Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_v	great_a	time_n	806	5	3.2017	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39787	Two discourses concerning the affairs of Scotland, written in the year 1698	Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.	1698 (1698)	Wing F1298; ESTC R6685	36,673	107

TWO DISCOVRSES Concerning the AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND Written in the Year 1698. Edinburgh 1698. The first Discourse NO Inclination is so honorable nor has any thing bin so much esteemed in all Nations and Ages as the love of that Country and Society in which every man is born And those who have placed their greatest satisfaction in doing good have accounted themselves happy or unfortunate according to the success of their endeavours to serve the interest of their Country For nothing can be more powerful in the minds of men than a natural inclination and duty concurring in the same disposition Nature in most men prevails over Reason Reason in some prevails over Nature but when these two are joined and a violent natural inclination finds it self owned by Reason requir'd by Duty encouraged by the highest Praises and excited by the most illustrious Examples sure that Force must be irresistible Constrained by so great a Force and the circumstances of my Affairs not allowing me to be otherwise serviceable to my Country I have in the following Discourse given my opinion concerning divers matters of Importance which probably may be debated in the approaching Session of Parliament I shall be very well satisfied if any thing I say do afford a hint that may be improved by men of better judgment to the publick Good I hope I shall not be blamed for giving my opinion in matters of publick concernment since 't is the right and duty of every man to write or speak his mind freely in all things that may come before any Parliament to the end that they who represent the Nation in that Assembly may be truly informed of the sentiments of those they represent Besides we are now no more under those tyrannical Reigns in which it was a crime to speak of publick Affairs or to say that the King had received bad counsel in any thing If in this discourse I argue against some things which perhaps may not be proposed in the ensuing Session of Parliament they are nevertheless such as persons in publick trust have in their conversation given just cause to think they were designed 'T is probable that the Parliament before they proceed to any other business will take into consideration a transaction which having passed since the last Session may if it be not abolished import not less than the infringing the freedom of this and all subsequent Parliaments I mean the farming of the Customs to the State of Burroughs Corruption is so entirely disowned by all men that I may be allowed to say when I name it that I name the blackest of Crimes and when I name any guilty of it I name a very odious Criminal But Corruption is more or less dangerous in proportion to the stations in which corrupt men are placed When a private man receives any advantage to betray a trust one or a few persons may suffer If a Judg be corrupted the oppression is extended to greater numbers But when Legislators are bribed or which is all one are under any particular ingagement that may influence them in their Legislative capacity much more when an intire State of Parliament is brought under those circumstances then it is that we must expect Injustice to be established by a Law and all those consequences which will inevitably follow the subversion of a Constitution I mean standing Armies oppressive Taxes Slavery whilst the outward form only of the antient Government remains to give them Authority I confess I have been often struck with astonishment and could never make an end of admiring the folly and stupidity of men living under some modern Governments who will exclaim against a Judg that takes bribes and never rest till he be punished or at least removed and yet at the same time suffer great numbers of those who have the Legislative Authority to receive the constant bribes of places and pensions to betray them But we shall have less to say for our selves if we suffer the Votes of the whole State of Burroughs to be at once influenced by the farming of the Customs For in other places the impudence of Bribery has gone no farther than to attack single persons but to endeavour at once to bribe a whole State of Parliament is an attempt of which it seems we only are capable Yet to show how far I am from suspecting any man of the least bad design without a cause I shall say that as I know this business of the Farm above-mentioned was first moved without any design to influence the Votes of the Burroughs in Parliament so I am willing to believe that few of those who have since acted in this Affair had any such design But if any man after due consideration of the evil consequences which must follow and are inseparable from such a Farm shall still persist in endeavouring to continue it he cannot but be an Enemy to the Liberties of his Country This is so bold an attempt and so inconsistent with the freedom of Parliament that till it be removed 't is to be presumed they will not proceed to any other business but this obstruction once taken away we may hope they will begin with that Affair which presses most and in which the Nation is so universally concerned I mean that of the African and Indian Company I know some will exclaim against this method and propose that the business of the Army may be first taken into consideration as of more general concernment to the Nation whether it stand or be disbanded They will not fail to say that before all other things the King's business as their stile runs ought to be done To this I answer that he who makes a distinction between the business of the King and that of the Country is a true friend to neither And if it be consider'd that the Ships of the Company are sailed that Scotland has now a greater venture at Sea than at any time since we have bin a Nation that the accidents and misfortunes to which an enterprize of this nature is subject are so many and so various either by the loss of Ships from the ordinary hazards of the Sea or Hurricanes by sickness of the men who for the most part are neither accustomed to such long Voyages nor to Climats so different from their own by the death of one or more of those to whom the conduct of this Affair is principally entrusted by being disappointed of fresh Provisions when those they carry with them are spent by being attack'd at Sea or at Land before they have fortified a place for themselves or a thousand other accidents for all things are extremely difficult to the first undertakers I say if it be consider'd that Provisions or the smallest things necessary falling short but by a few days have often bin the ruin of the greatest Vndertakings and chiefly of those of this kind there cannot be any more urgent affair than that of providing incessantly a supply for the necessities of so