Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	king_n	sir_n	time_n	2,225	5	3.5097	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25777	The argument against a standing army, discuss'd by a true lover of his country.; Argument shewing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government	Trenchard, John, 1662-1723.; Moyle, Walter, 1672-1721.	1698 (1698)	Wing A3631; ESTC R15603	27,307	44

Hudibras has it with Two Strings to our Bow Who angles without a Reserve of Hooks in his Pocket Who goes to the Tavern to Drink but once Who would make but One Parliament-Man if he cou'd have Two and in more than these things this Rule does hold And why then shou'd we not have Land as well as Sea Forces for as you observe Nothing but a Concomitancy of Causes can ever make them both betray us By the way Sir I doubt not of either but you doubt them both yet admitting one to be false the other may do us service one God and one King is sufficient but Land and Sea Forces are best in conjunction But now you speak what pleases me much That a Well-train'd Militia may do us Service I wish you had acquainted us in how long time they might have been made serviceable for I shou'd perhaps be apt to lay it at a longer time than you Must the Army be forthwith Disbanded and the King have no body but his Pensioners and his Beef-Eaters to look after him 'T is an odd way of Rewarding Merit and will sound but meanly in Foreign Countries But you go on with a Method I never heard of viz Cudgelling a Man into a Hero nor is it usual to call those Men Ragamuffins and Henroost-Robbers whose Employments it is to fight for their Country and who have so successfully fought for it But I am in no Post of that quality and so you do not in this Clause level at me But to Sugar-over his sowr Grapes which have set my Teeth on Edge he entertains us with an Account of the detestable Policies of the late Reigns That they us'd their 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 much more to the same Tune And then he discovers a strange Secret viz. That such Officers as were more zealous in Exercising their Companies than others were Reprimanded as if they design'd to raise a Rebellion I am apt to think the Story may be true and if I met my Author I wou'd be out of his Debt in telling him a Story much of the same nature That Fowling-Pieces were thought dangerous Weapons in the Hands of such as were for the Bill of Exclusion or against Arbitrary Power But now to the Matter in hand And now you are come to your Why nots which I shall set in their Files and Muster them as well as I am capable Your first Project is To have Cross-Bows turn'd into Fire-Locks and a competent number of them to 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 For this Project the Apprentices will thank you more than their Masters Nor is this all the Inconvenience the Play-Houses and Cheescake-Towns would be much disappointed There is also another unlucky Objection behind which is That it might be conniv'd at on Sundays and then you must reprint the Book of Sports which did a certain King no great Credit I fear also that the Parsons would catch Cold in their Pulpits for want of the Breath of a good Audience Then Item Secondly You are for reducing the whole Militia of England to 60000 Men and the third part of them to be kept to constant Exercise But be sure you first make them so useful as that proper Judges may find no Objection But your next Why not I cannot endure it is meer Stuff you say Why may not a Man be Listed in the Militia 'till he be discharged by his Master I will not dispute what such a Favour wou'd cost but I believe few Men carry so much Money about them as will do the Business Nay more what occasion has a Master to discharge his Servant he told him at first what he must trust to and so let him compound as well as he can And by this time sure you will grant that it is not so easy as to be Discharg'd by his Captain But you put harder on us still in Proposing to have the same Horse forth-coming unless it can be made appear that he is either Dead or Maimed And who must be this Affidavit Man why who shou'd but the Man of Property what has he to do at home More Reasons I cou'd urge on this Head but lest you think this a Sham I will tell you he who sends to Horse or Foot must be obliged on the Penalty of a great Fine to appear according to his Qualification If when I have used my endeavour and found out a Man I shall be much more plagu'd for my Horse I must either keep him for sudden Service or he is useless he must not serve my Coach nor Cart for then the Mark of his Traces will be a Grievance and if I keep him too Fat my Rider cannot Manage him Hard Terms are these to Men of Property We had better not have so mean a Character of our King since there is such a difficulty in the manner of surbishing our Armes Our Pistols may lye damp and so make a false Fire and then a Surgeon comes upon you for the Cure A Man sure wou'd not be fond of his Post when he heard my last Man was slain in hot Service with the accumulated misfortune of leaving behind him a sorrowful Wife and Infant Children But to your next why not you say private Soldiers in the Army when they are dispersed in the several parts of the Kingdom may be sent to the Militia and the Inferiour Officers in the Army may in some Proportion Command them I suppose Sir the Gentry of the Country are Loyal but this is a very Chargable post you six them in for they must Treat as well as Teach their Soldiers and you have assigned them no Salary No matter you will say they are Gentlemen of plentiful Fortunes but I must remark this that the Farmers Wives weresate against you before and now you have made Ladies of Quality not fond of your project Remember Sir a multitude is an ungovernable thing but it was your own act and deed or else you ought for fear of Censure to clear your self for you propose they will fight and I must add another supposal to yours viz. they may be Slain and then you must pray to God to keep your Eysight But after these Objections cou'd your Project come to any effect they wou'd be as chargeable as a Standing Army Your Instances of Jersey Guernsey Poland and Switzerland nay and your beloved Country of the Grisons are wide of the Mark and hit not your Purpose What the London-Apprentices did is also an Argument against your self for there was Major-General Property led them on and Raw Men quickly beat a Regulated Army Consider that the Matter swells upon my Hand This which I have said is an Answer likewise to the Vaudois Miquelets and Irish Militia You are the first

truly great and Glorious that the same Prince with the advantage of a much greater power was not able to oppose him Does any one desire a reason for it why it was in brief a National Cause he came to support our Liberty and Property most inestimable Jewels were his attendants and he had the reward of a just Cause For that Army which was raised and kept on foot as many Imagine for our destruction these very Men turn'd to the Protestant side From hence then let us draw this Natural Inference That when a King of England endeavours to destroy our established Constitution the which he is Sworn to maintain the Army like true English Patriots will never consent to it Remember Sir the fate of Ship money and end your fears for Englishmen will never consent to ruine themselves Thus I have I think fairly accounted for the great Phaenomenon that without Force to back it Tyranny cannot be accomplished let us be so fair to him to whom we owe our eternal acknowledgments as not to mistrust without Cause and let this also be remarked that when a Prince in possession has an Antagonist alive who was himself in the Throne he will not fail to take all the advantage he can of the misrepresentation of Things Nay he has also one whom he calls his Lawful Son who may in time grow to be Ambitious This is enough to prove that it will be to the Nations Honour to have a setled Army so proportioned as may seem best to the Judgment of our August Assembly Those who ruined the Blessed Martyr King Charls the First took occasion to clip his Wings by lessening the Military Power and then did an Act of Barbarity which I wish had reach'd no further then our Native Country But my Author calls me again and tells me that the Party who have thus veered about say that if they do not comply with this method of a standing Force another Party will be ready to gratify the Court in this affair Truly I am sorry any Party shou'd be against so modest a Request as a few standing Forces at least let them be established 'till the Projectors Friends can find out a way to make the Militia useful to their Country and not oppressive to the People let not the Kings Enemies have oppertunity to take away his Life whilst we want a Force to keep the next Successor in the Throne I am sure then 't will be too late to deplore our Folly or our Oversight And I differagain from our Author in this page also where he says that Arbitrary Power is the same in whose hands soever it falls for hereby he insinuates that all those who value the preservation of his Majesties Life are no better than Valet de Cambres to an ill design I know none of them but I am not so uncharitable He tells them also that the Party they fear will out flatter them being Darlings of Arbitrary power and whose principles and Practices teach them to be Enemies to all Legal Rights To this Point such as know his meaning are fittest to answer him because he goes a step higher for he says they bring the Materials of Tyranny and are to give place to more expert Architects to finish the Building I understand not his Intentions and so Iam silent But now he is in good humour and tells us we are free from any such attempts in this Reign and gives our Prince Epithets of Praise which all good Subjects know how well he deserves But streight the Hypochondriac Fit seizes him and he tells us That the King must Pay a Debt to Nature and he knows not what may follow Pray Sir to what purpose has the Parliament taken such care to Point us out a Successor or Do you doubt of Common Justice I think our Moses has brought us within the sight of our Promised Land then let us not murmur 'till we have Cause What made so few go into the Land of Promise with Caleb and Joshua Sure it was Fearing where no Fear was Let us not report our Enemies to be Giants but glory that we have a David to defend us Why then shou'd we mistrust a few Regulated Forces It is not proposed to have the Army as big as Xerxes's nor so formidable as Alexander's only a competent number big enough to oblige such Officers with Preferment whose Bravery in their Countries Defence does justly claim our good Esteem Has not Ireland more Cause to complain a Country which tho' for some Years it was the Seat of War yet has not requested to be Released the Irish keep Forces in their own Country without murmuring and we who have so precious a King's Life to preserve wou'd hazard all that is dear to us to save a little Charges It reflects much upon us I mean such of us as are not Thoughtful Do not impose on us the Fate of the Israelites Athenians and other your beloved Commonwealths who tho' they had wise Laws yet wanted many Advantages that we enjoy Perhaps he has given us some Reasons for their Decay it might be from thinking their Citizens understood this Province One Trade is enough to one Man and 't is likely that if they had not trusted to other Methods they had met with better Success Then he tells us That they Fought pro Aris Focis and that their Arms were lodg'd in their own Hands but the Event did not answer Expectation for their Discipline cou'd not preserve them He farther adds That the Romans had good Generals who were taken from the Plough and when all was over returned thither again This if the Time wou'd have allow'd wou'd have look'd like an accomplishment of Isaiah's Prophecy That they turn'd their Swords into Plough-shares But it seems before they cou'd reduce them again into Swords they were in danger of being destroyed We need not argue the Difference of our Constitutions but all agree that our Caesar will never pass the forbidden Rubicon to invade our Priviledges and so let Surmises cease But he comes presently powring in upon us and tells us That Pisistratus by an Artificial Sham brought Athens into Tyranny and from the Favour of those that were of his Guards increased his Number to their Destruction Let the Beef-Eaters mind that But it looks as if the Citizens Courage was not great or the Inhabitants but a few You have sure in your Reading met with King Lear his Story has been so often represented on the Stage and acted with such Advantage that 't is probable most Men of Understanding know his Case his yielding too fast to the Temper of a designing Party reduced him at last to such low Circumstances that his Misery was deplored by his Friends who cou'd not be capable to remedy the same There is an excellent Story written in Italian and from the Original Translated into our Mother-Tongue by a Person of Honour now living and Dedicated to our late Queen it is