A LETTER TO A FOREIGNER, ON THE Present Debates About a Standing Army. Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aurae. LONDON, Printed for Dan Brown, at the Black-Swan and Bible without Temple-bar, 1698. A LETTER TO A FOREIGNER, etc. SIR, YOU that are of no Party, and have no Stake to hazard, are in the properest light to determine the Differences of others; and the Alliance of your Country may give you a just Title to interest yourself in the Concerns of ours. You are not to be told, that the ending of one War, has been the occasion of another; which may prove more fatal, as it is more near; and that the Pen is become more formidable than the Sword. But are you not a little surprised to see Men quarrel with so much obstinacy, and foment such destructive Heats; when if the Matter were truly considered, they might be found, perhaps, to mean the same thing? And when we have no settled Notion of what we talk, our Disputes will be Eternal. You very judiciously observe, that hitherto the Arguments of either side, like Cadmus' Soldiers, have defeated themselves: for one is abhorring the Thoughts of a Standing Army, while he is preparing you to continue it from Year to Year; the other tells you, that no Peace is honourable, that has occasion for so much as the Use or Exercise of Arms, and at the same time lays you down a Model of Discipline for a Militia. I will not enter into a Debate, Whether the former or the latter be most in the wrong, but will reduce the whole Matter to this one Question, (viz.) Whether our Freedom and our nation be more safe under the Army, (for so I shall distinguish 'em in the following part of my Letter) or the Militia, which I take to be the sum of all our Differences? But before I offer at that Decision, I will first obviate this preliminary Difficulty, (viz.) Now we have a Peace, we are to turn our Swords into Plowshares, and our Spears into Pruning-hooks, and believe that it cannot consist with the Freedom of any State to study the use of Arms, or make War their Profession. To answer this I will only say, That the greatest States of the World have owed their Freedom to their Arms, and supported it by nothing else. The Romans are chief instanced to prove the contrary; now if what the Romans did will be allowed, that part of the Dispute will end. The Romans you know from an infamous handful of Slaves and Runagates, became the glorious Lords of the World, and acquired by their Arms a freedom of their City, that all Nations coveted, though few were honoured with: these People from the founding of their City, to the Dissolution of their Empire, were in continual War; the Exercise and Necessity of Arms was so interwoven in their Life, that it may be justly called a Martial Government, and one continually increasing Army, that at last spread itself over the whole World. Will any one believe if it had not been for a Profession of Arms, and a Genius to War, that they would ever have flourished their Colours of Hay over so many Nations? Now, Sir, to make you better conceive of our Debate, it will not be unseasonable to represent to you the difference of our Army and our Militia. There is something in the bravest Nature that will not secure itself against Surprises; 'tis therefore necessary in a Soldier to know the face of an Enemy, to feel the hardships of a Camp, and grow familiar with Dangers—, Vitamque sub dio, & trepidis agate In rebus—. How much this is the Qualification of our Army, and how far they have differenced themselves from other Nations, you are not to be told; but notwithstanding you have ever expressed a very distinguishing sense of the Bravery of our Army, yet compared to the Courage and Fortitude of our Militia, it is nothing! our Militia Soldier, without the Provocation of an Enemy, is called out of his Bed to Arms; he puts on his Armour of Buff that never Bullet yet entered; his Bandaleers he fills with Gunpowder, and his Pockets with Beef; thus dressed for the War, and fearless of Dangers, in spite of Rain or Cold, his tender Wife and Children hanging at his Sleeve, and though he knows the Perils he's to meet, — Non aliter tamen Dimovit obstantes propinquos. After the Fatigue of a whole Day, the Hero returns with certain Triumph, settles himself in his armed Chair, and to his listening Progeny relates the Glories of the Field, — Geretque Praelia Conjugibus loquenda! Now, Sir, were the Dispute confined to the strongest, the Matter, I fancy, might easily be determined; but it depends more upon a diffidence of our Army: and 'tis objected, That the General of such a Body may enslave his Country, and make himself a Tyrant when he pleases: they would remove this Army, and for their Security, would substitute a Trained Militia, who will not act to the disadvantage of the Constitution, unless we could suppose them to be Felons de se. This, Sir, is the insuperable Bar; on this depends the whole Matter. It may be something towards an Answer, to show you how very difficult, if not impossible, it would be to form ours into a Trained Militia. Our Militia consists of such a number of Men, not the same Soldiers; for the Trading People that compose the greater part, seldom have the leisure, or think it worth their while to neglect their Business to trail a Pike, or discharge a Musket, but hire others (not always the same) whose Courage they can depend on to sustain the Service. But to place the Argument in the greatest Extremity; supposing these Men of Property were obliged to fight their own Battles, and were continually exercised, the Power must still rest in one Man, who according to their own Arguments, may make himself a Tyrant when he pleases. But 'tis to be depended on, that the Soldiers would refuse to obey in an unnatural Design against themselves. I must confess that Model of an Army is very extraordinary, where the determination of Right and Wrong must reside in the Tumult! And if our Security is to arise only from a hope of their Refusal, I would fain ask any sober Man, if our boasted Freedom will not stand upon a very ticklish Point? and who would imagine that the Modellers of an Army should lay down Disobedience as a material part of their Discipline? Now from Examples of all Armies that have been yet known, it is inconsistent with the Notion of a General not to be Arbitrary; so that whatever the People be, the Power is still the same. Were I directing myself to any but you, Sir, I should a little enlarge on this Subject; but I don't question, after what you have heard already, but this will be sufficient to give you a true Idea of our present Differences. I will add this Observation more, That from what has been said on all hands, it is evident there must be some Trust; and I would fain know if there is any People in the World but may be enslaved by their own Government? The Trust you make, place it where you will, may be used to your Destruction. And since it appears that our Danger is the same from a Militia as an Army, what will be the Consequence of so great an Innovation? This very Liberty of which we are so jealous, is owing to our Army; and could you imagine that we who are the only Gainers, should make that an Argument to take away their Live, for which they have hazarded their Lives? I have heard of a Creature that cannot be born without the Death of the Mother; but as Life is a lesser Boon than Liberty, Man must be the greater Monster to whom the Memory of good Offices is so odious. 'Tis our Character not to know our own Happiness, and a sudden Peace has transported us too much: Ease and Affluence are the difficult Sea of Humane Life; in Adversity we are somewhat guided by the Necessity of it, but here the Pilot is in danger, and he must be a judicious Mariner that is not lost in this Storm, Ab insolenti temperatam Laetitia.— I am pleased to think that (notwithstanding the ungrateful Diffidence and infamous Murmur of some Spirits among us, against the Man that triumphs o'er their Enemies) he rules with an innate Goodness, without provocation by our good or bad Actions, and will, I hope, in spite of all the Insinuations of ill Men, flourish unshaken by their Malice, or what is yet more treacherous, their Praise. FINIS.