it will be allow'd me and that had we not appear'd in a very powerful Figure the Terms had not been so good and Lewis the 14th would not have parted with so many Vast Countries Impregnable Fortifications and Sovereign Titles our Army in Conjunction with our Allies have under God's Providence obtain'd this Now whether it be proper to let go this Lyon upon Parole and tying the French King by his Honour only which he has not formerly valued at much in such Cases Disband our Forces and rely upon the League This is the direct Question If the King of France were so much to be depended upon the Spaniard and the Emperor need not have strain'd so hard for the strong Towns of Brisac Friburg Philipsburgh Mons Aeth Luxemburgh and Charleroy which are very chargeable to keep and no real Profit to them and the King of France would readily have given up Franche-Compte Burgundy and vast Territories of Land instead of them with large Revenues and Advantages but these are given as Pledges of the Peace and are maintain'd by the Confederates at a vast Charge that they might have a sufficient Strength to oblige the French King to perform the Stipulation of the League Now I do not know what vast Securities these Gentlemen may flatter themselves with but to me it seems one of the most ridiculous things in the World to be wholly Disarm'd at such a time when all the Nations in the World have Forces in Pay I am willing to give the Gentlemen of the Club all the Latitude in Argument they can desire and therefore I 'll grant that the French King has surrendred all the Towns and Countries he was to surrender though he really has not That King James is neither in Power nor Person at all formidable nor indeed worth mentioning in the Case That the King of Spain is not Dead nor like to be so That these are not nor ever were Arguments for a Standing Force at least not singly considered But notwithstanding all this I cannot but say that some competent Standing Force is absolutely necessary to preserve that Peace which has cost the Nation so dear and it would seem a most unaccountable Weakness to run the hazard of it and expose us to the uncertainty of it We say Temptation makes a Thief There is nothing in the World will be so likely to make the Peace precarious and allure the French to break it as to find us Naked and Defenceless If it be true that an Army may be dangerous at Home 't is as true that having no Army must be fatal Abroad The danger of an Army is uncertain and may be none the damage of the contrary is infallible 'T is not saying we have formerly Conquer'd France and therefore ought not to be so frighted with Apprehensrons of it now all the French Fools they say are Dead France now without Reflection upon England is much too strong a Match for any single Nation in Europe and the only means to keep her within bounds is by Confederacies and Leagues Offensive how these can be maintain'd without Quota's of Forces ready to unite is a Mystery too dark for my Understanding Indeed the King may say to his Confederates Truly my Subjects won't trust me with any Soldiers and therefore I must pay my proportion in Money But other Countries may refuse to keep up Forces as well as we and so a League would be to small purpose indeed These things have been offer'd before now and in better Terms and the Gentlemen with whom we argue have thought sit to forget to speak to them But now we are Banter'd about a Fleet and a Militia and these are the Equivalents with which all the pretences of a Standing Army are to be Answer'd Indeed a Fleet well ordered is a good thing and a Militia well regulated That Black Swan that unheard-of thing if ever it could be had would be a good thing too But pray Gentlemen give some people leave to understand things in the World as well as you Suppose this Fleet and this Militia to be all that you can pretend what would this be to a War in Flanders 'T is the carrying the War into Flanders that is our great Interest the Barrier of Strong Towns there is our best Security against France in the World Now suppose the French King should with 80000 men fall into those Countries like a Tempest as he did in 1672 without declaring War would our Militia go over with the King to help our Confederates Or could our Fleet relieve Charleroy Would raising an Army though it could be done in forty days as you say King Charles did be quick enough 'T is strange these things are not worth while to consider Why does the French King keep up an Army 'T is not for fear but to increase his Glory and for that very reason it would be preposterous for us to be naked England has always gone hand in hand with the Times and Arm'd or not Arm'd as her Neighbours did and must always do so in the Days when we kept no Forces at home our Neighbous kept none abroad and then there was no need of it we were as well provided as they but now they are all strong in Men and shall we be naked that is certainly to be exposed 'T is Argued an Army may soon be raised King Charles the Second raised an Army in Forty Days and the present King very speedily I would but desire these Gentlemen to Examine how it fared with both those Armies I saw them both and they were composed of as jolly brave young Fellows as ever were seen but being raw and not us'd to hardship the first Army lay and rotted in Flanders with Agues and Fluxes the very first Campaign and the last did the like at Dundalk and so 't will always fare with any Army of English Men 'till they have been abroad and inur'd to the Service I appeal to any Man who knows the Nature of our Men they are the worst raw Men in the World and the best when once got over it But to return to the Point If 't is necessary to preserve our Peace and maintain the Leagues and Confederacies which are the Bands and Barrs of it if 't is necessary to be always ready to prevent an Affront of an Enemy if 't is necessary to support the Reputation of our English Power 't is necessary then to be not only in a posture to Defend our selves at home but to Defend our Confederates abroad and to assist them in any sudden Insult from the Enemy and this can be done neither by a Fleet nor a Mililitia But to come further We have been Invaded in England notwithstanding our Fleet and that many times Henry the Seventh Landed with an Army in spight of Richard the Third and his Fleet. The Duke of Monmouth Landed in the West tho' King James had a very good Fleet And had not King James's standing Army tho' that was but
have often in former Papers asserted That any Standing Forces are destructive of our Constitution and inconsistent with the English Liberty and yet our Constitution consisted very well in Queen Elizabeth's time Nor have these Gentlemen given their Quotations faithfully for they have been told and are not ignorant That First whereas Queen Mary had but 1200 men she shamefully lost Calais to the French for want of Strength to relieve it Indeed if she had rais'd the Militia they might ha' kept the French from coming on to take Dover but if she had had 10000 men in Pay Calais which had been ours for some Ages before had been ours still and if it had the Loss of Dunkirk had not been so much to our disadvantage Then as to Queen Elizabeth they omit that she always had a very good Army in the Low-Countries which to her was a Nursery of Soldiers And in the time of her apprehension of an Invasion I would ask how many she transported hither for her own Defence for the Armies she prepar'd at Tilbury Camp 44000 and 20000 at Plimouth were not all Militia but Soldiers disciplin'd and train'd in the Wars in Ireland and Holland What the Authors say Queen Elizabeth did and with what Glory she reign'd and how she left us when she died is all true and much more and what her Revenue was and what Taxes she had for ought we know may be so But I hope these Gentlemen will excuse me for saying they very much misrepresent the Cise when they would tell us what Revenues she had as if those Revenues perform'd all the Great Things she did They ought to have told us also what Taxes she had and how she took from the Spaniard above 60 Millions of Pieces of Eight at several times at the West Indies at Cadiz and at Sea which together with what Subsidies Customs of Towns and Interests the Dutch paid her were Infinite And with this she did all those great things and with this she always kept an Army on foot and left them so after the Peace by the same token that King James let 3000 of them starve and desert for want of Subsistence on the Dutch refusing to pay the Garisons of the Brill Ramekins and Flushing I shall not enter into the History of King James the First King Charles the First or his Sons the Historical part does not argue either way in this Case as I understand the Point The Question before us is not so much what has been or has not been but what is now needful to be done and I wish these Gentlemen would admit a calm Argument in which Case I offer to prove First That 't is absolutely necessary to have some Standing Force and then That with Consent of Parliament 't is not Illegal I remember one Reply to the former Argument entred into the Historical part of the matter and underlook to prove That every Government in England had for many Years maintain'd some Standing Force and 't is too true to be denied Then they descend to examine the Reign of King James the First and of K. Charles the First and tho' they grant they had no Armies yet they reckon up all the Tyrannies and Oppressions they were guilty of how they Enslav'd the Nation Bussoon'd the Parliament Oppress'd the Subjects Levied Taxes but all without a Standing Army Nay when King Charles the First affronted the House of Commons he was fain as these Authors themselves say to Rifle the Taverns Gaming-houses and Brothel-houses to pick out 3 or 400 Men which if true tho' I do not fee it deserves any credit yet 't is plain he could have no Army no not so much as any Guards Now if all this can be done by a King without an Army why then the having an Army can do no more the Mischief does not lie in an Army but in the Tyrant The Authors conclude of King Charles the First having No Army to support him his Tyranny was precarious and at last his ruin And may we not say so of his Son who had a great Army and as Mercenary as any English Army ever was And yet tho' he had an Army to support him his Tyranny was precarious and at last his ruin So that Tyranny is a Weed that never throve in England it always poison'd the Planter and an Army or no Army it is all one This is only toucht at to let the World know that these Gentlemen have not been faithful Historians for that they have not fairly stated the Case but left out such things as are really true because against their purpose which is not a fair way of Arguing But if the Case must be debated I think 't is very proper to reduce it to Two Heads First Whether a Standing Army in time of Peace may not be Lawful Secondly Whether it be not Expedient As to the first Question it has really been prov'd in a small Discourse formerly published entituled An Argument shewing that a Standing Army is not inconsistent c. which these Gentlemen never thought fit to Answer and now do tacitly acknowledge to be true but say 't is nevertheless dangerous However if it may be Legal then it cannot be true that 't is destructive of our Liberty and Constitution for that can never be destructive of our Constitution which can be Legal That were to make a thing Lawful and Unlawful at the same time A Standing Army with Consent of Parliament is a Legal Army and if the Legislative Power erect an Army 't is as much a Qualification to the Army as a Charter is to a Corporation for what else do these Gentlemen call an Establishment that cannot be Illegal which is done by Parliament The Titles of a Bankrupt House of Lords a Pensioner House of Commons a flattering Clergy and a prostituted Ministry are virulent Phrases and savour both of Passion and Ill Manners We have them not now nor am I convinc'd we ever had nor hope we ever shall And yet if they were so they are the Parliament of England and what they do is the Act of the whole Kingdom and cannot be Illegal I shall not spend time to prove what the Authors own and cannot deny I therefore lay down the first Head as proved before and granted by our Adversaries That a Standing Army in time of Peace with Consent of Parliament is not inconsistent with a Free Government and is a Legal Army The Second main Argument is Whether it be necessary for all things that are lawful are not expedient Whether there be so much need of an Army as that we should run the hazards that we are told we shall be expos'd to from them That we have very great Reason to be always in a Posture fit to maintain the Peace purchased now with so much Blood and Treasure I believe no Body will dispute Whether with or without an Army I don't yet debate That an Army was the procuring Cause of this Peace I hope
A BRIEF REPLY TO THE HISTORY OF Standing Armies In ENGLAND With some Account of the Authors LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. THE PREFACE IN all Ages of the World and under the Best of Governments there were always some Persons to be found who either for Envy at the Prosperity of some Ambition Popular Vanity or Private Ends took Occasion to appear as Male-contents and set themselves to Explose and Consure the Actions of Their Governors History is so full of Instances of this Nature that 't would be an affront to the Gentlemen I am dealing with to suppose them ignorant of ' em In Our Age where Nick-Names are so much in fashion we have call'd them Murmurers Grumbletonians and the like of whom one of our Poets has said not improperly And should King Jesus Reign they 'd Murmur too 'T would not ha' been foreign to the Purpose as an Answer to the History of Standing Armies to have Entertain'd the World with a History of these Dissenters to Government the Murmurers of the World who always look with sowre Faces upon the Magistrates and cry out of so much as the little Fingers of their Superiors But we have not room for it here nor to descend too far into the General Character of them but 't is necessary to observe that these sort of People have one inseparable Adjunct as an Essential and Chief Prop both of their Nature and Design They always Cry Wo Wo and fright themselves and the World with sad Tidings Religion or Liberty or both are infallibly the Ensigns of their Order And I wonder we have not Ribbands in their Hats with No Popery No Slavery or No Standing Armies No Lords of the Treasury c. If the Bottom of this Case was to be Examined and the Authors dealt with in their own way Preferment always lists them on the t'other side And tho' I do not say these Gentlemen who write so strenuously for Liberty would do so yet they have told us plainly who did Viz. The Lord Strafford and Noy and I could name them some more King Charles the First say they began the Custom of making an Opposition to himself in the House of Commons the Road to Preferment and how came it about Truly because he found they were Mercenary and made a Noise that their Mouths might be stopp'd this has been too much a Method since no doubt For Parliament-Men to rail at the Court And get a Preferment immediately for 't But how comes it to pass because private Ends lie so generally at the bottom of such Clamour that we never found them proof against the Offer And here I could give innumerable Instances of great Ones on the other hand who as soon as ever the Court-Favour has fail'd them and they found themselves not Rewarded according to their Merit turn'd Popular Champions for the Peoples Liberties and Railers at the Court I do not say I mean by this the Lords S D Mr. H Mr. H or any body else in particular but whoever the Coat fits let them wear it This Evil Spirit of Discontent is now at Work under the best Reign and the mildest Government that ever England knew particularly so in suffering the Affairs of the Government to be thus disputed in Print by not an Author or Single Person but a whole Club of Mistaken Politicians who in any Reign but this would have been us'd as they deserv'd Had such a Cabal of the best Men in the Nation attempted the like in Queen Eliabeth's Reign who we must all acknowledge was a true English Queen and Govern'd the Nation with a Matchless Prudence they would have been very severely bandled but full Liberty is given them now to say almost any thing and truly they take the Extent of it even to Indecency and Ill Manners For they Treat the King himself with Jeers and Banter and make Ridiculous Encomiums on him to expose His Mijesty to very Scurrilous Reflections This is so mean a Way of Writing that I shall not descend to Returns in kind but shall use them like Gentlemen whether they behave themselves so or no and leave that to themselves A BRIEF REPLY TO THE History of Standing Armies THE Outcry against an Army in England is carried on with so high a hand that nothing can be said to it with any hope of Effect on the Complainants They go on with their own Arguments never thinking any thing that is or can be said to them worth while to take notice of For it seems to be more their Design to render the Government suspected than to argue fairly whether it be really true or not That an Army must be our ruine I have considered their former Books according to their Desire and to which they refer in this and the several Answers to them some of which seem to me to carry a great Weight with them but to them are of so small a Consequence that they do not think them worth a notice They have now given the World what they call a History of Standing Armies in which they have been guilty of some Mistakes some Omissions and some Contradictions and tho' the Historical part might very well have been omitted as being nothing at all to the purpose yet 't is very proper to tell them First 'T is a Mistake that the Spaniards did any thing to purpose in the Seventeen Provinces with 9000 Men which they call a Standing Army and if they please to review Strada and Bentivoglio their own Author they will find that the Duke D' Alva and Don Lewis de Requescens had very great Armies at the Bittle near Groningen against Count Lodowick of Nassau and at the Sieges of Harlem and Mons the Duke D' Alva brought Fourteen thousand Men with him at first raised Twenty-four thousand more at another time against the Siege of Mons and when the Count D'Egmont presented the Petition against the Foreign Forces they alledg'd the Spaniards had Thirty thousand Men in Pay besides the Troops of the Country As to other Armies I wonder the Authors did not instance the small Forces with which the Spaniards conquer'd the Mighty Empires of Mexico and Peru in all which Work I never yet read that they had above 800 Horse and 5750 Foot Armies as well as every thing else are great or small in proportion and 4000 Archers in Cheshire rais'd by Richard the Second though they only made way to their Master's Ruin were really a more formidable Force than Twenty thousand men in Arms can be now The Authors for I am inform'd their Name is Legion have carri'd on their History to Queen Mary and there break off and tell us the Standing Forces were then 1200 men in Queen Elizabeth's Reign 3500 where by the way 't is to be noted they grant that it has all along been allowed to have a Standing Force in England for above 140 Years past for we are not now arguing the Quantity but the Thing A Standing Army And they
is straining a Text a Trade without reflection which our Adversaries are very ready at but which is more useful for them in their Socinian Principles than in their Politicks By this I must beg leave to tell the Gentlemen it most plainly appears that they drive at Villifying the present Establishment rather than at the Liberty they talk so much of The next absurdity I find is Page 23. Where tho' they do not affirm because like cunning Disputants they won't hamper themselves in Argument yet they plainly intimate that all the omissions of our Fleet were design'd to produce this Argument from it that a Fleet is no Security to us As if his Majesty or his Ministers should Order our Fleet to do nothing Considerable and spend Six or Seven Years and as many Millions of Mony only to be able to say to the Parliament that a Fleet is no Security to us This is such a thing that I cannot pass over without desiring these Gentlemen to Examine a little whether his Majesty has not on the contrary more improv'd our Fleet and Shipping than any King before him ever did Whether he has not built more Ships and by his own Fancy peculiar in that way better Ships than any of his Predecessors Whether the Docks the Yards the Stores the Saylors and the Ships are not in the best Condition that ever England knew Whether the King has not in all his Speeches to the Parliament and in all the state of the Navy laid before them put forward to his utmost the greatness of the Navy Whether the Decoration of the Navy and Stores are not regulated by him to a degree never before put in practice and whether now the war is over he has not taken care to have the greatest Fleet in the World and in the best posture for Action And is all this to let us know that a Fleet is no Security to us I blush for these Gentlemen when I think they should thus fly in the Faces of their own Arguments and abuse the Care his Majesty has taken for that Security which they ought to look on with as much satisfaction as our Enemies do with Concern Besides I do not remember that ever the King or any of his Ministers offered to lessen the value of a good Fleet in any of their Speeches or Discourses if so to what end have they been so careful of it and why have we a Registring Act to secure Men for it and a Royal Foundation at Greenwich Hospital to incourage them why so many Bounties given to the Sea-men and such vast Stores laid in to increase and continue them But must we not distinguish things Our Defence is of two sorts and so must be our Strength Our Fleet is an undeniable defence and security for us and we will grant to oblige them whether so or no that both the Fleet and our Militia which they are so fond of are as great a Security at home as they can desire but 't is plain and they cannot pretend to deny it they are neither of them any thing to Fianders which all the World will own must be the Scene of a War when ever it begins To say we may assist with Mony is to say nothing for Men may be wanting as much as Mony and are so too and have been so this War at an unusual rate These Arguments might be inlarg'd even to a Twelve-penny Book like the Author's if the Printer desir'd it but short as they are they cannot be rationally confuted The Gentlemen who argue thus against Force have taken upon them to lay down a Method how to assist Spain in case of a War by bringing Soldiers from Final not leting us know if we did not enquire that those Forces must Sail by Thoulon and that we must have a great Fleet in the Straights for that Service or they will be prevented nor not enquiring which Montferrat way those Troops shall come at Final while the Duke of Savoy possesses and all the higher part of Italy for the French If they could argue no better than they can guide a War if their Logic was not better than their Geography they would make poor work of their Argument But because they seem to understand such things I would fain ask these Gentlemen if a War should break out now in the Empire between the Papists and the Protestants which a Man without the Spirit of Prophesie may say is very likely pray which way would these Gentlemen have the King aid the Protestants in the Palatinate what Service could our Fleet and Militia do in this Case Why say our Gentlemen we may aid them with Mony So did King James the First after a most wretched manner tho' his own Daughter was to lose her Patrimony by it and the Protestant Interest in Germany which now is in more hazard than ever it was since Gustavus Adolphus his time must be supported by the Leagues and Confederacies which our King must make and our Forces uphold or 't is a great question whether it will be supported at all England is to be considered in several Capacities though these Gentlemen seem to confine themselves to England within it self England is at this time the Head of two Leagues both which are essentially necessary to the preservation of our Welfare One a League of Property and the other of Religion One a League against French Slavery and the other a League against German Popery and we can maintain neither of these without some Strength I could tell these Gentlemen That while they would disarm us to protect our Liberties they strike a fatal Stroke at our Religion which I confess I ought not to expect they should value because I know their Principles to be both Irreligious and Blasphemous After all that has been said 't were not amiss to examine what this Army is we speak of and how to be maintain'd for these Gentlemen argue all along upon a great Army enough to subject a Kingdom and to raise it up to a magnitude they have gone into Ireland and Scotland and rak'd into the Settlement of those Kingdoms to muster up a great Army though after all their Calculations are wrong almost a third part In short they have reckon'd up small and great to make up the number To which it is conveninient to reply First What Forces are maintain'd in Scotland and Ireland is nothing to the purpose for both the Parliaments of those Kingdoms have concurr'd and found it necessary though these Gentlemen think otherwise Secondly If the King does see it proper to have some Forces ready on such Occasions as we have discours'd but to ease us of our Jealousies and Fears keeps them in other Kingdoms and with consent of those Kingdoms is not the English Nation so much the more oblig'd to him for his tenderness of their Safety and Satisfaction Thirdly Why do not the Gentlemen as well argue against his having the Stad-holdership of Holland by virtue of which
he can when ever he pleases command over Ten or Twenty Thousand Men from thence to enslave us when there is no War abroad For it seems the Distance of the Army is no safety to us To go on we have the War at an end the King has dismiss'd the foreign Troops disbanded Ten Regiments at home besides Horse and Dragroons most of the Scots abroad sent Twelve Regiments to Ireland and broke them there and reduced the Army to so small a degree as that much cannot be fear'd from them nor fewer can hardly consist with our Safety and yet these are the Grievances we are to be so terrify'd at that nothing but Slavery must be the consequence Neither has any attempt been made to make this Army perpetual nor has any number been prescrib'd But such an Army so proportioned so qualified and such a regulation as the Parliament shall see needful may be legal must be necessary and cannot be dangerous And to the King and Parliament we may with Satisfaction refer it The Parliament will consent to no Force but such as they shall judge safe and necessary and the King will insist on no other Army than the Parliament consents to and while they agree to it why should `we be concern'd For while the King allows the disposal of the Army to the Vote of the Parliament by which they may be either continued or dismissed no future danger can appear unless a Parliament shall part with that Power which in this Reign is not likely to be desir'd of them The CONCLUSION I Cannot pass over this Matter without a short Reflection upon the Persons and Designs of the Authors of this and the like Pamphlets against the Government and to enter a little into the History of their Practices for some years past His Majesty has found the influence of their more secret Actions during the War in their Delaying and Disappointing of Funds and Supplies which two Years together prolong'd the War and had like to have been fatal to the Army in Flanders who went without Pay longer than any Army in the World but themselves would have done and let his Majesty know that they would not only Fight for him but Starve for him if there was occasion and which his Majesty took great notice of in his Speeches at the opening of the next Parliament After this they set up for Male-Contents and always went about Town complaining of mis-management ill Officers State Ministers and the like Angry that they were not preferr'd and envying all that were crying out we must have Peace and we should be ruin'd by the War magnifying the Power of the French which now they Undervalue so much and saying we should be subdued by the Power of France if we did not save our selves by a Peace and the like At last the King contrary to their Expectations and false ` Prophesies brought the French to Terms safe and honourable and a Peace has been obtain'd as good as was not only expected but desired This was no sooner done but they strike at the Root and now for fear of his hurting us we must disarm the King and leave him no more Weapons than should be trusted to a Child or a ` Mad Man And in order to secure us from a Tyrant the whole Nation must be disarm'd our Confederates deserted and all the Leagues and Treaties made for mutual Defence and Security be broken and the King left unable to perform the Postulata's of his own part In order to this they appear in Print and setting up as Champions of the Peoples Liberty form'd themselves into a Club and appear openly both in Print and publick Discourses and being all of them maintainers of the most infamous Heresie of Socinus they bid defiance to the Son of God on one hand and to the King and Government on the other And that their Blasphemy might go hand in hand with their Politicks they Publish'd two Socinian Books and two Books against the Army almost together Much about the same time from the same people came out into the World two Volumes of Ludlow's Memoires in all which the Conduct of the Parliament against the King is exceedingly magnified the Government of a single Person opposed covertly under the Person of O. C. but in general of any single Person whatever and all the Common-Wealth-Principles advanced and defended And having much Work of this sort to do and being under some Fears of a restraint from an Act for Regulating the Press they endeavoured to ward off that Blow by publishing a Book for the Liberty of the Press which they mannaged with such Artifice that the Bill was not past and so their Fears vanisht This was a Victory they knew how to make use of and it was immediately followed by a publication of Coll. Sidney's Maxims of Government writ against Filmer for which the Author dyed a Martyr and of which one of the Publishers had the impudence to say it was the best Book the Bible excepted that ever came abroad in the World And now from the same Forge is hammer'd out the History of the Standing Armies in which all the Artifice in the World is made use of to set things in a false light to raise the Cry of Tyranny and Despotick Government which has been so long abdicated to decry state Ministers ridicule our Settlement banter the King and terrifie the People And that it might have its due force to sow Dissention and Disagreement between the King and his People both these attacks made against the Army were tim'd to appear just at the opening of the Parliament and so industriously handed about that they have been seen in the remotest Countries of England before they were published in London 'T is hoped these Circumstances will a little open the Eyes of the World and teach us to mark such as sow Divisions among us and not to meddle with those who are given to Change But to leave the matter to the Parliament who are proper Judges of the Fact and have always been very careful both of our Liberty and our Safety FINIS