Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	emperor_n	king_n	spain_n	4,405	5	8.5591	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37421	An argument shewing, that a standing army, with consent of Parliament, is not inconsistent with a free government, &c.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing D828; ESTC R20142	15,613	32

how was it altered in the Case of Oliver Tho' his Government did a Tyrant resemble He made England Great and her Enemies tremble Dialogue of the Houses And what is it places the present King at the Helm of the Confederacies Why do they commit their Armies to his Charge and appoint the Congress of their Plenipotentiaries at his Court Why do Distressed Princes seek his Mediation as the Dukes of Holstien Savoy and the like Why did the Emperor and the King of Spain leave the whole Management of the Peace to him 'T is all the Reputation of his Conduct and the English Valour under him and 't is absolutely necessary to support this Character which England now bears in the World for the great Advantages which may and will be made from it and this Character can never Live nor these Allyances be supported with no Force at Hand to perform the Conditions These are some Reasons why a Force is necessary but the Question is What Force For I Grant it does not follow from hence that a great Army must be kept on Foot in time of Peace as the Author of the Second Part of the Argument says is pleaded for Since then no Army and a great Army are Extreams equally dangerous the one to our Liberty at Home and the other to our Reputation Abroad and the Safety of our Confederates it remains to Inquire what Medium is to be found out or in plain English what Army may with Safety to our Liberties be Maintained in England or what Means may be found out to make such an Army serviceable for the Defence of us and our Allies and yet not dangerous to our Constitution That any Army at all can be Safe the Argument denies but that cannot be made out a Thousand Men is an Army as much as 100000 as the Spanish Armado is call'd An Armado tho' they seldom fit out above Four Men of War and on this Account I must crave leave to say I do Confute the Assertion in the Title of the Argument that a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and I shall further do it by the Authority of Parliament In the Claim of Right presented to the present King and which he Swore to observe as the Pacta Conventa of the Kingdom it is declar'd in hac verba That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law This plainly lays the whole stress of the thing not against the thing it self A Standing Army nor against the Season in time of Peace but against the Circumstance Consent of Parliament and I think nothing is more Rational than to Conclude from thence that a Standing Army in time of Peace with Consent of Parliament is not against Law and I may go on nor is not Inconsistent with a Free Government nor Destructive of the English Monarchy There are Two Distinctions necessary therefore in the present Debate to bring the Question to a narrow Compass First I distinguish between a Great Army and a small Army And Secondly I distinguish between an Army kept on Foot without Consent of Parliament and an Army with Consent of Parliament And whereas we are told an Army of Soldiers is an Army of Masters and the Consent of Parliament don't alter it but they may turn them out of doors who Rais'd them as they did the Long Parliament The First distinction answers that for if a great Army may do it a small Army can't and then the Second Distinction regulates the First For it cannot be supposed but the Parliament when they give that Consent which can only make an Army Lawful will not Consent to a larger Army then they can so Master as that the Liberties or People of England shall never be in danger from them No Man will say this cannot be because the Number may be supposed as small as you please but to avoid the Sophistry of an Argument I 'll suppose the very Troops which we see the Parliament have not Voted to be Disbanded that is those which were on Foot before the Year 1680. No Man will deny them to be a Standing Army and yet sure no Man will imagine any danger to our Liberties from them We are ask'd if you establish an Army and a Revenue to pay them How shall we be sure they will not continue themselves But will any Man ask that Question of such an Army as this Can Six Thousand Men tell the Nation they won't Disband but will continue themselves and then Raise Money to do it Can they Exact it by Military Execution If they can our Militia must be very despicable The keeping such a Remnant of an Army does not hinder but the Militia may be made as useful as you please and the more useful you make it the less danger from this Army And however it may have been the Business of our Kings to make the Militia as useless as they could the present King never shew'd any Tokens of such a Design Nor is it more than will be needful for 6000 Men by themselves won't do if the Invasion we speak of should ever be attempted What has been said of the Appearance of the People on the Purbeck fancied Invasion was very true but I must say had it been a true One of Forty Thousand Regular Troops all that Appearance cou'd have done nothing but have drove the Country in order to starve them and then have run away I am apt enough to grant what has been said of the Impracticableness of any Invasion upon us while we are Masters at Sea but I am sure the Defence of England's Peace lies in making War in Flanders Queen Elizabeth found it so her way to beat the Spaniards was by helping the Dutch to do it And she as much Defended England in aiding Prince Maurice to win the Great Battel of Newport as she did in Defeating their Invincible Armado Oliver Cromwel took the same Course for he no sooner declared Wat against Spain but he Embark'd his Army for Flanders The late King Charles did the same against the French when after the Peace of Nimeguen Six Regiments of English and Scots were always left in the Service of the Dutch and the present War is a further Testimony For where has it been Fought not in England God be thanked but in Flanders And what are the Terms of the Peace but more Frontier Towns in Flanders And what is the Great Barrier of this Peace but Flanders the Consequence of this may be guess'd by the Answer King William gave when Prince of Orange in the late Treaty of Nimeguen when to make the Terms the easier 't was offered That a Satisfaction shou'd be made to him by the French for his Lands in Luxemburgh to which the Prince reply'd He would part with all his Lands in Luxemburgh to get the Spaniards one good Frontier Town in Flanders The reason is plain for every one of

fear of Invasions at home but before we arriv'd to that Magnitude in the World 't is to be observed we were hardly ever invaded but we were conquer'd William the Conqueror was the last and if the Spaniard did not do the same 't was because God set the Elements in Battel array against them and they were prevented bringing over the Prince of Parma's Army which if they had done 't would have gone very hard with us but we owe it wholly to Providence I believe it may be said that from that Time to this Day the Kingdom has never been without some Standing Troops of Souldiers entertain'd in pay and always either kept at Home or employ'd Abroad and yet no evil Consequence follow'd nor do I meet with any Votes of the Parliament against them as Grievances or Motions made to Disband them till the Days of King Charles the First Queen Elizabeth tho' she had no Guard du Corps yet she had her Guards du Terres She had even to her last hour several Armies I may call them in Pay among Forreign States and Princes which upon any visible Occasion were ready to be call'd Home King Iames the First had the same in Holland in the Service of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden and in the Unfortunate Service of the King of Bohemia and that Scotch Regiment known by the name of Douglass's Regiment have been they say a Regiment Two hundred and fifty Years King Charles the First had the same in the several Expeditions for the Relief of Rochel and that fatal Descent upon the Isle of Rhe and in his Expeditions into Scotland and they would do well to reconcile their Discourse to it self who say in one place If King Charles had had Five thousand Men the Nation had never struct one stroak for their Liberties and in another That the Parliament were like to have been petitioned out of doors by an Army a hundred and fifty Miles off tho there was a Scotch Army at the Heels of them for to me it appears that King Charles the First had an Army then and would have kept it but that he had not the Purse to pay them of which more may be said hereafter But England now stands in another Posture our Peace at Home seems secure and I believe it is so but to maintain our Peace abroad 't is necessary to enter into Leagues and Confederacies Here is one Neighbour grown too great for all the rest as they are single States or Kingdoms and therefore to mate him several must joyn for mutual Assistance according to the Scotch Law of Duelling that if one can't beat you ten shall These Alliances are under certain Stipulations and Agreements with what Strength and in what Places to aid and assist one another and to perform these Stipulations something of Force must be at hand if occasion require That these Confederacies are of absolute and indispensible necessity to preserve the Peace of a weaker against a stronger Prince past Experience has taught us too plainly to need an Argument There is another constant Maxim of the present State of the War and that is carry the War into your Enemies Country and always keep it out of your own This is an Article has been very much opposed 't is true and some who knew no better would talk much of the fruitless Expence of a War abroad as if it was not worth while to defend your Confederates Country to make it a Barrier to your own This is too weak an Argument also to need any trouble about but this again makes it absolutely necessary to have always some Troops ready to send to the assistance of those Confederates if they are invaded Thus at the Peace of Nimeguen six Regiments were left in Holland to continue there in time of Peace to be ready in case of a Rupture To say that instead of this we will raise them for their assistance when wanted would be something if this potent Neighbour were not the French King whose Velocity of Motion the Dutch well remember in 1672. But then say they we may send our Militia First The King can't command them to go and Secondly if he could no body wou'd accept them and if they would go and would be accepted of they would be good for nothing Is we have no Forces to assist a Confederate who will value our Friendship or assist us if we wanted it To say we are Self-dependent and shall never need the Assistance of our Neighbour is to say what we are not sure of and this is certain it is as needful to maintain the Reputation of England in the Esteem of our Neighbours as 't is to defend our Coasts in case of an Invasion for keep up the Reputation of our Power and we shall never be Invaded If our Defence from Insurrections or Invasions were the only necessary part of a future War I shou'd be the readier to grant the Point and to think our Militia might be made useful but our business is Principiis Obsta to beat the Enemy before he comes to our own door Our Business in case of a Rupture is to aid our Confederate Princes that they may be able to stand between us and Danger Our Business is to preserve Flanders to Garrison the Frontier Towns and be in the Field in Conjunction with the Confederate Armies This is the way to prevent Invasions and Descents And when they can tell us that our Militia is proper for this work then we will say something to it I 'll suppose for once what I hope may never fall out That a Rupture of this Peace shou'd happen and the French according to Custom break suddenly into Flanders and over-run it and after that Holland what Condition wou'd such a Neighbourhood of such a Prince reduce us to If it be answer'd again Soldiers may be raised to assist them I answer as before let those who say so read the History of the French King's Irruption into Holland in the year 1672. where he conquer'd Sixty strong fortified Towns in six Weeks time And tell me what it will be to the purpose to raise Men to fight an Enemy after the Conquest is made 'T will not be amiss to observe here that the Reputation and Influence the English Nation has had abroad among the Princes of Christendom has been always more or less according as the Power of the Prince to aid and assist or to injure and offend was Esteem'd Thus Queen Rlizabeth carried her Reputation abroad by the Courage of her English Souldiers and Seamen and on the contrary what a ridiculous Figure did King Iames with his Beati Pacifici make in all the Courts of Christendom How did the Spaniard and the Emperor banter and buffoon him How was his Ambassador asham'd to treat for him while Count Colocedo told Count Mansfield That his New Master meaning King Iames knew neither how to make Peace or War King Charles the First far'd much in the same manner And