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
THE Two Great Questions Further Considered With some Reply to the Remarks Non Licet Hominem Muliebriter rixare By the Author LONDON Printed in the Year MDCC Since then his Passion has put him out of Temper and transported him beyond the bounds of Decency and good Manners I shall leave him to come to himself again by the helps of Time Sleep and such other proper Remedies for Men that are Craz'd ad Distemper'd and Address my self to that part of Mankind who are Masters of their Sences Of all Men in this Town the Author of the Two Reasons Consider'd was never yet suspected of being a Courtier an Advocate for standing Armies an Insulter of Parliaments but just the contrary as will appear if ever he is call'd to show himself But because he took the Liberty to put his Thoughts in Print on the Extraordinary Iuncture of Affairs on Account of the Spanish Succession and he finds that some People are mistaken both in him and in the Intent of his Book he therefore Craves leave of the Publick to Explain himself in some things in which he little thought any Body wou'd ha' been so weak as to mistake him THE Two Great Questions Further Considered BEFORE I enter into the Particulars of the Book I am going to vindicate I must desire the Reader to observe that this Book was wrote before the French King had declar'd He would accept the King of Spain's Will or had receiv'd the Duke d' Anjou as King of Spain And therefore when I speak of the King of France's seizing of Spain or seizing of Flanders I desire to be understood seizing it for himself to annex it to the Crown of France a thing that hath all along by all the Princes and States of Europe been counted and really is inconsistent with the Peace of Europe and any Man but such an Author as our Remarker wou'd understand me so when I say Page 22 and quoted by him Page 9. It must certainly be the Interest of England and Holland first to put themselves in such a Posture as may prevent the French King 's seizing of Spain and the next Words express it directly viz. And upon the first Invasion of the Territories of Spain to declare War against him in the Name of the whole Confederacy as an Infringer of the Grand Peace of Reswick I need but appeal to any Man's Reason whether the French King 's seizing or invading of Spain can mean any thing but the French King 's seizing or invading of Spain and is as explicite as Words can make it and wou'd certainly be a Breach of the Peace of Reswick The Remarker Page 6. tells the World the Question what the English ought to do is a Shooing-horn to draw on what some People mightily want a standing Army and then in his rude Dialect runs on against the Soldiery and when he has done to put a Value on his Argument magnifies our Nation to such a degree as no Man who is sensible of the Power and Designs of our Neighbours can allow to be so much as rational I must first answer his presumptive Suggestion and then proceed I take leave to assure all the World that shall read these Sheets that by all the Expressions of Forces Posture of the Nation and the like I do mean and do desire to be understood to mean such Force and no other such a Posture of Defence and no other as by the King Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament shall be thought necessary for the Safety of the Kingdom and Support of our Trade and Interest in the World Why else do I say England shou'd put herself into such a Posture By England an Englishman always understands the Parliament of England and no Man in his Wits wou'd imagine otherwise Now did ever Parliament in England talk in this Gentleman's Dialect That we have a Fleet and no Army no matter if all the World Confederated against us and did ever we get any thing by Foreign Alliances Are Confederacies advantageous to us And the like Surely they that are of the Opinion that England is able to Fight the whole World know very little of the World and do not remember that in this very War had we had no Confederates the War had been in our own Bowels whereas this we got by Foreign Alliances that we carried the War to our Neighbours Doors had not the Spaniards Germans and Dutch joined in a Confederacy the French King had met with no Work to Divert him from giving King Iames such a Powerful Assistance as might have prevented our Revolution none but a Mad Man can deny that 't was the Union of the Confederates that was the Protection of England The Remarker tells us the Revolution was a Miracle and so it was but says he 'T was a Miracle that we did not do it without Foreign help I am sure it wou'd ha' been a Miracle if we had and I Appeal to any Man that has not forgot the State of England at that time to be Judge of it That we shou'd not reduce King Iames to Reason by our own Native Strength was a Miracle says he That is that we did not rise and pull his Army to pieces if this Gentleman had not forgot his own Story he cou'd never thus contradict himself If our own Native Strength is so much Superior to an Army that 't is a Miracle they did now recover themselves without other help then Ridiculus mus the dreadful Spectrum of a Standing Army is lost and all our Danger of being enslav'd is at end I have as great an Opinion of the Bravery of the English Nation as any Man but it does not use to be the Temper of the English to run on such Rhodomantado's 'T is no disparageing the English Naâ—ion to say That as Affairs now Stand they are not a match for the French Power without the help of Confederates I am no Traitor to my Country as he is pleased to call me if I own that our Militia are not able to Fight a French Army But Grant they were 't is not Invasion of our Native Country that we are upon God forbid we shou'd have Occasion to Provide against that but 't is always the Interest of England to keep Danger at a distance and it has been the Practice of England to do it by Leagues and Confederacies as the only proper Method This Gentleman upbraids me with Reading truly I have Read all the Histories of Europe that are Extant in our Language and some in other Languages and amongst the rest I have Read that Queen Elizabeth supported the Dutch and supplied them with Men and Money that she did the like by the Hugonots of France and afterwards made a League offensive with the King of France and why All our Histories agree it was to keep the Forces of Philip the Second so employ'd that he shou'd not be at leisure to turn all his Power upon her Thus she manag'd a War