A letter from a gentleman at London to his friend at Edinburgh Gentleman at London. 1700 Approx. 5 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A47988 Wing L1379AA ESTC R202817 99825191 99825191 29568 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A47988) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 29568) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1835:8) A letter from a gentleman at London to his friend at Edinburgh Gentleman at London. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [London? : 1700] Arguing against the retaining of a standing army in response to the destruction of the Darien Scots' Colony. Place of publication conjectured by Wing; dated at end: October 13. 1700. Text begins: Sir, I am inform'd that those, who in the last meeting of our Parliament appear'd for the interest of the country, have taken a resolution to begin the ensuing session with an Act declaring the nations right to Caledonia; .. Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng England and Wales. -- Army -- Early works to 1800. Darien Scots' Colony, 1698-1700 -- Early works to 1800. Standing army -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. 2007-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A LETTER From a GENTLEMAN at London to his FRIEND at Edinburgh . SIR , I Am inform'd that those , who in the last Meeting of our Parliament appear'd for the Interest of the Country , have taken a Resolution to begin the ensuing Session with an Act declaring the Nations Right to Caledonia ; which I presume to be a very wrong step , and such as will prove of very bad consequence . I suppose , the great Argument that has been offer'd for this Method , is , that nothing will more Unite the Members of Parliament , than the sensible Injury done to the Nation by the Destruction of that Colony . But , I hope , that upon better consideration Men of Honesty and good Intentions will not suffer themselves to be led into such a Mistake . For a Declaration of our right to Caledonia can do no real good to the Nation at this time : But the disbanding of the Army will. If they would be even with those who have ruin'd our Colony , they can never do it any way effectually , but by breaking the Army . They are now to chuse upon which of these two Heads they will again break with the Court ; for in my Opinion neither of them will be granted . But if it should be thought convenient to yield to either of these Propositions , 't will certainly be to that of disbanding the Army , on Account of the Interest the Parliament of England might take in it , and perhaps second it for their own Security . Whereas the declaring our Right to Caledonia will ( how unjustly soever ) be attributed to meer pique and humour , because of no present Advantage to the Nation ; and will sound ridiculously among our Neighbors , where our Weakness , and ill Conduct in that Affair has but too much expos'd us . So that the Court can never desire a fairer pretence to vindicate themselves both to the English and Dutch , then to break up our Parliament upon such an Account . And we who are crush'd by a Power which we are no way able to resist , ought to have great regard to such things as may engage all Men of good Intentions in those Countries to be our Friends ; and not continue to mistake what is done in both by the Court Party , as proceeding from the Nations themselves . Besides , till the Army be disbanded , there is not the least probability of obtaining Money from the publick , for carrying on the Trade of the Company . We must have lost our senses , if we do not see that a quarrel with us is industriously sought , that a pretence may be found to keep up an Army . And if the Court Party should prevail in the Parliament of England , who knows , how far our insisting upon the Business of Caledonia , without any prospect of present good to the Nation , might be made a handle to excite that Nation against us ? I cannot but think there 's just-ground to suspect the Conduct of those who by all means would push the Affair of the Colony at so unseasonable a time . We don't abandon our Rights and Privileges in this point , because we think fit in the first place to enter upon another Affair , which threatens us with the utmost danger . As long as we have a standing Army , we can have neither Trade nor Liberty . We expell'd King James because he would keep up an Army in time of Peace . We are now strugling with this Government about the same thing . And a certain Person , tho' he stand looking on a Crown at such a distance , as amounts to a Vision , is yet so dazled with its brightness , as to make it his business to imploy the present Spirit and Vigor of the Nation in any thing rather than in breaking the Army . I value not Protestations ; they are Nauseous things ; I look only upon what Men do , and cannot forbear to think , that those , who after due consideration of our present Circumstances , shall in the Ensuing Session of Parliament , prefer any other Business to that of disbanding the Army , are Men seeking their own Interest , and not the good of their Country . I am Sir Your , &c. October 13. 1700.