Man to live sluggishly on the Labour of another The justest Mean therefore must be a well-manag'd Militia and if we are for Teaching Warlike-discipline in Peace Why do we not also turn our University Speculative Mathematicks to the more useful Improvements of Fortification and Enginery But in a Militia the Disciplining a few Men and they every time strangers and drawn with Charge from remote parts to meet in a Body surely such a Martial-discipline can avail little or nothing Let it rather be that every Man of such an Age and Stature be a Souldier that every Parish be a distinct Body of them having its proper Officers in it's self and that no one capable on any account be exempt from Discipline This would force our Gentry as their Officers into esteem and if by any means make a Nation Invincible And surely 't would rather be a delight and a diversion than a Charge for such a Militia like as at our Ancient Wakes to meet and Exercise an hour or two in a Week And do you fear in such case such Disciplines being superficial How easie is the Cure by the Examination of Commissioners for Hundreds and Counties c. And Do you want an Army How quick does every Parish proportion you a Supply Nay and such an Army you may easily Disband with a Donative and every Man knowing his home is welcomely receiv'd while you are out of danger of being pester'd by Vagabonds indeed if any such should happen to be disabled 't would be a Generous Charity in the State to provide Hospitals for them or else they are provided for with a kind welcome to your hand Donatives to Standing Armies are most pernicious even to make them at last State-robbers but Donatives here would be the justest reward of our Brethrens Blood Besides such an Army would have Humanity and Christianity nor need we doubt but that their constant Exercise would make them brave as Souldiers by profession besides that Souldiers thus rais'd would know truly how to value their Liberty To conclude The constant and universal Exercise could not but whet their Spirits and Courages in Emulation and make them familiar to Force and Arms while every Souldier imploy'd would like the Romans of old know how to Fight heartily for that Peace he knew what 't was to enjoy and especially if when Maim'd they were assur'd of a comfortable Subsistence in their several Parishes Of BATTEL ARe you suddenly to give Battel Publish a Speech against Cowardize Alass Are not all our great slaughters made when Men run away And can you want Topicks So if possible before you fight also give your Men from some Hill the prospect of your Enemy by that you may deride their Discipline and expose them to the Contempt of your Army Fear is seldom so considerable as when of something unknown So when you Fight make their Ensigns carry their Pay and that will make your Souldiers vigorously defend them Nor be without Rewards or Punishments Thus to kill a Captain so much a General so much and to Mount a Breach so much c. Does a Regiment offend Decimate them Are they Cowards Mark them with a C. and let them live to the Disgrace Are they Treacherous give them the death they deserve And yet to avoid Sedition let the General but give them a little blow with a Wand for when you make a Souldier pass the Pikes the Army are their own Executioners As to Figures Armies are generally drawn into Three Lines and the Turkes use the Crescent but surely the Ground and Circumstance ought in this Case to be considered Thus Is your Army biggest fight in open field and try to compass your enemy Is it little flank your self with Trenches and fight close Have you no Horse seek to enclosures but above all beware of the Wind or Sun in your Faces So Are you assaulted in a Wedge to distract you become a pair of Sheers to cut off your enemy Are you enclin'd to compass him equal his breadth advance gradually your Wings and retreat your Front but this is a dangerous Work When the Battel begins Generals by Drums and Trumpets Order their Souldiers to the field and Great Guns attempt the first Execution while the Dragoons Attack them and e're a second discharge the fight begins and they become useless Thus Are the Guns in the middle of their Battalions divide your Army and you avoid them the first shot is distant and goes over or under or your Infantry by their wide ranks avoid them while your Horse are secure in their Reer After this Shouts joyn both your Dragoons who bearing the first shock make room by retiring to your Flanck and Reer and while more silent Orders join the Battel And now the Pikes advance to keep off the Horse while the Armies once join'd the Pikes withdraw within the Bucklers and your Bucklers worsted within your Pikes Musquets serve a shot or two till the Fight is clos'd but then your Man at Arms with Sword Buckler and Armour does all who if the first Rank but kneel their very Bucklers keep off the Bullets But What can fence your Rapier with Armour The wise Romans had their Ranks wide their Hastati or Young Men bore the fury of the Battel if worsted they retired among their Principes or strong Men and they again among their Triarii or Old Souldiers Your Horse in the mean time engage at the side of your Army while your Dragoons retire to take care of your Camp the proportion of your Foot is Have you Ten Battalions Five Hastati Three Principes and Two Triarii the benefit of such Orders is your Men are refreshed by the new support of your best Men at last while a square Army runs and is defeated before half can fight But now Why do I stay the fight 's begun Stratagems follow Pits Ambuscades False Allarums Surprizes of Novel Words Engines Shouts and Appearances of Succours Officers fling their Colours among the Enemy to reward the Souldiers that fetch them again while the General minds Intelligence and Orders Succours to the side that is oppress'd and the Dragoons refresh'd return to try to flank the enemy After all Have you worsted an unequal enemy either perfect the Victory or snap at his disheartned Terms of Peace The only time of slaughter is when Men are disorder'd and lose their Confidence in one another to let them Rally spoils all So Was your flight doubtful and parted by Night carry off some Dead to dismay your enemy through their fewness next morning such a Night cannot but be a Night of Dread and the least push will be likely to give the Morning's advantage But are you beat to hinder pursuit fight where you may retreat at worst retreat part of your Army orderly first and so your Enemy not daring to divide appoint a common place for the rest to meet at but are your Souldiers forc'd to fly yet at worst let them detard their Pursuers and
Friend head the jealousie and expostulate satisfaction who besure will be more tender than if his Enemies were to Judge him But Does a General find his Prince jealous of him his only way to anticipate it is by laying down his Commission and when he is so ingenious he need not fear further mischief Princes know the evil consequence of ill-treating such great Officers if he punish one too easily the next he may expect to secure himself by going over to the Enemy Of VVAR in General WAR is the decision of a Right too high for Judicature wherein Arms is the Trial and Conquest the Judgment To begin a War after Conquest perfected and Mercy shewn is a piece of perfidy that deserves no Quarter Are you a private Man and have receiv'd Mercy through yielding up your Right surely you Merit a Thousand Racks if you ungratefully reassume it again you might have died in the Field or now continue Neuter but Is it nothing to fight against that Benefactor that has given you your being and so spill innocent blood So to allow Quarter when ask'd is both a Christian and a Humane duty while to execute Men by Law-Civil forgiven by Quarter Military is most barbarous But does some Hen-roost Garrison withstand a Royal Army they deserve no Quarter or at least they ought to be decimated 't is not Generosity but Madness that makes Men prolong Wars and destroy one another without prospect of Relief So Is mine Enemy perfidious 't is his fault that our slaughters are endless who by his Treachery has put it out of our power to believe or trust him Not that Stratagems are disallowable or that Victory is the less honourable for them neither 't is Jesting not Fighting to proclaim every blow we intend 'T was a generous Custom of the Antients indeed to give notice of Battel by the sound of a Bell the course of late is more wary but not less bloody to secure Frontiers by Garrisons and spin out Wars by the Tricking of Armies Wars are usually of two sorts either of Conquest or like Moses's to root out the Inhabitants In a common dispute the Decision of a Goliah or Horatii may save blood but an extirpating War and such as Papists and Protestants at this day are can safely admit of a Peace on no Terms Thus Am I entred into a War and am I like to engage with a stronger State by Garrisons I will stop mine Enemy till either by Diversion or Assistance I can withstand him but if neither my self nor Allies can probably resist him I will rather generously fling my self under some agreeable Protection than stand with a silly Sullenness to be destroy'd But are your Forces equal and are you well fortified Admit the War in your own Country where you may command both Men and Provisions upon a loss and which abroad may be fatal to your Army Thus the Suiss that can fight an â—00â—00 at home strain hard to maintain but 40000 men when abroad and yet without Forts your whole Country 's destroy'd So is your War with a Trade-State pen them but in and stop their Course and you make them ruine themselves But is such a State too powerful for you Either buy your Peace make in with its Enemies or distract him by some intestine Commotions perhaps some of the Royal Family have a Claim to be assisted Would you delay a War Send an Ambassador with Proposals of Peace but with such perplex'd Terms as may judicially require some time to deliberate them But are you resolv'd on a War and in the mean time would blind your Enemy while you are preparing Amuse your Enemy by Secret Counsels and close Ambassadors nor need you be wanting in Congratulatory Complements and Civilities Must I presume my honest Demands will create a War and may not I wait till I am duly enabled to make them So Is a War begun Invite your Enemy by mercy and fright him through severity Have you two Armies By the one block up Forts while the other enters on the Enemy So also are you forc'd to proceed by Sieges Blood will save Blood and by destroying every Man in the Garrison where there is not a Surrender on Summons you will make a quick dispatch of the War So also to manage Secrets well is a great point in War and so for Precepts and Orations to bear up mens Courages One General on his Death for this very cause order'd a Drum to be made of his skin only to hearten his Souldiers So as for punishing Warlike Offences nothing deserves a greater care Cowards alass are not worthy of Death let them rather live to expiate their Disgrace but as for the false and treacherous let them be no sooner discover'd than sent to the Father and promoter of Perfidy lest it prove too late for you to destroy them in their second Wiles Of CONQVEST A Pious Conqueror ought but exactly to do Justice and Right to himself if he acquires new Dominions it should not be out of ambition but necessity and because that his Enemies are perverse and implacable As the Pirate notably answer'd Alexander the Great What are great Conquests but great Robberies So surely one might as justly be guilty of a Robbery as a Conquest unless one had the justest cause of War to move one to it For my part had I the Empire of the World through Conquest yet like Lycurgus with Sparta it should be but to settle their States the better by it Did I root out a Tyrant yet like the Old Romans would I not rob his Heirs or should I subdue a Common-Wealth t' should be but to reinstate them in their Ancient Purity Surely I but pretend to War for my Neighbours Relief while I make a Prey of him Indeed if a State be so corrupt as not to be able to bear to be reform'd I will rather take the Conquest into my own protection than leave it weltring in Anarchy and Blood To be short Robbers and Murderers of thousands in Corruption and Flattery we admire without regret while the more innocent Rogues from necessity we destroy in this World and damn in the next but surely God will be more just to them But to proceed Would you secure a Conquest you must root out the antient Governours or the Mobile in Faction will reinstate the worst of Tyrannies so would you transform a corrupt Common-wealth you must either raise their chief Cities or transplant their principal Heads or else the first advantage that offers them will confound your Establishment Thus also a Conquest where there are NOBLES is easier than where all are SLAVES the Turkish Vassals will be forc'd unanimously to withstand you tho when subdued your Conquest is entire and secure while English NOBLES that may assist your Victory will withall by the same Hereditary Power render your Conquest as ticklish To preserve a Conquest therefore First Reside personally sometime upon it the better to prevent all Plots And Secondly
On pretence of kindness take some of the NOBLES Sons as Hostages with you when you depart Thirdly Continue Titles of Honour to the Natives but keep all Offices to your own Servants Fourthly Let your Ministers be only seen in harsh things And Lastly take particular care of all popular Meetings on any pretence whatever To be short All alterations naturally leave a toothing for new Changes and therefore the best way to secure what you have got is like the generous Romans also to make one law of Nations And so if you let Humanity Crown your Peace as Valour has adorn'd your War you need not fear but to govern without danger When your Conquests find themselves united to you by Marriages their Taxes eas'd and remitted and their whole States chang'd for the better when you change not the customs of their Provinces and your impartial Justice gives them not the least jealously of their Rights you will find men are not mad to embroyle themselves And yet Are your Conquests in different Languages your vigorous beginnings must not end in too supine a negligence you must have a jealous Eye on Neighbours least they joyn the discontented Natives and in this Case if you cut off Seditious Heads yet withall you must pardon and reward as generously but especially your NOBLES But lastly Are you so necessitated and would you secure your Conquests by force Do it rather by Colonies than firing them against you through standing Forces he that by right of Conquest is Master of all surely may command any little particular part and dispossess the Natives of a few convenient fortified Towns for Colonies Are a few dispossest do you obiect 't is for the good of the whole and they become too poor to be formidable and as they are you may make them satisfaction in another place if you please and which is best or if not others injoying their Rights justly will never assist them Of Stratagems of WAR THere are many advantages of Stratagems but above all that they breed confidence in your own Army and dismay your Enemy He 'll dread to take the advantage of your Miscarriages while he fears the Reputation of your Designs Nor is it the least Excellency of Stratagem to alter at every turn your methods Thus if sometimes a Cap on a Staff be made the Signal of Battel as well as the Sound of the Trumpet c. how can your Enemy measure your intentions So to encourage your Army print sometimes a hearty Speech to your Souldiers with the promise of Rewards so do they dread your Enemy Skirmish him with some of your best men to make him familiar to them So Would you make your Souldiers unanimous let them do but the Enemy some considerable mischief before they Mutiny and fear will do the work Hannibal finding his Souldiers desert in a Speech told the rest that staid That those that had left him had leave and went as Spies to the Romans the Romans hearing of this cut off the Deserters right hands and sent them back to Hannibal again So by Letters or chance words in Embassies to insinuate that the Eenemies Generals or Officers are false will give just the same jealously and distrust as if they were so Above all Spyes are greatly to be feared are they run-aways command but every Man to his Tent and they are discovered immediately but Spyes near your Counsels are most pernicious if an inconsiderable Enemy can so far undermine you you may justly dread at last least he destroy you by Stratagems also Some to feel an Enemies Pulse send Ambassadours often with good Souldiers in disguise while others to blind such discoveries continue their number of Tents and draw their parties out of the whole Army To obtain your desire on your Enemy counterfeit but that you fear or desire the contrary and you need not doubt his readiness to cross or disappoint you But would you avoid fighting him besure keep at least 50 Miles from him So does he streighten you amuse him by some Truce or Stratagem Thus some have driven Oxen with combustible matter fir'd on their horns before them and so escap'd Nor is it inconsiderable the skill and Command of Posts and Passes in this case and yet not but that to repose your whole trust on them is as ruinous But has your Enemy distressed you already in Stratagems use the following or like Remedies Thus does your Enemy encompass you gather your self close and break through his weaker sides does he press you between two Hills make but a Trench behind you and you may fight which half of him you please does the other half come round upon you a wooden-Bridge made and laid cross the Trench frees you of all So does he stop you at a River either privately send out a Detachment to make a Bridge cross to secure your passage at another place or divert the Channel and so make it fordable some have laid combustible matter in their Trenches while others have turn'd the River and drown'd their Enemies with it Some have counterfeited preys and fears to draw an Ambush while others have set up Sayles on sticks and shewn their Baggage retinue on an Hill to terrifie their Enemy with the approach of Succours Some by favours to Captives have divided their Enemies and by little Messages sooth'd them in their divisions but then remember that to attack them too soon upon it is to unite them and here a General 's dispositions and passions are to be regarded Some also have let their Enemies enter and take Towns and assaulted them when weakned by garrisoning others have waited only for some advantage over him as his passing a River c. but in all cases a General had better fight than baulk his men by too much caution But to proceed Is your Army at leisure ravaging is the best employ Seiges are uncertain Conspiracies loss of time storming Towns is dangerous and Battels more hazardous but the best Plundering is under the Enemies Colours But above all the Reputation of a Geneals justice his clemency and severity to perfection are most useful he that is gentle to all but the stubborn and implacable to the obstinate has a double force to beat his Enemies with And yet after all a possibility of Retreat and a Back-door to Cowardize ought to be left to the most Obstinate 't will influence your own Souldiers with Fear to deal with an Enemy desperate and beyond all power of escape And thus Caesar would not let his Souldiers see that a Town they besieg'd was reduc'd to a Bread of Herbs To reduce your own Men to a necessity therefore were much the rather to be chosen Thus I would Burn my Ships if I Invaded an Island to make my Men desperate But if I storm'd a Town I would Proclaim not to kill a Man that laid down his Sword rather than to suggest I intended no Mercy So also 't is dangerous after a Battel to fall upon the Conqueror