Reflections upon Two Pamphlets Lately Published.
by Anonymous.
I Was very glad when I heard that one Monsieur _de Cros_ had published an Answer to a late Book, Entituled, _Memoirs of what pass'd in _Christendom_, &c._ And could not but expect some considerable Discoveries in those Affairs and Intriegues, from a person who thought himself a Match for Sir _W. T._ Besides, I hoped it might have had this good Effect, to move that Author in his own defence to oblige us once more with his Pen. This was sufficient to make me buy this Pamphlet greedily, as I do most others; which tho very often they entertain one ill enough, yet serve in general for some amusement amidst the Noise and Hurry of a dirty Town.
But when I had read it over, I soon found my self deceived in the first; and have now lost all hopes of the other, since I have waited above two months in that Expectation, whereas two days were sufficient, had that Author thought fit to take any notice of such a Trifle, which makes me now despair of it; and as I perceiv'd the Town never looked for any such thing; so all I meet with, either in Coffee-houses, or Ordinary Conversation, have such despicable Thoughts of this Letter, that I now begin to find I never had any reason to expect it at all. For in truth, the whole Letter seems to me only design'd to _Banter_ Fools or Children, and to be written by a man who had lost all Respect to the Publick, whom he thinks fit to entertain with such wretched stuff, which certainly he could not pretend should either please or instruct any Reader, who had not as much malice, and as little Wit as himself. For besides Railing and Foul Language, his whole Letter from the beginning to the end is an errant Sham, and has nothing in it. I was therefore in vain to imagine Sir _W. T._ would descend so much below himself, to take any notice of so fulsome a Libel; and I do not believe either _de Cros_, or the kind Writer of the _Advertisement_ after the Letter, did ever expect it.
For first, If Sir _W. T._ be such a Philosopher, as he seems to be by his _Essay upon the Gardens of _Epicurus__, as well as several others; he must infinitely contradict the Ideas those Writings have given of him, if so sordid and insipid a Trifle as this Letter of _de Cros_ could have any power to provoke him, tho it were but to scorn it.
Besides, if he be so proud a Person, as _De Cros_ is pleased to call him; certainly, while he remembers his own Quality, and the great Employments he has passed through with so much Honour to himself, and such important Services for his Prince and Country, such thoughts will never allow him to enter the Lists with one, who to say no more, has owned himself in his Letter to be _Un Moin Defroque_, which none who understand the least of the _French_ Tongue, need be told, is the lowest and most profligate Character that can be given a Man. I suppose the reason of it is, because he who has once broke his Vow to God, there are People enough apt to believe he will never regard any he makes to them.
A third Reason is, Because his Letter is indeed unanswerable; and Prosecution would be as little necessary to him, as to one that pleads guilty at the Bar; for he owns over and over, every Line of the Charge that he pretends is laid against him; says not one word, either to defend or extenuate it; does not contradict the least point in the Memoirs he pretends to Answer; nor lays one ill Action to Sir _W. T_'s Honour. So that there remains but one way to Answer this Letter with any Rule or Justice, and that is, to gather all the cleanly Language one can pick up at _Billingsgate_, and bring it in its natural Reeking to the Press, and so make up a short, but sweet Pamphlet, set out with a Bead-roll of such Pearls, as are always to be found among the Oyster-women.
A fourth Reason is, Because that Book which goes by the Name of Sir _W. T_'s _Memoirs_, as one sees by the Publishers Preface, has been printed wholly without his Knowledg or Consent: For in the very first lines he plainly intimates he had his Copy from no Man then alive: And a known Writer since, who pretends to have inquired into that matter, assures us, the Publisher had it lying by him several years before it was published; nor can I find by my own best Inquiries, that Sir _W. T._ has ever own'd it. And tho I may believe, like others, that he must have writ them, by that excellent Stile, that strength and clearness of Expression, as well as by that Spirit and Genius which so brightly shines through the whole, and is peculiar to that Author above others of his Age; and besides, because I suppose no Man else was capable of knowing or discovering so much of these Transactions; yet since they have stollen into Publick against his will and his privity, it is not to be imagined he should defend a thing he does not reckon as his own; and therefore if _de Cros_, or the honest _Translator_, had found themselves injured, their resentments had been more justly levelled at the Publisher, than the supposed Author.
By all these Reasons, 'tis easy to believe, that a Person of Sir _W. T_'s Character and Honour, and whose Reputation is so firmly established in the World, will never fall so low to oppose himself against the Scurrilous Reproaches of so foul-mouth'd a Railer; 'twould be like a set Duel between a strong Man well-arm'd, and a poor wretched Cripple. The Quarrel therefore will be more properly turn'd over to the rest of Mankind; for tho the venom of _this_ be too weak to reach where it aim'd; yet all those who have any regard for Truth or Justice, for Learning or Virtue, or even for good Manners and common Civility, must think themselves concern'd in a Quarrel, where they find so notorious a breach of them all.
'Tis fit therefore so ignominious a Libeller should be exposed in his proper Colours, of an infamous, slandring, and unprovok't Railer; which tho his own Letter has plentifully done, yet 'twill be very proper to point to several places in it, where it is most remarkable.
For my own part, I will confess, I have been a great Reader of all Sir _W. T_'s Writings, and perhaps may have doated on some of them, especially, _That Immortal Essay on Heroick Virtue_, as one Writer since has deservedly called it; and that other upon _Poetry_, and even on this of the _Memoirs_. And finding Common Fame, wherever I had met it, agrees so well with the Picture these Pieces had given me of him, I will own to have had a very great Honour for the Author, as well as for his Books, and could not but esteem both a great deal the more for this Letter of _de Cros_, when I found that the triple-corded Malice of the _Writer_, the _Translator_, and the _Advertiser_, had not given one lash either to the Honour of the Person, or the truth of his Books. And all this put together, has in very truth given me so much Spight and Indignation, that I could not refrain entring on the _Pamphletiers_ Trade, which I never did before, nor ever thought I should have done at all: And but for this Provocation, could have been very well satisfied to have lived on without the itch of seeing how I look in Print; so that I may truly say for this, as the Poet does for his Verses,
_----Facit Indignatio Versus._
Before I enter upon observing what _de Cros_ says concerning Sir _W. T._ which takes up the greatest part of his Letter, and leaves him either no Room, or no Memory for the _Memoirs_ he pretends to Answer; I shall first examine what he speaks of himself, and in his own defence, against what he takes himself to be charged with.
He begins, p. 10. _There arrived_ (says he, quoting the _Memoirs_) _at that time from _England_, one whose Name was _de Cros__. Upon this he falls immediately into a Scurrilous Chafe. Now, one would wonder what should make the Man so offended to be called by his own Name, or what would have become of Sir _W. T._ if he had call'd him out of his Name, which is indeed commonly thought an injury, but not the other, as ever I heard of before; yet he reckons it a terrible one to himself and his Family, which he tells us is _a good one_; I know not whether he means the _de Cros_'s, or the _Monks_. The first I must confess, I never heard of in _France_, but the other is indeed a great one abroad, and a good one at home. But whatever he would have us think of the Goodness of his Family, I will never believe, by what little understanding I have of Heraldry, that any _Gentleman_ would either write such a Letter, or _Translate_ it, tho it were only out of the common Respect that is due to the Memory of a Great King, whose Person Sir _W. T._ has so often represented, and in so high a Character.
But to proceed; _That he was formerly a _French_ Monk_ (as the Memoirs call him), he confesses, and owns besides (tho with a great deal of ill-will) that _He changed his Frock for a Petticoat_: For, tho he denies it positively, _p. 11._ yet five Lines after, he has these words; _There was too great advantage to throw off my Frock for the Petticoat I have taken, not to do it; it is a Petticoat of a _Scotch_ Stuff_, &c. I am glad it is of one so good as he mentions, and wish it were large enough to cover all his Shame: But whatever he says in the same Page, too malicious to be taken notice of here, of _Princesses, who have quitted the Veil for the Breeches_ (tho, in that it self, I believe he is mistaken) yet all this will never serve to wipe off the Ignominy of _Un Moin Defroque_: Upon which I shall only add, That the Marriage of a Monk, when stripp'd of his Frock, is not thought likely to mend the matter: And I believe men of all Religions will agree in the Opinion, That if a Monk leaves his Frock, he ought to do it for a _Gown_, rather than for a _Petticoat_; and if he leaves the Orders of one Church, should in decency continue in the Orders of that Church to which he professes himself converted.
As to his being a _Swedish Agent_, tho he is very angry the _Memoirs_ should call him so; one cannot well discover by his Letter, whether he has a mind to grant it or no; however, he confesses, p. 13, 14. That _being Envoy from the Duke of _Holstein-Gottorp_, the Interests of his Master being inseperable from those of_ Sueden, _he found himself engaged to be very much concerned in the Interests of that Crown; and that Monsieur _Van Benninguen_ believed, He was intrusted with some Affairs from thence_. Which amounts to the very same with what the _Memoirs_ say, p. 335. That _he_ (de Cros) _had a Commission from the Court of _Sueden_ (or Credence at least) for a certain petty Agency in _England__. This he says, _Is very Dirty_. Alas for the cleanly Gentleman! one would think he was afraid of fouling his Fingers, but he had a great deal more need have taken care of his mouth. By the way, I cannot but admire at the insufferable Impudence of the _English Printer_ or Translator, who hath in the Title Page named this man, _An Ambassador at the Treaty of _Nimeguen__; since in the several Accounts I have seen printed of that Treaty, there is not the least mention of such a Name any other way than in those _Memoirs_ he pretends to Answer. And 'tis doubtless very agreeable to think, that a man who gives himself so _good_ a Character in his own Letter, should make so great a one in so August an Assembly as that is recorded to have been: And he himself in his whole Letter, arrogates no other besides that of Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of _Holstein-Gottorp_ into _England_, who was a Prince at that time wholly dispossess'd of His Dominions.
Another Passage in the Memoirs which he takes sadly to heart, is in the same _Pag. 335._ as follows: _At _London_ he had devoted himself wholly to Monsieur _Barillon_, the _French_ Ambassador, though pretending to pursue the Interests of _Sweden__: Against which he thus defends himself. First, Letter, _pag. 14_. He absolutely denies it; and says in the next, _He fell out with Monsieur _Barillon_ for three Months, because he diverted the King of _England_ from taking into his consideration the Interests of _Sweden__. And _pag. 16_. He says further; _That Monsieur _Barillon_ put all in practice to sift him to the bottom_ (concerning the _Swedish_ Affairs) _nevertheless all the Offers of this Ambassador proved ineffectual, and wrought nothing upon this man_ (meaning himself) _who if man would give credit to Sir _W. T._ was entirely devoted to Monsieur _Barillon_, and yet Monsieur _Barillon_ found him not to be corrupted or bribed_. All this would be an Account good enough of his Innocence in that point, if it had not the misfortune to be so ill plac'd. 'Tis indeed a good way back to the fifth Page of his Letter: And therefore what he says there, one may by the help of a little Charity, impute to the shortness of his Memory. These are his Words: _I have had the happiness during some years, to partake in the confidence of a Minister of State_, &c. And a little after; _Sir _W.
T._ may well imagine that I did not ill improve this able Minister's Confidence, when he tells us, that I had wholly devoted my self to him_.
But then how comes it, that in the same _15th_ page, where he twice endeavours to defend himself against this Imputation, he should make such a Blunder as to say, _But yet I must confess, that at such time as he (Monsieur _Barillon_) stickled for my Master's Interest, and that of _Sweden_, I was _entirely devoted_ to him_, &c.? After this; let the Reader judge, whether _de Cros_ does not confess at least as much, if not more in this Point, than the Memoirs charge him with: And it is to be observed from the same Book, that at the very time _de Cros_ speaks of, _France_ had taken into its Protection the Interests of _Sweden_, which it seem'd for some Months before to have very little regarded.
But nothing touches him so nearly as the following Passage in the same _335th_ page of the Memoirs: _This man brought me a Pacquet from Court, commanding me to go immediately away to _Nimeguen__. Upon which, says he, _Pag. 16._ _Sir _W. T._ has a mind to make men believe that I was only sent into _Holland_ to carry him a Dispatch from the Court_. This passage has so fiercely gall'd him, that he is set a railing for six pages together; and the affront is, that he should be taken for an ordinary Courier, or Messenger. Had a dozen Wasps setled on his Tongue, they could not have swell'd or infus'd more Poison in it; he frets and foams at the mouth, and spatters so much Dirt on all sides, that it is not safe following him. In short, he takes it so heinously to be reckoned a Common Courier, that one could not have netled him more, had one call'd him a Post, or a Post-horse. I cannot imagine why any such words in the _Memoirs_, should put a man into so much passion: And for my part, both in this and all the rest, I see but one reason why he is angry; and that is, _Because he is angry_. However, against this grievous Imputation, he defends himself by this strong Argument; That _he was not sent over on purpose to deliver the Dispatch to Sir _W. T._ but for something of greater importance, which he knows himself, and will not tell any body_. Wherein I think he acts very discreetly; and I do not doubt, but the best way to give any Reputation to his mighty Secrets, is to hinder them from taking Air: Tho had he done us the favour to discover but one of all those he boasts so much of, it would perhaps have been the most effectual way to raise our expectation of the rest. He would indeed make us believe, that in five Hours time he stay'd at the _Hague_, he had made some mighty Turn of State by his Negotiations there; which if there be any truth in it, we will grant him to have been not only an _Agent_, but a _Conjurer_; and from the strange Effect of his Conduct in that strange _Adventure of five hours_, we may hope one day to see a _Tragedy of that Name_, as there has been a _Comedy_ already. But till he thinks fit to make more important Discoveries, he will pardon our suspense in that modest Opinion he has of himself, That doubtless he should publish more just and solid _Memoirs_ than Sir _W. T._ if he would set about it. But I observe he desires _My Lord to take notice, that Sir _W. T._ confesses it was _De Cros_ procured this Dispatch_. I find when men are very angry, that Truth is the least thing they regard: For this is more than ever I could observe after reading those _Memoirs_ with more care and application than I am sure his good humour would ever permit him; and in _pag. 336._ find these Words: _How this Dispatch by _De Cros_ was gain'd, or by whom, I will not pretend to determine_. Which _De Cros_ has very politickly thus altered, _Letter, pag. 18._ _I will not pretend to determine by what means, and how _De Cros_ obtained this Dispatch_. But _pag. 19._ he forgets himself again, and says. _As for me, tho I had the dispatch given me, yet he (Sir _W. T._) does not accuse me openly in this place of bearing any other part in this affair, than only as a Messenger intrusted with the Conveyance_. But I suppose he never looked farther than his malice would give him leave, which is usually very short-sighted.
But, after all, 'tis not easily thought why he should lay it so much to heart to be called a Courier, when the whole account he gives of his great Negotiations (besides his being Envoy of the _Duke_ of _Holstein-Gottorp_) is, that he _was sent by _King Charles_ the Second into _Sweden_ and _Denmark_, to hasten the Passports for the Congress at _Nimeguen__: Which is all he tells us of his great Employments, and must be thought to have brought him into that intimacy and confidence he pretends with that great King, and for which he is pleased to make his Majesty such grateful Returns, and to form such a Character of him as he does in his Letter.
For in the first place he tells us, _p. 5._ That _Mons. _Barillon_ was the _Primum Mobile_ of that King's conduct, which surprized all the World_. Which is to affirm more of him than any of his discontented Subjects, the pretended Patriots of that Age. For it is to assert openly and positively what they only pretended to suspect.
Again, Soon after the King had made the Peace with _Holland_, _De Cros_ brings his Majesty in, _p. 23._ speaking to him in these Words: _Tell the King my Brother_ (meaning the _French_ King) _that it is much against my mind, that I have made peace with these _Coquins_ the _Hollanders__. And then a little before the conclusion of the Peace at _Nimeguen_, he delivers the King speaking thus to Mons. _Shrenburn_ concerning the _Hollanders_; _In a little time Monsieur, I will bring these _Coquins_ to Reason_. And in the same page he makes that Prince use the same Name to two great Ministers, Mons. _Barillon_, and Mons.
_De Avaux_. The former whereof he pretends to have been the first Mover of all His Majesty's Councils. All which, if they be not absolute Untruths, as from his plentiful Gift that way, I am very much inclined to believe, yet are so far from shewing the _profound Respect_ the Writer pretends to, for the Memory of that Prince, that being put together, they make up this malicious Character; That a King of _England_ was guided in his Conduct by a _French_ Embassador; That he made and observed his Treaties with ill-meaning, or with ill-intentions; and that he treated his chiefest Confident (whom he makes to be Mons.
_Barillon_) and another Embassador, with the greatest scorn and contempt.
Besides, he brings this noble Prince upon the Stage, acting a mean piece of Dissimulation to cover his Confidence with so worthy a Person as Mons. _de Cros_; 'tis concerning his Dispatch so often mentioned into _Holland_; for being forc't to confess, that the King was angry with him at his return from thence; He plaisters it up with saying, p. 25. _If the late King of _England_ did not approve of my Conduct in the Affairs of _Nimeguen_, which in effect he declared in publick not to be pleased with, in which he plaid his part to admiration_, &c.
But since we have seen the Character he gives of him as a King, let us observe how he Treats His Majesty as a _Mediator_, and how he Represents him balancing the Affairs of _Christendom_ then in his hands. First, _de Cros_ tells us, This Dispatch of his _was concerted with Monsieur _Barillon__: For tho he says, That that Ambassadour had no hand in the beginning of it, yet he owns him in the same place to _have part of it when it was concluding_; and that _Monsieur _de Ruvigny_ was dispatcht by the King with an Account of it to the _French Court_ the very same day that _de Cros_ was sent away for _Nimeguen__. And _p. 25._ He tells us further, That _Prince _Rupert_ askt him upon his Return, with a stern Countenance, If the Peace was concluded? and he answering in the Affirmative, the Prince cried out, O Dissimulation!_ And _p. 28._ he tells us, That the _Prince of _Orange (the Kings Nephew)_ writ thundring Letters against him; and all the Ministers of the Confederates called for Vengeance_, &c. Yet after all these Marks of something so very injurious to the _Allies_, and confidence to _France_, _The King _(says he, in the page last mentioned)_ laughs in his Sleeve at the Surprize, at the Sorrow, and Complaints of the Confederates_. Which is to give us just such a Character of a _Mediator_, as he did before of a _King_.
I leave it to all mens Judgment, whether more villanous Slanders could have been broached abroad by the worst of this Prince's Enemies; and whether it be not a Scandal to our Country, that they should be translated and published in _English_. But since Monsieur _de Cros_ is so bold with the Sacred Memory of a Great King, for which he is yet so Impudent, as to profess _a most profound Respect_; What can a _Subject_ expect, for whom he owns such a virulent Malice, and to whom he threatens such open Revenge.
The same vein of truth and sincerity shines through the whole Letter, and the Author's Ingenuity is at the old pitch in what he pretends to rake out of the _Memoirs_ concerning several Persons in great Employments; as the D. of _Lauderdale_, the present E. of _Rochester_, Sir _Joseph Williamson_, Sir _Lionel Jenkins_, and Mons. _Beverning_.
This _Conjurer_, in all he says of them, seems resolved to raise up the Spirits of the Dead, to joyn with those of the Living in the Quarrel with these _Memoirs_; and by such distorted Consequences, draws Characters of them, whereof there is no Apparition, but what he himself raises: So that the Characters he gives of these Persons by such false Deductions for Sir _W. T_'s, may justly be said to be his own.
But from all I have observed in this Letter, I have wonder'd at nothing so much, as that impudent Vanity in the Writer, who endeavours to make himself and the World believe, that these _Memoirs_ were intended chiefly against him, whose very name is hardly twice mentioned after these two Pages in the whole Book, which does not pretend to give Characters of Persons, but only to relate things that were done, or words that were said; And the way to have made an answer with any Justice, had been to have laid Exceptions either against the one, or the other, whereof there is not one word in all this _Answer without any Answer_. However, so ridiculous is this mans Insolence, that he begins his Letter thus, _I have been informed of the Calumnies that Sir _W. T._ hath caused to be printed against me_. And p. 7. _He set upon me first, he writes out of a Spirit of Revenge_, &c. The sensless Arrogance of which I cannot think of; but it remembers me of the Fly on the Chariot-wheel. For he would fain make it to have been a piece of Revenge against him, for having brought that Dispatch to the _Hague_; and yet he lays it much to heart, that in that Affair he should only take him for a _Messenger_. And this indeed is to make him a very reasonable person, and like a man, that when he receives a blow, grows angry with the Stone by which it is given. But by all I can observe in these _Memoirs_, I do not find any thing which bears the least resemblance of Anger or Spleen, much less of Revenge against Mons. _de Cros_; but so far from it, that in the very Passage he lays most to heart, of the Kings calling him _Rogue_, the _Memoirs_ mention particularly, that His Majesty said it _pleasantly_, which he himself cannot forbear observing in his Letter.
Having thus long been considering how far he is provok'd, and how well he defends himself; 'tis time now to see how he attacks the Person whom he fancies his capital Enemy, and how the Play begins. 'Tis then in these words, _p. 1._ _I know very well that Sir _W. T._ is of great worth, and deserves well, and that he hath been a long time imployed, and that too upon important Occasions_. This is a piece indeed very much of a piece with all the rest. Now, in the name of wonder, what can be the meaning! I wot well enough, what he would be at in all the rest of his Letter; but the Sense, the Wit, or the Design of these sweet Lines, is not easy to devise. I confess, I see a good many Plays, and I believe I have read more, but never met before, so fair a Prologue to so foul a Farce. I have read somewhere of a Monster among the Ancients, with a Virgins face, and all beside, a Serpent; which holds exact Resemblance here, unless _de Cros_ should object against it, because Serpents have stings, and his Letter has none. However, if we will not grant him a _Conjurer_, as he would fain be thought, yet we cannot in Conscience deny him to be a _Jugler_, since the first thing he presents us with, is meer _slight of hand_; For he lays down a piece of _Gold_ upon the Table, and immediately, _Presto, 'tis gone_; and all we can see, is only half a dozen Pellets of _Dirt_. In short, I am not able to reach what he means by so whimsical a beginning, and of so different a piece from every word that follows; unless that being resolved to say nothing afterwards, which any body would believe, he thought fit to entertain us at first with three Lines he is sure no body doubts.
But, to be serious. If Sir _W. T._ be _of great worth_, If _de Cros_ either believes it himself, or would have any body else to do so, why is every word that follows, so contradictory to these? If he _deserves well_, why is he used so very ill? Does _de Cros_ understand what a man of _great worth_ means? I doubt he does not, either by himself, or by such Company, as so much good Language in all the rest of his Letter, would make us believe he keeps. Can a man of _great worth_, and that _deserves well_, be _Vain_, _Proud_, _Revengeful_, _Ungrateful to his Friend_, _False to his Master_, and impertinently _Ambitious_ in his very Retreat from all Publick Affairs? This is indeed a very worthy, and a very lively Character of a Man _of worth_. But is not such stuff as this, just a sputtering out, _Quicquid in Buccam venerit?_ Like hot Porridge, that burns his Tongue; tho 'tis pretty plain, that all his heat proceeds from the overflowing of his Gall within, and from nothing without. One would think he has very well practised the old Rule of _Calumniare fortiter_; yet he has lamentably fail'd of the consequence, _Aliquid inherebit_; for all the Dirt he endeavours to fling about, loves its own Element, and sticks close to his own Fingers. I never knew so unlucky a Gamester to throw so often, and to be always out! What, not one hit! I think the devil's in the Dice; however, lets throw again, but first we'll change Dice, and if the good Morals of this Man of great worth will not pass, let's try our luck at his Naturals. Sir _W. T._ (says my Gamester) _has been often and long employ'd_; but he himself _did not know about what_; 'twas too, _upon very important occasions_, but he did _not know why_, unless, because, as _de Cros_ tells us, _The King had an Aversion for him, and never trusted him_, how often soever he imployed him. This great Ambassador, to say the truth, is a very _Bubble_, and has as little Wit in some parts of the Letter, as Honesty in the other. Good Lord, how this silly World is apt to be gull'd! What a Cheat, and what a Jilt this common Fame is! Who would have believed that the Author of the _Observations on the _Netherlands__, and of the charming _Miscellanea_, should be such a Cully, if _de Cros_ had not made the discovery? but sure he could never be Author of those Books; doubtless he either hired some body to write them for him, or else some honest Bookseller like his own, had got the Copies, and set Sir _W. T_'s name to them. _I would to God he had been so honest to set mine in the stead._ But now we have heard the Charge, pray make room for the Evidence: Sir _W. T._ is the _proudest Man_ in the World; and what are the proofs, or the Instances? Why, _de Cros_ says it, and that's Demonstration. He is ungrateful to his Friend, and why? Because _de Cros_ knows it. He is false to his Master, and the Reason's plain, _de Cros_ pretends to believe it. He is _the most revengeful of Men_, for he calls _de Cros_ by his _own Name_. He is of all men _the most Ambitious_, and _never did man desire more to have a hand in Affairs_.
This is beyond dispute, for _de Cros_ knows his thoughts, and tells us not only what he says of others, but what he thinks of himself, and with equal truth. This is the _Conjurer_ again, and with a witness he tells us further, _p. 9._ of men _whose ruin Sir _W. T._ desires at the bottom of his heart_; where it is not to be questioned, but _de Cros_ has been; and to put it beyond all doubt that he was so, he says, _p.
13._ That _Sir _W. T._ came once to render _him_ a visit at _his_ Lodging_, and that _Mons. _Olivencrants_ the _Swedish_ Ambassador, was then at _his_ House_, which gives me a scruple, that the visit might be meant to _him_, rather than to Mons. _de Cros_. However this is all the instances I find of his Acquaintance with a Person whose heart he pretends to know so well, and with whom by all the rest of his Letter, I should be apt to judge he was the least acquainted with, of any man in the World. But to close all these Generals before we come to particulars; he tells us, _p. 29._ he knows something of Sir _W. T._ upon the Subject of what passed between him and my Lord _Arlington_, _that makes his hair stand on end_. Alas, the poor Gentleman's in an Agony! Bless us all from sprights! what a puny Conjurer is this! to raise a Spirit that scares no body else, and run into a hole for fear of it himself: He has formed so terrible an Image of Sir _W. T._ in his own little working Noddle, that he knows not were he is, nor what he does, but is all in a maze. However, this I am certain, that no man alive who has read the rest of _de Cros_'s Letter, but will allow him to be one, that if he knew any thing ill of Sir _W. T._ would at least be sure not to tell it; we have his own word for it, p. 7. _My design is not at all, my Lord, to write you a Letter full of Invectives against Sir _W. T.__ And in another place, _That _(says he)_ would not be like a Gentleman_.
But yet to give him his due, and as he says, p. 7. _To let everybody see _he_ has means in _his_ hands to be revenged_; there is one point, and that alone, where he brings his Proof, lays downs his Instance, and that out of the _Memoirs_ themselves; 'tis designed undeniably to convince the World of Sir _W. T_'s Vanity, of which he could give _my Lord_ many instances, but at present contents himself with one, and 'tis a thumping one. 'Tis the following Period, which I shall quote out of the _Memoirs_, a little more faithfully than he does in his Letter, which I was so curious to observe, by thinking the word [_Clutches_] to be no part of Sir _W. T_'s stile, and found he had taken a great deal of pains, to wrest it as much as he could to his turn. It runs thus, _Mem._ p. 30. _This I suppose gave some occasion for my being again designed for this Ambassy, who was thought to have some credit with _Spain_ as well as _Holland_, from the Negotiations I had formerly run through, at the _Hague_, _Brussels_, and _Aix la Chapelle_, by which the remaining part of _Flanders_ had been saved out of the hands of _France_ in the year 1668._ Now for my own part, I must confess my self so giddy a Reader, and of so much inadvertency, that when I read that Passage, I took it for a singular piece of Modesty, since the Author gives for a Reason, why the King chose him for his second Ambassy in _Holland_, because he had been formerly employed in those Countries, and not for any Personal Merit in himself; but _de Cros_ is so great a Stranger to Modesty, that we cannot blame him for not knowing it when he meets it; and since he has no other Accusations of this kind, I must profess, I can discover nothing of Vanity in the whole _Series_ of all those Relations, nor can reckon for such, the Author's not avoiding to speak of himself any more than of other Persons (when it came in his way) who had so great and so continual a part in the whole Course of that Story.
In his other Works this Author I am sure makes little mention enough of himself; and it were to be wisht that Persons so much employ'd in publick Business, would tell all their own Parts as well others Mens, and as nakedly as he seems to do in these _Memoirs_.
But the reason _de Cros_ gives us, why he would have the World believe him in all he says against Sir _W. T._ is, Because he is first attackt, and thereupon in great Passion and Rage, which will pass for an admirable Argument, that he designs to speak nothing but truth, and for a very cunning way of being believed; tho some men perhaps may think, that whatever is said in Passion, is but just so much of _nothing to the purpose_, and that it commonly makes a man in what he says or does, not only as peevish as a Wasp, but as blind as a Beetle. But if he will believe right or wrong, why will not he believe in his turn? And why is not he contented to _Give_ as well as to _Take_? He will not allow that Sir _W. T._ might several times have been Secretary of State, when Mr.
_Montague_, and Mr. _Sydney_, who are named (in _Memoirs p._) to have been set on him by the Lord _Arlington_ at that time to persuade him to accept it, are still alive, as well as my Lord Treasurer, who is mentioned, _Mem. p. 273._ to have written to him by His Majesty's Command to come over and enter on the Secretaries Office. And _p. 385._ 'tis further added, That Sir _W. T._ received the _King's own Orders to come immediately over, and enter upon that Office, and to acquaint the Prince and States with that Resolution_; which must of course have come to him through my Lord _Sunderland_'s hand, who _Mem. p. 387._ is said to have been brought into Sir _Joseph Williamson_'s place, and his Lordship being likewise still alive, can easily tell, whether this be true or no. Therefore, why does not _de Cros_ himself, or some Friend for him (if he has any) enquire into the truth of these Passages which are told so positively, and wherein so many parties concern'd are still alive, tho most of them with other Titles. And indeed, tho it may be ill for Sir _W. T_'s private Satisfaction, that these _Memoirs_ were printed against his Consent, and during his Life, which it appears was never intended; yet nothing could defend the Truth of them so much, as that so many Persons are yet alive, who had so great a part in all those Affairs there related, who are the best and most competent Judges of the Truth; and I never heard that any of them have yet contradicted the least part.
But however, since the _Monk_ has got into the _Infallible Chair_, he must be believed, there is no help, and we must like the _Welsh-man_, _Take her own word for it_. And so let him go away with all those apposite and choice Epithets he has given of this _most worthy_ and _well-deserving_ person, without where, or when, or why, or wherefore; For I am sure there is no way of replying to them; and he that would set about it, might as well resolve to write an Answer to a Leaf in _Textor_'s Epithets.
And thus I have with much ado rid my hands of a great part of _De Cros_'s Rubbish, as far as it endeavours to bespatter Sir _W. T._ in his Morals and Intellectuals. It remains now I should observe a little what he says concerning his Fortunes, which seems to turn upon these two rusty Hinges, that make as ill a noise as all the rest; the obscurity from whence he was raised to all those great Employments, and his disgrace upon leaving them, which _De Cros_ says was immediately after his Return from _Nimeguen_.
For my own part I must confess I am neither old enough, nor have had Conversation in Courts, and with Publick Affairs, to give an account how Sir _W. T._ came into Business, or how he went out, any further than I could gather from Writings and Transactions which are publick and known to every body; or by particular enquiries from some Friends and Acquaintance of my own; and it has happened, that some of them have long known so much of that Family, as to assure me it is a very Ancient one: That Sir _W. T._ was born of a very Honourable Father, who was for many years of the Privy Council in _Ireland_ to King _Charles_ the First, and King _Charles_ the Second, and was long possessed of one of the best Offices in that Kingdom, both for Honour and Profit; as likewise in his time a Member of several Parliaments in _England_: That his two younger Brothers are known to have lived always with plentiful Fortunes, and in much esteem: So that this Gentleman alone seems to have been born under the unluckiest Planet in the world, tho Heir to his Father's Fortune, and Successor to his Office, which was so considerable; yet he only of all his Family, was _in Obscurity_, and _lay in the Dust_ (for so the _French_ Letter has it) till my Lord _Arlington_ raised him out of both; whose beams it seems were so refulgent, as to make him shine at that distance his Foreign Employments carried him to. My Friends have likewise assured me from their own remembrance and knowledge, that Sir _W. T._ shined as much in a Parliament of _Ireland_ soon after the King's Restoration, as _De Cros_ says he shined long in his Employments abroad; and this was several years before he came into any Foreign Employments. They told me, likewise that he was very easy in his Fortune, not only by what he had from his _Father_, but from his _Lady_, to whom God be thanked (and it is very happy for her Ladyship that) _De Cros_ says, he has no Quarrel. By all which, and the many Employments he since passed through, and of which in one of his Essays he says, he _never sought any_; in my weak conception I should think he was a person, that by the Circumstances of his Humour and his Fortune, needed the Court less than the Court needed him.
As to his going out from Publick Employments, which _De Cros_ tells us was upon _the King's being so ill satisfied with his Conduct and Management of Affairs abroad, particularly those at _Nimeguen__; that _he slighted him upon his return from thence, and made very little use of him_. I can give no other Account besides what I find of the Time and the manner in the _Epistle_ before the _Memoirs_; only I find, by comparing the Date of his Return from _Nimeguen_, with that of King _Charles_'s Declaration upon his dissolution of the old Council, and selecting a new one, that Sir _W. T._ was a Member of that new and select Council; and it was the Common Town-talk at that time, that this Declaration was writ by him, and that he was in his Majesty's Chief Confidence upon that surprising Resolution, which was received with such Applauses, Bonfires, and other expressions of Joy in the City. Besides all this, having had some acquaintance among _Spanish_ Merchants in Town, I came to know, that several of them about two years after, had recourse to Sir _W. T._ upon his being then declared Ambassador Extraordinary to the Crown of _Spain_, by the King at Council, whereof he himself was then a Member. All which laid together, does most abundantly verifie what _De Cros_ says of his being disgraced upon his return from _Nimeguen_. But the best account of all these Passages we must expect whenever he will think fit to publish the first and third part of the _Memoirs_, which are mentioned at the beginning and end of those the world has seen already. In the mean time, what little has happened to fall in the way of my knowledge or enquiries, may be enough to discover the impudent Forgery of this false Coyner, who pretends to counterfeit all sorts of Metals, but is so wretched a bungler, and performs it so grosly, that not one of them will pass. 'Twas for this Reason, I suppose, that the _French_ Edition of his Letter pretends to have been printed at _Cologne_, which I have long observed to be the Common Forge, or at least the Common Form of Paltry, Scurrilous Libels, printed in that Language; and which no Printer or Bookseller abroad dare set their Names to. This I cannot but mention for the Credit and Reputation of his honest Stationer at the _Mitre_, who I believe is the only Stationer in _England_ would have had the ingenuity to set the _Mitre_ on this _Monk_'s Head.
The last precious piece of his Malice I shall take notice of, is, That he grudges Sir _W. T._ even the Honour of his Retreat from Publick Affairs, by which perhaps he has been more distinguished, than by his greatest Employments: But this _De Cros_ cannot allow him: No, saye he, _p. 8._ _It was not what he would make us believe; his love for his own ease, and his indispositions of body, that made him decline his Employments_. Alas! what a sad Fate that man falls under, that dares incur the displeasure of Mons. _De Cros_? or who can tell what will become of him? He must neither live at Court, nor at his own House, in publick Business, nor out of it; In Town, nor in Country: where shall we find a place for him? I know none but the middle Region of the Air: But, _It was not his love for his own Ease_, &c. _that made him decline his Employments_. Why? whoever informed this Conjurer it was? I am sure the _Memoirs_ say no such thing, but in the last Page gives us a quite different account; where, telling his Reasons why he excused himself, at his return from _Nimeguen_, from entring upon the Secretaries Office, are these Words: _I that never had any thing so much at heart as the union of my Country, which I thought the only way to its greatness and felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the divisions of it_.
And towards the end: _After almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at some Union, or at least some allay of the Heats and Distempers between the King and his Parliament, I took the Resolution of having no more to do with Affairs of State_. Which Resolution it seems was taken about the beginning of the Year 1681. when he sent the King word he _would pass the remainder of his life like as good a private Subject as any he had_, &c. as is to be seen in the Epistle. Yet for all this Mons. _De Cros_, who knows his thoughts better than himself, or than his Actions can inform us, says, _Never did man desire more to have a hand in Affairs_.
Why here he shews us the silly _Bubble_ again, and the wise way he takes to fulfil this impatient Desire; 'Tis by going to his House in the Country, where he stays five years, as he tells us in one of his Essays, without so much as ever seeing the Town: and since (as I am inform'd) to avoid so much Resort at that smaller distance from the City, he goes to another of his Houses of a much greater in the Country; which was an admirable wise Contrivance to satisfie his Longings to get again into Business: Truly I my self could have helpt him to a Better: For could he not like other men of such a craving Kidney, have still buzzed about the Court, knocked at every dore there, and when one was deaf and would not open, go to another; and at the worst have grown so troublesome, that some body would at last bring him into Employment, tho it were but to be rid of him? Or, if this Contrivance had failed, he might have herded among the Factious and Discontented about the Town; gone to the Coffee-houses, railed at the Ministers, and quarrelled with the Government, till they would be glad to have hired him at the expence of an Employment to hold his Tongue: And I am sure if he talks as well as he writes, he might very well have gone this way to work, and with as much likelihood to succeed as _Others have done, or pretend to do_. Tho a Common Reader would be apt to think the Author of these _Memoirs_ might have found some other ways, either of preserving himself in Business, or of getting in when he was out; at least in so easy a Court as that of King _Charles_ the Second's is taken to have been. Or if these Endeavours had miscarried, he might yet have made some shift or other to have obtained his Desire upon such a Revolution as has since happened; and he is very much wronged by the common Voice of the Town, if he has not found it as hard to excuse himself from entring into Publick Employments in this Reign, as in that of the late King _Charles_.
For my own part, I can profess with the greatest Truth in the world, That before this Libel of _De Cros_, I have never met with in all my Conversation and Reading, with the least Reproach from any man against Sir _W. T._ except it be in one point; Of his having made too rashly, or kept too obstinately, his Resolution, Never to enter again into Publick Employments; especially since he lives in an Age where such persons as he appears to be by his Writings, might be of so uncommon use and Advantage to his Country: This I cannot but own, I have often heard said, and that somewhat warmly, to his charge, and must leave it to himself to clear it as he can. But however, _De Cros_ it seems knows his thought best, and must be believed in all he says upon this Point, as well as the rest: And I only wish, since the Spark is so good at finding out what other men think, that he would take the pains to learn for his comfort what all men think of him: One thing I am sure is, that with all the Bloaches of his dirty Pencil, he has daub'd up a Picture of Sir _W. T._ which has top-fil'd the measure of all Forgery; _Sed Vetitum nihil est scheleri_, and which is as true and like the Original, as a man would make of this Dauber, if he should say, _De Cros_ were a very honest, worthy, well-natur'd, well-bred, fair-spoken, plain-dealing, ingenious Writer; of excellent Morals, wondrous Wit, and exact Truth.
And now I have done with him, I can hardly answer it to my self why I ever began, or why I went about to foul my fingers with such a Subject: I am sure nothing could have forced me but an irresistible Impulse, and some natural love I bear to Vertue, to Learning, and to Truth; of all which I find so great a share in this Honourable person's Writings, which I have read so often, and with so much pleasure; and from which I cannot but confess to have learnt more than from all other Books I have read in my life; which I say after much greater and better Readers than my self, and yet I have been a great Porer too. All this would not suffer me to let _De Cros_'s Libel pass without these Reflections; for as to any regular Reply, it could no more be made to this, than to a Paper that comes with a very fair Superscription, and subscribed by some _Worshipful Name_, but had nothing clear through, besides long unsightly Scrawls and foul Blots with a Pen; and so intended for some such flam as your Twelve-Penny Writers use to gull those idle people with, that buy up all Pamphlets they meet: And since I have confess'd my self such a Customer, 'tis but justice I should be laughed at in my turn.
After all I have writ upon this Subject, I cannot but think my Ink has been too white all this time; however, I have Gall enough about me to make it blacker at another, if ever the fit of Scribling should take me again; which may very well be, when I meet with another Author of so little _Wit_, so little _Memory_, and so little _Truth_ as _De Cros_.
_----Melius non tangere, Clamo, Flebit, & insignis tota cantabitur Urbe._
As to the candid Translator, I cannot forbear doing him the Justice to give him that part which he deserves, and belongs to him in all I said of _De Cros_, for his share in the Letter, by so false, and so malicious a Translation; nor can refuse him my approbation for a worthy Translator to so worthy an Author; wherein he has taken the same pains a man would do in smutting over a Chimny-Sweeper, or blacking over a Crier of Smalcoal. Which is all I shall say of him.
But, for the _Advertiser_, as his Stile is much fairer, and consists mostly of Criticisms, so he will deserve no other than very fair and critical Reflections. Yet I cannot but wonder, that in the first part of his Advertisement, he should go about to defend the _severe or indecent Language_ (as he calls it) in _De Cros_'s Letter: Which sure, nothing could do towards a person who has so often represented a great King, whatever his own Merits or Demerits might have been. I am also something at a loss what he should mean by slandering _De Cros_ with such a Title as that of, _The Ingenious Author of the foregoing Letter_. For doubtless if the Man has any Wit, I may say of it as one did of a Gentleman's Courage, which another had much commended; That _he might have courage for ought he knew, but he had as live be damn'd as shew it_.
The rest of his gentle _Advertisement_ consists, (as he pleases to call it) of _the Sentiments of the Criticks upon these Memoirs when they first came out_.
The first whereof is, That _the Stile was too luscious and affected_. I confess I am not acquainted with that Term of _a Luscious Stile_, and cannot easily stumble upon what it means, unless it be to say, That the Bride is too fair, or the Grapes are too sweet. But 'tis yet harder for my poor Conception to find out how a Stile can be both _Luscious_ and _Affected_; Which latter I should have otherwise mistook for a Quality that had ever given a harshness to any Stile, that would not be very consistent with _Luscious_: And _Tacitus_ has not escaped the Imputation of being both harsh and _Affected_, by several _Criticks_. I am afraid the Gentleman's Mouth might have been a little out of taste by reading these _Memoirs_; and _that_ might possibly have proceeded from some cholerick Humour redundant in his Stomach; which I the rather suspect from these words in the Beginning of his Advertisement; _As nothing more sensibly touches _US_, than to have our Reputation_, &c. which seem to insinuate, that he took himself for one of the Persons he thought offended by them, and _treated with too much Freedom, and too little Ceremony_; as he afterwards speaks of others. But if Sir _W. T_'s Stile be faulty, I have nothing to say; only desire, That some of the _Criticks_ the _Advertiser_ speaks of, will be so kind to mend it when they write next, whereby I think they will do a very great Honour to our Language. I am only sorry for those poor Booksellers who have so rashly undertaken the printing of his several Works, and wish they may not be undone after the Judgment of these severe _Criticks_ upon them. Yet to give them a little comfort, I must needs take notice, that all men are not of the same nice Palat, neither at home nor abroad: For Monsieur _Wiquefort_ concludes his _Memoirs of Ambassadors_, with regretting that there had been so few Accounts given by any of them of Foreign Countries; and that there were like to be fewer hereafter; _Because Monsieur _Temple_ is inimitable in what he has written of the_ United Netherlands. And among many Books and Pamphlets that mention his Works, I have yet seen none that does it without great Value and Approbation. I am sure in all the _French_ Editions of his several Works (which have had the luck to be still Translated into several Languages as they came out) the Epistles and Prefaces prefixed before them, are full of the greatest Honour and Applause that can be given to Writings, which pass so ill with the _Criticks_, this Advertiser tells us of at home; so that 'tis possible some of these _Memoirs_ may yet go off, which I suppose was the chief thing intended by him that publisht them.
However, let such Statesmen as _de Cros_; or such _Criticks_ as our _Advertiser_, or Malice and Detraction it self, say what they will of the _Memoirs_; I dare answer for all Scholars and Lovers of Learning, that they shall pay the Honour and Esteem which is, and will be ever justly due to the _Miscellanea_; and shall not only find what is pleasing and instructing, but also something that is new and surprizing whenever they read them, let this Author's Stile be as _Luscious_ and _Affected_ as it will; which is all I need say for the poor Bookseller's sake.