Numb. 43.
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THE Story of the Swedes, I foresee, will lead me into a Chapter which I had design’d as the Third in Order. The Order of my Story directed me,
First, To treat of the French Greatness.
Secondly, By what means they came to be so Great.
Thirdly, The Influence the Greatness of France has now, and for a long time has had, on the Affairs of Europe.
I made a beginning upon the Second Article, as in the Review, N˚ 33— but I am call’d off from that Head by the Unforeseen Movements of this French Power; and upon, I think, a very just Motive, have entred on the present Affair of the World, being the Support and Encrease of this Power.
Indeed I design’d this but as a Digression, and thought to have gone thro’ it in two or three Papers: But the Field is so large, the present Scene opens into so vast a Subject, that I chuse to make a Breach in the Order of History, and place the Chapter of Effects before that of Causes, rather than omit a Subject of such Import in the proper Season of it.
As to those Gentlemen, who have objected against me, That I do not keep to the Text; and from thence, Censure the Coherence of my Story, that I call it A Review of the Affairs of France, and extend it to all the Affairs of Europe: I think they are answered in telling them, That when the Power and Greatness of France ceases to Embroil the Rest of Europe, or when they will name me the time when it did not do so, then I’ll tell them, how it is possible to write a History of the Affairs of France, without entring into part of the Story of most of the Princes and States of Europe; and till then, I must tell an Angry, Nameless Gentleman, who sent me a Scurrilous Letter on that Head, that his Epistle has too little Argument, as well as Manners, to deserve any other Answer than this.
For this Reason, and not at all to answer the Cavils of those, who take upon them to censure the Order of our Story, I think my self oblig’d to adjourn the Second Chapter, and begin here with the Third, viz.
The Influence the present Greatness of France now has, and for a long time past, has had, on all the Publick Affairs of Europe.
This is a Vast, and almost Impenetrable Depth of Story, and I dare not promise I shall give the World an exact History of all the Wheels, which France by its Power and Greatness, has given Motion to, even within the Wheels of its Neighbour Governments.
The Brigues, the Intrigues she has manag’d in the Councils and Courts of her Neighbours are so many, have such an infinite Variety, and have been manag’d with so much Fineness or Policy, such Foresight and Address, that I presume no Historian in the World is able to give a compleat account of them.
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To write a History of them would be to dive into the Inscrutable Councils of Cardinal Richlieu and Mazarine, and abstract the Journals of Messieurs Colbert and Louvois. The French Policies have been laid to deep, and these Eminent Ministers of State dealt too much in the Clouds, to have their Measures dissected or describ’d by the Historians, or so much as copied by Posterity.
And tho’ in the Process of these Papers, I may have occasion to inform the World of some Particulars, which are known to but very few; yet I shall pretend to but a small Portion of the Privacies of these great Men, and shall think my self and this Age also exceedingly oblig’d to any Gentlemen of that Nation, who will furnish me with such things of this Nature, which Memory may have recorded, and is not to be found in Books.
Under this Head, I hope, I may be allow’d to treat all of those several Actions now upon the Wheel of Management in Europe: And whereas all Europe is now engag’d for the Reduction of this Prodigy of Power, the French Grandeur, and hard is the Struggle to keep it from over-running us all. It cannot but be a useful piece of Labour, as much as one Head can be Master of it, to disclose to the World the secret Machines, the Policy, the Arts by which France has brought its Neighbours, nay, even its Enemies, to subserve, promote, and in effect establish the Greatness and Power which it now enjoys, nay, to the very Ruine and Destruction of themselves.
I must here confess, I am now brought to the very Center and Heart of my Design, I acknowledge this very Head was the Reason and Original of writing this Paper; and tho’ in that Place of my Undertaking I did not suppose I should have reach’t this Article at least for this Twelve-month to come, yet as Usefulness is, or ought to be the Principal Aim of Historians, so in this Case I make even my Method as well as Design stoop to it.
If I suffer some Scandal for the Irregularity of my Writing, this is my Apology: And as it is both a true, a justifiable, and the best Answer, I offer it to all the future Cavils of Quarrelsome Objectors; and who ever he is that shall dislike my Method, will in vain look for any other till he has replied to this.—
If any Man ask me, What is all this to the Swede? I shall readily answer, Very much, begging his Swedish Majesty’s Pardon, for any Indecency of Expression. I have been stating the Case, whether the present Affair of the Swede is not the Support of the French Power? I believe no Man will dispute, Whether the present Affairs of France is the Support of the Swedish Power.
The Broil between the Swede and the Pole, as it concern’d Livonia, I believe no part of Europe would have meddl’d with: But I am to be allowed to say, that ever since the Entrance of Gustavus Adolphus into the Empire, when he went much nearer the Dissolving the Imperial Power than the French and Bavarian have done now, and when if he had not been kill’d at the Great Battel of Lutzen, he had been at the Gates of Prague in 12 Days time, and at Vienna in a little more: Ever since this, I say, it has been a constant Maxim in the Imperial Councils, if possible, never to suffer the Swedes to make War in Germany.
And therefore in the last War between the Poles and the Swedes, when the Swedes were also much more likely than now to ruine Poland, and at the point to Dissolve the whole Polish Government, and make all that vast Country a Province of the Swedish Empire, having Driven King Casimire quite out of Poland, and forc’d him to take Sanctuary in Silesia.
Tho’ the Emperor did not concern himself in the beginning of that Broil, yet when he saw the Swedish Banners, which have always been Terrible to the Empire, spreading themselves upon the Confines of Poland, even to the Frontiers of Hungary, he thought ’twas time then to assist the Pole; and tho’ the King of Sweden, provok’d by the Dane, as, is noted in the Review, N˚ 34. quitted his Conquest in Poland, to Revenge himself of that Prince, gave that as a good Reason; yet ’tis plain his Affairs were Declining very much in Poland before that, and the Swedes had been oblig’d to quit a great part of their Polish Conquests, before the King of Poland, being assisted by the Emperor. ’Tis true the Emperor did not declare himself, because the Swedes Retreat prevented; but if he had continued in Poland, it was very likely the whole Imperial Force had been turn’d against him.
From this General Maxim of the Emperour, it would of course have follow’d, that had not the Influence of French Power given the Empire, and indeed all Germany, a compleat Diversion, the Swede could never have carried his War in Poland on to this Dangerous extreme; or if he had, it would necessarily have brought the Forces of the Empire upon him, which he would not have been so able to Engage with.
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’Tis true, the Yellow Cross has been a Terror to the Roman Eagle, but it was when two thirds of the Empire fell in with the Swedes, the Electors of Brandenburgh and Saxony entirely, all the sides of the Baltick, almost all the Circles of Lower Saxony, Upper Saxony, and Franconia; whereas now I think ’tis easy to judge in this Quarrel, the Swede would have but a small Party in the Empire, the Cause being quite different.
For this reason, I say, the French Greatness Influences all this Matter—Now I’ll Grant, meerly to please the Swedes and their Advocates, that there is no manner of Correspondence in Affairs between the Swedes and the French, that the Swedes are pursuing their Conquests and Advantages in Poland, meerly as such, without any Regard to the French, their Interests, or Concerns; and that the French Pursue their usual Ambitious Measures, without and Dependence upon, or Expectation from the Diversion made by the Swedes; it will however be Granted me, that there is then a strange Fortuitous Connexion between their Affairs, that they go Hand in Hand in the Consequences, whether they do so in their Causes or no.
French Power Supports Swedish Encroachments, and Swedish Power makes room for French Conquests; and the Mutual Assistance they give to one another, is such, that if it be without all manner of Concert, ’tis very strange, and next to Prodigious.
If any Man should ask me if this be all by Chance, I should be apt to answer, as a poor Weak-headed Man did in another Case; They had perswaded the Man, that six Frenchmen Attempted to steal the Monument away, but that the Watch stop’d them on London-Bridge, and made them carry it back again; the Poor Man defended himself a long time from the Impossibility of the thing, but being impos’d upon at last, in the Article too, and told what strange things the French had done; well, says he, such a thing may be, but ’tis very unlikely.
Were it not for the War in Poland, the French Power would have found it a difficult Task to have pierc’d the Provinces of Swaben and Frankenland, and shown themselves on the Banks of the Danube; had the Bavarian offered to show himself in the Interest of France, he would have had all the Power of Saxony joyning with the Bohemian Troops, immediately upon his back; and the War he had kindled in the Heart of the Empire, would have required no strength but that of the Empire to have extinguish’d it.
Were it not for the War in Bavaria and the Empire, the Swede would have found another sort of Enemies on the Banks of the Vistula to have engag’d with, than the Mercenary Pole, or the Timerous Lithuanian, and the Imperial Power would soon have assisted his Polish Majesty, to Defend his Country from the Encroachments of the Swede.
And the Sence of this cannot but be the reason, why the Swede insists not on the Possession of the Polish Crown for himself; no Man can else Imagine why his Swedish Majesty should set a Private Palatinate, or Veywode of Poland to be King, and why this Man more than the other, and more mighty Pretenders?
’Tis plain the Reasons are these;
First, If he had offered to seize the Crown for himself, he had brought the whole Power of Germany upon his Hands, whenever he had liv’d to see them settled again, and at Peace with the French.
To avoid this, some of the more Potitick Councellors contrived a way to give him the Power without the Name, in Order to Introduce both at last; and this was the Project of making him be Declared Protector of Poland—But this he foresaw would turn the whole Nation upon him.
The last Medium, and indeed the most Politick, was to set up a King of some meaner Stock than ordinary, to bring the Nobility to acknowledge him by force, and so to have the Crown the more entirely dependent upon himself.
That this is a Mastership of Swedish Policy, is true, and must be own’d, and the Cardinal Primate, Prince Lubomisky, Prince Alexander Sobiesky, and the rest, are under a most Mortifying Disappointment, and which if they had foreseen, I very much doubt whether they would have Insulted their Prince as they did.
But at the same time that the Swedes have driven things to this height, they have been obliged to quit two Pretences, that both themselves have made on one hand, and other People for them on the other; viz.
1. That they fought to Restore the Liberty of the Common-Wealth.
2. That they design’d to Restore the Protestant Religion in Poland.
ADVICE from the Scandalous CLUB.
THE Gentleman with his Vertuous Bad Wife took up to so much of the time last sitting, the Society had no Leisure to hear several People that attended, but was oblig’d to put them off till to Day.
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Among these were several Complainers against our Brethren of the Pen and Ink, call’d News Writers.
And first, a certain Person who seem’d to be in hast, desir’d to be call’d in.
He told the Club he was an Undertaker, a Grave-Jobber, a Humane Raven, one that us’d to smell Death, and croak at the Door a Week aforehand; and though he need not be told when any Man wanted a Case of his Office, but reading in the Post Boy and Flying-Post, July 27. that Sir Christopher Musgrave was dead, away he run to the House to bespeak himself to serve the Funeral. When he came there, he found the Gentleman was alive, and being not so wary as he should have been in that Case, he discover’d his Business, and was forc’t to be very Civil to the Servants to avoid some ill Usage.
But this was not all: For whereas his Interest was so great in the Family before, that he made no question if the Person was Dead he was sure of the Job; the unseasonable Application so disoblig’d the Family, that now he despairs of it: Wherefore he desir’d the Society to order the said News-Writers to make him Satisfaction for his Loss.
The Club, after hearing his Complaint with a great deal of Patience, told him, in short, it was their Opinion there was no Satisfaction at all due to him, and that he had nothing but what he ought to expect, for believing any thing such People write.
The Author of the Gazette demanded Audience next, and wanted to know what he was Summoned for.
He was told, he stood Charg’d for saying, The D— was run away with my Lord G—, he Pleaded not Guilty, and Angrily put them upon the Proof, for he affirm’d he never said any such thing; whereupon the Society show’d him the London Gazette of Monday, July 24. where in the Article from Portsmouth, he says the L. G— arriv’d at Portsmouth, in order to Embark for Lisbon, and this day his L—p Sail’d thither from Spithead: The Society Demanded of him how that was possible? and at last Concluded, That let who will carry him, his L—p had a very good Voyage if he got to Lisbon that day.
The Author finding the Case so plain against him, submitted, and was Entred according to Order.
Another Famous Author was Summoned to Answer, for saying the Muscovite Ambassadors were gone to make a Fort at Amsterdam— but he did not appear, and the Society Adjourn’d the Debate, till they had sent into Holland to know, for that possibly the News might be true, and the States had sold themselves to the Czar of Muscovy, and so he might be Erecting a Fort at Amsterdam to secure the Possession.
The Author of this Paper gives Notice to a Gentleman who sent him a kind Letter, sign’d T. W. containing a very extraordinary Account from Hungaria, that if that Gentleman will please but to give the Author any Assurance of the Truth of the Fact, such as he may depend upon, he conceives the the Publishing it will be very useful to the Publick, and will particularly serve to Illuminate the Understandings of some People who are pleased to be blinder than ordinary, in that Affair; and the Author mentions it now, because the Case of the Protestants in Hungary will be the next Article we shall enter upon, after this of Sweden is over.
A Gentleman was brought before the Club, for sending the Author a Letter of the Mistake in the Review, N˚ 41. about the King of Poland being at the Battle of Zenta.
The Society told him it was but fair to give the Author one Review’s time to recover himself in; and then if he Mistakes, and does not mend it, he is content to be Censur’d; but to find a fault before the Author has time to find it himself, is catching him up before he falls.
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.
This day is publish’d,
THE Monthly Journal, of the Affairs of Europe; Containing Divers Important and very Entertaining Matters, not Extant in other Accounts; beginning with the Month of July, 1704. To be continued Monthly. 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. H A R B O R O U G H. (a Graduate Physician) In Great Knight-Riders-street, near Doctors Commons.
MDCCIV.