Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	duke_n	king_n	normandy_n	1,715	5	11.1528	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35597	The Case of a standing army army [sic] fairly and impartially stated in answer to the late History of standing armies in England, and other pamphlets on that subject.		1698 (1698)	Wing C873; ESTC R3955	17,796	39

to be at all a Benefit or Advantage to the Nation if it might be dispens'd with on good Terms no rather quite the contrary I think the only Reason that can be giving for the keeping a Standing Force in Pay is Necessity But I hardly think a Mititia can be form'd to serve our occasions now For First by the cunning and contrivance of Humane reach and Invention and the charge of Times and Accidents War now is become a Trade it consists not so much in strength of Body or a real Courage as in Slight and Witt to be able to fortifie Camps and Towns to draw your Enemy into Ambuscades or drill him along into disadvantageous Places to be able to draw him to Battle or secure your self from being forc'd to one these are now the best Martial Qualifications and these are things must be learnt by Vse and Practice none can be perfect in them but by Experience there must be an Apprenticeship serv'd for the learning them This I think is sufficient to make us believe that a Militia can very hardly be so regulated as to prove useful at this time of Day 2dly Supposing a Militia might be brought to good Discipline and Order yet t wou'd be a very great while before such a thing cou'd be done and wou'd these inconsiderate Gentlemen have us leave our selves Naked and Open all the time this wou'd be an Imprudence that our Enemies perhaps wou'd be glad to find us guilty of since I believe they only wou'd be the gainers by it 3dly Tho' our Militia was serviceable yet we shou'd find very few of them forward to go over to any Foreign Parts where it might be convenient and necessary for us to employ our Forces for they wou'd be Men that were settled and fixt by Wives and Families at home whereas our Standing Forces the Private Soldiers are most of them Men that have no fixt Habitations are not ty'd at home by Wives and Families but taken either young before they had settled themselves or mostly from among those that were Vagabonds and Wanderers that had no business and were rather a Burthen than Benefit to their Country but by being put into the Army are now become useful and beneficial to it whereas if they are Disbanded what can be expected from such people who are not fixt at home by the tye of Families or Interest but to go abroad atd enter into any Service that will be so kind as to entertain them and who can blame them since they know no other way of Livelihood the Consequence of which thing alone might fright us from what these Gentlemen wou'd have us immediately do and make us very cautious how we part from that Force which have done us so much good even when they were but learning their Trade which at our Cost and Expences they have learnt so well as to be Masters of but by Disbanding them and turning them abroad we give our Neighbours the opportunity of reaping the Profit and Advantage But this Gentleman tells us we need not send Forces into Foreign Parts we need only have a strong Fleet at Sea and that wou'd be security enough But I think the Practice of all our Kings and Parliaments as I have already Instanc'd may be enough to confute one part of this Assertion for I take it our Fore Fathers were as wise and knowing in what concern'd their Interest as any of us now can pretend to and if we loak back into former Stories we shall find enough to convince us of the folly of trusting too much to the other part by seeing what has happen'd we shall quickly find that a Fleet will not secure us from Invasions To give some Instances to these Positive Gentlemen How often did the Danes land great Numbers of Armed Forces in almost every part of this Island continually alarming the poor People ruining and making horrible devastations wherever they came exercising all manner of Barbaraties on the poor unprovided English putting whole Towns Men Women and Children to the Sword till at last they Lorded it over the whole Island and perhaps there are a People in the World wou'd not be much civiller on an occasion which God forbid they shou'd ever have and which while we have a good Army we need not fear but to give some more Instances William the Conqueror landed with an Army here so did his Son Robert Duke of Normandy in the Reign of William Rufus and in the Reign of Henry the First The Empress Maud landed an Army in the Reign of King Stephen so did Henry II. The French Invaded the Land in the Reign of Henry III. Queen Isabel landed with an Army at Orwel in Sussex in the Reign of Edward the Second Henry the Seventh landed with an Army tho' Richard the Third took all possible care to hinder him And whenever there have been heats and discontents in this Kingdom the French have ever assisted one or another party to keep up the Contention tho' our Princes by their Fleets have always endeavour'd to hinder it These are enough to convince every lover of his Country of the falsity of these Gentlemen's saying that a Fleet only is able to protect us Perhaps they will object against what has been said and say That in those days we were weak at Sea but that now we are grown much stronger So is our Neighbours too as we very well know by experience I scarce think any of these angry Gentlemen will venture to affirm that we are at this time the most potent at Sea or that none of our Neighbours dare to look us in the face on that Element whereas in former days tho' we were but mean at Sea in comparison of what we are now yet our Neighbours were much meaner we were formerly confessedly the most powerful in Shipping and enjoyed an absolute and uncontroul'd dominion on the Seas and if in those days when we bore so great a sway on the Ocean and all the Nations around us so little a Fleet cou'd not hinder Armies from landing in England I can't think how it shou'd do it now when our Neighbours are as strong in Shipping and as Powerful at Sea as our Selves This I think is a plain case an Argument so clear that I wonder how any sensible persons can overlook it And if we may be Invaded tho' we have a good Fleet as 't is plain we may we shou'd be careful how we parted with a Land Force which wou'd then be our only safety and can be no Injury at all to us as long as his Majesty is so clearly in the Interest of his People All this great Clamour and Noise against a Standing Army can have no other meaning than this That they dare not trust his Majesty or rely on his Integrity these are hard things and a very ungrateful way of dealing with a Prince who has all his Life-time hazarded his Person for the relief and succour of the Distressed who cou'd never