Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A37444
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The two great questions further considered with some reply to the remarks / by the author.
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1700
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Wing D851; ESTC R20633
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11,615
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with him abroad and kept England from being the Field of Blood and this England got by a Confederacy abroad And I 'll give another Instance which no Man can have the Face to deny when the Spanish Fleet lay at Anchor and had yet received no such considerable Damage from our Ships as to prevent their Landing the Dutch lay with their Fleet on the Flemish Coast at the procurement of the Queen and thereby prevented the Duke of Parma bringing over 30000 Spaniards into England which if they had done the Fate of England must have been tryed by the Sword and on her own Ground Behold the Benefit of Allies If I have Panegyrick'd on the Reputation of the King at the Head of a War-like Nation I have done nothing but what all the World own his Due and what we have the Authority of Parliaments for who have own'd him for the Saviour of these Nations from Popery and Arbitrary Power at the Expence of his own Personal Hazard I need not Quote the many Addresses of Parliament as the Voice of the whole Nation for my Authority As for places at Court or Pensions the Author never had nor desired any but hopes a Man may be allowed to speak what Truth and Honour obliges every Man to do of a King that has deserv'd so much of the English Nation without the Reproach of a railing Scribler I must further Explain my self in Defence of what I thought no Man wou'd have had Baseness enough to Suggest But when I speak of a sort of a People who have appear'd such Champions of our English Liberties as to damn all kind of Force as useless burthensome to the Kingdom Badges of Slavery and all Arguments to be only pretences for supporting Arbitrary Designs I should mean by these the Parliament of England Far be it from the Thoughts of any honest Man to imagine such a thing nor is it rational that I cou'd Suggest such a thing of the Parliament for as his own Words confutes him The Parliament says he never did damn all Force as useless Very true Sir how then can you imagine any Man cou'd mean the Parliament who never did any such thing Nothing can be so absurd and there I leave it But since I am charged with intending those whom I really never thought of nor no Rational Man cou'd suppose give me leave to tell the World who it is I do mean when I say There are a sort of People who have appear'd such Champions of our English Liberty as to damn all kind of Force as useless I mean the Pamphleteering Club who have set themselves to Blaspheme God and Ruin their Native Country and in Print to sow to the Seeds of Misunderstanding and Distrust between the King and his People The Club where the Blessed Trinity is openly derided in Print lampoon'd and shamefully in the Face of a Protestant Government abus'd and ridicul'd That Club of Men who pretend to guide Parliaments and prescribe to them what they are to do who are so openly against Force that they leave us naked for a Prey even to the most Contemptible Treasons That Club that sent out a blasphemous Poem lately under the borrow'd Name of Clito where the Deity of our Saviour is denied and then the very Being of the English Monarchy undermin'd That Club that denies Englishmen the use of their Reason and will not allow that even the Parliament of England can appoint such Powers as are necessary to our Defence These are the Champions of our Liberty that I directly mean who damn all kind of Force as useless These are they who have sent out this Pamphlet into the World and have brought the Author of the Two Questions to the Bar of the House right or wrong these are the Men who tell us Confederacies and Alliances are useless and all Forces oppressive that say they are not yet rid of Slavery because the King has his Guards left as if Forces in England by Consent of Parliament cou'd be a Grievance Who tho' they cry up Parliaments as those by whom Kings reign yet will not allow them to be Judges of what is or what is no Convenience but will have the Lord Treasurer Lord Chancellor and Lord Admiral be nam'd by the Parliament because the Word England is added to their Titles These and none but these are the Persons who I mean all along when I say They have deluded the People of England by their specious Pretences and nothing can be plainer than that they have carried on a Pen and Ink War against the Reputation of the King obliquely and sometimes directly reproaching him with Designs to enslave the Nation whom he came to set free and to rob us of those Liberties which he ventur'd his Life to save These are the Men who I mean when I say they have weakned his Hands and his Interest at home which they have certainly done by endeavouring to lessen his Reputation and to suggest to his Subjects that he will invade their Liberties These are the Men who think they cannot be answered without concerning the Parliament in their Quarrel who to bring the King into Contempt with his Subjects for whom he has done so much and from whom he has received so many Thanks and Acknowledgments represent him attempting to destroy our Liberties by standing Armies and if they are answered pretend to fright their Adversaries with the Parliament as if nothing cou'd be said to the Point without reflecting on the Parliament To these People let me take the Liberty to say tho' the Matter of Armies was no way the Case in this Affair that this Author does affirm and will answer it any where That a standing Army in England in time of Peace is not against Law nor inconsistent with the Constitution of England Provided it be by Consent of Parliament To avoid all manner of Disputes in this Point my Authority is unquestionable being the Parliament of England themselves or Convention which is equivolent in the Sixth Article of the Declaration of the Rights of the People declar'd by the Commons of England These are the Words That the raising and keeping a standing within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is unlawful This was once urged to these Gentlemen before but as a thing they cou'd never answer they took no notice of it and here I leave it with this Remark That I do and every English Protestant will always consent to have such and so many Forces rais'd maintain'd and kept up in England and no more as the King Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament shall think needful for our common Perservation and the Safety of the Nation 's Interests This is the middle way between both Extrâ—ams and nothing in the Book this Remarker treats so scurvily can give any rational Ground to charge me with proposing farther Nor has the King himself attempted to keep up any Forces but with Consent of Parliament and has
both sides by the Princes of the Blood on behalf of the French and by the Grandees and Plenipotentiaries on the behalf of Spain and this was to signifie that it was an Agreement not Personal only but National and that therein the People of Spain did renounce all Subjection to the Issue of that Marriage Now to pretend this can be rescinded by the Will of the late King or the call to the Duke d'Anjou from Six or Seven Councellors nominated by the King this is to destroy all the Pretence of the Right of the People and so humbly Conceive by their Doctrine the present Title of the Duke d'Anjou is fallen to the Ground What the People of Spain may do when a French Power may have put the Duke d'Anjou in Possession and they see no Body to help them I cannot tell but at present he has no visible Title either from the Call or Consent of the People or by Legal Succession 'T is next proper to Enquire what is all this to us who is King of Spain I Confess I see less Cause to apprehend Danger from Spain under this way of Succession than I shou'd have done if the French had attempted to Possess it as a Devolution to their Monarchy and put it all into one Government which is what I meant and what any Man that understands English must understand by it when I said Page and quoted by him P. 13. If the French carry the Spanish Monarchy Truly If the French carry the Spanish Monarchy that is obtain the Possession of it to themselves I appeal it to all the World if we are not in a dangerous Condition and how foolish is it to say with our Author P. 14. I care not who is King of France or Spain so the King of England Governs according to Law 'T is a barbarous and impudent Reflection on the King who never yet has broke any of our Laws and has no Relation to the Case in hand but to show that the Publisher wants Manners as well as Sence But now the French King has resolv'd to make the Duke d'Anjou King of Spain what is our Danger from that I shall not go much on Conjecture but I shall go on the same foot as before France can Propose no Benefit fairly by it but the drawing the Spaniards off from the Confederates and Leagueing them with himself If he will do thus he will strengthen his Interest very much as well as weaken his Enemies but then He must be sure not to Encroach upon the Spanish Monarchy which if he does as I said in the other part of this Discourse he will find the Duke d'Anjou King of Spain as well as a Prince of Bourbon But if the King of France shou'd put the Duke d'Anjou upon such Methods of Government as shou'd recover the Spanish Greatness and make that Wealthy Nation Masters of themselves again as they formerly were and find out ways to Unite the Interests of the two Nations the Ballance of Power in Europe is again quite overturn'd and there is our Danger Before I descend to Particulars I 'll explain the Terms to avoid the Impertinence of another Remarker If the King of France shou'd find out a way to Unite the Interest of the two Nations by this I understand in short making the Prosperity of one necessary for the Safety of the other and so vice versa I cou'd explain my self how this may be done too but 't is too large for a Pamphlet joining Interests is joining Nations Affinities Leagues and Treaties are trifles where has there been more Inmarriages than between the two Northern Crowns And yet never more Jealousies nor difference of Interest Where has there been more Antipathies more contrariety in Temper and Religion than between the Dutch and Spaniards And yet their Interest has overcome all Animosities and made them strict Confederates To say a strict Confederacy and Conjunction of Interests between Spain and France will do us no harm is the Effect of a stupid Ignorance and no Man can say it but he that has the Face to say Foreign Alliances are of no use to us 'T is plain the Trade we drive to Spain is without Dispute the best the greatest and most profitable Trade we have 't is plain and known to all Men that understand that Trade that 't is driven by way of Factory and carried on by Englishmen and by English Stocks I 'll lay the present Case upon one Article only If the French obtain so much by their Amity with Spain that upon every Breach with France our Merchants and their Effects shall be seized in the Spanish Dominions as is the Custom of the Country Whenever the French please to Insult us we are at their Mercy if we break with them we are ruin'd Why have we all along been so tender of a Peace with Spain Why so careful not to Affront them Why so ready to Protect them with our Fleet and Forces but because our Effects there are so Considerable that the very Soul of our Trade is Dependant upon it and is there no Danger in having all this lye at the Mercy of the French Some think all the World must Trade with us and our Manufactures will Force their own way and the French can do us no harm says our Wise Remarker If the Lords of the Treasury wou'd take care to prevent the Exportation of Wooll He might as well ha' thrown that upon the Parliament too unless he can make it out that the Lords have not prevented it But he is as blind a Merchant as he is a Geographer when he says P. 21. Portugal is environ'd with the Territories of France and Spain when every Body knows not a Foot of the Territories of France comes within a Hundred Leagues of Portugal and in the same Page talks of Forces Landing in Holland and forcing their way thro' the Spanish Netherlands into Germany which is no more that Road out of Holland into Germany than to go to West-Chester is the Road to Edinburgh I suppose this Gentleman never went up the Rhine in Germany And then to mend the matter tells us that is the Way to come on the back of Spain in which he forgets to Consult his Map again where he wou'd ha' found the whole Kingdom of France with the Swiss-Cantons or the Savoyards between Spain and the nearest part of Germany besides the Alps and the Pyrenees to get over and the French to be sought with This is such a Marcher of an Army the Devil wou'd not be a Musqueteer under him And thus Infatuated he is in Trade tho' there were really no Wooll went out of England yet the French Dutch and Germans would always be advancing upon our Manufactures our English Wooll is a great Commodity in France but in Holland and at Hamburg 't is not half so valu'd and yet they out do us in many of our Manufactures Besides Scotland and Ireland are Back-doors at which our Wooll