Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	law_n	people_n	safety_n	1,280	5	9.1725	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62850	The militia reform'd, or, An easy scheme of furnishing England with a constant land-force capable to prevent or to subdue any forein power, and to maintain perpetual quiet at home without endangering the public liberty.	Toland, John, 1670-1722.	1699 (1699)	Wing T1766B_VARIANT; ESTC R32810	36,567	110

ANY FORCES LENT TO THEM DO ENTIRELY CONSIST OF AUXILIARIES AND THAT NO FREEMAN HAVE LEAVE TO SERVE ABROAD UNLESS AS A VOLUNTIER TO QUALIFY HIMSELF FOR IMPLOIMENT AT HOME The Reasonableness of this Proposition is likewise so evident from what went before that it wants no larger Commentary I could add here several other Particulars but they 'l come to be establish'd of course if this SCHEME prevails wholly or for the best part I shall therefore write nothing now concerning the Methods of Listing or Disbanding of Paying or Clothing nor of Rewards or Punishments tho with respect to the last I cannot omit one pleasant Passage for the Romans among divers kinds of Penalties such as Fine or Imprisonment us'd upon certain Occasions to let a Soldier Blood as if it had been Madness or Folly in him to commit such Faults and that he wanted Physick more than Correction 15. If this Scheme of Reforming the MILITIA be so intelligible and coherent as I flatter my self it may it would be a superfluous Labor and no Complement upon the Reader 's Sagacity to remark distinctly all the good Effects and Consequences of it Yet one I find convenient to mention not that I think it less obvious than the rest for it appears most evident at first sight but because some Gentlemen are pleas'd to oppose it and it is that I am for ARMING ALL THE PEOPLE Now this is in my Opinion so useful and necessary that should we obtain nothing besides it were well worth our while to procure an Act for this alone For what can better demonstrate the Confidence his Majesty places in the unquestionable Affection of his Subjects or more encrease and confirm the Veneration on these have for him than that he puts 'em in a Condition of defending themselves against all his and their Enemies without needing or expecting the Assistance of others But notwithstanding I took all possible care to be duly inform'd I could never hear any weighty Objection made to this Proposition tho two are commonly offer'd and the first of 'em is that there will be no end of Robberies and House-breakings in the Country if the common People be once arm'd I perceive these Gentlemen design to be popular and the Vulgar are hugely oblig'd to 'em for their good Opinion But supposing the worst Robberies will be so far from being more frequent than at this time that this is the only right Method of totally suppressing all such Disorders It is an ordinary thing for two or three Fellows to commit a Robbery in sight of twenty People stronger and stouter than themselves but that are either without Arms or know not how to use 'em whereas upon the foot of our MODEL when any House or Persons are known to be attack'd they are not only provided for their own Defence but the Neighbours are all ready to come in to their Assistance both with Arms in their hands and as able to handle 'em as House-breakers can be suppos'd to do But if the objecting Gentlemen have any meaning it is that Rogues only should have Arms and honest Men none to oppose them For when any are dispos'd to violate the Laws they always take care to arm themselves without any deference to Publick Authority nor do we find that Thieves ever want Weapons notwithstanding any Prohibitions to the contrary which they no more regard than they do those which forbid 'em to steal But good Men on the contrary will yield Obedience to the Laws and so be expos'd if thus left naked and unarm'd to the Insults and Assaults of the most determin'd Villains The next Objection is That if the People be arm'd there 's an end of all the GAME in the Kingdom Now supposing this were true I think of the two we should sooner expose a few Birds to the People than the People to the French or other Enemies But indeed the GAME is in no danger Deer for example might be destroy'd with Bows and Arrows no less than with Guns yet in old times Englishmen were not disarm'd but restrain'd from shooting Deer only by Laws which may be accommodated to Guns as well as to Bows Hare Partridg and Pheasant are the principal GAME for Gentlemens diversion and every one knows that these are more conveniently and frequently destroy'd by Nets Hounds Setting-dogs and other Methods than by shooting Severe Penalties which those concern'd will be sure to see inflicted will prevent any thing of this nature and I hope we 'l never see the Nation disarm'd a second time under pretence of preserving the GAME But perhaps it will be said that altho FREEMEN may be trusted with Arms there will be danger from the Poor and Servile This Objection was sufficiently answer'd in the Discourse subjoin'd to the Second Proposition and besides I may add if that will satisfy that Servants are not arm'd according to this Scheme but only disciplin'd against a time of Necessity I suppos'd before an Armory in every Parish out of which on the days of Exercise only the Poor and Servants are furnish'd And here I would not forget to hint that all such Arms provided at the Parochial Charge should be try'd and approv'd at the Tower of London without any Liberty lest to the Overseers to purchase others for this end and that they be likewise all distinguish'd by the Parish Mark I had several Opportunities in this Discourse to shew the Defects of the Act now in force for regulating the MILITIA and my last Remark upon it shall be that the Isles of Wight and Purbeck are left to train their People as formerly The Tower-Hamlets likewise having been always as 't is said in the Act under the Command of his Majesty's Constable or Lieutenant of the Tower for the Service and Preservation of that Fort are permitted to be disciplin'd in such manner and form as heretofore The Reason of this Clause is very plain for those two Islands lying so much expos'd to forein Invasions it was fit they should be extraordinarily well provided for Defence And so the Tower-Hamlets because they were to keep Guard in the Tower and might from thence distress the City tho lest they might not prove so unkind to their Neighbours they were neglected as the rest and exercis'd according to the Act but the other Parts of the Kingdom being most likely to disrelish the Measures of the COURT were industriously made uncapable of Resistance And that this Suspicion may not seem ill grounded or malicious I would fain know which was the best Model of training the MILITIA the New or the Old if the former why should the Benefit of it be deny'd to those Places that stood most in need of it and if the latter why ought not the whole Nation to be as sufficiently train'd as one or two Islands But all Persons own that Guernsey and Iersey Wight and Purbeck are equal in their Discipline to any Standing Forces But of this enough nor can I allow my self

former are ignorant Slaves To come nearer home all the Pains imaginable have been taken for a considerable space to render our selves luxurious and illiterate the better to dispose us to favour the tyrannical Designs of our late Kings but have we not so retriev'd our Credit in Europe under the Administration of his present Majesty as if we had voluntarily suffer'd it to be eclips'd a while that it might shine the brighter ever after And to apply this more particularly still I readily own that the MILITIA as now regulated is burdensom and useless but it follows not that all are necessarily so the contrary being plain from the Histories of every Age as well as from present Experience And before I have done I shall give a Demonstration that the Frame of our Militia could not be more successfully contriv'd to render it the Object of the Peoples Contempt and Aversion with a Design to create in them a good Opinion of Mercenaries and to make 'em believe a necessity of always keeping up a Standing Force of such In a word when our Men are better train'd they will not make such a ridiculous Figure under their Arms and when the Charge is less felt or laid out to better purpose it will be more cheerfully paid 4. But we are still encompass'd with many Dangers It 's said that those Souldiers who have so bravely fought for ours and the Liberties of Europe declare it is not from any private Interest of their own but out of regard to our future Safety they desir'd to be kept on foot and that in Honour we ought not to discharge Men who suffer'd so much for our sakes We are to blame indeed if we don't sufficiently provide for our own Security but as to the Souldier's Merits I answer first that their past Service is duly acknowledg'd and order'd to be rewarded Secondly That such as never saw our Enemies are more clamorous than those who beat them And Thirdly That this unreasonable Demand was not made by the Body of the common Souldiers who are generally desirous of returning home to their Wives or their Relations or their Callings and more particularly at this time because that hitherto they have known nothing but the Danger Want or Fatigue of the War whereas once tasting the Pleasures of Idleness and Ease they will every day become less willing to disband And now the Question all this while ought not to have been whether these Gentlemen mean what they say or only pretend it but what 's most for the Advantage of the Nation This was the Motive of raising them and should be that of establishing or laying them aside War being their Trade 't is no wonder if they be always for continuing it nor can it ever happen to be otherwise should they be wholly left to themselves no more than any other Persons without the Intervention of the Civil Authority would reform the Abuses of their own Professions But the Parliament has now put an end to this Dispute and to the great Satisfaction of all good Men granted to his Majesty a sufficient Guard both for the Honour and Safety of his Person with a competent Number besides to secure some important Places till the New MILITIA is regulated which I hope in a little time may be happily effected In the following Model Provision is made for several hundreds of the disbanded Army and I dare say the Change propos'd in their Condition will give most of 'em Satisfaction tho by the way they ought to be content should the Parliament proceed no further to gratify them than they have already resolv'd The most stupid Souldier knows very well an Army has nothing in it so charming that could induce the Nation to raise one but upon some pressing Necessity and not to keep ' up perpetually nor can the Service perform'd be ever so great as not to be requited under such a Return I cannot determin whether it would occasion more Indignation or Mirth to hear a Man contending that because the Souldiers defended our Liberty at the publick Charge for nine Years against the French we can do no less than become their Slaves for ever This Paradox is too gross for any to maintain or perhaps to intend yet every considering and indifferent Person must perceive the Consequence to be true I shall therefore to avoid the Labour of proving what is self-evident put you only in mind of the Gentleman who having engag'd the Maid to speak a good Word for him to her Mistriss would needs when the Lady consented quit her and marry the Maid out of pure Gratitude for the pains she had taken on his behalf 5. But the Honour and Safety of the Nation is the commendable Design of all sides wherein they are certainly in the right since all Countries must have some Force to defend them against foreign Invasions and domestick Tumults for as it was their own Good and Security which occasion'd Men first to quit the State of Nature and to associate themselves into Governments so the Raising and Regulation of their Forces must be directed and accommodated to the same ends An Island is best situated for Preservation as having need of little other Force either to infest foreign Coasts or to protect its own besides a numerous FLEET which it can never want But if it be likewise a Government for Encrease such as ours its Situation naturally leading it to Trade and planting of Colonies and if it has the noble Ambition of holding the Balance steddy between other Governments of succouring the Distress'd and grudging Liberty to none then it must be always provided with a considerable Land-Force Of this there 's no Dispute Then the only Question is Whether it be safest to trust Arms continually in the hands of ignorant idle and needy Persons or only when there 's occasion for it in the hands of sober industrious and understanding Freemen That the latter can never be dangerous to our Liberty and Property at home and will be infinitely more effectual against an Enemy attacking or invaded by us I am now going to prove and at the same time to deliver an intelligible and practicable MODEL of disciplining and maintaining such a Force with very little Charge and no Trouble at all My Method shall be to lay down a few Propositions and those very short to each of which I subjoin a Discourse confirming or explaining it and containing what other Remarks might be naturally made in that Place But I am so far from writing all I have read or observ'd upon this Subject that I shall omit several useful things wherein the World seems to be already well satisfy'd or that are not absolutely essential to my purpose As I expect the common Fate of all Writers that some probably out of Ignorance or Malice and others perhaps from substantial Reasons may except against my Performance so I desire as in Justice I am bound that all real Imperfections or whatever the Injudicious