I believe if the King of France should promise to protect the Protestant Church of God and the Rectors of the same to govern the universal People subject to him justly to establish equal Laws and to see them duly executed we should not take his Word nor would his own Subjects be well pleased It is King William only that is allowed to have a Religion for his several Dominions that may be a Synod-of-Dort-Presbyterian in Holland an Episcopalian in England of the Kirk in Scotland and a downright Favourer of Popery in Ireland as is apparent by the Limerick Treaty and the Pamphlet put out by the Irish Gentlemen concerning the Proceedings of their late Parliament and the Depositiâ—â—â— that are before the House of Lords I have told over our former Conquests somewhat tediously and will add very little about them however I desire the Reader will reflect That the Neighboring Princes because they did not animadvert how much Greatness consisted in Naval Preparations and Trade and because we had not begun to make a Figure in either never thought themselves so much concerned as all the Potentates of Europe will now what becomes of us None of our Neighbors ever help'd Us formerly some of 'em did our Invaders Let the Reader farther reflect that it was not necessary for any of our former Invaders to make such a total Subversion of all our Laws as it will now be for the French King and consequently Composition and Treaties more easily succeeded Battles The former Alterations rather meliorated than overthrew our Constitution They bundled up and refin'd our By-Laws into National Statutes and introduced Forms where the Methods of Justice seemed less articulate And lastly Let it be considered though there are great Divisions amongst us some few for keeping the Prince of Orange others for restoring the King and several for something that they have not yet licked into Form yet all Persons that make the respective Parties of these Divisions will all of 'em joyn together to obstruct a French Conquest There will be such Divisions whenever Men will commit Violence upon the natural and ancient Constitution and I must confess these Divisions are the most fatal Symtom that attends our distemper'd State and may and will certainly subject us though not to a French Conquest to great Calamities and Devastations unless we restore the King I suppose I have sufficiently prov'd a French Conquest to be neither Desirable nor Practicable yet God knows what infinite Mischiefs we may have brought upon our selves by reviving a sort of Quarrel which by the Mercy of God has been so long extinguished A Dispute for Title which has in the days of our Forefathers had so fatal an Effect which has so dismally wounded our State and is left bleeding in the Histories of so many Reigns Because you shall not think I aggravate the Calamities that were occasioned by the Contention of the Two Roses I will only transribe some Passages out of Trussel who is a chast and cautelous Writer and it cannot be supposed his History was written to serve a Jacobite-Turn Page 257. he says There were in the Quarrel of the Two Roses Fourscore Princes of the Blood destroyed and twice as many Natives slain as were lost in the Two Conquests of France Pag. 260. he says In the Battle of Townton there were killed Thirty five thousand ninety and one English-men and of Strangers One thousand seven hundred forty five beside Two hundred and thirty slain the Day before at Ferry-bridge In his last Page his Words are these The total of private Soldiers that perished in these Civil Wars and suffered Punishment of immature Death for taking part of the one side or the other was Fourscore thousand nine hundred ninety and eight Persons besides Kings 2. Prince 1. Dukes 10. Marquesses 2. Earls 21. Viscounts 2. Lords 27. Lord Prior 1. Judge 1. Knights 139. Esquires 441. The Number of the Gentry is uncertainly reported and therefore Trussel omits them but says That for the most part they are included in the Number of private Soldiers set down to be slain to which he says you must add the Number of Six hundred and thirty and eight the total of all the Persons not therein accounted and then there appeareth in all to be slain Fourscore five thousand six hundred twenty eight Christians and most of this Nation not to be repeated says the Historian without grief nor remembred without Deprecation that the like may never happen more He concludes his History with this Saying Pan una Triumphis innumeris potior The whole History of that Quarrel sets before us such apposite Lessons for our Times that I wish all who love England would seriously read and ponder it It is time to draw to a Conclusion I am not willing to prophecy the Destruction of my Countrey and I beseech God Almighty to incline our Hearts to the Things that belong unto our Peace to our Peace in this World and to our everlasting Peace in the World to come I beseech God to incline the Prince of Orange not to forfeit an eternal weight of Glory for a momentary Crown which has nothing of good in it if it is not got by the Acts of Goodness God grant that he may consider it as a more valuable Character to be a Virtuous and a Christian Prince than a Romantick Heroe and God grant that he may be so Wise that his Days may not end in Tragedy I wish he would review his own Declaration and the Memorial of the States and that he would pursue those excellent Ends for which he came for which the States said they lent their Ships and which King James would have comply'd with and is ready to comply with still The King is willing to secure the Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and had not the Confederates made their Quarrel â—â—â—ult by giving way to an unnatural Ambition in the Prince of Orange and dispossessing King James whilst they pretended they formed this Confederacy to repair the Injuries done to them by the French K. JAMES the injured King JAMES would have checked the Growth of France and kept Namur and Mons. He was far from a French League and would have perform'd the part of a true Guarrantee for either the King would have prevented France coming before them by reminding their King of the Treaty of Nâ—miguen or our Arms would have had doubtless success when we had Justice on our side and the Wishes and Prayers of all English-men joyned with the undertaking of our rightful indisputed King How far he was from a French League how unwilling to think ill of the Pr. of Orange and how unwilling to be too much beholding to France his disbelief of all the Advices of d'Avaux and of many of his Friends his Answer to Bonrepos and his refusal to the last of any French Assistance sufficiently witness and as much as he has been beholding to France during his Troubles I am satisfied that
such a Conquest is palpably opposite to the Interest of all the Princes and States of Europe And lastly That to attempt a French Conquest of England either for Himself or King James is not the Interest of the King of France himself I omit shewing a French Conquest is against the Interest of King James for I don't think it worth my while to prove that it is against a Man's Interest to have his Estate taken from him and his Posterity destroy'd King James has a Child that He believes and you believe too notwithstanding all the pains you take to be thought to believe that useful Flam of your pretended Imposture which was at first taken up and industriously promoted like that of the Irish cutting the Throats of all the People of England and Scotland to help forward this Revolution to be a True PRINCE OF WALES and at least this innocent Child has not disoblig'd the King and this is enough to make him take pity of the Nation however Rebellious and Ungrateful we have been to him But besides he has several times since his Exile expressed himself in so pathetick and extenuating a Style concerning those Subjects that have used him so ill that it would be almost incredible if related And tho' the Prince of Wales was dead he retains even for the Princess of Orange such a Fatherly Affection as plainly supersedes Royal Resentment and I have heard one that was by say That upon a Gentleman 's mentioning even upon occasion of Business the Fault of the Princess of Orange and that with all the Modesty imaginable and he must touch very tenderly upon that String who will make his Court to the King tho' such virulent Pamphlets are Licensed here against Him the King reply'd That the Princess of Orange had Natural Foundations of Good ness that Dr. Burnet and the Bishop of London can never destroy And further they who have been at Sâ— Geâ—mans kâ—ow with what Indignation the King treats althoughts of Restoring him by any other Method than by a great Concurrence of his own People The King knows how obstinately the People of Britain nay many that are now his own Friends would resist any other Method and he knows that the Riches of a Country are the People of it He would be Himself and he would have his Son the King of Great Britain and he does not think it worth his while to be King of Trees of Beasts and a desolated Land or to leave such a ruin'd Kingdom to his Son When I weigh the good Inclinations of the King and the barbarous Persecution and Misrepresentation he has met with I am shook with a double Agony I compassionate His Wrongs and am astonished at our Ingratitude and that we would not once try whether the Things we complain'd of proceeded from His own Nature or from those about him whom the Prince of Orange had corrupted The Scene of His and our Miseries is abundantly and admirably laid open in an excellent Book printed last Summer called Great Britain's Just Complaint and if I would entertain the World upon that Subject I must either transcribe what may be found in that Book or relate the History of the same Matter of Fact without doing the same Justice to the Cause of the King That Great and Judicious Author has discover'd the whole Mystery of Iniquity How such Snares were laid for the King as an honest-minded Man could scarce escape How willing the King was to redress our Grievances when he found he had been in Mistakes and this before he went away How he continued in the same Mind when he was addressed to by some of his Subjects of Scotland who had appeared most vigorously to resent those Mistakes and this when he was under no Pressure in his Affairs I will add no more to justifie the Inclinations of the King but beseech every body who reads this to read Great Britain's Just Complaint which puts the Nation upon the best Method for us to know the Inclinations of our King He advises page 48. to resume that Treaty we so foolishly broke off and refused and thereby to secure Religion and Property by those Concessions which our Sovereign is still ready to grant us He goes on Let us put it home to him and lay it at his own Door Let him have it in his choice to return by his People if he pleases Convince him that his Protestant Subjects upon securing their Religion and Liberties will repair their former Errors by contributing heartily towards his Restauration And as that Author says if he declines to return upon a Protestant and English Foot there is an end of the Controversie and of all Disputes amongst Protestants for Religion and Liberty will never be sacrificed by true English-men And I will add to what he says If no true English-man joyn with him whatever Forces they can transport upon us neither can King James come home nor can the French conquer us But God be praised a great many true English men will joyn to bring home the King tho' I know not one so bad an English man as would join in a French Conquest But I come in the second place to shew That it is not the Interest of any of the Princes or States of Europe that the French should make us a Conquest The excellent Author of the abovenamed Great Britain's Just Complaint has proved that whether this Confederate War ends successfully or unsuccessfully in all likelihood and according to all the Rules of Policy the Restauration of King James must in a short time follow upon the Determination of it But it is my business to make it plain That tho' it may be and is the Interest of all Countries to have King James Restored at the conclusion of this War yet it is not the Interest of any of them that the French should conquer us have our Kings their Vassals or be Masters of our Ports Would the Spaniard have the Chanel shut up on both sides to Flanders Would the Dutch have the English and Irish Ports managed by such select Committees as the French would infallibly set up for Trade And how long would the Dutch resist Ours and the French Power united under one Absolute Monarch Would not the Northern Crowns and all the Princes of Germany soon feel the Weight of such a Confluence of Strength The Influence that such a Conquest would have upon all the States of Europe be they never so remote is at first sight so evident that there is not one of them who would be an idle Spectator of our Ruine Every body now knows the Danger their own House is in when their Neighbor's is on fire Every little Politician knows how much Greatness depends upon Naval Preparations and Trade therefore every body would be allarm'd every body in an Uproar when they saw such Maritime Kingdoms as ours like to be made an Accession to the numerous Land-Forces of France They are idle Brains that dream of
A French Conquest NEITHER DESIRABLE NOR PRACTICABLE DEDICATED TO THE KING of ENGLAND London Printed by His MAJESTY's Servants MDCXCIII TO THE KING SIR NOtwithstanding You have been traduced by Your Enemies for having ill Designs upon the Nation and that these Enemies have had too fatal a Success in spreading such improbable Suggestions too fatal for their Native Country as well as for You who are the Monarch of it yet I am so assur'd that Your Majesty jealously watches over the Glory and Aims at the True Interest of Your Kingdoms that I am confident a Discourse that proves a French Conquest of this Island to be neither the Intention of Your Friends nor Your Own nor Practicable in it self will not be an unacceptable Present CONQUEST is a harsh Word and it frightens weak Minds And that YOU Your Self should Conquer can be only wish'd for by such as intend their own Interest more than Yours in Your Restauration who intend to live upon Prey and would destroy half the Nation that They might have the better share of the Confiscations But if that should be yet the most remote surviving Relations of those that are Killed or Executed when that horrid Trial of Skill shall be over will have a mind to the Estates of their Ancestors And the Banished Out-Laws will be ready to stir up any enterprizing Prince abroad or such as are discontented at home to give future Disturbances So that these Kingdoms will be still continued under Convulsive Agonies And after all I beg leave to say That no Prince by Conquering or to speak more properly Reducing his Rebellious Subjects can have any Title to take away the Laws and Liberties of those that remained Faithful I must confess I am one of those that can never as well for His as Our sake assist any King that has the Glorious Title of SUCCESSION to debase it into the mean hated and precarious one of Conquest But I think our own Hereditary and Equal Monarchy to be so much the most happy sort of Government both for Prince and People that I can very willingly run any hazard to settle things upon that Foundation Come Home Great Sir to Restore our Trade to Repair our Naval Reputation and Strength to make Us the Umpires of Europe to Deliver Us from Dutch Delusions to Preserve Our Church as Established by Law from being Debauched by Comprehension to Settle Liberty of Conscience in a duly Elected PARLIAMENT and to Establish all the Liberties of the English Subject It is because I am confident these are Your Royal Resolutions that I Wrote this short Discourse and now Dedicate it to Your Majesty The Subject is of that Importance to Your Affairs that it deserved to have been better handled and I desired some other Pens to have undertaken it but Their Thoughts were otherwise employed Yet though I am sensible I have not done it all the Justice They would I think I may without Vanity say I have made it plain beyond the Cavils or at least reasonable Objections of Your Adversaries and I hope it may have some effect upon them That God would Restore Your Majesty to Your Throne and to the Hearts of all Your Subjects is the unfeigned Prayer of May it please Your Majesty Your Majesty 's most Obedient Loyal Subject N. N. A French Conquest NEITHER Desirable nor Practicable SINCE our Enemies in some of their Pamphlets and many of their Discourses amongst several other things wherewith they falsly charge those whose sole Design is to restore the Ancient and Hereditary Monarchy together with all those Securities we ever had or are necessary for the Preservation of the English Liberties and Protestant Religion I say Since our Enemies amongst other things unjustly charge us with designing or at least unwarily helping forward a French Conquest I have determined to shew that such a Conquest is neither Desirable nor Practicable that we are neither such Fools nor Knaves as to think of such fatal Projects against our Native Country I shall endeavour to make out both the One and the Other plainly but not elaborately since Brevity and Perspicuity is more proper to disabuse the honest and plain-hearted for whose Information I particularly write and who are most misled by these Insinuations than long and artificial Harrangues wherein the Authors refine too much or interlard too much Learning I begin with the first Head of my Discourse viz. That a French Conquest is not desirable There is no sort of Men desire it I know no body that would subject our Fortunes our Liberties and Lives to the Power of France They that urge it don't believe we would We lament the Taxes the Imprisonments the Plunderings and the Pillaging of England the Torturing against Law and the Glenco-Massacre in Scotland together with all the other Miseries that infest this Island We would not bring more upon it we would not depopulate it we would not make it a Golgetha And that the World may be convinced that none of the Jacobites desire a French Conquest I shall shew it contrary to the Interests and Inclinations of every Denomination of them to let the French have any footing here It is almost a Jest to go about to prove the Whiggish Jacchites would not find their Account in a French Conquest Can it be imagined that Men who have been always struggling with their own Kings for more Liberty and to have their Properties better guarded who have been hitherto so jealous of the lowest Imitations of French Monarchy should expect greater Securities under a Provincial French Government or desire to become Subjects to a King whos 's own Natural Subjects they think are very hardly dealt with As to the Jacobites of the Church of England nothing can lie more cross to their Notions and Interest than a French Conquest Can it be believed that those who venture All to preserve every Gradation of the Royal Line would convey over the Tenure of the Crown to one that has no Pretence of Right to it Did they not oppose the Bill of Exclusion upon this Principle That it is not in the Power of King and Parliament too to alter the Succession Can they then give up the Interest of our English Monarchs all at once No their Consciences will bid them oppose a French Conquest with the hazard and expence of the last Drop of their Blood And their Interest will bid them do so too for a French Conquest cannot be maintained here without so many Outlandish Roman Catholicks as will be a very indifferent Guard to the Church of England and if the French King should be King of England he must in meer Policy set up his own Religion here if he did not think himself obliged in Conscience to do it I come in the last place to the Roman Catholicks of whom our Adversaries expect the World should believe any Figment tho' never so monstrous and absurd and I must say That those among them who by reason of their Estates
Universal Monarchies at this day and tho' whole Kingdoms heretofore would not join in a Common Defence whole Europe would now However Ambitious the King of France may be he can never think of so unweildy a Project in which he must not only encounter all England all this Island all these Three Kingdoms but all Europe too I come in the last place to shew That it is not the Interest of the K. of France to attempt to make us a Conquest either for Himself or K. James I would ask but two things to be granted me which I think will be granted by most Men The one is That the King of France tolerably understands his own Interest The other is That he will follow it where he finds it And now I shall proceed to prove That it is not the Interest of France to attempt to make us a Conquest The Unweildiness of the Project is one very good Reason against it Less than One hundred thousand of his best Men cannot make us a Conquest and keep us so and he must only take Possession of the Land and not expect to be Master of the People by reason of our Religion and whoever he sends to be his Lieutenant here will be under great Temptation to revolt from him and set up for himself or become the First Subject of these Kingdoms which we shall be willing to make him and a greater Subject than France has rather than not get rid of the Miseries of a Provincial and be restored to our own Government Consider how much danger the Absolute Power of France will run by a too free intercourse with the few surviving Britains who will acquaint so many of his Soldiers what were the Freedoms of our Land Consider whether France can bear such an Evacuation as is necessary to Make and People us a Province We believe that the Expulsion of the Hugonots let out too much of his People too much of the Vital Blood of France It did so doubtless and a Plantation of our Island would endanger all he has upon the Continent What Neighbor that envies him would not be glad to see him make such an Experiment would not nick the lucky Opportunity and pull back all those Towns and Provinces which he may now much more easily keep than he can gain us Would any Peace any Leagues they can have with him be Proof against such a promising Temptation To attempt the Conquest of these Kingdoms would indeed be grasping at a prodigious Shadow but he would not fail to lose a great deal of real Substance The King of France is not such a Knight-Errant he does not love to venture over much He like Julius Caesar when he had attain'd the Empire loves to make good what he gets and is not like the Macedonian Rambler greedy of difficult and bloody Travels Let the Designs of France be as vast as they will their King is no Madman Augustus and Tiberius who were both skilful in Government are thought by very sensible Men to have neglected Britain out of this wholsom State-Maxim That it was necessary to bound and moderate the Roman Empire It is certain those two Emperors often thought of bounding the Roman Empire and of bringing it into a tenable Compass and it is plain that mighty Empire was at last overthrown by its own Weight and Largeness The Jurisdiction of France is of a prodigious growth for this Age and if the King of France thinks of subduing such a brave and populous Countrey as we are so united as we shall be when we find only the French King's Interest at the bottom of the Plot and so assisted as we shall be by all the Potentates of Europe for their own sakes he will miscarry in the Enterprize and France it self will tumble from its Highth It is a bolder Undertaking than what is recorded of Alexander the Great and thô the King of France should overrun us he would like that Alexander never be able to settle a Government amongst us but his very Victories would shake his own Let it be farther considered That though the French have been successful in Wars near home yet they have been unsuccessful in remote Undertakings where either the transporting by Sea or the uneasiness of the passage by Land have rendred Succours hard and difficult to be sent What rendred all their Attempts upon the Kingdom of Naples and Dutchy of Milan ineffectual but the difficulties they found in sending Supplies to Naples by Sea and to Milan over the rough Alpes In our King John's time Lewis the then Dauphine of France was invited over and sworn to by many of the Barons But did not the difficulty of getting Supplies to maintain his footing at last utterly defeat all his Hopes Would not our present Sailers carry their Ships to any part of the World rather than let them be carried into France Is there not think you one Great Man left whose Fidelity to our own right Line and whose Courage and Vigilance is equal to Hubert de Burgh's Think you there is no Gallant Man who would by a Sea-fight hinder the pouring in of fresh French Succours when we saw they aimed at the Distruction of the Right of our Royal Family and our own Rights I am not over fond of the present Age yet there are many Brave and Loyal Men in it that would defeat any French Design that were injurious to our own legal Monarchy But to come to our own Days What enabled Spain to recover Catalonia in a great measure and to pluck Messina in Sicily out of the present King of France's hands when they were losing Ground in the confining Provinces but the difficulty of sending Supplies to the one over the Pyrenean Mountains and to the other by Sea And it is remarkable That the uncertainties alone of Wind and Weather rendred the suppling of Messina impracticable even when the French were Masters of the Seas and had routed the Spanish and Dutch Fleets and killed the famous de Ruyter How much more will the same uncertainties of Wind and Weather joyn'd with our brave Ships and braver Sea-men render us safe and all such Designs as a French Conquest impracticable Did not also this present King of France in our own Memories over-run like a violent Torrent the United Provinces and possess himself of a great part of their Country and yet was obliged to throw up all his Conquests And for what Reason Because there was the interposition of fifty or sixty Miles that was not his own which might have hinder'd the sending Supplies and will not the interposition of more Miles of a tempestuous and uncertain Sea joyned with the Rebuffs which will be given him by our Fleet lay greater Rubs in his way and oblige him at last to disgorge tho' he should by surprize gain Ground upon us What was it induced the Romans to maintain Fourscore thousand Men in Britain and to secure their Frontiers in this Island by the famous Walls of
r and Sey r Ren augh G y Bla t and Convert-reconverted Sund d behind the Curtain together with his Creature Br n that indefatigable Secretary to all Turns and to the High Commission Court that Assistant to the sour Popish Bishops ready Evidence and industrious Informer and Con by of whose Merits in Ireland the Parliament here took so much notice that he is since taken into the Privy Council of England for his undoubted Integrity and unheard-of Abilities with the long Roll of such sort of Men though his sinking Game has forc'd him to call some lately into his Councils who have not yet lost their Reputation with the People fit Guardians for that Liberty and Property which you so justly value Think seriously Ought the People of England to trust these Men or have they reason to trust one another even in the business of that Master they pretend to serve Awaken out of your Dreams Get rid of your Phantasins Consider as Men Act as Lovers of your Country Rescue your Rights Restore you KING who will confirm those Rights with solid Securities Do your own Work that After Ages may pity your Mistakes and give Allowance for your Resentment and that You and your Childrens Children may be happy I beseech the God of Order That He will produce it out of our Confusions That the King may have what is due to Him and that we may have what is as much due to us and that the King and People may both praise the Almighty for his Mercies to this Land this miserable and sinful Land Let the Sense of our Miseries our Faults and our Duty stir us up Let the sad Example of former Times exhort us Let us I say CALL HOME THE KING with an exact Security to the Church of England as the National Church and with such solid Securities for our Liberties as may make all other Religions harmless Opinions tho' we allow them a fair and impartial Liberty And yet let us not so hamper the Crown that it will not be able to protect us from our Enemies and one another Let us not say That the hands of the Nation are bound and that it cannot call home the King For if all those who plainly see that we shall be undone under this Usurpation and likewise that it is impossible this Government should stand though it shills about now it is in an ill taking would upon these Terms joyn with those who are for the Restauration of King James as well in the English Army as all over the Nation from the sad prospect they have of the Ruin of that Liberty the mistaken Jealousie and Care of which was the only Motive that hurry'd them into what they did all the Force the Prince of Orange has would soon dissolve and he must be glad to return again and spend all his time at the Loo which our English Money is making so fine a Retreat and at the Hague which is the very worst I call God to witness that I ever wished him I am conscious I have not in all the parts of this Discourse written with that brevity which I design'd at the beginning of it and may possibly be guilty of some Redundancies Tautologies and Repetitions as well in other places as I have in my Remarks upon our former Invasions inserted some passages which crossed my way though they were rather applicable to our present times than sutable to the Thread of my Discourse When a Man writes Things of this Nature he is willing to be rid of them as fast as they are finished though they may not be so correct and notwithstanding the Criticks for whose either praise or diversion I never scribble may find many Faults with them I have set down Things as I am perswaded in my own Mind and as I have heard them discoursed by the considerable and influencing Jacobites of the several Denominations though I must Answer for my unskilful and careless cloathing and ranging their Thoughts I hope I have generally kept in sight of my Text and I suppose also have upon the whole made good what I undertook to prove viz. That a French Conquest is neither desirable nor practicable If it is unsutable to the Interests and Inclinations of the several sorts of Jacobites and contrary to the King's Inclinations and the Interests of all our Neighbours and the very Attempt of it either for himself or King James contrary to the King of France's Interest if the Condition and Circumstances of the French Power to make a Conquest and Interest in such an Experiment and that of our former Invaders and the State of the British Affairs now and what they were then so very much differ I think we may infer That a French Conquest is neither desirable nor practicable and that it is as weak to suppose France can or will conquer us as it is to believe we shall sack Paris and conquer France with the Prince of Orange at the Head of the British Forces who we see with Them and all the Confederate-strength has so indifferently pass'd his Campaigns in Flanders FINIS