Tuesday, October 10. 1704.

Numb. 63.
[265]

I Am not justifying here the Honour of such Princes Proceedings, who fall upon their Neighbours, and begin Wars and Hostilities, without pretence of Quarrel, and without Declaring first their Resolution.

But for the Edification of those Gentlemen; who are willing the Swedes should ruin the King of Poland, because he Assaulted them without a just Ground; I would recommend to their consideration, how the Hungarians joyn’d with the Turks, in a War against the Emperor, under the obligation of a Solemn Peace, unbroken, and which had three Years yet to come, and without any ground of Complaint on the Turks behalf.

Nay, so openly, and against all Justice and Honour did the Turks break this Peace, that when afterwards the Losses and Destruction of the War, brought them to think their Priests at Constantinople exclaim’d against the injustice of it, and the Rabble Sacrificed those who had been the occasion of it; Declaring their great Prophet Mahomet was Angry at their beginning so Dishonourable a War; and Teckely himself was in no small danger among them upon this Account.

Yet I never read that our Hungarians, and who, some would have all call’d Protestants, made the least scruple of the Turks denying the Emperor this Ceremony, but treated his Imperial Majesty in all Cases, as if he was a Person with whom no Measures were to be observed, breaking all their Truces and Cessations, seizing their Magazines, intercepting his Convoys, even when under Treaties and Capitulations. Continue reading Tuesday, October 10. 1704.

Tuesday, September 19. 1704.

Numb. 57.
[241]

I cannot go back from the Charges in the last Review, as to the Hungarians calling in the Turks. The Count Westelini, who was Palatine of Hungary, in the Year 1676, was openly engag’d in the Troubles of that Time; and as it was his Post to Command the Military as well as the Civil Power, he made no scruple, tho’ a Roman Catholick, to head the whole Body of the Malecontents, and joyn with them in taking Arms against the Emperor.

Some say he turn’d Protestant before he died, and that he was so in his Heart from the beginning; but, as that does no where appear to me, so it does not seem Material to the present Argument, whether he did or no.

Sir Roger Manly, in his Continuation of Sir Paul Rycaut’s History of the Turks, gives us a short Abridgment of the beginning of that Insurrection, which I shall re-abridge in as short a manner, as will consist with the length of my Paper.

’Tis true, there had been several Insurrections, and designs of Insurrection before that, but as the Causes were generally the same, the Abstract of this, may very reasonably pass for an Introduction into the whole Story. Continue reading Tuesday, September 19. 1704.

Saturday, September 16. 1704.

Numb. 56.
[237]

I Advanc’d a Proposition last Paper, That there is some difference between Popish and Turkish Tyranny, in opposition to those People, who have had the Turks have taken Vienna.

I presume, that when I say those People were Mad, or out of their Sences, ’tis the kindest thing I can say of them; for unless I will suppose them so, I can do no less than offer Reasons why they would think it proper to have all the German Empire stoop to the Green Ensigns of Mahomet, and the Turkish Half-Moon Erected on the Tops of their Spires, in the room of the Cross.

I Confess ’tis a hard Choice; and I hope we shall never be put to that Nicety to determine, whether Christendom shall be devoured by Popery, or Mahometanism; whether Turkish or Popish Tyranny shall over-run Europe.

But if that unhappy Crisis were come, I think every considering Protestant would soon resolve, that ’tis better of the two to be oppres’d by the Errors of Christianity, than the Enemies of it; if I am to be Murthered, Rob’d, Plundered and Destroyed, I had rather a Roman Catholick was the Butcher, than a Turk; I had rather he had the Power over me, that acknowledges Christ, than he that despises him, and defies him; rather he that kills me, because I don’t Worship Jesus his way, than he that does it, because I own him at all. Continue reading Saturday, September 16. 1704.

Tuesday, September 12. 1704.

Numb. 55.
[233]

I Am now upon a Question, Concerning the Oppressions of the Hungarians, by the Emperor’s Ministers.

I am not going to lessen their Grievances, nor indeed, to enquire into the Particulars; if they have been us’d as we are told they have, ’tis bad enough.

But the Case before us, is to bring the Subject of Complaint, and the Persons complaining, to a fair Head, and make the great Relative here agree with the Antecedent.

The Question is, Have the German’s opprest the Hungarians, as a Nation, or have they Persecuted and Injur’d them as Protestants? Continue reading Tuesday, September 12. 1704.

Saturday, September 2. 1704.

Numb. 52.
[221]

I Have done with the Swedes: Monsieur L—n may concern himself to defend the Polish Election, in what Way and Method he pleases; I am perswaded he will never Compass it to his Master’s Reputation.

Conquest indeed may go a great way; Victory is so Sacred a thing, and Men are so apt to give the Sanction of Right, where Heaven gives the Blessing of Success, that to Argue against the Justice of that Cause, to which the Sword gives the Authority, is almost to oppose the General Stress of Human Reasoning.

If Stanislaus the Palatin of Posen, for as yet I can call him no more, by the Assistance of the Swede, Conquers the present King of Poland, who shall dispute his being Lawful King? I question whether the King of Sweden himself, or half the Kings in Europe have better Titles.

If Conquest be not a Lawful Title to a Crown, we must go back to the Oracle and Enquire, where the Grand Spring of Title is to be found; and unless the People come in to help us out, I doubt we shall be at a loss. Continue reading Saturday, September 2. 1704.

Tuesday, August 15. 1704.

Numb. 47.
[201]

I Have done with the Swedes fighting for the Liberty of Poland — .

The next thing, which as ’tis alledg’d the Swedes fight for, is Religion, to pull down Popery and the Whore of Babylon.

Some Honest People, who are very Angry with the King of Poland for changing his Religion, and very willing to have the Swedes be Masters of Poland, because they hope they will plant the Protestant Religion there, are very much out of Humour with our late Reviews, which have dwelt so long upon the Matter, and so earnestly press’d the reducing the Swede to Terms of Peace.

These well-meaning Religious Gentlemen, shew their Zeal goes a great deal beyond their Understanding, as to the Publick Affairs of Europe; and of such I would ask, whether it is worse, that the Protestant Religion should not be replanted in Poland, or should be supplanted in England, Holland, and Germany? Continue reading Tuesday, August 15. 1704.

Saturday, August 5. 1704.

Numb. 44.
[189]

OUR last Review names two Pretences, which some will have pass for the Reasons of the Swedes pushing on the Affair of Poland, viz. Liberty and Religion.

I have said something already relating to the Swedes Generosity, and the Attempt of setting a Nation free, delivering them from the Bondage of the present King, and his Tyrannical Encroachments on their Liberties, his Saxon Forces, Muscovian Allyances, &c.

Liberty and Religion are the two Capital Pretences in all the Civil Broils of the World; how the latter of these has been box’d about the World by the Artifice of Princes; how Men of Pretence have made it the Stalking-Horse of their Private Interest and Corrupt Designs, I hinted at in the Review N˚ 42. and how far this has been either pretended or design’d in the present Polish Expedition of the Swedes, I shall farther Debate in the Process of this Paper.

Whether his Swedish Majesty ever made the Protestant Religion any Pretence to this War is not Material, and I shall make no difficulty to grant the Negative; but for the Notion of Liberty, the Freedom of the Common-Wealth, the Delivering them from the Tyranny of the Saxons, and the Invasions of Foreign Forces, I appeal to the King of Sweden’s Letter to the Cardinal Primate, to all the Memorials of the Swedish Ministers; and lastly to the Instrument or Declaration of the Rocockz, or Confederacy at Warsaw, where after the long Enumeration of the pretended Invasions of their Liberties by the Prince, they fly to the King of Sweden for the Restoring the Liberty of Poland; they Renounce their Allegiance to King Augustus, Declare the Interregnum, and depend upon the Power of the Swedish Arms to set them at Liberty, and to Grant them the Opportunity of a free Election. Continue reading Saturday, August 5. 1704.

Saturday, July 29. 1704.

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. Continue reading Saturday, July 29. 1704.

Tuesday, July 18. 1704.

Numb. 39.
[169]

EUROPE look’d without any concern upon the prodigious Conquests of the K. of Sweden; believing the Dane ought to be Chastis’d for so basely Invading the Dominions of a Prince, with whom he was in a strict League; without any Provocation, and without so much as a Declaration; and while that Prince was engag’d in a Bloody War, remote from his own Dominions.

But under all these Provocations, the King of Sweden used so much Moderation in his Victory, that he contented himself with forcing his Enemy to a Disadvantageous Peace, by which the Swede obtained great part of Schonen, a share in the Toll of the Sound, and a great many considerable Concessions.

But as Princes are not always capable of bounding their Ambition, and the Dangers of excess in Prosperity are very great, the King of Sweden pretending next Year, that the King of Denmark was Arming against him, but really vex’d at Heart, that he had let his Enemy slip out of his Hands, when he might have made an Entire Conquest of his Dominions; breaks the Peace, puts to sea with a great Fleet, Lands an Army in Seeland, and sits down again under the Walls of Copenhagen.

The Gallant Defence the King of Denmark made, how he would not quit the City, as his Councellors advis’d him, but resolv’d to be shut up with his Citizens; how he pitch’d his Royal Tent upon one of the Bastions of the City, and nearest to the Danger; that, as he said, he might call to his Soldiers, Come to the breach, and not bid them Go. How he Challeng’d the King of Sweden to fight him, hand to hand, for the Crown of Denmark, who told him for Answer, That Kings do not use to fight, but in good Company. These things I may hint for the Readers Diversion, and to Invite them to read the Histories of Those Times; but I omit Writing them at large, as Foreign to the present purpose. Continue reading Tuesday, July 18. 1704.

Tuesday, April 11. 1704.

Numb. 11.
[57]

THe Debate I entred into, about the Banishment of the Hugonots out of France, was so abruptly broken off in the last, that I must go on with it here, and repeat this part as necessary to lead the Reader back into the Story. That I am of the Opinion, the King of France’s Banishing the Protestants, tho’ it Impoverish’d and Unpeopled part of the Country; and tho’ it fill’d his Enemies with Soldiers, yet at the same time it was the most Politick Action of his Life, and the Foot upon which he now builds that Absolute Dominion, which is so necessary for the carrying on all his vast Designs.

I don’t think fit to engage here in a Dispute about the honesty of it, I agree to all that has been reasonably said to that point; and without doubt, the breaking and dissolving the Edict of Nants, is an Injury not to be Defended.

But as to the Policy of it: ’Tis plain it was so great a Stroke to all Europe, that all his Attempts since have been founded upon this Head; for till he had first cleared his Country of that Numerous Injured People, he could never have ventured to carry an Offensive War into all the Borders of Europe: Nor could he have spared his Numerous Armies, for so many various Enterprizes; he must have maintained strong Garrisons in the Provinces of Guienne, Gascoign, Languedoc, Normandy, Bretaign, &c. where the Protestants were Numerous, to have kept the Rod of Iron upon their Backs, and every Revolt would have hazarded a Revolution of his Affairs.

This needs no other Demonstration, than from the Present Disturbance his Affairs have receiv’d from the smallest handful of these People, in the Mountains of Languedoc. These Camisars, who, according to the largest Accounts I have met with, which I think deserve Credit, never amounted to above 900 Families, have occasioned the Attendance of a Mareshal of France, 18 Battalions of Foot, and 2 Regiments of Dragoons, for near 2 Years. Continue reading Tuesday, April 11. 1704.