Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	french_a	king_n	paris_n	4,104	5	9.3010	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59919	Britannia triumphans; or An effectual method wholly to destroy the power of France by encouraging navigation in all its branches. Whereby their Majesties fleet may be sufficiently mann'd in a months time, on any occasion, without impressing; and by making a competent provision for such as shall be wounded in the service of Their Majesties, against the common enemy, in whatsoever stations they are placed. All which may be effected without any very considerable charge to the kingdom. Together with a brief enumeration of the several advantages to be made by erecting a publick fishery, by which a constant nursery of able seamen, and a security and enlargement of our trade abroad will be surely advanced. To which are subjoined, some proposals for the support and maintenance of the children of sll such as fall in the said service; and the certain and best expedient of encreasing the numbers of our privateers. Humbly represented to Their Majesties, and Members of Parliament. By Capt. St. Loe, one of the commissioners of the prize office.	St. Lo, George, d. 1718.	1694 (1694)	Wing S339; ESTC R219858	35,198	66

Merchant Ship cannot go to Sea without leave from such Intendant who appoints what Seamen they shall have and so many Land-men to be trained up in the French King's Pay as is thought necessary which Method he hath used for these Fourteen Years past in all probability in hopes of an Advantage over England These Officers Register not only Seamen but Watermen Fishermen and all other Persons belonging to the Sea or Trading in any River of France as the Loire Seyne c. who upon Proclamation are always to be ready to serve on Board the Fleet as they have been all this War and upon Failure by his Arbitrary Power Hangs them up at their own Door without Tryal or Mercy So that to the wonder of the World tho he has not above the Tenth part of Merchant Shipping as aforesaid which is the Nursery of Seamen he gets out his Fleet ready to Fight the English and Dutch who are so much Superior to him in Naval Strength that it is very much Admired at Abroad and look'd upon as ill Conduct in us Thus the French King when his Fleet is out at Sea is at much greater Charge than we in regard of the Encouragement he then gives to his Officers both in Pay and Provisions which brings his best Nobility to his Service who when they are sufficiently Qualified are Preferred to Command and never makes Masters of Merchant-men Captains of Men of War well knowing that there is as great an improbability in most of them to well understand the Nature and Command of a Man of War as 't is for a Gentleman of 500 l. a Year that perhaps knows well enough how to manage his own Estate to understand Martial Discipline to Command in a Castle in a time of Action or for a Captain in the Militia to be as fit to make a General-Officer as one that has been in several Campains Sieges and other Actions and will sooner prefer one of his Warrant-Officers that has been trained up in his Service than one of them tho that is also very rare for he will sooner Reward them with Money for any brave Action and give his Commands to his People of Quality ☞ I find this Particular hath given Offence to some Persons even to the crying down of the Book though that does not hinder the Sale of it and at the same time those that understand both the Command of a Man of War and Mastership of a Merchant-man very well know the certainty of what I say in this Point but that this is defended by some is to give colour to the putting ill Men into the Service under the Notion of being Masters of Ships by which Pretence a Brewer's Clerk and such like have been preferred to the great Disservice of their Majesties As for Instance when a Captain of a Ship has two Lieutenants one a Seaman the other none being weary of the latter he gets him preferr'd to be Captain of a Fire-ship meerly to be rid of him when he as carefully keeps the other to be an Ease and Assistance to him by which means the deserving Man is kept without Preferment while the other is put over his Head which is a great Discouragement to the whole Body of Lieutenants Warrant-Officers Masters-Mates and Mid-ship-men in Their Majesties Service which might at once be prevented by putting good Men in at first who upon any Vacancy are fit to be made Captains This is too great a Truth to be spoke by any one but an unbyass'd Sailer and if a Reflection can be upon none but those that have certainly done it ☞ And tho the French King by the Means aforesaid is at more Charge than we when his Fleet is out yet when they come in he is at much less for then he pays off and lays up his great Ships as we may now do by the following Method which saves him vast Charge in the Winter when his Men go out a Privateering and make a Harvest upon our Merchant-Men which he Encourages by giving them his Tenths of what they take Which I could wish was done in England And here I cannot forbear mentioning one generous Action of that King who as he Punishes well takes care likewise to Reward well For when I was taken in the Portsmouth by the Chevalier Demany Knight of Malta in the Marquess a Ship of 60 odd Guns all Brass but twelve tho' he could not bring my Ship in she was so much disabled he dying in forty eight Hours of his Wounds told the Second Captain upon his Death-bed That nothing troubled him but that he should die in debt to his Relations and Friends which being represented to Monsieur Saignelay who then was on Board the Fleet and by him to the French King the King thereupon did much regret the loss of such a Man saying He had rather have lost the Ship than the Captain and ordered the Payment of his debts out of his own Bounty which came to 22000 Livres which is near 1800 l. Sterling Thus it being the Method of the French King to furnish himself with Seamen on any occasion 1. By Registring them 2. By his Arbitrary Power Hanging them in case of Desertion thereby like Death sparing none to the Sea or Gallows In England it would be found both difficult chargeable and needless 1. It would be very difficult as well as chargeable to Register Seamen here because not one in ten is a House-keeper and therefore not with any certainty to be found 2. It would be needless in regard we have not occasion as the French have to take all our Seamen but a moderate Proportion only which may be done by Registring all sorts of Shipping and small Craft using the Sea or any River Port or Harbour in England Wales and Berwick upon Tweed as Merchant-Ships of all sorts Fishing-Boats Oyster-Cocks Row-Barges Western-Barges Lighters of all sorts Tricker-Boats Hiber-Boats Stow-Boats and the Trows at Bristoll Smacks Hoys Ketches Coasters c. by what Names soever Differenced and giving them a certain Number or Mark of Distinction as is done to the Hackney-Coaches That each of them according to their several Burthens Trade and Profit shall find one Man or more for Their Majesties Service or be obliged to pay Five Pounds into an Office to be Erected for that purpose for each Man so ordered for them to furnish for one Year which Office may be called The Office for Registring Shipping and small Craft And in case of failure after a Months Notice given by Proclamation to Forfeit to their Majesties the Ship or Vessel they shall refuse or neglect to furnish men for And that this may not seem an Hardship upon the Subject it shall be herein demonstrated that it is the Interest of all Persons concerned to comply herewith and that the Money or Forfeiture is not the thing desired for if they can provide Qualified Men under that Rate or for nothing it is the same thing to us for the Money so given

should be very glad to be thought Serviceable at Home as I desire to be and hope I may in this They took on Board me one John Denny a French Protestant who was Settled and Married in England him they Condemned to be Hang'd at Raines but afterwards gave him his Life to Serve them Ten Years Now since there is a general Exchange and that we Release all the English and Irish of their Party that we Take I think it my Duty in like manner to plead for his being Demanded and sent for back that he may return to his Family There was likewise taken and Condemned with him at Raines one Fountaine who was Chyrurigon of the Lively but he got his Pardon and is since come to England And here it may not be amiss to let these Honourable Houses know what care the French King took to keep an account of what Expence he was at upon the account of Ireland for that he had a Commissary on purpose to take and keep an Account of all the Charges he was at in all things relating thereto and it may be easily imagined why he did so One time it happened that the Governor of Angiers sent for me and in Discourse told me what it had cost the King his Master on the account of Ireland which amounted to a great many Millions of Livres which I put down for a Memorandum but lost the Paper and the Sum I have forgot but the Governor told me When King James got England again he would pay the French King all the Expences he had been at on his Account or give him Ireland for it And another time a French Gentleman being permitted by the Governor to Discourse me and I not fearing to speak as knowing I could not well be used worse than I was told him They were all Slaves to their King but could not see it like a Dog that never complains for want of a Hat because he never wore one He said If they were Slaves yet their Comfort was they should e'er long have us to be their Slaves Another time the Governor sent for me to tell me Plymouth was Surrendred to them and that it was done by the Deputy-Governor upon which I Smiled at the Conceit he being extraordinarily desirous to know the reason why I would not believe it I told him That Governors here were not so Arbitrary as they in France and that besides a True Englishman had as much an Antipathy to a Frenchman as a Mastiff Dog had to a Bull upon which he very angrily remanded me to Prison Salt is there Ninepence per Pound which all People must take at that rate and what quantity they are allotted and must not dispose of any to a Neighbour or Friend and poor People that are not able to Buy will watch an opportunity when any Salt Fish is laid a Freshening to get the Water to make Pottage but the Goblees which are Officers appointed to look after the Revenue of Salt will throw it down the Kennel to prevent the Poor having that small Advantge If any Person be found Stealing the Custom of Salt though never so small they must pay an Hundred Crowns for the first Offence or go to the Gallies but if they do it a Second time nothing can prevent their being sent to the Gallies and thus the French King breeds Slaves of his own without buying Turks Moors or Negroes for by the help of these and the Protestants that break Prison he finds almost sufficient for that use The manner of his Dragooning his Protestant Subjects is this When any one would not comply with the Priests in matters of Religion Dragoons were sent to Quarter upon them according to their Rank or Degree which Dragoons would not be content with Free Quarters but the Oppressed Host was forced for Quietness to give them a Pistole or two Crowns a Day in that manner wasting their Estates till all was gone then the Poor Men would endeavour to make their Escape out of such Misery But the Dragoons having a strict Eye over them would certainly keep them while any thing was left and then carry them to Prison The French King to decoy those poor People at first assured them by his Officers that if they would comply they should receive the Sacrament in both kinds which prevail'd with many to turn but then according to his wanted Broken Word denied them the Cup and allowed them only the Wafer and abundance are now in Prison that have so been for several Years past on that Account who fail not constantly to Pray for the Success of Their Majesties Arms. And if this be their usage to their own People What may those of our Nation expect if ever they should be so wretchedly Vnhappy which God prevent to fall under their Power which makes me admire that some People here should so lose there Senses as to Applaud or Entertain the least Thoughts of a French Government which I could never imagine till my Return to England and therefore must impute it to the most Stupid sort of Ignorance and Malice and that they have nothing to lose after they have parted with their Brains and that Love for their Country Religion and Posterity which is natural to every true Englishman I am My Lords and Gentlemen Your Honors most Faithful and Obedient Servant George St. LO ENGLAND's SAFETY c. OR A PROPOSAL MADE BY Capt. George St. Lo. FOR THE Raising Twenty Thousand SEAMEN QUALIFIED As here under-mentioned for the Service of Their Majesties and the Kingdom in Manning the Royal Navy on any Occasion without Impressing in a Month's time after setling the Office Hereby humbly proposed for that purpose THE Qualification of each Seaman is That he shall understand the Mechanick part of a Sailer which is to Reef and Furl and take his Trick at Helm and be a Man at all Calls properly called a Haulboling so that half a Ships Complement of such Men before the Mast will be sufficient to well Man any Ship for Masters-Mates Midship-Men Quarter-Masters Quarter-Gunners and other small Officers will go voluntarily with their respective Commanders and several others may be supposed for Preferment which will not be of this number And therefore the said Twenty Thousand able Seamen with the help of the Warrant-Officers Voluntiers Officers Servants small Officers and Water-mens Apprentices who are sent by their Hall together with the Sail-Makers Armores Carpenters-Crew and Chirurigions-Crew will be sufficient to Man Their Majesties whole Fleet. This Method of bringing in Seamen without Impressing will be of vast Advantage to the King and Kingdom 1. In saving the great Charge of Conduct-Mony and Bounty-Mony 2. In saving the Charge of hiring Smacks Ke●ches and other Vessels for Impressing of Seamen which stand the King in 30 l. a Month each Vessel one with another or thereabouts and of these each first and second Rate Ship hath three or four and a third and fourth Rate Ship hath one or two

besides the Captains of each Ship according to the Rate and Bigness have Imprest Mony some 100 l. some 50 l. some 20 l. Besides bringing in their Bills of Charges and Disbursements which have sometimes amounted to two or three Hundred Pounds a Ship to my knowledge all which by the Method hereafter mentioned may be saved to the Crown and Kingdom which in Conduct Bounty and Imprest-Mony with the hiring of Vessels as aforesaid cannot be reckoned to amount to less than 60000 l. per Annum By this Method the King being assured of having Men ready to Man his Fleet on any occasion in a Month's time will save the vast Charges of keeping the great Ships in Pay all the Winter and besides prevent the Danger of ever being Invaded by any Foreign Enemy as was like to have been this Year for after the Summers Expedition is over and the Fleet come in it would be a great Encouragement to the Seamen to be paid off and their Tickets paid at the same time which would give them Credit at any time prevent the great Abuse of Ticket-buying and enable Seamen to reap the Benefit of their Labour themselves as now they do not and though the King should give 20 l. per Cent. for Mony so to Pay them his Majesty would save vastly by it And upon issuing out his Royal Proclamation at any time have Men sufficient for his Service again And here it may be Objected perhaps from a Book lately set out by one Henry Maydman a Purser That Seamen are discouraged from Their Majesties Service by the Abuses of their Commanders To which it is Answered It is a sign that that Purser hath Sailed with honest Captains that would not let him pinch the Men for the Men never fare better than when a Captain and Purser disagree I observe he carefully conceals his Employ of Purser well knowing that of all Officers such a one in this Case is the least to be Credited for let Commanders see that the Pursers do not wrong the Men and let them be paid their Majesties Allowance and the Tickets at Payment of the Ship or upon tender afterwards they are very well encouraged and care not for hard words from a Captain which break no Bones ☞ But that which discourages Seamen is the want of their due Pay and the lying of their Tickets several Years without Payment unless sold to a Ticket-buyer which occasions the Proverb among them Of going to Sea for a Knife and Sheath This would likewise prevent the Impressing of Land-men altogether unqualified which often breeds Sickness in the Fleet as also Water-men that were never at Sea upon whom it is now very hard For Instance a Water-man is Imprest out of his Boat that has a Wife and four or five Children to maintain in his absence his Boat is unimployed and receives damage his Wife and Children must become burthensom to the Parish or if she has Credit perhaps runs her Husband in debt more than he can get up in a Year or two Likewise when a Ship comes home after a long Voyage the Men are Imprest who perhaps have some of them Ventures on Board which they are snatch'd from without having the liberty of going to their Families and disposing of what they have or even to refresh themselves in which Case their Ventures are lost the Men Dissatisfied and their Families half Ruined Also many Persons have been lost on the Thames and other Places in endeavouring to Escape as particularly Ten or Twelve Persons lately in Boats were Drowned Shot and Died of their Wounds in making off from a Ship that had Prest them and the Sand-Barges at Plymouth when a Press is thereabouts lye wholly unemployed by the Absconding of the Men which hinders the Working of Husband-men for want of that Sand to Manure the Ground so that many Teams of Horses and Yokes of Oxen lye still on that account to the great Damage of the Country This would also prevent the great Abuses by Persons pretending to be Press-Masters who to get Mony often do very ill things sometimes occasion Murder and generally such Disorders as bring an Odium upon Their Majesties Fleet undeserved Besides it is very hard upon Lieutenants who in Pressing cannot but spend more than their Pay and sometimes are turned out for Impressing those that have Protections which by this will be taken off So that no Man as the Case now stands would be a Lieutenant were it not for the Prospect of being advanced to Captain In the next place it is hoped no Man's Private Interest will be thought equivalent to Ballance against so great a Publick Good and Ease as this will be to the King and Kingdom The Reasons that have induced me to undertake this great Work are drawn from my Dear-bought Experience when Prisoner in France where I lay two Years and two Months under great Hardships and Nineteen Months of that time all alone in an uneasie and Disconsolate Condition ☞ When I was first brought Prisoner thither I lay four Months in an Hospital at Brest for Cure of my Wounds and was sent to Nants before half Cured While I was at Brest I was Astonished at the Expedition used in Manning and Fitting out their Ships which till then I thought could be done no where sooner than in England where we have ten times the Shipping and consequently ten times more Seamen than they have in France but there I saw Twenty Sail of Ships of about 60 Guns a piece got ready in Twenty days time they were brought in and the Men Discharged and upon an Order from Paris they were Careen'd Keel'd up Rigg'd Victualled Man'd and out again in the said time with the greatest Ease imaginable I likewise saw a Ship of 100 Guns there had all her Guns taken out in four or five Hours time which I never saw done in England in twenty four Hours and this with greater Ease and less Hazard than here which I saw under the Hospital Window and this I am sure I could do as easie in England I likewise saw on the other side of the River an Imitation of a Ship with a Tire of Guns where the Men were often Exercised and Instructed in the Practice and Use of the Great Gun as if they were at Sea which very much contributed to their Skill and if the same were done and practised near our Sea-Ports it would be of great Use in fitting Men for the Sea-Service in which we need not be ashamed to learn of them for they are ready enough to imitate us in any thing for their Advantage The aforesaid Ships being so soon out again put me upon Enquiry how the Men were got so quickly and I found that the Seamen were all Registred by the Intendant Marine or Commissary of each Province near the Sea which puts that King to vast Charge in paying great Salaries to them their Provosts Marine Arches and other Officers for taking Account of all Maritime Affairs for a