A Short HISTORY OF Standing Armies IN ENGLAND Captique dolis donisque coacti Quos neque Tydides nec Larissaeus Achilles Non anni domuere decem non mille Carinae Virg. Aen. ii LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII The PREFACE THERE is nothing in which the generality of Mankind are so much mistaken as when they talk of Government The different Effects of it are obvious to every one but few can trace its Causes Most Men having indigested Ideas of the Nature of it attribute all public Miscarriages to the corruption of Mankind They think the whole Mass is infected that it 's impossible to make any Reformation and so submit patiently to their Countries Calamities or else share in the Spoil whereas Complaints of this kind are as old as the World and every Age has thought their own the worst We have not only our own Experience but the Example of all Times to prove that Men in the same Circumstances will do the same things call them by what names of distinction you please A Government is a mere piece of Clockwork and having such Springs and Wheels must act after such a manner and therfore the Art is to constitute it so that it must move to the public Advantage It is certain that every Man will act for his own Interest and all wise Goverments are founded upon that Principle So that this whole Mystery is only to make the Interest of the Governors and Governed the same In an absolute Monarchy where the whole Power is in one Man his Interest will be only regarded In an Aristocracy the Interest of a few and in a free Government the Interest of every one This would be the Case of England if som Abuses that have lately crept into our Constitution were remov'd The freedom of this Kingdom depends upon the Peoples chusing the House of Commons who are a part of the Legislature and have the sole power of giving Mony Were this a true Representative and free from external Force or privat Bribery nothing could pass there but what they thought was for the public Advantage For their own Interest is so interwoven with the Peoples that if they act for themselves which every one of them will do as near as he can they must act for the common Interest of England And if a few among them should find it their Interest to abuse their Power it will be the Interest of all the rest to punish them for it and then our Government would act mechanically and a Rogue will as naturally be hang'd as a Clock strike twelve when the Hour is com This is the Fountain-Head from whence the People expect all their Happiness and the redress of their Grievances and if we can preserve them free from Corruption they will take care to keep every body else so Our Constitution seems to have provided for it by never suffering the King till Charles the Second's Reign to have a Mercenary Army to frighten them into a Compliance nor Places or Revenues great enough to bribe them into it The Places in the King's Gift were but few and most of them Patent Places for Life and the rest great Offices of State enjoy'd by single Persons which seldom fell to the share of the Commons such as the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer privy-Privy-Seal Lord High-Admiral c. and when these Offices were possess'd by the Lords the Commons were severe Inquisitors into their Actions Thus the Government of England continu'd from the time that the Romans quitted the Island to the time of Charles the First who was the first I have read of that made an Opposition to himself in the House of Commons the road to Preferment of which the Earl of Strafford and Noy were the most remarkable Instances who from great Patriots became the chief Assertors of Despotic Power But this serv'd only to exasperat the rest for he had not Places enough for all that expected them nor Mony enough to bribe them 'T is true he rais'd great Sums of Mony upon the People but it being without Authority of Parliament and having no Army to back him it met with such Difficulties in the raising that it did him little good and ended at last in his ruin tho by the means of a long and miserable War which brought us from one Tyranny to another for the Army had got all things into their Power and govern'd the Nation by a Council of War which made all Parties join in calling in Charles the Second So that he came in with the general applause of the People who in a kind fit gave him a vast Revenue for Life By this he was enabled to raise an Army and bribe the Parliament which he did to the purpose but being a luxurious Prince he could not part with great Sums at once He only fed them from hand to mouth So that they found it as necessary to keep him in a constant Dependence upon them as they had upon him They knew he would give them ready Mony no longer than he had absolute necessity for them and he had not Places enough in his disposal to secure a Majority in the House for in those early days the art was not found out of splitting and multiplying Places as instead of a Lord Tr r to have Five Lords of the Tr ry instead of a Lord Ad l to have Seven Lords of the Ad ty to have Seven Commissioners of the C ms Nine of the Ex ze Fourteen of the N vy Office Ten of the St mp Office Eight of the Pr ze Office Sixteen of the Commissioners of Tr de Two of the P st Office Four of the Transports Four for Hackny Coaches Four for Wine-Licenses Four for the Victualling Office and multitudes of other Offices which are endless to enumerat I believe the Gentlemen who have the good Fortune to be in som of these Imployments will think I complement them if I should say they have not bin better executed since they were in so many hands than when in fewer and I must confess I see no reason why they may not be made twice as many and so ad infinitum unless the number be ascertain'd by Parliament and what danger this may be to our Constitution I think of with Horror For if in Ages to com they should be all given to Parliament Men what will becom of our so much boasted Liberty what shall be don when the Criminal becoms the Judg and the Malefactors are left to try themselves We may be sure their common danger will unite them and they will all stand by one another I do not speak this by guess for I have read of a Country where there was a constant Series of mismanagement for many Years together and yet no body was punish'd and even in our own Country I believe som Men now alive can remember the time when if the King had but twenty more Places in his disposal or disposed of those he had to the best
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
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
688 4790 5761 King Charles the Second's Establishment in Ireland in the Year Eighty  Troops and Companies Commis Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number Troops of Horse 24 96 196 1080 1372 His Foot in Ireland  Yeomen of the Guard 1 3 0 60 63 A Regiment of Guards 12 40 99 1120 1259 Single Companies 74 222 444 4440 5166 Total Foot in Ireland 87 265 543 5620 6428 I have not here put down the Garison of Tangier which was about three thousand Men because that place is now lost and consequently wants no Garison I will now set down his present Majesty's Establishment and then compare them both together Horse and Dragoons upon the English Establishment  Three Troops of Horse Guards 3 48 15 600 663 One Troop of Dutch Guards 1 15 5 200 220 One Troop of Horse Granadiers 1 11 20 180 211 Lord Oxford's Regiment 9 40 45 531 616 Lord Portland's Horse Dutch Regiment 9 42 54 603 699 Lumley's Regiment 9 40 45 531 616  Troops and Companies Commis Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number Wood's 6 28 36 354 412 Arran's 6 28 36 354 412 Windham's 6 28 36 354 412 Schomberg's 6 28 36 354 412 Macclesfield's 6 28 36 354 412 Raby's Dragoons 8 37 72 480 589 Flood 's Dragoons 8 37 72 480 589 Lord Essex's Dragoons 8 37 72 480 589 Total Horse and Dragoons in England 86 447 580 5855 6876 Foot on the English Establishment  Gentlemen Pensioners 1 6 0 40 46 Yeomen of the Guard 1 7 0 100 107 Lord Rumney's four Battalions 28 99 222 2240 2563 Lord Cutt's two Battalions 14 51 112 1120 1283 The blew Guards a Dutch Regiment four Battalions 26 96 208 2366 2670 Earl of Orkney's a Scotch Regiment 26 88 208 1560 1656 Selwin's 13 44 104 780 928 Churchil's 13 44 104 780 928 Trelawny's 13 44 104 780 928 Earle's 13 44 104 780 928 Seymour's 13 44 104 780 928 Colt's 13 44 104 780 928 Mordant's 13 44 104 780 928 Sir David Collier's 13 44 104 780 928 Sir Charles Hero's Fusileers in Jersey 13 46 104 780 930  Troops and Companies Commission Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number Collingwood's 13 46 104 780 928 A Company at Vpnor Castle 1 2 6 50 58 Total Foot in England 227 793 1796 15276 17865 Horse and Dragoons upon the Irish Establishment  Luson's 6 42 30 354 412 Langston's 6 42 30 354 412 Lord Gallaway's a French Regiment 9 113 45 531 689 Ross's Dragoons 8 37 72 480 589 Ecklins's 8 37 72 480 589 Cunningham's 8 37 72 480 589 Mermon's a French Regiment 8 74 144 480 698 Total Horse and Dragoons in Ireland 53 338 465 3159 3962 Foot upon the Irish Establishment with the disbanded Officers incorporated  Fairfax's 13 66 104 780 950 Collumbine's 13 66 104 780 950 Webb's 13 66 104 780 950 Granvill's 13 66 104 780 950 Brewer's 13 66 104 780 950 Jacob's 13 66 104 780 950 How 's 13 66 104 780 950 Steward's 13 66 104 780 950 Hanmore's 13 66 104 780 950 Titcomb's 13 66 104 780 950 Stanley's 13 66 104 780 950 Bridges's 13 66 104 780 950 Fr. Hamilton's 13 66 104 780 950 Ingoldsby's 13 66 104 780 950 Pisar's 13 66 104 780 950 Bellasis's 13 66 104 780 950 Gustavus Hamilton's 13 66 104 780 950 Tiffany's 13 66 104 780 950 Martoon's a French Regiment 13 83 104 780 967 Lamellioneer's a French Regiment 13 83 104 780 967 Beleastle's a French Regiment 13 83 104 780 967 Holt's Regiment in the West-Indies which is not upon the Irish Establishment 13 44 104 780 928 Total Foot in Ireland 286 1481 2288 17160 20929 I will now compare both Establishments together  Troops and Companies Commission Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number Charles the 2d's Horse in Eighty in England 12 86 63 1040 1189 His Foot in England 88 283 688 4790 5761 His Horse and Foot in England 100 369 751 5830 6950 His Establishment in Ireland His Horse in Ireland 24 96 196 1080 1372 His Foot in Ireland 87 265 543 5620 6428 His Horse and Foot in Ireland 111 361 739 6700 7800 All his Army in England and Ireland Troops and Companies Commission Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number His Horse in England and Ireland 36 182 259 2120 2561 His Foot in England and Ireland 175 548 1231 10410 12189 All his Army in England and Ireland 211 730 1490 12530 14750 King William's Establishment His Horse in England 86 441 580 5855 6876 His Foot in England 227 793 1796 15276 17865 All his Forces in England 313 1234 2376 21131 24741 His Establishment in Ireland His Horse in Ireland 53 338 465 3159 3962 His Foot in Ireland 286 1481 2288 17160 20929 All his Forces in Ireland 339 1819 2753 20319 24891 All his Army in England and Ireland His Horse and Dragoons in England and Ireland 139 779 1045 9014 10838 His Foot in England and Ireland 513 2274 4084 32436 38794 All his Army in England and Ireland 652 3053 5129 41450 49632 So that his present Majesty in England and Ireland alone has above three times as many Troops and Companies as Charles the Second had in the Year eighty almost five times as many Commission Officers near four times as many Non-Commission Officers and when the Commanders shall have Orders to recruit their Companies will have more than three times the number of common Soldiers besides the disbanded Officers which are not incorporated into other Regiments and upon the Establishment they now stand are as much Creatures to the Court as if their Regiments were in being His Majesty's Forces in Scotland which in the Year Eighty consisted of 2806 Men.  Troops and Companies Commission Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number The Troop of Guards 1 15 5 120 140 The Royal Regiment of Dragoons 8 37 72 320 429 Jedborough's Dragoons 6 27 54 240 321 The Royal Regiment of Foot Guards 16 51 128 912 1091 Rew's Fusileers 16 51 128 640 819 Collier or Hamilton's 16 51 128 640 819 Maitland's 16 51 128 640 819 In Garisons 4 12 24 295 331 All his Forces in Scotland 83 295 667 3807 4769 These Forces are as they are now reduc'd and allow'd by the Parliament of Scotland for Reasons best known to themselves which without doubt must be very good ones since 't is commonly said that ten Privy Counsellors of that Kingdom who appear'd against the Army are turn'd out of the Council which if true I presume will be a sufficient warning to our Gentlemen at home However there is this use in the Scotch Army that if the Parliament of England shall be prevail'd on to think any Forces necessary a lesser Number will be sufficient His Majesty's Forces in Holland Troops and Companies Commission Officers Non-Commis Officers Private Men. Total Number Lawder's 13 44 104 780 928 William Collins 13 44 104 780 928 Murray's 13 44 104 780 928 Ferguson's 13