THE PRUSSIAN LETTERS ad. 



1404. 



your majestie, we would have them especially recom- 

 mended unto our protection &c. Most soveraigne lord 

 & king, & gracious prince, wee doe with unfained and 

 hearty affection embrace the oracles of your majesties 

 most courteous & acceptable offer : wherein you have 

 used most diligent & effectuall perswasions, that comple- 

 ment of justice should be done unto the parties injuried, 

 & that peace & friendship should take place, making 

 no doubt of your own royall person, nor of our selves 

 or of any appertayning unto us, but that our inclinations 

 and desires in this regarde are all one and the same : 

 neither would we lightly transgresse the limits of your 

 perswasions without some just, weighty, & reasonable 

 cause, forasmuch as the matters perswaded are in very [I. 161.] 

 deede most happy preservatives of a common weale, yea 

 & of nature it selfe. Moreover whereas your highnes 

 hath farther requested us, that the prohibition of your 

 subjects accesse unto our dominions might, untill the 

 feast of Easter next ensuing, be released : we answere 

 (under correction of your majesties more deliberate 

 counsell) that it is farre more expedient for both parts 

 to have the sayd prohibition continued then released, 

 until such time as satisfaction be performed on both sides 

 unto the parties endamaged, not in words only, but 

 actually & really in deeds, or by some course of law 

 or friendly composition. For there is no equall nor 

 indifferent kinde of consort or trade between the im- 

 poverished party and him that is inriched, betweene the 

 partie which hath obtayned justice and him that hath 

 obtayned none between the offender and the party 

 offended : because they are not mooved with like affec- 

 tions. For the remembrance of injuries easily stirreth 

 up inconsiderate motions of anger. Also, such a kind 

 of temperature or permixtion, as it were, by way of con- 

 trariety breedeth more bitternes then sweetnes, more hate 

 then love : whereupon more grievous complaints aswel 

 unto your highnes as unto our selves, might be occa- 

 sioned. The lord knoweth, that even now we are too 



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