Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A25780
|
An argument, proving that a small number of regulated forces established during the pleasure of Parliament cannot damage our present happy establishment, and that it is highly necessary in our present circumstances to have the matter fully determined being considerations upon what has been objected against standing armies in general.
|
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing A3634; ESTC R12991
|
17,639
|
29
|
to tell his Soldiers that they fought for Silver Head-Pieces which serv'd but to encourage the Enemy so that your Fine Clothes are only sit for a Theatre As for your Project of having the Third Part of your Estate go to the Militia I fancy you have but a very few on your side I am not for the Charge of such a Raree-Show but I find every Man thinks himself Happy in what he likes Best To assert as you do That a small Army can be of no use to us as being too few to defend us against an Invasion and too many for the People to oppose looks like a Contradiction and a wire-drawing your Proposition because it reflects on the Courage and Bravery of our English Constitution to think that a small Number can oppress them 'T is endless to Answer all that you have cram'd in for Arguments sake your French Author and Mr. Harrington's Oceana are Foreign to the Purpose and when my Lord Bccon treats of a Standing Army he means such an one as will give Laws and not receive them for those Armies had their Princes Pay and not the Peoples Besides you own the Artillery of the World is much changed since those Men writ and by that Rule Circumstances may be chang'd too for since War is a Mystery the Plowman had better busie his Head in consulting of proper Grain for his Ground and leave Military Affairs to wiser Heads But you now run up and down and shuffle from Place to Place you call it a Mystery and straight tell us the Dullest Noddle can comprehend it in a few Weeks 't is allowed that the words of Command may be soon learned yet action is a quite different thing Tho you say it may be acquired in the Closet as well as the Field And add that Actual Experience in War is not Essential to a Standing Army or Militia Yet at last you do Justice and acknowledg the present Army has been train'd up in a long War and has gain'd great Knowledg but yet they are an Army and must down I must tell you once more Queen Elizabeth's Case is not a Parallel she had no Competitor for her Throne when she trusted to her Citizens For the Just Punishment of Mary of Scotland had Ruined the Popish Interest here and Old Sixtus at Rome Bellowed out his Anathema's in vain But why should you tell us the Jacobite Interest is low 't is more than they will own over a Bottle I hope they may never prove as Wise as they are Hearty because I do not love mischief But alas you will say a Prince so well belov'd needs not fear an Invasion 'T is not good to be too secure the fool in the Parable teaches us that Lesson and you your self say That if France recovers Breath she may be dangerous which turns the Argument against your self I must needs say you seem to smell rank of a Common-wealth when you tell us we have not virtue enough for a Commonwealth and that Oliver's Army was compounded of men of virtue sobriety and Publick spirit and instance it as a Crime that our Army went over to the Prince of Orange 'T is what one may call Thrusting home and no Man at Back-Gammon ever play'd with his Tables so open as the Blots which here you set but I was not of that Number and so am the less concerned But at the word Army your Blood chills and a Beadroll of Crimes are fixt on that Constitution A Man cannot be Honest and in an army he either commits Quarrels Murders or Robberies or else they destroy the Game Then they quarter in Publick houses and where pray must your Militia Quarter Sometimes you say they take up private ones If so it was under the Administration of the unhappy Old man as you call him p. 15. But dear Sir your melancholly encreases or else why shou'd you propose that in a just Reign there shou'd be an artificial Distribution of Quarters in order to awe Elections 'T is a gross Affront on the present Authority and fit to be Reprimanded it looks as if you thought we had chang'd for the worse And as for the Insolence of Ossicers of which you complain it will be remedied by making the Number less and continuing only those that are Civil So this way your Family may be safe from that Numerous train of mischiefs which you dread You say You wou'd not have the Army ruined by that Peace which their Courage and Fidelity has procured for their Country But you go no further then to a Donative and when that is spent they may Dig if they please unless they are not ashamed to beg Perhaps they wou'd have taken the Thanks of the House as kindly and then their Donative had been in Print To conclude You grudge the spending 40 Millions of Money and their turning to grass a mighty Monarch for breaking the Laws You have no Regard to our present Circumstances which turn highly to our advantage And if I live to be old I shall pride my self in telling a succeeding Posterity That the Heroick Arms of William the Third my lawful King did by the Assistance of his Commons in Parliament procure from France an Honourable Peace even at a time when discontented people among us Laugh'd at the Proposal And now having done with this famous Argumentator who last year obtained what the Tyrant Caligula did but wish for for he trod on the Necks of his Enemies I will be so just to you Sir as to let you take your turn Nor ought I in reason to beg your pardon because your freedom with Kingship tolerates another to give you a cast of their Office But lest your Censure of a Person unknown should presently make you conclude that I belong to the Court or what is equally the same that I was set at work by them I will for once do a work of Supererogation and inform you that I have never been there nor have I any Emoluments from the Crown nor can I by merit propose any This Prejudice then being removed we will proceed to make some Observations on your Pamphlet but 't is writ in such an inveterate Stile that I cannot tell where or in what manner to proceed But because I want to have done I will read on at a venture You have already been told that you are false in the Historical part and ought to justify your self as well as you can You tell us of Richard the Second and his Archers but what Prince being forewarned by the Modern Example of the late King will venture his or Richard's Fate By which 't is plain that Tyranny repays the aggressing King and makes it not worth his pains But really Sir it is not fair to make our present King an Object of our Fear who came over hither on so Brave and Generous a Design without the prospect of gaining what was afterwards conferr'd upon his Merit He nor no other Person could divine the late King
did they perform 'T is true before his Intentions were laid open they took a Western Expedition in his Favour But when he fell a Suspending and Imprisoning contrary to Law he soon found that when he wanted their Assistance the second time that he was disappointed for they rid faster to close in with our Present Glorious Deliverer than they did before to suppress a Protestant Invader And the Case requires no Oedipus to unfold the Riddle No Constitution cares to annihilate it self and wise Persons are of opinion that such a Complication of Causes will always happen on the like occasion So that on the whole it appears that a Regulated Army can never as you suppose cause a violation of our Laws or be built on our Destruction tho' you think it as certain as that there is a Kingdom in Heaven I find no Kingdom on Earth will please you no not Poland it self for your Arma Teneti look to the Purse Bearers the Commons in Parliament An Honourable Army will never raise that by force which a Parliament gives to their Merit And a French Mistress will be of no force till another Charles the Second arise so that the Exchequer is safe But pray Sir let me ask you one civil Question Can 20000 Men or less over-run England and cannot 300000 put you in a Capacity to think of our own defence Unless you can prevail to have all the Store-houses in Europe ruin'd to make our Swords plow the Ground and present Death to use any sort of Military Term you answer not the Point I will suppose the Princes now in Confederacy will keep the League and many years it may go forward but there may arise a King hereafter as there did of old in Egypt who knows not Joseph and since such things have been according to your own Rule they may again come to pass What you quote of Mr. Johnson shows him an angry Man and he had Cause to be angry for there was a time I wou'd not have been in his Coat He says there is no Epithet for Tyranny but I had rather be under the Hatches of a Protestant Prince than a Popish one since we have so lately seen the sad Essects of the latter 'T is much you did not admire him for wishing all the Bishops of England Inn-keepers because their Sufferings were left out in their famous Address But to hasten In the last Age we were Sovereigns of the Sea without the pretence of a Rival and if you think we are so now you and I differ and this is all owing to the cursed policy of the late Reigns And then if we are not surely a force in which we may conside is very convenient make you the Militia so and we are all friends Aspiring Spain confest we cou'd then give Laws to the Floating Element but the day is past and besides we want Union among our selves to make us Formidable Nor is it enough to assert we may prevent all by Intelligence Report may spread about a Design for Poland or a Plantation and a speedy way for Transport-Ships is now found out Besides Scotland and Ireland have Enemies enough in their own Bowels to prevent their doing us any service And moreover Foreigners give this Character of Englishmen That we are too credulous and so a Cheat may pass upon us You say there has been a Misapplication of our Naval Force which you add were not the Effects of Chance or Ignorance Methinks now you prove the Necessity of some standing Force to prevent Treachery No Hare ever doubled in her Files so dextrously which makes it suspected that Men of different Kidneys clubb'd for your Pamphlet I have nothing to do with your hard words of Ragamuffins and Henroost-Robbers which you bestow on our Army but let Bilbo look to that because they were not called such Names in Flanders But I cannot conclude without minding one thing because you have scarce spoke any thing else to the purpose You say a well-train'd Militia may be made useful No doubt but it may and the Methods you have laid down are incomparable good You propose The Nobility Gentry and Free-holders of England to undertake that Affair In answer to which I will positively assert That all I have conversed withal decline the Service Nor does it touch their Loyalty 't is an habitude to Ease They love their Country but Education has in a great Measure taken them off from the Vanity of admiring wooden Legs and broken Pates Such Theatrical Entertainments will pas Muster where others are the Combatants So that they will neither seek to be Officers in a Regulated Militia nor accept of the Post they care not for and surely a Man of Property may do as he pleases But you may Reply there are enough that wil. Yet by the way your main Point is lost when you endeavour to make us believe that all will aim at it If any thing made them it wou'd be that of having the Honour to see the King at the Head of them The number of the Militia you six and the Exercises you prescribe them with the time of being out upon Duty looks too unreasonable to require an Answer I will only instance in a few particulars You would have the same Man who is listed at first not to depart till he is discharged by his Captain and the Case of the Horse is as hard as the Man Then you propose that if we will not go our selves nor can find a Tenant or Servant a Soldier that has been in the Army shall supply the place Pray Sir will his bearing my Arms make him Honester in the Militia than he was in a Standing Army You Know he was then a Ragamussin and can Disbanding make my Arms safer in his Custody I ask this Question because you propose the Officers in your new modelled Militia to be appointed by the King I hope in such a Case you will take care of their Pay and make it in some proportion to ballance the Trouble But at last you come to the directing Part and before you have Modelled your Army of Militia to be worth a Man's going out of a Village or Country Town to see them exercise you propose Rewards and Honours to the most deserving and perhaps that will be assign'd to him who has the Finest Cloaths and tho you grudg the Charge of a necessary War you are for a great deal of magnificence when you are in Peace which looks like a kind of a whim But does not such a militia look like a Standing Army for if the King appoints the Officers and the common Soldiers are taken out of the Army where is the difference and if they are as dangerous I am sure they are more chargeable And if in their splendid Equipage they are necessitated to face the Enemy it will animate the Invaders Courage to have a prospect of Gain For History informs us that when Alexander went to subdue the Persians he took Advantage