Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	know_v	life_n	2,879	5	4.5653	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44078	Humble proposals for the relief, encouragement, security and happiness of the loyal, couragious seamen of England, in their lives and payment, in the service of our Most Gracious King William, and the defence of these nations humbly presented to the two most Honourable Houses, the Lords and Commons of England, in Parliament assembled / by a faithful subject of His Majesty, and servant to the Parliament and nation, and the seamen of England, in order for safety and security of all aforesaid, W. Hodges ; to which is added, a dialogue concerning the art of ticket-buying, in a discourse between Honesty, Poverty, Cruelty and Villany, concerning that mystery of iniquity, and ruin of the loyal seamen.	Hodges, William, Sir, 1645?-1714.	1695 (1695)	Wing H2329; ESTC R2277	51,833	63

to all hazards and they to none but take my Mony So it is in a Nation if we had not Traded this War we had been Ruined and if we lose not more than we get clear Profit we shall live at last tho by the way the World may admire at us that have near twice the Number of Men of War imploy'd that the Dutch have and yet that they should have so many Millions of Riches come home from the Indies and other parts this year and other years and hardly lose any almost to speak of except what they have lost in our Company for where they take care of their own Concerns themselves for the most part they go and come well But in conclusion I do suppose besides their preservation of their Shipping if I am not under a misapprehension they save a Million of Mony a year more than we in their Ships of War and Mens Wages and it may be half a Million more in the very Wages of Seamen in their Merchants Service and if they spend less by half and lose less by Eight Parts in Ten they will out-do us in Trade and it is not our making a Noise and keeping our Seamen on Board of Ship until they die will save our Trade alive but first the blessing of God 2. The increase and Encouragement of our Seamen and our preserving them alive and having enough to supply the Merchant-men with Seamen cheap and then having Men to order our Convoys at least with as much common sense to preserve our Merchant Ships and meet them as soon and take them home to England for time to come as the French use to do to meet them to take them home to France that we may not be a Grief to our Friends and a Joy to our Enemies and a by-word to the World I bless God I love my Native Country well and our gracious King William well and if I did not I would not be so plain hearted And as to what I said before we must for time to come imploy at least half as many Seamen more in times of Peace than ever we did and to do it in time of Peace if we would when ever God in Mercy sends us peace then mind the very Fishing Trade at our own Doors as others do I find it computed by one Sir John Burrows Keeper of the Records in the Tower and printed with Gerard Malines Lex Mercatoriae which I have by me That the Dutch do imploy in our Brittish Sea which he saith is a continual Harvest and doth imploy 6400 Ships and Busses and 120000 Men at Sea whereby he saith That Holland it self being but 28 Miles in length and a few in breadth imploys in all their Sea-Trade 10000 Sail of Shipping and he saith That Lubeck hath 700 Sail of Ships Hamborough 600 Emden more besides Freemen and other Nations that Fish and Trade in our Seas And he saith That the very Customs of their Fishing Trade of Holland came to 500000 l the Year including the Tenth Fish and Cask paid for Waftage And this if thought of by England when ever God shall send Peace would be the way to imploy and increase our Seamen and to have a sufficient Number always ready to serve the King and Country at 2 Months Warning and not suffer our Seamen in Peace to rove all over the world for imployment to get bread yea to go some Thousands into the West Indies a Buckaneering for want of bread at home This is by the way It may be something of this may be minded some Years hence And this I would leave as a Memorandum That since France is grown so prodigious Great if we double not our Diligence they will endeavour to out-wit us in Peace or War and it may be they may be to England as the Philistines were to Israel when we fall deeply to sinning they may be raised up to scourge us and the Lord prevent the Cause and if it be his holy Will enable us to bring them under 11. And I would say That all possible care ought to be taken that those who have the Command and Offices in the Ships of War should be Men of true Courage in fight and true Kindness to the Seamen at other times And I would appeal to all our Brave Commanders if the Seamen with good usage will not be led with a twined Thread up to the Muzzels of their Enemies Guns at any time by Stout good Natur'd Commanders But hate to be abused like Dogs And I am consulting my Memory and do not remember any one Commander that was an Hectoring and Swearing Damning Cruel Wretch to his Men that ever had the Heart to fight an Enemy And therefore it were in this Age well if there were a Law made Tha● no extraordinary Correction should be given to Seamen in Passion but to have Three or at least Two Officers advise in any Correction more than ordinary 12. That no Seaman be kept above 2 Years out either in the Straits or West Indies before they come home and be paid off it having been often found Ships staying long there have had their Number of Men 6 times over to the Seamen's Ruin And I never heard of a Penny Profit to King and Country by their Ruining of so many 13. None be so turned over above once before his first mony be paid and that to prevent the Ruin of their Pay and Families 14. None to forfeit a Penny of the other Ship 's Pay after he is 3 Months in the Ship 15. No Officer to detain a Seaman's Ticket on any pretence whatever except his Covenant-Servant on pain of Felony 16. None to set a Q. or R. on any Seaman's Pay but to shew Cause and set his Name that did it that Seamen may not be rumed in Life and Death and Pay and All by they know not who nor wherefore 17. None to receive a Seaman's Pay without a true Power and if Counterfeited to have the Middle Joint of each Little Finger cut off and be sold to the West-Indies for perpetual Servitude all their Days 18. No Officer to detain a Seaman's Certificate or Sick-Ticket on any pretence whatever 19. No Officer to keep Men open on the Books a Voyage after they are gone neither to make out Tickets for them or to enter Men in the Ship 's Books that never saw the Ship in their Lives And to prevent this and the other and the Cheating the King and Loss of Ships and Ruin of Seamen for time to come there might be 20. One man in 20 that can write and Cast Accompt to be as Seamen extra to keep a Journal sign'd by them all of the daily motion of the Ship in what place what Wind and what Friends or Enemies met with or run away from and also to take an Exact Account of all the Ship 's Victuals and Stores coming on Beard to see that it is the full Quantity and that no Embellishment might be in the Stores nor

Port and some in another Whether the Ships must wait until they are well and how the same Men can get to their own Ships again when they are gone And if they continue sick or die or go on board of other Ships or be sent to the Hospitals and Run out of their Pay whether this be not Injustice Cruelty Opression Discouragement to the King's Service and that whereby no Man in England can be safe to Serve his King and Country for time to come nor no Man safe to trust a Seaman or Seaman's Wife and Family one Groat that is in the King's Service on those terms since the Stoutest Man and Honestest Man in England by keeping long on Board may fall Sick and Die or continue Sick and that a Year or two and if not go on Board or be Prest on board another Ship and so loose his Pay I do protest in the presence of the Lord before whom I Write this I fear if there be none in these Nations to be found to consider these dreadful Cases but suffer Cruelty and injustice to be smugled up that God will Chastise these Nations until they Learn what it is to Ruin Men and Families in their Lives or Pay thousands and ten thousands as by the King's Pay-books and Muster-books will appear and they I appeal to they are such a Register the Nation never saw in the Sea Affairs and the blame must lie somewhere and I suppose some hardened Hearts will say the Running them out of their Pay is right enough but it may be they will not consider that their turning from Ship to Ship until Sickness or Death came was the Cause of a great part and I hope they will not be so Case-hardened as to say they were served well enough to be Run out of their Lives so many ten thousands also I remember the English Nation in some former times was mighty industrious to find out and Punish the Instruments that Ruined the King's Liege-People in their Lives and Estates and had we had but the tenth part of Landmen's Poor Families Stripped of all they had in the World as there hath been Seamen stripped of their Pay it would have made a dreadful out-cry in England And indeed if our Poor in England had been forc'd to be turned from Master to Master without a Penny of Mony for some Years as many Seamen have from Ship to Ship and their miserable Wives and Children Live on Credit or Starve and if at last they should under the burden of all by discouragements fall sick and be Run out of their Mony they had worked for several Years as many have been out of their Pay in several Ships it would look dreadfully bad And some well-meaning men would have nothing said of it to acquaint the Government for fear our Enemies should know it as if the French who hath taken so many hundred Ships from us and near twenty thousand Men Captive this War and hath so many Spies and Treacherous Villains here and doth to outward appearance know a great deal better where to meet our India Ships and Berbado's Ships in several places to take them Home to France than ours did to send Convoys to take them Home to England and yet some seeming Honest Men are afraid the French that take our Ships and Men should know our Case and in short I fear he knows it a great deal more exactly than some do or will do in England for I do think some in England seem to do like what is said of the Woodcocks to hide their Heads in a Bush and think none can see them and so if they let the King Country and Seamen be all Cheated it will continue to be all smuggled up but my Pen runs thirteen to the Dozen and yet the knavery of the Bakers is such that if care be not taken I am afraid some of our Seamens Families will be ready to starve but to that I should propose a Remedy that Seamen may not be Cheated of their Health Lives and Pay altogether First if as many as is possible might be Paid off every year and that it may be would save most of their Lives most of their Healths and all their Pay besides and we might have Ships enough for a Winter Squadron besides and if any did fall Sick then if the Ship goeth away and leaves him set on shoar then if he cannot come on Board to set him in the Ships Book dis-sick at such a place and time and the Man if well to go on Board another Man of War and to have the Captain of the Man of War send up a Certificate to the Office That such a man that was in such a Ship is now in his Ship and this to be Entered in the other Ships Book in the Office to save the Poor Seamens Pay and if the other Ships Book be not there to have a Register Book to enter it in the mean time and if the Man continues Sick or Dies the Surgeon of the place he is sent to to be bound to give a Certificate of his Case to save his Pay since it must needs seem to me to be a barbarous thing towards any for time past to be turn'd from Ship to Ship for several Years until they fall sick and die and then be Run out of their Pay and it may be their poor Ruined Wives who hardly have seen their Husbands this War it may be they must come 100 or 200 Miles to shew cause why they must have any mony and why their Husbands went not on Board their own Ships again and it may be the Ships Journal if looked into at the Office would shew the Ship went away in 24 hours And if God will bring every work to Judgment I doubt our Ships Books and Ships Journals will be sad Witnesses against the Cruelty of some in those Offices to Run poor Wretches out of their Pay that the men are as the Sentence is against those that are to be hanged Dead Dead Dead And therefore if I find not any Remedy against Ruining the Fatherless and the Widow I will not expect any great Security of our Ships and Merchandise And so much to that God is a Jealous God If we Ruin the Poor of Thirty Thousand Pounds the Year by some sort of Tools and God suffers the Nation to lose so many Hundred Thousand Pounds in Riches and the King his Custom by the Ignorance Carelessness and Treachery of others if our own Folly be not too hard for us I fear the Judgments of God will and therefore I advise some way for these Nations to break off their sins by Repentance and their Iniquities by shewing mercy to the Poor and Mercy and Justice both will teach ways to secure Ruined Seamens Pay when wounded or dead or in the Hospitals 9. It is a miserable thing that when men are turn'd over or dead or sick that their poor Wives cannot be informed whether their poor Ruined Husbands are Run

out of their Pay without Petitioning Which if there be Twenty Thousand Turnings over in a Year may make work for the Clerk of the Petitions and his Masters If they all Petition at 12 d the Piece to him it is a Thousand Pound the Year and 6 d to his Boy is five hundred Pound the Year And will not this be brave Times for him But I remember in all Calamities some dreadful Wretches get mony in the time of the Plague of London in the time of the Fire and in the time of War many are Raised from the Dunghill on the Ruines of others but why poor Seamen themselves or their poor Wives should not have Liberty to get a Clerk to search the Book to see if they are cheated of their Pay or no before Pay-day is sad But I confess it is a good way to hide Knavery For if mony be said to be paid the Party and was not and he appears himself it is a timely notice to get another book to shew him that it was only ordered to be paid him But if he be dead or gone and never come himself then it may stand paid the party until Dooms-day and if he comes it was a mistake And besides this having a sight of the Books may be a great help to Extortioners and Ticket-buyers if they get the Books searched privately they may buy as they please And whether this be not turning the blind out of their way seeing the Seamens Wives have most time nothing but the Books to know what is due and if they be Run at Pay-day it may be are forced to petition and stay for their mony another year and this is misery to misery 10. Therefore I think they ought for time to come to have no Seamen discharged without a Ticket and no Officer keep his Ticket on pain of Felony For in plain English which is worst a Pick-pocket stealing a Guinea or Two from a Gentleman or a Captain of a Man of War to take a Seaman's Ticket from him of Ten Pound and it may be the poor Seaman nor his Wife and Family hath not a Groat in the World to buy a bit of bread Therefore if there be not Relief to poor Ruined Seamen I will never more wonder we fool away knock on the Head betray and destroy so many Men of War and Merchant Ships But 11. And none to wait above One Payment for One Ticket also for time to come and not wait 3 years for 30 s at Two Payments of a Ticket as hath been common this War And whether this was not Misery to Misery And to prevent that 12. As few as possible to be turn'd from Ship to Ship but when Ships come in pay them off as they come in some one time and some another and the Men have a Month's Liberty to come on shore and gather health and strength and spend their Mony and when their Mony is gone their Friends will quickly send them to Sea again without pressing and that would be good for King and Country And if Men see they are not shifted from Ship to Ship like Slaves they will when paid off on shore as in other Ages have Encouragement to come into the Service again and bring their Children Servants and Friends with them But if they find they are deprived of their Liberty all their Days when once they come and of their Property when sick and die no marvel if they are glad to get away And I would ask all Mankind and would appeal to the King and Parliament what should be the Cause the King's Service now should be more a Prison than in other Ages and why so Gracious a King's Service should be made such a Bugbear now and such Loss of Liberty Property and Lives to the Seamen now more than in any Age of the World and whether it be not an unmerciful unjust and an unreasonable Argument to pretend the Seamen cannot be admitted to come on shore to be paid now as in other Ages because they will Run away Whereas in the mean time they are kept turn'd and tossed from Ship to Ship until more die than would Man the Fleet and in the mean time also more Run away from the Service than would Man it all and half over again And if they are Run out of their Pay wrongfully it is shameful and cruel and if Justly their New Management has frightned more Seamen out of the Service to the appearance of the Ship 's Books this Seven Years last than hath Run away in this Nation I do verily suppose this fifty years if all the Old Books and New Books were searched So that I say Experience shews the Misery of that Argument of paying them on board Ship by the Loss of near Forty Thousand Lives and sixty or seventy Thousand Men's Pay Whereas had their Lives been preserved and their Pay encouraged on shore in all likelihood Seamen would have been so increased and thereby their Pay in Merchant Ships near half Iess That considering the hazard of Lost Voyages in Merchant Ships they would there have Thousands of them proved my Words good that I used to say to them at first That the King's Service was the best in England No half Pay no Dammage no Lost Voyage and if pinched of their Diet the King pays the Pinch-gut-mony also honestly And thus I would by the way consider that we cannot expect to be in safety for time to come without we do by Humility Justice and Mercy engage God to stand by us and give us Wisdom and his Blessing in the first place And 2dly As to outward means in a visible way we cannot be safe and happy in times of Peace or War without an hundred and fifty Thousand Seamen in England My Reason is this That tho now we have the Dutch united with us and it may be save 20 or 30 Ships and 10000 Men the time may fall out we may stand alone and 2dly What hath been may be and the French and another Nation have Joyned against us and then we need double the Strength and Number of Men we have now and that to maintain a War and Merchant Trade both and if we do not that we are Ruined for want of Trade therefore this I would say Tho our Losses have been dreadful this War and God knows many of them blindfold and scandalous and ignorant yet it was a great mercy we traded Our poor had been Ruined if we had not Traded all our Manufactory-workers would have been ready to perish and commit it may be any mischief for it hath been with the Nation as it may be in some part with my self There are some that have by the Providence of God a Subsistence from me I trade and trust and lose much I pay them blessed be God they live by their Labour and some might starve if they had not that or the Parishes must keep them others it may be get Mony more than I under me because I stand