A Short HISTORY OF Standing Armies IN ENGLAND Captique dolis donisque coacti Quos neque Tydides nec Larissaeus Achilles Non anni domuere decem non mille Carinae Virg. Aen. ii LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII The PREFACE THERE is nothing in which the generality of Mankind are so much mistaken as when they talk of Government The different Effects of it are obvious to every one but few can trace its Causes Most Men having indigested Ideas of the Nature of it attribute all public Miscarriages to the corruption of Mankind They think the whole Mass is infected that it 's impossible to make any Reformation and so submit patiently to their Countries Calamities or else share in the Spoil whereas Complaints of this kind are as old as the World and every Age has thought their own the worst We have not only our own Experience but the Example of all Times to prove that Men in the same Circumstances will do the same things call them by what names of distinction you please A Government is a mere piece of Clockwork and having such Springs and Wheels must act after such a manner and therfore the Art is to constitute it so that it must move to the public Advantage It is certain that every Man will act for his own Interest and all wise Goverments are founded upon that Principle So that this whole Mystery is only to make the Interest of the Governors and Governed the same In an absolute Monarchy where the whole Power is in one Man his Interest will be only regarded In an Aristocracy the Interest of a few and in a free Government the Interest of every one This would be the Case of England if som Abuses that have lately crept into our Constitution were remov'd The freedom of this Kingdom depends upon the Peoples chusing the House of Commons who are a part of the Legislature and have the sole power of giving Mony Were this a true Representative and free from external Force or privat Bribery nothing could pass there but what they thought was for the public Advantage For their own Interest is so interwoven with the Peoples that if they act for themselves which every one of them will do as near as he can they must act for the common Interest of England And if a few among them should find it their Interest to abuse their Power it will be the Interest of all the rest to punish them for it and then our Government would act mechanically and a Rogue will as naturally be hang'd as a Clock strike twelve when the Hour is com This is the Fountain-Head from whence the People expect all their Happiness and the redress of their Grievances and if we can preserve them free from Corruption they will take care to keep every body else so Our Constitution seems to have provided for it by never suffering the King till Charles the Second's Reign to have a Mercenary Army to frighten them into a Compliance nor Places or Revenues great enough to bribe them into it The Places in the King's Gift were but few and most of them Patent Places for Life and the rest great Offices of State enjoy'd by single Persons which seldom fell to the share of the Commons such as the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Privy-Seal Lord High-Admiral c. and when these Offices were possess'd by the Lords the Commons were severe Inquisitors into their Actions Thus the Government of England continu'd from the time that the Romans quitted the Island to the time of Charles the First who was the first I have read of that made an Opposition to himself in the House of Commons the road to Preferment of which the Earl of Strafford and Noy were the most remarkable Instances who from great Patriots became the chief Assertors of Despotic Power But this serv'd only to exasperat the rest for he had not Places enough for all that expected them nor Mony enough to bribe them 'T is true he rais'd great Sums of Mony upon the People but it being without Authority of Parliament and having no Army to back him it met with such Difficulties in the raising that it did him little good and ended at last in his ruin tho by the means of a long and miserable War which brought us from one Tyranny to another for the Army had got all things into their Power and govern'd the Nation by a Council of War which made all Parties join in calling in Charles the Second So that he came in with the general applause of the People who in a kind fit gave him a vast Revenue for Life By this he was enabled to raise an Army and bribe the Parliament which he did to the purpose but being a luxurious Prince he could not part with great Sums at once He only fed them from hand to mouth So that they found it as necessary to keep him in a constant Dependence upon them as they had upon him They knew he would give them ready Mony no longer than he had absolute necessity for them and he had not Places enough in his disposal to secure a Majority in the House for in those early days the art was not found out of splitting and multiplying Places as instead of a Lord Tr r to have Five Lords of the Tr ry instead of a Lord Ad l to have Seven Lords of the Ad ty to have Seven Commissioners of the C ms Nine of the Ex ze Fourteen of the N vy Office Ten of the St mp Office Eight of the Pr ze Office Sixteen of the Commissioners of Tr de Two of the P st Office Four of the Transports Four for Hackny Coaches Four for Wine-Licenses Four for the Victualling Office and multitudes of other Offices which are endless to enumerat I believe the Gentlemen who have the good Fortune to be in som of these Imployments will think I complement them if I should say they have not bin better executed since they were in so many hands than when in fewer and I must confess I see no reason why they may not be made twice as many and so ad infinitum unless the number be ascertain'd by Parliament and what danger this may be to our Constitution I think of with Horror For if in Ages to com they should be all given to Parliament Men what will becom of our so much boasted Liberty what shall be don when the Criminal becoms the Judg and the Malefactors are left to try themselves We may be sure their common danger will unite them and they will all stand by one another I do not speak this by guess for I have read of a Country where there was a constant Series of mismanagement for many Years together and yet no body was punish'd and even in our own Country I believe som Men now alive can remember the time when if the King had but twenty more Places in his disposal or disposed of those he had to the best
that were then made but being afterwards obliged to go to Ireland to suppress a Rebellion there the People took advantage of it and dethron'd him The Nation had such a Specimen in this Reign of a Standing Army that I don't find any King from him to Charles the 1st that attemted keeping up any Forces in time of Peace except the Yeomen of the Guard who were constituted by Henry the 7th and tho there were several Armies raised in that time for French Scotch Irish other foren and domestic Wars yet they were constantly disbanded as soon as the occasion was over And in all the Wars of York and Lancaster whatever party prevail'd we don't find they ever attemted to keep up a Standing Army Such was the virtue of those times that they would rather run the hazard of forfeiting their Heads and Estates to the rage of the opposit Party than certainly inslave their Country tho they themselves were to be the Tyrants Nor would they suffer our Kings to keep up an Army in Ireland tho there were frequent Rebellions there and by that means their Subjection very precarious as well knowing they would be in England when called for In the first three hundred Years that the English had possession of that Country there were no Armies there but in times of War The first Force that was establish'd was in the 14th of Edward the forrth when 120 Archers on Horseback 40 Horsemen and 40 Pages were establish'd by Parliament there which six Years after were reduc'd to 80 Archers and 20 Spearmen on Horseback Afterwards in Henry the Eighth's time in the Year 1535 the Army in Ireland was 300 and in 1543 they were increased to 380 Horse and 160 Foot which was the Establishment then I speak this of times of Peace for when the Irish were in Rebellion which was very frequent the Armies were much more considerable In Queen Mary's time the Standing Forces were about 1200. In most of Queen Elizabeth's Reign the Irish were in open Rebellion but when they were all suppress'd the Army establish'd was between 1500 and 2000 about which number they continued till the Army rais'd by Strafford the 15th of Charles the 1st In the Year 1602 dy'd Queen Elizabeth and with her all the Virtue of the Plantagenets and the Tudors She made the English Glory sound thro the whole Earth She first taught her Country the advantages of Trade set bounds to the Ambition of France and Spain assisted the Dutch but would neither permit them or France to build any great Ships kept the Keys of the Rivers Maes and Scheld in her own hands and died with an uncontrol'd Dominion of the Seas and Arbitress of Christendom All this she did with a Revenue not exceeding 300000 pounds per Annum and had but inconsiderable Taxes from her People No sooner was King James come to the Crown but all the Reputation we had acquir'd in her glorious Reign was eclips'd and we became the scorn of all Nations about us contemned even by that State we had created who insulted us at Sea seiz'd Amboyna Poleroon Seran and other Places in the East-Indies by which they ingross'd that most profitable Trade of Spices fish'd upon our Coasts without paying the customary Tribute and at the same time prevail'd with the King to deliver up the Cautionary Towns of Brill Ramekins and Flushing for a very small Consideration tho there were near six Millions Arrears He squandred the public Treasure discountenanc'd all the great Men who were rais'd in the glorious Reign of his Predecessor cut off Sir Walter Raleigh's Head advanc'd Favorites of his own Men of no Merit to the highest Preferment and to maintain their Profuseness he granted them Monopolies infinit Projects prostituted Honors for Mony rais'd Benevolences and Loans without Authority of Parliament And when these Grievances were complain'd of there he committed many of the principal Members without Bail or Mainprise as he did afterwards for presuming to address him against the Spanish Match He pardon'd the Earl of Somerset and his Wife for Sir Thomas Overbury's Murder after he had imprecated all the Curses of Heaven upon himself and his Posterity and it was generally thought because the Earl was Accessary to the poisoning Prince Henry He permitted his Son-in-law to be ejected out of his Principalities and the Protestant Interest to be run down in Germany and France while he was bubled nine Years together with the hopes of the Spanish Match and a great Fortune Afterwards he made a dishonorable Treaty of Marriage with France giving the Papists Liberty of Conscience and indeed as he often declared he was no otherwise an Enemy to Popery than for their deposing of Kings and King-killing Doctrin In Ireland he gave them all the Incouragement he durst which Policy has bin follow'd by all his Successors since to this present Reign and has serv'd 'em to two purposes One is by this they have had a pretence to keep up Standing Armies there to aw the Natives and the other that they might make use of the Natives against their English Subjects In this Reign that ridiculous Doctrin of Kings being Jure Divino was coin'd never before heard of even in the Eastern Tyrannies The other parts of his Government had such a mixture of Scharamuchi and Harlequin that they ought not to be spoken of seriously as Proclamations upon every Trifle som against talking of News Letters to the Parliament telling them he was an old and wise King that State Affairs were above their reach and therfore they must not meddle with them and such like Trumpery But our happiness was that this Prince was a great Coward and hated the sight of a Soldier so that he could not do much against us by open force At last he died as many have believed by Poison to make room for his Son Charles the First This King was a great Bigot which made him the Darling of the Clergy but having no great reach of his own and being govern'd by the Priests who have bin always unfortunat when they have meddled with Politics with a true Ecclesiastic Fury he drove on to the destruction of all the Liberties of England This King 's whole Reign was one continued Act against the Laws He dissolv'd his first Parliament for presuming to inquire into his Father's Death tho he lost a great Sum of Mony by it which they had voted him He entred at the same time into a War with France and Spain upon the privat Piques of Buckingham who managed them to the eternal Dishonor and Reproach of the English Nation witness the ridiculous Enterprizes upon Cadiz and the Isle of Rhee He deliver'd Pennington's Fleet into the French hands betray'd the poor Rochellers and suffered the Protestant Interest in France to be quite extirpated He rais'd Loans Excises Coat and Conduct-mony Tunnage and Poundage Knighthood and Ship-mony without Authority of Parliament impos'd new Oaths on the Subjects to discover the value of their Estates
with as they came to Town 't was whisper'd about that the Whigs would be all turn'd out of Imployments a new Plot was said to be discover'd for murdering the King and searches were made at Midnight thro the whole City to the discovery of plenty of Fornication but no Traitors The Placemongers consulted among themselves and found by a wonderful Sympathy they were all of one Opinion and if by any means they could get a few more to be of the same the day was their own so they were positive of success and very sure they should carry it by above a hundred Voices The House had not sat a week but this matter came to be debated and the question in the Committee was Whether all Forces rais'd since the year 80 should be disbanded which was carried in the Affirmative the Court being not able to bring it to a division and the next day when it was reported they did not attemt to set aside the Vote but to recommit it upon pretence it tied the King to the old Tory Regiments tho by the way none of those Regiments have bin since disbanded and som said they thought the Forces in 80 too many I can safely say tho I had frequent discourse with many of them yet I never heard any one of them at that time pretend to be for a greater force than this Vote left the King but let what will be their reasons it was carried against them by a majority of 37 the Affirmatives being 185 and the Negatives 148. I will not here take notice of what som People have said viz. That of the 148 who were for recommitting the Vote 116 had Places because I doubt the fact nor do I believe their Places would biass them This was a thorow Victory and required great skill and address to retrieve The fears of France were again multiplied 't was said there was a privat Article that King James was to Ieave France which the French refused to perform that Boufflers and the Earl of Portland had given one another the Lie that som of the latter's Retinue had bin kill'd that the French Ambassador was stop'd the King of Spain dead and abundance more to this purpose The Club was set up at the R great Applications made the Commission of the Excise was declared to be broke by which nine Commissioners Places were to be disposed of and above 40 Persons named for them and many of the Country Gentlemen were gon home Thus recruited they were ready for a new Encounter and since by the Rules of the House they could not set aside the former Vote directly they would try to do it by a side wind which was by moving that directions might be given to the Committee of Ways and Means to consider to a supply for Guards and Garisons but the other side to obviat this offered these words as an Amendment viz. According to the Vote of the 11th of December This matter was much labored and the Gentlemen that were against the Army explain'd themselves and declar'd they were not for obliging the King to the Regiments in 80 but that they insisted only on the number and he might choose what Regiments he pleased By this means they carried it but not without great opposition tho I presume from none of those Gentlemen whodeclared in all Places they were for recommitting the former Vote only for the reasons before given besides they were forced to explain themselves out of a considerable part of it for they allowed the King the Dutch Regiments and the Tangeriners which in my opinion could not be well understood by the former Vote the meaning of which seems to be that the King should have all the Forces that Charles the 2d had in 80 in England and these were not then here the Holland Regiments being paid by the States and their Soldiers and the others 500 Leagues off at Tangier But all this advantage would not satisfy the Army-Gentlemen for in the Committee they indeavored again to set aside the Vote by moving for a sum of 500000 pounds per annum for Guards and Garisons without naming any certain number which would have maintain'd above 20000 but this could not be carried therfore they came to a fort of Composition to have but 10000 wherof a great number were to be Horse and Dragoons and the Sum given to maintain them was 350000 pounds but notwithstanding this they moved afterwards for 3000 Marines alledging that these were not a Land-Force but a Water-Force which was carried Here I will beg leave to observe one thing that nothing would satisfy the Courtiers at the beginning of the Winter but to have the Forces establish'd by the Parliament and upon other Terms they would not accept them and in all Companys said that any Minister that advis'd the King to keep them up otherwise or any Officer that continued his Commission ought to be attainted of High Treason about which I shall nor differ with these Gentlemen nor do I arraign them for altering their opinion for perhaps they may conceive that a Vore to give 350000 pounds for Guards and Garisons is a sufficient Authority against Law to quarter Soldiers in all parts of England as well out of Garisons as in 'em and as well at a distance from the King's Person as about it This what our Courts for above a thousand years together had never Effrontery enough to ask what the Pensioner Parliament could not think of without astonishment what King James's Parliament that was almost chosen by himself could not hear debated with patience we are likely to have the honor of establishing in our own age even under a Deliverance Now we will examin how far they have complied with the Resolutions of the House of Commons Having so far gained upon the first Vote by the means before related 't was not easy to be imagined but they would nicely perform the rest without any art or evasion but instead of this they reform'd a certain number of Men out of every Troop and Company and kept up all the Officers who are the most essential and chargeable part of an Army the privat Soldiers being to be rais'd again in a few days whenever they please This is such a disbanding as every Officer would have made in his Company for his privat advantage and always did in Charles the 2d's time and even in this Reign when they were not in action so that all the effect of such a Reform is to hinder the Officers from false Musters and save the pay of a few common Soldiers But this would not satisfy the People and therfore they disbanded som Regiments of Horse Foot and Dragoons and thought of that profound Expedient of sending a great many more to Ireland as if our grievance was not the fear of being enslav'd by them but lest they should spend their Mony among us I am sorry the Nation is grown so contemtible in these Gentlemens opinions as to think that they can