State in foreign parts may, according to the news now received from England, have recaptured what was originally taken from this State and its good inhabitants, and much may be taken from the English by the aforesaid fleet, yet shall we obligate ourselves to restore whatever has been taken in any countries in the world, whether in or out of Europe, by this State or any of its inhabitants, from the English, on condition that the King of Great Britain shall bind himself to restore New Netherland, Cape Verd, Fort St. Andrew and the Island of Boavista, Cape Corse, Tacorary and all other countries, towns, forts, ships and goods taken either in or out of Europe by his Majesty or his subjects from this State and its good inhabitants, so far as the same shall not be found recovered, or otherwise returned, to the right owners by the National force. Folio 86. Rupture with the Resolution of the States-General. [From the Register of West India Affairs, 1664-1670, in the Royal Archives at the Hague. ] Friday, the 30th January, 1665. Upon deliberation, it is resolved and concluded that letters shall be dispatched to the respective Boards of Admiralty immediately to notify the Directors of the Levant, Baltic, Greenland and Russian trade, that the State is under the necessity of coming to an absolute rupture with the English, and that their High Mightinesses accordingly grant letters of reprisal to act against them to all those who will request and apply for the Advice to this effect shall also be transmitted to the Presiding Chamber of the West India Company of this country for its information, and further as to the same shall appertain. same. States-General to the West India Company. [From the Register of Uitgegane Brieven of the States-General, in the Royal Archives at the Hague.] THE STATES, &c. Follo 21. Honorable, &c. We grant letters of reprisal to act against the English to all Letters of reprisal. those applying for them, which you will further perceive from our resolution annexed, which we send for your information. Done at the Hague, 30th January, 1665. Wherewith, &e. Folio 86. Company. The English to be Resolution of the States-General. [From the Register of West India Affairs, 1664—1670, in the Royal Archives at the Hague. ] Friday, 6th February, 1665. On the petition of the Directors of the Incorporated West India Company of this country, it is, after consideration, resolved and concluded to authorize said attacked as enemies. Directors hereby to attack, conquer and ruin the English everywhere, both in and out of Europe, on land and water, with whatever force, through God's blessing, the above named Company now hath under their High Mightinesses' authority. Folio 87. England. a certain Memorial of Downing. Resolution of the States-General. [From the Register of West India Affairs, 1664-1670, in the Royal Archives at the Hague. ] Saturday, 7th February, 1665. Mess" Huygens and the other their High Mightinesses' Deputies for the affairs Deduction against of England have exhibited and submitted to the Assembly a certain draft in the form of a Deduction, which they have brought on paper, for the demolition of the contents of the Memorial presented on the 30th of December last by Sr. Downing, Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of Great Britain, pretending to be a justification of the hostile proceedings commenced by the said King both within and beyond Europe, against this State and its good inhabitants. Which, being considered, it is resolved and concluded that said draft shall be read next Monday, for which purpose their High Mightinesses shall meet on that day at nine o'clock in the morning. Folio 87. Manifesto against Resolution of the States-General. [From the Register of West India Affairs, 1664-1670, in the Royal Archives at the Hague.] Monday, 9th February, 1665. Their High Mightinesses' Deputies for the affairs of England have exhibited and delivered in writing to the Assembly, and had read certain Summary Observations and Manifesto drawn up by them pursuant to their High Mightinesses' preceding resolution on the Memorial presented to the Assembly on the 30t of last December by Sr. Downingh, Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of Great Britain. Which, being considered, their High Mightinesses have thanked those gentlemen for the trouble they have taken. And it is, furthermore, resolved and concluded to send the aforesaid Summary Observations and Manifesto to Mess" Boreel1 and Van Beuningen; also, to Residents Heins2 and Le Maire, in order, pursuant and agreeably to their High Mightinesses' previous resolutions, to duly inform the respective Kings of France, Sweden and Denmark of the present condition of affairs, conformably to the basis of the concluded alliances, and to give their Majesties faithfully to understand their High Mightinesses' upright and sincere intentions and proceedings. Copies thereof shall be communicated by Agent de Heyde, likewise to the Ambassadors of the aforesaid Kings resident here, and shall, moreover, be sent to Ambassador Van Gogh and handed to Mess" Van Amerong3 and Isbrants, their High Mightinesses' designated Ambassadors Extraordinary to the said Kings of Sweden and Denmark respectively. States-General to their Ambassadors at Foreign Courts. [From the Register of Uitgegane Brieven of the States-General, in the Royal Archives at the Hague. ] To Ambassador Boreel. To M. Van Beuningen, Ambassador Extraordinary to France. To M. Van Gogh, Ordinary Ambassador in England. To Residents Heins and Le Maire. THE STATES. Folio 29. Summary Observa Honorable, &c. Herewith goes copy of certain Summary Observations and tions and Manifesto. Manifesto, drawn up both in French and Dutch by Mess's the Deputies for the affairs of England, pursuant to our Resolution on the Memorial presented to our Assembly on the 30th December last by Sr. Downingh, Ambassador Extraordinary from the King of Great Britain, which, together with our Resolution this day adopted thereupon, we have resolved to send you herewith, to the end, as is in that resolution set forth, whereunto, on account of want of time, we refer. Wherewith, &c. 'GODART VAN REEDE, Lord of Amerong, was born in 1621. He entered into the public service in January, 1642, as Marshal of the city and country of Montfoort, Utrecht, but shortly after resigned that post, and in March following was inscribed among the Nobles of that Province and chosen their representative to the Assembly of the States-General at the Hague. He was sent Ambassador to Denmark about the year 1655, when he acquitted himself so ably that he was honored by the King with the Order of the Elephant. He was next accredited to the Court of Spain after the peace of Munster; then to the Bishop of Munster, and returned to Denmark twice, first in 1665 and then in 1667. In 1672 he accepted a mission from the Crown Prince of Brandenburg to the Court of Berlin, and was employed by the States-General to request the assistance of the German Empire against France, then invading the Low Countries. His mission had so favorable a result that the King of France became irritated against M. de Amerong personally, and ordered his chateaux and houses to be burned, on his refusing to return on the King's orders, to Utrecht then reduced by his Majesty's arms. He was again dispatched to Brandenburg in 1679, and remained at that Court several years. He returned in 1690 to Denmark. Having commenced his diplomatic career, he terminated it also at that Court, where he departed this life on the 9th of October, 1691, in the 70th year of his age. Moreri, verbo ATHLONE; Kok, XXIV., 108. - .ED. - Answer of the Dutch to the English Manifesto. (From the Register of the Resolutions of the States-General, in the Royal Archives at the Hague. ] Observations made by the Deputies of the High and Mighty Lords, States- High and Mighty Lords. Your Deputies on the affairs of England have, agreeably to and in accordance with your High Mightinesses' resolutions, seen, examined and considered a writing or Memorial presented to your High Mightinesses on the 30th of December last by Sr. Downing, Ambassador Extraordinary of the King of Great Britain, and have been astonished not only at finding therein a multitude of impertinent allegations, accompanied by their inferences, but also at remarking in it a very strange and unheard-of course. In fact, a Minister Resident at a Court has never been seen to deliver or present a writing or Memoir composed of reasons and terms which Princes, Potentates and Sovereign States have been accustomed to employ in Manifestoes immediately proceeding from themselves, without such writing being found to contain a conclusion, whence may be discovered the end at which it is to be expected all writings and Memoirs aim. This sole consideration shows that writing to be utterly undeserving of any answer, and that its author might be repaid by perpetual silence, even though your High Mightinesses' resolutions and answers, with which you have from time to time furnished Sr. Downing, should not have sufficiently met all the reasoning employed in it. Yet, in order to do something more than is required, and to give additional eclat to the evidence on which the justice and sincerity of your High Mightinesses' actions have been heretofore based, and to demonstrate the falsehood of the facts set forth by Sr. Downing, from which he draws unjustifiable inferences, your Deputies have considered it their duty to make some reflections justificatory of your High Mightinesses' proceeding, in the brief Observations they have made on the Memorial as well as on the reasons contained in it. 2 First, on said Sr. Downing's complaint, that your High Mightinesses' resolution of the eleventh day of December last, in answer to his Memorial, had been communicated to the other Foreign Ministers Resident at this Court, without giving him a copy thereof, to convince him or even to afford him an opportunity of vindicating himself, it must be considered that such a course is neither strange nor extraordinary, and that nothing has been done inconsistent with the rules of justice and courtesy, nor contrary to the practice of all Sovereign Princes and even of the King of Great Britain. For, your High Mightinesses being desirous of informing all the Allies of this State and also all neutral Princes, and of giving them a perfect knowledge of the true and real state of an affair, touching which they, perhaps for want of sufficient knowledge and information, and 'The copy of this State Paper in Holland Documents is in the French language. It has been carefully compared with the copies in Dutch, in Aitzema, Saacken van Staat in Oorlogh, 4to, XI., 714, and in a separately published Tract entitled "Sommiere Aenteyckeninge ende Deductie ingestelt by de Gedeputeerden van de Ho: Mog: Heeren Staten Generael der Vereenighde Nederlanden. Op het lest ingediende Memorie van den Heere George Downing, Extraordinaris Envoyé van den Koningh van Groot Brittanien. In 'sGravenhage, In de maent Februarii, Anno 1665." We are indebted for the loan of this Tract to James Leno, Esq., New-York. - ED. 2 The passages in italic are so printed in accordance with the style observed in the Dutch copies, to distinguish the passages of Sir George Downing's Memorial ED. through erroneous and false representations, had, in the absence of more correct information and of a true knowledge of particulars, possibly received some impression or opinion to your High Mightinesses' prejudice, especially the rather, as said Envoy Extraordinary had furnished a copy of his Memorial, presented on the 5th of the same month of December, and made up only of those false and impertinent informations, to the Ministers of the Allies of this State; and as it was of great importance to your High Mightinesses to inform those same Allies of the true and real state of the case; the Ministers of this State, resident at the Courts of those Allies, were, therefore, by the same resolutions, ordered to demonstrate and represent, from the reasons set forth in the preceding Deductions and answers, as well as from what has already. taken place and the knowledge they may themselves possess, the unsoundness of the Memorial transmitted by said Sr. Downing to such Courts or their Ministers, and that answer has been communicated to the Ministers of said Allies with the same view; that is to say, in order that they might second, near their masters in their particular offices, the duties which the Representatives of this State had to perform at such Courts. No necessity existed for observing the same course towards Sr. Downing, inasmuch as your High Mightinesses had been graciously pleased pertinently to inform him thereof, both in the written answers and Deductions with which, from time to time, they continued to have him furnished and even verbally in the conferences your Deputies have had with him. Your High Mightinesses have also been careful to cause the King of Great Britain to be informed most exactly, most fully and most truly, by your Ambassador, resident at his Majesty's Court, step by step of the state and condition of every affair. Hence, it may easily be concluded that the Resolution did not regard Ambassador Downing, because he did not stand in need of information, which, besides, is useless to those who are lacking in good-will rather than knowledge. Your High Mightinesses have therefore judged it unnecessary to send said resolution to him; for, as it was adopted on his resolution, he could, if he wished, obtain it at the Secretary's office, agreeably to the custom observed by all Foreign Ministers, who send to that office for all resolutions which regard them. Such is the case even in England, where your High Mightinesses' Ministers obtain scarcely any answers or resolutions until they have taken the trouble to look them up. And, certes, it is to be remarked here as a most astonishing circumstance, that Ambassador Downing, who, although the Minister of a great King, is, however, invested only with a second class character, pretends to lift his acts and writings to the same level with those of your High Mightinesses, and to make them pass as of equal importance throughout the world and at all Courts, which no Minister before him, of whatsoever grade, has ever pretended and will ever claim. For, says this Ambassador, had he proceeded in a like manner; had he communicated his Memorial to all the public Ministers and sent it to all the Foreign Ministers, without communicating it to your High Mightinesses, what would you have said? Your Deputies, High and Mighty Lords, frankly admit that the King of Great Britain, his Master, has the power and liberty to send to all the Foreign Courts all the writings he will think proper in justification of his conduct; that he can transmit them thither or have them presented by his Ministers without communicating them to your High Mightinesses, much less that he is obliged to communicate them to your Minister Resident at his Court, though invested with a higher character than Sr. Downing. But they are also of opinion that your High Mightinesses possess the same privilege and power, and are at liberty to exercise it, as you have done on this occasion, without being under any obligation to communicate such writing to the said Ambassador. They are, also, of opinion that said Sr. Downing, who is Resident here, cannot, any more than the other Resident |