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to our ruin. To the last part of the objection, that this militia will be more chargeable than an army; I answer, that since, as (I suppose) no man proposes wholly to lay them aside; if we add the extraordinary expence of maintaining twenty thousand men to the ordinary charge of the militia, it is much more than sufficient to make the latter useful. But if this objection were true, it ought not to enter into competition with the preservation of our laws and liberties; for it is better to give a third part of my estate, if it were necessary, than to have all taken from me. And though it should be granted, that a militia is not as serviceable as an army kept to constant discipline, yet I believe these gentlemen themselves will confess, that sixty thousand of them trained as before, are as good as twenty thousand of their standing troops, which is the question; for it's impossible to have them both useful at the same time, they being as incompatible as broad and clipt money, never current together; and therefore the court must depend wholly upon a militia, or else they will not depend upon them at all. And this by the way may silence that objection, that we must keep our army till the militia be disciplined; for that will never be done whilst the Court Itas an army: and the same objection will be made seven years hence as now; so that a small army can be of no use to us, but to make our fleet neglected, to hinder the militia from being trained, and enslave us at home; for they are too few to defend us against an invasion, and too many for the people to oppose. I date speak with the greater assurance upon this subject, having the authority of as great men as the world hath produced for my justification. Machiavel spends several chapters to prove, that no prince or state ought to suffer any of their subjects to make war their profession, and that no nation can be secure with any other forces than a settled militia. My Lord Bacon in several places bears his testimony against a standing army, and particularly he tells us, that a mercenary army is fittest to invade a country, but a militia to defend it; because the first have estates to get, and the latter to protect. Mr. Harrington hath founded his whole Oceana upon a trained militia; and I have lately read a French book, called a History of the Politics of France, which says, Ensin si on veut ruiner Les Anglois il suffit de les obliger a tenir des Troupes fur pied. Nay, I believe no author ever treated of a free government, that did not express his abhorrence of an army; for (as my Lord Bacon says) whoever does use them, though he may spread his feathers for a time, he will mew them soon after; and raise them with what design you please, yet, like the West India dogs in Boccaline, in a little time they will certainly turn sheepbiters. Perhaps it will be said, that the artillery of the world is changed since some of these wrote, and war is become more a mystery, and therefore more experience is necessary to make good soldiers. But wherein does this mystery consist? not in exercising a company, and obeying a few words of command; these are mysteries that the dullest noddie will comprehend in a few weeks. Nay, I have heard that the

modern exercise is much shorter and easier than the ancient. But the great improvements in war are in regular encampments, fortification, gunnery, skilful engineering, &c. These are arts not to be learned without much labour, and experience, and are as much gained in the closet as in the field; and I suppose no man will say, that the keeping standing forces is necessary to make a good engineer. As to actual experience in war, that is not essential either to a standing army or a militia, as such; but the former may be without it, and the latter gain it according as they have opportunities of action. It is true, at present the army hath been trained up in a long war, and bath gained great knowledge: but these men will not be lost when they are disbanded, they will be still in England; and if the Parliament does give them a gratuity suitable to the service they have done their country, they will be ready to resume their arms whenever occasion offers. But I desire to know of these patriots how comes an army necessary to our preservation now, and never since the conquest before? Did ever the prevailing party in the wars of York and Lancaster attempt to keep up a standing army so support themselves? No: they had more sense than to sacrifice their own liberty, and more honour than to enslave their country, the more easily to carry on their own faction. Were not the Spaniards a3 powerful, as good soldiers, and as much our enemies, as the French are now? Was not Flanders as near us as France? and the Popish interest in Queen Elizabeth's time as strong as the Jacobite is now? and yet that most excellent Princess never dreamed of a standing army, but thought her surest empire was to reign in the hearts of her subjects, which the following story sufficiently testifies. When the Duke of Alanson came over to England, and for some time had adinired the riches of the city, the conduct of her government, and the magnificence of her court, he asked her amidst so much splendour where were her guards? which question she resolved a few days after as she took him in her coach through the city, when pointing to the people (who received her in crowds with repeated acclamatious) These, said she, my Lord, are my guards; these have their hands, their hearts, and their purses always ready at my command: and these were guards indeed, who defended her through a long and successful reign of forty-four years against all the machinations of Rome, the power of Spain, a disputed title, and the perpetual conspiracies of her own Popish subjects; a security the Roman emperors could not boast of with their pretorian bands, and their eastern and western armies. Were not the French as powerful in Charles the Second and King James's time, as they are after this long and destructive war, and a less alliance to oppose them? and yet we then thought a much less army than is now contended for, a most insupportable grievance; insomuch that in Charles the Second's reign the grand jury presented them, and the pensioner parliament voted them to be a nuisance, VOL. III. No. 13.

sent Sir Jos. W.

-son to the Tower for saying, the King might keep guards for the defence of his person, and addressed to have them disbanded."

The pamphlet concludes with observations on the dangers attending the caprice of an idle army.

"I will make one assertion more, and then conclude this discourse, viz. That the most likely way of restoring king James, is maintaining a standing army to keep him out. For the king's safety stands upon a rock whilst it depends upon the solid foundation of the affections of the people, which is never to be shaken till 'tis as evident as the sun in the firmament, that there is a formed design to overthrow our laws and liberties; but if we keep a standing army, all depends upon the uncertain and capricious humours of the soldiery, which in all ages have produced more violent and sudden revolutions, than ever have been known in unarmed governments: for there is such a chain of dependence amongst them, that if two or three of the chief officers should be disobliged, or have intrigues with jacobite mistresses; or if the king of France could once again buy his pensioners into the court or army, or offer a better market to some that are in already, we shall have another rehearsal revolution, and the people be only idle spectators of their own ruin. And whosoever considers the composition of an army, and doubts this, let him look back to the Roman Empire, where he will find out of twenty six emperors, sixteen deposed and murdered by their own armies; nay, half the History of the World is made up of examples of this kind: but we need not go any farther than our own country, where we have but twice kept armies in times of peace, and both times they turned out their own masters. The first under Cromwell, expelled that parliament under which they had fought successfully for many years; afterwards under general Monk they destroyed the government they before set up, and brought back Charles the Second, and he afterwards disbanded them lest they might have turned him out again. The other instance is fresh in every one's memory, how king James's army joined with the Prince of Orange, now our rightful and lawful king. And what could have been expected otherwise from men of dissolute and debauched principles, who call themselves soldiers of fortune? who make murder their profession, and enquire no farther into the justice of the cause, than how they shall be paid; who must be false, rapacious and cruel in their own defence. For having no other profession or subsistence to depend upon, they are forced to stir up the ambition of Princes, and engage them in perpetual quarrels, that they may share of the spoils they make. Such men, like some sort of ravenous fish, fare best in a storm; and therefore we may reasonably suppose they will be better pleased with the tyrannical government of the late king, than the mild and gracious administration of his present majesty, who came over to England to rescue us from oppression, and be has done it, and triumplis in it in spite of his enemies. In this discourse

I have purposely omitted speaking of the lesser inconveniences attending a standing army, such as frequent quarrels, murders and robberies; the destruction of all the game in the country; the quartering upon public, and sometimes private houses; the influencing elections of parliament by an artificial distribution of quarters; the rendering so many men useless to labour, and almost propagation, together with a much greater destruction of them, by taking them from a laborious way of living to a loose idle life; and besides this, the insolence of the officers, and the debaucheries that are committed both by them and their soldiers in all the towns they come in, to the ruin of multitudes of women, dishonour of their families, and ill example to others; and a numerous train of mischiefs besides, almost endless to enumerate. These are trivial as well as particular grievances in respect of those I have treated about, which strike at the heart's-blood of our constitution, and therefore I thought these not considerable enough to bear a part in a discourse of this nature: besides, they often procure their own remedy, working miracles, and making some men see that were born blind, and impregnable against all the artillery of reason; for experience is the only mistress of fools: a wise man will know a pike will bite when he sees his teeth, which another will not make discovery of but by the loss of a finger."

From the foregoing quotations, it is evident, that the author had a clear view of the evils attending a standing army, and the consequences of such an evil becoming habitual. We are now arrived to the acme of misery in consequence of an habitual army, and unless we should be as fortunate as the Spaniards and find our intended evil converted to an unintended good, we approach the abyss of the worst of slaveries, a military despotism. The English government is now driven to the extremity to confess, that it requires an army to keep the hands of the people from it: that it fears no other invasion or conquest than that of the inhabitants of the country, whose government has been usurped! We have approached quite a new era; after suffering the most grievous calamities by unnecessary foreign wars, we find a government training an army to a civil war, and actually avowing its determination to keep down all ebullitions of feeling by the presence of troops. Thus the present Lord Mayor brings troops of armed soldiers around a meeting of the Livery of London, for the avowed purpose of intimidation, or because," these are feverish times." Who have brought the fever on us? Is the cause of infection the only remedy to be found? If so we are inclined to think that the fever cannot abate, but must soon assume the character of a frenzy, and a frenzied man, we know, despises all restraint, moral, rational, or natural. In addition to

the foregoing observations on a militia, we would observe, that to us it appears very easy, to make every labouring man in the country a good soldier for the defence of his country, and we see no necessity of sending soldiers to fight in foreign countries. It is murder and not necessary war. The invader of a country is a murderer, a wild beast, whom it behoveth every man to try to destroy. How easy, and how conducive to health would it be, for our manufacturers, artisans, and agricultural labourers, to devote a couple of hours each day to military exercise. It would rather be a relaxation from ordinary pursuits, than a fatigue and trouble. It would form a recreation for the mind, as well as for the body, where they came out to practice the use of arms for the purpose of selfdefence, without being placed under military controul and discipline. It is a becoming play for men, and would fill up that time which is now too often wasted in sauntering about the corners of streets, and at the same time render a nation like Great Britain, truly invincible. Nothing could be easier than to form the whole people into companies and regiments numerically.

EDITOR.

THE LAST EFFORTS OF MONARCHY BAFFLED IN SOUTH AMERICA.

We feel it incumbent on us to lay before the public every document and incident connected with the attempt of the Bourbons to get a new footing in South America. It comes strictly within the province of this publication, and will, no doubt, form important matter for future reference and consideration. It It may be considered the first attempt to a public negotiation for the establishment of a monarchy-conquest having failed. The following are the resolutions entered into by the late legislature of Buenos Ayres, on the receipt of the proposals of the French government.

"I. The first, which says that his Christian Majesty undertakes to procure the consent of the five Allied Powers of Europe, and even that of Spain, was approved of, with the addition, that the consent of England should be especially required.

“II. Having examined the second condition, which says, that having obtained the above-mentioned consent, it would likewise be the care of his Most Christian Majesty to facilitate a matrimonial union

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