and at that time when in the greatest Danger and this hath not only been an Error of one Year or two but many Nay have we not seen the Enemy's Fleet in the Straits and their Coast left naked their Troops being drawn to the Siege of Charleroy and we at the same time lay with a great Fleet almost all the Summer in Torbay and yet made no Attempt upon their Coast Let us but suppose we had lain under the same Circumstance What a miserable Condition we should have been in we may judg by what a Consternation the Nation was in the last Summer for fear the French Fleet should be out before ours It 's seen the Venetians can make a good use of their Shipping as appears by their taking the Morea Ciclut and Scio and why not we who are able to perform greater Actions than they are capable of And no doubt we might and should have done it had we not been prevented through the sordid Covetousness of some Persons who to enrich themselves have basely kept the Nation in a lingring War This will not appear to be a hard and unjust Censure when I have laid open what I have further to offer The next thing therefore I shall proceed upon shall be to enquire how it came to pass that there were Embargo's laid upon Shipping from Year to Year for several Years together to the great Prejudice of His Majesty and the whole Kingdom Some Men did and do conjecture that it was carried on by Interest and to satisfy the avaritious Temper of some Persons belonging to the Admiralty for it brought vast Sums of Money to their Hands and their Opinion in that matter seems to be justly grounded for being done as before is said for several Years there must have been some very urgent Cause for so doing and none so great as the King's want of Men as indeed nothing else could be rendred a sufficient Cause for so violent an Action and of so pernicious Consequence to the King and Kingdom The same Cause still remains and hath been all this last Summer more pressing than ever yet we see there has been no Embargo laid You will then say How comes there to be so great a Change It was because the last Session of Parliament this Matter was exploded and laid open by me in Print how pernicious the laying Embargo's was to his Majesty's and the Kingdom 's Interest and undeniable Reasons given to prove that there was no manner of Cause for so doing which in short overthrew that Business and the Nation has heard no more of it since And there hath been Application made to the Lords of the Admiralty wherein has been laid open what vile Corruptions were and are committed in his Majesty's Yards in the Imbezlement of his Majesty's Stores and the great Destruction made of Timber and Plank in the building and repairing the Royal Navy and the irregular Proceedings in the said Yards which hath amounted to vast Sums of Money which might have been sav'd and the Matter has had the Approbation of almost all Persons that have seen it but notwithstanding this has made no Impression on their Lordships who have delay'd the Person that made the Proposal but promis'd him from time to time to bring his Matter to an Issue but never perform'd it The Commissioners of the Navy to whom it was referr'd treated the Proposer rudely and never would make a just Report of the Matter to them referr'd but endeavour'd to evade and ridicule what they were not able to answer or confute This Affair hath lain for near this two Years and lies still undetermined altho it be of such vast Importance to the King and Kingdom and there are seventeen have made Oath of these things who are no loose idle Persons but Men living in good Repute that have even an Horror upon them to consider that these things are practised and those that do it are countenanced and supported in it by those who should redress them and which might have been long since done and may yet this Session of Parliament if honest Men are imploy'd by appropriating such a Sum of Money to that very use and making a borrowing Clause by which means there would be ready Money to pay the Workmen the want of which is alledged to be the great Cause of all these Abuses then that Money that hath been hitherto so basely wasted and mispent may be imploy'd towards the Payment of the Sailers whose Case truly is very deplorable and would even move a stony Heart to Compassion who are made a Prey of on every hand I need not particularize wherein it having been already done by others and it 's no more than what 's generally known but it 's contrary to common Policy and Honesty to oppress Men to such a degree who are of such great use to the Publick and no doubt their Sighs and Tears have long since pierced the Clouds and call aloud to Heaven for Vengeance and there 's no one Sin whatever sooner brings Judgments upon a Nation than the violent Oppression of the Poor His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to issue out his Royal Proclamation for to encourage the Sailers to come into his Service by giving them three Months Pay advance which I wish may have the desired Effect but there 's little appearance of it for it 's frequently seen that the Sailers leave their Ships many times when they have six or nine Months Pay due to them the Promise therefore of three Months Advance cannot be a sufficient Inducement for them to come into the Service the reason of it is because they are as it were eaten up by others and we see that even a Dog will shun that Room in which he has been often beat therefore it 's no wonder the Sailers have so great an Aversion to the Publick Service and as they are Men and Rational Creatures they will always decline it as long as they are so ill treated Therefore until the Cause be remov'd the Effects will never cease but these Regulations must not be expected to come from the Admiralty or Navy-board unless a Reform be first made among them His Majesty of his Princely Compassion hath been pleas'd to recommend the Sailers Case to the Parliament and many Proposals have been offer'd whereby to encourage and enduce them to come into his Service among others some have propos'd to register them in the several Ports with such Clauses and Restrictions as may oblige them to it but
then if I do not prove what I assert let me be punished as an Impostor and Incendiary I know it will be affirm'd by what I have done that I tax his Majesty with want of Prudence and Conduct I deny the Assertion for the Glory of his Actions shine so bright through the whole course of his Life that even the worst of his Enemies cannot do it but this I presume to say That Princes do both see and hear with other Mens Eyes and Ears And his Majesty by reason of his long Absence hath not had leisure to inspect into things his time being wholly taken up in weighty Affairs so that he hath in great measure been obliged to rely upon the Honour and Justice of others therefore what Error may have been committed or Corruptions crept into the Government they can no ways be imputed to his Majesty And I think it 's now very evident that the Kingdom is highly opprest and as it were fetter'd with its own Corruptions that it cannot exert its Strength and prosecute the War with that Vigor it might but yet it seems to be hush'd asleep and fallen into a deep Lethargy of Security in the midst of Danger And our Church and Nation which has been the Glory and Bulwark of the Protestant Religion is like to sink under the Weight of its own Corruptions For if we will but look and examine into the Causes of the Decay and Downfal of the great Empires and Kingdoms that have been in the World and are now extinct we shall find their Ruin principally owing to their own Wickedness and what reason have we to expect God should be more merciful to us than others to whom he has given a greater Light and Knowledg and sav'd as it were as a Brand out of the Fire These Mercies we have received will only serve to heighten our Guilt and increase our Punishment and it 's seen by Experience we know not how to prize Mercies as we ought till we are depriv'd of them as does appear in the Death of the late incomparable Princess the Queen 's most excellent Majesty who was the Glory of her Sex and of whom this Nation was not worthy and I fear her Loss to be but the Fore runner of greater Evils For when there 's a violent Oppression of the Poor in a Land and great Enormities committed that have an apparent Tendency to Ruin and that these are laid open to the view of the World it matters not by what Hand and notwithstanding all this these Evils shall continue and not be redrest then in such a case they become National Sins for which God certainly will visit with the Rod of his Anger It has always been the Practice of our Forefathers who have carefully transmitted down to us our Religion and Law in Parliament to look and inspect into the Actions of the Court even in the times of Peace to correct and punish such Ministers they found to be corrupt or deficient in their Duty of which we have almost infinite Examples and yet at the same time it was never thought in the least to be a Diminution to the Honour of their Prince Therefore how much does it behove the Nation to rouze it self and consider the Peril it now lies under Are our Religion Laws and Liberties valuable then let us shew a Courage and Resolution answerable to the Danger we are in and in the Name of God take such Measures as tend to their Preservation by rooting out those Corruptions that are in the Government Then may we have some hope and prospect of a Blessing otherways I fear the time will come that we shall call and cry unto the Almighty for Help when he will not hear us but denounce that heavy Judgment upon us he did to the Jews by the Prophet Ezekiel as may be seen in the 24th Chapter and the 13th and 14th Verses In thy Filthiness is Lewdness because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy Filthiness any more till I have caused my Fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back neither will spare neither will I repent according to thy Way and according to thy Doings shall they judg thee saith the Lord God FINIS