Category: Politics

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.

Saturday, September 23. 1704.

Numb. 58.
[245]

THE State of the Case between Emperor and the Hungarians, was by the last Review, brought to this; That the Germans, tho’ they were brought in to Assist them against the Turks, have Opprest them so much, and Treated them so Barbarously, that they now desire rather to submit to the Turk than to the German; and that they ought to have their Liberty.

I confess ’tis pity they that would be Slaves, should not be Gratifi’d with the Advantage of that Happy Condition; especially when they are brought so low, as to chose Turkish Slavery, which of all sorts of Bondage, was ever thought the worst.

But there are a great many Cases, wherein People have not a Right to dispose of themselves; and most of those particulars concur here.

As first; When a Nation that is a Barrier to another, will give it self over the Enemy, it has always been thought justifiable in the other Nation to seize on it by force, to prevent the Neighbourhood of a too powerful Nation: This has been the Case of Flanders, as to England and Holland, who have thought themselves oblig’d on all occasions, to prevent the Flemings falling into the hands of the French. Continue reading Saturday, September 23. 1704.

Saturday, September 9. 1704.

Numb. 54.
[229]

I Cannot but earnestly desire those Gentlemen, who are so eager to have the Hungarians Assisted, and have them run down and ruin the Emperor, to look in and view the General Reasons of this Great and Desperate War now depending in Europe, and see, either we are upon a right Bottom, or a wrong.

If the Hungarians are to be assisted to pull down the Emperor, then the French are fighting to Establish the Protestant Religion; for the French are aiming directly at the Imperial Crown, and are willing the Hungarians should help to pull it down – What tho’ they drive at the same thing for different Reasons, yet by which way soever the Emperor falls, what hands soever pull him down, ’tis French Power succeeds him: If the Hungarians depose the Imperial Power, they Crown the French Empire the same Moment. If then the Hungarians by Fighting support, assist and encrease the French Grandeur; shall we assist them because they are Protestants? God forbid.

The business of the Confederates is to bring the Emperor to Grant the reasonable just Demands of the Hungarians, and to bring them to be content with what is Just, and no more; if they are puft up with their Prosperity, and cannot exercise Moderation enough in their Advantages, to make Terms, and secure the Liberties they want, and ’tis reasonable they should have Granted, they are equally our Enemies with the French, and we must assist the Emperor to reduce them; they are Tools of Universal Monarchy, Engines of Popery, and the blind Agents to the Destruction of all their Protestant Brethren in Europe.

I cannot think I have in this Trespass’d upon a True Principle of Protestant Zeal; I cannot be willing to have the Protestant Religion destroyed in Hungary; but if the Protestants in Hungary will be Mad Men, if they will make the Protestant Religion in Hungary Clash with the Protestant Religion in all the rest of Europe, we must prefer the Major Interest to the Minor. If a Protestant will joyn with a Papist to destroy me, he is a Papist to me, and equally my Enemy, let his Principles be what they will. Continue reading Saturday, September 9. 1704.

Tuesday, August 29. 1704.

Numb. 51.
[217]

I Hinted in the last Review the Scandal rais’d on this Undertaking, viz. That it does not please every body; I hope some of the Gentlemen Objectors will take that Note for an Answer, as particularly the Gentleman who is so Angry at my Opinion, concerning the Consequences of the late Victory; and so much for Objectors.

’Tis my Satisfaction that they cannot, nor indeed have they attempted to Answer the Reasons brought on this Head; when they can, I shall most readily alter my Opinion.

I am of Opinion I have sin’d against Novelty in the Article of Sweden, and as most People have this Vice in their Judgments, to be always cloy’d with a long Story, I might have dwelt upon the Swedish Affair too long: The Fancy is the Weather-cock of the Soul, and ’tis always Vereing with the Gusts of Novelty; Men are eternally gapeing after Variety, and no Story can be so well told, as to please them, if it be too long in telling.

And yet I cannot satisfy my self to close with this humour of the Town, and quit a Subject, before I have gone thro’ it, to please the Luxuriance of the World’s imagination; such as think me dull, only because I am long, are like those that don’t approve of the Sermon, because they don’t love the Parson. Continue reading Tuesday, August 29. 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.

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. Continue reading Saturday, July 1. 1704.

Tuesday, June 27. 1704.

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. Continue reading Tuesday, June 27. 1704.

Saturday, June 24. 1704.

Numb. 32.
[141]

THE French Power in America was the Subject of our last; and as this could not be maintain’d without their extraordinary Conduct, as well as Success at Sea, there needs no other Satyr upon the rest of the World.

I promis’d in this Article to take Notice of their Sea Affairs; but since Experience has confirm’d what has already been said upon that Point, I leave those Gentlemen to Reflect on themselves and their Judgment now, who have Censur’d what I have already said on that Head.

We are told by the News-Papers, that Sir G—R— is in the Streights, with 45 Sail of English and Dutch Men of War, and yet we are told, that Count de Tholouse, with 29 ventured to follow into the Mediterranean; Wiser Heads than mine, say Sir G— was strong enough to fight him, and most Men say, 45 is more than 29; and yet the Paris Gazette insultingly tells us, That the Count de Tholouse was arriv’d safe at Thoulon, after having in vain, endeavour’d to fight the Confederate Fleet.

’Tis true, most People take this for a French Bluster, and so do I; But what Country bluster must this pass for, that 29 Men of War should venture into the Streights, when 45 of the Enemy were just gone before them? and all Men that know that part of the World, must know there is no Port to have secur’d himself from the Confederates, if they had been too strong for him, and it was not probable he could reach Thoulon, before Sir G—, with his Confederate Fleet, should be upon him. Continue reading Saturday, June 24. 1704.

Saturday, April 8. 1704.

Numb. 10.
[53]

THE General Head I am upon, is the wonderful Benefit of Arbitrary Power; and methinks I need not make an Apology here, and tell the Reader again, that I do not mean the Benefit to the Subject; but that I distinguish between the Greatness of the Monarch as a King, and the Greatness of a Nation as a People: But such is the Iniquity of the Times, that ’tis Dangerous to walk on the Brink of a tender Point.

I dare not say, that all our good Friends who are so very full of the Word Arbitrary Government, understand the Meaning of it; and possibly their want of rightly Understanding it, may have been the Reason of their Mistaking the just Power of a lawful Prince, for the Real Bug-bear we speak of; and the People who are of this sort, generally are for allowing their Governours little or no Power at all, and perhaps in the end, would be for no Governours at all.

I am far from giving Arbitrary Power a Character to recommend it to the Subject: But without doubt, That Prince, whose Designs center in his own Projects, enlarging his Dominions, and in the Conquest of his Neighbours; there is nothing can contribute more to this end, than a Despotick Arbitrary Dominion over his Subjects, whereby he obliges them, without any Reserve, to Comply with whatever he demands; to give what he asks; to go where he sends; and to do what he directs.

When a Prince must court his Subjects to give him leave to raise an Army, and when that’s done, tell him when he must disband them; That if he wants Money, must Assemble the States of his Country, and not only give them good words to get it, and tell them what ’tis for, but give them an Account how it is expended, before he calls for more. The Subjects in such a Government are certainly Happy, in having their Properties and Privileges secur’d; but if I were of his Privy-Council, I would advise such a Prince to content himself within the Compass of his own Government, and never think of Invading his Neighbours, or Increasing his Dominions: For Subjects, who Stipulate with their Princes, and make Conditions of Government, who Claim to be Govern’d by Laws, and make those Laws themselves; who need not pay their Money, but when they see Cause, and may refuse to pay it when demanded, without their Consent; such Subjects will never Empty their Purses upon Foreign Wars, for enlarging the Glory of their Sovereign. If [54] such People are free to Fight, or Pay, it is always for the Defence and Security of their own, not for the Conquests and Glories of their Prince. Continue reading Saturday, April 8. 1704.

Tuesday, April 4. 1704.

Numb. 9.
[49]

I Am content to hear some Reflections on this Paper, on Account of the earnest Care I have taken to represent the French Greatness in its proper Dimensions, and set our Enemies in a true Light, it being equally Injurious to us, as a People, to believe them either too big, or too little.

It no way disturbs me, to hear my self call’d a Jacobite, a Frenchman, and sometimes a Papist; one that exposes the Nakedness of the Confederacy; betrays the Weakness of our Friends, and the like.

But ’tis a singular satisfaction to me, That pursuant to the first Design, I can yet hear no body contradict it, as to Truth of Fact, or charge me with Falshood and Partiality.

This, together with the usefulness of my Design satisfies me also, with respect to the meanness of the manner, and the Work of Writing a Peny Paper, which as it is only writing a History sheet by sheet, and letting the World see it as I go on, does no way lessen the real Value of the Design, however low such a step may seem to be. Continue reading Tuesday, April 4. 1704.