Selected quad for the lemma: war_n
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A37441
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Some reflections on a pamphlet lately published entituled An argument shewing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing D848; ESTC R29705
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20,562
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34
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Army seems to me to lye among our â—â—â—â—es There are Accidents which require the help of an Army tho' the King and People were all of a Mind and all of a side King Iames and his Parliament had a full understanding and they were as Vigorous for him as ever Parliament was for a King and yet what had become of both if he had not had Regular Troops to have resisted the Duke of Monmouth If they had been to be raised then he must have gone to France then as he did now or have stay'd at home and have far'd worse for they wou'd hardly have us'd him so tenderly as the present King did to my knowledge I am loth to mention the Iacobite Party as an Argument worth while to maintain any thing of force but just enough to prevent Assassinations and private Murthers on the King's Person for as they never dar'd look him in the face when powerfully assisted by the French so I dare say they will never have the Courage to disturb our Peace with Sword in hand what they do will be by Caballing to foment Distrusts and Discontents to embroil if possible the King with his People or by private villainous Assassinates to destroy him and by that means to involve the whole Nation in Blood and Disorder I allow the Speech of Queen Elizabeth to the Duke D'Alanzon was very great and brave in her but pray had Queen Elizabeth no standing Army On the contrary she was never without them she never had less in the Low Countreys in aid of the Dutch in France in aid of the King of Navar and in her Wars in Ireland than 30000 Men and all the difference was that she kept them abroad employ'd for the Assistance of her Neighbours and had them absolutely at Command and so sensible she was of the want of them on the approach of the Spanish Armado that she never lest her self so bare of them afterwards and therefore to compare her Enemies and ours and her Force with ours without an Army as he does p. 19. is a Deceptio visus upon our Understanding and a presumption that no body has read any History but himself Then we come to K. Charles the Second's time in p. 26. and then he says we thought a much less Army than is now contended for a grievance To which I answer Quatenus an Army they were not thought a Grievance but attended with the Circumstances of Popish Confederacies and Leagues and a Popish Successor in view and then visibly managing them they might be thought so and yet the Grand Iury presenting them made them no more a Grievance than if they had presented the Parliament which granted an establisht number of Troops to King Charles Another bold Assertion he makes p. 27. That a standing Army is the only way to bring in K. James This is a strange preposterous Supposition and has no Argument brought to prove it but the uncertain capricious Humour of the Souldiery who in all Ages have produc'd violent Revolutions may bring it to pass that is in short the Thing is possible and that is all he can say and 't is every jot as possible that K. William himself should change his Mind Abdicate the Throne and Call in K. James again therefore pray let us have no King at all for really when all is done these Kings are strange things and have occasion'd more violent Revolutions in the World than ever have been known in unarm'd Governments Besides if we had no King then a standing Army might be safe enough for he tells you in Commonwealths they may be allow'd p. 11. but in Monarchies they are the Devil and all Nay he gives two Instances when we had Armies turn'd out their Masters Oliver Cromwel and General Monk and yet both these were in the time of a Commonwealth Now I would know if ever an Army turn'd out their King as for K Iames his instance is false he really run away from his Army his Army did not turn him out 't is true part of it deserted but I am bold to say had K. Iames with the Remainder made good his Retreat Souldier like either to London or under the Canon of Portsmouth or to both which he might ha' done for no Body pursued him till the French King had reliev'd him it might have been a Civil War to this Hour And thus I have followed him to his last Page I think I have not omitted any of his material Arguments or Examples whether he is answered or not in point of Argument I leave to the Reader what I have discovered in his Sophistical straining of Arguments and misapplying his Quotations to gild by his Wit the want of his Proof is what I thought needful his malicious Spirit every where discovers it self and to me he seems to be a disconted unsatisfied sort of a Person that is for any thing but what shou'd be and borrows the Pretence of Liberty to vent his Malice at the Government Nor is it a new Invention when ever any Person had a mind to disturb the Roman Government Liberty was always the Word and so it is now CONCLUSION I Shall say no more as to Argument but desire the Favour of a Word in General as to the present Controversy To me it seems one of the most impudent Actions that ever was suffered in this Age that a Private Person shou'd thus attack the King after all that he has done for the Preservation of our Liberties and the Establishing our Peace after all the Hazards of his Person and Family and the Fatiegues of a bloody War to be represented at his Return as a Person now as much to be feared as King James was to be trusted no more than a Mad Man and the like before he so much as knows whether there shall ever be any Dispute about the Matter or no. Has the King demanded a Standing Army Has he propos'd it Does he insist upon it How if no such thought be in him 'T is a Sign what a Government we live under and 't is a Sign what Spirit governs some Men who will abuse the most indulgent Goodness It had been but time to have wrote such an Invective upon the King and the Army when we had found the Parliament of England strugling to disband them and the King resolute to maintain them But This when the King and the House are all Union and Harmony 't is intollerable and the King ought to have some Satisfaction made him and I doubt not but he will I am not nor I think I have no where shown as if I were for the Government by an Army but I cannot but suppose with Submission to the House of Commons that they will find it necessary to keep us in a Posture of Defence sufficient to maintain that Peace which has cast so much Blood and Treasure to procure and I leave the Method to them and so I think this Author ought to have done I do not question but in that great Assembly all things will be done for the Maintenance of our Liberty with a due respect to the Honour and Safety of his Majesty that is possible They have shown themselves the most steady and Zealous for his Interest and the Publick of any Body that ever filled that House and I could never see and yet I have not been a slight observer of Affairs neither I say I could never see the least symptom of an Inclination in the King's Actions to dislike or contradict what they offered has he not left them to be the entire judges of their own Grievances and freely left them to be as entire judges of the Remedies Has he ever skreened a Malefactor from their Justice or a Favourite from their Displeasure Has he ever infring'd their Priviledges and as to who shall come after we have his Royal Declaration at his coming to these Kingdoms That his Design was to establish our Liberties on such Foundations as that it might not be in the power of any Prince for the future to invade them and he has never yet attempted to break it And how is this to be done not at the direction of a Pamphlet but by the King Lords and Commons who have not taken a false Step yet in the Matter To them let it be left and if they agree be it with an Army or without an Army be it by a Militia regulated or by an Army regulated what is that to him I have indeed heard much of a Militia regulated into an Army and truly I doubt not but an Army might be regulated into a Militia with Safety and Honour to the King and the Peoples Liberties But as I have said I leave that to the Government to determine and conclude with only this Observation If ever the Gentleman who is the Author of this Pamphlet be trac'd I verily believe he will appear to be one who thinking he has deserv'd more Respect from the Government than he has found has taken this Way to let them know they ought to have us'd him better or us'd him worse FINIS