reproach to our Country that our Reputation at Sea should be sunk to so low an eb as to be baffled by that Nation who but a few years before had sent a blank Paper to the Parliament to prescribe to them what Laws they pleased During this War the City of London was fired not without violent suspicions that the Firebals were prepared at Whitehall Soon after this he entred into the Triple Alliance to oppose the growing greatness of France and received a great Sum from the Parliament to maintain it which he made use of to break the same League sent Mr. Coventry to Sweden to dissolve it and entred into a strict Alliance with France which was sealed with his Sister's blood In conjunction with them he made a new War upon Holland to extirpat Liberty and the Protestant Religion but knowing the Parliament were averse to the War and would not support him in it he attemted before any War declared to seize their Smirna Fleet shut up the Exchequer and became so mean as to be a Pensioner to France from whence his Predecessors with Swords in their hands had so often exacted Tribute He not only suffered but assisted them to arrive at that pitch of Greatness which all Europe since hath sufficiently felt and lamented He sent over ten thousand Men to assist in subduing Flanders and Germany by whose help they did several considerable Actions He sent them Timber Seamen Ship-Carpenters and Models contrary to the Policy of all Nations which rais'd their Naval Force to a degree almost equal to our own and for their exercise he suffered them to take multitudes of English Ships by their Privateers without so much as demanding satisfaction During this War he issued out a Declaration suspending the Penal Laws which appears to be designed in favor of the Papists by his directing a Bill afterwards to be stolen away out of the House of Lords for indulging Protestant Dissenters whom he persecuted violently most of his Reign while he both countenanced and preferred Papists broke the Act of Settlement in Ireland restored them to their Estates issued forth a Proclamation giving the Papists liberty to inhabit in Corporations and married the Duke of York not only to a Papist but one in the French Interest notwithstanding the repeated Addresses of the Parliament to the contrary It was in this Reign that that cursed and detestable Policy was much improved of bribing Parliaments by distributing all the great Imployments in England among them and supplying the want of places with Grants of Lands and Mony No Man could be preferred to any Imployment in Church or State till he had declared himself an open Enemy to our Constitution by asserting Despotic Power under that nonsensical Phrase of Passive Obedience which was more preach'd up than all the Laws of God and Man The Hellish Popish Plot was stifled proved since too true by fatal experience and in the room of it Protestant ones were forged and Men trapan'd into others as the Meal-Tub Fitz Harris's the Rye-House Newmarket and Black-Heath Plots and by these Pretences and the help of packt Judges and Juries they butchered som of the best Men in England set immoderat Fines upon others gave probable suspicion of cutting the Lord Essex's Throat and to finish our destruction they took away the Charters as fast as they were able of all the Corporations in England that would not choose the Members prescribed them But he durst not have dreamt of all these Violations if he had not had an Army to justify them He had thoughts at first of keeping up the Parliament-Army which was several times in debate But Chancellor Hyde prevailed upon him by this Argument that they were a body of Men that had cut off his Father's Head that they had set up and pulled down ten several sorts of Government and that it might be his own turn next So that his fears prevailing over his ambition he consented to disband them but soon found how vain and abortive a thing Arbitrary Power would prove without an Army He therfore try'd all ways to get one and first he attemted it in Scotland and by means of the Duke of Lauderdale got an Act passed there wherby the Kingdom of Scotland was obliged to raise 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse at his Majesty's Call to march into any part of his Dominions and this Law is in being at this day Much about the same time he rais'd Guards in England a thing unheard of before in our English Constitution and by degrees increas'd them till they became a formidable Army for first they were but very few but by adding insensibly more Men to a Troop or Company and then more Troops or Companies to a Regiment before the second Dutch War he had multiplied them to near 5000 Men. He then began that War in conjunction with France and the Parliament gave him two Millions and a half to maintain it with part of which Mony he rais'd about 12000 Men which were called the Black-Heath Army appointing Marshal Shomberg to be their General and Fitz Gerald an Irish Papist their Lieutenant-General and pretended he rais'd them to attack Holland but instead of using them to that purpose he kept them encamped upon Black-Heath hovering over the City of London which put both the Parliament and City in such confusion that the King was forced at last to disband them But there were several accidents contributed to it First the ill success he had in the War with the Dutch such Gallantries being not to be attemted but in the highest Raptures of Fortune Next the never to be forgotten Generosity of that great Man General Shomberg whose mighty Genius scorn'd so ignoble an Action as to put Chains upon a free People and last of all the Army themselves mutini'd for want of Pay which added to the ill Humors that were then in the Nation made the King willing to disband them But at the same time contrary to the Articles of Peace with the Dutch he continu'd ten thousand Men in the French Service for the most part under Popish Officers to be season'd there in slavish Principles that they might be ready to execute any Commands when they were sent for over The Parliament never met but they address'd the King to recal these Forces out of France and disband them and several times prepar'd Bills to that purpose which the King always prevented by a Prorogation but at last was prevail'd upon to issue forth a Proclamation to recal them yet at the same time supply'd them with Recruits incourag'd som to go voluntarily into that Service and press'd imprison'd and carri'd over others by main Force besides he only disbanded the new rais'd Regiments and not all them neither for he kept up in England five thousand eight hundred and ninety privat Men besides Officers which was his Establishment in 1673. The King having two great designs to carry on together viz. Popery and Arbitrary Power thought this Force not
44 104 780 928 Stranaver's 13 44 104 780 928  13 44 104 780 928 All the Forces in Holland 78 264 624 4680 5568  ☞ SO that his Majesty's whole Army consists of 813 3612 6420 49937 59969 Of these seven thousand eight hundred and seventy seven are Foreigners which is the first foreign Army that ever set foot in England but as Enemies Since the writing of this I am informed that Brudenall's Regiment is in being and that Eppinger's Dragoons are in English Pay which if true will make the whole Army sixty odd thousand Men but in this as well as many other Parts of the List I may be mistaken for which I hope I shall be excused when I acquaint the Reader that I was forced to pick it out from accidental Discourses with Officers having apply'd to my Lord R 's Office without Success tho I made such Interest for it as upon another occasion would not have bin refused If the Prince of Orange in his Declaration instead of telling us that we should be settled upon such a foundation that there should be no danger of our falling again into Slavery and that he would send back all his Forces as soon as that was done had promis'd us that after an eight Years War which should leave us in Debt near twenty Millions we should have a Standing Army establish'd a great many of which should be Foreigners I believe few Men would have thought such a Revolution worth the hazard of their Lives and Estates but his mighty Soul was above such abject thoughts as these his Declaration was his own these paltry Designs are our Undertakers who would shelter their own Oppressions under his Sacred Name I would willingly know whether the late King James could have inslaved us but by an Army and whether there is any way of scouring us from falling again into Slavery but by disbanding them It was in that sense I understood his Majesty's Declaration and therfore did early take up Arms for him as I shall be always ready to do It was this alone which made his assistance necessary to us otherwise we had wanted none but the Hangman 's I will venture to say that if this Army dos not make us Slaves we are the only People upon Earth in such Circumstances that ever escap'd it with the 4th part of their number It is a greater force than Alexander conquer'd the East with than Caesar had in his Conquest of Gaul or indeed the whole Roman Empire double the number that any of our Ancestors ever invaded France with Agesilaus the Persians or Huniades and Scanderbeg the Turkish Empire as many again as was in any Battel between the Dutch and Spaniards in forty Years War or betwixt the King and Parliament in England four times as many as the Prince of Orange landed with in England and in short as many as have bin on both sides in nine Battels of ten that were ever fought in the World If this Army dos not inslave us it is barely because we have a virtuous Prince that will not attemt it and 't is a most miserable thing to have no other Security for our Liberty than the Will of a Man tho the most just Man living for that is not a free Government where there is a good Prince for even the most arbitrary Governments have had somtimes a Relaxation of their Miseries but where it is so constituted that no one can be a Tyrant if he would Cicero says tho a Master dos not tyrannize yet 't is a lamentable consideration that it is in his power to do so and therfore such a Power is to be trusted to none which if it dos not find a Tyrant commonly makes one and if not him to be sure a Successor If any one during the Reign of Charles the Second when those that were call'd Whigs with a noble Spirit of Liberty both in the Parliament House and in private Companies oppos'd a few Guards as Badges of Tyranny a Destruction to our Constitution and the Foundations of a Standing Army I say if any should have told them that a Deliverer should com and rescue them from the Oppressions under which they then labor'd that France by a tedious and consumtive War should be reduc'd to half the Power it then had and even at that time they should not only be passive but use their utmost Interest and distort their Reason to find out Arguments for keeping up so vast an Army and make the Abuses of which they had bin all their lives complaining Precedents to justify those Procedings whoever would have told them this must have bin very regardless of his Reputation and bin thought to have had a great deal of ill nature But the truth is we have lived in an Age of Miracles and there is nothing so extravagant that we may not expect to see when surly Patriots grow servil Flatterers old Commonwealthsmen declare for the Prerogative and Admirals against the Fleet. But I wonder what Arguments in nature our Hirelings will think of for keeping up an Army this year Good Reasons lie within a narrow Compass and might be guessed at but non-sense is infinit The Arguments they chiefly insisted upon last year were That it was uncertain whether the French King would deliver up any of his Towns if we disbanded our Army that King James had 18000 Men at his devotion kept by the King of France that a great Fleet was preparing there upon som unknown Design that the King of Spain was dying that there was no Militia settled and that they would keep them up only for a year to see how the world went This with a few Lies about my Lord Portland's and Bouffler's quarrelling and som Prophecies of our being invaded in six months was the substance of what was said or printed Now in fact the French King has deliver'd up Giron Roses Belver Barcelona and a great part of the Province of Catalonia The Town and Province of Luxemburg and the County of Chiny the Towns of Mons Charleroy Courtray and Aeth in the Spanish Provinces to the King of Spain The Town of Dinant to the Bishop of Leige The Towns of Pignerol Cazal Susa Montmelian Nice Villa Franca all Savoy and part of Piemont to the Duke of Savoy The Cities of Treves Germensheim and the Palatinat the County of Spanheim Veldentz and Dutchy of Deuxponts the County of Mombelliand and som Possessions of Burgundy the Forts of Kiel Friburg St. Peterfort Destoile the Town of Philipsburg and most of Alsace Eberenburg and the Dutchy of Lorrain to the Empire has demolished Hunningen Montroyal and Kernburg He has delivered up the Principality of Orange to the King of England These are vast Countries and contain in bigness as much ground as the Kingdom of England and maintained the King of France above 100000 Men besides he had laid out vast Sums in the Fortifications he delivered up and demolished Add to this his Kingdom is miserably impoverished and
advantage the Liberty of England had bin at an end I would not be understood quite to exclude Parliament-men from having Places for a Man may serve his Country in two Capacities but I would not have it to be a Qualification for a Place because a poor Borough thinks a Man fit to represent them that therfore he must be a Statesman a Lawyer a Soldier an Admiral and what not If this method should be taken in a future Reign the People must not expect to see Men of Ability or Integrity in any Places while they hold them by no other tenure than the disservice they do their Country in the House of Commons and are sure to be turned out upon every prevalent Faction on the other side They must then never expect to see the House of Commons act vigorously for the Interest either of King or People but som will servilely comply with the Court to keep their Places others will oppose it as unreasonably to get them and those Gentlemen whose designs are for their Countries Interest will grow weary of the best form of Government in the World thinking by mistake the fault is in our Constitution I have heard of a Country where the Disputes about Offices to the value of thirty thousand Pounds per Annum have made six Millions ineffectual what by som Mens prostitute compliance and others openly clogging the Wheels it has caus'd Want and Necessity in all kinds of Men Bribery Treachery Profaneness Atheism Prodigality Luxury and all the Vices that attend a remiss and corrupt Administration and a universal neglect of the Public It is natural to run from one extreme to another and this Policy will at last turn upon any Court that uses it for if they should be resolv'd to give all Offices to Parliament-Men the People will think themselves under a necessity to obtain a Law that they shall give none which has bin more than once attemted in our own time Indeed tho there may be no great inconvenience in suffering a few Men that have Places to be in that House such as com in naturally without any indirect Means yet it will be fatal to us to have many for all wise Governments indeavor as much as possible to keep the Legislative and Executive Parts asunder that they may be a check upon one another Our Government trusts the King with no part of the Legislative but a Negative Voice which is absolutely necessary to preserve the Executive One part of the Duty of the House of Commons is to punish Offenders and redress the Grievances occasion'd by the Executive part of the Government and how can that be don if they should happen to be the same Persons unless they would be public spirited enough to hang or drown themselves But in my opinion in another thing of no less importance we deviated in Charles the Second's time from our Constitution for tho we were in a Capacity of punishing Offenders yet we did not know legally who they were The Law has bin always very tender of the Person of the King and therfore has dispos'd the Executive part of the Government in such proper Channels that whatsoever lesser Excesses are committed they are not imputed to him but his Ministers are accountable for them his Great Seal is kept by his Chancellor his Revenue by his Treasurer his Laws are executed by his Judges his Fleet is manag'd by his Lord High Admiral who are all accountable for their Misbehavior Formerly all matters of State and Discretion were debated and resolv'd in the Privy Council where every Man subscrib'd his Opinion and was answerable for it The late King Charles was the first who broke this mest excellent part of our Constitution by settling a Cabal or Cabinet Council where all matters of Consequence were debated and resolv'd and then brought to the Privy Council to be confirmed The first footsteps we have of this Council in any European Government were in Charles the Ninth's time of France when resolving to massacre the Protestants he durst not trust his Council with it but chose a few Men whom he call'd his Cabinet Council and considering what a Genealogy it had 't is no wonder it has bin so fatal both to King and People To the King for whereas our Constitution has provided Ministers in the several parts of the Government to answer for Miscarriages and to skreen him from the hatred of the People this on the contrary protects the Ministers and exposes the King to all the Complaints of his Subjects And 't is as dangerous to the People for whatever Miscarriages there are no Body can be punish'd for them for they justify themselves by a Sign Manual or perhaps a privat Direction from the King and then we have run it so far that we can't follow it The consequence of this must be continual Heartburnings between King and People and no one can see the Event A Short HISTORY OF Standing Armies IN ENGLAND IF any Man doubts whether a Standing Army is Slavery Popery Mahometism Paganism Atheism or any thing which they please let him read First The Story of Matho and Spendius at Carthage and the Mamalukes of Egypt Secondly The Historys of Strada and Bentivolio where he will find what work nine thousand Spaniards made in the 17 Provinces tho the Country was full of fortified Towns possessed by the Low Country Lords and they had assistance from Germany England and France Thirdly The History of Philip de Commines where he will find that Lewis the 11th inslaved the vast Country of France with 25000 Men and that the raising 500 Horse by Philip of Burgundy sirnamed the Good was the ruin of those Provinces Fourthly Ludlow's Memoirs where he will find that an Army raised to defend our Liberties made footballs of that Parliament at whose Actions all Europe stood amazed and in a few Years set up ten several sorts of Government contrary to the Genius of the whole Nation and the opinion of half their own Body such is the influence of a General over an Army that he can make them act like a piece of Mechanism whatever their privat Opinions are Lastly Let him read the Arguments against a Standing Army the Discourse concerning Militias the Militia Reform'd and the Answers to them but lest all this should not satisfy him I will here give a short History of Standing Armies in England I will trace this mystery of Iniquity from the beginning and show the several steps by which it has crept upon us The first footsteps I find of a Standing Army in England since the Romans left the Island were in Richard the 2d's time who raised four thousand Archers in Cheshire and suffered them to plunder live upon free Quarter beat wound ravish and kill wherever they went and afterwards he called a Parliament encompassed them with his Archers forced them to give up the whole power of Parliaments and make it Treason to endeavour to repeal any of the Arbitrary Constitutions
depopulated by this War his Manufactures much impaired great numbers of Offices have bin erected which like Leeches draw away the Peoples blood prodigious Debts contracted and a most beneficial Trade with England lost These things being considered there can be little danger of their shewing over much wantonness especially for som years and yet still we must be bullied by the name of France and the Fear of it must do what their Power could never yet effect which is a little too gross considering they were inslaved by the same means For in Lewis the 11th's time the French gave up their Liberties for fear of England and now we must give up ours for fear of France Secondly Most of King James's English and Irish Forces which we have bin so often threatned with are disbanded and he is said to subsist upon his Majesty's Charity which will be a sufficient Caution for his good behaviour Thirdly The French Fleet which was another Bugbear exceeded not this year 20 Sail nor attemted any thing tho we had no Fleet out to oppose them Fourthly The King of Spain is not dead nor in a more dangerous Condition than he has bin for som years and we are not without hopes that his Majesty by his extraordinary Prudence has taken such care as to prevent a new War in case he should die Fifthly As to the Militia I suppose every Man is now satisfied that we must never expect to see it made useful till we have disbanded the Army I would not be here understood to throw the whole odium of that matter upon the Court for there are several other Parties in England that are not over-zealous for a Militia First those who are for restoring K. James's Trumpery and would have the Army disbanded and no Force settled in the room of it Next there are a mungrel sort of Men who are not direct Enemies to the King yet because their fancied merit is not rewarded at their own price they are so shagreen that they will not let him have the Reputation of so noble an Establishment Besides these there are others that having no notion of any Militia but our own and being utterly unacquainted with antient and modern History think it impracticable and som wretched things are against it because of the Charge whereas if their Mothers had taught them to cast account they would have found out that 52000 Men for a month will be but the same charge to the Subject as four thousand for a year supposing the pay to be the same and reckoning it to be a third part greater it will be equivalent to the charge of 6000 and if we should allow them to be out a fortnight longer than was designed by the last Bill for exercising in lesser Bodies then the utmost Charge of such a Militia will be no more than to keep up 9000 Men the year round None of the Parties I mention'd will openly oppose a Militia tho they would be all glad to drop it and I believe no body will be so hardy as to deny but if the Court would shew as much vigor in prosecuting it as they did last year to keep up a Standing Army that a Bill would pass which they will certainly do if we disband the Army and they think it necessary and if they do not we have no reason to think an Army so When they tell us we may be invaded in the mean time they are not in earnest for we all know if the King of France has any designs they look another way besides he has provided no Transports nor is in any readiness to make an Invasion and if he was we have a Fleet to hinder him nay even the Militia we have in London and som other Counties are moderatly exercis'd and I believe those who speak most contemtibly of them will allow 'em to have natural Courage and as good Limbs as other People and if they will allow nothing else then here is an Army of a hundred or sixscore thousand Men ready listed regimented horsed and armed and if there should be any occasion his Majesty can put what Officers he pleases of the old Army over them and the Parliament will be sitting to give him what Powers shall be necessary We may add to this that the disbanded Soldiers in all probability will be part of this body and then what fear can there be of a scambling Invasion of a few Men I have avoided in this place discoursing of the nature of Militia's that Subject having been so fully handled already only thus much I will observe that a Standing Army in Peace will grow more effeminat by living dissolutely in Quarters than a Militia that for the most part will be exercised with hard labor So that upon the whole matter a Standing Army in Peace will be worse than a Militia and in War a Militia will soon becom a disciplin'd Army Sixthly The Army has bin kept up for a Year which is all was pretended to and notwithstanding their Prophecies we have had no Invasion nor danger of one Lastly The Earl of Portland and Marshal Boufflers were so far from quarrelling that perhaps no English Ambassador was ever received in France with more Honor. But further there is a Crisis in all Affairs which when once lost is never to be retrieved Several Accidents concur to make the disbanding the Army practicable now which may not happen again We have a new Parliament uncorrupted by the Intrigues of the Courtiers besides the Soldiers themselves hitherto have known little but the Fatigues of a War and have bin so paid since that the privat Men would be glad to be disbanded and the Officers would not be very uneasy at it considering they are to have half Pay which we must not expect them hereafter when they have lived in Riot and Luxury Add to this we have a good Prince whose Inclinations as well as Circumstances will oblige him to comply with the reasonable Desires of his People But let us not flatter our selves this will not be always so If the Army should be continued a few years they will be accounted part of the Prerogative and 't will be thought as great a violation to attemt the disbanding them as the Guards in Charles the Second's time it shall be interpreted a design to dethrone the King and be made an Argument for the keeping them up But there are other Reasons yet The public Necessities call upon us to contract our charge that we may be the sooner out of debt and in a condition to make a new War and t is not the keeping great Armies on foot that will inable us to do so but putting our selves in a capacity to pay them We have had the experience of this in eight years War for we have not bin successful against France in one Battel and yet we have neighed it down by mere natural Strength as I haxe seen a heavy Country Booby sometimes do a nimble Wrestler and by