KNOW ye, That we Reposing Special Trust in your Approved Fidelity and Valour have Assigned, Constituted and Appointed you Commander of the Good Frigat called the Providence; and further, We give you full Power and Authority to enter into any Port or River of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ire­land, or any Territories thereunto belonging, and either there or at Sea, to take and apprehend, and in case of any Opposition or Resistance, to Sink, Burn, or other­wise Destroy all Ships and Vessels, together with their Goods, Lading, and Merchan­dizes belonging to the Inhabitants of England, Scotland and Ireland, or either of them, together with the Ships, Goods, and Merchandizes of the States of the United Pro­vinces or Their Subjects, and to bring and send up all such Ships and Goods as they shall ta [...]e in [...] some Port of France, and to procure the same to be adiudged law­ful Prize in the next Court of Admiralty, established by our Dear Brother the Most Christian King. And the Tenths and other Dues arising out of the said Prizes are to be paid to Thomas Stratford, or in his absence to Jean Nimport of Brest, or to such other Persons as shall have Authority from Us to receive the same.

This is the Substance of the Commission.

THE Passions and Affections of some People are so unaccoun­table, that it puzles Imaginati­on to conceive how strong a Zeal can arise from so undeserving a Sub­ject of their Veneration. For instance, not to Treat untenderly with on the Ru­ines of Majesty, nor take up Royal Mis­carriages, to make Reflections on Great­ness in Distress: The Publication of this following Commission, of the Late King James, is not so much intended, as an In­vective on that unhappy Prince, as to ex­press our Admiration at the unfathomable Extravagancies of some over-bigotted Zealots in his Favour.

We are all sensible that 'tis the common Ambition of degraded Princes, how just­ly soever Dethroned, to indeavour their own Restauration. There is a Chance in a Crown, and 'tis an extraordinary Resig­nation, that can quit the Pretences to Ti­tles so Great, though never so deserving­ly Forfeited. We do not therefore at all wonder at the Irish and French Army, pre­pared for his once intended Descent and Invasion of England; nor the early Naval Preparations of the French on that Occa­sion. Such an Expedition on so important an Attempt, carried some little Face of Glory in it. His very Enemies could not deny but such an Enterprize had been an [Page] Ambition we [...] [...]; and had he suc­ceeded, he might fairly have written himself James the Conqueror. But Gen­tlemen, as bold and gallant Atchieve­ments, in the Universal Standard of Ho­nour, carry a great Name; and which true Greatness, possibly, has no occasion to be ashamed of. Nevertheless, there may be those poorer Designs, that instead of being either Great or Glorious, perhaps may carry the vilest and most abject Face, that a much less Character then King James ought to blush at. As for Example, the foregoing Commission.

There you'l find instead of a more war­rantable Ambition of recovering Three Kingdoms, he poorly descends to grant his Commissions to Privateers to R [...]fle and Spoil all the Subjects of England, Scot­land and Ireland, indifferently to Burn, Sink and Fire their Vessels, &c. and all this without respect of Persons, Interests or Religion. The severest Romanist, or most violent Jacobite (without excepti­on) is to he swept in the common Doom. So that instead of pretending all his for­mer promis'd Impunity and Tenderness to the People of England, or instead of Bravely grappling at his Royal Rival in the Imperial Seat, he vilely sumes little less than a common Pyrate, Authorizes the Depredations of the English Merchants even by the very hands of Englishmen. This last poor Spirited Meanness must either plainly tell us, that he has utterly renounced all hopes of recovery of his Kingdoms; and so under that Despair he resolves to play at a small Game rather than stand out, (which indeed is the best Title I can give it) and consequent­ly (like the Famous Dionysius sumed Pedagogue) when he can Scourge King­doms no longer, he prepares his lesser Rods for a more humble Tyrannick Lash; or else that forgetting that he ever was a Monarch, and therefore blushing at no­thing though never so Unprincely, he contents himself with being under Secre­tary to the French King, whilst the little James is but a Subscription to the Grea­ter Lewis. The French King deputes him as his Emanuensis to Copy Commissions for hi [...]; and the Contented Receiver o [...] that high Favour is paid to officiate in the Trust. It was remarkt of him, that at his first departure from England upon his Transport from Feversham, he uttered this Expression. That he had rather be a Captain of a Troop of Light Horse under the French King, than Raign King of Eng­land under the Lash and Controul of Parlia­ments. A Captain of a Troop of Horse is no over-high Post. But truely of the two 'tis much the more Honourable than the granting of such Commissions. But indeed all these tend to the aggrandizing o [...] [...]he Freech King; the poorer the Sub­jects of England, the stronger the Grand Lewis; his inviolable Zeal and Fidelity, therefore to that most Christian (so titled) Nero, supercedes all other Considerations, and (fas aut nefas) right or wrong, ho­nourable or infamous, nothing comes a­miss that carries the least shadow of service to that darling Idol.

One thing is very Remarkable in the Janus Faces of King James's Prete [...]ces. This very Commission found on Board one of the late Prizes, was dated at St. Germans, the 22d of February: which (pray observe) bearing date before his intended Invasion; impours this Privateer to enter into any Port or River of Eng­land, Scotland, or Ireland; and commit all those Hostilities of Firing, Sinking, Burning, &c. All Traders Vessels what­ever; at the same time that his Declarati­on, prepared for his Reception in Eng­land, intimated all the Affection and Ten­derness imaginable to the Interests Pro­perty, and what not, of his Subjects of England, viz. That he was coming only to recover his own Right, Establish and Restore their Laws and Liberties; and yet at the same time he gave out Com­missions to Waste, Ruine, and Destroy the most innocent Traders of the King­dom, possibly no ways interested in the Titles, and Disputes of Princes, in Par­ties or Causes; but on the contrary only endeavouring a peaceable Acquisition of their Dread, by their Honest Commerce and Industry.