This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info@umich.edu for further information or permissions.
Brussels, Mar. 25. S. N. 1668.
SIR,
BY Monsieur Van Beu¦ninghen's dispatches of the 21st. you will have known the Ans∣wer of the French Court upon the Truce we de∣sired; which in my o∣pinion seems to make the War inevitable; and that all the Ap∣pearances France has made of desiring a Peace, are levelled at
no other Mark but to slacken the Resolutions of the Allies from as∣sisting Flanders; or at least, to gain six weeks time to enlarge their Conquests, before the Spaniards can either receive the Recruits they expected, or the Assistance of their Neighbours for defend∣ing their most conside∣rable Places. For, as to what the French pro∣pose, of restoring all they shall conquer be∣tween the end of this Month and the 15th. of May, it seems to me to be too gross, and to discover a contempt of our Wit as well as of our Treaty: For, if all our Offices and Of∣fers to make Spain rati∣fie what the Marquis has accepted, are not sufficient to with-hold them six weeks, from what they pretend to restore, how will they be capable of restoring for ever what they have already taken. I can∣not
see how their man∣ner of accusing and making Exceptions to the absolute Powers of a Minister of Spain; and all this founded upon particular Intelli∣gence they pretend to have from the Court at Madrid; nor the for∣mal Objections they make against the Dele∣gation of the Baron de Bargeyck, when at the same time they send Monsieur Colbert to Aix la Chapelle: How, I say, all this can admit bet∣ter Interpretation in what regards their In∣tentions for the Peace: For, in whatever comes from these Ministers at Paris, I think one may discover an irregular Ambition under a great deal of Affectation and Disguise, whereof God only knows the Issue.
For my self, I will tell you in confidence and with my usual Freedom, my Opinion in all this I think then in the first place; that
by all our Negotiations tho' never so well ma∣naged; by all our Of∣fices and Caresses, we shall never obtain a Peace from France, while they have any Appearances of pursu∣ing their Interest or their Glory in carrying on the War: And, that the only way of disposing them to a Peace, is to order it so, as they may only find their Interests in it; which we can no o∣therwise do but by shewing them the Strength of our Forces, and the Firmness of our Resolutions before the War begins; and since we only draw a War on our selves by desiring a Peace, to en∣deavour on the contra∣ry to draw on the Peace by making all the Appearances of de∣siring a War.
Therefore I think, that what remains to be done, is, to advance as much as possible, our
Preparations and For∣ces by Sea and Land; and let the Most Chri∣stian King know by our Ministers, that since His Majesty still declares he is content with the Alternative al∣ready accepted by the Marquis of Castel-Rodri∣go, and that all the Difficulty His Majesty finds, is only upon the Powers of the said Marquis, and the Sin∣cerity of Intentions in the Court of Spain; We therefore desire His Majesty to give us so much time by a Sus∣pension of Arms, as may be sufficient to send a Dispatch to Ma∣drid, and return to Pa∣ris with a full and plain Answer from the King of Spain upon the Al∣ternative. (And truly I think, a Months time will be sufficient after the Dispatches of our Expresses from Paris.) But in the mean time, to add, that if His Ma∣jesty refuses us a De∣mand
so necessary to the Peace of Christen∣dom, and will still car∣ry on his Arms with∣out consideration of the Offers of Spain, or Of∣fices of the Allies; that upon the first Advances he shall make to attack the rest of Flanders, we will march with our Forces to defend it, and endeavour further by all ways to give him a Diversion both by Sea and Land.
This I think is all that is left us to do up∣on the present State of Affairs, for obtaining the Peace: And as to the inward Dispositi∣ons of the Spaniards, I will tell you, that there is not one of them here, of the least Con∣sideration, who does not desire it, and think it wholly for the pre∣sent Interest of Spain: And the Marquis as∣sures me in confidence, that he has not only the Power exhibited, but that the King his
Master has given him others, by which he leaves him Absolute Arbiter of the Con∣ditions of the Peace, according as Conjun∣ctures shall serve to make him accept ei∣ther an equal or a disadvantageous one. And all the Delays of Don John seem only to proceed from their hopes of a Peace up∣on the Project of our Treaty.
In the mean time, I am glad the States have sent Monsieur van Beverning to be at Aix with the Ministers of both Crowns; I doubt not but the King my Master will do the same, when he shall have received Advice of their Departure: For Forms must be observed as well as Substance: Though for my share, I can∣not imagine to what Effect this Congress will meet; France ha∣ving declared it self
already upon the In∣validity of the Dele∣gation in particular, as well as of the Powers in general. And truly I think, all Pretence of ne∣gotiating without a Cessation of Arms, seems a meer Jest, in an Affair where two Months Progress in the War may so near end the Dispute upon which they pretend to treat.
I am, Sir,
Your, &c.