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	treaty_n	2,930	5	9.8412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37421	An argument shewing, that a standing army, with consent of Parliament, is not inconsistent with a free government, &c.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing D828; ESTC R20142	15,613	32

how was it altered in the Case of Oliver Tho' his Government did a Tyrant resemble He made England Great and her Enemies tremble Dialogue of the Houses And what is it places the present King at the Helm of the Confederacies Why do they commit their Armies to his Charge and appoint the Congress of their Plenipotentiaries at his Court Why do Distressed Princes seek his Mediation as the Dukes of Holstien Savoy and the like Why did the Emperor and the King of Spain leave the whole Management of the Peace to him 'T is all the Reputation of his Conduct and the English Valour under him and 't is absolutely necessary to support this Character which England now bears in the World for the great Advantages which may and will be made from it and this Character can never Live nor these Allyances be supported with no Force at Hand to perform the Conditions These are some Reasons why a Force is necessary but the Question is What Force For I Grant it does not follow from hence that a great Army must be kept on Foot in time of Peace as the Author of the Second Part of the Argument says is pleaded for Since then no Army and a great Army are Extreams equally dangerous the one to our Liberty at Home and the other to our Reputation Abroad and the Safety of our Confederates it remains to Inquire what Medium is to be found out or in plain English what Army may with Safety to our Liberties be Maintained in England or what Means may be found out to make such an Army serviceable for the Defence of us and our Allies and yet not dangerous to our Constitution That any Army at all can be Safe the Argument denies but that cannot be made out a Thousand Men is an Army as much as 100000 as the Spanish Armado is call'd An Armado tho' they seldom fit out above Four Men of War and on this Account I must crave leave to say I do Confute the Assertion in the Title of the Argument that a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and I shall further do it by the Authority of Parliament In the Claim of Right presented to the present King and which he Swore to observe as the Pacta Conventa of the Kingdom it is declar'd in hac verba That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law This plainly lays the whole stress of the thing not against the thing it self A Standing Army nor against the Season in time of Peace but against the Circumstance Consent of Parliament and I think nothing is more Rational than to Conclude from thence that a Standing Army in time of Peace with Consent of Parliament is not against Law and I may go on nor is not Inconsistent with a Free Government nor Destructive of the English Monarchy There are Two Distinctions necessary therefore in the present Debate to bring the Question to a narrow Compass First I distinguish between a Great Army and a small Army And Secondly I distinguish between an Army kept on Foot without Consent of Parliament and an Army with Consent of Parliament And whereas we are told an Army of Soldiers is an Army of Masters and the Consent of Parliament don't alter it but they may turn them out of doors who Rais'd them as they did the Long Parliament The First distinction answers that for if a great Army may do it a small Army can't and then the Second Distinction regulates the First For it cannot be supposed but the Parliament when they give that Consent which can only make an Army Lawful will not Consent to a larger Army then they can so Master as that the Liberties or People of England shall never be in danger from them No Man will say this cannot be because the Number may be supposed as small as you please but to avoid the Sophistry of an Argument I 'll suppose the very Troops which we see the Parliament have not Voted to be Disbanded that is those which were on Foot before the Year 1680. No Man will deny them to be a Standing Army and yet sure no Man will imagine any danger to our Liberties from them We are ask'd if you establish an Army and a Revenue to pay them How shall we be sure they will not continue themselves But will any Man ask that Question of such an Army as this Can Six Thousand Men tell the Nation they won't Disband but will continue themselves and then Raise Money to do it Can they Exact it by Military Execution If they can our Militia must be very despicable The keeping such a Remnant of an Army does not hinder but the Militia may be made as useful as you please and the more useful you make it the less danger from this Army And however it may have been the Business of our Kings to make the Militia as useless as they could the present King never shew'd any Tokens of such a Design Nor is it more than will be needful for 6000 Men by themselves won't do if the Invasion we speak of should ever be attempted What has been said of the Appearance of the People on the Purbeck fancied Invasion was very true but I must say had it been a true One of Forty Thousand Regular Troops all that Appearance cou'd have done nothing but have drove the Country in order to starve them and then have run away I am apt enough to grant what has been said of the Impracticableness of any Invasion upon us while we are Masters at Sea but I am sure the Defence of England's Peace lies in making War in Flanders Queen Elizabeth found it so her way to beat the Spaniards was by helping the Dutch to do it And she as much Defended England in aiding Prince Maurice to win the Great Battel of Newport as she did in Defeating their Invincible Armado Oliver Cromwel took the same Course for he no sooner declared Wat against Spain but he Embark'd his Army for Flanders The late King Charles did the same against the French when after the Peace of Nimeguen Six Regiments of English and Scots were always left in the Service of the Dutch and the present War is a further Testimony For where has it been Fought not in England God be thanked but in Flanders And what are the Terms of the Peace but more Frontier Towns in Flanders And what is the Great Barrier of this Peace but Flanders the Consequence of this may be guess'd by the Answer King William gave when Prince of Orange in the late Treaty of Nimeguen when to make the Terms the easier 't was offered That a Satisfaction shou'd be made to him by the French for his Lands in Luxemburgh to which the Prince reply'd He would part with all his Lands in Luxemburgh to get the Spaniards one good Frontier Town in Flanders The reason is plain for every one of

were then his Subjects and on whom he had Levied immense Sums of Money had the 10th Penny demanded of them and the Demand back'd by a great Army of these very Spaniards which among many other Reasons caused them to Revolt The Duke D'Alva afterwards attempted for his Master to raise this Tax by his Army by which he lost the whole Netherlands who are now the Richest People in the World and the Spaniard is now become the meanest and most despicable People in Europe and that only because they are the Poorest The present War is another Instance which having lasted Eight Years is at last brought to this Conclusion That he who had the longest Sword has yielded to them who had the longest Purse The late King Charles the First is another most lively Instance of this Matter to what lamentable Shifts did he drive himself and how many despicable Steps did he take rather than call a Parliament which he hated to think of And yet tho' he had an Army on Foot he was forced to do it or starve all his Men had it been to be done he wou'd have done it 'T is true 't was said the Earl of Strofford propos'd a Scheme to bring over an Army out of Ireland to force England to his Terms but the Experiment was thought too desperate to be attempted and the very Project Ruin'd the Projector such an ill Fate attends every Contrivance against the Parliament of England But I think I need go no further on that Head The Power of Raising Money is wholly in the Parliament as a Ballance to the Power of Raising Men which is in the King and all the Reply I can meet with is That this Ballance signifies nothing for an Army can Raise Money as well as Money Raise an Army to which I Answer besides what has been said already I do not think it practicable in England The greatest Armies in the Hands of the greatest Tyrants we ever had in England never durst attempt it We find several Kings in England have attempted to Raise Money without a Parliament and have tryed all the means they could to bring it to pass and they need not go back to Richard the Second to Edward the Second to Edward the Fourth to Henry the Eighth or to Charles the First to remind the Reader of what all Men who know any thing of History are acquainted with But not a King ever yet attempted to Raise Money by Military Execution or Billetting Soldiers upon the Country King Iames the Second had the greatest Army and the best as to Discipline that any King ever had and his desperate Attempts on our Liberties show'd his good Will yet he never came to that Point I won't deny but that our Kings have been willing to have Armies at Hand to back them in their Arbitrary Proceedings and the Subjects may have been aw'd by them from a more early Resentment but I must observe that all the Invasion of our Rights and all the Arbitrary Methods of our Governors has been under pretences of Law King Charles the First Levy'd Ship-Money as his due and the Proclamations for that purpose cite the pretended Law that in Case of Danger from a Foreign Enemy Ships shou'd be fitted out to Defend us and all Men were bound to contribute to the Charge Coat and Conduct Money had the like Pretences Charters were subverted by Quo Warrantoes and Proceedings at Law Patriots were Murther'd under Formal Prosecutions and all was pretended to be done legally I know but one Instance in all our English Story where the Souldery were employ'd as Souldiers in open Defyance of Law to destroy the Peoples Liberties by a Military Absolute Power and that stands as an Everlasting Brand of Infamy upon our Militia and is an Instance to prove beyond the Power of a Reply That even our Militia under a bad Government let them be our selves and the People and all those fine things never so much are under ill Officers and ill Management as dangerous as any Souldery whatever will be as Insolent and do the Drudgery of a Tyrant as effectually In the Year when Mr. Dubois and Mr. Papillon a Member of the Present Parliament were chosen Sheriffs of London and Sir Iohn Moor under pretence of the Authority of the Chair pretended to nominate one Sheriff himself and leave the City to choose but one and confirm the Choice of the Mayor the Citizens struggled for their Right and stood firm to their Choice and several Adjournments were made to bring over the Majority of the Livery but in vain At length the Day came when the Sheriffs were to be sworn and when the Livery-men assembled at Guild-hall to swear their Sheriffs they found the Hall Garrison'd with a Company of Trained-Bands under Lieutenant Coll. Quiney a Citizen himself and most of the Soldiers Citizens and Inhabitants and by this Force the Ancient Livery-men were shut out and several of them thrown down and insolently used and the Sheriffs thrust away from the Hustings and who the Lord Mayor pleased was Sworn in an open Defiance of the Laws of the Kingdom and Priviledges of the City This was done by the Militia to their Everlasting Glory and I do not remember the like done by a Standing Army of Mercenaries in this Age at least Nor is a Military Tyranny practicable in England if we consider the power the Laws have given to the Civil Magistrate unless you at the same time imagine that Army large enough to subdue the whole English Nation at once which if it can be effected by such an Army as the Parliament now seem enclined to permit we are in a very mean Condition I know it may be objected here that the Forces which were on Foot before 1680. are not the Army in Debate and that the Design of the Court was to have a much greater Force I do not know that but this I know that those Forces were an Army and the Design of all these Oponents of an Army is in so many words against any Army at all small as well as great a Tenet absolutely destructive of the present Interest of England and of the Treaties and Alliances made by His Majesty with the Princes and States of Europe who depend so much on his Aid in Guard of the present Peace The Power of making Peace or War is vested in the King 'T is part of his Prerogative but 't is implicitly in the People because their Negative as to Payment does really Influence all those Actions Now If when the King makes War the Subject shou'd refuse to assist him the whole Nation would be ruin'd Suppose in the Leagues and Confederacies His Present Majesty is engag'd in for the Maintenance of the present Peace all the Confederates are bound in case of a Breach to assist one another with so many Men say Ten thousand for the English Quota more or less where shall they be found Must they stay till they are Rais'd To what purpose would it be then for any Confederate to depend upon England for Assistance It may be said indeed if you are so engag'd by Leagues or Treaties you may hire Foreign Troops to assist till you can raise them This Answer leads to several things which would take up too much room here Foreign Troops require Two things to procure them Time to Negotiate for them which may not be to be spar'd for they may be almost as soon rais'd Time for their March from Germany for there are none nearer to be hir'd and Money to Hire them which must be had by Parliament or the King must have it ready If by Parliament that is a longer way still if without that opens a worse Gate to Slavery than t'other For if a King have Money he can raise Men or hire Men when he will and you are in as much danger then and more than you can be in now from a Standing Army So that since giving Money is the same thing as giving Men as it appear'd in the late K. Iames's Reign both must be prevented or both may be allow'd But the Parliament we see needs no Instructions in this Matter and therefore are providing to reduce the Forces to the same Quota they were in before 1680. by which means all the fear of Invading our Liberties will be at an end the Army being so very small that 't is impossible and yet the King will have always a Force at hand to assist his Neighbours or defend himself till more can be Raised The Forces before 1680. were an Army and if they were an Army by Consent of Parliament they were a Legal Army and if they were Legal then they were not inconsistent with a Free Government c. for nothing can be Inconsistent with a Free Government which is done according to the Laws of that Government And if a Standing Army has been in England Legally then I have proved That a Standing Army is not Inconsistent with a Free Government c. FINIS Advertisement Lately Published SOme Reflections on a Pamphlet lately Published Entituled An Argument shewing that a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy 2d Edit Printed for and Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697.