A LETTER FROM An English Merchant in London, TO HIS Dutch Correspondant IN AMSTERDAM, About public AFFAIRS.  

With Allowance.   
SIR.  
I Had yours by the last packet, and thank you hearty for your News and Advice: We have been old Friends, and always very kind, and I would not have the least controversy with one I have so much reason to Esteem; but the same Friendship leads me to be Plain and Close with you, especially where our Credit, our countries, and what is more, Truth itself is concerned.  
In Answer to mine, that complains of your unusual Briskness to us, you tell me your present Animosity rises from the Fears the News give you, which you daily receive of us, that we are running headlong into Popery, and that it will be your turn next, if you don't make a Diversion, and that for so good, and so great a Cause, as the Security of the Protestant Religion, you have taken Heart, and resolve to hazard all to support it.  
As a Friend, I'll tell you what's said of our side, to balance against the plausibility of your Pretensions: We say, If you are in all this Sincere, That you are mistaken, and have your Intelligence from ill Hands; such, who tell their Fears for Facts, or fear nothing, but that the Government is like to be settled without them, and it may be against them too, if they will not come into our just Measures; for let them say what they will to you, I assure you, in the Faith of a Friend, that the business is, a fair and equal Liberty of Conscience to all persuasions; to be established by the most durable Methods, and such as that one Party shall not have the means of preying upon the other, and less, that the whole should be in hazard from any one Party, and that even the Church of England's share in this Security, shall yet bare ( if She please) a greater pference, than her Number could in Justice require.  
Such a Liberty ( and such or none) cannot bring in Popery, tho it preserves Papists; for their Preservation being fixed by that which secures us, it puts them upon preserving that which gives us our common Safety. And tho this may be thought by some a mere Speculation; I dare assure you, its good English, very feasible and requisite, and that which Interest as well as Native Right teaches, I will not say presses to.  
But now that I have  told you, and that upon none of the worst or meanest Authorities neither, what we expect, and we have cause to hope the Goodness of his Majesty will in Parliament Confirm to us: I'll tell you what part you have in our Thoughts. That you in Holland were never yet found guilty of that civil Sin of preferring your Religion to your Interest, and that if you will turn over the Treaties you have made with other Governments, and the Methods you have taken to undermine even your Protestant Neighbours in point of Trade, It will appear a Truth not to be contested, that generally speaking, the first Article of your Creed is INTEREST; so that what we have to do is to examine what Interest can move you to this surly Behaviour; for, shifts apart, this is the close, the true and important Question between us at this time. I'll tell you still what our Folks say, That you blow up our People by their Aversion to Popery against the Liberty that should secure us both against▪ That and You; for as a true legal Liberty, upon its own Foundation, is the highest and last human Security against Force on Conscience, so if you can prevent it, and thereby keep up that Disturbed and Uneven State of Government among us, that has hindered the increase of our Trade, which this Liberty would certainly give us, You will still run away with that unequal share, that has made you, under all your Native and domestic Disadvantages, equal in Wealth and Power to the first rank of crwoned Heads in the World, and that ye are therefore as much afraid of the success of these Measures of Liberty of Conscience in Parliament, as you were once of the Parliament Forces, least they should have fixed themselves that formidable Common-Wealth they began to look like; which I need not tell you occasioned the first War between us, nor that they were Protestant all over: So that while you would disorder us, by suggesting the Insincerity of the King about the Liberty, his Sincerity is the only thing you fear, or ought to fear; and for that reason, 'tis the great Thing the King is most obliged to maintain: And which is more, we thank you for the Objection; for tho we have no cause to doubt so good and generous a Prince, yet you have by your Opposition fastened our Point, and engaged him in Reason of State to preserve the Liberty, for the single Reason that makes you oppose it, TRADE, I mean, upon the Rise or Fall of which his own Revenue depends that is the support of the Menarchy.  
'tis natural enough to ask you, that if so small a People, in so little, and so ill a Country, by the tranquillity Liberty of Conscience has brought you, and the Industry that State of Peace, and Security has excted, have been able to make yourselves Masters of so great a part of the traffic of the World, what, might we not hope from the same measure, that have such native advantages upon you, as Number, situation, and more than a Self-Subsistance: In short, we have lived almost an Age in a State of War, at home, at least of Strife; and as the fleetest Horses may be beaten by Weight, so 'tis certain nothing else has given you the Advantages you have had upon us, and that you are so unwilling to lose, or share amongst your Neighbours; but when we ride equal, we can never miss of winning the Match. Monarchs, that deal with States by their own measures will ever carry their Point, who, to the conveniencies of their own Form of Government, wisely add those of the Government they have to do with.  
We cannot yield your Power to your republic, perhaps the worst built of the kind; for tho you had a being before Liberty of Conscience, your Well-being, to be sure your Greatness came by it. Your country in itself seems the Reprobation of the World; ordained wanting, as it were, for the trial of human Skill; what Art could do after Nature; and how near Man could come to Creation: I own to you an extraordinary Industry, but it has been the civil Unity this Liberty has given you, that has made you a Land of stately Cities, and filled you with Trade, and Treasure, and all that is excellent of all Countrys; as if you were the great Market, or Exchequer of the whole. In fine, after I tell you, That, Proportion observed, you exceed us in traffic, five to one, that have ten times your Advantages for Trade; Can you think, that this has no Temptation in it? or that We shall ever be so wanting to ourselves, as not to understand, and pursue this Interest? 'tis( alas!) but too long that We have suffered you to make this Benefit by our Folly; for when this Liberty has taught us to know our own strength you cannot be longer ignorant of it; for almost all, that we shall get by these Measures, you must lose; and 'tis this you wisely apprehended, Tho you Christen your dislike to our Liberty, under the fair Name of the Protestant Religion; but that will not longer pass upon us, since all the skill you have cannot persuade us to believe that That should be ill for us, that is so good for you. I must also tell you that the Dissenter, who is your nearest Kinsman in Religion on this side the Water, takes it extremely ill of you, that you oppose the Ease his pressing Circumstances require: That after so long, and furious a Persecution upon Him, and his Family, you should fall in with his Oppressors; and instead of securing him from the future Power of his Enemies, Quarrel the poor Man for not trusting himself upon his Adversaries Promises, tho by doing it, he hazards more than his present Liberty, and is uncertain of any Performance at last: for he cannot conceive how or when his Persecutors were converted; and if they be, tho the Synod of Dort held no falling from Grace, yet those Gentlemen you side with here, assert the contrary Opinion; And against that Slip it is the Poor Man desires to be secured: For he argues thus, and I confess I don't presently see what reasonable answer can be made him.  
He says, The best of the security promised him is, That he shall not be Persecuted hereafter. But then says he, who shall secure me to that Time; for if I perish for that hope, or my hazard of all now out-weighs the value of the enjoyment of after time, admitting their truth that promise me, ought I to close with such a bargain? Besides, suppose I could shift through the contempt of this present Grace,( an odd supposal, when 'tis imagined I cannot long out-live the acceptance of the very Liberty, it has such an Army in the Belly of it) what have I at last besides the privilege of living at my own Charge, and that but as long as my old Enemies please; for if I have no share in the Power that should secure my Liberty, they that have it may take it away when they will: And for that purpose the pretence of the Glory of God, the Safety of the Government, and I know not what else shall not be wanting to deprive me. Upon the whole matter, I find myself as unsafe then, for tho it is supposed the Papist must break his word,( for all it is, at this time, his confessed Civil and Religious Interest to keep it) I must suppose too that the Church of England-Man may do it; and if he does, I am absolutely in his Power; for I am not of the Government,& no Freehold, no Brains, no Honesty, no any thing can prefer me, nor, in this Case secure me. Now that very Expedient that will keep Liberty upright against what may be attempted by the Zeal, or Ambition of the Church of England-Man in Power, will keep the Liberty streight against the bigotry of the Roman catholic in the Government. In short, I am one that believes there is a God, that he governs the World, that less things than this great Ease and tranquillity do not come by Trick, or Chance: I'll trust him to keep it that gave it, I'll honour the King for it, I'll love my Neighbour, forgive my Enemies, and commit myself, in well-doing, to him that is able to save me, who turns the Hearts of Kings as Waters, and does whatever he pleases.  
Thus the poor Prisoner argues now he's got home to his own fire side, and I leave you to answer him, for I profess I cannot.  
I had forgot one thing, with which I shall conclude this Letter, already too long upon any score but that of friendship, and in a matter of this Importance, 'tis this. The Dissenter is extremely fearful, lest this change of yours from him to the Church-Man, arises from a worldly Principle, and not a mistake; for tho pursuing that may be a great one, as to the other World, yet ever knowing your skill in choosing, and sincerity in following the methods that get most of this, he is apprehensive lest that passion prevail with you to Sacrifice him to his Enemies. Now his motives to this thought are, First, That he no sooner seemed in one Interest with the Government here, than you declined him, and struck up a Friendship with his old Persecutors, and your Enemies, because they seemed to take turns with him against the Government. But for this he says, That truly the Government came to him, He did not go to it, and tho this be less meritorious on his part towards the Government, it ought at least to vindicate him with you, And he adds, That he could never justify himself with God or men, to be against the Government when 'tis against him, and against it when it is for him too, and therefore that it is Injustice to style him a Temporizer for complying with the Government upon his own Principle, or being of the same mind he ever was, because the Government is pleased to be of that mind also.  
His Second motive to think you deliberately changed, is. That the Church of England-man, your new Friend, is a man of pleasure, a Gentleman, more addicted to a Court, then an Exchange, But he is a Trades-man, a Merchant, one that is like to meet you at your Market with as good a Price, as Fair Dealing, and better goods to engage Customers, and therefore the less liberty he has at home, the better it will be for you abroad: I say, the Dissenters consisting of the Sober, and Trading Body of the Kingdom, and consequently most likely to improve this Liberty to your disadvantage in point of Trade, he fears you oppose his happiness, for your own Gain, and decline him, and disgrace the Liberty that you may keep the advantage to yourselves, that you have gotten by it; which if he should happen to guess right, shows the Liberty not to be an effect of virtue, but Interest, and therefore all you say against him, and his Liberty, is to be suspected. And the Truth is, when you give it at home so frankly, even where Papists, in proportion to ours, are Fifty to One, and many of them eminently employed by you too, and that latitude maintained by no obscure person amongst you for just, and prudent, it shows in earnest, you know what is good for yourselves, and that you are selfish enough, to keep the rest of the World in ignorance of that virtue. But for your comfort, I will tell you, we begin to find; that we are an iceland, placed to give, and not to receive the Laws of Trade; that we have brave Ports, a fruitful soil, excellent Growths, an industrious and valiant People, capable of the highest Acquisitions, and a Prince, that to his lasting Glory, has promised to Head& Cherish the Inclinations of his Virtuous, and Industrious Subjects of all persuasions; a Method that cannot fail to cure the Jealousies of his mistakens People, and disappoint the devices of his unreasonable Enemies. I shall say no more now, perhaps you'l think this too much, but whatever you think, I am sure you know I am no Papist, and that I am very much, and very truly  
Yours &c. G. M.   

LONDON, Printed for R. C. and H. L. and are to be Sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster.