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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	age_n	die_v	year_n	5,152	5	5.0012	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44083	Ruin to ruin, after misery to misery being the distressed, and ruined, and perishing state of the loyal and faithful seamen of England, and wherein is laid down : I. their ruined state in several particulars, II. that it is like to be three or four years more before they are paid, except an extraordinary supply be raised, and appropriated for them, III. that as many ships, and thousands and ten thousands of men have five or six years pay due, if they are not timely paid, it is like to be eight or nine years between their beginning to earn their money and their being paid, IV. a proposal humbly offered how they may be paid off, all by May next, without borrowing one penny of money, V. several reasons for their being justly and honestly paid, VI. an humble proposal for the advantage of a million or two in a year to the nation in a few years, and lastly, an humble supplication for the taking off some part of the act of Parliament concerning the poor miserable seamens paying 6d the month out of their wages / all humbly represented by ... William Hodges.	Hodges, William, Sir, 1645?-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing H2332; ESTC R5551	37,766	44

God should say to England as he did to Israel That he would be as a Lyon to us to tear and rend us and go from us That would be dreadful and therefore there had need be very severe Laws and to be severely put in execution against all manner of Whoring Blaspheming Debauchery and Profaneness And what may God say of this Nation when he shall see that in the last Age when there were Laws made against his Worship in these Nations that they were made so severe and put so severely in execution that they ruined many Thousands of Families and great Multitudes lost their Lives in Prison among which I remember were four Ministers in one Year died in Newgate among which was Mr. Jenkins as I remember that was like to have been Hanged before King Charles came in for his and Mr. Love's endeavouring to bring King Charles in and after he was in he let him perish in a Jayl for all that and such or much worse Rewards I suppose must those dull Souls expect who would bring that Judgment upon the Nation of having the late King James again But I will only put them in mind of those dreadful Objects of Misery the Protestants of France who helped to support the French King to the Throne when he was in danger to be put by But this is a Diversion and now as to what I was to speak of concerning God's seeing with what Zeal may I not say Rage and Fury the Laws were made and executed in the last Age against his solemn Worship and Service and if there be neither Zeal nor Courage or make Laws and put them in severe execution against Whoring and all Debauchery in this will it not appear before God Angels and all Men that the last Age was five times more severe against the Service of God then this is against the Service of the Devil and that tho the last Age punished and banished those that Worshipped God but this is backward in punishment and more ready to protect than banish those who do help to spoil and poison and infect this Nation with their accursed Sins and that the S●ns of this Day are accursed by the Judgment of the whole Church and that the Church hath cried out above 140 Years to have them that were guilty of Notorious Sins to be punished openly that others might take warning by them as any that will read the Preamble to the Commination in the Common-Prayer which they carry to Church may find and that in the mean time they ordered the whole Church in their Solemn Service to Curse abundance of Crying Sinners as Idolaters Adulterers Extortioners and such as smite their Neighbour secretly or remove their Landmarks or are Vnmerciful or pervert the Judgment of the Poor the Fatherless and W●ddows and several other Sins I wish some of those who manage our Brave Couragious Loyal but Begger'd and Ruined Seamen of England be not guilty of earning abundance of these Curses when they put by the Poor Fatherless and Widows from their Receiving of their Husbands or Childrens Pay by those fatal Letters Q. R. when they have lost their Health and Strength in the Service of their King and Country and are set on Shoar Sick and it may be Die there there is no Method found out how to secure their Pay but if they live 100 or 200 Miles from London they must come or send and prove and have Certificates and I know not what Waiting to get that which God Angels and Men knows is a dreadful Sin and Shame and Plague to keep them from it and it may be this helps the Poor Miserable Wretches to wait 150 or 200 on a Day sometimes at the Admiralty for Relief But this by the way It may be some will think I say too much of it but for ought I know I may say If God doth not avenge this by some Judgment on the Actors on this Nation that God hath not spoken by me But now to return to the Proposal of severe Laws against the Debauchery of the Age the last Age did use Imprisonment and Banishment for the punishing of the Worshippers of God and if this Age do not Imprison and Banish a Multitude of the Whores and Villains of this Age for serving the Devil and Poxing and Debauching and Ruining the Youth of the Nation it will be to be admired at seeing that indeed if Debauchery and Lewdness be not punished and prevented but that it increaseth as much more in the next Age as it did the last the Nation will be a very Pest-House of the Plague Sores of Sin and it is to be feared the Sound will have much to do to support themselves and Families against Cheats and Villanies and Cursed Wretches who are likely to poison their Children Servants Friends or Relations that we are like to be as Israel of old before their Destruction who the Prophet said was full of Wounds and Bruises and putrified Sores and it will be well if some of the Inferiour Magistrates be not in time corrupted that will be sad I remember a Story of an Honest Country Parson that was preaching to a Corporation in the Country on the choice of a Mayor and he said Magistrates was called Gods Now saith he as they are called Gods you should take care you do not choose a drunken God or a Whoring unclean God Now he might have took the Cemmon-Prayer Book and said for all his being a God If that he be such a one the whole Church of England is bound to Curse him out the Year therefore for that thing and some other Reasons I would beg that that the desire of the Common Prayer that hath stood there about 140 years might now be in some measure granted and all those sort of Sinners severely punished and the Curses taken clean out of the Book and that the poor may be relieved and now I come to that again I would humbly beg that the Ships for time to come might be paid in London where the poor Seamen have been forced to be assisted and supported all this War when they had no Money nor Cloaths to fit them for the Sea or when Twenty or Thirty Thousand of them were taken Captives into France Then they came to the City of London for Supply and as the City hath always been ready to assist the Government with Money and the Seamen with Necessaries and their perishing Families with Bread for several Years while they Earn'd their Money and were not paid and that now therefore they might be paid in London where they may buy their things at the best hand and have opportunity to return their Money to any Part of England to their Families and the King need not be at extraordinary Charge to send Money and Clerks and Commissioners 40 or 60 Miles to pay them in a small Town or two but the King might save that Charge and much more to pay them in London in this Method following Suppose

Estate of every Master of a Ship that should dare to bring any of them back again And for the Punishment of the Men Offenders no doubt but there may be ways found out to make them Examples and if they do not Reform send them away also for if it be a dreadful thing for a Gentleman or others to have their Sons Murthered how much more Dreadful must it be to have Bodies and Souls also Murthered by those Day and Night-walkers who like their Master the Devil walk about seeking whom they may devour and the dying at the Gallows commonly own Lewd Women to be the cause and incouragement to bring them to Wickedness as their Wickedness doth unto the Gallows But in all Christian Likelihood the Judgments of God will teach these Nations by some dreadful Stroak to Reform and amend And whoever Reads but the Word of God need never look after other sorts of Prophesy to tell him That these Nations that know more than ever Israel did may expect to suffer the Correction of God altho in what manner God alone knoweth to whom I leave all that hath been said by me or I shall say and shall come to another Reason why the poor Ruined Seamen should be paid with all possible speed and that is Seventeenth His most Gracious Majesty hath been pleased to speak to have the Cause of the Poor in general minded and although he did not name the Seamen in Particular yet I know no poorer miserable and ruined Objects in England than many Seamens Families are and if keeping miserable Creatures out of their Money four five six or seven Years be a cause of Poverty then here are many ten thousands of Poor to be minded Relieved and paid before they Perish quite And again Eighteenth I would appeal to all the Reverend Bishops if the Sins of England if they let the Seamen or their Families to perish for want of their Pay will not be worse than the Sin of Dives for Dives's was Vnmercifullness it is not said of Dives that he employed poor Lazarus to defend him and work for him till he fell Lame and Sick and then let him Perish for want of his Honest Just Pay for we do not Read he owed him any thing but Charity and we Read of Dives's Dogs they licked poor Lazarus's Sores and did not snap and snarl at him when he asked Charity And I will declare in the Presence of the Lord Jehovah before whom I write that I have often thought that those who snap and snarl at the poor Ruined Seamens Widows Wives or aged Parents when they come to the Navy-Office to get Cursed unjust Q. and R. off or to ask for their due Debts that they who snap at them do not shew themselves such Loving humble natured Creatures as Dives's Dogs But God grant that the Seamen may be paid off that they need trouble them no more and Nineteenth again Seeing there is about a Hundred Thousand of Payments of their Wages stripped from them by those two dreadful fatal Letters O. R. and that there is two or three hundred poor miserable Wretches forced now to the Admiralty-Office daily to Petition or lose their Money It is pitty that the other hundred and fifty Thousand Payments should be kept from them till they perish for want of that Also Twentieth Seeing so many Thousands of them have waited so many Years and the Ships pretended to be paid although not one Man in Four of some of those Ships paid it is pitty that the rest should wait several Years more for their Money And the Prophet Jeremiah Lamentations 4 and 6. saith That the the Sea monsters did draw out their Breasts and give Suck to their Young ones But saith he The Daughter of my People is become Cruel like Ostriches in the Wilderness Now it seems 't is the Nature of the hardened Ostriches they leave their Eggs in the Sand that the Foot may Crush them or the Wild Beast break them as Job saith 39 and 14. 7 5. But saith Job She is hardened against her Young because God hath deprived her of Wisdom and the Lord grant our miserable Seamens distressed Wives Widows Friends or Relations may not be slighted as the Ostrich slighteth her Eggs and that for the time to come the Seamen should be kept in any Ships until they dye like Rotten Sheep for want of fresh Air and fresh Provision and there be at last many set ashoar Sick and the Ships go away and leave them But it may be considered those poor Wretches might dye some of them or continue long Sick and could not go on Board of their Ships and therefore it is pity that the Beast should tread their Pay to Death or the Wild Beast break it with those fatal Letters Q. R. when they do not deserve it and that Thousands have not deserved it the Certificates will skew for the taking them off again and as I said those several Hundreds waiting for more to be taken off And Twenty One God himself who cannot Lye hath said Malachi 3.5 That he will come and be a swift Witness against those who do Oppress the Hireling in his Wages the Widows and the Fatherless and turn aside the Strnger from his Right in the Gate And James 2 1st and 4th verses Go to now ye Rich Men weep and howl for the Miseries that shall come on you Behold the Hire of the Labourers which is of you kept back by Fraud Cryeth and the Cries of them that have Laboured are entred into the Ears of the Lord of Hosts And under the Old Law the Jews were Commanded by God to be sure to Pay their Labourers Wages at Night and their Aegyptian Servants and Strangers were Commanded to be speedily Paid and if Israel were to be so just in Paying the Aegyptians if they served for Money although the Aegyptians had made Israel Slaves before then how sad will it be to let our Seamens Wages be any more Years unpaid who have helped to keep all these Nations out of worse Slavery than Aegyptian Slavery as much as Soul-Slavery is worse than Body-Slavery But Twenty two It is said by Christ himself That the same measure we met shall be meted to us again And this is repeated in the Gospel more than once and if that Christ should make these Words to be accomplished on these Nations or the Land that the Inhabitants at Land should be as miserably destroyed in their Lives and kept out of their Rights as many Years as the Seamen have been out of their Pay they would think it the miserablest starving Condition that ever the Nation did groan under and if the Bishops and Clergy in England were to be kept out of their Revenues and Tythes 4 5 or 6 Years and not have one Penny to buy a Penny-Loaf for their Wives and Families for several years how could their Wives and Children keep from perishing as many of the Seamen have three or four Children apiece and how any

to Write what I have written and God will bring what I write to Judgment and all the Seamens Ruins and Destructions to Judgment and all the Accounts that hath been so publickly given of the King 's being so shamefully Cheated and Miserable Seamens being Cheated as hath been represented for some Years by such poor Foolish Creatures as were Mr. Crosfeild Mr. Trever and Mr Bastion which last are gone to Eternity and are silent in the Grave and for Mr. Crosfeild since he saw that all he could do in offering to prove so much Cheating as he did could not prevail for him to be heard I think he is silent in his Habitation where-ever it is having not seen him as I know of this Twelve Months and for my self the most Feolish of them all God Almighty is pleased to enable me and stir me up to put these Nations in mind of the most Dreadful Ruined Dying Destroyed Case of the Loyal English and Scotch Seamens Lives Health and Pay And this brings to my Mind the Words that was said of the whole Earth before the Flood That it was filled with Violence God grant that it may not be said of these Nations before the Judgments of God break out upon us That the whole Sea Affairs were filled with Violence and that after the Loss of above Sixty Thousand of the Lives of such who were kept hound to their Ships until Sickness came or Death took them away and then also there was a violent Order to Q. and R. all those from Receiving their Pay who was set on Shoar Sick to save their Lives and above an Hundred Thousand Seamen Bun out of their Pay and yet no certain Rule made how to Relieve and Save their Pay to themselves or Perishing Families neither any one Man can be safe to serve his King and Country for time to come without hazarding the Loosing his Pay and Ruining of his Family if he falls Sick and is set on Shoar Sick and the Ship goes away and leaves him and he cannot get on Board again or continues Sick or Lame half a Year or a Year or if Well goes on Beard of another Ship or if Dead and it may be his Friends not knowing how as when he Died and so his Wife and Children looses his Pay I would appeal to all Mankind If there be not a Care taken to secure their Pay better when Sickness or Lameness come and some Rational Rules laid down and ordered that they may in case of Sickness or Lameness have their Pay secured how any Man can ever for time to come be safe in serving at that dreadful uncertain rate of management since they are no more certain of their Health and Strength and Lives than the Beast of the Field and I do think no Christian or good Natur'd Heathens would have their Cattle turned out of their Provender for every Sickness or Lameness and starved if they cannot come to work again in twenty eight Days time But this most dreadful violence was powred upon the Seamen after they beat the French for they were Paid when set sick on shore before they beat the French as the several Ships Books will prove that were paid before they beat the French and paid off also when they came in at Michaelmas before they beat the French the great Ships Companies were paid But when once they had beat the French and put a stop to their Carreer then there was a stop put to their Payment in the great Ships as before But indeed it might be endless for me to write the Multitudes of the miseries of them and their Families since But I may say as the Prophet of old concerning the destruction of Israel at Land so of our Seamens Ruin and Destruction at Sea and Land both O! that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People But to have done with that which makes my heart to ake while I write it I think we at Land pretend to a greal deal of Liberty and Property and so we have Praised be the Lord But as to the Poor Ruined Seamen of England no History in the World can shew such a History of the loss of our Seamens Liberties Propertiez and Lives in the Service of their King and Countrey in any Hundred Years as hath been these last Nine Years A Man could hardly imagine their Lives and Pay should be so scambled away but that the Ships Books will prove it at the Navy-Office and they may be Register'd to help to fill a dreadful History in the next Age when it is like they will write plainly how the Seamen were begger'd and ruin'd in this And how Impudently and Shamefully and Scandalously the King and Nation was cheated and how the Cheats and Villains were excused and those that would have brought their Villany to Light were discouraged and how the Knaves and Extertioners and Cheats got Estates while the King and the Nation was Cheated and the Poor Trampled on and Ruined by Thousands And now methinks I remember something that I dreamed of as I lay in my Bed of the last age and this I thought that when as King Charles II. came home again to England in 1660. There was as it were a strange Race begun and continued many Years would God it were at an end and this was the Race methought the Devil run and the Jesuits run and the drunken lewd scandalous Priests began to Run and their designs were all to debauch and prophane and poison these Nations with Lewdness for two Designs the Jesuit to bring the Nation to Popery when they had debauched away their Religion and the drunken Priests to keep their Preferments and Livings and loosness also without fear or danger of any Reformation and methought they went a great way and had two Idols an Elder Brother and a Younger the one Idol for Lewdness and Prophanenss and the other for Idolatry and the old Whore at Rome But the first Idol not going so far and fast towards Rome as the Jesuits would have him he went out of the World few knows how and then came the other Idol in Play and be poor Soul run so fast that be tumbled down and broke his Head and in getting up again had only Wit enough left and Courage enough to run away and happy was it for the Nation he had not more Wit or Courage for it was to be feared he would have been a sad Plague to the Nation if he had staid but by his Running the Jesuits lost the rarity of their Show that they intended to act if they had not been kick'd off from the Stage and now it may be some will ask if this Race be at an end to that I would answer I fear there is too much of it under hand and if any should ask me who the Devil did pick up of late for Company to that I would answer That I

think the Drunken Priests keep him Company still and they are so Vile that 't is a Mercy they do not make the Church stink of them in the Nostrils of God and of Good Men. But if the two Honourable Houses make that most Excellent Act against Immorality and Prophanness I hope they will order those of the Clergy that are guilty of those Sins to be punished and turned out of the Church for if they do not I do fear nay I think I might lay my self down at the Feet of the King and Parliament and say That I will be content to suffer any Pnnishment or any Death you will put me to if God Almighty does not spew out these Wretches himself unless they amend or the Law of the Land throw them out God knows why I should write this for I do from my Heart Honour the Ministry as an Ordinance of God and I honour all the Good and Vertuous in that profession by what Name soever they are Called and they are called Aagels and their Office is from God but the Sins of the Lewd ones are from the Devil and it is said That if Angels fall they turn Divels there is one of them hath been so Shameless as to Print a Book in defence of Concubinage which is so Shameless to write a Book in defence of that which the whole Church is bound to Curse every Ash-Wednesday and therefore such Wretches ought to be severely punished And now as to the Company which the Divil hath pickt up of late to run with him I think that he hath got besides the Drunken Priests abundance of Cheats and Knaves and Extortioners and Ticket-buyers that Swallow the Seamens Pay at 8 or 10 or 12 Shillings in the Pound Loss and could Stock-job and buy the Wages of the poor Labourers at the Victualing-Office at ten Shillings and Sixpence in the Pound and then have for 85 Pound 100 Pound and the King Pay a Hundred Pound Tally for Eighty five Pound that is allowing fifteen in the Hundred and seven in the hundred Interest is an Hundred and Seven Pound for forty five Pound in one Year so the Poor lost forty seven in the Hundred and the King paid twenty two in the Hundred and who would but stretch his Conscience on the Tenter-Hooks to get such a Carsed deal of Money out of the Poor but the King and Nation pay more than all a great deal at last and the Victualling-Office could not help it neither they bad not Money that the Poor were kept so long out of their Money that many of them did sell for what the Extortioners would give God knows what an Age we live in when I read how dreadfully God threatned and Scourged the Jews for their Extortion Oppression trampling on the Poor and their Prophaneness I know not what to say to the Genera●ion we live among but I do think some do act as if they were like the Jews of Old in saying tush God seeth not God hath forsaken the Earth But certainly God Almighty doth expect that the Oppressed should be Relieved and the Extortioners punished and if all that have extorted above 4 s. or at most 5 s. in the Pound out of the Pay or Wages of the Scamen or others were made to pay back again 2 s. to the Poor Oppressed for every Shilling Extorted above that it would be the way to help and relieve the Oppressed and it may be one Reason why many that are to receive large Sums of the Seamens Pay are Content to let it linger on by degrees may be because if they are paid one Thousand out of four Thousand in a Year they may lay out that and buy eighteen hundred or Two Thousand 〈◊〉 and so get 7 or 800 Pound the Year three or four Years 〈◊〉 by the Seamens Miseries but to have done with that I would Humbly propose and entreat the Honourable Houses of Parliament to Relieve the Seamen by paying them speedily and to Relieve many others of them and their Families by altering part of the Acts of Parliament C●lled Acts for their Incouragment for the following First for God's Sake Second For the King's Sake Third For the Nation 's Sake Fourth For the Sake of the Seamen and their Families First For God's Sake and because I an to speak of His most Holy and Glorious Name I ought to speak with ten-fold the Humility and therefore will leave it to the Reverend Clergy to consider first if Holy David who was not only a King but one after God's own Heart and he would not offer to God of what cost him nothing though he might have had it given him by the Right Owner and a Rich Man as Aurana allows and how much sadder is it for these Nations when they are to incourage the Seamen to take 6 d. a Month out of the Miserable on one part of our Loyal Seamen to raise Money to help to gratifie or shew Charity to the other But it is said by Solomon the wisest of Kings That he that doth mock the poor reproacheth his Maker Now whether it be not a mocking of our poor and miserable Seamen to make so many poor and miserable Labourers pay sixpence a Month out of their Hire towards advancing Encouragement for the others and the others have had not one Penny of the 40 s. the Year paid them as I hear of to this Hour although the Act for to make the other Pay hath been about two Years in Force But 3dly The said Solomon saith He that taketh from the Poor to give to the Rich shall come to Poverty Now if it be so that all the poor Seamen that are not Registred have 6 d. the Month taken from them and the Registred have not had two pence of it in two Years But there are several Commissioners and Clerks have some Hundreds a Year for their Sallary to Live Great and not the poor miserable Seamen that are Registred is not this taking from the the poor and advancing of the Rich and therefore as God is a Holy and Just and Merciful God who always pities the Poor I would beg that our poor Seamen might be p●●tied for His Sake and have nothing taken out of their Pay more than ever was in any Age of the World for God also knows they have lost more Lives and Pay under this Govern neat than ever they did in any Age of the World and God knows they have shewed themselves as Loving and faithful to this Government as to any Government in the World and now 4thly As God did by His Providence Raise up his Majesty to be means under God to restore these Nations to their Liberties and Freedom whether it will not be a going contrary to the very Providence and end of God in raising up this Government if instead of Liberty and Freedom the poor and miserable Seamen whose Bones and Lives have been as Walls to keep this Government and the Nation from Ruin If one part of

a Ship of 300 Men be ordered to be Paid at Portsmouth or Chatham fourteen Days hence it may be it is ten days before the Money and Commissioners get down Now suppose these 300 Men Officers and all Gost the King but 2 s. a day apiece victuals and Wages that is One Pound a Man for ten Days is 300 l. Now suppose an Order is sent down to Clear them off to Morrow and give every Man 5 s. to Travel to London is 75 l. And pay them at the ten Days end the King will save 225 l. in a Ship besides travelling Charges and they that Live in London also save abundance of Money in their being forced to Run Threescore Miles after their Just Debts But I have often admired at the Reason of putting His Majesty to extraordinary needless Charge to carry away so many Hundred Thousands of Pounds from London to those two miserable Places Chatham and Portsmouth and now I think of Chatham Rochester and Strood makes me think of three Places Nick-named Cheat them Rot them and Starve them God grant that our Seamen and their Families be not any of them left to be Ruined there but it is very strange that a little Town or two should have more Friends to get the Ships paid off last there than the City of London should to get them to be paid here How Kissing goeth by Favour I know not but now to have done with that having almost tired my self with Writing and yet lest a great part unwritten that I should or might have written will come to propose something I promised for the Nations advantage to some Millions of Money in a few Years and it is this Suppose the Distilling Trade for Brandy do take up in one Year about One hundred Thousand Quarters of Malt and now suppose at 30 Shillings the Quarter that is One hundred and fifty Thousand Pound which by the way is a prodigious Quantity of Corn I was a going to say wasted but I will say Distilled out for Idle Tipple that our Forefathers heard not so much as the Name of and it is no wonder Corn hath been so exceeding dear and so many Poor ready to perish if there be near so much of it turn'd into Fire and Vapour that it may be hath killed more Men and Women these late Years in England than the Sword and it fireth the very Souls of many out of their Bodies by degrees if not presently as several have been but by degrees I have known many both Man and Women have shorten'd their Lives many Years by drinking so much of such fiery Drink to dry up their very Livers or Lungs and neither fear of Death or any Wisdom Sence or Reason can take off Mankind from what their Lust and Appetites are set upon and if there were an open Trade to France if we should but send a Million a Year of our Large Money for their Brandy and Wine it would be the way to Begger us in a very few Years therefore if we must have so much Brandy in England I would humbly propose That there might be a Law made to have our Hedge rows in every Field by Act of Parliament obliged in seven or eight Years time to have an Apple-Tree in every Thirty Foot of Hedges and there might be several Millions of Apple-Trees planted in eight Years time the Kernels of Appels now would the first two or three Years produce Nurseries of Trees enough and they in about ten or twelve years might come to bear Fruit and being as I said planted in the Hedg-rows need not take up an Acre of Land for 40 Millions of Trees and if the Trees comes to bear would preserve our Corn from being burnt up I mean into Brandy and it is our English Syder will make almost as good Brandy as the French and if this Plantation were but Established it would Pay its own Charge of the Planting ten times over quickly and if it was once taken up it would never be laid down again for Apples are for Meat and Drink to several poor Families in the Country and at last the very wood of the Trees if Forty Years Old would be worth for Firing when they have done Bearing Fruit five times the Charge of Planting and as I said we need not lose an Acre of Land and if any would propose the Planting of Oaks after the same manner one in every 30 Foot of Hedge-rows Acorns are cheap enough and if every twenty Foot had an Apple-tree and every twenty Foot an Oak planted the timber of one and the Fruit of the other would make the next age Rejoice and have Cause to Bless God for the Care of this which makes me think of the Old Motto He that delights to Plant and Set Makes after Ages in his Debt Now if after-Ages will be in debt to this for several new Follies and Miseries and cheating Tricks it is pitty But they should be in debt to us for several good Laws and indeed good Improvements and God grant they may be in debt to us for some good good Reformation that so Iniquity may not be our Ruin and now having writ out all my Book and made my Charge almost double what I designed by Printing so much in several Cases more than I designed and yet I could not well avoid it being only guided by the good will and Pleasure of God but wanting a wiser Head to let my Notions pass through and being always afraid to leave out my own honest Design to take in other Mens Wit so that if I should suffer for any part of it I could with a good Conscience bless God I have written every Word in the sincerity of my Heart in Love to God and to His Majesty and the Parliament and the Nation for I am not of the Number of those sensless Wretches that would Fire the House to destroy the Rats and Mice neither long for Slavery because the King and the Nation and the Seamen have been so dreadfully Cheated since we had our Liberty but I am of the honest Bishops Mind who had some Brains in his Head when they told him The Presbyterians were worse than the Papists No said he That is false For said he The Presbyterians would pull my Lawn Sleeves off but the Papist would pull off my Skin And this I would leave as a Memorandum for all those who grumble against this Government and would long for the Garlick and Onions of Egypt I mean for a Popish King that as the Presbyterian Ministers and People did Plot and contrive to bring in King Chales II. and lost some thousands of their Lives for him before-hand and yet when he came to the Crown he would not Trust one of them unto the day of his Death but hated them and ruined them and their Religion tho he was called a Protestant and had been in Covenant with God and that People yet he broke through all Oaths that he took to them and through all Bonds of Love or Gratitude and how much more dreadfully would a Popish King Ruin all the Protestant Religion and People in England if he were in Power And now to have done I Humbly beg Pardon of God and of his Majesty King William and of the Two most Honourable Houses for all that is amiss in this or me and that God would be the Protection of me and mine in and thro Christ for time and all Eternity and now to the Father Son and Holy Spirit Three Persons and one Holy Glorious and only Wise God be the Everlasting Praises Amen So prays he who is His Most Gracious Majesty King William's Loyal and Faithful Subject and the Parliament and Nations humble Servant while Feb. the 4th 1698 9. William Hodges By reason of the Author 's great distance from the Press there is some small Errata's as Page 3. Lady-Day for May-day And page 25. Prophesying instead of Professing The Reader is desired to Correct them or any other with his Pen. And the Author being not Born for himself is willing to present every new Member of the House of Commons with two Books one about the Seamens Ruin and the other Proposals for their Incouragement But not knowing which they are will leave the Books with Mr. Applesby their Door-keeper for those that please to call for them FINIS

between Three and four Hundred Books of about Eight Sheets apiece of Ways and Means to Relieve the Seamen and prevent His Majesty's being Shamefully Cheated and the Seamen Cheated and Abused also besides that I gave the same Year about Four hundred Books of four Sheets and an half of Paper to the Honourable Members about the Coin and to propose the Raising Money by Four Millions of Bills and all this at my own Charge not having one Penny Assistance from any one Alive towards the same neither in Money neither any Assistance from any in the Writing of one half Sheet of Paper and I Bless God who enabled me to be true and Faithful to my King and Country therein and that the Honourable Houses passed by my Infirmities in the same from first to last and now I speak of Bills makes me to think once more with how much ease the Seamen might be all paid off with Honour and honesty with Exchequer Bills before May-day next if the Houses would raise three Millions of Exchequer-Bills as before Represented and the Seamen need not be continued to be more and more Ruined from Year to Year by lingring pretended Payments such as the List put up also in August 1697 A while before the Parliament sate but as I said before above a Hundred Ships Payments dropped to this day and of the Ships that were paid off last Winter the Recalls have not been so much as pretended to be put up for Payment and of those Ships that have been kept needlesly in Pay a Year and a Quarter I suppose it hath Cost the Nation about Five or Six hundred Thousand Pounds Extraordinary Charge to keep them from beng paid off besides the dreadful Ruin of the Seamen and their Families and those who had trusted them before on the Credit of their Pay for many of those miserable Wretebes had Tickets given them for their Pay and sold them some at 7 or 8 or 10 Shillings in the Pound Loss and so could not Pay their Debts and as the Extortioners some of them swallowed-half their Pay and the poor Wretches so Ragged and miserable many of them looking more like Captives taken by an Enemy than Loving and Faithful Subjects serving their King and Country as those who use to go on Board of Ships have seen the Men so Ragged as if they had come out of France and had on the old Cloaths that the French had given them But this by the way I say The Extortioners getting by their Tickets one half and the Furnishing them out again fit to save their Lives and do their Work by being Cloathed as Men or Christians there has been a poor little left for their Families if any and sometimes none to Pay their Debts so that the badness of the Pay hath been the way to Ruin the Men and Families and to Cheat and Ruin them that Trust them Besides as I said the Extraordinary needless Charge to His Majesty But I intend to Represent several Reasons for their being honestly and speedily Paid and I remember a Story I have read of a great Courtier I think it was Cardinal Woolsey That after he had long served his King was brought to Ruin and he had this Expression If he had served God as industriously and Faithfully as he had served the King he would not have Ruined him at last And now I speak of the Holy Name of God there doth come a place of Scripture into my Mind and it is in the first of the Corinthians the 2d and the 9th Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him And on the contrary I fear I may say Eye hath not seen neither hath Ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of Man to Conceive the Miseries and Ruins and Destructions and Poverty and Groans and Cries of those Seamen who have loved His Majesty and their own Native Countries and lost their Health and Lives and many Thousands of them their Pay also for their Serving both And indeed I will be plain-Hearted I have often thought that if the Devil and the Jesuits and the Late King's Friends in France and England had sate in Council about the Loyal and Faithful Seamen of England after they had beat the French and had said in the Sea-Dialect These eternal damn'd Dogs the Seamen of England and Scotland will fight like Dragons to keep out a Popish Religion and French Power and we can never have a Ship or two betrayed to us except privately because these damn'd Dogs the Seamen are ready to defend their Ships and their Nation let them lose never so many Lives therefore we must consult how to Ruin them some other way for to endeavour to ruin them them by fighting would Ruin all the French Seamen and all the French Ships therefore we will endeavour to Ruin them twice over another way and three times over another way and they shall run the Hazard of being Ruined five times over another a chird way and that is as many times over as a Man hath Fingers and Thumbs on his Hands but we must endeavour to bide the Method or at least the Knowledg of it from their King and Parliament and then it may be it will cost the Nation some Millions of Money extraordinary to Ruin them but it must be pretended they are managed to the best Advantage and if they be kept turn'd from Ship to Ship and not paid off till they fall sick and die like so many Rotten Sheep until several Ships Books will prove they have been Manned over their Number of Men 8 or 9 times before they have been Paid and that they have Buried twice or near thrice their Number of Men before they have been paid and yet though it is the Experience of many Years that when Ships are kept unpaid three or four Years the Salt Victuals and Salt Air and hardship and want of coming on Shoar for fresh Air and fresh Provisions there commonly died the greatest part of their Men and the that Captain St. Loe one of His Majesties Captains and Commissioners Represented in Print some Years past thht the Nation might have saved five hundred Thousand Pound a Year by paying the great Ships every Winter and yet he said We might have kept out at Sea all the Winter fisteen Third Rates and eight Fourth Rates besides fifth and sixth Rate Ships and have saved many Thousand Pounds in the Year besides this being represonted by me some Years past among the Ways to save the Seamens Lives and the Nations needless Charge yet they have been kept on Board their Ships or been turn'd from Ship to Ship until there hath been the Loss of above 60 Thousand of their Lives as the Ships Books will prove and that is twice the Number that as I remember the Parliament said was a quota for the Fleet that being thirty Thousand stated by them

for a Year and there being above a Hundred Thousand of the miserable Seamen run out of their Pay as the several Ships Books will prove which is Thirty Thousand Payments ruined three times over And also as there is about an hundred and fifty Thousand Payments more due that are not made Run If they are not Paid before the Seamen by lingring now on Shore have Spent it or take Tickets and sell for half Loss or what they can get and so murder their Pay and starve their Families or Cheat and Ruin their Creditors it will be a way to have five times more a Stroak of Ruin if not many knocked down with it But I say had these things been contrived by our Enemies and the Enemies of God and Goodness aforesaid and had been known openly it would have been prevented But being carried on by pretended Friends and by pretended Policy we have lost five times more Seamens Lives this War and that the most part without Fighting than ever was Lost at Sea by Fighting in the most Bloody War that ever was although when our Nation was at War with the Dutch in 1666. Our Commanders and Ships fought against the Dutch like so many Furies some of them as if the Devil and the Jesuits had laid a Plot to Establish the Protestant Religion by the spuiling and destroying of two of the most Potent Protestant Nations Ships and Seamen But now in this War we have had such scandalous running away from the French at Sea as if a Protestant Church was to be established by letting the most violent persecuting People on the Face of the Earth crow over us and although Blessed be God that Admiral Russel did with our Fleet Beat the French Couragiously that they could never dare to fight us since yet our Loyal and faithful couragious but miserable Seamen have been more Ruined since than any History I could ever Read of or Parallel and I do think as I said before we have lost more Seamens Lives without Fighting than was ever lost in our English Fleet fighting since the days of William the Conqueror and therefore as I am a going to render some Reasons for the Seamens being honestly and timely paid this may be the First That as their Ruin and Destruction have been more in the Service of this Government than under any King or Government in these Nations therefore in Honour Honesty and Justice they should now be honestly and speedily Paid what is due to them Secondly To let their Families Perish now for want of their Pay would be against Grace and Reason and Common Sence Thirdly Their Pay being so Prodigious great can never be Paid while the World standeth except there be Money Raised on purpose by the King and Parliament Fourthly Their Pay being as beforesaid due great part for several Years and it hath been a dreadful Case to let the Ruining Perishing Families live on Credit or Starve so long and if it be several Years more as it must be without a considerable Supply it will be not only like Misery to Misery but like Cruelty to Misery Fifthly Tho there be some millions of Money due to others in England besides the Seamen yet it 's most either to those who have Interest for it or have gotten a great deal of it if not all by the Government and it is well if some have not Cheated for half of it but as I said they have greatest part Interest for it But the interest that the poor Seamen have is many of them Rags and Lice and Poverty and Misery to them and the Starving and Perishing of their Ruined Families that have no Money neither now at last any Credit and if they have they Pay perhaps ten in the Hundred more than others and this and their Cries and Groans to God Angels and Men has such Interest as the miserable Seamen meet withal for lying out of their Money for their Faithful and Loving Serving this Government Sixthly The lettings of the Seamen be Ruined and Perish more under this Government than they ever did in any Age of the World in so few Years seem to Cross the very end and design of Gods raising up this Government which was for to deliver us from misery and slavery and make us happy and safe and prosperous Seventhly We cannot in a probable way be either safe or happy in these Nations without the help and assistance of the Seamen and one would think neither Jesuites nor Jacobites nor Men nor Devils could prevail upon us to run and destroy and Ruin the Seamen and their Families more than needs must when it is in our Power to pay them however at last their just due Eighthly His Majesty hath spoken for them several times and tho' he did not Name them in his last Speech yet he Naming the National Debts of which there is no doubt but he was willing that they should be paid also Ninthly Both the King and Parliament and Acts of Parliment have Recorded them to be such as the strength and safery of these Nations and all His Majesties Dominions doth depend upon and what Madness would it be to Impoverish and Ruin such as our happiness and safety so much depends upon Tenthly The King and Parliament have as aforesaid declared that they have distinguished themselves throughout the World by their Industry Diligence and Skilfulness in their Imployments and by their Courage and Constancy for the Defence and Honour of these Nations and what a Crying sin adn shame would it be to let such Perish for want of their Pay as the whole World admires for their braveries Eleventhly His Majesty and the Parliament as aforesaid hath declared that if they and their Families fall under hardships and misery they should be Relieved at the Publick Charge and if so then how dreadful would it be if instead of being relieved by the publick they should be more Ruined by the publick by waiting many Ten Thousands of them Year after Year longer for what is due in some Years past Twelfthly The Ruin of them and their Families is against common sence for common sence will tell any Man in England that his Dogs or Horses must have Food or Perish and if the Seamens Families have neither Money nor Credit they must Starve or be Relieved by the Parishes and I do not find that when poor wretched Seamens Families have been kept unpaid 4 or 5 Years and it may be one or two of their Children are Perished that the Parishes are ready to relieve the rest but will rather be ready to say What! ask Relief and have 50 or 60 l due It hath grieved my very Soul to see the Tears and Cries of some of them in their Misery and if they would have hanged themselves could not get their own and how crying a Sin and Shame this is I appeal to God and Man and if these Nations lets them run the hazard of their Perishing worse than they would their Dogs and Horses