A LETTER From a ROMAN catholic to one of his Friends at AMSTERDAM.  
Written in French from Paris, Feb. 6. 1688 / 9 showing how the French stand affencted upon the Revolution of Affairs in England, since His present MAJESTIES arrival there.  
SIR,  
WE have been here in a most dreadful Consternation ever since the Prince of Orange's being in England: We were then afraid of every thing from a Prince, of whom, before we had no reason to be mistrustful; not but that we were really persuaded, that he is the true Inheritor of the Valour and Courage of his Illustrious Ancestors, but because we had flattered ourselves, that it was impossible for him to reconcile to his Interests, a republic, which till now, had always laboured to depress his Power, and which for the most part, never takes Arms but to defend itself. This Resolution, which has been managed with so much secrecy, has very much affrighted the Court; and the sole Preparations of the Holland Fleet were as so many Thunder-bolts falling upon it, and which terrified it to that degree, that truly we must pardon France the fault which she committed in falling fowl upon the Emperour, and harrasing one of the most lovely Territories of the Empire. For we now plainly see, that if instead of going to Besiege Philipsburgh, and Ransacking the Palatinate, we had sent an Army towards the Low Countries, and only made a show of Besieging Mastricht, we had diverted the fatal Blow. For in short, I can never imagine, that my Lords, the States of Holland, who are so Prudent, would ever have ran the Risco of having their own country ravaged by a Foreign Force, to succour a People who were not altogether as yet oppressed.  
But the Genius which governs the Affairs of France, quiter abandoned it at this Conjuncture: Nor do I know what the Reverend confessor had in his Thoughts, to give our Monarch a piece of Counsel so opposite to our own Interests. Let us speak our own Sentiments, Sir, which are, That this Reverend Father is not so politic a person, as he was believed to be. This is not the first mistake which he has caused a Prince to commit, who confides in his Conduct; so that they begin to tell us, That his Majesty is not at all satisfied in him; but that from henceforth he will take the Advice of his Ministers, and put his Conscience into the Hands of some honest Capuchin, or of some Father of the Oratory; but to to tell you truth, I believe nothing of it. The King, notwithstanding all his greatness, is very timorous; he knows that the Society is a dangerous Enemy: he has before his Eyes the Example of Henry the Great: And to speak all in a word, he is so much a Slave to the Jesuits, that Lewis the Just, was never so much in Bondage to Cardinal Richlieu.  
Were this Prince so undaunted, as the World would make us believe, or as his Flatterers publish him to be, he would not stick to hazar'd a Life which he cannot expect long to preserve( for all the World is convinced, that he labours under an incurable Distemper, which will snatch him from his People, when he least thinks of it) He would give himself up to that Providence which is the Guardian Angel of Kings; and would restore his Subjects to that Peace which he has ravished from them, and he would in his own Kingdom, deal by the Society, as formerly his ancestors did by the Knights rollers. As much an Enemy as I am of the Jansenists, I could never love the Jesuits, nor reconcile myself to their Maxims; I have always looked upon their Order as the Scourge of Christianity, and as an Ambitious Society, which covering itself with the Sacred veil of Religion, would domineer over all the Earth, and Sacrifice all the World to their eager thirst of Rule.  
You must aclowledge, Sir, that the catholic Princes are infatuated, not to see that it is upon the ruin of their Kingdoms that these People endeavour to establish their Dominion; and that tho' their Counsels were sincere and real, as they are believed to be, which are given by the Reverend Father confessors, yet they have been always fatal to them. Have we not seen to what a condition the Emperor was reduced for having listened to their Counsels; even upon the brink of being despoiled of all his Dominions by the Infidels? What is now the Condition of the King of England, for having advanced Father Peter's into the number of his first Ministers of State. The most unfortunate, and one that has the most reason to complain of all the Princes living, for having followed their pernicious Counsels.  
But not to search any farther, do we not see in our own Kingdom, what is now the fate of our Great Prince, for having suffered himself to be enchanted by his confessors. A while ago, Lewis XIV. made Europe tremble, nor can we say, but that he reigned as much in foreign Kingdoms as in his own. He gave Laws to all the Potentates; he made War and Peace; and he had no more to do then only threaten, to make the greatest Princes bend to his Will and Pleasure. But now, Lewis XIV. trembles in his turn, he begins to submit himself to the Holy Father, he begs Peace of the Emperour, he grants all things to Geneva; he flatters his most cruel Enemies; he dares not burn nor plague the Hollanders with his Bombs: he repents of his having taken part with the Cardinal of Furstenbergh, and he restores the Parliaments, in all those places from whence he had expelled them, to their rights; swears never to disturb them again; he causes every day, several strong Forts, and considerable strong places to be demolished; he knows not which way to turn him. The very Name of the Prince of Orange puts him into such an Agony, that we are forbid under terrible Penalties, so much as to mention him upon any occasion or pretence whatever. No more do we behold that gay and jocund Air in his Countenance, his cloudy and melancholy looks betray a kind of Astonishment; he shows himself but rarely in public; in short, he is so taken up with the thoughts of those fatal Consequences which he foresees, or which his chief Ministers lay before his Eyes, that even to Madam de Maintenon, every body complains that he is become unsociable. And to tell you the truth, he has cause enough for it: He sees all the World in League against him; that the D. of Savoy, and the Cardinal of Furstenbergh, who are his only two Allies, are not in a condition to succour him; and that if the Germans attack him on the side of the Rhine, and the English land either upon the cost of Britaign or Normandy, he must retire to Versailles, there to repent of the Cruelties which his Dragoons have committed in the Palatinate, and the Acts of Hostilities which he has exercised in Orange.  
Our new Converts, which are always huguenots in their Hearts, begin to take breath, tho' they do not seem to show it publicly. Their Minister, Jurieu, whom they look upon as a great Prophet, has assured them of a Deliverance at this time; of which they have very fair prospects: And I cannot well tell, whether the great ones, who have a Dispensation to red all Books, and who have red this Book of Prophesies, are not a little alarmed to see the stream of Affairs run in such a manner, as that same Minister seems to have foretold; or rather, as one Du Moulin foretold before him. But this I know, that it has been propounded twice or thrice, Whether it would not be good Policy, to resettle those miserable Creatures, since it could never be laid to their charge, that they were ●●her then Loyal Subjects. But, believe me, tho' the King should descend to such a piece of remissness, it would do him but little good. For I am persuaded the same thing would happen in France which has fallen out in England: The Hugonots will never any more confided in our Promises. For in short, I must speak it to the shane of our catholic Religion, that they have too often experienced, that one of our Maxims, most religiously observed, is, not to keep any Faith with heretics.  
After all, tho' the King should act with Sincerity; tho' he should re-establish the Edict of Nants; tho' he should resettle all the Ministers, and all that vast number of Hugonots, who are gone to people and enrich foreign Countries, Affairs would not go much better. The half of the catholics are discontented: Our People are reduced to the utmost degree of misery: The Parliaments are only Apparitions of what they were Originally; the Princes of the Blood are nothing at all; the Officers destroy themselves in the Army; the Clergy are blooded from time to time: And to speak things as they are, we are no more then perfect Slaves. If the Prince of Orange should but appear with his Allies, at the Head of a hundred thousand Men, and put upon his Standards, FOR LIBERTY, as they say he has a design to do, and publish his Intentions of Liberty in a Manifesto, I tremble to think what would become of us. The Calvinists are now of Opinion, that we ought to tolerate all Religions that make profession of Christianity. And as we are convinced, that they would let us alone to say Mass in quiet, I am apt to believe, that it would go but ill with the King's Affairs and that no body would be so furious for cutting of Throats. I say this also farther, That the Misfortunes of the Hugonots, and that Attachment which they have shown to their Religion, having obliged us to examine their Sentiments, we soon perceived, that those Opinions of theirs were so far remote from that horrid Description, and those villainous portraitures which our Directors make of them, that we would never suffer what they suffered, and what they still endure, were we constrained by a greater force to betake us to their Party. Assure yourself, Sir, that the Prince of Orange's Dragoons would convert us with less trouble, then those of his Most Christian Majesty converted our Hugonots. I know none of the catholics that would be proof against the quartering of Armed Souldiers, but would freely subscribe rather then suffer Martyrdom.  
For my own particular part, the Mass and I agree very well; I have nothing to do but to go hear it upon Sundays and holidays; my Priest demands nothing more of me, I gain Paradise at a cheap rate. However, to speak frankly, I would not suffer Martyrdom for a Mystery which I do not apprehended. And I know an infinite number of people that speak, very near, the same Language, and who pretend to have Reason also for what they say. They tell us, that if the King did exterminate the Hugonots and heresy out of his Kingdom, he did not do it out of any Principle of Religion; but that Religion was only a pretence to aggrandise himself, and to attain to the Universal Monarchy. And indeed, it has been a great complaint for a long time at the Court of Vienna, That the most Christian King had made a strict Alliance with the Enemies of the Christians; and that while he persecuted the Protestants in his own Kingdom, he assisted with Men and Money the malcontents of Hungary, who are all Calvinists or Lutherans. They say moreover, That at the time when he let loose his Dragoons upon the heretics, he quarreled so cruelly with the Holy See, that all good Christians bewayl'd his proceedings.  
The Priests of the County of Avignon have had the same fate with those in the Principality of Orange. And in the midst of the Hostilities which he committed in Germany; the catholics made loud Complaints, That he made no distinction of the One from the Other, but burnt the catholics as well as the Protestants, and ruined both alike by his Contributions; and that their Wives and Daughters were as much exposed to the Violences of the Souldiers, as the most obstinate heretics. This reflection makes them believe that the Most Christian King, and the Right Reverend Fathers of the Chair, believe that Calvin's Religion is good enough; but that it was no Crime at all to Sacrifice, and hazard the ruin of it, to ascend the Throne of the Caesars. But whatever comes on't, I am ready to swim with the tide, and to sing Marott's Psalms if there be occasion.  
sand me the News from time to time, and assure yourself that I am entirely  
YOURS.   

licenced  
April 26. 1689. J. Fraser.   

LONDON, Printed for R. Baldwin near the Black-Bull in the Old-Baily. 1689.