Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	battle_n	great_a	king_n	4,169	5	3.5753	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30883	A discourse of trade by N.B. ...	Barbon, Nicholas, d. 1698.	1690 (1690)	Wing B707; ESTC R12426	26,245	107

Opinion and to Countenance their Conjectures have Compared the Languages of the Inhabitants Wales Finland and Orchadis and other Northern Parts little frequented by Strangers which might alter their Language and find them to agree with the Hebrew in many Words and Sound all their Speech being Guttural This is certain their Form of Government seems framed after the Examples of Moses's Government in the Land of Canaan by dividing the Legislative Power according to the Property of Land according to that Antient Maxim That Dominion is founded upon Property of Land There Monarchy seems to be made by an easie Division of Land into Thirds by a Conquering Army setting down in Peace the General being King has one Third the Colonels being the Lords another Third and the Captains and other Inferiour Officers being Gentlemen another the Common Souldiers are the Farmers and the Conquered are the Villains The Legislative Power is divided amongst them according to their Share in the Land it being necessary that those that have Property of Land should have Power to make Laws to Preserve it There seems to be but two settled Forms of Government The Turkish and Gothick or English Monarchy They are both founded upon Property of Land in the First the Property and Legislative Power is solely in the Prince In the Latter they are in both the Prince and People The one is best fittted to raise Dominion by Armies for the Prince must be Absolute to give Command according to the Various Fortunes of Warr The other is Best for Trade for men are most industrious where they are most free and secure to injoy the Effects of their Labours All other Sorts of Government either Aristocracy or Democracy where the Supream Magistrate is Elective are Imperfect Tumultuous and Unsettled For Man is Naturally Ambitious he inherits the same Ruleing Spirit that God gave to Adam to Govern the Creation with And the oftner that the Throne is Empty the oftner will Contentions and Struggles Happen to get into it Where deter digniori is the Rule Warr always Ensues for the Golden Prize Such Governments will never be without such Men as Marius and Scilla to disturb them nor without such a Man as Caesar to Usurp them notwithstanding all the Contrivance for their Defence by those Polititians who seems fond of such Formes of Government The Gothick Government being a well fixed Form and the People so free under it is great hinderance to the Enlarging of Dominion for a People under a good Government do more Vigorously Defend it A free People have more to lose than Slaves and their Success is better Rewarded than by any Mercenary Pay and therefore make a better Resistance It was the Freedom of the Grecians and Romans that raised their Courage and had an equal Share in raising their Empires with their Millitary Discipline The free City of Tyre put Alexander to more Trouble to Conquer than all the Citys of Asia The People of Asia living under a Dispotick Power made little Resistance Alexander subdued Libia Phaenicia Pamphilia without much Opposition in his Journey to meet Darius Egypt came under Subjection without Fighting and so did many Countries being willing to Change the Persian Yoak Besides he Fought but two Battles for the whole Persian Empire and the Resistance of those slavish People was so weak that he did not lose 500 Grecians in either of the Battles tho' Darius Number far exceeded his the one being above 260000 and the other not Forty And there was as great Disproportion in the Slaughter for at the Battle in Cilicia he slew 110000 and that at Arbela 40000 whereas the Spartan a Free People about the same time fought with Antipater his Vice-Roy of Macedon and in a Fight where neither Army exceeded 60000 slew 1012 of the Macedonians which was more than Alexander lost in both his Battles So great is the Difference of fighting against a Free and a Slavish Effeminate People For the same Reasons That the World is grown more Populous That the Arts of War are more known That the People of Europe live under a Free Government It is as difficult to keep a Country in Subjection as to Conquer it The People are too Numerous to be kept in Obedience To destroy the greatest Part were too Bloody and Inhuman To Burn the Towns and Villages and so force the People to remove Is to lose the greatest share in Conquest for the People are the Riches and the Strength of the Country And it is not much more Advantage to a Prince to have a Title to Lands in Terra Incognita As to Countries without People Besides Countries and Languages being more known And Mankind more acquainted than formerly The Oppressed People remove into the next Country they can find Shelter in become the Subjects of other Governments By such Addition of Subjects those Governments growing stronger are better able to Resist the Incroaches of Empire So that every Conquest makes the next more difficult from the Assistance of those People before Conquered To Transplant the Conquered into a Remote Country as formerly Is not to be Practised There is now no Room the World is so full of People To Conquer and leave them Free only paying Tribute and Homage Is the same as not to Conquer them For there is no Reason to expect their Submission longer than till they are able to Resist which will not be long before they make the same Opposition if they continue in the same Possession and therefore though the Romans in the Infancy of their Government did leave several Countries Free as an Assistance to other CONQUEST yet when they grew stronger they turned all their Conquest into Provinces being the surest way to keep them from Revolting These are the Difficulties of inlarging Dominion at Land but are not Impediments to its Rise at Sea For those Things that Obstruct the Growth of Empire at Land do rather Promote its Growth at Sea That the World is more Populous is no Prejudice there is Room enough upon the Sea the many Fortified Towns may hinder the March of an Army but not the Sailing of Ships The Arts of Navigation being discover'd hath added an Unlimited Compass to the Naval Power There needs no Change of the Gothick Government for that best Agrees with such an Empire The Ways of preserving Conquests gain'd by Sea are different from those at Land By the one the Cities Towns and Villages are burnt to thin the People that they may be the easier Governed and kept into Subjection by the other the Cities must be inlarged and New ones built Instead of Banishing the People they must be continued in their Possession or invited to the Seat of Empire by the one the Inhabitants are inslaved by the other they are made Free The Seat of such an Empire must be in an Island that their Defence may be solely in Shipping the same way to defend their Dominion as to inlarge it To Conclude there needs no

It is Useful for the Defence of the Government It Provides the Magazines of Warr. The Guns Powder and Bullets are all made of Minerals and are wrought by Traders Besides those Minerals are not to be had in all Countries The great Stock of Salt-peter is brought from the East Indies and therefore must be Imported by the Merchant for the Exchange of the Natives Stock The last Benefit is That Trade may be Assistant to the Inlarging of Empire and if an Universal Empire or Dominion of very Large Extent can again be raised in the World It seems more probable to be done by the Help of Trade By the Increase of Ships at Sea than by Arms at Land This is too large a Subject to be here Treated of but the French King 's seeming Attempt to Raise Empire in Europe being that Common Theam of Mens Discourse has caused some short Reflections which will appear by Comparing the Difficulty of the one with the Probability of the other The Difficulties of Raising a Dominion of very Large Extent especially in Europe are Many First Europe is grown more Populous than formerly and there are more Fortified Towns and Cities than were in the time of the Roman Empire which was the last extended Dominion and therefore not easily Subjected to the Power of any one Prince Whether Europe be grown more Populous Solely by the Natural Increase of Mankind There being more Born than Dye which first Peopled the World Or Whether since the Inhabitants of Europe being Addicted to Trade the ground is made more Fertile and yields greater Plenty of Food which hath prevented famine that formerly destroy'd great Numbers of Mankind So that no great Famines has been taken Notice of by Historians in these Last Three Hundred Years Whether by Dreining Great Bogs Lakes and Fens and Cutting down vast Woods to make Room for the Increase of Mankind the Air is Grown more Healthy So that Plagues and other Epidemical Diseases are not so destructive as formerly none so violent as Procopius and Wallsingham Report which destroyed such Vast Numbers in Italy that there were not left Ten in a Thousand and in other Parts of Europe not enough alive to Bury the Dead Whereas the Plague in 1665 the Greatest since did not take away the Hundredth Person in England Holland and other Countries where it Raged Whether since the Invention of Guns and Gun-Powder so many Men are not slain in the Wars as formerly Xerxes lost 260000 in one Battle against the Grecians ALEXANDER destroyed 110000 of Darius's Army Marius slew 120000 of the Cimbri and in great Battles seldome less than 100000 fell But now 20000 Men are accounted very great Slaughter Whether since the Northern People have fallen on Trade such vast Numbers are not destroyed by Invasions Whether by all those Ways or by which of them most Europe is grown Populous is not Material to this Discourse It is sufficient to shew That the Matter of Fact is so which does appear by comparing the Antient Histories of Countries with the Modern In the Antient Descriptions the Countries are full of Vast Woods wild Beasts the Inhabitants barbarous and as wild without Arts and the Governments are like Colonies or Herds of People But in the Modern the Woods are cut down and the Lyons Bears and wild Beasts destroyed no Flesh-Eaters are left to inhabit with Man but those Dogs and Cats that he tames for his Use Corn grows where the Woods did and with the Timber are built Cities Towns and Villages the People are Cloathed and have all Arts among them and those little Colonies and Families are increased into Greàt States and Kingdoms and the most undeniable Proof of the Increase of Mankind in England is the Doom-Day-Book which was a Survey taken of all the Inhabitants of England in the Reign of William the Conquerour by which it appears that the People of England are increased more than double since that time But since the Mosaical Hypothesis of the Increase of the World is generally believed amongst the Christians And the late Lord Chief Justice Hales in his Book of the Origination of Mankind hath endeavoured to satisfie all the rest of the World It would be mis-spending of Time to use any other Topick for the further Proof thereof than what naturally follows in this Discourse which is from the Different Success of Arms in the Latter and Former Ages In the Infancy of the World Governments began with little Families and Colonies of Men so that when ever any Government arrived to greater Heighth than the rest either by the great Wisdom or Courage of the Governor they afterwards grew a pace It was no Difficulty for Ninus that was the oldest Government and consequently the most Populous to begin the Assyrian Empire nor for his Successors to continue and inlarge it Such Vast Armies of Cyrus Darius Hystospis and Xerxes the least of their Forces amounting to above 500000 could not be Resisted when the World was but thin Peopled These great Armies might at first sight seem to infer That the World was more Populous than now because the Armies of the greatest Princes seldom now exceed the Number of Fifty or Sixty Thousand Men But the Reason of those great Numbers was They were not so well Skilled in Military Arts and shew that the World was in the Infancy of its Knowledge rather than Populous for all that were able to bear Arms went to the Wars And if that were now the Custom there might be an Army in England of above Three Million allowing the Inhabitants to be Seven Millions and by the same Proportion the King of France's Country being four Times bigger might raise Twelve Millions such a Number was never heard of in this World The next Difficulty against the inlarging of Empire by Arms is That since Printing and the Use of the Needle hath been discovered Navigation is better known and thence is a Greater Commerce amongst Men the Countries and Languages are more understood Knowledge more dispersed and the Arts of War in all Places known so that Men fight more upon equal Terms than formerly and like two Skilful Fencers fight a long Time before either gets Advantage The Assyrians Persians Conquered more by the Number of Souldiers than Discipline the Grecians and Romans more by Discipline than Number as the World grew older it grew wiser Learning first flourished among the Grecians afterwards among the Romans and as the Latter succeeded in Learning so they did in EMPIRE But now both Parties are Equally Disciplin'd and Arm'd and the Successes of War are not so great Victory is seldom gained without some Considerable Loss to the Conquerour Another Difficulty to the inlarging of Dominion by Arms is That the Goths Overcoming the greatest Part of Europe did by their Form of Government so settle Liberty and Property of Land that it is difficult for any PRINCE to Change that Form Whether the Goths were Part of the Ten Tribes as some are of