Numb. 33.
[145]
Of the true Causes of the present Greatness of the French Power.
I AM not so arrogant to undertake to give an Account here of all the Causes of the present Grandeur of France; there may be some which I am not sensible of; there may be some which I am not Master of History enough to have known; for I never pretended my Knowledge, to be universal or my Judgment infallible; there may be some conceal’d in the Reason and Nature of Things, which no Man has yet guest at; there may be some conceal’d behind the dark Curtains of Inscrutable Providence, which I nor any Man else have ever yet seen, or had Room to guess at, or the least Circumstance to guide us into the knowledge of.
’Tis hard I should be under the Necessity of making such a Cautionary Exception, but since I have almost as many Opponents as Readers of this Paper, some of whom to requite me for just Exceptions against their Morals and Scandalous Lives, and who by Way of Return for their Nonsence, are ready to object against every thing they see: ’Tis for their Sakes I am oblig’d to make long Digressions, and place needful Cautions in the Front of almost every Paragraph, to let them know where they think they have me; I saw it as well as they; ’tis for their Sakes I am oblig’d to give Reasons for what all Historians in the World have taken the Liberty to do, without asking the Leave of their Readers or making Apologies for.
This might have serv’d for an Answer to a Querulous Pevish Enquirer, whose Two First Questions are reply’d to in the entertaining Part of our last Paper, Whether we do not mistake Preamble for History; but as the Examples I might give in this Case among our best Historians will fully justifie me, without farther insisting on the particular Circumstances of the Author, the Writer, the time I write in, or the Persons that read; I refer the judicious Reader to the several Histories of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Bishop of Sarum, and any either antient or modern, whom they please to quote for me.
This premis’d, I come farther to explain my self thus, That when I write of the Causes of the French Greatness, I would be understood to mean of such Causes as are plain and undeniable as to Circumstances, and such as arrive within the Compass of my Reading and Observation; leaving all the World to guess at, produce or propose other or farther Reasons.
[146]
The First Reason I shall give for the Rise and Progress of the French Grandeur, is the Folly of their Neighbours. —
I might easily fill a large Volume of these Reviews in reckoning up the Numerous Instances of this Sort; and ’tis but too true that this Article presents us with more than half the just Steps and Additions to the present Height of French Glory.
’Tis confess’d that a watchful Eye over our Mistakes to take an improve the Advantages, is the Part the French have dexterously acted, and of which I shall speak by it self; but their Policy is not half so conspicuous, in laying hold of the Occasions given, as our Imprudence and Negligence is in giving the Opportunity.
Among the false Steps which most of the Princes of Europe have taken, and of which the French have made their particular Advantage, I should seem Partial if I laid the Stress in one Place more than another, and therefore I shall begin at Home.
If I should say any Nation has contributed more to the Greatness of this Monarchy than the English, I should go against the general Knowledge of the Affairs of Europe, and belye universal Experience; and if I should undertake to tell all the particular Steps which have been taken here either negligently, wilfully, or wickedly to promote it; I should be forc’d to turn the History into a Satyr upon English Management; I must come at last to writing Characters, fill my Account with R—s instead of Heroes, and throw so much dirty Truth in the Faces of Men of Mark, that some might resent it, and the Paper have the Misfortune to die in the Scuffle,
And yet the known Truth cannot be hid; I can never go thro’ the Article without it; the Book will be imperfect, the Story be told by Halves, the Account be call’d a Blunder, and the Author a Fool.
If I can therefore follow Truth close at the Heels, without a kick on the Face, ’twill be well; if I can’t, I see no Remedy, I must venture.
In the Time of Hen. IV. of France, when he had finish’d the Civil Wars, dissolv’d the Catholick League, beaten the Spaniards out of the Kingdom, follow’d them into Flanders, taken Dourlans, and at last happily ended the War by Peace of Virvins. In this Time France began to breathe, she had been miserably ravag’d for 40 Years by the Catholick League, and Nine Civil Wars with the Hugonots; she had felt the Fury of the Spanish Armies on one Hand, and the Germans on the other; Foreign Troops were frequently call’d to the Assistance of either Side, and always paid themselves out of the Ruins of the Country: I cannot think France can been said to be in a lower Condition, compar’d to the rest of Europe, at any time since the English quitted their Possessions there, then it may be said to be in at the Second Siege of Paris, or at least about the Time of the Surrender of Roüen to the King.
But when all this ended, that Politick Prince set himself as vigorously to promote the real Prosperity of the Kingdom in Peace, as he had before pursued the Possession of it by the War. — He alter’d the Measures of Government, and settled a new Polity; he corrected the Errors of former Management, encourag’d every thing whether in Civil Arts or Military, that might improve his Country; and having laid a Design of Universal Monarchy, and Drawn vast Schemes for the Subjecting Great part of the World, he fell by the Hand of a Murtherer, in the midst of Prodigious Preparations, and left Europe in a profound Peace, which he was just going to involve in a Bloody and Dangerous War.
The few Years of Peace, which France enjoy’d under the Politick Government of this Wise Prince, made a sensible Encrease in her Power, and the Figure she began to make in the World, was every way considerable, and like to be Formidable to her Neighbours. I touch these things but lightly here, because I shall be oblig’d to a more Particular Account of them in another Chapter.
Lewis XIII. the Son of this Glorious King, was a Weak Unsteady, and Unactive Prince, and the Nation felt a sensible loss under the Factions of the Court, and a long Minority of the King; and had not Cardinal Richlieu a Genius fitted for such a Juncture, come into the management of [147] Publick Affairs, Lewis XIII. was as fit a Prince to have ruin’d his Kingdom, as Hen. IV. was to advance it.
England was under the Government of King James I. whose Character was not Extraordinary at Home, whatever the Flattery of Courtiers made him believe, and worse Abroad: His abandoning the Interest of the King of Bohemia was a Scandal to the English Nation, and brought them and their King into the utmost contempt — And tho’ some People may think it Difficult for me to make out, that the quitting the Interest of that Prince was an advantage to France, they must give Me leave to say I am of a contrary Opinion; for had the Battel of Prague gone against the Emperor, and the Palgrave been settled in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the English Line had been so planted in Germany, that we were in a fair way in Conjunction with the Sweeds, to have mated France and the House of Austria too; but the Emperor, by Beating King Fredrick at the Battel of Prague, grew so Potent, that all the Princes of Germany sunk under his hand; and Count Tilly Ravaged the Circles of Westphalia, and the Lower Saxony, even to the Borders of the States of Holland.
This excessive Power of the House of Austria roused the King of Swedeland, who then made his famous Expedition into Germany; and the prodigious Success of that Prince having perfectly humbl’d the Emperor France falls in, and makes Her Advantage the War; and as the French took Brisac by the Army under Duke Bernard, of Saxe-Weymar, they secured to themselves large Encroachments in Alsatia, and upon the Rhine, and grew very considerably in Power under this Disaster.
’Tis plain here, That had King James assisted the King of Bohemia, and Established Him in the Throne, as any King in Europe but he, would have done, all Bohemia, Maravia, Silesia, and both the Palatinates in Germany had been now Protestant; the Protestants in Germany had been Masters of the Empire; neither the Emperor had been their Terrour then, nor France now.
By this English Errour, the Protestant Religion was lost, to three large Countries, the Emperor made prodigious strong, so that God was oblig’d, if we may say so, to work a Miracle for their Deliverance, in sending Gustavus Adolphus; and the French made their Market of the Quarrel.
I think this is plain; and here any one may observe, what I shall have occasion to Note very often in the Course of this History, That the Protestant Religion has been Extirpated from no Country, but where the supine Negligence and Backwardness of the People themselves, have contributed to their Destruction, equally the Power of their Enemies.
Advice from the Scandalous CLUB.
OUR Society, like Hudibras, with his Story of the Bear and the Fiddle, which was broke off in the middle, ended just in the Center of the Story; the Printer saying there was Copy enough, tho’ it prov’d a Mistake; and an impatient Gentleman that must be Answered without fail, was obliged to stay till to day for a Reply, to the rest of his Queries —, his third Query comes now to hand.
3. Whether it be not abusive in your Scandalous Society, to Reflect upon, and openly Correct Magistrates, as the L— M— and Aldermen of this City.
4. Whether any Man may not as well do the same; and if so, then
5. Whether we are not come to a fine Pass?
These Questions, if the Enquirer had pleased, might have been put all into one, as they are here; and therefore I take the Liberty to Answer them under one Head.
The Enquirer Treats my Lord Mayor and the Magistrates in his Paper, with more Ill-manners, than our Society ever did; we told the World once before, we desired to have the Liberty of Explaining our own Meaning: Now for this Gentleman, when we tell a Story, to say Inuendo my Lord Mayor, or Inuendo Justice….or Inuendo Aldermen….This must be with a design to Abuse these Gentlemen, and impose up- [148] on them, telling the World that the Coat fits them, and so make them wear it.
Tacitus has a saying, to which there hangs a Tale, Et quia vera erant, etiam dicta credebantur; the Case was this;
Some Roman Citizens were Accused for saying scandalous Things of the Emperor Nero, particularly that he lay with his Mother; Now tho’ the Men had never said so, but it was a design to cut them off, yet the People were easily induc’d to believe they said so, because the thing it self was true—
Now how could this Gentleman believe that the things we said of the Brewers should reflect upon my L— M—, unless he will fly to Tacitus, and write a Satyr upon my L—M—, for Brewing on Sundays; we declare we know few Brewers but what do so, but we do not know my L—M— does so; and this Gentleman Condemns us merely as the Romans did their Citizen, quia vera erant.
’Tis true, we said my L—M— is a Brewer, I hope his L—p won’t take it for a Reviling the Ruler of the People; we therefore plead not Guilty as to the Fact, and yet we cannot but Answer the next Question with an Affirmative.
We are of Opinion, where Men Commit open Crimes, under the Character and Protection of Authority, and Punish those Crimes in others, the Law having no reach upon them; or in English, when Magistrates Commit the Vices they Correct; every Man has a Title to Complain; for the Injustice is General, and every Man is Injur’d; but what is this to my L—L—?
As for our being come to a fine Pass—, Indeed we are: When the Vitious Lives of Magistrates are come to such a Pass, that they should want to make use of their Authority, to prevent People saying the Truth of them.
6. His next Query ask’d, Whether it be any Excuse to us to say, We relate only and Discourse upon Information?
We Answer readily, No, Sir: and we have never Pleaded it; and if you have a mind to put us upon the Proof of any thing Related, you are Welcome.
7, 8. And because this Gentleman shall have a full Reply, his two last kind Queries shall not be forgot; Whether my L—M— may not justifiably cause you, for your Offence, to be Whip’d in Bridewell, or at the Cart’s A…, and whether it were not very well for my L—M— to do so? not only to cool your Brains by warming your Back, but chiefly to make you an Example to the rest of your Scribling Crew?
Indeed Sir, your Wit here runs a-head of your Understanding; you ought to have had the Manners, first to have ask’d my L—M— that Question, not us, whether he could justify it or not; and if you had, he would have certainly told you No: and that he might with more Justice send you there, for your Impertinence, in pretending to concern his L—p in what he knows better than to think himself ill us’d by.
And for your better Guidance for the future, we refer you back to a Story in our Review, N˚ 16. about a Gentleman that broke another Man’s head in a Coffee-house, for saying that he was the Person meant in the Review.
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VIRI Cl. Andrea Tacqueti Elementa Geometria à Guil. Whiston. 8vo. — Geo. Baglivi Praxis Medica, ad priscam observandi rationem revocanda, Libri duo. 8vo. — Epigrammatum Delectus ex omnibus tum Veteribus tum Recentioribus, accuratè decerptus; quibus hâc sextâ Editione subjungitur alterius Delectûs pecimen ex nuperis maximè Poetis ab electoribus prætermissis. In usum Scholæ Ætonensis. 12˚.
┼┼┼ A Doctor in Physick Cures all the Degrees and Indispositions in Venereal Persons, by a most easie, safe, and expeditious Method; and of whom any Person may have Advice, and a perfect Cure, let his or her Disease be of the longest Date: He likewise gives his Advice in all Diseases, and prescribes a Cure. Dr. HARBOROUGH, (a Graduate Physician) in Great Knight-Riders-street, near Doctors Commons.
MDCCIV.