so modest as not to exempt from the Lash such as are of his Houshold his Revenue State Law Religion or Navy and these must of course stick to the Men that are for Arbitrary Power and these will bring unhappy Quarrels among our selves and put us upon a chargeable War with a vast Expence of Blood and Treasure and for this Reason he tells us That we must arm our selves against the Court I confess he names not the King but I thought he was part of the Court and then the Author said it and not my self for he tacitly accuses all the Estates of Parliament for saying ' That we are more beholden to Fortune than our own Efforts that this has not already happened Then he brings in an Instance of King Charles the First That if he had had 5000 Men before-hand with us our Liberties had been gone without striking a Stroke Here he arraigns the Justice of the Nation who solemnized the Day of his Martyrdom by Act of Parliament which had they deem'd him a Tyrant in his Temper 't is not to be thought he wou'd have had that Favour his Exit was Bloody but 't is more unnatural to Revile the Memory of the Dead As for what you say of the late King no body at this time will stand up to assert his Actions but in what you say of him I differ from you For I cannot think that Army wou'd have brought in Arbitrary Power had not Popery been intended for which you had my Reasons before But we are not now debating King James's Affairs he knows better why he withdrew than I can tell you But again Old Noll is brought upon the Stage with the Story of 17000 Men which he left in Arms at his Death Pray did these Men hinder the Loyal Party from bringing back their Lawful Sovereign No! they were so far from that that they contributed to his Restauration As for the Duke of Monmouth's Expedition it seems to have been at first a Trick of State in which you are silent he was perhaps the Darling of the People but you know his Success and may have read that the Amorites were not destroyed 'till their Sins were ripe for Punishment As for Caesar's Pharsalian Battel with 22000 Men he had Success wherever he went and is thought by many to merit what he got But now the Roman and Ottoman Empires run in your Head and what was done there is a Consequence of what may be done here a pretty sort of Argument as if our Constitutions were the same I have been told that the Trisling Ceremony of Striking a Flag was one Pretence of breaking the late Peace and according to your own Rule What was done yesterday may again come to pass The same Prince is now on the Throne as well as two Pretenders to ours in his Territories and he is so little of our Author's Opinion that he purposes to keep a considerable Land-Army Are their Swords to grow rusty or are they all to go into Poland You give an Invader great Encouragement to come hither when you tell him That little numbers may effect an Ambitious Design But I can tell you this of which you seem ignorant that an Ignominious B reach of the present Peace wou'd convince the Aggressor That an English man can resent Affronts and Fight well when he likes the Cause And whent he Torrent of Arbitrary Power seem'd at any time floating in a Prince's Head his Subjects have soon taken that Occasion to make his Reign uneasy But you are of a contrary Opinion and are commonly ready with a Doubt or a May be you doubt If the King has an Army it must ruin us You forget they are English-men and repeat your Fears oftner than some do their Prayers But you are so fair as to own That those who are for a Standing Army would not have it made part of the Constitution but be kept only 'till Europe is in better Circumstances But at this you have also a sling You fear it will last the Life of K. James and then start a Doubt which perhaps we had not heard of That Prince Prettiman may be in the flower of his Age and in full vigour and is more to be feared than an unhappy Man sinking under the Load of Age and Misfortune And I can find that on particular Occasions you can afford one Prince more Pity than another 'T is much you shou'd own the French King exhausted and think That so soon as he has fetcht Breath it may be dangerous Remember Sir he has engaged the contrary But yet I dare lay a strong Wager that if he furnished the Welsh Gentlemen with a strong Army he wou'd help him to as much Ground in England as he took up when he was Born Why then you will reply What need is there of an Army I will tell you that most Men wou'd think it strange that came to see our Country to find that we mistrusted that our Prince wou'd turn Tyrant and therefore we kept the power in our own hands A Suspition that never entred into the breasts of those Princes whose Armies he had lead but alas this Gentleman only argues for argument sake He fears when France grows stronger their number must be doubled Pray Sir reflect not on that Prince for there may be reflections in prose as well as Verse you add their discontents may continue them pray what makes Armies discontented but want of Pay and that is left to the direction of such as we see fit to choose our selves and if here the hinge moves not right those who put them in power are in the wrong But he continues Angry still He says that Charles the Second being connived at for keeping a few Guards and grudges even his Pensioners and Beef-eaters the event was that he left an Army to his Successor capable to make him bluster to his Parliament that he wou'd be no longer bound to the Laws he had sworn too but as he goes on he tells us that a Complication of Causes madeit fall out otherwise and forgetting his former sentence turns upon himself and says That what happened then may never happen again But tho' he Confesses we have escaped this Precipice he fears habit has made Soldiers too familiar to us and to go on with you I must own that it wou'd be hard to have His Majesty refused as many Men as his Predecessors And to urge it as a violation of our laws is not so fair my reason for it is this That Concomitant Causes such as this of having pretenders to the Crown may make what might otherwise seem a hardship now become absolutely necessary In a word it is strange that an Author who writes so Gentleman like shou'd at the same time refuse Convenient succours when he sees how absolutely necessary it is for the preservation of a Kings life on whom so much depends But he says the raising of these Forces was a violation of our Laws
Claudian yet their stiffness herein puts me in mind of the Happiness which he describes as peculiar to the Man that never went beyond his Parish-Bounds These are their Sentiments and so you must look out for other Methods to supply the Militia to have them useful One Project is That out of the Disbanded Forces Men may be procured to enter your Service But let me ask you a plain Question What Reason have I to venture my Arms in the Hands of a Man you dare not trust Or what better Security can I have that one who proffers me his Service and is a Stranger will be more for my dear Property than if he were Listed in a Standing Force And so to use his own Words this Constitution must either ruin the Army or the Army ruin the Constitution which is offering a violence to Nature He goes on to tell us That where-ever the Militia is there is or will be the Government in a short time I will not be so Dogmatical as to prescribe to my Betters but if you wou'd procure an Interest to bring in a Bill to make the Militia useful those who send Men to it wou'd be pleased with the Project to have the Gentlemen of the Country without the addition of Inferior Officers to be appointed by the King And the Reason for it is plain which is this it is commonly a Trust which divers Lieutenants of Counties have to serve as Representatives in Parliament either for the County or some Burrough-Town to which they may be Neighbours Now it must be granted That a Gentleman has a greater Regard to the County of his Nativity than a Stranger can be presumed to have and those whom they Muster in order to make useful will with greater Alacrity undergo the Fatigue of Learning the Military Art when many of those under whom they serve had their Votes and their Interest to send them to Parliament They will then have more Patience to Learn what a Stranger might by Blows endeavour to Insinuate So that upon the whole it appears plain That those who fear Arbitrary Power ought to find out Means to put this Project in Practice But perhaps a Man may object against this Proposition tho' I might think it fair He may perhaps say it gives too much Authority to the People and may prove detrimental to future Princes shou'd the Commons not approve of a Prince's Administration Liberty is a Popular Argument and they will be apt to say that we have no Cause to Mistrust and therefore may banish our Fears If there be any thing in the Argument so good an Historian is capable of Answering it But alas you fear a small Number may awe Elections The next time you Print furnish your self with better Arguments or else most People will be apt to conclude That a small Number of Standing Forces may be convenient in our present Circumstances That the Number intended or proposed is to be small 't is plain for Orders are given to Disband divers Regiments already No notice is taken of the Wounds of such who suffered on so Publick an Occasion but it were well if at the Head of their Regiments when they are Disbanded some Speech were made in Acknowledgement of their former Service and to tell them That the Necessity of the Crown did not longer require their Aid This Custom wou'd not deviate from those Commonwealths which you admire for their Prudence But now having proved my Point I must endeavour to be Friends with the Inn-keepers who by this time will begin to Pray for me backwards Why then Gentlemen I have this to say That the Number can never oppress you It is proposed to be but a Few and your Representatives in Parliament will give but what is necessary So pray be content and thank God you are rid of some and in time I hope your Arrears will be Paid And now having sufficiently proved that our Author has started Chimaera's which enter not into other Peoples Heads and therein proved that if he shot at the White he is far beyond the Mark I come now to his Gothick Ballance which I think is sufficiently observed by the Laws of England and the Constitution in all Matters so exactly adjusted that he might have acquiesced in that Confidence but since he goes on to assert a new Proposition viz. That no Nation can preserve its Liberties which maintains an Army otherwise established I hope he will give me liberty to make some material Objections to his Hypothesis Pray what was the Occasion of the 23 Pitcht Battels betwixt the two Houses of York and Lancaster but their confiding too much on the fickle Populace and we find that sometimes one House succeeded and then another but these many Revolutions were always owing to the want of a sufficient Power at home to suppress the strength of Foreiners which made it often end to the Advantage of the Invader By which we may see that Military Discipline is an excellent thing and that the want of Standing Forces has been the Cause of sundry Revolutions An English Army will always be for Property Sure that which wou'd make our Enemies dread us abroad ought not to be a Bugbear to our selves Let us pause a while and consider and then we shall find that Richard the Third a King of admirable Prowess wanting Strength at Bosworth-Field proportionable to encounter his invading Antagonist lost his Life and Crown in the Cause And a few Years before Edward the Fourth put that pusillanimous Prince King Henry the Sixth to the Expence of his Life for want of an Equality in Power This is certain that York and Lancaster cou'd not be both in the Right and yet Success favoured both their Pretensions and those frequent Changes are attributed by Historians to the Misfortune of Princes that wanted a Land-Army in number sufficient to quell such un happy Tumults By these Examples and more I could add were I not stinted in Time it plainly appears That a small Number is for the Security of the Kingdom And now I shall Methodically follow him He talks of some Men who in the late Reigns asserted Liberty so vigorously that they denied Royal Prerogatives and so very zealously that they would scarce allow of the King 's ordinary Guards but since he names not who they are we may believe it or not as we please But if such there were perhaps they sooner pried into the Court-Designs than other Men and so took care to prevent what might be Destructive by ill Management to the whole Constitution Here he forgets to make a Distinction betwixt Circumstances that happened at that time and how the Case is now We had then successively two Princes on the Throne that had no pretenders to their Title and tho' the last had a Perkin started upto give a defiance yet the Ridiculous Power he brought made him a Scoff among his Friends but when his present Majesty arrived the Cause he came to maintain was so
and that his Government is built on the destruction of theirs I like not the Simile he gives that it cannot stand I am satisfied here is no probable Cause of suspition and yet a very urgent necessity You urge that the Conspirators say we need be in no danger of Slavery whilst we keep the Power of the Purse in our own hands in which also I agree with you But in his next notion we part again for he tells us in Latin to this effect that an Army will as certainly raise Money as they will intrench upon our priviledges or a little neerer to my Authors sence he who has power will obtain by force what Right denies 'T is hard to make the Irregularities of some Armies an Instance to all but alas it is his precaution and we must excuse a good Intention As soon as he has done with his fears I will have done with them too he fears the shutting up of the Exchequer which he says is only disobliging a few Tally Jobbers and 3 Millions according to his Arithmetick will he sav'd by it This fear was in order to increase a number of well affected persons to listen to a Patriot but to show you that his fears have in them a formal probability he repaires to the Reign of Charles the Second but the case is not a Parallel From hence he proceeds to his Sentiments of the Exchequer Officers at this time and tells us that the Annuity-People are those who Rely on His Majesties Virtue and not the Justice of the Exchequer Officers And is His Majesties virtue so eminent and cannot we think it to be convenient to preserve his Person No better way can be proposed than a few Regulated Forces and these receiving their Pay from the Bounty of the Commons can have it withdrawn when reasonable and they then must sink of course But having had his fling at the Exchequer Officers who know best how to defend themselves he says that we ought not to hazard such virtue by leading it into Temptation which he says is our Duty to pray against And he thinks it an Age of Miracles if they be not Seduced for our Heroes he says are of a coarse Allay and have too much dross mixt with their Constitutions for such refin'd Principles In this say I qui capit ille facit Now the Fit comes on him apace again he says that in the little Experience he has had in the World he has observ'd most Men to do as much mischief as lay in their power this is a general drawing upon Mankind and this if nothing else shou'd keep him in Cognito But if he had proved his Assertion I own what follows to be a Natural Consequence That we ought not to trust our Weapons with Children or Mad Men and for this reason his Instance of the Address of the Sheep to Apollo in Boccaline is very proper That they desired for the future that the Wolves might have no Teeth But in this Sir as you show your Teeth let them be Angry whom you Bite Then he puts an Argument into our Heads that 't is Tyrant necessity and that France is great and therefore an Army we must have and cannot be without it and that if we must be slaves a Protestant Prince is better than a Popish one especially the Fr King I shou'd never have put this question because I cannot be so ill Natur'd as to have any such Melancholy apprehensions you own Sir that the Seas may Guard us 't is a Power I honour but of old the Jews were amazed to see a Man who at a word cou'd Command the Winds and the Seas to obey him And if we cannot be as certain of their assistance as we are of their Courage a Critical Minute may happen and then what Comfort will it be to cry this was an unfortunate accident who wou'd have thought it On such an occasion I cou'd borrow your Melancholy for you have enough to spare and in that humour reflect upon the great misfortune but where wou'd be my Comfort to say this was a complication of Causes that may never happen again for if we have no standing Forces what can be done on a sudden to oppose this Force of an Invader for I will grant with you that we might know of his coming but also I must allow the Managers of such an Expedition wou'd not lose a prosperous Gale away he comes and then I increase my fears for want of Forces 'T is not so Ridiculous a thing as you make it to have us entertain the thoughts that we may be Invaded Pray was not the Spanish Armado upon our Coasts before we expected it and yet'tis not unlikely but we knew of the preparation had the Fleet fail'd our Militia powers had been try'd As English Men I shou'd not have doubted their Courage but shou'd have suspected their discipline and Regularity in Fighting is a great advantage But as I gave you some instances of the advantage Invaders have had where a Competent Number of standing Forces have not been ready to oppose them So I cou'd raise Arguments from Examples that they have been of Excellent use and not dangerous in our own Kingdom but for Brevity sake I omit to name them unless you please to assert the Contrary I find our Constitutions differ strangly when you are most secure then I am in fear for whilst you extol our security in a Fleet I am afraid of a Contrary Wind. I doubt not of our Marine Bravery but dread their misfortune still I am afraid lest Boreas should blow in their Teeth such things have been heard of and you know what has been may be This is a fair proposition you must own and what shall we do in this Case my Masters why you will say we may have the liberty to go to a Politick Coffee-House and say who wou'd have thought it I cou'd also urge that we may have divisions among our selves which will do us no kindness and what advantage we may reap by such a misfortune you may guess when you call to mind the old Proverb Divide and Reign and sure by this time you will say I have prov'd that a modest number makes us secure and whilst if they Land our Army Fights them the Wind may chop about and make our Fleet do us Service to prevent their Flight But you say That no Wind can deprive us of Intelligence from France and pursuing your Humour you say There have been Errors in the Management of the Fleet. 'T is well the Land-Army has one to help to bear their Burden this is the first Broadside you have given the Fleet. As you manage your Affairs you leave no body to take your part for having laid the Land Army and Fleet on their backs then the wretched States-men are put in to leaven and sowr the whole Lump Then The Officers of the Fleet may be Corrupted and pray Sir then why shou'd we not be as