630 Bijhop Burne t'j Travels ^ Book I L 
Roman State after the Battle of Canne. When a young 
Prince, that had never before borne Arms, or fo much 
as feen a Campaign, who had little or no Counfel about 
him, but what was fuggefted from his ownThoughts,and 
that had no extraordinary Advantage by his Education, 
either for Literature or publick Affairs, was of a hidden 
fet at the Head of a State and Army, that was funk 
with fo many Loffes, and that faw the beft half of its 
Soil torn from it, and the moft powerful Enemy in the 
World, furrounded with a viflorious Army that was 
commanded by the beft Generals that the Age hath 
produced, come within Sight, and fettle his Court 
in one of its beft Towns, and had at the fame Time 
the greateft Force, both by Sea and Land, that hath 
been known, united together for its Deftruflion : When 
the Inhabitants were forced, that they might fave them- 
felves from fo formidable an Enemy, to let loofe that 
which on all other Occafions is the moft dreadful to 
them, and to drown fo great a Part of their Soil for 
the Prefervation of the reft j and to complicate toge- 
ther all the Miferies that a Nation can dread *, when 
to the general Confternation with which fo difmal a 
Scene pofleffed them, a Diftradion within Doors 
feemed to threaten them with the laft Strokes ; 
and while their Army was fo ill difciplined, that 
they durft fcarce promife themfelves any thing 
from fuch feeble Troops, after a Peace at Land of 
almoft thirty Years Continuance ; and while their 
chief Ally, that was the moft concerned in their Pre- 
fervation, was, like a great Paralytick Body, more like 
to fall on thofe that it pretended to fupport, and to 
crufli them, than to give them any confiderable Af- 
fiftance : When, I fay, a young Prince came at the 
Head of all this, the very Profped of which would 
have quite damp’d an ordinary Courage, he very quick- 
ly changed the Scene ; he animated the publick Coun- 
cils with a generous Vigour ; he found them finking 
into a Feeblenefs of hearkeping to Propofitions for a 
Peace that were as little fafe as honourable ; but he 
difpofed them to refolve on hazarding all, rather than 
to fubmit to fuch infamous Terms. 
His Credit alfo among the Populace feemed to in- 
fpire them with a new Life : They ealily perfuaded 
themfelves, that as one William, Prince of Orange, 
had formed their State, fo here another of the fame 
Name feemed marked out to recover and preferve it : 
It was this Spirit of Courage, which he derived from 
his own Breaft, and infufed into the whole People, as 
well as into the Magiftracy, that preferved this Coun- 
try, Something there was in all this that was Divine. 
The publick Councils were again fettled, and the Peo- 
ple were at quiet, when they faw him vefted with a 
full Authority for that Time with relation to Peace 
and War, and concluded they were fafe, becaufe they 
were in his Hands. It foon appeared how faithfully he 
purfued the Intereft of his Country, and how little he 
regarded his own. He rejected all Propofitions of 
Peace that were hurtful to his Country, without fo 
much as confidering the Advantages that were of- 
fered to himfelf (in which you know that I write upon 
fure Grounds) he refufed the Offer of the Sovereignty 
of its chief City, that was made to him by a folemn 
Deputation, being fatisfied with that Authority which 
had been fo long maintained by his Anceftors, with fo 
much Glory, and being juftly fenfible how much the 
breaking-in upon eftabliftied Laws and Liberties is fa- 
tal even to thofe that feem to get by it : He thus began 
his publick Appearance on the Stage with all the Dif- 
advantages that a Spirit afpiring to true Glory could 
wifti for ; ftnce it was vifible he had nothing to truft 
to but a good Caufe, a favourable Providence, and his 
own Integrity and Courage : Nor was Succefs wanting 
to fuch noble Beginnings ; for he in a fhort Time, 
with a Condud and Spirit beyond any thing that the 
World hath yet feen, recover’d this State out of fo def- 
perate a Diftemper, took fome Places by main Force, 
and obliged the Enemy to abandon all that they had 
acquired in fo feeble a Manner. And if a raw Army 
had not always Succefs againft more numerous and bet- 
ter-trained Troops ; and if the V/ant of Magazines 
and Stores in their Allies Country, which was the chief 
. Scene of the War, made that he could not poft his 
Army and wait for favourable Circumftances, fo that 
he was fometimes forced to run to Adion with a Hafte 
that his Neceffities impofed upon him ; yet the forcing 
of the Beginnings of a Vidory out of the Hands of 
the greateft General of the Age, the facing a great Mo- 
narch with an Army much inferior to his, when the 
other was too cautious to hazard an Engagement j and, 
in fhort, the forming the Dutch Army to fuch a Pitch 
that it became vifibly fuperior to xht French, that feem- 
ed to have been fed with Conquefts j and the continuing 
the War till the Prince, that had facrificed the Quiet 
of Europe to his Glory, was glad to come and treat for 
a Peace in the Enemy’s Country, and in this very Place, 
and to let all Engines on work to obtain that, by the 
Mediation of fome, and the Jealoufies of other Princes : 
All thefe are fuch Performances, that Pofterity will be 
difpofed to rank them rather among the Ideas of what 
an imaginary Hero could do, than with what could be 
really tranfaded in fo fhort a Time, and in fuch a 
Manner. And in Conclufion, every Place that be- 
longed to thefe States, and to their Neighbours along 
the Rhine, together with a great many in Flanders, be- 
ing reftored, thefe Provinces now fee themfelves, un- 
der his happy Condud, re-eftabliCied in their for- 
mer Peace and Security. And though fome Scars of 
fuch deep Wounds may ftill remain, yet they find them- 
felves confidered on all Hands as the Bulwark of Chri- 
ftendom againft the Fears of a new Monarchy, and as 
the Prefervers of the Peace and Liberty of Europe. 
Here is a Harveft, not for forced Rhetorick or falfe 
Eloquence, but for a fevere and fincere Hiftorian, ca- 
pable of affording a Work that will far exceed all thofe 
lufcious Panegyricks of mercenary Pens : But a fmall 
or a counterfeit Jewel muft be fet with all poffible Ad- 
vantages, when a true one of a great Value needs only 
to be fhewed, in order to have that Value known. 
If one was to offer a proper Manner of writing 
Voyages to the Confideration and Example of thofe 
that travel, I do not conceive, that a better Model 
could well be found, than thefe Letters of Bifhop Bur- 
neFs. The great End of Travelling is to form right 
Notions of the Countries one fees, and of the People 
who inhabit them, and this End our Prelate plainly 
propofed to himfelf, and t(5 the honourable Perfon to 
whom he wrote, who was likewife a great Judge of 
the Truth and Fidelity with which he wrote, fince 
he had himfelf travelled through thefe Countries, and 
refided a confiderable Time at Geneva. But at this Di- 
ftance of Time we are better judges of his Penetration 
and Sagacity ; for as he reprefents the Conftitution and 
political Affairs of the Swijfers impartially, fo he very 
truly forefaw the Diforders that have fince happened 
in that Country as well as at Geneva. As thofe Difor- 
ders juftify his Political Capacity, fo they fully con- 
vince us of the Truth of the Maxim by him laid down. 
That Ambition will produce the fame Effedls, let the 
Objed of it be great or fmall, and the Defire of Gor 
verning a Bailiage will have juft the fame mifchievous 
Confequences in a fmall Republick, that the Thirft of 
prefiding over a great Province has in a larger State. 
So that in all Governments thus conftituted, the very 
Principles of their Grandeur are alfo the Seeds of their 
Deftrudion, if thefe Governments are not yet diffolved ; 
this is owing to the Care of their Neighbours, and 
to fome other Accidents j but that they fhould be torn 
by Divifions, and once in a Century brought to the 
Brink of Diffolution, is very natural, and what has 
really happened within the Compafs of our own Me- 
mory, when the State of Geneva was faved by the In- 
terpofition of France and the Swijjers, the Government 
brought back to its firft Principles and the Govern- 
ment fet right another Age at leaf!:. 
His Predidion with Refped to Lombardy, and the 
other Spanijh Povinces in Italy, have been alfo fulfilled. 
The late King Philip V. entred into the quiet Poffef- 
fion of them as Succeffor in the Spanifh Monarchy, and 
was fupported in the Poffdfion of them, not only by 
the Forces, of that Grown, but alfo by thofe of France i 
