Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

247

A

LETTER

CONCERNING THE

Burning of ALTENA,

As related in the

HISTORY OF CHARLES XII.

Paris 25 April 1733.

HE great Difficulty we have in
France of getting Books from

Τ

Holland, is the Reason why the ninth Tome of the Bibliotheque Raisonnée came but late to my Hands. And I will obferve by the way, that if the Journal is equal to the Pieces I have perused in it, 'tis a Misfortune for our Men of Letters in France, that they are not acquainted with that Work,

IN Page 496, Part II. of the ninth Tome abovemention'd, I found a Letter in which I am accus'd of afperfing the City of Hamburgh in the Hiftory of Charles the Twelfth.

A few Days fince one Mr. Rickey of Hamburgh, a Scholar and a Man of Merit, having honoured me with a Vifit, revived the Complaint I just now mention'd in the Name of his Fellow-citizens.

HERE follows the Relation I gave, and what I my felf am obliged to declare. In the Heat of the unhappy War which made fo dreadful a Havock in the North, the Counts of Steinbok and of Welling, the Swedish Generals, form'd Anno 1713, in the very City of Hamburgh, a Refolution to burn Altena, a Trading City, and Subject to the Danes; for the Commerce of this City began to flourish fo much, that the Hamburghers grew a little Jealous of it.

THIS Refolution was executed unmer cifully in the Night of the Ninth of January. Thefe Generals lay in Hamburgh that very Night; they lay in it the Tenth,

3

Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth; and dated from the last mention'd City the Letters they wrote to clear themselves, from the Imputation of being the Authors of fo barbarous a Catastrophe.

'Tis befides certain, and the Hamburghers themselves don't deny it, that the Gates of their City were shut against several of the Inhabitants of Altena; against old Men, and big-belly'd Women, who came to implore an Afylum; and that feveral of thefe unhappy Wretches expired under the Walls of Hamburgh, frozen with Cold, and opprefs'd with Misery, at the same time that their Country was burnt to Ashes,

I was oblig'd to infert these Particulars in the History of Charles the Twelfth. One of the Perfons who furnished me with Materials, declares in his Letter, in the most positive Terms, that the Hamburghers had given Count Steinbok a Sum of Money, in order to engage him to destroy Altena, as being their Rival in Trade.

may

I did not however adopt fo grievous an Accufation. What Reafon foever I have to be convinc'd of the great Depravity of Mankind, I yet was never fo Credulous with regard to Crimes. I have combated, and that efficaciously, more than one Calumny; and am even the only Man who dar'd to justify the Memory of Count Piper, by Arguments, at the Time that all Europe flander'd him by Conjectures.

INSTEAD therefore of following the Account which had been communicated to me, I contented myself with relating, That it was reported, fome Hamburghers. had given a Sum of Money fecretly to Count Steinbok. This Report became univerfal, and was founded on Appearances. An Hiftorian is allow'd to infert Reports as well as Facts, and when he publishes a general Report, an Opinion, merely as an Opinion, and not as Truth, he is neither refponfible for it, nor ought to be accus'd in any manner for fo doing. But when he is inform'd that this popular Opinion is falfe and flanderous, 'tis

then

« ElőzőTovább »