J 



506 



A. D. 1662. 



don by the French ambarTador, the Count D'liftrades, and by the earl 

 of Clarendon lord chancellor, the earl of Southampton lord treafurer, 

 the duke of Albemarle, and the earl of Sandwich, (all EnglKlimen) 

 under a coaimiffion from the king. As for the price, it was almoft as 

 fhameful as the delivering up the place was criminal, viz. 5,000^000 of 

 livres, or about L25o,ooo fterling. Had that number of millions been 

 flerling money inftead of French, fatal experience has long fince de- 

 monftrated its being inadequate to fo ineflimable a jewel. We ought, 

 however, to do juflice, as far as we fairly can, to one of the four commif- 

 fioners, who, rather than lofe their private emoluments, fo fliamefully 

 gave up the nation's interefl:, viz. the earl of Sandwich, who at hrft pro- 

 pofed the abfolute demolition of Dunkirk, and deftroying its harbour 

 in fuch a manner as to render it for ever ufelefs, which, next to its re- 

 maining in our hands, was certainly the beft fcheme. For, as to what 

 fundry writers have remarked, of its being better to have been fold to 

 Spain or Holland, that might be true with refpedl to the time we are 

 upon, but who could anfwer for the hurt that place might in future 

 times have done to us in the hands of either of thofe nations, as power 

 is perpetually fluctuating ? there was therefor nothing for a wife king 

 and an honefl; Englifh miniflry to choofe but to preferve, ftrengthen, 

 and improve, that place, let the expenfe be more or lefs, whereby we 

 fliould have remained maflers of both fldes of the greateft commercial 

 thoroughfare in the univerfe. Marflial Schomberg, then in England, 

 advifed the king to keep it, as his naval flrength would effedually pre- 

 vent its being taken, and the holding of it would keep both France and 

 Spain in a dependence upon him : in which opinion, fays Bifhop Burnet, 

 he was Angular ; and yet there was more truth and judgement in this 

 opinion than all that was faid and written on this point. For, with re- 

 gard to the moil folemn treaties, which France's neceflities have fince 

 obliged that crown to flipulate for the demolition of its fortifications 

 and the filling up of its harbour, &c. we have more than once feen how 

 eafy it has been for fuch a powerful nation, void of all fliame and ho- 

 nour, to reftore both the one and the other *. 



Voltaire, in his Age of Louis XIV, informs us that the Fi'ench royal 

 council of coinmerce was ereded this year ; and that the king himlelf 

 prefided therein once in every fortnight. Need we to wonder then at 



* The price, which however, was a matter of pable of receiving large fliips. As for the poflcf- 



liltle confequcnce, was L.400,oco. \_^D'' EJlradcs , iion of it making us mafters of both fides of the 



quotccl in Marpherfoii's Hijt. of Great Britain, V. ftrait, it is evident, that our floating caftles may 



i, />. 51.] . It is not eafyto give anygood reafon, command the flrait without having forts or har- 



vvliy Mr. Anderfon, and many ihoufands befides, bours on both fides, but that both fliores coveral 



IhoulJ be fo exceedingly angry at getting rid of with great guns can never command fuch a paf» 



the ufelefs expenfe of keeping an indefenfible poll fage without Ihips. M. 

 in a foreign country, which has not a harbour ca- 



