Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	league_n	5,193	5	8.9854	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63115	An argument, shewing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy	Trenchard, John, 1662-1723.; Moyle, Walter, 1672-1721.; Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.	1697 (1697)	Wing T2110; ESTC R16212	20,433	36

suitable to the Service they have done their Country they will be ready to resume their Arms whenever occasion offers But I desire to know of these Patriots how comes an Army necessary to our Preservation now and never since the Conquest before Did ever the prevailing Party in the Wars of York and Lancaster attempt to keep up a Standing Army to support themselves No they had more Sense than to sacrifice their own Liberty and more Honour than to enslave their Country the more easily to carry on their own Faction Were not the Spaniards as powerful as good Souldiers and as much our Enemies as the French are now Was not Flanders as near us as France and the Popish Interest in Queen Elizabeth's time as strong as the Jacobite is now and yet that most excellent Princess never dream'd of a Standing Army but thought her surest Empire was to reign in the Hearts of her Subjects which the following Story sufficiently testifies When the Duke of Alanson came over to England and for some time had admired the Riches of the City the Conduct of her Government and the Magnificence of her Court he asked her amidst so much Splendor where were her Guards which Question she resolved a few days after as she took him in her Coach through the City when pointing to the People who received her in Crowds with repeated Acclamations These said she my Lord are my Guards These have their Hands their Hearts and their Purses always ready at my Command and these were Guards indeed who defended her through a long and successful Reign of forty four Years against all the Machinations of Rome the Power of Spain a disputed Title and the perpetual Conspiracies of her own Popish Subjects a Security the Roman Emperors could not boast of with their Pretorian Bands and their Eastern and Western Armies Were not the French as powerful in Charles the Second and King James his time as they are after this long and destructive War and a less Alliance to oppose them and yet we then thought a much less Army than is now contended for a most insupportable Grievance insomuch that in Charles the Second's Reign the Grand-Jury presented them and the Pensioner Parliament voted them to be a Nusance sent Sir Jos W son to the Tower for saying the King might keep Guards for the Defence of his Person and addressed to have them disbanded And now our Apostates would make their Court by doing what the worst Parliament ever England saw could not think of without Horror and Confusion They say the King of France was in League with our late Kings so he is with us and he would have broke it then if he had thought it safe and for his Interest as much as now But they say we have more disaffected Persons to join with him which I must deny for I believe no King of England in any Age had deservedly more Interest than the present and if during such an expensive War in which we have consumed so much Blood and Treasure paid such vast and unequal Taxes lost so many thousand Ships and bore a Shock by recoining our Money which would have torn up another Nation from its Foundation and reduced it to its antient Chaos when most Countries would have sunk under the misfortune and repined at their Deliverance as Men in Sickness commonly quarrel with their dearest Friends I say if at that time he had so great and universal an Interest there can be no doubt but in times of Peace when the People reap the Fruits of that Courage and Conduct he hath shewn in their Defence he will be the most Beloved and Glorious Prince that ever filled the English Throne I will make one Assertion more and then conclude this Discourse viz. That the most likely way of restoring King James is maintaining a Standing Army to keep him out For the King's Safety stands upon a Rock whilst it depends upon the solid Foundation of the Affections of the People which is never to be shaken till 't is as evident as the Sun in the Firmament that there is a formed Design to overthrow our Laws and Liberties but if we keep a Standing Army all depends upon the uncertain and capricious Humours of the Souldiery which in all Ages have produced more violent and sudden Revolutions than ever have been known in unarmed Governments For there is such a Chain of Dependence amongst them that if two or three of the chief Officers should be disobliged or have Intrigues with Jacobite Mistresses or if the King of France could once again buy his Pensioners into the Court or Army or offer a better Market to some that are in already we shall have another Rehearsal Revolution and the People be only idle Spectators of their own Ruin And whosoever considers the Composition of an Army and doubts this let him look back to the Roman Empire where he will find out of twenty six Emperors sixteen deposed and murdered by their own Armies nay half the History of the World is made up of Examples of this kind but we need not go any farther than our own Country where we have but twice kept Armies in time of Peace and both times they turn'd out their own Masters The first under Cromwell expell'd that Parliament under which they had fought successfully for many Years afterwards under General Monk they destroy'd the Government they before set up and brought back Charles the Second and he afterwards disbanded them lest they might have turned him out again The other Instance is fresh in every one's memory how King James's Army join'd with the Prince of Orange now our Rightful and Lawful King And what could have been expected otherwise from Men of dissolute and debauched Principles who call themselves Souldiers of Fortune who make Murder their Profession and enquire no farther into the Justice of the Cause than how they shall be paid who must be false rapacious and cruel in their own Defence For having no other Profession or Subsistence to depend upon they are forced to stir up the Ambition of Princes and engage them in perpetual Quarrels that they may share of the Spoils they make Such Men like some sort of ravenous Fish fare best in a Storm and therefore we may reasonably suppose they will be better pleased with the Tyrannical Government of the late King than the mild and gracious Administration of his Present Majesty who came over to England to rescue us from Oppression and he has done it and triumphs in it in spight of his Enemies In this Discourse I have purposely omitted speaking of the lesser Inconveniences attending a Standing Army such as frequent Quarrels Murders and Robberies the destruction of all the Game in the Country the quartering upon publick and sometimes private Houses the influencing of Elections of Parliament by an artificial distribution of Quarters the rendring so many Men useless to Labour and almost Propagation together with a much greater Destruction of them by taking them from a laborious way of living to a loose idle Life and besides this the Insolence of the Officers and the Debaucheries that are committed both by them and their Souldiers in all the Towns they come in to the ruin of multitudes of Women Dishonour of their Families and ill Example to others and a numerous train of Mischiefs besides almost endless to enumerate These are trivial as well as particular Grievances in respect of those I have treated about which strike at the Heart's-blood of our Constitution and therefore I thought these not considerable enough to bear a part in a Discourse of this nature Besides they often procure their own Remedy working Miracles and making some Men see that were born blind and impregnable against all the Artillery of Reason for Experience is the only Mistress of Fools A wise Man will know a Pike will bite when he sees his Teeth which another will not make discovery of but by the loss of a Finger What I have said here against Standing Armies I would be understood of such as are the Instruments of Tyranny and their Country's Ruin and therefore I need make no Apology to our own which was raised by the Consent of the Parliament in this just and necessary War and next under God and our Great and Glorious Deliverer have by their Bravery and Conduct preserved our Liberties and the Protestant Religion through Europe For if in future Reigns any Designs should be levelled against our Laws we may be assured these Men would be discarded and others promoted in their rooms who are fit for such Arbitrary Purposes Nor do I think it reasonable that our Army should be ruined by that Peace which by their Courage and Fidelity they have procured for their Country and I doubt not but the Generosity and Gratitude of the Parliament will give them a Donative equal to their Commissions which when the Foreigners are paid and sent home will amount to no extraordinary Sum at most'tis but supposing the War to have six Months longer continuance which is an easy Composition for the Charge of keeping them But if there are any Gentlemen amongst them who think we can no otherwise express our Gratitude but by signing and sealing our own Ruin I hope we shall disappoint their Expectations and not give the World occasion to tell so foolish a Story of us as that we turn'd to grass one of the most powerful Monarchs in the World for breaking our Laws that we have maintain'd an eight Years War at the Expence of forty Millions of Money and the Blood of three hundred thousand Men to justify the glorious Action we have done that by it we preserv'd all Europe besides and lost our own Liberties at least I hope it shall not be said we consented to it FINIS

Injury As I think the Sheep in Boccaline made a prudent Address to Apollo when they desired that for the future Wolves might have no Teeth When all other Arguments sail they call to their Assistance the old Tyrant Necessity and tell us the Power of France is so great that let the Consequence of an Army be what it will we cannot be without one and if we must be Slaves we had better be so to a Protestant Prince than a Popish one and the worst of all Popish ones the F King Now I am of Mr. Johnson's Opinion that the putting an Epithet upon Tyranny is false Heraldry for Protestant and Popish are both alike and if I must be a Slave it is very indifferent to me who is my Master and therefore I shall never consent to be ruled by an Army which is the worst that the most barbarous Conquest can impose upon me which notwithstanding we have little reason to fear whilst we keep the Seas well guarded It is certain there is no Country so situated for Naval Power as England The Sea is our Element our Seamen have as much hardy Bravery and our Ships are as numerous and built of as good Materials as any in the World Such a Force well applied and managed is able to give Laws to the Universe and if we keep a competent part of it well arm'd in times of Peace it is the most ridiculous thing in nature to believe any Prince will have thoughts of invading us unless he proposes to be superiour to us in Naval Power For the Preparations necessary for such an Undertaking will alarm all Europe give both to us and our Confederates time to arm and put our selves in a posture of Defence And whoever considers that the Prince of Orange with six hundred Ships brought but fourteen thousand Men and the mighty Spanish Armado then the Terror of the World imbark'd but eighteen thousand he will be assured that no Invasion can be so sudden upon us but we shall have time to get ready our whole Fleet bring some Forces from Scotland and Ireland and prepare our own Militia if there shall be occasion for it especially in times of Peace when we shall have the liberty of all the Ports of France and shall or may have Intelligence from every one of them But they tell us such a Wind may happen as may be favourable to our Enemy and keep us within our own Ports which I say as France lies to England is almost impossible for if we lie about Falmouth or the Land's end no Fleet from Brest or the Ocean can escape us without a Miracle and if the design be to invade us from any Port in the Channel a very few Ships which may safely lie at Anchor will certainly prevent it nor is it to be conceived that that cautious Prince will be at a vast Expence for the Contingency of such a Critical Wind or will send an Army into a Country where their Retreat is certainly cut off when the failing in any part of his Design will bring a new War upon him which lately cost a third part of his People a great many large Countries and strong Towns with all the Honour he had heaped up by his former Victories to get rid of And here I must confess that the misapplication of our Naval Force which is our known Strength for these last eight Years is the strongest as it is the most usual Argument against me which unriddles a Mystery I did not understand before tho I never was so foolish as to believe all the Errors of that kind were the Effects of Chance or Ignorance or that losing so many Opportunities of destroying the French Fleet had not some extraordinary tho occult Cause and yet notwithstanding the restless Attempts of our Enemies and the paltry Politicks of our own wretched St n this Fleet triumphantly defended us so that our Enemies in eight Years War could not get one opportunity of invading our Country It 's objected that the Officers of our Fleet may be corrupted or that a Storm may arise which may destroy it all at once and therefore we ought to have two Strings to our Bow By which I perceive all their Fears lie one way and that they do not care if they precipitate us into inevitable Ruin at home to prevent a distant Possibility of it from France But I think this Phantom too may be laid by a well-train'd Militia and then all their Bugbears will vanish This Word can be no sooner out but there 's a Volly of small Shot let fly at me What! must we trust our Safety to an undisciplin'd Mob who never dream'd of fighting when they undertook the Service who are not inured to the Fatigue of a Camp or ever saw the Face of an Enemy And then they magnify Mercenary Troops as if there was an intrinsick Virtue in a Red Coat or that a Raggamuffin from robbing of Henroosts in two Campagns could be cudgel'd into a Hero Tho I must confess the Conduct of the Court in industriously enervating this Force does in some measure justify their Objections For the detestable Policies of the last Reigns were with the utmost Art and Application to disarm the People and make the Militia useless to countenance a standing Army in order to bring in Popery and Slavery and if any Methods were proposed to make it more serviceable the Court would never suffer them to be debated and such Officers as were more zealous in exercising their Companies than others were reprimanded as if they design'd to raise a Rebellion And now the worthy Patriots of this Reign are taking Advantage of the traitorous Neglect and infamous Policies of the last But why may not a Militia be made useful Why may not the Nobility Gentry and Free-holders of England be trusted with the Defence of their own Lives Estates and Liberties without having Guardians and Keepers assign'd them And why may they not defend them with as much Vigour and Courage as Mercenaries who have nothing to lose nor any other Tie to engage their Fidelity than the inconsiderable Pay of Six-pence a day which they may have from the Conqueror Why may not the Laws for shooting in Crossbows be changed into Firelocks and a competent Number of them be kept in every Parish for the young Men to exercise with on Holidays and Rewards offered to the most expert to stir up their Emulation Why may not the whole Militia of England be reduced to sixty thousand and a third part of those kept by turns in constant Exercise Why may not a Man be listed in the Militia till he be discharged by his Master as well as in the Army till he be discharged by his Captain And why may not the same Horse be always sent forth unless it can be made appear he is dead or maimed Why may not the private Souldiers of the Army when they are dispersed in the several parts of the Kingdom be sent to the