Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	year_n	3,635	5	4.7641	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93827	The state of the Navy consider'd in relation to the victualling, particularly in the Straits, and the West Indies with some thoughts on the mismanagements of the Admiralty for several years past : and a proposal to prevent the like for the future / humbly offer'd to the honourable House of Commons by an English sailor.	English sailor.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5323; ESTC R42893	14,246	19

Practice for Officers paying themselves we can't imagine they 'l put themselves last upon the List of Paiment and so other Warrants that are in Course are postpon'd And it has been observ'd that no Office in England has broken the Course of Paiment more than that of the Victualling Besides some of the Officers are common Buyers and Sellers of the Office Bills and as constant Brokers upon the Exchange as any that deal in Exchequer Notes Bank Bills or Tallies It is now become a Custom I believe throughout the whole Navy for the Cathiers and Clerks to take Poundage of the Persons they pay Money to contrary to antient Custom and all the Equity in the World The Victualling for some time had a Banker in Lombard-street who paid Money upon the King's Account and took Poundage of the Persons he paid it to as did their Agent at Portsmouth This must be either a very great Exaction upon the Parties dealing to the Office or else an Allowance is made for it in the Price of the Commodity which is a downright Abuse to the Nation That the Nation has been cheated and abus'd more since the Revolution than under any other Government is evident to any thinking man The Mismanagements of the Victualling have been so great and the Office so scandalous that it has been even a national Nusance and tho prosecuted with reiterated Complaints at the Treasury and Parliament all the honest Endeavours of Mankind have prov'd ineffectual for where Men are Judges of their own Cause no Justice can be expected You 'l never hang a Highway-man more if you allow him to be tried by his own Troop About four years ago some honest Men in the Victualling had made a Discovery of several Embezelments of which they complained in divers Articles against the Officers embezelling the King's Stores These Articles were delivered to one of the Commissioners and so to another but never examin'd into All the punishment they inflicted on him was that about a week after the Complaint they gave him liberty for the Summer to reside at his Country House and order'd the Officer that complain'd against him to do duty in his Room This is much of the same nature of another Complaint against one of their Officers for drinking K. James's Health who in a Fortnight afterwards was advanced from a Place of forty Pounds per Ann. to about three or four hundred A Person of Honour hearing how the foresaid Complaint was stifled by the Commissioners of the Victualling got a Copy thereof and gave it to the Lords of the Treasury who after some time heard the Commissioners ex parte against the King and never examined one Witness on the King's part to the proof of the matter of Fact alledged in the said Articles So that hitherto it has been in vain to complain of Grievances and the People of England have been forc'd to maintain by the sweat of their Brows many that formerly betray'd their Liberties and now enrich themselves out of the publick spoils of the Kingdom To recount all Mismanagements in this Office would fill a large Volume the Ignorance and Negligence of the Persons concern'd in it the profuse wasting of the Nation 's Stores the contriving and forming Perquisites out of the same to themselves contrary to former Custom and Practice the supernumerary Officers and Labourers in the Yards old and decrepid fitter for Hospitals than Service are things notorious in the Eyes of all but such as should punish them Indeed such Men are well secured in ill Practices they have their Brethren in other Offices to stand by them and a Power of discharging such of the Office as complain against them as they did several of the poor men that complain'd against them in Parliament last year nay one of the Commissioners threatned to discharge one of them in the Speaker's Chamber before the Committee Thus this Office has been managed in respect to the good of the Nation It will not now be amiss to consider how far this Management has affected the poor Sailors An English man is not hard-hearted enough to reflect on the miserable Condition of our poor Sailors of Admiral Nevil's Squadron in the West Indies I am credibly inform'd from good hands that out of that Squadron in a very short time we lost above 2500 men whose Lives I am sure were of more value and concern to the English Nation than all the Advantages of that Expedition and the mighty Business of Cartagena our Gazette made such a noise about A hot Country stinking Meat and maggoty Bread with the noisom and poisonous Scent of the Bilge Water have made many a brave English Sailor food for Crabs and Sharks Now I am victualling abroad suffer me to take a view of the Navy in the Mediterranean under the Command of Admiral Russel I shall not touch too far upon this Head the Affair being in better Hands and under the consideration of wiser-Heads I mean before the Parliament But as a Sailor I must needs say if so large a Sum of Money as is talk'd of was imprested to some body upon the account of Beverage it is a damn'd shame that our Fleet should be so scandalous as it was there and go by the name of the Vinegar Fleet by reason of the sour Wine they drank Besides I remember it was a believ'd Report aboard our Ships that the Spaniards were oblig'd by Articles to find Beverage and dry Provisions for the English Fleet and we all concluded the vast Sums of Money brought aboard the Fleet by the victualling Pinnace had been upon that account The Cockswain and some of the Pinnace's Crew once told me how many Tun of Plate they brought aboard the Fleet but that and a hundred Rogueries beside in that Fleet are out of my head at present yet this I can assure you the Folk concerned in buying the Beverage got very pretty Estates out of it and old nonsensical Humphrey had sense enough to get as we computed at least ten thousand Pounds when I am well satisfied if the Lords of the Admiralty would have been graciously pleased to have kept him at home and given him twenty thousand Pounds for so doing it would have been more for the advantage of the Nation and the Sailors Welfare for we have abundance of men in publick Offices that it would be for the advantage of the Country to give 'em twice the Salary to be without their Service Thus has it far'd with the poor Sailors abroad Now let us look into the Channel and see how our Summer and Winter Guards of Shipping have been victualled I thank God England is a very plentiful Country and an honest Man that has money in his Pocket need not go with an empty Stomach and I think the Parliaments have always made as ample Provision for Victualling as may be and yet during this War our Fleet has been put to short Allowance in the Channel have had their guts pinch'd in view of