Prince's Ministers be men of a good reputation so as securely intelligence may be held with them And by such means as these discords may be raised among the rebellious and they may be put upon such rash or such cautious councils as may ruine them Arms in the Politicks is like fortitude in the Morals it is the guard and security of all the other virtues Civil justice grounded on and managed by religion is the soul of Government but the inseparable prerogatives of it are treasure and arms for these are properly the sinews that make the members of Government move As Government is the ordinance of God these three are inseparable from soveraignty therefore none can make laws but with the Prince nor raise treasure but for the Prince for common reason shews men are bound unto the defence of Government with life and fortune but experience shews when a corrupt degenerate man or men whom Providence hath given soveraignty unto have both the soul and body as we may call it of Government in his or their hands or arbitrarily at his or their dispose unwholsome laws may be made i. e. such as are partial or ricketed swelling the head too big or a hectick or preternatural heat of the Soveraignty be it Monarchy or State may draw strength too fast from the habit of the body therefore divers mixt Governments reserve a general consent to accompany soveraign authority both in making laws and raising moneys though in neither of these nothing can be done by any but the soveraign persons thus assisted But arms or the Militia of the Nation to shew the danger of co-ordination is every where singly in the Prince or State since if any but the Soveraign hath the power of raising the arms they will be soon supposed to have the power of using them and therefore no man how loyal soever even for the safety of the Prince's person can raise arms without his commission These remarks may appear trivial and pedantick yet for want of such a foresight or some grains of such a powder I have seen the affairs of a great King in convulsive sits Thus much for arms as they concern the civil administration of justice and the repression of rebellion at home or as these being opposed by subjects arise unto a civil war Forreign war Now we will consider arms as by them one equal or who hath no authority over the other endeavours to reduce the other unto justice i. e. to observe those laws of Nations which are binding either by the law of Nature or Nations or which are obligatory by reason of some league or treaty of commerce made between two Nations Thus by the law of nature even when both persons are subjects and under one and the same law if one by a sudden assault invade the other so as he is in danger of life by him and cannot have recourse unto that law by which both of them are to be judged nature authorizes the assailed to use a counter-force against the assailant and to be his own justiciar but this is but accidental and may be properly called a natural authority to repel force by force or is a private war But that which Grotius calls a publick war O◠publick war is betwixt two equals who are both Soveraigns neither having jurisdiction over the other Now all Soveraigns are equals though the one be never so much inferior unto the other in territories wealth or strength for where Soveraignty is unequal in power it is equal in right and because these may injure one another therefore they have a right to exact justice by arms from one another and this is that which we call publick war The root of this war springs from injustice 〈…〉 The root of war thus springing from injustice or the lusts of men it is no marvel that the fruit is so barbarous and inhuman and yet even this monster which is too often an offence against justice cannot be managed but by justice for Princes ought never to war one upon another but upon a belief that the ground of their war is just Nay Yet the ground of it must be just they ought not to begin a war until sincerely they have endeavoured to obtain a satisfaction by way of peace Humanity then obliges to avoid it and necessity only warrants the undertaking it Says Moses therefore When thou goest to war enquire of the Lord or go unto his Oracles or Word or thine own conscience and reflect whether the occasion of the war be just and lawful Consult not the pravity of human nature which would lay land to land or upon an unreasonable fear that others will invade thee which hath been the common but improsperous practice of mankind as Mr. Hobbs phrases it Anticipate not or invade not another's power who hath not wronged thee for fear by that power he may wrong thee which as Thucidides sets forth was such a justifying argument amongst the Athenians who warranted themselves therein because it was the practice of most men as if it had been the wisdom and rectitude of the nature of mankind though they found both the Lacedemonians and all their smaller Allies confederating against them because they made this their boundless ambition to be a child of justice Since that could not be the off-spring of justice which by more men than those that used it was complained of as an axiom of injustice Neither use those modern Policies which propose a forreign war as a Scavingry of the surplus of the people Nor let thy plenty arise out of others misery by keeping two neighbors in the calamity of war that thou may'st enjoy the plenty of peace But above all Several considerations relating unto a war let not thy vanity or thy glory prevail to exercise thy strength upon thy Neighbors since it is not power but justice that makes a Prince truly glorious True it is the luxury of one Prince and the covetousness of another State may be scourged by the rapacity and vain-glory of a third but God permits what he allows not and Princes are innocent in the acts they do not from the suitableness of their deeds with his pleasure but from the conformity of them to his law Neither was one Prince to surprize another but first to send his Herauld and denounce hostility and to use those other ceremonies which the uprightness of elder times observed or condemned when not observed For since the lives and estates of so many innocent persons are involved in a war humanity requires that if possibly it can it be declined Since the villainous nature hereof could not avoid the allowing frauds ambushes false intelligences and many more stratagems nay knew not how to avoid cruelties and inhumanities and conflagrations which in all other cases would be abhorred for the Soldier like the Huntsman was allowed his gin as well as his bow and might corrupt his enemies men as well as employ his own All which
for their trust Nor is a Prince less than his people because he was trusted either by or for them and even by Gods appointment is to minister to them for their good for the same reason would make Angels lesser than men because Angels are Gods Ministers for the good of men However primarily the Prince or State are trusted for the good of Subjects for they are set over men as the Sun is over the world to enlighten and influence it and they shall be accountable for it but secondarily they are intrusted to maintain the dignity and rights of their own Regal power and not to let every humor of the people disable them to govern by pulling from them the feathers of their prerogatives This subjection which God requires is no unreasonable thing for we perceive it is but a suffering in matters of mens external concerns for as hath been said Governors authorities extend but unto matters of an indifferent nature and it is often pride and impatience which produce complaints Which may appear by this that most commonly when the times are most plentiful and the grievances very tolerable then delicacy of sense renders men most querulous and their sufferings are begot more from their inferences and reasonings of what may follow than what they feel so as they must be beholding to their wit before they can justifie their complaints Reflect on the reign of Charles the First as I have impartially made some Memoires upon it and this will be found true Thus much for the singleness of Government and the non-resistance of Governors But it is objected Is it not more reasonable to have a co-ordinate power joyned with that of the Prince No sure for no Government can admit a distinct equal power within it self for this is but like the doctrine of Polytheism for making many Gods and many Soveraigns are equally absurd Co-ordination considered Co-ordination is like to prove the mother of a civil War However limitation of Soveraignty is agreed on by all Politicians and Civilians to be consistent even with Soveraignty it self Limitation of Soveraignty expouâ—ded for hereby Soveraignty is not taken from the Person or Persons governing tho' to him or them the absoluteness of the execution for some time or in some part of their Soveraign power as not to make Laws without their three States or Orders of Subjects viz. Nobility Clergy and Commons consent be suspended for hereby the power is not transferred unto any other So he or they remain absolute tho' limited for thus as he or they cannot make laws without another so no other body can make them without him or them And when a law is made it is made singly by the Prince if it be in a Monarchy or by the State if it be in an Aristocracy for a limited which we call a mixt Monarchy or a mixt common-weal is in such cases but like a man that is bound or a man that is sleeping he hath temporarily lost his motion but not his strength for as soon as he hath the concurrence of those whose consent he stipulated to take then he is unbound or awakened and then he or they not the Concurrers are said to act solely and soveraignly for the power is virtually in his or their persons in whom the soveraignty lies for it is the Monarchs or the States affirmative voice that makes the law or sanction though it is his or their negative voice that rejects it Thus the Soveraign Person or Persons is the single soul of the law and all this to avoid the ill consequences of co-ordination And hence it is that the true Representative of any people is the Prince in a Monarchy or the States in a Common-weal and from him or them there is no appeal but unto God and wherever the last appeal is there is the Soveraignty And therefore the people abate of their own greatness when they think any represent them but their Prince or State Others may represent them in order to represent their condition good or bad to the Prince as a looking-glass doth represent the body to the heads view but as bearing their image both at home and abroad the Prince only represents the State of that people An unequal league with the Foreigner takes not off supream power Thucydides says Colonies were as free as Mother cities tho' not so reverently mentioned because of their dependence The same may be said of paying tribute because that may be for redeeming an injury or for some acknowledgment of a deliverance but that paid it is all that can be demanded Neither is feudal obligation any deprivation of Soveraignty since that is but a personal obligation or service but gives no right to his Government who is bound to this observance Thus careful Civilians and Politicians are to keep Soveraignty sacred tho' by such ties as these it may appear restrained But least some should grumble at God for giving these great powers unto Princes and States who are but frail men in Gods behalf we will sum up the reasons usually given for it 1. God requires the Princes to rule for the good of their Subjects 2. If they do not he denounces himself a Revenger 3. He requires obedience and non-resistance to prevent Civil dissentions which are usually worse than tyranny for Tyrants usually extend not their oppression upon a whole Nation but upon some particular persons they are displeased with whilst Civil war or popular commotions spread over the whole land and amongst nigh Relations And if Subjects may resist for any one reason from a parity of reason which they will allege they will never want a reason 4. That God often experiments whether Subjects will depend upon his promises to restrain the fierceness of Princes or on their own impatient humors and violences or whether by an humble patience they will wait his time for redress since what men cannot resist at one time they find they may divert at another 5. He subjects People to those pressures because they deserve such a scourge as an ill Prince for being themselves so disobedient to himself or 6thly because very often they force a well natured Prince to be an ill one as Boccalini says the sheep getting into their own mouths to the danger of the Shepherd the dogs teeth or because like the Neapolitan horse if they be well drest and fed they will endure no Rider Lastly because a Princes tyranny can but reach unto the outward man and to the outward things of the man which Gods wise Providence in this world often exposes to wean men from it and to draw them to expect their ultimate happiness or rest in another World Thus tho' a bad as well as a good Prince be thus secured by God To whose tribunal he stands bound God hath not assured him but he will punish him even by permitting an ill Spirit to rise betwixt him and his People and so it is Gods sentence on the Prince tho' a
considerable in the Government even the Multitude or Vulgar or lowest sort of men being very considerable in respect of their very number The Clergy are an order of men set apart among all Nations for the divine services of the God of the land Clergy for the Gentile and Barbarians never wanted their Brachmans or their Druides and every where they were men of prime rank for the natural reverence that was due to their calling gave such an authority to their persons that most commonly they were conversant in the most important affairs of the Nation for here we mention them only in relation to the Civil society none being fitter to interpose betwixt Prince and People than those that interceed with God for both And the respect that is paid to them is a reverence paid to God for upon the same ground Princes Ambassadors are treated with those observances they meet with upon the same are God's Ministers In this order of men God becomes in a manner visible unto us for when we find he hath Servants peculiar to himself a Court or Temple and revenues appropriate for maintenance of both we straight conclude of a surety God is in this place or he is the Lord of this people So as there is no greater evidence that piety decays in a Nation than that they are apt to contest or disrespect their Priests or Ministers Now as this is a valuation due to the Minister of God's word so he himself is to pay a respect unto his own calling and to appear worthy of it and fitted for it for duties are reciprocal and he is God's husbandman and therefore must cultivate his People and if he truly discharge his office in fitting them for another world he fits them best for society in this world and for subjection to the Prince and there is no such way for him to procure the dignity that is due to himself as to exercise the proper virtues of his calling Other tyes or compliances with the humors and manners of a People or becoming like them with them in common conversation begets familiarities but not reverence Piety in themselves and endeavors to make their flock pious or of orderly lives discretion in being friendly and helpful or ready to advise and do good offices a private information or admonition at home or a conversation which recommends that unto particular men out of the pulpit which is preached unto them in it this attracts their good will whilst being unconcerned with or conforming their company to the irregular or negligent habit or custom of others removes the inward esteem they should labour for This ought to be very sincerely Pursued I will no be so uncharitable as to say it is artificially so done by some of the Romanists and by some of the Presbyterians though I believe one gains much of his authority by his indulgences and easie absolutions and the other by his assurances that they carry God's brand to mark the elect with only I wish our Country Clergy would be more strict to follow the rules they receive and I have often heard given them by their Bishops in their visitations for when they influence their flock towards God's service they lead them the easier to be subject chearfully to their Prince's laws and commands And if this Order of men will expect as justly they may the Prince's protection for themselves they owe it him as a duty to keep themselves so in esteem and friendship with their congregations as they may dispose them to his service for if they fall into the envy or disesteem of their Parishioners they who should be an ease and coadjutors of their Prince make their protection a burthen to him or they become as an useless body In this quarrelling and examining age the Governors of the Church should endeavour to make matters of faith treated on with plainness and not mingled with too many distinctions that matters of good life be taught as much by the example of the teachers as his expositions or precepts that their Visitations and Courts of Jurisdiction be not only formal or in maintenance of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or gain or rather for shewing their Orders and paying for it as I have heard no mean men among themselves say than for keeping them in good order especially that their excommunications be upon weighty matters and somewhat that is purely Christian For though contumacy to a Court be a great fault and that this Ecclesiastick Court have no other penal or legal censure yet when the subject matter on which the excommunication is grounded is some civil or mixt concern then this being a spiritual punishment seems so remote that it makes excommunication seem light and draws neglect rather than respect or obedience to the Jurisdiction These good Fathers should be known to be forward to divert a Prince from laying great or unnecessary burthens on their Subjects which if it be perceived by the Subject then this temper in the Clergy will get such a disposition in the Layety as will lead them respectfully to hearken to such doctrines as invite them patiently to bear grievances or pressures since it is an eminent virtue in a Christian Subject to bear with the errors of a remiss Government Thus a Clergy must make themselves as useful as they can in secular affairs both to Prince and People if they would gain upon them in their spiritual concerns and this we may say is an incumbent duty upon them as they are members of a Politick body And in this sense it is that nothing more concerns a Prince in respect of the influence this order of men have on his Subjects than that he provide as God hath done for him that his Clergy depend on no body but himself for if either in the Prince's Ecclesiastical affairs they pretend a Superior authority to his as making themselves depend on a Pope and thereby exempting themselves from the Prince's jurisdiction or that they can wrest themselves into his secular affairs as they have some relation to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical concerns which even Presbytery hath set up a claim unto then this Prince's State and his Subjects obedience will be very precarious and dangerous and his condition not much bettered if Junius Brutus and Buchanan or the Schoolmen and Jesuits be the Interpreters of St. Paul's thirteenth Chapter to the Romans or of St. Peter's 1. Ep. 2. ch v. 13. And the like he may expect from an Enthusiastical Teacher who will be but binding him in chains and his Nobles in links of iron He must not be ignorant therefore that his office supervises theirs and when he hath not encroached upon that spiritual part of their office to which they are properly said to be set apart and consecrated as administring the publick Offices of the Church of praying for and preaching unto and administring the Sacraments then to oversee these Overseers in the good or male-administration of their Offices is his duty and his security And
Precipitation like the warmth of a chimney that hath a tree behind it makes the fruit forward and soft but not mellow and well tasted And thus it fares with all other matters for a forced ripeness prejudices both a good taste and nourishment Council is no where better set forth than in Ecclesiasticus ch 22. v. 16. and 17. It settles the heart upon a thought of understanding or weighs consequences for says he as timber girt and bound together in a building cannot be loosed with shaking so the heart that is stablished by advised council shall fear at no time Confederations A principal work of Council is the deliberating about confederations which are leagues made between several Soveraign Princes independent one on the other The law of human nature obliges all nations to be just and kind unto one another so as when ever they have intercourse with one another they are ty'd unto each other by natural justice as being of one kind or species so as though they never know one another yet they are thus bound to one another if ever they have intercourse or commerce And then all their leagues are but political results of natural justice and wisdom for justice examines the principles of their confederation and wisdom the end of it viz. that it be really for reciprocal and mutual good or that it be just in the beginning and wise in the end And thus from home-affairs we must now transport our selves unto forreign and weigh those things which concern peace and war between several Nations On which subject Grotius has erected an everlasting monument so as this small and fresh stream is but to lead a Novice unto the mouth of the arm of that sea Nations stood in need of one anothers help Nations benefited thereby and were benefitted by one anothers assistance and interchange of native commodities as much as private men of one and the same Nation and City do of one anothers helps in their several trades and professions for reciprocal advantages are the grounds of all common societies Treaties of Peace and War This is the root of all Treaties viz. those of 1. peace or commerce 2. war offensive defensive or both by land Sea 3. and of all other constitutions and agreements All Treaties depend on veracity and sincerity If veracity and sincerity and openness of dealing and plain heartedness planted in man by his Creator for the security of society had not degenerated and been vitiated by covetousness ambition envy and self-love the benefits of society had been the chief comforts of man's life and the whole world had appeared but as the Creator's great family But now nighest relations being apt to deceive one another it is no marvel that forreign Treaties are for the most part deceitful so as a modern learned and good States-man the Lord Cherbury gives it for a rule that in forreign Treaties where a present advantage is but little and a future great it is the wisest thing to take the less because too probably before the time come about wherein the future and greater advantage is to be reaped the face of affairs may be so changed that the stipulated future advantage will be lost I have forgot his words but his sense I think I have not altered Somewhat must be in the matter when Marcus Aurelius I may say the best moral heathen Prince allows in such cases a Prince to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or semi-malus The difficulty of making and keeping leagues and as Cicero says Nec possunt aliter ii quibus commissa est tota Respublica And yet this good man says in another place Ne quid insidiosè ne quid simulatè ne quid fallaciter so as treachery and fallacy and simulation are absolutely rejected whilst dissimulation or a concealing a matter or using worldly prudence or disguise seems allowable because unavoidable for says another Non regent qui non tegent It is one thing if a State be so foolish like an Indian to part with his gold for a bead because he is pleased with it and another if the Merchant should aver his bead was of an intrinsick value through the whole world with the others gold Sure I am injustice and breach of faith agrees not with humanity less than will it square with Christianity the root of man's misery is in not daring to trust himself unto the law of his own nature and the providence of his Maker Equivocal words in Treaties have been very pleasant to the palate of those Equivocal words that first gave them but have been very bitter in the stomack afterwards Charles the fifth for pressing upon the Landgrave of Hesse an exposition which suited not with the Duke of Saxe's promise to his Father-in-law the Landgrave though Saxe was made Elector by the same Emperor yet made such a confederation against him as drove the Emperor out of Germany If a Prince ignorantly or passionately wave the true interest of his Nation or too strongly stem the tide of his Peoples inclination such Treaties never last long and yet a wise Prince may rather give way unto the torrent of some prosperous Prince and bow to his fortune than put matters to the hazard of a doubtful war Thus such as are drawn from their proper interest by an unavoidable necessity are pardoned for making such abrupt changes or giving such assistances as Boccalini says the smaller Princes of Italy were by Apollo since men of their small interest in the world though it be an indecent thing says he must chew their meat on both sides their chops Thus Italy did betwixt Charles the eighth and Ferdinand and Charles the fifth and Francis the first But it is the dishonour of Christianity that Treaties are so solemnly made nay and sworn unto and yet so easily broken and so 〈◊〉 by that high Priest who pretends to be the Vicar of the man nay of the God of truth dispensed with And therefore after all these ceremonies sometimes Princes are forced to give hostages and 〈◊〉 giving hostages sometimes we find a Prince rather abate of his natural affection than prejudice his affairs of State So as Francis the first chose rather to give his Sons for hostages thâ—â— twelve of his principal Ministers of State Hence it is The difficulties that attend upon Treaties there is no profession hath more need of artifices than that of an Ambassador or Secretary of State The very preliminaries to a Treaty have oftentimes as much picking work and thorny circumstances as the Treaty it self for when two Princes in difference are both weary of their distances or contention and so both affected towards a reconciliation some punctilio arises how they may have a right intelligence and yet neither seem forwarder to a peace than the other For then a third Prince must make that to be an act of his good affection which is a strong desire of them both and he must make
cheaper from one part than another by reason of the multitude of labourers or artists and the little wages is given in one part of a Country in proportion to another or by reason of the conveniency of carriage The King lives by the field as was said before therefore husbandry is to be as much cherished as any trade for it breeds healthy and strong men and sit for arms and so in an island Mariners ought to be a principal care of the State Every Government hath an interest in the labours and in the manner of labouring of their people and therefore they are to be drawn off from ill customs or from deceitful working as the Irish were from fixing their plough to the horse tail or the Clothiers from so working their cloths as they shrink too much or over-tenter them c. Voiture or making carriage easie by cutting rivers providing high-ways to be well kept and pastable nay providing they be secure against the thieves ought to be a care of the State in relation even unto trade for the industrious man must be secured by the State in his habitation The things which secure trade and in his passages from place to place with his commodity least the wasps and drones prey on the hive and drive the bee from her industry therefore easie pardons to thieves and highway-men is a destruction to trade Monopolers are another sort of thieves for they impose what rates they please upon a necessary commodity and rob the buyer as well as the labourer whom they force to work at their own rates when they have engrossed a commodity into their own hands A State must therefore secure the Subjects property and endeavor to raise his industry and to countenance his ingenuity in any thing that promotes trade as framing engines or any thing that furthers it It must provide against the rich oppressing the poor Tradesman that too often must borrow by not taking too great or biting usury or such broakage as makes the poor laborious honest man or trader only work for the wealthy idle hard hearted person It must give immunities priviledges and encouragements to all kind of industry It must in some sort force men to promote publick good as to prohibit men not to turn their tillage too much into pasturage for that will depopulate It may require them to plant woods and hemp and flax or what else may become materials for a manufactury for where-ever there are most manufacturies there will be most people and a multitude of people is not only the honour of a Prince and the security of his land but his wealth To look after confederacies of men of a trade as the Grazier by combination not to impose prizes on the Butcher nor the Butcher by arts and wiles in taking most of the pasturage about a great market town to cut the grass under the Grazier's foot or becoming of two trades or both Grazier and Butchers or by confederacy of these two both to set the dice on the buyer The same we may say of Colliers and Wood-men and such other trades the Common-weal cannot be without for a confederation among Tradesmen must not enhance the prices on the Gentry and Nobility as little as the Tradesman must confederate against the Handycraftsman or Manufacturer Forreign trade All the former considerations and many more than I can think of belong to home trade But forreign trade is more nighly to be considered because if that be not well ballanced the profit runs to another Nation Deceits of home trade impoverish particular men but the treasure remains in the Kingdom These have their inconveniencies great enough for when parts are unequally strong the whole body is the weaker for break the order of any thing and you break its strength for here is not the overflowing of an humor but the cutting of a joynt or limb Most immediately belonging unto the Soveraign's care Unto the Soveraign therefore belongs the consideration and regulation more immediately of this trade He therefore makes leagues of commerce with forreign Princes and Treaties of Maritime affairs or how his subjects shall be used in trade and on the sea and reciprocally how he shall use others therefore the ports of the sea are his that he may let in and let out such commodities only as he finds benefits his People The customs impositions and rates of commodities are set by him and are alterable that trade in general and particular commodities may be ballanced with those carried out for if the subjects of one Prince have his gain in trading eaten out by the impositions of the other or if one Nation furnishes commodities of necessity for the other and the other for luxury for them it 's soon determined who will gain by the trade or who will eat out the other and the subject is not to be trusted though it be his own concern in this but restrained because few men will avoid those expences which gratifie their lusts Our French trade for wines our Canary trade which formerly was driven by commodities and now by money and so our trade to Zant for currans demonstrates this It is not so with our India trade though we carry out even gold and silver for it because our revending those commodities in other parts brings us as much back in specie or bills of exchange What is a thriving trade to a nation Trade therefore is not to be cherished as it enriches the Merchant or as it increases the Soveraign's revenue but as it brings wealth and a wealth that will remain and stay amongst us unto the Nation or as it passes into the habit of the body not strengthens particularly the head or some member The trade that brings in more wealth to stay in the Kingdom than it carries out that which having repaid its charges and leaves a surplusage that is a thriving trade to a Nation or that which brings into it treasure and no other for neither Princes nor Merchants gain can compensate the loss of the Nations stock that is properly called the overballance which thus inriches the Nation Neither the nation nor civil men should ingross trade or work deceitfully There are few trades in any Nation but some Forreigner is his rival in them and therefore if one work his commodity deceitfully and the other substantially which the wearing will shew the market will assuredly run to them Nothing better secures trade than the true manufacturing of its commodities It is part therefore of the care of a State that no person or company employ ill or raw workmen for a pound of wooll which may cost six or eight pence if it be well wrought may be worth two shillings or half a crown but if ill wrought not scarce one Besides when this is once discerned the credit of the Nation as well as of the manufactury decreases He therefore rightly determined that said Better feed your poor and let them be idle than
permit them slightly to work any manufactury Neither must the Merchant be permitted to adulterate or sophisticate his commodity Nor should any office be set up under pretence of visiting the commodity and discovering the abuse as with us is the Aulnage and exercises it self in tolerating it for it is pernicious unless the true end of it be preserved and then it 's of good use for the publick not only in the dishonour but in the vent of the commodity pays dearly the price of such a Patent There are too too many more instances to be found but I fell upon this because it wounds us in our chief staple commodity Our State should be more careful of this than other States for to our shame we must confess it our Nation in its genius at least in individual persons is too much given to laziness and to affect a sudden gain and return and not to affect publick works or such as require time to ripen or such as relate to posterity or such as conduce to the honour of the Nation and not present and personal profit This humor the Physicians of our State by laws and rules of Government which should be obeyed should purge out and endeavour to raise a publick mindedness in particular men If Holland had had this humor it had never been rich but their publick spirit with their frugality and industry hath made them valuable in the opinion of a Philosopher as well as considerable in the eye of the whole world Had they had our scituation many and safe harbors shipping of such timber and so well built such staple commodities as Cloths Stuffs Bays c. Tin Lead and Leather Corn Fishing Saffron or such means to have made free ports or magazines for all Nations upon small customs to have waited for their markets too too probably they would have eat us out of our Trade as we for these last two Kings the Fathers and the Sons great care and encouragement of Trade and by many worthy knowing and wealthy Merchants who have corrected much of our ill National genius have born up with and overborn them therein The advantages of trade manufacturies and shipping for the trade of England is great and highly valuable for few rightly consider how many live on the land by those few who swim on the sea How many Factories are employed about building but one ship The Timber Merchant the Ironmonger the Carpenter the Smith the Ropemaker c. Navigation begets many manufacturies and is not only a wealth but a security unto a Nation for the plough or keel at sea breeds as many lusty Lads and more daring than those at land It 's a part of the care and wisdom of a State that their subjects be bred laboriously especially the poor Lads that are put out to apprentiships by the charity of Parishes that they be kept to the plough or to the keel and not made Footboys or idle Tapsters c. or multiply small trades c. I believe the present great King of the world who had never been considederable at sea but as he fomented jealousies betwixt us and Holland who like the acorn covered his first growth under this shrub till he thrust out his head above it and then dropt so fast that he by his own power and ours craftily managed endangered both of us I say Navigation too likely to set up the greatness of France I believe he had never affected to have been an East and West Indian Merchant but as he foresaw with old Rome in vain it was to affect the universal European land or Monarchy without he became considerable at Sea So as though he sails unto both Indies yet thereby he hopes to fall upon Holland and England Nor had he become considerable but as the jealousies of Holland towards us shrowded him till he thrust forth a top that will shade us both unless we hold a stricter correspondence and confidence in each other than hitherto we have done and we have sufficiently smarted for the deceitful assistance he gave us and they by the invasion he made upon them may think what he then regorged he may hereafter retain But he that sets bounds to the sea can to his prosperity otherwise humanly speaking and considering his policies to divide confederates and the untempered mortar they have to hold themselves together we may prophesie hard things without the spirit of prophesie But upon this subject of Navigation he came so strongly into my phancy that I could not decline the folly of saying thus much because of the future danger But to revert to our proper subject matter trade No nation can be great or rich that abounds not in some part of his dominions in shipping or who neglects trade and who hath not in his own dominions or imports not materials for manufacturies Yet it is no policy to think to engross it or be monarchs of it as Holland hath for a time affected and pursued that sea-monarchy as eagerly as Charles the fifth or Francis the first did the land monarchy but it is wisdom to divide the profit with neighbour Nations amicably We throve not when we could not content our selves with the manufactory of our cloths but must prohibit the transporting white and undy'd Merchandizing like the sea shore is made smooth and even both among our selves and Forreigners Companies or trade managed by them under a regulation not by governing all parts of it by Companies or wholly excluding Neighbours Companies for home and nigh trades are not very advantagious They are always of most use when they exclude no private traders and yet they cannot subsist if all Interlopers be under no restraint therefore it may be well thought that no man should be permitted freely to trade where Companies are erected but under the regulation of that Company nor that Company make such chargeable by-laws as should discourage young and free traders therefore Companies may by a Council of State or Parliaments be well countenanced if regulated so as they should admit private Traders upon such rules as the Council of State not themselves should set down as equal betwixt both Two Companies we have viz. that of the East-Indies and the Turky which trades would soon fall to irreparable disorder if they were not supported by such pillars The great covetous rapacious Statesmen in either of these Countries and places would soon dash private Merchants against one another and one Nations bribes would eat their Neighbours out if the wisdom of such societies prevented it not The East-India Company in Holland is a little monarchy Amsterdam hath a half Middlebrough and Zealand a fourth Horn and Enchuysen a sixth and the small remain we may say serves to gratifie such interloping persons or places as they will admit of The soveraignty of this trade is in the States General who renew the Charter upon a considerable fine to this Company usually once in years Had we not a trade in