THE Argument AGAINST A Standing Army. RECTIFIED.   

THE ARGUMENT AGAINST A Standing Army Rectified, AND THE Reflections and Remarks upon it IN Several Pamphlets, Considered. In a Letter to a Friend. The Lords and Commons Assembled at Westminster, January, 22. 1688. in order to such an Establishment, as that our Religion, Laws and Liberties might not again be in Danger of being subverted, declared, That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace, unless it be by Consent of Parliament, is against Law.  Pro Rege, & Patria. 
LONDON: Printed in the Year 1697.   

THE ARGUMENT AGAINST A Standing Army, etc.  
SIR,  
IN Answer to your Desire, to send you my own Thoughts, and those of our Friends here concerning the Arguments Pro and Con about a Standing Army, I have sent you them as follows, but must tell you that we are not Opinionative, and shall be glad, as all good Subjects ought to be, to acquiesce in whatever the Wisdom of the Nation, now Assembled in Parliament, shall think fit to determine in these Matters.  
The Author of the Argument hath in my Opinion discovered a great deal of Reason and Wit, and no less Affection to his Prince and Country, however he may be traduced by some who are very much inferior to him in all those good Qualifications.  
Yet I must beg his Leave to think that his Commendable Zeal for the Welfare and Security of his Country, hath carried him a little too far. So that instead of saying positively that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the English Monarchy, he ought to have qualified it thus, That a Standing Army in time of Peace, unless it be by Consent of Parliament, is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the English Monarchy, or which is all one, against Law; and for this We have the Authority of the Convention signed with that of Their Majesty's King WILLIAM and Queen MARY, who accepted of the Crown upon Agreeing to this and other things relating to the Liberty of the Subject, as is to be seen in the Claim of Right.  
But in the Threshold, I finding myself obliged to do the Author so much Justice as to say, that the Writers of the Reflections and Remarks upon him have showed a great deal more of Malice and Rashness than of Reason and Argument, when they brand him as a Jacobite, or a Republican: In my Opinion the Gentleman hath sufficiently provided against such Imputations, by pleading all along against those things that he thinks destructive to the English Monarchy: but it hath been the Constant Practice of a Certain Party in the Nation, to blast all endeavours for the Liberty of their Country, with the Calumny of setting up for a Republic, in order to make the best Patriots hateful to the Court, and that they might either procure or be continued in places themselves, or at least to serve a Faction that are for Arbitrary Government; which of these, or whether all or any of them be the Motives of those Writers that have so rudely treated the Author of the Argument, I shall not so much as presume to Conjecture, because I am altogether unacquainted with their Persons and Characters, as I am indeed with his.  
But to come to the matter, The Case is now altered from what it was when either of them wrote, His Majesty, who is part of the Legislative Power, having declared His Opinion to the Parliament, that the Circumstances of Affairs abroad are such, That for the present, England cannot be safe without a Land-force. I his coming from the Mouth of the King, who sits at the Helm of the Government, and of such a King as hath always demonstrated a fatherly care of his Subjects, and an inmitable Courage and Conduct in his Administration, sets the matter in quite another Light. Then seeing His Majesty is undoubtedly able to satisfy the Nation as to the Truth of his Assertion, The Question is about the necessity of a standing Army, how numerous that Army must be, of what Troops Composed, for how long they must be kept up, and what are the most proper methods to prevent the dangers which the Argument insists upon, to be the Natural Consequences of a standing Army, in case of His Majesty's Death, and a Successor, who may perhaps be Acted by other Councils, and not endowed with the Royal Qualifications that all Men allow His Majesty to be blessed With. Now that this is necessary to be considered will be denied by no Man that wishes well to our Religion and Liberties, seeing it must be granted, that His Majesty is liable to a Violent or Natural Death as well as other Men, and more Obnoxious to the former, because of the Malicious Plots of his execrable Enemies.  
What methods are most proper to reach those desirable Ends, must be left to the Wisdom of the King and Parliament to determine, but that there is a danger in keeping a standing Army, as well as in being without one, is so obvious that it cannot well be denied, and therefore there is a necessity of making provision in both respects, which no doubt may be effected without such Heat and Clamour, as the Pamphletears against the Arguments are full of, The Letter for Balancing excepted, which is indeed modest and to the point.  
That we are in danger without a Standing Army is reasonably enough insisted on from the Power of the French King; his Levity in observing former Treaties, which the Answers to the Argument make a mighty noise about, and to this may be added, that the Principles of that Religion, whereof the French King is the professed Champion, allows the Breach of the most Solemn Ties, and the Perpetration of the most horrid Crimes to advance the Roman Church. So that all those things considered, there is an absolute Necessity that we should be on our Guard: and as Matters are at present, how we can any way be reputed to be so without a Standing Force, is to me unconceivable.  
I know that to alleviate those just Causes of Apprehension it is argued that he is now grown ancient; that his Country is exhausted of Men, as are his Treasuries of Money, that his gaining so little by breach of former Treaties, hath convinced him that 'twill be his Interest to observe this, and that in short his Country stands in need of a time of breathing, so that there's nothing now to be feared from that Head.  
To this it may be replied, that Marius Caius, the Roman Consul, recovered himself, though an Exile, sentenced to Death, and abandoned by all Men, when well stricken in Years, and avenged himself sufficiently on those that had reduced him to those Straits; that though France be exhausted of Men, yet the last Campaigne is enough to demonstrate that he's still able to match the Allies for Numbers; and though it must be granted that his Treasures are pretty well emptied, yet if it be well considered what an Ingenious Author of that Country did lately write in the Ruin and Desolation of France, demonstrated his Clergy, who possess one half of all the Estates Real and Personal in that Kingdom, are still in a manner untouched, though possessed of Immense Riches; so that if he should take the same Measures with his Popish Clergy, as Gustavus Erickson, King of Sweden, did with his, or as our Henry VIII. did with ours; that is to say, turn them out of their Monasteries, Abbeys and Riches, which is easy for him to do with his Standing Army, who by the sacking of Churches and Religious Houses in Germany and Flanders, have given proof enough to the World that they have no Scruple of Conscience to be so employed: I say, If he should take this Course, he would quickly abound with Men and Money, and as easily overflow his Neighbouring Countries, if they had no Standing Armies to resist him, as the Sea driven by a strong Wind, would overflow West-Friezland and Holland, if they should demolish their Banks and Dikes.  
Then, as to the Desolation of his Country, it's rather an Argument that he is to be dreaded than despised, considering what vast Numbers of Disciplined Troops he has on foot; who to be sure, if they had their choice, had rather be plundering their rich Neighbours, live in Plenty, and enjoy all the Liberty that's commonly allowed Soldiers in an Enemy's Country, than be exposed at home to manure Desolate Lands, and cultivate Ruined Vineyards, without the Prospect of any higher Reward than Wooden-Shooes or Canvas-Shirts, and at the same time to be liable to all manner of Exorbitant Taxes. And as a Military Life, must needs be more Eligible to them after so many Years being accustomed to it, there's no doubt but it would likewise be more agreeable to his Aspiring Genius, if he did not find himself in danger of being overmatched; and if we consult the Histories of the Goths, Vandals, alan's, Huns, etc. who like an Inundation, did overspread Europe successively, we shall find that their want of a comfortable Subsistance at home was one of the main Causes of those Eruptions they made upon their Neighbours abroad, and there's no Body acquainted with the present Condition of France, but knows that the Soldiers lived much better in the Armies than the Peasants and ordinary Tradesmen did at home, and that was one great Reason why his Armies were always so Numerous.  
As to his being convinced by his gaining so little by the Breach of other Treaties, that 'twill be his Interest to observe this, I shall be very willing to allow that he is possessed with so Generous and Magnanimous a Soul, that he abhors to do any thing that's base; but seeing he is so unhappy as to be of a Church which pretends to hollow the ungodliest Means, so they be but effectual to attain their end, they transform Vice in Virtue, and make him to think it his greatest Glory to perpetrate such things; which without that Bias he would think highly dishonourable. Then as to his Gains by former Breaches, though it's true he hath had a secret Vomit, which hath made him to disgorge many Towns and Countries, yet he is still a great Gainer by the Bargain, and retains considerable Conquests both from Spain and the Empire.  
It is also further to be observed, that though the French King cannot so easily invade us as he can do his Neighbours on the Continent, yet by this Peace he hath in some measure dissolved the League, that 'twill not be easy to assemble again so many Troops belonging to so many different Princes to oppose him, and he hath moreover thrown in a Bone of Contention betwixt the Protestant Princes of the Empire, and the Emperor who hath consented to the Robbing of the Protestants of so many of their Churches, which no doubt will heighten those misunderstandings, that have been observable enough betwixt the Protestants and Papists in Germany during the War, and whilst they are divided amongst themselves upon a Religious Account, there's little appearance that either Branch of the House of Austria will give any assistance to us, and for the Protestants of Germany, they are likely to have work enough to defend themselves, if any Rupture happen on the Account of Religion, so that we seem to be under an absolute necessity of putting ourselves in such a Condition, as we may be able to stand on our own bottom.  
There's another thing still, which is of very great Consequence, though some perhaps may think it remote, and that is the fair Prospect which the House of Bourbon has, of having the Crown of Spain United to that of Etance— Their hopes in this matter seem not ill founded nor remote, considering that weak State of the King of Spain's Health, their being no likelihood of his having any Issue, the strong Faction which the French King has in Spain, the weakness of that Kingdom to resist him in case of an Invasion, and then being cut off from all Prospect of help (if they make any Efforts to preserve their Liberties) but what they may probably have from us. This Consideration alone shows the necessity of our having a Land-Force in readiness, either to defend. Flanders, our Natural Barrier from being swallowed up by the French King, who will then have a better Title to it than ever, or to be Transported to the assistance of the Spaniards in their own Country; for if the Crown of France become once possessed of Spain in Flanders, we are, humanely speaking, blocked up on all sides, our Trade must every where be at their Mercy, and we are liable to their Invasions, without any Prospect of relief; for as I have observed already, they have Created a diversion for the Germane Protestants, the United Provinces are in the very Mouth of the Lion, and the French will take care to dash the Northern Crowns one against another. All these things being considered, do in my Opinion demonstrates an unavoidable danger from the Circumstances of Affairs abroad, if we be left without a Land Force at home, and therefore though the Court insist upon it, there's no Reason to suspect that they have any Design upon the Liberties of their own Subjects, when there's so much cause to provide against Foreign Enemies.  
But now on the other Hand, that there is danger from a standing Army at home, is equally demonstrable; as will appear from the following Reasons.  
1. The Country hath always looked upon them as a Grievance in time of Peace, could never digest their Rude behaviour and slow pay, and were much disgusted by their ill Morals.  
2. The renewed attempts of the Court in the Late Reigns, to enslave the Country by standing Armies, hath made their aversion to them Natural and in a manner Hereditary, so that the Jealousy on that Head is almost incurable.  
3. So long as there's a Party in the Kingdom that is not sufficiently purged of the old Leaven of Passive Obedience, and the Army not reformed in Morals; the present Government, which is founded upon Principles diametrically opposite to the former, and hath always, declared itself against Debauchery, can never be safe, if ever the late King or his pretended Son should land with a French Power, except the Army be othtrwise modelled than at present; for if the debauched Soldiers be once possessed by these Passive Obedience-Men, and the Jacobite Gentry in the Country, who have always declared a greater good Liking to Popery than to Dissenters; that the present Government is not throughly well affected to the Church, which is the common Topick of the disaffected Party, because of the King's being bred in Holland, his granting Liberty of Conscience in England, and establishing Presbytry in Scotland; I say, that if once the Army be poisoned with those Suggestions, that to gether with the continual Exclamations of the Jacobite Party against the Dutch, may very much endanger the present government, by the revolt of such a Standing Army, in case of any such Invasion as above mentioned.  
So long as a standing Army continues on the present footing, not only the Dissenters, but all the moderate Church of England men, and those called whigs in general, will continue uneasy and be afraid of Invasions, in case of his Majesty's Death, upon their Liberty and Property, as it happened in the late Reign, so that there is cause to fear that the Jealousies of the two Parties may throw the Nation into new Convulsions, and the Army, as in all probability it will, joining with the Court, Liberty and Property will be again in danger of being swallowed up, the Nation engaged in a Civil War, and exposed to a Foreign Conquest after the two Parties have weakened themselves by mutual Slaughter and Bloodshed.  
The Case then being thus, and the dangers Great and Eminent in both respects, it follows of course, that the nearest aught to be provided against first, and that is to be done by a Land Force, till such time as the K. and Parliament are satisfied that the danger from abroad is over.  
But then, considering on the other hand that we have no Lease of the King's Life, provision ought to be made against the other as speedily as may be; but the methods of doing this must be chosen and determined by the King and Parliament.  
The Argument proposes as a defence against Foreign Invasion, the Regulating the Militia, so as to make them serviceable: The training up of all the Subjects in the use of Arms, and keeping a good Fleet, so disposed in Convenient Ports as to prevent an Invasion.  
This in my opinion is highly reasonable, and were it brought to pass, would prove a very effectual Remedy both against Invaders from abroad and Tyrants at home; but the mischief on't is, that it is neither done nor like to be done time enough to answer the Ends; and seeing it is so, no reasonable Man can think that the Nation should be laid naked without a defence in the mean time; and this I confess is the main thing wherein I descent from that Ingenious Paper: I am far from the opinion of his Adversaries, who reproach him as a Republican, Apostate Whigg, Jacobite, sour Tempered, Whimsical and Melancholy Fellow, nor do I think they discover much Judgement in ridiculing his proposal as to the Militia and Navy. It is ceretain that formerly this Nation did as Remarkable Exploits against the French and Scotch when they had no standing Army, as ever they have done since, and that the Battles betwixt the two Houses of Lancaster and York, and betwixt the Barons and the King were fought with as much bravery and order, tho' the Armies consisted only of the Country Men and Retainers of either Party, as ever have been done since standing Armies came in fashion. Nor can there be any reason assigned why the Militia should not equal the Regular Forces, as they are now called, either for Valour or Discipline, provided they were equally Trained as all the people of the Nation were in those times; but the true reason why the Militia come so far short of the Regular Troops now is that the Court having in the late Reigns framed to themselves a distinct Interest from the Country, they durst not entrust them with Arms, nor encourage their being trained up in the use of them; but blessed be God the case is otherwise now, his Majesty is sensible, and hath from time to time expressed his sense of the Affections of his people, and declared That he neither has nor can have any Interest distinct from theirs. It was their affection settled him on the Throne, and hath ever since kept him in it, so that the better his Subjects are trained up in martial Discipline, the more firmly is his Crown fixed.  
It is equally certain that there are fewer Mercenary Soldiers and Officers in the Militia; as Originally constituted, and more of the Freeholders' and Substantial Men of the Nation, than in a standing Army, and no man can doubt but the Master of a Family, his Son or trusty Servant, will fight with another sort of Zeal for their own Property and Possessions, than a Mercenary Soldier, who, as the Argument says too true, makes a Profession to be a Butcher of Men for 6 d. per. day without considering what Cause he engages in, and that there are too many such in our Army, cannot be denied by any Person that hath not bankrupt all his modesty; and as for those silly instances which his Advarsaries insist upon of the Militia's not having acted their parts, the reason is plain they were not Disciplined, which was the fault of the Government and not of the people; it is moreover a very false way of Argumentation to conclude, because the Militia as neglected in the late Reigns, were not to be compared to the Regular Troop can never be brought to be as useful in the defence other Country as a standing Army in other Reigns, but the truth of the matter is, those Authors are not willing to have it put to the Experiment.  
The Argument owns that the Militia is not so proper for Conpuests indeed as for Defence, and for Conquests we have no occasion to make any, nor were we ever very happy in preserving them. Yet if all the Males of the Nation were brought up to the use of Arms on holidays, etc. which were a more commendable way of spending their time than has of late been practised. We should not need to fear our King's wanting disciplined Men to go abroad with him on occasion, without putting the 10000 l. Men as one of the Pamphlets calls them to the trouble of doing so; nor is it very decent in any person to cast such an unbecomeing reflection upon that Royal Regiment of Citizens, whom his Majesty honoured to be their Colonel himself, but persons of those Author's kidney had rather belike see Arms in the hands of a Dammee, than in the hands of a Sober Citizen: Vice is always afraid of Virtue, but specially when in a Capacity to suppress it. Some of the Gang remember the blows still they received from the hands of the Citizens, in the late Parliament Wars, and don't care to rencontre with such Adversaries any more, they had rather contribute to debauch them in Taverns and Playhouses, as being indeed the readier way to have their Wives and Daughters, nay and their Purses too at their Devotion.  
The Argument does also propose a mixing of the Standing Army, or part of 'em at least with the Militia, in order to train them, and to provide for themselves, which his Adversaries do mightily ridicule and allege that all the dangers he fancies from a Standing Army would continue in that case, but I must beg leave to descent from those Gentlemen, they know well enough that the frequent exchange of Garrisons on the Frontiers of Kingdoms is practised as an effectual means to prevent traitorous Corrispondences in those Garrisons, and that the mixing of numerous Deserters among other Troops, is looked on as a good way to prevent any ill designs they may have in deserting; then why should not the mixing of the Regular Troops amongst the whole Militia of the Kingdom, where the Soldiers have neither the same Officers, Comrades nor the like opportunities to do mischief were they so inclined, as they had when in a separate standing Army: And moreover the Officers of the Militia are or aught all to be Men of Estate or Note, and of good Report and Credit where they live, and the Militia Men themselves not making War their Trade, but being only called out upon an Exigent for the Defence of their Country, they can never be supposed to be so rude and destructive to the places where they are quartered, as the Soldiers of a Standing Army generally are, many of whose Officers, especially since buying and selling of Commissions came in fashion, are known to be Men of no Estate nor Reputation, but preferred either for their Money or because perhaps they have been Valet de Chambres, or otherwise ferviceable to a Superior Officer, and so have neither Honour nor Probity to restrain them from ill practices themselves, or to oblige them to punish them in others, as Gentlemen of Note in their respective Counties have or aught to have, or otherwise are not fit to be entrusted with Command.  
These Gentlemen do likewise ridicule the Arguments proposal of a Good Fleet at Sea, as not sufficient to prevent an Invasion, because his present Majesty made his Descent notwithstanding K. James' Fleet; and that the French landed Men in Ireland, and have gone out and into their own Ports, when our Squadrons have been lying before them, and chief because they suppose that the same Wind which brings the French from their Coasts, may keep our fleet Wind-bound upon our own.  
In this part as in all the rest, they deal very unfairly with our Ingenious Author, he does not propose the relying upon a Fleet only, but would have the whole Nation trained in the Exercise of Arms, to oppose any Invader: Nor do they at all take notice of his Project, of having ur Fleet so disposed into Squadrons, as at the Lands End, Plymouth, etc. That it would be impracticable for the French to Invade us, let the Wind lie how it will, without exposing their Transport Ships at least to one or other of those Squadrons. As to their Instances of the King's making his Descent notwithstanding King James' Fleet, it is nothing to the purpose, had the said Fleet been so disposed as our Author proposes the Dutch Fleet could not so easily have escaped them; but we are moreover to believe that the Prince of Orange had his Friends in the Fleet as well as in the Army, which does perfectly alter the Case.  
Then as to the French having landed Men in Ireland, and gone out and into their own Ports, notwithstanding our Squadrons lying before them, the Authors know that in most or all of those Cases, there have been shrewd suspicions of Treachery, or a real or pretended want of Orders, Provisions, or somewhat: Nay, as I remember, the escape of the Thoulon Fleet through the Straits once, and their getting into Breast at another time, have been questioned in Parliament, and there past a Vote in the House, that there was a notorious Treachery in some of our Miscarriages of that nature, so that the Answerers of the Argument can conclude nothing from this, for that Author always supposes our Fleet to be honest; and the King's Ships to be Commanded either by Gentlemen of known Integrity, or such true Tarrs as the Captain called Honour and Glory, and not by Lap dogs as one of our Lampoons represented them after Torrington's Defeat, who have spent more of their time in the School of Venus, than in that of Mars. Then as to the equal danger that those Authors suggest from a standing Fleet as from a standing Army, it is very easy to show them their mistake. In the first place, they can give us no instance of it, that ever our Fleet pillaged or plundered their own Country, whatever some few Ships may have done either under Charles II. when Prince of Wales, or at other times, whereas it is very well known that the Army under Charles the I, treated the Subjects in as barbarous a manner as a foreign Enemy would almost have done— and the Country does still remeber what horrid disorders were committed by those of Charles and James II. In the next place, it is plain that if the Fleet should revolt against the nation, they forfeit all those pledges they have on shore which are much more considerable in proportion than the those of the Land Army, for though we should grant that many of the Land Officers have Estates and Families, yet few of the Soldiers have, whereas the far greater part of the Marine Officers have Estates and Families and but few of the Seamen are without the latter; and to give them their due, they seem to have a better sense of the true Interest of the Nation than the Land Soldiers generally have, and hence it came to pass that the Wappeners were so much exposed to Reflections in the late Reign, and that they have appeared so Zealous for this, and from the same Cause it must needs proceed, that not one Ship of the Navy Revolted from the present Government tho' Dumbarton's and other Regiments of the standing Army did. But to give those Gentlemen all the scope they can desire, we will suppose what no man in his right Wits will ever suppose to be practicable, that the whole Navy should Revolt, and bring in a French Army upon us; that could not hinder the Nation from calling in the assistance of the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish Men of War to oppose them, which their own Interest would soon prompt them to do, nor yet prevent the people's Arming like one Man to make head against the Foreign Invader, whereas if a standing Army should by the Authority of any succeeding Prince join with him to swallow up the Liberties of the people, they can effect it speedily, as being in the midst of us, where they have opportunity to cut off the whole Parliament at a blow, as Christiern of Denmark did that of Sweden, or to Lop of the opposite Nobility and Gentry by degrees, and so the people having none to Conduct them must submit like Sheep without a Shepherd, and I wonder at those Gentlemen who think this impracticable, when Charles I. came into the Parliament House with an Armed Force and demanded the five Members, and Oliver by Military Force modelled the House as he himself pleased, so that in either of those Cases the King and the Usurper had not God restrained them, might have done the same thing as Christiern of Denmark did—  
There's another pleasant Fancy which one of those Authors has broached, viz. That there's no slavery to be feared but in Conjunction with Popery, when the whole Nation remembers to this day how near we were enslaved by Charles II. and many of them do still remember that had it not been for the Scotch, Charles I. had swallowed up their Liberties after the defeat of the Parliaments Forces in the West, if not before ever the Parliament struck one stroke; and yet Father and Son and Oliver the Usurper too, were all three Protestants. And for those Gentleman's further Conviction, let them look abroad into Denmark and Sweden, and tell us whether those Nations did not lose their Liberty under Protestant Princes.  
I shall agree with those Authors, that his present Majesty is uncapable of any such thing, that the whole Tenor of his Life, both before and since his coming to the Crown, secures us against any such fears from himself; it is evident to the world that instead of his seeking after a Crown, there were three Crowns that sought after him, else we had never been troubled with such long and learned debates, whither there was an Abdication and Vacaney of the Throne or not. I shall moreover be as willing as any of them to suppose that none of those named in the Succession as now limited will attempt any such thing: But we must grant what Solomon says to be true, That none known who shall succeed him, whether a Wise Man or a Fool. We cannot always promise ourselves a Queen Elizabeth, or such an one as our late Queen Mary, nor yet, that every young Prince will prove an Edward VI or that every Foreign Prince that may happen to be matched with our Heiresses, shall have so near a Relation to the Crown as the Prince of Orange, or have so much Zeal, Courage and Power as he to rescue us out of the Jaws of Oppressors; and therefore seeing it is the practice of all Wise Men to provide in a Calm against a Storm; I see no reason why the Author of the Argument should be treated as one disaffected to his Majesty's Person or Government. Charity, which is almost lost in this Age, would rather think that he has the highest Opinion of his Majesty that can be, when he takes it for granted that he will agree to such Methods in his own Reign, as will secure us from Tyranny in those of others, which any Man with half an Eye may see to be unavoidable, if the Maxim of the Reflections be true, viz. No Army, no King, when all the World knows there have been and may be, great Kings without standing Armies.  
I have exceeded the bounds that I intended at first, and shall now hasten to a Conclusion. It has been said already that it would seem now no more to be the debate, a standing Army or no standing Army, but how great an Army, of what Troops Composed, how long they must continue, and what Methods are proper to prevent those ill Consequences that the Argument suggests. It's certain the Parliament is the fittest Judges of all those things, yet seeing every one of the Answerers has proposed his own Methods, it's hoped they will not be angry if I tell them what I have heard proposed by others,  
It has been a long time the opinion of some Men, that had his Majesty been advised to have kept that Volunteer Army on foot, which risen for him on their own account, we had prevented the Rebellion in Ireland and Sctoland, and brought France to reason much sooner; but some Men out of a pretended Zeal to the Church, prevailed to have the contrary method taken, to the no small danger of the State. But if reason may take place, now that the Church is secured as much as Law can secure her, and that she has a Test to assure her Discipline, or rather Government.  
I say seeing she has a Test to secure her Government, it's but reasonable the people should have a Test too, to preserve their Property: And their's a Friend of mine says that were he to have a Test of his making, it should be some such one as this, viz. That, whereas all men in the late Reigns, that came into places of Power and Trust, were obliged to abhor that Traitorous position of taking up Arms by the King's Authority against his Person, and that they declared there was no obligation upon themselves or any others by that Treasoinable Oath, called the League and Covenant. So now none should be admitted into any place of Power and Trust, without declaring their abhorrence of the Tyranny of the late Reigns, complained of in the Claim of Right, and that they account themselves and others under no obligation to believe the Tyrannical Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Nonresistance, as explained and understood in the late Reign: But I know my Friend is hot Headed, and that this Pill is not well enough guilded to go down: Yet there are others who are more moderate, that are of opinion, if the Government think fit to allow of a standing Army, the Country would be the more satisfied if all or most of the Officers be Men of Estates and Interest in the Nation, and known to be such as think they may go to Heaven without believing the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, in the sense above mentioned; and that the said Army be composed as much as may be of those that have been raised, or are now well mixed by such Gentlemen as always opposed the Tyranny of the late Reigns, and that at the same time the Militia and Fleet be also put into such hands, and the former disciplined with as much speed as may be, now that we have plenty of experienced Officers and Soldiers to do it.  
My Friends are also of opinion, that it is our Interest to Cultivate a Good Correspondence with Scotland, in order to which an Union of the Nations would be much more effectual than the Union of the Crowns; for that leaves room for Princes of Arbitrary Tempers to dash us one against another, and to make us the Instruments of their Tyranny by turns. Thus King Charles the I. threatened to Invade Scotland, and actually did it with an Army from England; and King Charles the II. procured an Act of Parliament in Scotland for 20000 Horse and Foot, with so many days Provisions, to march to any part of his Dominions that he pleased, which considering the party in this Nation that would have joined them, might have been fatal to all the three Kingdoms, had not that Prince been more given to his pleasures than to his Sword. Such an Union, as no doubt it might be effected, to the Honour and Advantage of both Nations, would also secure this Nation very much in case of any future War with France, or others; whereas if the Scotch be alays treated with Contempt, or governed by the Councils of a Party, this Nation that hates them, on the account of their Civil and Religious Principles, it may have ill Consequences at sometime or other. The Royal Line which Cements them at present, is not very numerous in Offspring, and that failing, they have Princes of their own Blood at home, who if they strengthen themselves by powerful foreign Alliances may prove troublesome Neighbours, when we are engaged in a foreign War, especially considering the great plantation of their Countrymen of the same Principles with themselves in Ireland.  
Which Kingdom my Friends are also of opinion ought to be treated so as they may look upon themselves as fellow Subjects, and that some stronger efforts should be made, and more Christian methods taken to Civilize and Convert the Popish Natives than have hitherto been practised, and then we shall be in no danger of having our brethren's Throats cut by them in their Country, nor of being Invaded by them in our own, as in the time of Charles I. and James II. If Scotland and Ireland were both united to this Kingdom, upon terms Honourable and Advantageous to us and them, we might sit as Queen in the Seas, retain our Sovereignty undisputed, keep the Balance of Europe, nay, of the Universe in our hands, be secure against Tyranny at home, and Invasion from abroad, and England would be the unenvied Head of the Union. I have also heard some Gentlemen give their opinion that 'twere the Interest of this Nation, to have methods laid down for entertaining a perpetual Amity with Holland, lest future Princes may dash us against one another as formerly, to the endangering of the Protestant Religion, and the Civil Liberties of Europe. The only thing that we can have any occasion to quarrel about, is our rivalling one another in point of Trade, and as Providence did formerly put an opportunity into the hands of this Nation, of taking away the Hereditary Enmity that had been for some Centuries betwixt us and Scotland, by uniting the Crowns, kind Heaven hath now also put an opportunity into our hands of fixing a perpetual Friendship with Holland, our King and their Stadholder being one and the same person, and equally the darling of both People; so that there's no reason to doubt, but in such an auspicious Conjuncture, matters may be so concerted by the Government of both Nations, as to prevent any such competition in time to come, as may occasion a Rupture. There's certainly room enough in the World for both of us to Trade, and if we entertain a good Correspondence, we may in a manner divide the Trade of the Universe betwixt us; but if by the implacable malice of a certain Faction in this Kingdom against that Industrious and brave People, because of their Government being founded upon Principles contrary to Passive Obedience, we be kept off from settling a parpetual Friendship with them, it will certainly argue our infatuation, for there's no Allies we can have that are in any capacity to assist us against France, in case that already overgrown Monarchy should be yet further aggrandized by addition of the Dominions of Spain, of which as I have said already, they have so fair and near a Prospect.  
These are the hasty thoughts, Sir, of our Friends here in Town, as to the Arguments pro and con about a standing Army, which are all at present the Common Subject of Conversation. I am  
Sir, Your humble Servant.  
FINIS.