A LETTER Sent from the STATES of HOLLAND TO THE KING of SCOTS, Imploring his Personal Residence and Assistance: With their Desires, Propositions, Engagement, and Promise; agreed upon at a General Councel held at the Hague, the 23 of this instant July; and presented by the Lord BORETZ. Signed, A. Beauchurst. ALSO, His titular Majesties Answer thereunto; and the great Preparations at the Hague for his Royal Entertainment. With the Declaration of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn touching the same. Published throughout the United Provinces.
London, Printed for George Horton, 1652.
A MESSAGE Sent from the States of HOLLAND, To the King of Scots; touching his Residence in the Low-Countries; with his Answer thereunto; and the great preparations at the Hague for his entertainment.
BY an Express from the Hague it is certified, That the Estates of the United Provinces, at a General [Page 4]Councel, taking into ferious debate and consultation the great and weighty Affaires of their Commonwealth, and how the ground-work thereof, might be carryed on with the best advantage, in this Juncture of time against England, after mature deliberation, it was terminated, That a Message should be sent to the King of Scots, imploring his Residence at the Hague; to the end, that by a mutual condescension, all possible meanes might be used for the preservation of their Religion, Liberty, Freedom, and Interest.
This Message being sent by the Lord Boretz, & presented, a Councel was thereupon called at Saint Germans, where was present divers of the English Nobility, and after serious consultation, mutually assented to leave his titular Majesty, to the fortune of his Resolutions, by reason of his ardent affection to be so far importuning, that he chose rather to communicate a satisfactory Answer to the States, then any wayes to decline or wave so cordial an invitation.
In pursuance whereof, great are the preparations at the Hague for solemnizing of his Reception, in tryumph and honour.
There is dayly Action between our Scouts, and Trumps; and this morning captain Peacock, with the Tyger, going to relieve the Guard, was set upon [Page 5]by three Dutch-men, who maintained a gallant dispute, for the space of half an hour; which our Admiral hearing of, dispatched captain Watson and captain Taylor to his assistance, who bearing up so drown the Countrey. The allarum whereof hath so exasperated the spirits of many, that they are exceedingly inraged, and vowes revenge.
We hear that there is a general Rising from 16 to 60; and those that do refuse to to engage, are to die without mercy. They are setting forth another great Fleet of 100 sail, and the Zealanders have chosen a new Admiral.
Lieut. Col. John Lilburn hath caused a Declaration to be published at Amsterdam; wherein he states the Case between England, and the United Provinces, in this present Juncture, whereby all true English-men may apparently discern, how much it concerneth them to be unanimous and vigilant upon the motion and design of the Netherlanders, who are aspir'd to such a height of Ingratitude, that they would willingly forget what was their condition when England first undertook their protection and espoused their quarrel with the loss of many thousands English-men, and the expence of eleven hundred thousand pounds sterling. Amongst the rest, there hath been a paper of great concernment dispersed throughout the several Provinces; a Copy whereof followeth:
It is no wholesom counsel to trust another with the death of one descended of Royal bloud: he suffers him to live either through pity or policy: If he be compassionate, he knows not how to be cruel; if politick, he thinks the present times will not last long; his thoughts are busied on times to come; and he endeavours more to save himself, then to secure others: And whereas some there are, who say, That to take away a Kingdom, and suffer the King to live, is a cruel piece of charity, wherewith all Tyrants whilest they go about to deceive the World, they oft-times deceive themselves. The whole will easily meet together, the parts whereof are left alive. To set the Statue of Vertue upon a despicable foundation is as much as to build a Colossus of Gold upon feet of dirt: Piety becomes a State, for that his Government is free: Cruelty, a Tyrant, for that he is violent; courtesie befits [Page 7]the one, force is requisite to the other: neither yet doth that secure him; he is not unlike a belly-god, who if he persist to eat, a surfeit kils him; if he desist, a diet; if the Tyrant bloudy his hands without respect, he dies for being cruel; if otherwise, for seeming to be pious.
In a word, that hand wil not prosper, that fights under the Banner of Tyranny; and the force and might of all those wilbe maugred that fights for the interest of Usurpation. Therefore, who are ye, O ye Netherlanders, that dare to set your selves against the Lord, against what he hath done, and is done in England, Scotland, and Ireland; to endeavor to strike out all the glorious Characters of his foot-steps and presence, what his Arm hath brought to pass for him, and his mighty Power established in these Dominions? Who are you that dare to think, that you can root out this Cause, and give [Page 8]the Lye to all the appearances of God, the Prayer, the Faith, the Praises of the Saints in those Nations? Who are you that say their Gods, are Gods of the Hills, therefore we will fight with them in the Valleys: they stood against their own forces, but they shall not against ours: The Land is given them in possession, but the Deep is ours, and we will swallow them up as in the belly of Hell? Our God is the same, and so is Our Cause on the Sea, as well as the Land: Spain found it so in the year 1588. and all others have since our late Wars and Troubles.