A DISCOURSE OF GOVERNMENT With relation to MILITIA'S Edinburgh Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII A DISCOURSE OF GOVERNMENT With relation to MILITIA'S THERE is not perhaps in humane Affairs any thing so unaccountable as the Indignity and Cruelty with which the far greater part of Mankind suffer themselves to be used under pretence of Government For some Men falsly perswading themselves that bad Governments are advantageous to them as most conducing to gratify their Ambition Avarice and Luxury set themselves with the utmost art and violence to procure their Establishment and by such Men almost the whole World has been trampled under foot and subjected to Tyranny for want of understanding by what means and methods they were enslaved For tho Mankind take great care and pains to instruct themselves in other Arts and Sciences yet very few apply themselves to consider the nature of Government an Enquiry so useful and necessary both to Magistrate and People Nay in most Countries the Arts of State being altogether directed either to enslave the People or to keep them under slavery it is become almost every where a Crime to reason about Matters of Government But if Men would bestow a small part of the Time and Application which they throw away upon curious but useless Studies or endless Gaming in perusing those excellent Rules and Examples of Government which the Antients have left us they would soon be enabled to discover all such Abuses and Corruptions as tend to the Ruin of Publick Societies 'T is therefore very strange that they should think Study and Knowledg necessary in every thing they go about except in the noblest and most useful of all Applications The Art of Government Now if any Man in compassion to the Miseries of a People should endeavour to disabuse them in any thing relating to Government he will certainly incur the Displeasure and perhaps be pursued by the Rage of those who think they find their Account in the oppression of the World but will hardly succeed in his Endeavours to undeceive the Multitude For the generality of all Ranks of Men are cheated by Words and Names and provided the antient Terms and outward Forms of any Government be retained let the nature of it be never so much altered they continue to dream that they shall still enjoy their former Liberty and are not to be awakned till it prove too late Of this there are many remarkable Examples in History but that particular Instance which I have chosen to insist on as most sutable to my purpose is the Alteration of Government which happened in most Countries of Europe about the year 1500. And 't is worth observation that tho this Change was fatal to their Liberty yet it was not introduced by the Contrivance of ill-designing Men nor were the mischievous Consequences perceived unless perhaps by a few wise Men who if they saw it wanted Power to prevent it Two hundred years being already passed since this Alteration began Europe has felt the Effects of it by sad Experience and the true Causes of the Change are now become more visible To lay open this matter in its full Extent it will be necessary to look farther back and examin the Original and Constitution of those Governments that were established in Europe about the year 400 and continued till this Alteration When the Goths Vandals and other warlike Nations had at different Times and under different Leaders overrun the Western Parts of the Roman Empire they introduced the following Form of Government into all the Nations they subdued The General of the Army became King of the Conquered Country and the Conquest being absolute he divided the Lands amongst the great Officers of his Army afterwards called Barons who again parcelled out their several Territories in smaller Portions to the inferiour Souldiers that had followed them in the Wars and who then became their Vassals enjoying those Lands for Military Service The King reserved to himself some Demeasnes for the maintenance of his Court and Attendance When this was done there was no longer any Standing Army kept on foot but every man went to live upon his own Lands and when the Defence of the Country required an Army the King summoned the Barons to his Standard who came attended with their Vassals Thus were the Armies of Europe composed for about eleven hundred years and this Constitution of Government put the Sword into the hands of the Subject because the Vassals depended more immediately on the Barons than on the King which effectually secured the freedom of those Governments For the Barons could not make use of their Power to destroy those limited Monarchies without destroying their own Grandeur nor could the King invade their Privileges having no other Forces than the Vassals of his own Demeasnes to rely upon for his support in such an Attempt I lay no great stress on any other Limitations of those Monarchies nor do I think any so essential to the Liberties of the People as that which placed the Sword in the hands of the Subject And since in our time most Princes of Europe are in possession of the Sword by Standing Mercenary Forces kept up in time of Peace absolutely depending upon them I say that all such Governments are changed from Monarchies to Tyrannies Nor can the Power of granting or refusing Money tho vested in the Subject be a sufficient security for Liberty where a Standing Mercenary Army is kept up in time of Peace For he that is arm'd is always Master of the Purse of him that is unarm'd And not only that Government is tyrannical which is tyrannically exercised but all Governments are tyrannical which have not in their Constitution a sufficient Security against the Arbitrary Power of the Prince I do not deny that these limited Monarchies during the greatness of the Barons had some Defects I know few Governments free from them But after all there was a Balance that kept those Governments steady and an effectual Provision against the Encroachments of the Crown I do less pretend that the present Governments can be restored to the Constitution before mentioned The following Discourse will show the impossibility of it My design in the first place is to explain the Nature of the past and present Governments of Europe and to disabuse those who think them the same because they are called by the same Names and who ignorantly clamour against such as would preserve that Liberty which is yet left In order to this and for a further and clearer Illustration of the Matter I shall deduce from their Original the Causes Occasions and the Complication of those many unforeseen Accidents which falling out much about the same time produced so great a Change And it will at first sight seem very strange when I shall name the Restoration of Learning the Invention of Printing of the Needle and of Gunpowder as the chief of them things in themselves so excellent and which the last only excepted might have
Gentlemen And that King declares in the Act of Parliament by which they are established that he will not burden his People by any Tax or Imposition for their Maintenance Henry the Seventh King of England seems to have perceived sooner and understood better the Alteration before-mentioned than any Prince of his time and obtained several Laws to favour and facilitate it But his Successors were altogether improper to second him For Henry the Eighth was an unthinking Prince The Reigns of Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary were short and Queen Elizabeth loved her People too well to attempt it King James who succeeded her was a stranger in England and of no Interest abroad King Charles I. did indeed endeavour to make himself Absolute tho somewhat preposterously for he attempted to seize the Purse before he was Master of the Sword But very wise Men have been of Opinion that if he had been possessed of as numerous Guards as those which were afterwards raised and constantly kept up by King Charles the Second he might easily have succeeded in his Enterprize For we see that in those Struggles which the Country Party had with King Charles the Second and in those Endeavours they used to bring about that Revolution which was afterwards compassed by a Foreign Power the chief and insuperable Difficulty they met with was from those Guards And tho King James the Second had provoked these Nations to the last degree and made his own Game as hard as possible not only by invading our Civil Liberties but likewise by endeavouring to change the Established Religion for another which the People abhorred whereby he lost their Affections and even those of a great part of his Army Yet notwithstanding all this mismanagement Britain stood in need of a Foreign Force to save it and how dangerous a Remedy that is the Histories of all Ages can witness 'T is true this Circumstance was favourable that a Prince who had married the next Heir to these Kingdoms was at the Head of our Deliverance yet did it engage us in a long and expensive War And now that we are much impoverished and England by means of her former Riches and present Poverty fallen into all the Corruptions which those great Enemies of Vertue Want and Excess of Riches can produce that there are such numbers of Mercenary Forces on foot at home and abroad that the greatest part of the Officers have no other way to subsist that they are commanded by a wise and active King who has at his Disposal the formidable Land and Sea Forces of a Neighbouring Nation the great Rival of our Trade A King who by Blood Relation other particular Ties and common Interest has the House of Austria most of the Princes of Germany and Potentates of the North for his Friends and Allies who can whatever Interest he join with do what he thinks fit in Europe I say if a Mercenary Standing Army be kept up the first of that kind except those of the Vsarper Cromwel and the late King James that Britain has seen for thirteen hundred Years I desire to know where the Security of the British Liberties lies unless in the good Will and Pleasure of the King I desire to know what real Security can be had against Standing Armies of Mercenaries backed by the Corruption of both Nations the Tendency of the way of Living the Genius of the Age and the Example of the World Having shown the difference between the past and present Government of Britain how precarious our Liberties are and how from having the best security for them we are in hazard of having none at all 't is to be hoped that those who are for a Standing Army and losing no occasion of advancing and extending the Prerogative from a mistaken Opinion that they establish the antient Government of these Nations will see what sort of Patriots they are But we are told that only Standing Mercenary Forces can defend Britain from the perpetual Standing Armies of France However frivolous this Assertion be as indeed no good Argument can be brought to support it either from Reason or Experience as shall be proved hereafter yet allowing it to be good what Security can the Nations have that these Standing Forces shall not at some time or other be made use of to suppress the Liberties of the People tho not in this King's time to whom we owe their Preservation For I hope there is no Man so weak to think that keeping up the Army for a year or for any longer time than the Parliaments of both Nations shall have engaged the publick Faith to make good all Deficiencies of Funds granted for their Maintenance is not the keeping them up for ever 'T is a pitiful shift in the Vndertakers for a Standing Army to say We are not for a Standing Army We are only for an Army from year to year or till the Militia be made useful For Britain cannot be in any hazard from France at least till that Kingdom so much exhausted by War and Persecution shall have a breathing space to recover Before that time our Militias will be in order and in the mean time the Fleet. Besides no Prince ever surrendred so great Countries and so many strong Places I shall not say in order to make a new War but as these Men will have it to continue the same The French King is old and diseased and was never willing to hazard much by any bold Attempt If he or the Dauphin upon his Decease may be suspected of any farther Design it must be upon the Spanish Monarchy in case of the death of that King And if it be objected that we shall stand in need of an Army in such a Conjuncture I answer that our Part in that or in any other foreign War will be best managed by Sea as shall be shown hereafter Let us then see if Mercenary Armies be not exactly calculated to enslave a Nation Which I think may be easily proved if we consider that such Troops are generally composed of Men who make a Trade of War and having little or no Patrimony or spent what they once had enter into that Employment in hopes of its Continuance during Life not at all thinking how to make themselves capable of any other By which means heavy and perpetual Taxes must be entail'd for ever upon the People for their Subsistence and since all their Relations stand engaged to support their Interest let all Men judg if this will not prove a very united and formidable Party in a Nation But the Vndertakers must pardon me if I tell them that no well-constituted Government ever suffered any such Men in it whose Interest leads them to imbroil the State in War and are a useless and insupportable Burden in time of Peace Venice or Holland are neither of them examples to prove the contrary for had not their situation been different from that of other Countries their Liberty had not continued to this time
proved of infinite Advantage to the World if their remote Influence upon Government had been obviated by sutable Remedies Such odd Consequences and of such a different Nature accompany extraordinary Inventions of any kind Constantinople being taken by Mahomet the Second in the Year 1453 many Learned Greeks fled over into Italy where the favourable reception they found from the Popes Princes and Republicks of that Country soon introduced amongst the better sort of Men the study of the Greek Tongue and of the Antient Authors in that Language About the same time likewise some Learned Men began to restore the Purity of the Latin Tongue But that which most contributed to the Advancement of all kind of Learning and especially the study of the Antients was the Art of Printing which was brought to a great degree of Perfection a few Years after By this means their Books became common and their Arts generally understood and admired But as Mankind from a natural propension to Pleasure is always ready to chuse out of every thing what may most gratify that vicious Appetite so the Arts which the Italians first applied themselves to improve were principally those that had been subservient to the Luxury of the Antients in the most corrupt Ages of which they had many Monuments still remaining Italy was presently filled with Architects Painters and Sculptors and a prodigious Expence was made in Buildings Pictures and Statues Thus the Italians began to come off from their frugal and military way of living and addicted themselves to the pursuit of refined and expensive Pleasures as much as the Wars of those Times would permit This Infection spread it self by degrees into the Neighbouring Nations But these things alone had not been sufficient to work so great a Change in Government if a preceding Invention brought into common use about that time had not produced more new and extraordinary Effects than any had ever done before which probably may have many Consequences yet unforeseen and a farther Influence upon the Manners of Men as long as the World lasts I mean the Invention of the Needle by the help of which Navigation was greatly improved a Passage opened by Sea to the East-Indies and a new World discovered By this means the Luxury of Asia and America was added to that of the Antients and all Ages and all Countries concurred to sink Europe into an Abyss of Pleasures which were rendred the more expensive by a perpetual Change of the Fashions in Clothes Equipage and Furniture of Houses These things brought a total Alteration in the way of living upon which all Government depends 'T is true Knowledg being mightily increased and a great Curiosuy and Nicety in every thing introduced Men imagined themselves to be gainers in all Points by changing from their frugal and military way of living which I must confess had some mixture of Rudeness and Ignorance in it tho not inseparable from it But at the same time they did not consider the unspeakable Evils that are altogether inseparable from an expensive way of living To touch upon all these tho slightly would carry me too far from my Subject I shall therefore content my self to apply what has been said to the immediate Design of this Discourse The far greater share of all those Expences fell upon the Barons for they were the Persons most able to make them and their Dignity seemed to challenge whatever might distinguish them from other Men. This plunged them on a sudden into so great Debts that if they did not sell or otherwise alienate their Lands they found themselves at least obliged to turn the Military Service their Vassals owed them into Money partly by way of Rent and partly by way of Lease or Fine for paiment of their Creditors And by this means the Vassal having his Lands no longer at so easy a Rate as before could no more be obliged to Military Service and so became a Tenant Thus the Armies which in preceding times had been always composed of such Men as these ceased of course and the Sword fell out of the hands of the Barons But there being always a necessity to provide for the Defence of every Country Princes were afterwards allowed to raise Armies of Volunteers and Mercenaries And great Sums were given by Diets and Parliaments for their Maintenance to be levied upon the People grown rich by Trade and dispirited for want of Military Exercise Such Forces were at first only raised for present Exigencies and continued no longer on foot than the Occasions lasted But Princes soon found Pretences to make them perpetual the chief of which was the garisoning Frontier Towns and Fortresses the Methods of War being altered to the tedious and chargeable way of Sieges principally by the Invention of Gunpowder The Officers and Souldiers of these Mercenary Armies depending for their Subsistence and Preferment as immediately upon the Prince as the former Militia's did upon the Barons the Power of the Sword was transferred from the Subject to the King and War grew a constant Trade to live by Nay many of the Barons themselves being reduced to Poverty by their expensive way of living took Commands in those Mercenary Troops and being still continued Hereditary Members of Diets and other Assemblies of State after the loss of their Vassals whom they formerly represented they were now the readiest of all others to load the People with heavy Taxes which were employed to increase the Prince's Military Power by Guards Armies and Citadels beyond Bounds or Remedy Some Princes with much impatience pressed on to Arbitrary Power before things were ripe as the Kings of France and Charles Duke of Burgundy Philip de Commines says of the latter That having made a Truce with the King of France he called an Assembly of the Estates of his Country and remonstrated to them the prejudice he had sustained by not having Standing Troops as that King had that if five hundred Men had been in garison upon their Frontier the King of France would never have undertaken that War and having represented the Mischiefs that were ready to fall upon them for want of such a Force he earnestly pressed them to grant such a Sum as would maintain eight hundred Lances At length they gave him a hundred and twenty thousand Crowns more than his ordinary Revenue from which Tax Burgundy was exempted But his Subjects were for many reasons under great Apprehensions of falling into the subjection to which they saw the Kingdom of France already reduced by means of such Troops And truly their Apprehensions were not ill-grounded for when he had got together five or six hundred Men at Arms he presently had a mind to more and with them disturbed the peace of all his Neighbours He augmented the tax from one hundred and twenty to five hundred thousand Crowns and increased the Numbers of those Men at Arms by whom his Subjects were greatly opprest Francis de Beaucaire Bishop of Metz in his History of France