Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	land_n	scotland_n	4,504	5	8.4214	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48187	A letter to a member of Parliament concerning the four regiments commonly called Mariners		1699 (1699)	Wing L1670; ESTC R11017	6,041	15

A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament CONCERNING The four Regiments commonly called MARINERS LONDON Printed for A. Baldwin in Warwicklane 1699. A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament CONCERNING The four Regiments commonly called MARINERS SIR IN my last I undertook to shew that the Establishment of the four Marine Regiments is an useless Charge to the People a Nusance to the Navy and dangerous to the Kingdom 's Liberties And in order to it I shall premise four things The First I have already proved That seven thousand Men are more than sufficient for Guards and Garisons and consequently these Mariners are not necessary for Land-service nor can they be used to that purpose the last Parliament having appropriated them to the service of the Navy only The Second is That every Country will breed as many Seamen as their Trade and the ordinary occasions of their Navy in times of Peace will give constant Imployment to for as Sir William Petty observes The Wages of a Seaman is equivalent to that of three common Labourers and therefore if our Acts of Navigation were duly observed Men will naturally fall into the most beneficial Imployment till it becomes overstockt and some of them for want of subsistence are forced to seek out other Livelihoods which is true not only in this but all other Trades The Third is That if by a War or any other Accident more Seamen are bred in a Country than their Ships of War and the bulk of their Trade will constantly imploy the Supernumeraries must go to other Trades find out new Countries beg steal or starve which I take to be the case at present of England for during the War we maintained between forty and fifty thousand Men in the Royal Navy and now we do not imploy above ten thousand so that near forty thousand Men bred in the Fleet are to seek out their Livelihoods elsewhere and 't is at present a miserable complaint amongst the Seamen that many thousands of them want subsistence The Fourth is a Consequent from the two last that this Marine Establishment is no Nursery for Seamen but rather the contrary I do not say that in no Circumstance it may be so for perhaps in a War where the occasions for Seamen are very great or in a Country initiating themselves in Sea Affairs such Regiments may be of use to bring Land-men to Sea for bad Seamen are better than none at all but in a Country thorowly versed in Sea Affairs where there are more Seamen than there are occasions for them such an Establishment is so far from making Seamen that they take up the room receive the pay and hinder the Imployment of those that are actually made Having premised these things the Question in my Opinion will be Whether Marine Soldiers are better than an equal number of Seamen that is Whether ten thousand Seamen and three thousand Mariners will be more beneficial to the Kingdom than thirteen thousand Seamen Now I shall endeavour to shew the contrary First There is a natural Antipathy between Seamen and Land Soldiers as having different Customs Manners Oeconomy and Officers nor as Sir William Petty observes Political Arithmetick fol. 57. do the Seamen heartily rejoice at those Successes of which Land-men have any share thinking it hard that they who are bred to miserable painful and laborious Imployments and yet profitable to the Commonwealth should at a time when Booty and Purchase is to be gotten be clogged and hindred by any Conjunction with Landmen or forced to admit those to an equal share with themselves The truth of this has been abundantly demonstrated in the last War when Sea and Land Soldiers were never sent any long Voyage together but their differences have always defeated the Enterprize they were sent about particularly in the Squadron commanded by Sir Francis Wheeler to the West-Indies where the Resentments were carried so high between the Sea and Land Officers that the whole Expedition was unsuccessful to the loss of many thousand Men and a prodigious Sum of Money Secondly The Charge of Mariners is by above a third part greater than an equal number of Seamen whilst they are used as such for the Marine Soldiers on board receive the Wages of Sailors and the Pay of the Officers amounts to 20933 l. besides which is an useless Charge to the Kingdom the Officers very seldom going to Sea with their Men and when they do are only a hindrance to the Seamen and raise Factions in the Fleet or if they happen to agree with the Sea Commanders are of no use but to debauch with them and hinder them from doing their Duty Thirdly Their Land Methods have mightily interfered with the Navy Rules and introduced pernicious Notions into the Fleet Officers such as Mis-ratings false Musters and other Abuses which the Sea Officers formerly were ignorant of and I have been often told by a Commissioner in the Navy-Office that that Board always opposed them as an Establishment that broke all the Rules and Oeconomy of the Navy and how fond soever the Lords of the Admiralty may be of them now we may remember the time when a spleenatick Gentleman in that Post publickly ridicul'd them calling them Water-Rats And these poor Wretches have been worse used than if they were so many of them being starved for want of Clothes and Sustenance and indeed they have always been the miserablest Creatures in the Nation Fourthly instead of making Landmen Sailors they have made Sailors Landmen more Seamen having been inveigled to be Mariners than Mariners made Seamen and tho the Officers have had 40 s. a man for Recruits yet Men pressed for the Fleet have been taken into the said Regiments upon that account and the Money put into their own Pockets Fifthly They are a dead Charge to the Navy on shore and burdensome to the People being quartered up and down in the Inland Countries nor could they ever be obliged to any work in the Yard tho it has been often proposed and one of their Establishments required it and indeed tho there have been several Establishments made yet none have been observed and some People will be so ill-natur'd as to say That nothing was designed by that Noble L d who has the honour of this Invention but to be a Colonel of one of the Regiments Sixthly They are dangerous to the Kingdoms Liberties as hath been abundantly proved in the several Trades wrote concerning Standing Armies where it is demonstrated beyond the possibility of a Reply that small numbers of Men may and have destroyed the Liberties of potent Nations how much more easily then in England where besides these Mariners who will be called to Land when they have occasion for them our Kings will have 7000 Men for Guards and Garisons 12000 in Ireland 5000 in Scotland and almost 6000 in Holland which in all amounts to 33000 Men A dangerous and dreadful Force and such a one as our Apostate Whigs if I may use