Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/26

 

Besides the letter to the French Church, King James wrote another French letter, which I quote from Strype (Annals, vol. iv., page 386). It was addressed to the Dutch Refugee Church:—

, — Encore que vous me n’ayez vu jusqu’à present, si est-ce que je ne vous suis point étranger ni inconnu. Vous savez quant a ma religion quel je suis, non seulement par le bruit que vous avez pu entendre de moi, mais aussi par mes écrits en lesquels j’ai veritablement exprimé quel est l’affection de mon âme. C’est pourquoi je n’ai besoin d’user de beaucoup (le paroles pour vous representer ma bonne volonté envers vous, qui êtes ici refugiés pour la religion.

“Je reconnois que deux choses ont rendu la Reine, ma Soeur défunte, renommée par tout le monde. L’une est le désir, qu ’elle a toujours eu, d’entretenir et fomenter le Service de Dieu en ce royaume. Et l’autre est son hospitalité envers les étrangers — à la louange de laquelle je veux hériter.

“Je sais bien, par le temoignage des Seigneurs de ce royaume (comme vous m’avez dit), que vous avez toujours prié Dieu pour elle, et que vous n’avez outrepassé votre devoir. Je sais aussi, que vous avez enrichi ce royaume de plusieurs artifices, manufactures, et sciences politiques.

“Si l’occasion se fut presentée lorsque j’etois encore éloigné comme en un coin du monde, je vous eusse fait paroitre ma bonne affection. Mais comme je n’ai jamais taché ni voulu empiéter sur le bien d’aucun Prince, aussi, puisque maintenant il a plu à Dieu me faire Roi de ce pays, je vous jure que si quelqu’un vous moleste en vos Eglises, vous vous adressant à moi, je vous vengerai. Et encore, quoique vous ne soyez pas de mes propres Sujets, si est-ce que je vous maintiendrai et fomenterai, autant que Prince qui soit au monde.”

We now lose the assistance of Strype, but a valuable auxiliary succeeds him. The Camden Society volume entitled “Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England 1618-1688, edited by Wm. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., (1862)” is prefaced with useful information by the editor. Lord Treasurer Buckhurst now appears in his new title of Earl of Dorset, and Secretary Sir Robert Cecil has been raised to the peerage as Earl of Salisbury. The London Companies of weavers, cutlers, goldsmiths, &c., so much esteemed for their feasts and funds, seem to have prevailed on those statesmen to listen to them, and at least to make a show of busying themselves for their protection against alien industry. It was complained on 22d July 1605 “that the English merchants were injured because foreigners were allowed to export baize and other goods without paying double custom.”

In July 1615 the Weaver’s Company urged that “the strangers employed more workmen than were allowed by statute, and then concealed them when search was made — that they lived more cheaply and therefore sold more cheaply than the English — that they imported silk lace contrary to law,” &c. In 1621 a longer plaint survives [the original spelling may be seen in Durrant Cooper’s Introduction, page v.]:— “Their chiefest cause of entertainment here of late was in charity to shroud them from persecution for religion; and, being here, their necessity became the mother of their ingenuity in devising many trades, before to us unknown. The State, noting their diligence, and yet preventing the future inconvenience, enacted two special laws, — the neglect whereof giveth them advantage to keep their mysteries to themselves, which hath made them bold of late to devise engines for working of tape, lace, ribbon, and such, wherein one man doth more among them than seven Englishmen can do; so as their cheap sale of those commodities beggareth all our English artificers of that trade and enricheth them. Since the making of the last statute they are thought to be increased ten for one, so as no tenement is left to an English artificer to inhabit in divers parts of the city and suburbs, but they take them over their heads at a great rate. So their numbers causeth the enhancing of the price of victuals and house rents, and much furthereth the late disorderly