Numb. 42.
[181]
HE is but a sorry Physician that tells us a Disease, but prescribes no Remedy: I have Entertain’d the World, in three Reviews together, with the Case of the Swedes, in the Dispute with Poland, and the War of the North; I have insisted long upon this Head, and ventur’d at an Essay on the great Damage done the Confederacy in General, and the Protestant Religion in Particular; I have said much of their opening a Gap in the Confederacy, at which the French Power has broke in; and I am yet unconvinc’d of any Mistake in the Matter.
I am oblig’d now to apply the Remedy to this Evil, and answer this great Question, How shall we help it?
I confess I could better have answered it six Months ago, and shown how you might have help’d it, than I can say now how it shall be help’d; but it may not be too late yet, especially if the King of Poland and the Confederacy can hold out but one Year longer.
If any Man ask me why I make an if of the latter, I answer, If the Duke of Marlborough succeeds in his Design on Bavaria, there is no doubt indeed of it; but if that had either been not undertaken, or had miscarried, I would not have answered for the Subsistence of the Confederacy one Year longer.
We call our selves Masters at Sea, and in a Sence we are so: But who can answer me then this Question, Why a good Fleet has not been sent into the Baltick Sea, which by interrupting the Communication of the King of Sweden with his own Country, preventing or intercepting his Convoys, his Store Ships and Recruits, would soon have set Bounds to the Ambition of that Prince, would soon have limited his Undertakings, and oblig’d him to hearken to Reason?
If this be answered, we are at Peace with him, and this would be to Declare War.
I humbly conceive such Gentlemen are Mistaken; it would be as far from a Declaration of War, as what we did in his behalf, was from Declaring against the King of Denmark; we were in a profound Peace with his Danish Majesty, and yet we prevented his Suppressing the Duke of Holstein, oblig’d him to quit the Siege of Toningen, and by forced brought him to lye still with his Fleet, while the Swedes Landed almost under the Walls of his Capital City, made him at last sign the Treaty at Pinenbergh; and all this was not esteem’d a Breach of the Peace.
It cannot be a Breach of the Peace to send a Fleet into the Baltick, and say — Sir, “your Majesty has by our Assistance, secured your self from all your Enemies, and we are willing to undertake an Honourable Peace for you — but the King of Poland is our Ally, your pushing him to Extremities is an Injury to the Publick Good, and obliges him to withdraw those Troops which should be employ’d in the Common Cause, to defend himself against you: wherefore we desire your Majesty to [182] hearken to good Terms, such as are both for your Honour and Advantage, which we undertake to procure for you; If your Majesty refuses this offer, you make War not with the King of Poland, but with us and the whole Confederacy; and we cannot see that done, without some Concern, wherefore we are to inform your Majesty,”
1. That we cannot permit Soldiers, Ammunition and Provision of War, to be Transported, to carry on a War so Fatal to our Interest; and if you will assault our Ships, you must do it at your Peril; if you fire at us, we shall take it for a Declaration of War against us all.
2. That we cannot permit the City of Dantzick to be Oppress’d, Tax’d, or their Trade Interrupted, being a City belonging to our Ally, and which we take into our Protection.
If this were done, let any Man ask if the K. of Sweden would not be oblig’d to make a Peace; ’tis true, his Recruits and Additional Troops are come for this Year, and that is the Reason of my saying before, if the King of Poland can but hold out one Year more.
It may be objected then, you drive the King of Sweden over to the French, according to what he has been said to threaten already.
Tho’ this is something improbable in its own Nature, yet ’tis more so, in that their Interests differ; and which is yet more considerable, it does not appear to me, wherein the French could be useful to the Swede, or the Swede to the French.
First I pretend to say, as the Circumstances of Sweden now stand, their Interest differs from those of France.
I think I do no Injustice to the Swede, if I say that his Majesty, like most of the rest of the Kings of Europe, is to be supposed pursuing his own Interest in all things; as to the pretence of Religion, I believe I shall be very rarely guilty of saying, that many of them trouble their heads about it, unless it be to help destroy and suppress it in the World.
’Tis true, Religion is made the most specious Pretence on all hands: The King of France values himself upon his Zeal for Religion, in the Extirpation of the Hugonots out of this Kingdom: tho’ when we come to the Detail of that Affair, we shall see perhaps, that reason of State, more than Religion, was the Ground-plot of their Destruction, as that without which, they could never have laid the Foundation of their present Grandeur, and therefore I must still be of the same Mind as before, That the Banishing his Protestant Subjects, was the highest piece of Politicks, and the best step as to him, that ever was taken in that Kingdom, but of this by it self.
As to the pretence of Religion, ’tis confess’d all sides make use of it, Kings to Oppress their Subjects, People to Rebell against their Sovereigns; Kings to obtain new Crowns, Subjects to Transpose their Allegiance; the Hungarians, tho’ their Leaders are Papists, cry out the Protestant Religion, to heighten the Claims of their Declaration against their Prince; the Bavarian joyns with the French to secure Religion; the Duke of Savoy breaks off with the French to secure Religion; the Cardinal Primate brings in the Protestants to secure the Popish Religion, and we all joyn with the Roman Catholick Emperor to secure the Protestant Religion; the Lutherans joyn with the Calvanist, the Calvanist with the Lutheran, and both with the Papists, and all to Establish’d Religion. Thus God Almighty is jested with, and banter’d of all sides, and Religion’s made the Foot-ball of Princes, to be kick’d about the World as it suits their occasions, to gloss over the worst of Treasons, Sanctify the horridest Villanies, and be a Cloak to all the Tyrannies in the World.
I shall therefore do the King of Sweden that Justice to quit him of this piece of Hypocrisy, and shall not so much as pretend for him, that he is any way concern’d about Religion in this War, nor did I ever hear that his Majesty made any such pretence.
Interest is the Apollo of Princes, and indeed all the Princes and States of Christendom, are now Embark’d in a War for Interest; Liberty and Religion is the Aim of a few, but Interest is the present Article. This is no Religious War, both sides Declare it, and it has been in vain that some have pretended to make it so.
Now as to Interest, the King of Sweden cannot think of joyning with the French: They who make use of that Notion for him, and menace the Confederacy with it in his Name, for I cannot think he has done it himself, Dishonour his Majesty’s Understanding; he cannot be so blind to his own Interest, as to fall in openly with the French; for,
First, He can receive no Relief or Support from the French, other than by way of Money.
Secondly, He can give them no Personal Assistance to deserve that Money, but as he does already by way of Diversion.
1. He can receive no Relief or Support from France, as to Personal Assistance; the Article of [183] Money I shall touch in the next Head; and they that will make his Swedish Majesty a French Pensioner, shall see the Causes I think they have to believe themselves mistaken.
The Seat of War in the North, is out of the reach of French Detachments; there can be no Conjunction of Forces, unless the French should Penetrate by Land thro’ the Heart of Germany, or force their way by Sea thro’ the Baltick in spight of the King of Denmark, who would certainly oppose it, and in spight of the Confederate Fleets, which if their Naval Eyes were not quite shut, must see it of absolute necessity to prevent.
The French then being unable to give him any Relief, it would follow, that the Territories of the Swedes in Germany, being inviron’d by the Confederacy in every part; the Swede must have seven or eight Armies in the Field to Defend himself.
He must have an Army in Bremen to Defend it against the Troops of Lunenburgh, Zell, and Hannover on one side, and perhaps the Dane on the other.
He must have an Army in Holstein, to Defend it against the King of Denmark, who would desire no better Opportunity to Effect what he has so long wish’d for, viz. to shut up the Peninsula of Juitland, and Unite Holstein to the Crown of Denmark.
He must have a strong Garrison equal to a little Army, in Wismar, to defend it against the Troops of the Circle of Lower Saxony, in which the Princes of Mecklenbergh-Swerin, and of Saxe Lawenbergh would be very forward, if they saw their Interest, to make that strong Place their own.
He must have an Army in Pomerania to defend it on all sides against the King of Prussia, joyn’d by the Saxon Hereditary Forces.
He must have an Army in Courland, to defend that from the Prussian, in Aid of the Duke of Courland.
He must have an Army about Revel, to defend it and the Country from the Incessant Ravages of the Muscovite
Another upon the Frontiers of Ingermanland, to prevent the Muscovites entering Swedeland.
And with all this, he must maintain his Conquests in Poland, or quit it, and Answer the end we speak of, by restoring Peace to the North.
These are some of the Consequences of the Swedes joyning with France, if he shall find it his Interest, let any one judge; and therefore they that say this for him, for I cannot think he should say it for himself, either suppose him blind to his own Affairs, or impose upon us to believe, he is so, when he is not.
ADVICE from the Scandalous CLUB.
A Man of an Ecclesiastical Occupation, a Member of the Black List of City Mortality, one that occupies the Place of the unlearned, a Brother of the Corporation of Psalmodists, the first Letter of whose Profession is a Parish Clark, made application to the Society against a Certain Citizen, who, as he said, us’d him very scurvily, for Demanding his Dues.
Upon a full Hearing, the Case appeared to be as follows;
The Citizen having occasion to have his Child Christened, after all was over, the good Woman Church’d, and the like, the Clark came to Demand his Dues, which were readily tendred him; whether the Gossiping Ale was got into his Head or no, this Deponent does not conclude; but tho’ he had above double his Dues offered him, he was not contented, but Demanded more, began to give ill Language, and be very troublesome.
The Citizen, provok’d a little with the usage, gave him his Demands in one hand, and a little Correction with the other, and so turn’d him out of Doors, having no other way to be rid of him.
The Society found this a difficult Case to decide, they allow’d the want of Behaviour was well Corrected, tho’ they could not justify the breach of the Peace; but they dismiss’d the Man with this Answer, viz. That it was their Opinion he had both more and less than his Due; so they advis’d him to go Home, be contented, and furnish himself with a little more Manners.
The Ingenious Gentleman who has sent us another Letter against our Title, is desired to accept of an Answer Particularly to himself, and for that end to send us word, how to direct to him, the World beginning to be tired with the Insignificance of the Dispute; if he please to do this we shall [184] Communicate to him, the Letters sent us in justification of our Title; and if he can Confute either Them or Us, he shall be made amends for not making his particular Letter Publick, by our fairly owning our selves in the wrong.
A Gentleman came with a great Equipage and a fine Coach to the Society, and desired to be heard.
He told them a long Story of his Wife, how ill Natur’d, how Sullen, how Unkind, and abundance of things he reckoned up, that in short made his Life very uncomfortable, his Family very unquiet, and the like.
The Society ask’d him several Questions about his Wife, as I. Whether she was
A Whore? Answer, No.
A Thief? —No.
A Slutt? —No.
A Scold? —No.
A Drunkard? — No.
A Gossip? —No.
But still she was an ill Wife, a very bad Wife, and he could not tell what to do with her. At last, one of the Society begging his Pardon for the Question, ask’d him, If his Worship was a good Husband; at which, being a little surpris’d, he could not tell what to say: Whereupon the Club came to these Resolves;
1. That most Women that are bad Wives, are made so by bad Husbands.
2. That this Society will hear no Complaints against a Vertuous bad Wife, from a Vicious good Husband.
3. He that has a bad Wife, and can’t find the Reason of it in her, ’tis ten to one but he finds it in himself.
4. they advised the Gentleman to go Home, Reform himself, and become a good Husband for three Months, and if that did not Cure his Wife, they should proceed against her as they should find Cause.
The Reader is desired to Correct the following Mistake in Story, in our last Review, Pag. 177. Col. 2. Line 29. for the Battle of Zenta, read the Battle of Temeswaer; dele the rest of that Paragraph; that Action having been performed by Prince Eugene of Savoy, and not by the Duke of Saxony; which the Author mistook, not having the History before him.
ADvertisements are taken in by J. Matthews, in Pilkington-Court in Little-Britain.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S.
THE Milan Predictions, for the Year 1704. Containing surprizing Events that Threaten Europe, from the Present War. By Seignior Piscatore, The Famous Italian Astrologer; who has foretold more things which came to pass, for these three Years last past, than any other Artist in Europe. Sold by J. Nutt. price 3 d.
There is now publish’d, The Sets of Heraclitus Ridens, containing 63, which were writ in opposition to John Tutchin’s Common-wealth Observator; and which afford him and Country-man, Bones enough to pick on till next Michaelmas.
A Dutiful Letter, proving that the Nonjurors are no Schismaticks. price 3 d.
***
THE Apothecaries Case, presented to the Lords, prov’d Scandalously False in every particular; with an Answer to a Scurrilous Pamphlet, the Censor Censur’d. Sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane.
THere will be publish’d in a few days, by Jeffery Wale, at the Angel in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, Miscellanea Curiosa; being a Collection of some of the Principal Phenomena in Nature, Accounted for by the greatest Philosophers of this Age. Together with several Discourses read before the Royal Society, for the Advancement of Natural and Mathematical Learning.
Just Publish’d,
THE Storm; or, A Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters which happened in the late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land. Price 3 s. 6 d. Printed for George Sawbridge in Little-Britain, and sold by John Nutt near Stationers-Hall.
*** 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.
Just publish’d,
A Letter from the Dead Thomas Brown to the living Heraclitus, with Heraclitus Ridens’s Answer. To which is added, the last Will and Testament of Mr. Thomas Brown, Archi-Poete Celeberrimi; wherein are inserted the several Legacies he bequeathed to the Poets that survive him. Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. price 6 d.
There is now publish’d,
THE Mask of Moderation pull’d off, the foul Face of Occasional Conformity; being an Answer to a late Poisonous Pamphlet, Entitled Moderation still a Virtue: Wherein the late Reasonings and Shuffling Arguments of that Author is plainly laid open and Confuted. price I s.
THE Comical History of the Life and Death of Mumper, Generalissimo of King Charles II’s Dogs. Written by Heliotropolis, Secretary to the Emperor of the Moon. London, Printed in the Year 1704.
MDCCIV.