Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	peace_n	year_n	7,819	5	5.2870	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59285	A short speech prepared to be spoken by a worthy member in Parliament concerning the present state of the nation.	Seton, William, Sir, d. 1744.	1700 (1700)	Wing S2651; ESTC R33869	7,767	18

A Short Speech Prepared to be Spoken By a Worthy MEMBER IN Parliament Concerning the PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION Quare tam perdita Roma Ipsa sui Merces erat sine Vindice Praeda. Petron. Printed in the Year 1700. A SPEECH prepared it seems for the ensuing Session by a Member of Parliament which falling from him by Accident is Publish'd lest he should have no other Copy THE Business of this Day is the greatest and of the greatest Consequence that ever came before the Representatives of this Nation For as in all past Ages the People of this Country have liv'd in Liberty at Home and Reputation Abroad so upon the Resolutions of this Day or at least of this Session of Parliament to which those of this Day may give a considerable stroke does depend the continuation of that Liberty and Reputation which we have always had of being bold Asserters of our Rights and Freedom together with the Fate and Destiny of our Posterity Our Great Historian has made the Noble Spirit of our Ancestors Illustrious to this and all future Ages All Nations read and all Porterity will know and praise their Actions But if we shall now so far degenerate as not to assert our Freedom at Home by breaking a standing Army in time of Peace which if kept up is a Treasonable Alteration of our Government makes it Tyrannical If we do not assert our Rights as a Free People by such just and true Representations of them to our Neighbour-Nation as may convince them we have no Designs but such as we have just Right to prosecute and are for the Common Good of both If we do not discover the black Designs of a few ill Men who endeavour for sinister Ends to set the Nation together by the Ears I say if we do not take effectual ways to accomplish these things and establish a lasting Peace both at Home and Abroad I shall easily comprehend the History of our Nation in this and all future Ages in two Words If you ask them I answer Slavery and Oblivion But that I may give some Advice in the Affair and propose Remedies suteable to our Condition and the multiplicity of Evils that press and threaten us on all hands 't will be necessary to deduce them from their original Causes and to give a just and true Account of the present State of the Nation When that Great and Memorable Change happen'd in this Island by which the Kingdom of Scotland and England came to be so far united as to have but one King both Nations promis'd to themselves great Advantages And tho' the Endeavours that were then and have been since us'd for a nearer Union prov'd unsuccessful yet this Advantage still remain'd that Peace betwixt the two Nations was preserv'd and a King common to both as a common Father kept them from encroaching upon the Rights of each other and having no regard to the Partialities or Animosities of either did equal Justice to both This state of things has lasted to our time But now we are told that his Majesty is forc'd to do diverse things prejudicial to the Interest of Scotland on account of Representations and Addresses made to him by an English Parliament with whom as representing a more powerful Nation he is oblig'd to comply as if there were no Rule of Justice by which he should judge of Matters contraverted between us As if in a Suit between a Rich and a Poor Man the Judge were not to consider the Merits of the Cause but always give Judgement in favour of the Rich Man And tho' in former Reigns ever since the first Union under one Head no such thing was ever done or so much as mention'd tho' no King ever suffered the least Breach to be made upon the Independency of Scotland as appears more evidently in K. Charles 2d's Removing the English Garisons out of this Country in the Year 1660 yet by our remotness from the Seat of the Government and Influence of the Prince as a Farm that has none but Servants to look after it this Nation became quickly of little or no value and England by means of Husbandry and Trade as well as by being the Seat of the Empire rising as fast as Scotland sunk by the want of all these the Disproportion in Riches sell from 1 to 5 as it was about the Year 1600 to that of 1 to 30 as it is at this day But the People of this Nation tho' they know the removal of their Kings to be the Original Cause of this Alteration yet knowing also that by the same means they had obtain'd a perpetual Peace with England and being conscious to themselves that whilst their Freedom and Priviledges were preserved entire by the Prince it was their own fault if the Policy of the Country were not regarded if Husbandry and Trade were not advanced On these Considerations I say they have always continued peaceable in that Union without the least thoughts of ever separating or dividing from their Neighbours or disturbing the Peace of this Island any more And tho' in the state of Separation they were much more Considerable Rich and Powerful than ever they have been since Tho' France our Natural Ally in case of a Separation with England has of late Years become not only a Ballance for England but a Ballance for almost all the rest of Europe in conjunction with England Tho' our Colony in Ireland were become formidable to the English power there who besides are always sure to have the Irish for an Enemy Yet all these Dis-advantages on the one hand and Hopes on the other could never shake that Allegiance which we owed to our Prince nor remove us from that Union with our Neighbours by which we had suffered so much But having within these five or six Years begun to be sensible that the extreme Poverty of our People which still encreased did proceed from nothing but the want of Foreign Trade which gives Life to all Manufactures and encreases the value of Land by giving Encouragement to Improve it We applied our selves to the setting up several Manufactories and sending our Ships to Trade in Places where formerly they were not imploied Yet knowing that all this would prove but a mean and peddling kind of Commerce unless we traded to the Indies it was very natural to us who abounded more in People than any thing else to think after the Example of all our Neighbours of having a Colony there also And accordingly an Indian-Company was established by Act of Parliament When on a sudden as if by that Act we had broke the Peace with our Neighbours we begin to be complain'd of and cried out against in England It was said That the Priviledges and Powers of the Company were Immense tho' it is evident that those of the French and Dutch Companies are greater It was said That the Immunity from Customs for 21 Years would sink all the other Companies of Europe not at

all considering that there was a Draw-back in England for all Indian Goods that were not consumed within the Country And by the Arts of a few ill Men the Parliament of England was surpriz'd and led into Apprehensions which they have found since to be so groundless that for two or three Years last past there was not the least mention made of them His Majesty likewise was by evil Councellors perswaded to tell the Parliament of England That he had been ill served in Scotland c. I shall not tediously particularize all the bad Counsel that was given nor all the foul Dealing either in the Affair of Hamburgh which was against the Law of Nations In that of the Spanish Memorial which was against common Faith in Society In that of the Proclamations published in the West-Indies by which his Majesty's Subjects for prosecuting their just Rights warranted by Act of Parliament were treated as Enemies in refusing them Wood and Water as if they had been proscrib'd condemn'd to die aqua igne interdicti I say I shall not tediously insist on the odious and shameful Circumstances of all those Particulars because they are sufficiently known to all of you but especially because it has been since evident what sort of Men they are who gave the King such advice Men altogether depending for Places or Pensions on the Court or such as did Journey-Work for them The House of Commons in their last Session having fully shewn how much such Courses were against the Sentiments of the English Nation and resented the bad Usage we received in a very generous manner declaring withal That any Propositions of an Union between the two Nations that shall come from us shall be always welcome to them I shall only make some Reflections on the sad Condition of this Nation with relation to this great Design by which they hope to relieve themselves from their great Poverty and in which they are now so deeply engag'd that with it they must stand and fall for tho' undertaken by a private Company it is become of universal Concernment whoever Wounds or with-holds Nourishment from it destroys the Vitals of the Nation We have for Enemies Spain powerful in the West-Indies The French powerful at Sea who have often beg'd of the Spaniard the liberty to destroy us We have been abandoned at Home in Word and Deed. 'T is declared we have no Right to the Place where we have settled our Colony because our Settlement in that Place contradicts a certain Agreement for the Division of the Spanish Monarchy and breaks the Measures of a Catholick League for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the Remainders of Liberty through the World We are exposed to be treated as Pirates and tho' neither the English nor Dutch Nation be our Enemies yet the English and Dutch Councellors who to the Dishonour and Ruin of this Nation meddle too much in our Affairs are our Mortal Foes What shall I say of Scots-Men who concur in such Advice If ever there were reason to Complain of evil Councellors sure it must be of those of this Nation at this time Yet these Men have the Confidence to look us boldly in the Face tho' their impudent Contrivances to Ruine the Colony of Caledonia Murder such numbers of them in the West-Indies be notourly known What shall I say of a Man who without any other Character to protect him than such as to the utmost aggravates his Crime is at the Root of all the Mischief that has or is like to fall upon this Nation Who is it that having the right to destroy a Noxious Beast has not at the same time the right to destroy such an one These are the Enemies of your Company and Colony which you have been at great Charges and unspeakable Pains to erect establish and mantain that you might bring this Nation from Poverty and Reproach to Honour and Wealth our poor People from under the perpetual Tentations of Stealing Lying Cheating nay and after all the necessity of Starving for want of Bread to that Ease Plenty and Satisfaction which always accompany Industry These are the Men who this Day oppose the giving a reasonable Tax to support so good and Glorious a Design and would divert the Money which the Nation is willing to give to another use Sure one would think that the Pretext must be very specious that the use to which they would put it must be some Design for the Good of the Nation beyond what can occur to any Man upon first Thoughts What can it be Is it that for this Money once given our Liberties shall by excellent Laws be established upon such solid Fundations as can never be shaken Can Fertility of Soil or the Happiness of Climate be purchass'd and brought to us from any of the Southern Countries One would think it should be something of that nature No! 't is to none of all these Uses that their Money is to be imploied In what then for at length we must know should the suprize of Joy be never so great or dangerous 'T is to mantain a perpetual Standing Army What Reverse of Fortune From what Expectations are we fallen If as upon many great Occurrences in human Affairs so upon this occasion a Medal were to be struck a Ship arriving in Harbour where Peace with an Olive branch in hand stands on the Shoar might very well become one side but a Fiend with a Torch in one hand and a Dagger in the other must be the Reverse Nothing but a Picture of the highest Felicity and another of the most abject Misery can express the Alternative Liberty Riches Peace Good-order Virtue Ease and Quiet are on the one hand Slavery Poverty Oppression Vice together with the Calamity Groans and Blood of the Poor are on the other To which of these will the Nation incline Are they to be driven like Sheep to the Slaughter Is there any Pretext for this Standing Army that can be named by Men of the least Ingenuity Has the bad Usage I mentioned before or the many Indignities put upon this Nation of late afforded any No! nothing has been able to provoke us We have always and in every thing complied with his Majesty beyond our Power yet we are condemn'd to lose our Liberties We are condemn'd to die without any Guilt alledged against us We are to have no Trade because inconsistent with a Standing Army Our only Commerce is to be in Soldiers by whom that we may be Gainers we are to have a Superplus over and above what we can pay In which sort of Commerce if any Nation was ever a Gainer I appeal to History This Nation has of late been in a Starving Condition And I wish that the Blood of many Thousands may not be required of divers whose duty it was in their several Stations to have provided for them Yet during all that time we were to Mantain an Army of idle Fellows without the