Part 2

But from all I have observed in this Letter, I have wonder'd at nothing so much, as that impudent Vanity in the Writer, who endeavours to make himself and the World believe, that these _Memoirs_ were intended chiefly against him, whose very name is hardly twice mentioned after these two Pages in the whole Book, which does not pretend to give Characters of Persons, but only to relate things that were done, or words that were said; And the way to have made an answer with any Justice, had been to have laid Exceptions either against the one, or the other, whereof there is not one word in all this _Answer without any Answer_. However, so ridiculous is this mans Insolence, that he begins his Letter thus, _I have been informed of the Calumnies that Sir _W. T._ hath caused to be printed against me_. And p. 7. _He set upon me first, he writes out of a Spirit of Revenge_, &c. The sensless Arrogance of which I cannot think of; but it remembers me of the Fly on the Chariot-wheel. For he would fain make it to have been a piece of Revenge against him, for having brought that Dispatch to the _Hague_; and yet he lays it much to heart, that in that Affair he should only take him for a _Messenger_. And this indeed is to make him a very reasonable person, and like a man, that when he receives a blow, grows angry with the Stone by which it is given. But by all I can observe in these _Memoirs_, I do not find any thing which bears the least resemblance of Anger or Spleen, much less of Revenge against Mons. _de Cros_; but so far from it, that in the very Passage he lays most to heart, of the Kings calling him _Rogue_, the _Memoirs_ mention particularly, that His Majesty said it _pleasantly_, which he himself cannot forbear observing in his Letter.

Having thus long been considering how far he is provok'd, and how well he defends himself; 'tis time now to see how he attacks the Person whom he fancies his capital Enemy, and how the Play begins. 'Tis then in these words, _p. 1._ _I know very well that Sir _W. T._ is of great worth, and deserves well, and that he hath been a long time imployed, and that too upon important Occasions_. This is a piece indeed very much of a piece with all the rest. Now, in the name of wonder, what can be the meaning! I wot well enough, what he would be at in all the rest of his Letter; but the Sense, the Wit, or the Design of these sweet Lines, is not easy to devise. I confess, I see a good many Plays, and I believe I have read more, but never met before, so fair a Prologue to so foul a Farce. I have read somewhere of a Monster among the Ancients, with a Virgins face, and all beside, a Serpent; which holds exact Resemblance here, unless _de Cros_ should object against it, because Serpents have stings, and his Letter has none. However, if we will not grant him a _Conjurer_, as he would fain be thought, yet we cannot in Conscience deny him to be a _Jugler_, since the first thing he presents us with, is meer _slight of hand_; For he lays down a piece of _Gold_ upon the Table, and immediately, _Presto, 'tis gone_; and all we can see, is only half a dozen Pellets of _Dirt_. In short, I am not able to reach what he means by so whimsical a beginning, and of so different a piece from every word that follows; unless that being resolved to say nothing afterwards, which any body would believe, he thought fit to entertain us at first with three Lines he is sure no body doubts.

But, to be serious. If Sir _W. T._ be _of great worth_, If _de Cros_ either believes it himself, or would have any body else to do so, why is every word that follows, so contradictory to these? If he _deserves well_, why is he used so very ill? Does _de Cros_ understand what a man of _great worth_ means? I doubt he does not, either by himself, or by such Company, as so much good Language in all the rest of his Letter, would make us believe he keeps. Can a man of _great worth_, and that _deserves well_, be _Vain_, _Proud_, _Revengeful_, _Ungrateful to his Friend_, _False to his Master_, and impertinently _Ambitious_ in his very Retreat from all Publick Affairs? This is indeed a very worthy, and a very lively Character of a Man _of worth_. But is not such stuff as this, just a sputtering out, _Quicquid in Buccam venerit?_ Like hot Porridge, that burns his Tongue; tho 'tis pretty plain, that all his heat proceeds from the overflowing of his Gall within, and from nothing without. One would think he has very well practised the old Rule of _Calumniare fortiter_; yet he has lamentably fail'd of the consequence, _Aliquid inherebit_; for all the Dirt he endeavours to fling about, loves its own Element, and sticks close to his own Fingers. I never knew so unlucky a Gamester to throw so often, and to be always out! What, not one hit! I think the devil's in the Dice; however, lets throw again, but first we'll change Dice, and if the good Morals of this Man of great worth will not pass, let's try our luck at his Naturals. Sir _W. T._ (says my Gamester) _has been often and long employ'd_; but he himself _did not know about what_; 'twas too, _upon very important occasions_, but he did _not know why_, unless, because, as _de Cros_ tells us, _The King had an Aversion for him, and never trusted him_, how often soever he imployed him. This great Ambassador, to say the truth, is a very _Bubble_, and has as little Wit in some parts of the Letter, as Honesty in the other. Good Lord, how this silly World is apt to be gull'd! What a Cheat, and what a Jilt this common Fame is! Who would have believed that the Author of the _Observations on the _Netherlands__, and of the charming _Miscellanea_, should be such a Cully, if _de Cros_ had not made the discovery? but sure he could never be Author of those Books; doubtless he either hired some body to write them for him, or else some honest Bookseller like his own, had got the Copies, and set Sir _W. T_'s name to them. _I would to God he had been so honest to set mine in the stead._ But now we have heard the Charge, pray make room for the Evidence: Sir _W. T._ is the _proudest Man_ in the World; and what are the proofs, or the Instances? Why, _de Cros_ says it, and that's Demonstration. He is ungrateful to his Friend, and why? Because _de Cros_ knows it. He is false to his Master, and the Reason's plain, _de Cros_ pretends to believe it. He is _the most revengeful of Men_, for he calls _de Cros_ by his _own Name_. He is of all men _the most Ambitious_, and _never did man desire more to have a hand in Affairs_. This is beyond dispute, for _de Cros_ knows his thoughts, and tells us not only what he says of others, but what he thinks of himself, and with equal truth. This is the _Conjurer_ again, and with a witness he tells us further, _p. 9._ of men _whose ruin Sir _W. T._ desires at the bottom of his heart_; where it is not to be questioned, but _de Cros_ has been; and to put it beyond all doubt that he was so, he says, _p. 13._ That _Sir _W. T._ came once to render _him_ a visit at _his_ Lodging_, and that _Mons. _Olivencrants_ the _Swedish_ Ambassador, was then at _his_ House_, which gives me a scruple, that the visit might be meant to _him_, rather than to Mons. _de Cros_. However this is all the instances I find of his Acquaintance with a Person whose heart he pretends to know so well, and with whom by all the rest of his Letter, I should be apt to judge he was the least acquainted with, of any man in the World. But to close all these Generals before we come to particulars; he tells us, _p. 29._ he knows something of Sir _W. T._ upon the Subject of what passed between him and my Lord _Arlington_, _that makes his hair stand on end_. Alas, the poor Gentleman's in an Agony! Bless us all from sprights! what a puny Conjurer is this! to raise a Spirit that scares no body else, and run into a hole for fear of it himself: He has formed so terrible an Image of Sir _W. T._ in his own little working Noddle, that he knows not were he is, nor what he does, but is all in a maze. However, this I am certain, that no man alive who has read the rest of _de Cros_'s Letter, but will allow him to be one, that if he knew any thing ill of Sir _W. T._ would at least be sure not to tell it; we have his own word for it, p. 7. _My design is not at all, my Lord, to write you a Letter full of Invectives against Sir _W. T.__ And in another place, _That _(says he)_ would not be like a Gentleman_.

But yet to give him his due, and as he says, p. 7. _To let everybody see _he_ has means in _his_ hands to be revenged_; there is one point, and that alone, where he brings his Proof, lays downs his Instance, and that out of the _Memoirs_ themselves; 'tis designed undeniably to convince the World of Sir _W. T_'s Vanity, of which he could give _my Lord_ many instances, but at present contents himself with one, and 'tis a thumping one. 'Tis the following Period, which I shall quote out of the _Memoirs_, a little more faithfully than he does in his Letter, which I was so curious to observe, by thinking the word [_Clutches_] to be no part of Sir _W. T_'s stile, and found he had taken a great deal of pains, to wrest it as much as he could to his turn. It runs thus, _Mem._ p. 30. _This I suppose gave some occasion for my being again designed for this Ambassy, who was thought to have some credit with _Spain_ as well as _Holland_, from the Negotiations I had formerly run through, at the _Hague_, _Brussels_, and _Aix la Chapelle_, by which the remaining part of _Flanders_ had been saved out of the hands of _France_ in the year 1668._ Now for my own part, I must confess my self so giddy a Reader, and of so much inadvertency, that when I read that Passage, I took it for a singular piece of Modesty, since the Author gives for a Reason, why the King chose him for his second Ambassy in _Holland_, because he had been formerly employed in those Countries, and not for any Personal Merit in himself; but _de Cros_ is so great a Stranger to Modesty, that we cannot blame him for not knowing it when he meets it; and since he has no other Accusations of this kind, I must profess, I can discover nothing of Vanity in the whole _Series_ of all those Relations, nor can reckon for such, the Author's not avoiding to speak of himself any more than of other Persons (when it came in his way) who had so great and so continual a part in the whole Course of that Story. In his other Works this Author I am sure makes little mention enough of himself; and it were to be wisht that Persons so much employ'd in publick Business, would tell all their own Parts as well others Mens, and as nakedly as he seems to do in these _Memoirs_.

But the reason _de Cros_ gives us, why he would have the World believe him in all he says against Sir _W. T._ is, Because he is first attackt, and thereupon in great Passion and Rage, which will pass for an admirable Argument, that he designs to speak nothing but truth, and for a very cunning way of being believed; tho some men perhaps may think, that whatever is said in Passion, is but just so much of _nothing to the purpose_, and that it commonly makes a man in what he says or does, not only as peevish as a Wasp, but as blind as a Beetle. But if he will believe right or wrong, why will not he believe in his turn? And why is not he contented to _Give_ as well as to _Take_? He will not allow that Sir _W. T._ might several times have been Secretary of State, when Mr. _Montague_, and Mr. _Sydney_, who are named (in _Memoirs p._) to have been set on him by the Lord _Arlington_ at that time to persuade him to accept it, are still alive, as well as my Lord Treasurer, who is mentioned, _Mem. p. 273._ to have written to him by His Majesty's Command to come over and enter on the Secretaries Office. And _p. 385._ 'tis further added, That Sir _W. T._ received the _King's own Orders to come immediately over, and enter upon that Office, and to acquaint the Prince and States with that Resolution_; which must of course have come to him through my Lord _Sunderland_'s hand, who _Mem. p. 387._ is said to have been brought into Sir _Joseph Williamson_'s place, and his Lordship being likewise still alive, can easily tell, whether this be true or no. Therefore, why does not _de Cros_ himself, or some Friend for him (if he has any) enquire into the truth of these Passages which are told so positively, and wherein so many parties concern'd are still alive, tho most of them with other Titles. And indeed, tho it may be ill for Sir _W. T_'s private Satisfaction, that these _Memoirs_ were printed against his Consent, and during his Life, which it appears was never intended; yet nothing could defend the Truth of them so much, as that so many Persons are yet alive, who had so great a part in all those Affairs there related, who are the best and most competent Judges of the Truth; and I never heard that any of them have yet contradicted the least part. But however, since the _Monk_ has got into the _Infallible Chair_, he must be believed, there is no help, and we must like the _Welsh-man_, _Take her own word for it_. And so let him go away with all those apposite and choice Epithets he has given of this _most worthy_ and _well-deserving_ person, without where, or when, or why, or wherefore; For I am sure there is no way of replying to them; and he that would set about it, might as well resolve to write an Answer to a Leaf in _Textor_'s Epithets.

And thus I have with much ado rid my hands of a great part of _De Cros_'s Rubbish, as far as it endeavours to bespatter Sir _W. T._ in his Morals and Intellectuals. It remains now I should observe a little what he says concerning his Fortunes, which seems to turn upon these two rusty Hinges, that make as ill a noise as all the rest; the obscurity from whence he was raised to all those great Employments, and his disgrace upon leaving them, which _De Cros_ says was immediately after his Return from _Nimeguen_.

For my own part I must confess I am neither old enough, nor have had Conversation in Courts, and with Publick Affairs, to give an account how Sir _W. T._ came into Business, or how he went out, any further than I could gather from Writings and Transactions which are publick and known to every body; or by particular enquiries from some Friends and Acquaintance of my own; and it has happened, that some of them have long known so much of that Family, as to assure me it is a very Ancient one: That Sir _W. T._ was born of a very Honourable Father, who was for many years of the Privy Council in _Ireland_ to King _Charles_ the First, and King _Charles_ the Second, and was long possessed of one of the best Offices in that Kingdom, both for Honour and Profit; as likewise in his time a Member of several Parliaments in _England_: That his two younger Brothers are known to have lived always with plentiful Fortunes, and in much esteem: So that this Gentleman alone seems to have been born under the unluckiest Planet in the world, tho Heir to his Father's Fortune, and Successor to his Office, which was so considerable; yet he only of all his Family, was _in Obscurity_, and _lay in the Dust_ (for so the _French_ Letter has it) till my Lord _Arlington_ raised him out of both; whose beams it seems were so refulgent, as to make him shine at that distance his Foreign Employments carried him to. My Friends have likewise assured me from their own remembrance and knowledge, that Sir _W. T._ shined as much in a Parliament of _Ireland_ soon after the King's Restoration, as _De Cros_ says he shined long in his Employments abroad; and this was several years before he came into any Foreign Employments. They told me, likewise that he was very easy in his Fortune, not only by what he had from his _Father_, but from his _Lady_, to whom God be thanked (and it is very happy for her Ladyship that) _De Cros_ says, he has no Quarrel. By all which, and the many Employments he since passed through, and of which in one of his Essays he says, he _never sought any_; in my weak conception I should think he was a person, that by the Circumstances of his Humour and his Fortune, needed the Court less than the Court needed him.

As to his going out from Publick Employments, which _De Cros_ tells us was upon _the King's being so ill satisfied with his Conduct and Management of Affairs abroad, particularly those at _Nimeguen__; that _he slighted him upon his return from thence, and made very little use of him_. I can give no other Account besides what I find of the Time and the manner in the _Epistle_ before the _Memoirs_; only I find, by comparing the Date of his Return from _Nimeguen_, with that of King _Charles_'s Declaration upon his dissolution of the old Council, and selecting a new one, that Sir _W. T._ was a Member of that new and select Council; and it was the Common Town-talk at that time, that this Declaration was writ by him, and that he was in his Majesty's Chief Confidence upon that surprising Resolution, which was received with such Applauses, Bonfires, and other expressions of Joy in the City. Besides all this, having had some acquaintance among _Spanish_ Merchants in Town, I came to know, that several of them about two years after, had recourse to Sir _W. T._ upon his being then declared Ambassador Extraordinary to the Crown of _Spain_, by the King at Council, whereof he himself was then a Member. All which laid together, does most abundantly verifie what _De Cros_ says of his being disgraced upon his return from _Nimeguen_. But the best account of all these Passages we must expect whenever he will think fit to publish the first and third part of the _Memoirs_, which are mentioned at the beginning and end of those the world has seen already. In the mean time, what little has happened to fall in the way of my knowledge or enquiries, may be enough to discover the impudent Forgery of this false Coyner, who pretends to counterfeit all sorts of Metals, but is so wretched a bungler, and performs it so grosly, that not one of them will pass. 'Twas for this Reason, I suppose, that the _French_ Edition of his Letter pretends to have been printed at _Cologne_, which I have long observed to be the Common Forge, or at least the Common Form of Paltry, Scurrilous Libels, printed in that Language; and which no Printer or Bookseller abroad dare set their Names to. This I cannot but mention for the Credit and Reputation of his honest Stationer at the _Mitre_, who I believe is the only Stationer in _England_ would have had the ingenuity to set the _Mitre_ on this _Monk_'s Head.

The last precious piece of his Malice I shall take notice of, is, That he grudges Sir _W. T._ even the Honour of his Retreat from Publick Affairs, by which perhaps he has been more distinguished, than by his greatest Employments: But this _De Cros_ cannot allow him: No, saye he, _p. 8._ _It was not what he would make us believe; his love for his own ease, and his indispositions of body, that made him decline his Employments_. Alas! what a sad Fate that man falls under, that dares incur the displeasure of Mons. _De Cros_? or who can tell what will become of him? He must neither live at Court, nor at his own House, in publick Business, nor out of it; In Town, nor in Country: where shall we find a place for him? I know none but the middle Region of the Air: But, _It was not his love for his own Ease_, &c. _that made him decline his Employments_. Why? whoever informed this Conjurer it was? I am sure the _Memoirs_ say no such thing, but in the last Page gives us a quite different account; where, telling his Reasons why he excused himself, at his return from _Nimeguen_, from entring upon the Secretaries Office, are these Words: _I that never had any thing so much at heart as the union of my Country, which I thought the only way to its greatness and felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the divisions of it_. And towards the end: _After almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at some Union, or at least some allay of the Heats and Distempers between the King and his Parliament, I took the Resolution of having no more to do with Affairs of State_. Which Resolution it seems was taken about the beginning of the Year 1681. when he sent the King word he _would pass the remainder of his life like as good a private Subject as any he had_, &c. as is to be seen in the Epistle. Yet for all this Mons. _De Cros_, who knows his thoughts better than himself, or than his Actions can inform us, says, _Never did man desire more to have a hand in Affairs_. Why here he shews us the silly _Bubble_ again, and the wise way he takes to fulfil this impatient Desire; 'Tis by going to his House in the Country, where he stays five years, as he tells us in one of his Essays, without so much as ever seeing the Town: and since (as I am inform'd) to avoid so much Resort at that smaller distance from the City, he goes to another of his Houses of a much greater in the Country; which was an admirable wise Contrivance to satisfie his Longings to get again into Business: Truly I my self could have helpt him to a Better: For could he not like other men of such a craving Kidney, have still buzzed about the Court, knocked at every dore there, and when one was deaf and would not open, go to another; and at the worst have grown so troublesome, that some body would at last bring him into Employment, tho it were but to be rid of him? Or, if this Contrivance had failed, he might have herded among the Factious and Discontented about the Town; gone to the Coffee-houses, railed at the Ministers, and quarrelled with the Government, till they would be glad to have hired him at the expence of an Employment to hold his Tongue: And I am sure if he talks as well as he writes, he might very well have gone this way to work, and with as much likelihood to succeed as _Others have done, or pretend to do_. Tho a Common Reader would be apt to think the Author of these _Memoirs_ might have found some other ways, either of preserving himself in Business, or of getting in when he was out; at least in so easy a Court as that of King _Charles_ the Second's is taken to have been. Or if these Endeavours had miscarried, he might yet have made some shift or other to have obtained his Desire upon such a Revolution as has since happened; and he is very much wronged by the common Voice of the Town, if he has not found it as hard to excuse himself from entring into Publick Employments in this Reign, as in that of the late King _Charles_.

For my own part, I can profess with the greatest Truth in the world, That before this Libel of _De Cros_, I have never met with in all my Conversation and Reading, with the least Reproach from any man against Sir _W. T._ except it be in one point; Of his having made too rashly, or kept too obstinately, his Resolution, Never to enter again into Publick Employments; especially since he lives in an Age where such persons as he appears to be by his Writings, might be of so uncommon use and Advantage to his Country: This I cannot but own, I have often heard said, and that somewhat warmly, to his charge, and must leave it to himself to clear it as he can. But however, _De Cros_ it seems knows his thought best, and must be believed in all he says upon this Point, as well as the rest: And I only wish, since the Spark is so good at finding out what other men think, that he would take the pains to learn for his comfort what all men think of him: One thing I am sure is, that with all the Bloaches of his dirty Pencil, he has daub'd up a Picture of Sir _W. T._ which has top-fil'd the measure of all Forgery; _Sed Vetitum nihil est scheleri_, and which is as true and like the Original, as a man would make of this Dauber, if he should say, _De Cros_ were a very honest, worthy, well-natur'd, well-bred, fair-spoken, plain-dealing, ingenious Writer; of excellent Morals, wondrous Wit, and exact Truth.