Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	scotland_n	2,696	5	8.4241	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25778	The Argument against a standing army rectified, and the reflections and remarks upon it in several pamphlets, consider'd in a letter to a friend.		1697 (1697)	Wing A3632; ESTC R206	13,676	34

and actually did it with an Army from England and King Charles the II. procured an Act of Parliament in Scotland for 20000 Horse and Foot with so many days Provisions to march to any part of his Dominions that he pleased which considering the party in this Nation that would have joyned them might have been fatal to all the three Kingdoms had not that Prince been more given to his pleasures than to his Sword Such an Union as no doubt it might be effected to the Honour and Advantage of both Nations would also secure this Nation very much in case of any future War with France or others whereas if the Scotch be alays treated with Contempt or govern'd by the Councils of a Party this Nation that hates them on the account of their Civil and Religious Principles it may have ill Consequences at sometime or other The Royal Line which Cements them at present is not very numerous in Off-spring and that failing they have Princes of their own Blood at home who if they strengthen themselves by powerful foreign Alliances may prove troublesome Neighbours when we are engaged in a foreign War especially considering the great plantation of their Countrymen of the same Principles with themselves in Ireland Which Kingdom my Friends are also of opinion ought to be treated so as they may look upon themselves as fellow Subjects and that some stronger efforts should be made and more Christian methods taken to Civilize and Convert the Popish Natives than have hitherto been practised and then we shall be in no danger of having our Brethrens Throats cut by them in their Country nor of being Invaded by them in our own as in the time of Charles I. and James II. If Scotland and Ireland were both united to this Kingdom upon terms Honourable and Advantagious to us and them we might sit as Queen in the Seas retain our Soveraignty undisputed keep the Ballance of Europe nay of the Universe in our hands be secure against Tyranny at home and Invasion from abroad and England would be the unenvi'd Head of the Union I have also heard some Gentlemen give their opinion that 't were the Interest of this Nation to have methods laid down for entertaining a perpetual Amity with Holland lest future Princes may dash us against one another as formerly to the endangering of the Protestant Religion and the Civil Liberties of Europe The only thing that we can have any occasion to quarrel about is our rivalling one another in point of Trade and as Providence did formerly put an opportunity into the hands of this Nation of taking away the Hereditary Enmity that had been for some Centuries betwixt us and Scotland by uniting the Crowns kind Heaven hath now also put an opportunity into our hands of fixing a perpetual Friendship with Holland our King and their Stadholder being one and the same person and equally the darling of both People so that there 's no reason to doubt but in such an auspicious Conjuncture matters may be so concerted by the Government of both Nations as to prevent any such competition in time to come as may occasion a Rupture There 's certainly room enough in the World for both of us to Trade and if we entertain a good Correspondence we may in a manner divide the Trade of the Universe betwixt us but if by the implacable malice of a certain Faction in this Kingdom against that Industrious and brave People because of their Government being founded upon Principles contrary to Passive Obedience we be kept off from setling a parpetual Friendship with them it will certainly argue our infatuation for there 's no Allies we can have that are in any capacity to assist us against France in case that already over-grown Monarchy should be yet further aggrandiz'd by addition of the Dominions of Spain of which as I have said already they have so fair and near a Prospect These are the hasty thoughts Sir of our Friends here in Town as to the Arguments pro and con about a standing Army which are all at present the Common Subject of Conversation I am Sir Your humble Servant FINIS

Army not reform'd in Morals the present Government which is founded upon Principles diametrically opposite to the former and hath alway declar'd it self against Debauchery can never be safe if ever the late King or his pretended Son should land with a French Power except the Army be othtrwise modell'd than at present for if the debauch'd Soldiers be once possess'd by these Passive Obedience-Men and the Jacobite Gentry in the Country who have always declar'd a greater good Liking to Popery than to Dissenters that the present Government is not throughly well affected to the Church which is the common Topick of the disaffected Party because of the King 's being bred in Holland his granting Liberty of Conscience in England and establishing Presbytry in Scotland I say that if once the Army be poyson'd with those Suggestions that to gether with the continual Exclamations of the Jacobite Party against the Dutch may very much endanger the present government by the revolt of such a Standing Army in case of any such Invasion as above mentioned So long as a standing Army continues on the present footing not only the Dissenters but all the moderate Church of England men and those called Whiggs in general will continue uneasie and be afraid of Invasions in case of his Majesty's Death upon their Liberty and Property as it happened in the late Reign so that there is cause to fear that the Jealousies of the two Parties may throw the Nation into new Convulsions and the Army as in all probability it will joining with the Court Liberty and Property will be again in danger of being swallowed up the Nation engag'd in a Civil War and expos'd to a Foreign Conquest after the two Parties have weaken'd themselves by mutual Slaughter and Bloodshed The Case then being thus and the dangers Great and Eminent in both respects it follows of course that the nearest ought to be provided against first and that is to be done by a Land Force till such time as the K. and Parliament are satisfied that the danger from abroad is over But then considering on the other hand that we have no Lease of the Kings Life provision ought to be made against the other as speedily as may be but the methods of doing this must be chosen and determined by the King and Parliament The Argument proposes as a defence against Foreign Invasion the Regulating the Militia so as to make them serviceable The training up of all the Subjects in the use of Arms and keeping a good Fleet so disposed in Convenient Ports as to prevent an Invasion This in my opinion is highly reasonable and were it brought to pass would prove a very effectual Remedy both against Invaders from abroad and Tyrants at home but the mischief on 't is that it is neither done nor like to be done time enough to answer the Ends and seeing it is so no reasonable Man can think that the Nation should be laid naked without a defence in the mean time and this I confess is the main thing wherein I dissent from that Ingenious Paper I am far from the opinion of his Adversaries who reproach him as a Republican Apostate Whigg Jacobite sowre Temper'd Whimsical and Melancholy Fellow nor do I think they discover much Judgment in ridiculing his proposal as to the Militia and Navy It is ceretain that formerly this Nation did as Remarkable Exploits against the French and Scotch when they had no standing Army as ever they have done since and that the Battles betwixt the two Houses of Lancaster and York and betwixt the Barons and the King were fought with as much bravery and order tho' the Armies consisted only of the Country Men and Retainers of either Party as ever have been done since standing Armies came in fashion Nor can there be any reason assigned why the Militia should not equal the Regular Forces as they are now called either for Valour or Discipline provided they were equally Train'd as all the people of the Nation were in those times but the true reason why the Militia come so far short of the Regular Troops now is that the Court having in the late Reigns framed to themselves a distinct Interest from the Country they durst not entrust them with Arms nor encourage their being train'd up in the use of them but blessed be God the case is otherwise now his Majesty is sensible and hath from time to time express'd his sense of the Affections of his people and declar'd That he neither has nor can have any Interest distinct from theirs It was their affecton settled him on the Throne and hath ever since kept him in it so that the better his Subjects are train'd up in martial Discipline the more firmly is his Crown fix'd It is equally certain that there are fewer Mercenary Soldiers and Officers in the Militia as Originally constituted and more of the Free-holders and Substantial Men of the Nation than in a standing Army and no man can doubt but the Master of a Family his Son or trusty Servant will fight with another sort of Zeal for their own Property and Possessions than a Mercenary Soldier who as the Argument says too true makes a Profession to be a Butcher of Men for 6 d. per. day without considering what Cause he engages in and that there are too many such in our Army cannot be denied by any Person that hath not bankrupt all his modesty and as for those silly instances which his Advarsaries insist upon of the Militia's not having acted their parts the reason is plain they were not Disciplin'd which was the fault of the Government and not of the people it is moreover a very false way of Argumentation to conclude because the Militia as neglected in the late Reigns were not to be compared to the Regular Troop can never be brought to be as usefull in the defence other Country as a standing Army in other Reigns but the truth of the matter is those Authors are not willing to have it put to the Experiment The Argument owns that the Militia is not so proper for Conpuests indeed as for Defence and for Conquests we have no occasion to make any nor were we ever very happy in preserving them Yet if all the Males of the Nation were brought up to the use of Arms on Holy-days c. which were a more commendable way of spending their time than has of late been practised We should not need to fear our King 's wanting disciplined Men to go abroad with him on occasion without putting the 10000 l. Men as one of the Pamphlets calls them to the trouble of doing so nor is it very decent in any person to cast such an unbecomeing reflection upon that Royal Regiment of Citizens whom his Majesty honoured to be their Colonel himself but persons of those Authors kidney had rather belike see Arms in the hands of a Dammee than in the hands of a Sober Citizen Vice is always afraid of Virtue