Saturday, July 1. 1704.

Numb. 34.
[149]

AS our Folly appear’d in not Relieving and Supporting the King of Bohemia, and the French made their Advantage of it, to lay the Foundation of their rising Greatness: So all the Decrease of the Protestant Interest, both in Germany and afterwards in France, is a double Proof of this Truth, that our Error has been their Advantage.

The not Relieving the Protestants in France, laid the Foundation of their Destruction, and their Destruction Cemented the French Power.

They that say King Charles I. did not Relieve Rochel, say true, and more may be said on that Head hereafter; King Charles I. was ill serv’d in that Affair; I make no Question, but that Prince was very hearty in his own Desires, of Relieving Rochel, and I believe he spent as much Money in the several Enterprises to that purpose, as would effectually have brought it to pass; and therefore they mistake me very much, who expect I should reflect upon his Memory in this Article; but I can no more excuse the Managers of it, than accuse the King. His Majesty parted with large Summs for the Relief of the Protestants, and that at a Time when Money was not very Plentiful, nor easy to come at; but the Misapplication of the Summs, or the ill Conduct Abroad, left his Majesty disappointed, the Nation Buffoon’d and Contemn’d by the French; the Protestants in the utmost Distress, at the Mercy of their Enemies, and drove the King to make a Dishonourable Peace.

This the French fail’d not to make their Advantage of, and treated the English with all the Haughtiness and Insult, that ’twas possible for one Nation to shew, or the other to bear.

The Writer of Cardinal Richlieu’s Life, informs us honestly what their Sentiments of the English Affairs then were, Telling us, that while Lewis XIII. was at Susa, he receiv’d the extraordinary Ambassadors of almost all the Princes of Italy, and concluded there two very Important Treaties, one a League with Venice and Savoy, and the other a Peace with England, of which this Author goes on and says;

‘King Charles I. after a great deal of Trouble, and vast Expence, was oblig’d to make Application to the French, by the Venetians, to obtain a disadvantageous Peace; which drew upon him the Contempt of Strangers, as well as of his own Subjects. He had endeavoured to accommodate Matters with Lewis XIII. [150] whilst he was before Rochel, by Mediation of the Ambassadors of the King of Denmark, and the States General; but Answer was given, That if they had Power from the King of England to ask a Peace for him, and to offer such Satisfaction as he ought to make to France to obtain it; a Negotiation should be enter’d into with them, but no otherwise. So brisk an Answer shew’d, that Charles was but little fear’d, and that he must be forc’d in the end, to come to what France Demanded, he promis’d by the Treaty, to confirm the Articles of the Contract of the Queen’s Marriage, which he had so often broken, and Accepted with so much Meanness, and which if there was any thing to be alter’d for the Service of the Queen, was to be done with the Consent of both Crowns – The Treaty was sign’d the 24th of April, 1629. by Zorzo Zorzi, and by Louis Contazini, Ambassadors of Venice, Empowered by England.’ Hist. of Card. Richlieu, Vol. I. Pag. 312.

Whether the Authority of the Author of this Life, be unquestioned or not, is not much to our present purpose; but that this League was made, is out of doubt, and the Terms were so Dishonourable, as that our People at Home were very much distasted, as our own Histories make out.

But thus much of this is for our present Purpose, the Error lay in our selves, in the Reign of this King’s Father; had he Establish’d the Prince Palatine his Son in the Kingdom of Bohemia, and thereby Erected the Protestant Religion in Germany, as he ought to have done, both as a Protestant Prince, and as a Father, and as he had Power sufficient to have done, had he taken it in time; that Prince who was a Zealous Protestant, had fix’d the Protestant Power too fast for Cardinal Richlieu to have dar’d Insult it, or the House of Austria suppress it.

Had he after this Vigorously assisted the Hugonots in France, in the beginning of the Reign of Lewis XIII. when the Bishop of Lucon, was yet but under Hatches at Court, and depending on the Queen-Mother, rather seem’d to Favour than Oppress the Hugonots; had this been done, the Heads of the Protestants had never forsaken them, and turn’d Catholicks, such as the Dukes of Sully, Bouillon, and Les Digueres, with the Mareshals, Scomberg, Chatillon, and a great many others, who made their Peace at the Price of their Consciences, and got Rewards and Preferments for abandoning a sinking Party.

Tho’ ’tis a Melancholy Talk to rip up those Fatal Errors of Princes, the Effects whereof their Posterity feels; yet as ’tis an unanswerable Proof of what I am upon, I cannot avoid it; that thus we may see how the French Grandeur first began in the Errors of their Neighbours.

The next Error which farther’d the Prodigious Rise of the French Power, was that England and Holland (for the Dutch came in to the Mistake, and shall have a plentiful share of the Blame, if the Author lives to finish this History) not only neglected to assist the Protestants, but gave the finishing stroke to their Absolute Ruin; I mean in lending Ships to Lewis XIII. and his bloody Cardinal; when, had they been left to stand upon their own Naval Strength on both sides, the Rochellers would have beaten all the Navy of France: This I touch here, only as far as will give light to the Story, and make my Observations just; for I shall give a particular Account of it, when I come to the History of the Rise and Fall of the Protestant Religion in France.

’Tis alledg’d, That when the King of France borrowed our Ships, he engag’d they should not be Employ’d against the Protestants, but against the Genoese; but had this been so, when the French did other ways Employ them, why had not the English sent out a Fleet to fetch them Home? – But as it was, the Rochellers were very near beating them all, English, Dutch, and French Fleets together, and had not the Dutch Admiral reveng’d himself the next day, it had been done.

Then the Rochellers Naval Force was broke, and the Protestants of England and Holland, pull’d down the Protestant Religion in France, which else had stood and Flourish’d to this day.

I remember a Story which is told of a certain K. of England, who must be Nameless [151] here, for Kings are not always to be Pointed at – Application was made to him for the Execution of a Man, that had kill’d three Men at several Times; but as the Person who made this Application, knew particularly how to hit the King’s Humour, he Addres’d him for a Pardon for this Murtherer: No, says the King, I cannot do it – Why he has kill’d three Men; No, Sir, says the Person, he has never kill’d but one; I tell you, says the King, he has been Condemn’d for three several Murthers; That’s true, replys the pretended Intercessor, but he has kill’d but one of them, your Majesty kill’d the other two; for if you had hang’d him for the first, he had never kill’d the rest; the King understood him, sayest thou so says the King; well, I’ll kill no more; the Fellow shall be hang’d out of hand.

What shall we answer to a French Protestant, when we Revile him as we do too much, with sitting among us, and he shall say, it was you turn’d us out of our own Country; it was you Englishmen help’d Lewis XIII. to Disarm and Reduce us; we had held out till now, if you had not lent him your Ships to beat us: The Fact is too true, we are really Guilty, and these are some the English Errors which have help’d to make France so Great.

These are some, and worse follow.

ADVICE from the Scandalous CLUB.

O UR Society having a great deal of Business before them, are oblig’d to Intrench upon the Historical, which is otherwise the Principal part of this Design, and we are forc’d to break off sooner than usual, to take into consideration the many Letters laid before the Society this last Week.

The first Case before us, is to Decide a Wager, which two Gentlemen say they have laid, upon two Articles in the Courant, of June 19. whether they are true English or not.

From the Camp at Muldenshiem, June 9. My Lord Duke has receiv’d Advice, that the Elector of Bavaria had repass’d the Danube, and was Encamp’d on this side the Ulm.

From the Camp at Great Heppach, June 12. The 10th in the Morning an Adjutant General came to acquaint my Lord Duke, that Prince Eugene of Savoy, with Count Wratislau, were on the Road to our Camp.

To these Wagering Gentlemen the Society have taken the freedom to say, That before they eat the Fowls and drink the Gallon of Wine, which they say is their Wager, will be pleased to come before the Club themselves, for saying in the Letter, that our Judgment is required of the Author of the Courant’s Translation in the two following Paragraphs, and then having recited them, bids us look in the Gazette for the last of them – This we cannot reconcile – and therefore desire they’ll Answer to this Charge, before their Wager is otherwise decided.

Another Gentleman who signs his Letter C.F. and makes three Objections. 1. Against our Appellation Scandalous Club; to which he gives an Answer himself, by saying he has read none of our former Papers; to which we refer him therefore, for a full Defence of our Title; a Supplement of which is offer’d when that is Answer’d.

2. He says the Story of the Brewer is too mean for our Paper, and would look better, strutting in the Observator.

To this we Answer, We make no Comparison of Papers, and know none by that distinction of meaner than our own; but we humbly conceive to Reform any Scandalous Crime, is so far from being below, that ’tis the highest and Principal Design of our Society, let the Person be high or low.

3. He says the Story of the Person sent out of Oxfordshire is old, and he remembers it when he was a Boy, and is really very Witty upon that occasion.

So, Sir, I remember Drunkenness was an old Crime, and when I was a Boy I saw a Man very Drunk; and does it follow I must not bring a Man before our Club that is so now? As to the two Verses, if you mean they were old and Ridiculous, the Person that used them, Sir, is the more beholden to you, that whereas we set him [152] down for a Drunkard, you have mark’d him for a Coxcomb too, for repeating two old Thredbare Lines, that were out of Fashion when Men were little Boys –

As to your Objection about our favouring too much the French Interest, this we have so often met with, and so often Answered, that we can only refer you back to the former Papers, unless you please, Sir, as has been desired of other Ingenious Gentlemen, furnish your self with a needful Talent of Patience, and judge like your self by the Consequences and real Issue of the History.

The following Letter was also sent to the Society, with a Challenge in it, which we think both hard and unusual.

Gentlemen of the Scandalous Club,
YOur Explanation of the following Lines made in March last, is earnestly desir’d and expected.