Selected quad for the lemma: country_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A48187
|
A letter to a member of Parliament concerning the four regiments commonly called Mariners
|
|
1699
(1699)
|
Wing L1670; ESTC R11017
|
6,041
|
15
|
another man's Expression in any Reign wherein they were not in the Ministry would have thought sufficient to have enslaved the Nation Now I think it lies upon them to shew what great Advantages the Mariners will bring to the Kingdom more than an equal number of Seamen which may ballance these Inconveniences and justify the introducing an Establishment into the Navy to which the Seamen have not been accustomed I must confess I could never hear any Reason or rather Pretence for it which did not move my Laughter and Scorn nor would I condescend to answer them seriously but that the Subject it self is above Ridicule tho these Gentlemen and their Reasons are below it REASON I. Marine Regiments kept in constant Pay will be more ready upon any Emergency or sudden Occasion than Seamen who perhaps will be then difficultly raised ANSWER I have supposed before that in the room of these Mariners we are to employ an equal number of Sailors which I have shewed will be less chargeable to the Kingdom by above a third then I presume it will be granted that Seamen actually on Board will be as ready as Mariners whereof a great part will be always on shore REASON II. That these Mariners do not take up the room of Seamen but the Men of War must have their full Complement of Sailors and these Mariners into the bargain I shall desire to be excused from making any Answer to this Argument till the Gentlemen of this new way of Reasoning are pleased to shew that their Mariners do not receive as much Pay eat as much Meat lie in as many Hammocks in short eating drinking standing lying or sitting take up as much room as if they were better Seamen I must own 't is my Opinion they will not be contented with the Accommodation Seamen are accustomed to especially their Beau-Officers who will think themselves but ill used unless they have Cabbins made on purpose for them REASON III. Mariners are more proper to make Insults upon the Enemies Coasts than Seamen who are not under so good a Discipline for Land-Service ANSWER Our own Experience is contrary to this for they have been employed together but once upon Land-Service during the late War which was at the Siege of Cork where a few Seamen under the Conduct of the Duke of Grafton did gallanter Actions and better Service than the whole Body of the Mariners either performed at that time or ever since But supposing what they say were true we have no War nor any occasino to make Insults upon our Enemies Coasts and must we be at a great Charge and Hazard to keep them up till the Lord knows when to be sent the Lord knows where to do the Lord knows what Besides have they ever been made use of to that purpose And what reason have we to believe that shall be done hereafter which was never attempted in eight years War But if this were practicable we may at any time qualify Land-Soldiers for such Service by keeping them only on Board till their Sea-sickness is over REASON IV. Marine Regiments are properer than Seamen to defend the Decks of our Ships and annoy the Enemy with Small-shot ANSWER It has been always observed that Sailors have been better Marksmen than Land-Soldiers as having through the course of their Lives been used to Arms not only in Sea-Service but in their Voyages and the several Ports they come into by exercising themselves to shoot at Wild-fowl But if this were not true what hinders but it may be made a part of Sea-Discipline to exercise them by turns on board unless we think there is an intrinsick Virtue in the Word Mariners And if this were impracticable too as I said before Land-Regiments in case of a new War may at any time be fitted for that purpose by only keeping them on board till they have digested their Sea-Qualms REASON V. Besides the Service they do at Sea they may be useful when they are put on shore by working in the King 's Yards ANSWER By their Establishment I presume the Design is to have a certain proportion of them at Land the rest at Sea And since it is all one to the Argument what number that is we will suppose that two Thirds shall be always at Sea and one Third working in the Yards by turns Now I have already shewed that the two Thirds at Sea are more chargeable and less useful than an equal number of Seamen and if I can shew that the Third at Land will be as chargeable and less useful than an equal number of Artificers then I think I have made it appear that they are neither good for Sea or Land and consequently fit only to be disbanded I confess by their Establishment their Pay at Land is but Eight Pence a day but I presume if they hinder them from working any other way by employing their whole time in hard Labour they will increase their Allowance as they do when they send them to Sea which by the way is always done when Soldiers are set at work in the Garisons or elsewhere If they do this their own Pay will be equivalent to the Hire of common Labourers or very near it But suppose they do not increase it I have shewed before that the Pay of the Officers is above a Third of the whole Pay of the Regiments supposing every Company to be full but if we can have such unbecoming Thoughts of them which I can never believe of such honest Gentlemen as that they will make false Musters then the Officers Pay in probability will amount to half which being thrown in will make their Wages much above the Rate of common Artificers then the Question will be Whether Men that for the most part have been bred up in Idleness picked up at Hab Nab whether Fish Fowl Ottar or Sea-weed are likely to do better Service in the King 's Yards than Artificers that exercise their own Trades which from their Youth they have been accustomed to To which I shall give no Answer But what shall the Officers do in the Yards Shall they work there too or shall they stand in the way of the Workmen and see the Soldiers work at a Trade that neither of them know any thing of Indeed if this Subject was less serious these Gentlemen would tempt us to be very merry REASON VI. These Mariners besides working in the King 's Yards will defend them against any sudden Insult ANSWER There is no need of their Assistance for the King 's Yards if new Methods have not been introduced into them are under the best Oeconomy and Conduct in the World First There is a certain number of Guard-Ships I think three to guard every Yard Besides the Guard-Ships there is on board every Ship that is in ordinary an established number of Men to do constant Duty there Every Watch Scout-boats are sent out to hale each respective Ship and observe that the Watch is duly kept There is in every Yard such an established number of Watchmen I think sixteen to give notice of any approach of danger and upon the ringing of a Bell all the Workmen and Seamen are to appear under the Officers of the Yard to defend it And there would not be a Man the more by employing the Mariners for we must then turn off just an equal number of other Workmen To give a full account of the Establishment of each Yard would be very tedious therefore I shall only say in short that the Constitution of the King's Navy and especially of his Yards was the noblest in the Universe and under that Oeconomy we not only defended our selves but beat all the World and rode Masters of the Sea for many Ages but what Trophies we have raised to our Country since these new Politicks came in fashion the Lords of the Admiralty can best tell Indeed if the Gentlemen I oppose did not think our Understanding of a piece with their own Honesty they would not put such a scorn and affront upon it as to talk at this rate With what face can they pretend to use them either to work in or defend the King 's Yards Did they ever use them to either of those purposes in eight years war when there was much more occasion than there can be in peace and what reason have we to believe they should do it now But any thing must be said or done to get them as Polybius says of War the true reason is always concealed and the most plausible one given out The Establishment of Marine Regiments is thought so useless in Holland that this very Winter they have rejected them and it is plain that our Courtiers themselves whatever they pretend think as meanly of them as I do for they have disbanded the old Regiments that were trained up in eight years War which if ever they would have been good for any thing might have been in that time and in their room have call'd a few Land Regiments with near three times the number of Officers by the name of Mariners and as these new Seamen have never been at Sea before so they have been kept at Land ever since and quartered up and down the Country against express Acts of Parliament so that the dispute now is not whether we shall destroy an Establishment already made but whether we shall make a new one in full peace I must confess it to be my opinion that some Courtiers design them only for Land Regiments and call them by a new name to deceive unthinking Men who are taken only with appearances But I doubt not but your Honourable House of Commons the Guardians of the Peoples Liberties will let the whole World see that they are neither to be awed by the vain terror of foreign Invasions perverted by Places or deceived by false Appearances that they know how to honour and reverence his Majesty and yet punish corrupt and wicked Ministers In short that they know the difference between English Subjects and French Slaves Mâ—â—o Qui vult decipi decipiatur THE END Newly publish'd A Confutation of a late Pamphlet intituled A Letter ballancing the Necessity of keeping up a Land-Force in times of Peace with the Dangers that may follow on it Price 6 d. Sold by A. Baldwin
A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament CONCERNING The four Regiments commonly called MARINERS LONDON Printed for A. Baldwin in Warwicklane 1699. A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament CONCERNING The four Regiments commonly called MARINERS SIR IN my last I undertook to shew that the Establishment of the four Marine Regiments is an useless Charge to the People a Nusance to the Navy and dangerous to the Kingdom 's Liberties And in order to it I shall premise four things The First I have already proved That seven thousand Men are more than sufficient for Guards and Garisons and consequently these Mariners are not necessary for Land-service nor can they be used to that purpose the last Parliament having appropriated them to the service of the Navy only The Second is That every Country will breed as many Seamen as their Trade and the ordinary occasions of their Navy in times of Peace will give constant Imployment to for as Sir William Petty observes The Wages of a Seaman is equivalent to that of three common Labourers and therefore if our Acts of Navigation were duly observed Men will naturally fall into the most beneficial Imployment till it becomes overstockt and some of them for want of subsistence are forced to seek out other Livelihoods which is true not only in this but all other Trades The Third is That if by a War or any other Accident more Seamen are bred in a Country than their Ships of War and the bulk of their Trade will constantly imploy the Supernumeraries must go to other Trades find out new Countries beg steal or starve which I take to be the case at present of England for during the War we maintained between forty and fifty thousand Men in the Royal Navy and now we do not imploy above ten thousand so that near forty thousand Men bred in the Fleet are to seek out their Livelihoods elsewhere and 't is at present a miserable complaint amongst the Seamen that many thousands of them want subsistence The Fourth is a Consequent from the two last that this Marine Establishment is no Nursery for Seamen but rather the contrary I do not say that in no Circumstance it may be so for perhaps in a War where the occasions for Seamen are very great or in a Country initiating themselves in Sea Affairs such Regiments may be of use to bring Land-men to Sea for bad Seamen are better than none at all but in a Country thorowly versed in Sea Affairs where there are more Seamen than there are occasions for them such an Establishment is so far from making Seamen that they take up the room receive the pay and hinder the Imployment of those that are actually made Having premised these things the Question in my Opinion will be Whether Marine Soldiers are better than an equal number of Seamen that is Whether ten thousand Seamen and three thousand Mariners will be more beneficial to the Kingdom than thirteen thousand Seamen Now I shall endeavour to shew the contrary First There is a natural Antipathy between Seamen and Land Soldiers as having different Customs Manners Oeconomy and Officers nor as Sir William Petty observes Political Arithmetick fol. 57. do the Seamen heartily rejoice at those Successes of which Land-men have any share thinking it hard that they who are bred to miserable painful and laborious Imployments and yet profitable to the Commonwealth should at a time when Booty and Purchase is to be gotten be clogged and hindred by any Conjunction with Landmen or forced to admit those to an equal share with themselves The truth of this has been abundantly demonstrated in the last War when Sea and Land Soldiers were never sent any long Voyage together but their differences have always defeated the Enterprize they were sent about particularly in the Squadron commanded by Sir Francis Wheeler to the West-Indies where the Resentments were carried so high between the Sea and Land Officers that the whole Expedition was unsuccessful to the loss of many thousand Men and a prodigious Sum of Money Secondly The Charge of Mariners is by above a third part greater than an equal number of Seamen whilst they are used as such for the Marine Soldiers on board receive the Wages of Sailors and the Pay of the Officers amounts to 20933 l. besides which is an useless Charge to the Kingdom the Officers very seldom going to Sea with their Men and when they do are only a hindrance to the Seamen and raise Factions in the Fleet or if they happen to agree with the Sea Commanders are of no use but to debauch with them and hinder them from doing their Duty Thirdly Their Land Methods have mightily interfered with the Navy Rules and introduced pernicious Notions into the Fleet Officers such as Mis-ratings false Musters and other Abuses which the Sea Officers formerly were ignorant of and I have been often told by a Commissioner in the Navy-Office that that Board always opposed them as an Establishment that broke all the Rules and Oeconomy of the Navy and how fond soever the Lords of the Admiralty may be of them now we may remember the time when a spleenatick Gentleman in that Post publickly ridicul'd them calling them Water-Rats And these poor Wretches have been worse used than if they were so many of them being starved for want of Clothes and Sustenance and indeed they have always been the miserablest Creatures in the Nation Fourthly instead of making Landmen Sailors they have made Sailors Landmen more Seamen having been inveigled to be Mariners than Mariners made Seamen and tho the Officers have had 40 s. a man for Recruits yet Men pressed for the Fleet have been taken into the said Regiments upon that account and the Money put into their own Pockets Fifthly They are a dead Charge to the Navy on shore and burdensome to the People being quartered up and down in the Inland Countries nor could they ever be obliged to any work in the Yard tho it has been often proposed and one of their Establishments required it and indeed tho there have been several Establishments made yet none have been observed and some People will be so ill-natur'd as to say That nothing was designed by that Noble L d who has the honour of this Invention but to be a Colonel of one of the Regiments Sixthly They are dangerous to the Kingdoms Liberties as hath been abundantly proved in the several Trades wrote concerning Standing Armies where it is demonstrated beyond the possibility of a Reply that small numbers of Men may and have destroyed the Liberties of potent Nations how much more easily then in England where besides these Mariners who will be called to Land when they have occasion for them our Kings will have 7000 Men for Guards and Garisons 12000 in Ireland 5000 in Scotland and almost 6000 in Holland which in all amounts to 33000 Men A dangerous and dreadful Force and such a one as our Apostate Whigs if I may use