Army not reform'd in Morals the present Government which is founded upon Principles diametrically opposite to the former and hath alway declar'd it self against Debauchery can never be safe if ever the late King or his pretended Son should land with a French Power except the Army be othtrwise modell'd than at present for if the debauch'd Soldiers be once possess'd by these Passive Obedience-Men and the Jacobite Gentry in the Country who have always declar'd a greater good Liking to Popery than to Dissenters that the present Government is not throughly well affected to the Church which is the common Topick of the disaffected Party because of the King 's being bred in Holland his granting Liberty of Conscience in England and establishing Presbytry in Scotland I say that if once the Army be poyson'd with those Suggestions that to gether with the continual Exclamations of the Jacobite Party against the Dutch may very much endanger the present government by the revolt of such a Standing Army in case of any such Invasion as above mentioned So long as a standing Army continues on the present footing not only the Dissenters but all the moderate Church of England men and those called Whiggs in general will continue uneasie and be afraid of Invasions in case of his Majesty's Death upon their Liberty and Property as it happened in the late Reign so that there is cause to fear that the Jealousies of the two Parties may throw the Nation into new Convulsions and the Army as in all probability it will joining with the Court Liberty and Property will be again in danger of being swallowed up the Nation engag'd in a Civil War and expos'd to a Foreign Conquest after the two Parties have weaken'd themselves by mutual Slaughter and Bloodshed The Case then being thus and the dangers Great and Eminent in both respects it follows of course that the nearest ought to be provided against first and that is to be done by a Land Force till such time as the K. and Parliament are satisfied that the danger from abroad is over But then considering on the other hand that we have no Lease of the Kings Life provision ought to be made against the other as speedily as may be but the methods of doing this must be chosen and determined by the King and Parliament The Argument proposes as a defence against Foreign Invasion the Regulating the Militia so as to make them serviceable The training up of all the Subjects in the use of Arms and keeping a good Fleet so disposed in Convenient Ports as to prevent an Invasion This in my opinion is highly reasonable and were it brought to pass would prove a very effectual Remedy both against Invaders from abroad and Tyrants at home but the mischief on 't is that it is neither done nor like to be done time enough to answer the Ends and seeing it is so no reasonable Man can think that the Nation should be laid naked without a defence in the mean time and this I confess is the main thing wherein I dissent from that Ingenious Paper I am far from the opinion of his Adversaries who reproach him as a Republican Apostate Whigg Jacobite sowre Temper'd Whimsical and Melancholy Fellow nor do I think they discover much Judgment in ridiculing his proposal as to the Militia and Navy It is ceretain that formerly this Nation did as Remarkable Exploits against the French and Scotch when they had no standing Army as ever they have done since and that the Battles betwixt the two Houses of Lancaster and York and betwixt the Barons and the King were fought with as much bravery and order tho' the Armies consisted only of the Country Men and Retainers of either Party as ever have been done since standing Armies came in fashion Nor can there be any reason assigned why the Militia should not equal the Regular Forces as they are now called either for Valour or Discipline provided they were equally Train'd as all the people of the Nation were in those times but the true reason why the Militia come so far short of the Regular Troops now is that the Court having in the late Reigns framed to themselves a distinct Interest from the Country they durst not entrust them with Arms nor encourage their being train'd up in the use of them but blessed be God the case is otherwise now his Majesty is sensible and hath from time to time express'd his sense of the Affections of his people and declar'd That he neither has nor can have any Interest distinct from theirs It was their affecton settled him on the Throne and hath ever since kept him in it so that the better his Subjects are train'd up in martial Discipline the more firmly is his Crown fix'd It is equally certain that there are fewer Mercenary Soldiers and Officers in the Militia as Originally constituted and more of the Free-holders and Substantial Men of the Nation than in a standing Army and no man can doubt but the Master of a Family his Son or trusty Servant will fight with another sort of Zeal for their own Property and Possessions than a Mercenary Soldier who as the Argument says too true makes a Profession to be a Butcher of Men for 6 d. per. day without considering what Cause he engages in and that there are too many such in our Army cannot be denied by any Person that hath not bankrupt all his modesty and as for those silly instances which his Advarsaries insist upon of the Militia's not having acted their parts the reason is plain they were not Disciplin'd which was the fault of the Government and not of the people it is moreover a very false way of Argumentation to conclude because the Militia as neglected in the late Reigns were not to be compared to the Regular Troop can never be brought to be as usefull in the defence other Country as a standing Army in other Reigns but the truth of the matter is those Authors are not willing to have it put to the Experiment The Argument owns that the Militia is not so proper for Conpuests indeed as for Defence and for Conquests we have no occasion to make any nor were we ever very happy in preserving them Yet if all the Males of the Nation were brought up to the use of Arms on Holy-days c. which were a more commendable way of spending their time than has of late been practised We should not need to fear our King 's wanting disciplined Men to go abroad with him on occasion without putting the 10000 l. Men as one of the Pamphlets calls them to the trouble of doing so nor is it very decent in any person to cast such an unbecomeing reflection upon that Royal Regiment of Citizens whom his Majesty honoured to be their Colonel himself but persons of those Authors kidney had rather belike see Arms in the hands of a Dammee than in the hands of a Sober Citizen Vice is always afraid of Virtue
any succeeding Prince join with him to swallow up the Liberties of the people they can effect it speedily as being in the midst of us where they have opportunity to cut off the whole Parliament at a blow as Christiern of Denmark did that of Sweden or to Lop of the opposite Nobility and Gentry by degrees and so the people having none to Conduct them must submit like Sheep without a Shepherd and I wonder at those Gentlemen who think this impracticable when Charles I. came into the Parliament House with an Armed Force and demanded the five Members and Oliver by Military Force modelled the House as he himself pleas'd so that in either of those Cases the King and the Usurper had not God restrain'd them might have done the same thing as Christiern of Denmark did There 's another pleasant Fancy which one of those Authors has broached viz. That there 's no slavery to be fear'd but in Conjunction with Popery when the whole Nation remembers to this day how near we were enslaved by Charles II. and many of them do still remember that had it not been for the Scotch Charles I. had swallowed up their Libertys after the defeat of the Parliaments Forces in the West if not before ever the Parliament struck one stroke and yet Father and Son and Oliver the Usurper too were all three Protestants And for those Gentlemen's further Conviction let them look abroad into Denmark and Sweden and tell us whether those Nations did not lose their Liberty under Protestant Princes I shall agree with those Authors that his present Majesty is uncapable of any such thing that the whole Tenour of his Life both before and since his coming to the Crown secures us against any such fears from himself it is evident to the world that instead of his seeking after a Crown there were three Crowns that sought after him else we had never been troubled with such long and learned debates whither there was an Abdication and Vacaney of the Throne or not I shall moreover be as willing as any of them to suppose that none of those nam'd in the Succession as now limited will attempt any such thing But we must grant what Solomon says to be true That none knowns who shall succeed him whether a Wise Man or a Fool. We cannot always promise our selves a Queen Elizabeth or such an one as our late Queen Mary nor yet that every young Prince will prove an Edward VI. or that every Foreign Prince that may happen to be match'd with our Heiresses shall have so near a Relation to the Crown as the Prince of Orange or have so much Zeal Courage and Power as he to rescue us out of the Jaws of Oppressors and therefore seeing it is the practice of all Wise Men to provide in a Calm against a Storm I see no reason why the Author of the Argument should be treated as one disaffected to his Majesty's Person or Government Charity which is almost lost in this Age would rather think that he has the highest Opinion of his Majesty that can be when he takes it for granted that he will agree to such Methods in his own Reign as will secure us from Tyranny in those of others which any Man with half an Eye may see to be unavoidable if the Maxim of the Reflections be true viz. No Army no King when all the World knows there have been and may be great Kings without standing Armies I have exceeded the bounds that I intended at first and shall now hasten to a Conclusion It has been said already that it would seem now no more to be the debate a standing Army or no standing Army but how great an Army of what Troops Compos'd how long they must continue and what Methods are proper to prevent those ill Consequences that the Argument suggests It 's certain the Parliament is the fittest Judges of all those things yet seeing every one of the Answerers has proposed his own Methods it s hop'd they will not be angry if I tell them what I have heard proposed by others It has been a long time the opinion of some Men that had his Majesty been advised to have kept that Volunteer Army on foot which rose for him on their own account we had prevented the Rebellion in Ireland and Sctoland and brought France to reason much sooner but some Men out of a pretended Zeal to the Church prevailed to have the contrary method taken to the no small danger of the State But if reason may take place now that the Church is secured as much as Law can secure her and that she has a Test to assure her Discipline or rather Government I say seeing she has a Test to secure her Government it s but reasonable the people should have a Test too to preserve their Property And their 's a Friend of mine says that were he to have a Test of his making it should be some such one as this viz. That whereas all men in the late Reigns that came into places of Power and Trust were obliged to abhore that Traterous position of taking up Arms by the Kings Authority against his Person and that they declared there was no obligation upon themselves or any others by that Treasoinable Oath called the League and Covenant So now none should be admitted into any place of Power and Trust without declaring their abhorrence of the Tyranny of the late Reigns complain'd of in the Claim of Right and that they account themselves and others under no obligation to believe the Tyrannical Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance as explained and understood in the late Reign But I know my Friend is hot Headed and that this Pill is not well enough guilded to go down Yet there are others who are more moderate that are of opinion if the Government think fit to allow of a standing Army the Country would be the more satisfied if all or most of the Officers be Men of Estates and Interest in the Nation and known to be such as think they may go to Heaven without believing the Doctrine of Passive Obedience in the sense above mentioned and that the said Army be composed as much as may be of those that have been raised or are now well mixed by such Gentlemen as always opposed the Tyranny of the late Reigns and that at the same time the Militia and Fleet be also put into such hands and the former disciplin'd with as much speed as may be now that we have plenty of experienced Officers and Soldiers to do it My Friends are also of opinion that it is our Interest to Cultivate a Good Correspondence with Scotland in order to which an Union of the Nations would be much more effectual than the Union of the Crowns for that leaves room for Princes of Arbitrary Tempers to dash us one against another and to make us the Instruments of their Tyranny by turns Thus King Charles the I. threatned to Invade Scotland
and actually did it with an Army from England and King Charles the II. procured an Act of Parliament in Scotland for 20000 Horse and Foot with so many days Provisions to march to any part of his Dominions that he pleased which considering the party in this Nation that would have joyned them might have been fatal to all the three Kingdoms had not that Prince been more given to his pleasures than to his Sword Such an Union as no doubt it might be effected to the Honour and Advantage of both Nations would also secure this Nation very much in case of any future War with France or others whereas if the Scotch be alays treated with Contempt or govern'd by the Councils of a Party this Nation that hates them on the account of their Civil and Religious Principles it may have ill Consequences at sometime or other The Royal Line which Cements them at present is not very numerous in Off-spring and that failing they have Princes of their own Blood at home who if they strengthen themselves by powerful foreign Alliances may prove troublesome Neighbours when we are engaged in a foreign War especially considering the great plantation of their Countrymen of the same Principles with themselves in Ireland Which Kingdom my Friends are also of opinion ought to be treated so as they may look upon themselves as fellow Subjects and that some stronger efforts should be made and more Christian methods taken to Civilize and Convert the Popish Natives than have hitherto been practised and then we shall be in no danger of having our Brethrens Throats cut by them in their Country nor of being Invaded by them in our own as in the time of Charles I. and James II. If Scotland and Ireland were both united to this Kingdom upon terms Honourable and Advantagious to us and them we might sit as Queen in the Seas retain our Soveraignty undisputed keep the Ballance of Europe nay of the Universe in our hands be secure against Tyranny at home and Invasion from abroad and England would be the unenvi'd Head of the Union I have also heard some Gentlemen give their opinion that 't were the Interest of this Nation to have methods laid down for entertaining a perpetual Amity with Holland lest future Princes may dash us against one another as formerly to the endangering of the Protestant Religion and the Civil Liberties of Europe The only thing that we can have any occasion to quarrel about is our rivalling one another in point of Trade and as Providence did formerly put an opportunity into the hands of this Nation of taking away the Hereditary Enmity that had been for some Centuries betwixt us and Scotland by uniting the Crowns kind Heaven hath now also put an opportunity into our hands of fixing a perpetual Friendship with Holland our King and their Stadholder being one and the same person and equally the darling of both People so that there 's no reason to doubt but in such an auspicious Conjuncture matters may be so concerted by the Government of both Nations as to prevent any such competition in time to come as may occasion a Rupture There 's certainly room enough in the World for both of us to Trade and if we entertain a good Correspondence we may in a manner divide the Trade of the Universe betwixt us but if by the implacable malice of a certain Faction in this Kingdom against that Industrious and brave People because of their Government being founded upon Principles contrary to Passive Obedience we be kept off from setling a parpetual Friendship with them it will certainly argue our infatuation for there 's no Allies we can have that are in any capacity to assist us against France in case that already over-grown Monarchy should be yet further aggrandiz'd by addition of the Dominions of Spain of which as I have said already they have so fair and near a Prospect These are the hasty thoughts Sir of our Friends here in Town as to the Arguments pro and con about a standing Army which are all at present the Common Subject of Conversation I am Sir Your humble Servant FINIS