A memento treating of the rise, progress, and remedies of seditions with some historical reflections upon the series of our late troubles / by Roger L'Estrange.

CAP. I. THE Matter and Causes OF SEDITIONS.

THE Matter of Seditions (according to Sir Francis Bacon;* 1.1 whose words and Authority I shall often make use of in this little Treatise) is of two kinds; much Poverty and much Dis∣contentment.

The Causes and Motives of Seditions he reckons to be these: Innovation in Religion; Taxes;* 1.2 Alteration of Laws and Customs; Breaking of Priviledges; General Oppression; Advancement of unworthy Persons; Strangers; Dearths; Dis∣banded Souldiers; Factions grown desperate. And whatsoever in offending People, joyneth and knitteth them in a Common Cause.

These Inconveniences, either seasonably discover'd, coloura∣bly pretended, or secretly promoted, are sufficient to the foun∣dation of a Civil War. In which Negative and dividing Po∣liticks, none better understood themselves than the Contri∣vers of our late Troubles: not only improving and foment∣ing Discontentments where they found them, and creating violent Iealousies, where there was but any place to imagine them; but they themselves were the greatest Gainers, even by those Grievances against which they complained: Reap∣ing a double Benefit, first, from the Occasion of the Difference, and then from the Issue of it.

When a seditious Humour is once mov'd, the best Remedy is to cut off the Spring that feeds it:* 1.3 by pleasing all sorts of People, so far as possible, and by disobliging none, but upon Necessity. Which publick tenderness must be so managed, that the Majesty of the Prince be not lost in the Goodness of the Person: for nothing can be more Dangerous to a Monarch, than so to over-court the Love of his People, as to lose their Respect, or to suffer them to impute that to his Easiness which ought to be ascrib'd purely to his Generosity.

* 1.4Offences of that daring and unthankful quality, can scarce be pardon'd, without some hazard to the Authority that re∣mits them: Secret Contempts being much more fatal to Kings, than publick and audacious Malice; the latter commonly spending it self in a particular and fruitless Malignity toward the Person (and that with Terrour too, as being secur'd un∣der a thousand Guards of Majesty and Power) whereas the Other privily taints the whole Mass of the People, with a Mutinous Leaven, giving Boldness to contrive, Courage to exe∣cute; and, if the Plot miscarries, there's the Hope of Mercy to ballance the peril of the Vndertaking. For a Conclusion of this Point, He that but thinks Irreverently of his Prince, De∣poses him.

Concerning the Materials of Sedition; viz. Poverty and Discontentment: it would be endless to dissolve these General H••o••s into Particular Rules: the best Advise in this Case must be General too; that is, to endeavour to remove whatever Causes them, referring the Particulars to Counsel and Oc∣casion.

'Tis very well observ'd by the Lord St. Albans, touching Poverty:* 1.5 [So many overthrown Estates, so many Votes for

Troubles; and if this Poverty and broken Estate in the better sort, be joyn'd with a Want and Necessity in the mean people, the Dan∣ger is Great and Imminent:] Which to prevent, [Above all things (says the same Author) good Policy is to be used, that the Treasure and Moneys in a State be not gathered into few hands.; for otherwise a State may have a great Stock, and yet starve: And Money is like Muck, not good except it be spread.] And again,* 1.6 [A numerous Nobility causeth Poverty and Incon∣venience in a State, for it is a Surcharge of Expence.

As to the Seeds of Discontentments, they are as various as the Humours they encounter; dependent many times upon Opinion, and inconsiderable in themselves, however Notorious in their Effects.

Touching the Discontentments themselves, it is the Advice of the Lord Verulam,* 1.7 [That no Prince measure the Danger of them by this; Whether they be Iust or Vnjust? for that were to imagine people to be too reasonable. Nor yet by this, whether the Griefs whereupon they rise, be in Fact, great or small; for they are the most dangerous, where the Fear is greater than the Feeling.

Such were those furious and implacable Iealousies, that started the late War, which doubtless may more properly be accounted among the Dotages of a Disease, or the Illusions of a dark Melancholy; than the deliberate Operations of a sober Reason.

Proceed we now from the Matter and more remote Causes of Seditions, to the Approaches and Prognosticks of them.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Matter o•• Sedition.
• * 1.2

  The Causes of it.
• * 1.3

  The Remedy.
• * 1.4

  Contempt more fatal to Kings than hatred.
• * 1.5

  Poverty breeds Sedi∣••on.
• * 1.6

  A numerous Nobility cau∣seth poverty.
• * 1.7

  Fears and Jea∣lousies.