imprisoned great numbers of the most considerable Gentry and Merchants for not paying his Arbitrary Taxes som he sent beyond Sea and the poorer sort he prest for Soldiers He kept Soldiers upon free Quarter and executed Martial Law upon them He granted Monopolies without number and broke the bounds of the Forests He erected Arbitrary Courts and inlarg'd others as the High Commission-Court the Star-Chamber Court of Honor Court of Requests c. and unspeakable Oppressions were committed in them even to Men of the first Quality He commanded the Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Lincoln not to com to Parliament committed and prosecuted a great many of the most eminent Members of the House of Commons for what they did there som for no cause at all and would not let them have the benefit of Habeas Corpus suspended and confin'd Arch-Bishop Abbot because he would not license a Sermon that asserted Despotic Power whatever other cause was pretended He suspended the Bishop of Glocester for refusing to swear never to consent to alter the Government of the Church supported all his Arbitrary Ministers against the Parliament telling them he wondred at the foolish Impudence of any one to think he would part with the meanest of his Servants upon their account and indeed in his Speeches or rather Menaces he treated them like his Footmen calling them Undutiful Seditious and Vipers He brought unheard of Innovations into the Church preferred Men of Arbitrary Principles and inclinable to Popery especially those Firebrands Laud Mountague and Manwaring one of whom had bin complain'd of in Parliament another impeach'd for advancing Popery and the third condemn'd in the House of Lords He dispensed with the Laws against Papists and both encourag'd and prefer'd them He called no Parliament for twelve years together and in that time govern'd as arbitrarily as the Grand Seignior He abetted the Irish Massacre as appears by their producing a Commission under the Great Seal of Scotland by the Letter of Charles the 2d in favor of the Marquess of Antrim by his stopping the Succors that the Parliament sent to reduce Ireland six months under the Walls of Chester by his entring into a Treaty with the Rebels after he had ingaged his Faith to the Parliament to the contrary and bringing over many thousands of them to sight against his People It is endless to enumerat all the Oppressions of his Reign but having no Army to support him his Tyranny was precarious and at last his ruin Tho he extorted great Sums from the People yet it was with so much difficulty that it did him little good Besides he spent so much in Foolish Wars and Expeditions that he was always behind-hand yet he often attemted to raise an Army Upon pretence of the Spanish and French War he rais'd many thousand Men who liv'd upon free Quarter and rob'd and destroy'd wherever they came But being unsuccessful in his Wars abroad and prest by the Clamors of the People at home he was forc'd to disband them In 1627 he sent over 30000 l. to Holland to raise 3000 German Horse to force his arbitrary Taxes but this matter taking wind and being examin'd by the Parliament Orders were sent to countermand them In the 15th year of his Reign he gave a Commission to Strafford to raise 8000 Irish to be brought into England but before they could get hither the Scots were in Arms for the like Oppressions and marched into Northumberland which forcing him to call a Parliament prevented that design and so that Army was disbanded Soon after he rais'd an Army in England to oppose the Scots and tamper'd with them to march to London and dissolve the Parliament but this Army being composed for the most part of the Militia and the matter being communicated to the House who immediatly fell on the Officers that were Members as Ashburnham Wilmot Pollard c. the design came to nothing After this there was a Pacification between the King and the Scots and in pursuance of it both Armies were disbanded Then he went to Scotland and indeavor'd to prevail with them to invade England but that not doing he sent a Message to the Parliament desiring their concurrence in the raising 3000 Irish to be lent to the King of Spain to which the Parliament refused to consent believing he would make another use of them When he came back to London he pick'd out 3 or 400 dissolute Fellows out of Taverns gaming and brothel-Houses kept a Table for them and with this goodly Guard all arm'd he entred the House of Commons sat down in the Speaker's Chair demanding the delivery of 5 Members But the Citizens coming down by Land and Water with Musquets upon their Shoulders to defend the Parliament he attemted no further This so inrag'd the House that they chose a Guard to defend themselves against future Insults and the King soon after left London Som time before this began the Irish Rebellion where the Irish pretended the King's Authority and shew'd the Great Seal to justify themselves which whether true or false raised such a jealousy in the People that he was forced to consent to leave the management of that War to the Parliament yet he afterwards sent a Message to them telling them he would go to Ireland in Person and acquainted them that he had issued out Commissions for raising 2000 Foot and 200 Horse in Cheshire for his Guard which they protested against and prevented it By this we may see what Force was thought sufficient in his Reign to inslave the Nation and the frequent Attemts to get it Then the Civil Wars broke out between him and his People in which many bloody Battels were fought two of the most considerable were those of Newbury and Naseby both won by new Soldiers the first by the London Militia and the latter by an unexperienc'd Army which the King used to call in derision the New Nodel And som years after the Battel of Worcester was in a great measure won by the Country Militia for which Cromwel discharged them with anger and contemt as knowing them Instruments unsit to promote his Tyrannical Designs At last by the fate of the War the King became a Prisoner and the Parliament treated with him while in that condition and at the same time voted that som part of the Army should be disbanded and others sent to Ireland to reduce that Kingdom upon which the Army chose Agitators among themselves who presented a Petition to both Houses that they would proceed to settle the Affairs of the Kingdom and declare that no part of the Army should be disbanded till that was don But finding their Petition resented they sent and seiz'd the King's Person from the Parliaments Commissioners drew up a Charge of High Treason against eleven principal Members for indeavoring to disband the Army entred into a privat Treaty with the King but he not complying with their demands they seized London and notwithstanding the Parliament had voted
A Short HISTORY OF Standing Armies IN ENGLAND Captique dolis donisque coacti Quos neque Tydides nec Larissaeus Achilles Non anni domuere decem non mille Carinae Virg. Aen. ii LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII The PREFACE THERE is nothing in which the generality of Mankind are so much mistaken as when they talk of Government The different Effects of it are obvious to every one but few can trace its Causes Most Men having indigested Ideas of the Nature of it attribute all public Miscarriages to the corruption of Mankind They think the whole Mass is infected that it 's impossible to make any Reformation and so submit patiently to their Countries Calamities or else share in the Spoil whereas Complaints of this kind are as old as the World and every Age has thought their own the worst We have not only our own Experience but the Example of all Times to prove that Men in the same Circumstances will do the same things call them by what names of distinction you please A Government is a mere piece of Clockwork and having such Springs and Wheels must act after such a manner and therfore the Art is to constitute it so that it must move to the public Advantage It is certain that every Man will act for his own Interest and all wise Goverments are founded upon that Principle So that this whole Mystery is only to make the Interest of the Governors and Governed the same In an absolute Monarchy where the whole Power is in one Man his Interest will be only regarded In an Aristocracy the Interest of a few and in a free Government the Interest of every one This would be the Case of England if som Abuses that have lately crept into our Constitution were remov'd The freedom of this Kingdom depends upon the Peoples chusing the House of Commons who are a part of the Legislature and have the sole power of giving Mony Were this a true Representative and free from external Force or privat Bribery nothing could pass there but what they thought was for the public Advantage For their own Interest is so interwoven with the Peoples that if they act for themselves which every one of them will do as near as he can they must act for the common Interest of England And if a few among them should find it their Interest to abuse their Power it will be the Interest of all the rest to punish them for it and then our Government would act mechanically and a Rogue will as naturally be hang'd as a Clock strike twelve when the Hour is com This is the Fountain-Head from whence the People expect all their Happiness and the redress of their Grievances and if we can preserve them free from Corruption they will take care to keep every body else so Our Constitution seems to have provided for it by never suffering the King till Charles the Second's Reign to have a Mercenary Army to frighten them into a Compliance nor Places or Revenues great enough to bribe them into it The Places in the King's Gift were but few and most of them Patent Places for Life and the rest great Offices of State enjoy'd by single Persons which seldom fell to the share of the Commons such as the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Privy-Seal Lord High-Admiral c. and when these Offices were possess'd by the Lords the Commons were severe Inquisitors into their Actions Thus the Government of England continu'd from the time that the Romans quitted the Island to the time of Charles the First who was the first I have read of that made an Opposition to himself in the House of Commons the road to Preferment of which the Earl of Strafford and Noy were the most remarkable Instances who from great Patriots became the chief Assertors of Despotic Power But this serv'd only to exasperat the rest for he had not Places enough for all that expected them nor Mony enough to bribe them 'T is true he rais'd great Sums of Mony upon the People but it being without Authority of Parliament and having no Army to back him it met with such Difficulties in the raising that it did him little good and ended at last in his ruin tho by the means of a long and miserable War which brought us from one Tyranny to another for the Army had got all things into their Power and govern'd the Nation by a Council of War which made all Parties join in calling in Charles the Second So that he came in with the general applause of the People who in a kind fit gave him a vast Revenue for Life By this he was enabled to raise an Army and bribe the Parliament which he did to the purpose but being a luxurious Prince he could not part with great Sums at once He only fed them from hand to mouth So that they found it as necessary to keep him in a constant Dependence upon them as they had upon him They knew he would give them ready Mony no longer than he had absolute necessity for them and he had not Places enough in his disposal to secure a Majority in the House for in those early days the art was not found out of splitting and multiplying Places as instead of a Lord Tr r to have Five Lords of the Tr ry instead of a Lord Ad l to have Seven Lords of the Ad ty to have Seven Commissioners of the C ms Nine of the Ex ze Fourteen of the N vy Office Ten of the St mp Office Eight of the Pr ze Office Sixteen of the Commissioners of Tr de Two of the P st Office Four of the Transports Four for Hackny Coaches Four for Wine-Licenses Four for the Victualling Office and multitudes of other Offices which are endless to enumerat I believe the Gentlemen who have the good Fortune to be in som of these Imployments will think I complement them if I should say they have not bin better executed since they were in so many hands than when in fewer and I must confess I see no reason why they may not be made twice as many and so ad infinitum unless the number be ascertain'd by Parliament and what danger this may be to our Constitution I think of with Horror For if in Ages to com they should be all given to Parliament Men what will becom of our so much boasted Liberty what shall be don when the Criminal becoms the Judg and the Malefactors are left to try themselves We may be sure their common danger will unite them and they will all stand by one another I do not speak this by guess for I have read of a Country where there was a constant Series of mismanagement for many Years together and yet no body was punish'd and even in our own Country I believe som Men now alive can remember the time when if the King had but twenty more Places in his disposal or disposed of those he had to the best
30th of July tho there appears no reason why he might not have don it when he first came into the Harbor which was more than seven Weeks before Thus we see the Resolution of these poor Men weari'd out all their Disappointments When the Convention met they resolv'd upon twenty eight Articles as the Preliminaries upon which they would dispose the Crown but this design dwindled into a Declaration of our Rights which was in thirteen Articles and the most considerable viz. That the raising and keeping up a Standing Army in times of Peace is contrary to Law had tag'd to it these words without Authority of Parliament as if the consent of the Parliament would not have made it Legal without those words or that their Consent would make it less dangerous This made the Jacobites say in those early days that som evil Counsellors design'd to play the same game again of a Standing Army and attributed unjustly the neglect of Ireland to the same Cause because by that omission it was made necessary to raise a greater Army to reduce it with which the King acquainted the Parliament the 8th of March when speaking of the deplorable Condition of Ireland he declar'd he thought it not advisable to attemt the reducing it with less than 20000 Horse and Foot This was a bitter Pill to the Parliament who thought they might have manag'd their share of the War with France at Sea but there was no remedy a greater Army must be rais'd or Ireland lost and to gild it all the Courtiers usher'd in their Speeches with this Declaration That they would be the first for disbanding them when the War was over and this Declaration has bin made as often as an Army has bin debated since during the War and I suppose punctually observ'd last Sessions At last the thing was consented to and the King issu'd forth Commissions for the raising of Horse Foot and Dragoons In this Army very few Gentlemen of Estates in Ireland could get Imployments tho they were in a miserable Condition here and made their utmost Application for them it being a common objection by som Colonels that a Man had an Estate there which in all likelihood would have made him more vigorous in reducing the Kingdom It was long after this Army was rais'd before they could be ready to be transported and even then it was commonly said that Shomberg found many things out of order and when they were at last transported which was about the middle of August they were not in a Condition to fight the Enemy tho lately baffled before Londonderry especially their Carriages coming not to them till the 24th of September when it was high time to go into Winter-Quarters By this means the Irish got Strength and Courage and three fourths of our Army perish'd at the Camp at Dundalk But tho our Army could do nothing yet the Militia of the Country almost without Arms or Clothes performed Miracles witness that memorable Siege of Londonderry the defeat of General Mackarty who was intrench'd in a Bog with ten thousand regular Troops and attack'd by fifteen hundred Inniskilling men defeated himself made a Prisoner and three thousand of his Men kill'd and a great many other gallant Actions they perform'd for which they were dismiss'd by Kirk with Scorn and Ignominy and most of their Officers left to starve Thus the War in Ireland was nurs'd up either thro Chance Inadvertency or the necessity of our Affairs for I am unwilling to think it was Design till at last it was grown so big that nothing less than his Majesty's great Genius and the usual Success that has always attended his Conduct could have overcom it When the Parliament met that Winter they fell upon the examination of the Irish Affairs and finding Commissary Shales was the cause of a great part of the Miscarriages they address'd his Majesty that he would be pleas'd to acquaint the House who it was that advis'd the imploying him which his Majesty did not remember They then address'd that he would be pleas'd to order him to be taken into Custody and it was don accordingly upon which Shales sent a Letter to the Speaker desiring he might be brought over to England where he would vindicat himself and justify what he had don Then the House address'd his Majesty again that he might be brought over with all convenient speed and the King was pleas'd to answer that he had given such Orders already Then the House refer'd the matter to a privat Committee but before any Report made or Shales could be brought to England the Parliament was prorogu'd and after dissolv'd and soon after he fell sick and died The neglect of Ireland this Year made it necessary to raise more Forces and increase our Establishment which afterwards upon pretence of invading France was advanc'd to eighty seven thousand six hundred ninety eight Men. At last by our great Armies and Fleets and the constant expence of maintaining them we were too hard for the Oeconomy Skill and Policy of France and notwithstanding all our Difficulties brought them to Terms both Safe and Honorable It not being to be purpose of this Discourse I shall omit giving any account of the Conduct of our Fleet during this War how few Advantages we reap'd by it and how many Opportunities we lost of destroying the French Only thus much I will observe that tho a great part of it may be attributed to the Negligence Ignorance or Treachery of inferior Officers yet it could not so universally happen thro the whole course of the War and unpunish'd too notwithstanding the clamors of the Merchants and repeated complaints in Parliament unless the cause had laid deeper What that is I shall not presume to enquire but I am sure there has bin a very ill Argument drawn from it viz. That a Fleet is no security to us As soon as the Peace was made his Majesty discharg'd a great part of the foren Forces and an Advertisment was publish'd in the Gazet that ten Regiments should be forthwith disbanded and we were told as soon as it was don that more should follow their example But these Resolutions it seems were alter'd and the modish Language was that we must keep up a Standing Army Their Arguments were turn'd topsy turvy for as during the War the People were prevail'd upon to keep up the Army in hopes of a Peace so now we must keep them up for fear of a War The Condition of France which they had bin decrying for many Years was now magnifi'd we were told that it was doubtful whether the French King would deliver up any of his Towns that he was preparing a vast Fleet upon the Lord knows what Design that it was impossible to make a Militia useful that the warlike King Jemmy had an Army of eighteen thousand Irish Hero's in France who would be ready when call'd for and that the King of Spain was dying The Members of Parliament were discours'd