44 104 780 928 Stranaver's 13 44 104 780 928  13 44 104 780 928 All the Forces in Holland 78 264 624 4680 5568  ☞ SO that his Majesty's whole Army consists of 813 3612 6420 49937 59969 Of these seven thousand eight hundred and seventy seven are Foreigners which is the first foreign Army that ever set foot in England but as Enemies Since the writing of this I am informed that Brudenall's Regiment is in being and that Eppinger's Dragoons are in English Pay which if true will make the whole Army sixty odd thousand Men but in this as well as many other Parts of the List I may be mistaken for which I hope I shall be excused when I acquaint the Reader that I was forced to pick it out from accidental Discourses with Officers having apply'd to my Lord R 's Office without Success tho I made such Interest for it as upon another occasion would not have bin refused If the Prince of Orange in his Declaration instead of telling us that we should be settled upon such a foundation that there should be no danger of our falling again into Slavery and that he would send back all his Forces as soon as that was done had promis'd us that after an eight Years War which should leave us in Debt near twenty Millions we should have a Standing Army establish'd a great many of which should be Foreigners I believe few Men would have thought such a Revolution worth the hazard of their Lives and Estates but his mighty Soul was above such abject thoughts as these his Declaration was his own these paltry Designs are our Undertakers who would shelter their own Oppressions under his Sacred Name I would willingly know whether the late King James could have inslaved us but by an Army and whether there is any way of scouring us from falling again into Slavery but by disbanding them It was in that sense I understood his Majesty's Declaration and therfore did early take up Arms for him as I shall be always ready to do It was this alone which made his assistance necessary to us otherwise we had wanted none but the Hangman 's I will venture to say that if this Army dos not make us Slaves we are the only People upon Earth in such Circumstances that ever escap'd it with the 4th part of their number It is a greater force than Alexander conquer'd the East with than Caesar had in his Conquest of Gaul or indeed the whole Roman Empire double the number that any of our Ancestors ever invaded France with Agesilaus the Persians or Huniades and Scanderbeg the Turkish Empire as many again as was in any Battel between the Dutch and Spaniards in forty Years War or betwixt the King and Parliament in England four times as many as the Prince of Orange landed with in England and in short as many as have bin on both sides in nine Battels of ten that were ever fought in the World If this Army dos not inslave us it is barely because we have a virtuous Prince that will not attemt it and 't is a most miserable thing to have no other Security for our Liberty than the Will of a Man tho the most just Man living for that is not a free Government where there is a good Prince for even the most arbitrary Governments have had somtimes a Relaxation of their Miseries but where it is so constituted that no one can be a Tyrant if he would Cicero says tho a Master dos not tyrannize yet 't is a lamentable consideration that it is in his power to do so and therfore such a Power is to be trusted to none which if it dos not find a Tyrant commonly makes one and if not him to be sure a Successor If any one during the Reign of Charles the Second when those that were call'd Whigs with a noble Spirit of Liberty both in the Parliament House and in private Companies oppos'd a few Guards as Badges of Tyranny a Destruction to our Constitution and the Foundations of a Standing Army I say if any should have told them that a Deliverer should com and rescue them from the Oppressions under which they then labor'd that France by a tedious and consumtive War should be reduc'd to half the Power it then had and even at that time they should not only be passive but use their utmost Interest and distort their Reason to find out Arguments for keeping up so vast an Army and make the Abuses of which they had bin all their lives complaining Precedents to justify those Procedings whoever would have told them this must have bin very regardless of his Reputation and bin thought to have had a great deal of ill nature But the truth is we have lived in an Age of Miracles and there is nothing so extravagant that we may not expect to see when surly Patriots grow servil Flatterers old Commonwealthsmen declare for the Prerogative and Admirals against the Fleet. But I wonder what Arguments in nature our Hirelings will think of for keeping up an Army this year Good Reasons lie within a narrow Compass and might be guessed at but non-sense is infinit The Arguments they chiefly insisted upon last year were That it was uncertain whether the French King would deliver up any of his Towns if we disbanded our Army that King James had 18000 Men at his devotion kept by the King of France that a great Fleet was preparing there upon som unknown Design that the King of Spain was dying that there was no Militia settled and that they would keep them up only for a year to see how the world went This with a few Lies about my Lord Portland's and Bouffler's quarrelling and som Prophecies of our being invaded in six months was the substance of what was said or printed Now in fact the French King has deliver'd up Giron Roses Belver Barcelona and a great part of the Province of Catalonia The Town and Province of Luxemburg and the County of Chiny the Towns of Mons Charleroy Courtray and Aeth in the Spanish Provinces to the King of Spain The Town of Dinant to the Bishop of Leige The Towns of Pignerol Cazal Susa Montmelian Nice Villa Franca all Savoy and part of Piemont to the Duke of Savoy The Cities of Treves Germensheim and the Palatinat the County of Spanheim Veldentz and Dutchy of Deuxponts the County of Mombelliand and som Possessions of Burgundy the Forts of Kiel Friburg St. Peterfort Destoile the Town of Philipsburg and most of Alsace Eberenburg and the Dutchy of Lorrain to the Empire has demolished Hunningen Montroyal and Kernburg He has delivered up the Principality of Orange to the King of England These are vast Countries and contain in bigness as much ground as the Kingdom of England and maintained the King of France above 100000 Men besides he had laid out vast Sums in the Fortifications he delivered up and demolished Add to this his Kingdom is miserably impoverished and
imprisoned great numbers of the most considerable Gentry and Merchants for not paying his Arbitrary Taxes som he sent beyond Sea and the poorer sort he prest for Soldiers He kept Soldiers upon free Quarter and executed Martial Law upon them He granted Monopolies without number and broke the bounds of the Forests He erected Arbitrary Courts and inlarg'd others as the High Commission-Court the Star-Chamber Court of Honor Court of Requests c. and unspeakable Oppressions were committed in them even to Men of the first Quality He commanded the Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Lincoln not to com to Parliament committed and prosecuted a great many of the most eminent Members of the House of Commons for what they did there som for no cause at all and would not let them have the benefit of Habeas Corpus suspended and confin'd Arch-Bishop Abbot because he would not license a Sermon that asserted Despotic Power whatever other cause was pretended He suspended the Bishop of Glocester for refusing to swear never to consent to alter the Government of the Church supported all his Arbitrary Ministers against the Parliament telling them he wondred at the foolish Impudence of any one to think he would part with the meanest of his Servants upon their account and indeed in his Speeches or rather Menaces he treated them like his Footmen calling them Undutiful Seditious and Vipers He brought unheard of Innovations into the Church preferred Men of Arbitrary Principles and inclinable to Popery especially those Firebrands Laud Mountague and Manwaring one of whom had bin complain'd of in Parliament another impeach'd for advancing Popery and the third condemn'd in the House of Lords He dispensed with the Laws against Papists and both encourag'd and prefer'd them He called no Parliament for twelve years together and in that time govern'd as arbitrarily as the Grand Seignior He abetted the Irish Massacre as appears by their producing a Commission under the Great Seal of Scotland by the Letter of Charles the 2d in favor of the Marquess of Antrim by his stopping the Succors that the Parliament sent to reduce Ireland six months under the Walls of Chester by his entring into a Treaty with the Rebels after he had ingaged his Faith to the Parliament to the contrary and bringing over many thousands of them to sight against his People It is endless to enumerat all the Oppressions of his Reign but having no Army to support him his Tyranny was precarious and at last his ruin Tho he extorted great Sums from the People yet it was with so much difficulty that it did him little good Besides he spent so much in Foolish Wars and Expeditions that he was always behind-hand yet he often attemted to raise an Army Upon pretence of the Spanish and French War he rais'd many thousand Men who liv'd upon free Quarter and rob'd and destroy'd wherever they came But being unsuccessful in his Wars abroad and prest by the Clamors of the People at home he was forc'd to disband them In 1627 he sent over 30000 l. to Holland to raise 3000 German Horse to force his arbitrary Taxes but this matter taking wind and being examin'd by the Parliament Orders were sent to countermand them In the 15th year of his Reign he gave a Commission to Strafford to raise 8000 Irish to be brought into England but before they could get hither the Scots were in Arms for the like Oppressions and marched into Northumberland which forcing him to call a Parliament prevented that design and so that Army was disbanded Soon after he rais'd an Army in England to oppose the Scots and tamper'd with them to march to London and dissolve the Parliament but this Army being composed for the most part of the Militia and the matter being communicated to the House who immediatly fell on the Officers that were Members as Ashburnham Wilmot Pollard c. the design came to nothing After this there was a Pacification between the King and the Scots and in pursuance of it both Armies were disbanded Then he went to Scotland and indeavor'd to prevail with them to invade England but that not doing he sent a Message to the Parliament desiring their concurrence in the raising 3000 Irish to be lent to the King of Spain to which the Parliament refused to consent believing he would make another use of them When he came back to London he pick'd out 3 or 400 dissolute Fellows out of Taverns gaming and brothel-Houses kept a Table for them and with this goodly Guard all arm'd he entred the House of Commons sat down in the Speaker's Chair demanding the delivery of 5 Members But the Citizens coming down by Land and Water with Musquets upon their Shoulders to defend the Parliament he attemted no further This so inrag'd the House that they chose a Guard to defend themselves against future Insults and the King soon after left London Som time before this began the Irish Rebellion where the Irish pretended the King's Authority and shew'd the Great Seal to justify themselves which whether true or false raised such a jealousy in the People that he was forced to consent to leave the management of that War to the Parliament yet he afterwards sent a Message to them telling them he would go to Ireland in Person and acquainted them that he had issued out Commissions for raising 2000 Foot and 200 Horse in Cheshire for his Guard which they protested against and prevented it By this we may see what Force was thought sufficient in his Reign to inslave the Nation and the frequent Attemts to get it Then the Civil Wars broke out between him and his People in which many bloody Battels were fought two of the most considerable were those of Newbury and Naseby both won by new Soldiers the first by the London Militia and the latter by an unexperienc'd Army which the King used to call in derision the New Nodel And som years after the Battel of Worcester was in a great measure won by the Country Militia for which Cromwel discharged them with anger and contemt as knowing them Instruments unsit to promote his Tyrannical Designs At last by the fate of the War the King became a Prisoner and the Parliament treated with him while in that condition and at the same time voted that som part of the Army should be disbanded and others sent to Ireland to reduce that Kingdom upon which the Army chose Agitators among themselves who presented a Petition to both Houses that they would proceed to settle the Affairs of the Kingdom and declare that no part of the Army should be disbanded till that was don But finding their Petition resented they sent and seiz'd the King's Person from the Parliaments Commissioners drew up a Charge of High Treason against eleven principal Members for indeavoring to disband the Army entred into a privat Treaty with the King but he not complying with their demands they seized London and notwithstanding the Parliament had voted
enough to do his Business effectually and therfore cast about how to get a new Army and took the most plausible way which was pretending to enter into a War with France and to that purpose sent Mr. Thyn to Holland who made a strict League with the States and immediatly upon it the King call'd the Parliament who gave him 1200000 Pounds to enter into an actual War with which Mony he rais'd an Army of between twenty and thirty thousand Men within less than forty Days and sent part of them to Flanders At the same time he continued his forces in France and took a Sum of Mony from that King to assist him in making a privat Peace with Holland So that instead of a War with France the Parliament had given a great Sum to raise an Army to enslave themselves But it happen'd about this time that the Popish Plot broke out which put the Nation into such a Ferment that there was no stemming the Tide so that he was forc'd to call the Parliament which met the 23d of October 78 who immediatly fell upon the Popish Piot and the Land Army Besides there were discover'd 57 Commissions granted to Papists to raise Men countersigned J. Will son for which and saying that the King might keep Guards if he could pay them he was committed to the Tower This so inrag'd the Parliament that they immediatly proceded to the disbanding of the Army and pass'd an Act that all rais'd since the 29th of September 77 should be disbanded and gave the King 693388 pounds to pay off their Arrears which he made use of to keep them up and dissolv'd the Parliament but soon after called another which pursu'd the same Counsels and pass'd a second Act to disband the Army gave a new Sum for doing it directed it to be paid into the Chamber of London appointed Commissioners of their own and pass'd a Vote That the continuance of any Standing Forces in this Nation other than the Militia was illegal and a great Grievance and Vexation to the People so that Army was disbanded Besides this they complain'd of the Forces that were in France and address'd the King again to recal them which had som Effect for he sent over no more Recruits but suffer'd them to wear out by degrees The Establishment upon the Dissolution of this Army which was in the Year 1679 80 were 5650 privat Soldiers besides Officers From this time he never agreed with his People but dissolved three Parliaments following for inquiring into the Popish Plot and in the four last Years of his Reign call'd none at all And to crown the Work Tangier is demolish'd and the Garison brought over and plac'd in the most considerable Ports in England which made the Establishment in 8¾ 8482 privat Men besides Officers It 's observable in this King's Reign that there was not one Sessions but his Guards were attack'd and never could get the least Countenance from Parliament but to be even with them the Court as much discountenanc'd the Militia and never would suffer it to be made useful Thus we see the King husbanded a few Guards so well that in a small number of Years they grew to a formidable Army notwithstanding all the endeavors of the Parliament to the contrary so difficult it is to prevent the growing of an Evil that dos not receive a check in the beginning He increas'd the Establishment in Ireland to 7700 Men Officers included wheras they never exceded in any former Reign 2000 when there was more occasion for them the Irish not long before having bin intirely reduced by Cromwel and could never have held up their Heads again without his Countenance But the truth of it was his Army was to support the Irish and the fear of the Irish was to support his Army Towards the latter end of this King's Reign the Nation had so intirely lost all sense of Liberty that they grew fond of their Chains and if his Brother would have suffer'd him to have liv'd longer or had followed his Example by this time we had bin as great Slaves as in France But it was God's great Mercy to us that he was made in another Mould Imperious Obstinat and a Bigot push'd on by the Counsels of France and Rome and the violence of his own Nature so that he quickly run himself out of breath As soon as he came to the Crown he seiz'd the Customs and Excise without Authority of Parliament He pick'd out the Scum and Scandals of the Law to make Judges upon the Bench and turn'd out all that would not sacrifice their Oaths to his Ambition by which he discharg'd the Lords out of the Tower inflicted those barbarous Punishments on Dr. Oates Mr. Johnson c. butcher'd many hundreds of Men in the West after they had bin trapan'd into a Confession by promise of Pardon murder'd Cornish got the Dispensing Power to be declar'd in Westminster-Hall turn'd the Fellows of Magdalen-College out of their Freeholds to make way for a Seminary of Priests and hang'd Soldiers for running away from their Colors He erected the Ecclesiastical Commission suspended the Bishop of London because he would not inflict the same Punishment upon Dr. Sharp for preaching against Popery He closeted the Nobility and Gentry turn'd all out of Imployment that would not promise to repeal the Test put in Popish Privy-Counsellors Judges Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of Peace and to get all this confirm'd by the shew of Parliament he prosecuted the Work his Brother had begun in taking away Charters and new model'd the Corporations by a sort of Vermin call'd Regulators He receiv'd a Nuntio from Rome and sent an Ambassador thither He erected a Popish Seminary at the Savoy to pervert Youth suffer'd the Priests to go about in their Habits made Tyrconnel Lord Lieutenant of Ireland turn'd all the Protestants out of the Army and most of the Civil Imployments there and made Fitton a Papist and one detected for Perjury Chancellor of that Kingdom He issu'd out a Proclamation in Scotland wherin he asserted his Absolute Power which all his Subjects were to obey without reserve a Prerogative I think never claim'd by the Great Turk or the Mogul He issu'd out a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience order'd it to be read in all Churches and imprison'd and try'd the seven Bishops because they humbly offer'd their Reasons in a Petition against it and to consummat all that we might have no hopes of retrieving our Misfortunes he impos'd a counterfeit Prince of Wales upon the Nation Soon after he came to the Crown the Duke of Monmouth landed and in a few weeks got together six or seven thousand Men but they having neither Arms or Provisions were easily defeated by not many more than 2000 of the King's Troops Which leaves a sad prospect of the consequence of a Standing Army for here was a Prince the Darling of the common People fighting against a bigotted Papist that was hated and abbor'd by
the same Method not our Policy Occonomy or Conduct we must encounter them hereafter and in order to it should put our selves in such Circumstances that our Enemies may dread a new Quarrel which can be no otherwise don but by lessening our Expences and paying off the public Ingagements as fast as we are able 'T is a miserable thing to consider that we pay near 4000000 l. a year upon the account of Funds no part wherof can be apply'd to the public Service unless they design to shut up the Exchequer which would not be very prudent to own I would therfore ask som of our Men of Management Suppose there should be a new War how they propose to maintain it For we all now know the end of our Line we have nothing left but a Land-Tax a Poll and som few Excises if the Parliament can be prevailed upon to consent to them And for once I will suppose that all together with what will fall in a Twelvemonth will amount to 3000000 l. and a half which is not probable and we will complement them by supposing they shall not in case of a new War give above fourteen or fifteen per cent for Premiums and Interest then the Remainder will be 3000000 l. I believe I may venture to say they will not be very fond of lessening the Civil List and lose their Salaries and Pensions Then if we deduct 700000 pound per annum upon that account there will be 2300000 pound per annum for the use of the War if the People pay the utmost penny they are able so that the Question will not be as in the last War how we shall carry it on against France at large but how 2300000 pound shall be disposed of to the greatest advantage which I presume every one will believe ought to be in a good Fleet. This leads me to consider what will be the best if not the only way of managing a new War in case of the King of Spain's death and a new Rupture with France and I will suppose the Nation to be as perfectly free from all incumbrances as before the War Most men at this time of day I believe will agree with me that 't is not our business to throw Squibs in Flanders send out vast Sums of Mony to have our Men play at bopeep with the French and at best to have their brains beat out against stone Walls but if a War is necessary there 't is our Interest to let the Dutch and Germans manage it which is proper for their Situation and let our Province be to undertake the Sea yet if we have not wit and honesty enough to make such a bargain with them but that we bring our selves again to a necessity of maintaining Armies there we may hire Men from Germany for half the price we can raise them here and they will be sooner ready than they can be transported from hence that Country being full of Men all Soldiers inured to Fatigue and serving for much less pay than we give our own besides we shall carry on the War at the expence of others blood and save our own People which are the strength and riches of all Governments we shall save the charge of providing for the Officers when the War is don and not meet with such difficulties in disbanding them There are som Gentlemen that have started a new method of making War with France and tell us it will be necessary to send Forces to Spain to hinder the French from possessing that Country and therfore we must keep them up here to be ready for that service which by the way is acknowledging the Horse ought to be disbanded since I presume they don't design to send them to Spain But to give this a full Answer I believe it is every ones opinion that there ought to be a strong Fleet kept up at Cales or in the Mediterranean superior to the French and then 't will be easier and cheaper to bring the Emperor's Forces by the way of Final to Spain than to send Men from hence and they are more likely to be acceptable there being of the same Religion and Subjects to the House of Austria whereas 't is to be feared our Men would be in as much danger from that bigotted Nation as from the French besides the King of Potugal is arming for his own defence and a sum of Mony well disposed there will enable him to raise double the Forces upon the spot as can be sent from hence with the same charge But for once I will admit it necessary we should send Forces both to Flanders and Spain yet 't is no consequence that we must keep up a Standing Army in England till that time coms We may remember Chrles the 2d rais'd between 20 and 30000 Men to fight against France in less than forty days and the Regiments this King raised the first year of his Reign were compleated in a very short time fart I am of opinion that a new Army may be raised before Ships and Provisions will be ready for their transportation at least if the management is no better than 't was once upon a time and perhaps it may happen that the King of Spain will not die in the summer time and then we shall have the winter before us We may add to this that the King of France has disbanded a great many men that his Country now lies open in a great many places that the Germans and Dutch keep great numbers of Men in constant pay and in all probability there will be a Peace with the Turks That Portugal and the Italian Princes must enter into the Confederacy in their own defence and that the French will lie under an equal necessity to raise Forces with a much less Country than in the former War to oppose such a mighty Union of Princes who will attach him upon the first attemt he makes upon Spain And after all what 's the mighty Advantage we propose by keeping this Force Why forsooth having a small number of Men more for the Officers will always be ready and now a great part of the private Soldiers are to be rais'd in case of a new War ready six Weeks sooner to attack France And I durst almost appeal to these Gentlemen themselves whether so small a Balance against France is equivalent to the hazard of our Liberties destructiion of our Constitution and the constant Expence of keeping them up to expect when the King of Spain will be pleased to die If these Gentlemen are really afraid of a new War and don 't use it as a Bugbear to fright us out of our Liberties and to gain their little party-Ends the way to bring the People into it heartily is to shew them that all their Actions tend to the public Advantage to lessen the National Expences to manage the Revenue with the greatest frugality to postpone part of their own Salaries and not grow rich while their Country grows poor to give their hearty Assistance for appropriating the Irish Lands gain'd by the Peoples Blood and Sweat to the public Service as was promis'd by his Majesty and not to shew an unhappy Wit in punishing som Men and excusing others for the same fault and spend three Months in Intrigues how to keep up a Standing Army to the dread of the greatest part of the Nation for let them fancy what they please the People will never consent to the raising a new Army till they are satisfied they shall be rid of them when the War is don and there is no way of convincing them of that but the disbanding these with willingness When we see this don we shall believe they are in earnest and the People will join unanimously in a new War otherwise there will always be a considerable part of the Nation whatever personal Honor they have for his Majesty or fears of France that will lie upon the Wheels with all their weight and do them more harm than their Army will do them good To conclude we have a wise and virtuous Prince who has always indeavor'd to please his People by taking those Men into his Councils which they have recommended to him by their own Choice and when their Interest has declin'd he has gratified the Nation by turning them out I would therfore give this seasonable advice to those who were once call'd Whigs that the way to preserve their Interest with his Majesty is to keep it with the People that their old Friends will not desert them till they desert their Country which when they do they will be left to their own proper Merits and tho I am not much given to believing Prophecys yet I dare be a Prophet for once and foretel that then they will meet with the fate of King Phys. and King Vsh in the Rehearsal Their new Masters will turn them off and no Body else will take them THE END ERRATA Pref. pag. 6. l. 8 9. r. the then King P. 15. l. 25. for four r. three P. 36. l. 17. for since r. and.
30th of July tho there appears no reason why he might not have don it when he first came into the Harbor which was more than seven Weeks before Thus we see the Resolution of these poor Men weari'd out all their Disappointments When the Convention met they resolv'd upon twenty eight Articles as the Preliminaries upon which they would dispose the Crown but this design dwindled into a Declaration of our Rights which was in thirteen Articles and the most considerable viz. That the raising and keeping up a Standing Army in times of Peace is contrary to Law had tag'd to it these words without Authority of Parliament as if the consent of the Parliament would not have made it Legal without those words or that their Consent would make it less dangerous This made the Jacobites say in those early days that som evil Counsellors design'd to play the same game again of a Standing Army and attributed unjustly the neglect of Ireland to the same Cause because by that omission it was made necessary to raise a greater Army to reduce it with which the King acquainted the Parliament the 8th of March when speaking of the deplorable Condition of Ireland he declar'd he thought it not advisable to attemt the reducing it with less than 20000 Horse and Foot This was a bitter Pill to the Parliament who thought they might have manag'd their share of the War with France at Sea but there was no remedy a greater Army must be rais'd or Ireland lost and to gild it all the Courtiers usher'd in their Speeches with this Declaration That they would be the first for disbanding them when the War was over and this Declaration has bin made as often as an Army has bin debated since during the War and I suppose punctually observ'd last Sessions At last the thing was consented to and the King issu'd forth Commissions for the raising of Horse Foot and Dragoons In this Army very few Gentlemen of Estates in Ireland could get Imployments tho they were in a miserable Condition here and made their utmost Application for them it being a common objection by som Colonels that a Man had an Estate there which in all likelihood would have made him more vigorous in reducing the Kingdom It was long after this Army was rais'd before they could be ready to be transported and even then it was commonly said that Shomberg found many things out of order and when they were at last transported which was about the middle of August they were not in a Condition to fight the Enemy tho lately baffled before Londonderry especially their Carriages coming not to them till the 24th of September when it was high time to go into Winter-Quarters By this means the Irish got Strength and Courage and three fourths of our Army perish'd at the Camp at Dundalk But tho our Army could do nothing yet the Militia of the Country almost without Arms or Clothes performed Miracles witness that memorable Siege of Londonderry the defeat of General Mackarty who was intrench'd in a Bog with ten thousand regular Troops and attack'd by fifteen hundred Inniskilling men defeated himself made a Prisoner and three thousand of his Men kill'd and a great many other gallant Actions they perform'd for which they were dismiss'd by Kirk with Scorn and Ignominy and most of their Officers left to starve Thus the War in Ireland was nurs'd up either thro Chance Inadvertency or the necessity of our Affairs for I am unwilling to think it was Design till at last it was grown so big that nothing less than his Majesty's great Genius and the usual Success that has always attended his Conduct could have overcom it When the Parliament met that Winter they fell upon the examination of the Irish Affairs and finding Commissary Shales was the cause of a great part of the Miscarriages they address'd his Majesty that he would be pleas'd to acquaint the House who it was that advis'd the imploying him which his Majesty did not remember They then address'd that he would be pleas'd to order him to be taken into Custody and it was don accordingly upon which Shales sent a Letter to the Speaker desiring he might be brought over to England where he would vindicat himself and justify what he had don Then the House address'd his Majesty again that he might be brought over with all convenient speed and the King was pleas'd to answer that he had given such Orders already Then the House refer'd the matter to a privat Committee but before any Report made or Shales could be brought to England the Parliament was prorogu'd and after dissolv'd and soon after he fell sick and died The neglect of Ireland this Year made it necessary to raise more Forces and increase our Establishment which afterwards upon pretence of invading France was advanc'd to eighty seven thousand six hundred ninety eight Men. At last by our great Armies and Fleets and the constant expence of maintaining them we were too hard for the Oeconomy Skill and Policy of France and notwithstanding all our Difficulties brought them to Terms both Safe and Honorable It not being to be purpose of this Discourse I shall omit giving any account of the Conduct of our Fleet during this War how few Advantages we reap'd by it and how many Opportunities we lost of destroying the French Only thus much I will observe that tho a great part of it may be attributed to the Negligence Ignorance or Treachery of inferior Officers yet it could not so universally happen thro the whole course of the War and unpunish'd too notwithstanding the clamors of the Merchants and repeated complaints in Parliament unless the cause had laid deeper What that is I shall not presume to enquire but I am sure there has bin a very ill Argument drawn from it viz. That a Fleet is no security to us As soon as the Peace was made his Majesty discharg'd a great part of the foren Forces and an Advertisment was publish'd in the Gazet that ten Regiments should be forthwith disbanded and we were told as soon as it was don that more should follow their example But these Resolutions it seems were alter'd and the modish Language was that we must keep up a Standing Army Their Arguments were turn'd topsy turvy for as during the War the People were prevail'd upon to keep up the Army in hopes of a Peace so now we must keep them up for fear of a War The Condition of France which they had bin decrying for many Years was now magnifi'd we were told that it was doubtful whether the French King would deliver up any of his Towns that he was preparing a vast Fleet upon the Lord knows what Design that it was impossible to make a Militia useful that the warlike King Jemmy had an Army of eighteen thousand Irish Hero's in France who would be ready when call'd for and that the King of Spain was dying The Members of Parliament were discours'd