THE State of the Navy CONSIDERED In relation to the VICTUALLING, Particularly in the STRAITS, and the WEST INDIES.  
WITH Some Thoughts on the Mismanagements of the ADMIRALTY for several Years passed; and a Proposal to prevent the like for the future.  
Humbly offered to the Honourable House of Commons, by an English SAILOR.  
LONDON, Printed for A. Baldwin in Warwicklane, 1699.  
Price 3 d.   

The State of the Navy considered In relation to the VICTUALLING, etc.  
THE Mismanagements of the Navy since this Revolution have been so abominable, that they could never have been born at such vast expense, but by an easy People, fond of a Government of their own setting up, and of a King suitable to the Genius of the English Nation, and worthy of Immortal Honour, notwithstanding the Maladministration of the Officers employed under him. Will not future Ages blush at the insensible Temper of their Forefathers, when they shall read of the escape of the Thoulon Fleet into Breast, and the abominable Affair of Monsieur Pointi? When they read the horrid Stories of our being gulled out of Money raised for public Service, and diverted to private and sinister Ends, will they not wish those Sums had been transmitted to them to be employed in more generous Achievements? But as Clouds often arise over the more clear Understandings and wiseft Heads, so Nations sometimes become delirious, and hurry into Ruin, till kind Heaven remove the pernicious Frenzy. Had the Mismanagements of the Navy tended only to the Consumption of our Wealth, the Loss might have been repaired; but when our Sailors are poisoned by bad Provisions, or starved for want of good, the loss is irreparable. Thus the Blood of War is profusely spilt in lousy Hammocks, stagnated with noisome Scents, and the flower of our youthful Sailors smothered in unsuccessful and needless Voyages, who might have won to themselves and the Nation immortal Wreaths of Honour in noble Attempts upon the Enemy. This Decrease of Seamen looks more like a Design upon the English Nation, than the effect of Providence. He that abandons himself to a morose Temper in his sickness, and will not take such Specificks as are essential to his Recovery, is a felo de se: And such Officers as deny necessary and good Provisions for Sea Service, can design no other than the Destruction of the Sailors, and consequently of the Nation. They undermine our National Walls, I mean our Shipping, which without Men are but Floating Castles, mere Machines' of War altogether indefensible. The Hardships of the Sailors have indeed been worthy the Consideration of our Representatives in Parliament. But poor Creatures, they have no body to represent their Grievances, they are tumbled and tossed on the watery Element perhaps 18 or 20 Months together in the Straits, and as soon as they arrive in the Channel are turned over to other Ships bound to the West-Indies or other Parts, and not suffered to come ashore and tell their Tale; or if they land, the necessitous good-natured Creatures sell their Tickets for half the worth, bouse it about in a Can of Slip, or a Bowl of Punch, forget their Sorrow, and remember their Misery no more. If any Complaints have been made, it has been done by the starved Wives and miserable Children of Mariners; if they have complained to those Officers that should have done them Justice they might as well have told their Story to the Winds and devouring B●llow●, the treacherous Sands, and fatal Rocks, the natural Enemies of their Relations. Have they complained to Parliament? What Redress could they expect from such a Parliament as the last and preceding Parliaments, so full of Courtiers, Judges of their own Cause, and Auditors of their own Accounts? The last Sessions of Parliament the poor Labourers, Artificers, and others, belonging to the Victualling-Office, petitioned for Arrears of W●g●s due to them; the Committee that examined the Case, consisted most part of the time but of seven Persons, when (I am told) according to the Custom of Parliament they ought to have been eight: four of the seven I knew to be Commissioners and Officers, and two of the four Persons complained against; though the Case was clear that they had some fifteen, others twelve, etc. Months due to them, and at the same time the Commissioners and Officers received their Salaries quarterly, yet a Report of the poor men's Case was never made to the House. But the Case of the Sailors is far worse than others; they have no Time, no Acquaintance, nor Interest to prosecute any thing of this Nature, and those that abuse and cheat 'em have got the Weathergage of them, they can send 'em at any time on a long Errand to the E. or W. Indies far enough out of hearing: upon their return the Complaint is grown as mouldy as their Bread, and as rusty as their Pork and Beef have been during the Voyage, and therefore aught to be cast without Survey.  
The Sailor's Case is indeed deplorable, kept long without pay, sometimes six years, forced to sell Tickets to raise a little Money for their Families at half value, though as good and brave Englishmen as any; are altogether enslaved, and without any Law that I ever heard of impressed, their Liberty taken from them, which when gone they are effectual Slaves; imprisoned on board Ship, caned and kicked by Commanders just dropped from behind a Coach at White-Hall into the Service of the Navy, miserably abused in being turned over from one Ship to another (contrary to the Rules of Humanity, and the Custom of the Navy) so that after they have been at Sea several years, are hurried out again without Liberty so much as to see their Relations. Now all things considered, What Encouragement have Mariners to serve their Country in the Navy? The only thing they have a seeming Certainty of is their Meat and Drink, and to be cheated of that too is the Devil.  
The Parliaments of England have always made a generous Allowance for the maintenance of the Sailors, and especially upon the Account of Victualling: but considering how damnably Funds are clipped, how many hands Money passes through▪ and every one of them must have a snack out of it, it is no wonder if our Sailors Guts are pinched, and appear like half starved Mortals, rather resembling the carved wooden Images in the Stern than the Ship's Crow. Go to Smithfield first, and see there the Oxen bought, and very modestly compute the Buyers S●ip out of 'em to be 60000 l. since the Revolution; follow the  to the Victualling-Office, and see an undescended Wretch there receiving them, advanced from threadbare Clothes since the Revolution to the Sum of twenty thousand Pound got out of a Salary of eighty Pounds per annum; besides a Journy-man Apothecary, and a Skipper at the Board, raised from abject Nothing to wonderful Pomp. These things considered, the Sailors must make small Meals; and it does plainly demonstrate how our Funds become deficient, when so many obscure Persons of no intrinsic Value or Worth must get Estates out of them. But to proceed to the Condition of the Victualling since the Revolution.  
Soon after the Revolution and the honourable Fight off Beachy, Sir John Parsons and Company, the then Commissioners of the Victualling, were complained against in Parliament for poisoning the Sailors, by putting Guts in the Beer, and Galls in the packing of the Flesh, which put the Sailors into a Flux, whereof great numbers of them died: The Commissioners in their own Justification alleged, That the Beer being ropy, as often it is, and recovers itself again, might occasion that Mistake by some ignorant Sailors: That the Galls happened in the packing by reason of some Bags of Galls that broke on board the Ship, from whence the Salt was taken, wherewith the Flesh was packed. I shall neither justify nor condemn those Commissioners; but I always wondered how Galls should have different Virtues by Sea and Land, for that very year I was crued in Ireland of a violent bloody Flux, by taking Powder of Galls: However hereupon Sir John and the rest were dismissed from their Employments. This Remove always seemed to me to be made by some Persons to make room for the present Commissioners; nor do I believe the present Commissioners themselves think their Predecessors guilty of any Crime: for upon the Establishment of the present Commission, those very Persons that put the Guts in the Beer and Galls into the Cask, were continued in their places, and the only Favourites of the present Commission, so that Sir John Parsons and Company were to bear the Sins of the whole Office, as King James did of the whole Nation, none suffering for Maladministration but himself.  
But the chief Design of this Paper being an Account of the present Management of the Victualling, I shall relate it with all the Candour and Faithfulness that becomes a Christian and an Englishman, as in Duty I am bound by those natural Ties and Obligations which lie upon me to the Service of my Country, and redressing the Grievances of injured Seamen. In order to which I shall consider how the King and Nation have been served in the Victualling, and what Provision has been made for Seamen during the War.  
You'll say perhaps it's no News to hear that the King and Nation are cheated, since we have had a continued Series of Villainy in Public Offices with Impunity. But from the Victualling we might expect better things, where not only Honesty, but Religion is pretended; yet the Godly are liable to Temptations, and an Ounce of Virtue is a precious Commodity amongst some sort of People. A certain Person must be a very honest Man, because the Dissenting Preachers about London vouch for his honesty; and as mighty Zealots as they were in the late Reigns for Liberty and Property, and against Courtiers in the House of Commons and Pensionary Parliaments, can now join with the Wicked to commit Iniquity, and shove their heavyarsed Hearers to Guild-Hall to vote for a Courtier, and give their recommendatory Epistles to the Church at Dover on behalf of the sage Politician the Son. But particular Reflections are somewhat besides my purpose, and therefore I shall offer Observations on their Service to the Country in the Management of the Victualling.  
Their Contracts with the Dealers to the Office have been the most preposterous of any thing in the World. Thomas Middleton a Hogman told me, he one year contracted with the Commissioners for a number of Hogs, by which Contract he gained betwixt four and five thousand Pounds: That the next year (as I remember) he made another Contract for a number of Hogs, by which Contract he was a loser, the Markets rising higher than usual; at the end of the season when the whole Compliment of Hogs were killed, he complained of his Loss to the Commissioners, who made an Interest with the Lords of the Treasury, who in consideration of his loss gave 2500 l. out of the King's Pocket. Who would not enter into Contract with the King, who is willing to bear all the Loss and have no share of Profit? This Thomas Middleton being burdened with Riches, took an occasion to hang himself, and was succeeded in Contract by Henry Nunalee, who upon a Contract of Hogs lost 1500 l. He went the same way as Middleton had done; but Nunalce being a Williamite, and well-affected to the Government, met with more Rubs and Obstacles than the other who was a professed Jacobite: However after much attendance, and (I suppose) payment of a little Civility-Mony, he got an allowance for the Loss. The Case is plain on the King's part, that he is a Loser by such a Contract; and as the Commissioners cannot be justified in such a Contract, so the Reason of it on their part is very difficult to be found. For when they contracted with Mr. Nunalee for the Parcel of Hog's , Pork was at half a Crown a Stone in the Markets, a rising Price too: It was no Mast Year, all manner of Hog Grain excessive dear, the Season so far advanced, that all the Town and Offal Hogs were killed and converted to Bacon: however the Commissioners, like good Husbands for the King, beat down the Price; and one wise Commissioner said, that as he returned out of the Country, he saw a hundred Hogs in one Field, and thence rationally concluding there were the like number in every Field in England, they brought the Contract down to twenty six Shillings per hundred Weight. Now if there was any other meaning in this Contract, besides doing Disservice to the Nation, it must be this, that at the end of the Season, by putting the Hogman to petition the Treasury Board to have his Loss considered, they should manifest their wonderful Sagacity in biting off the Head of a poor Hogman.  
Such Contracts are equally injurious to the Sailors as to the King; for the Contractor losing Money every day, must make the best of his Market, which is buying the worst Hogs, so that very thin and ill-fed Pork, in all likelihood must fill the wooden Platters aboard Ship, and the Sailors be fed with the Refuse of the Markets, who as they do the best Service to the Nation, aught to have the best Provisions the Land can produce. Ancient Custom and common Usage in Offices are or aught to be as much observed by Officers, as the Laws of a Realm by the Subject; for when old Customs are broken in Offices, all things are put into confusion, and Men are at a loss how to apply themselves. It has been an old and a rational Custom in our Offices, and always inserted in the Instructions from the Admiralty to dependant Offices upon it, that no Person shall deal, or be any way concerned in Trade in that Office wherein he receives Salary: But this has been so far from the Practice of the Victualling, that some of the Commissioners and Officers have dealt with the Office either in Shipping or otherwise. A great evil attends this Practice; for Officers paying themselves, we can't imagine they'll put themselves last upon the List of Paiment; and so other Warrants that are in Course are postponed. And it has been observed that no Office in England has broken the Course of Payment more than that of the Victualling: Besides, some of the Officers are common Buyers and Sellers of the Office Bills, and as constant Brokers upon the Exchange, as any that deal in Exchequer Notes, Bank Bills or Tallies.  
It is now become a Custom (I believe throughout the whole Navy) for the Cashiers and Clerks to take Poundage of the Persons they pay Money to, contrary to ancient Custom, and all the Equity in the World. The Victualling for some time had a Banker in Lombardstreet, who paid Money upon the King's Account, and took Poundage of the Persons he paid it to, as did their Agent at Portsmouth. This must be either a very great Exaction upon the Parties dealing to the Office, or else an Allowance is made for it in the Price of the Commodity, which is a downright Abuse to the Nation.  
That the Nation has been cheated and abused more since the Revolution then under any other Government, is evident to any thinking man. The Mismanagements of the Victualling have been so great, and the Office so scandalous, that it has been even a national Nuisance; and though prosecuted with reiterated Complaints at the Treasury and Parliament, all the honest Endeavours of Mankind have proved ineffectual: for where Men are Judges of the●r own Cause, no Justice can be expected: You'll never hang a Highwayman more, if you allow him to be tried by his own Troop. About four years ago some honest Men in the Victualling had made a Discovery of several Embezelments, of which they complained in divers Articles against the Officers embezelling the King's Stores. These Articles were delivered to one of the Commissioners, and so to another, but never examined into: All the punishment they inflicted on him was, that about a week after the Complaint, they gave him liberty for the Summer to reside at his Country House, and ordered the Officer that complained against him to do duty in his Room: This is much of the same nature of another Complaint against one of their Officers for drinking K. James' Health, who in a Fortnight afterwards was advanced from a Place of forty Pounds per Ann. to about three or four hundred. A Person of Honour hearing how the foresaid Complaint was stifled by the Commissioners of the Victualling, got a Copy thereof, and gave it to the Lords of the Treasury, who after some time heard the Commissioners ex parte against the King, and never examined one Witness on the King's part, to the proof of the matter of Fact alleged in the said Articles. So that hitherto it has been in vain to complain of Grievances, and the People of England 〈◊〉 been forced to maintain by the sweat of their Brows, many that formerly betrayed their Liberties, and now enrich themselves out of the public spoils of the Kingdom.  
To recount all Mismanagements in this Office would fill a large Volume; the Ignorance and Negligence of the Persons concern'● in it, the profuse wasting of the Nation's Stores, the contriving 〈◊〉 … ming Perquisites out of the same to themselves, contrary to former C … m and Prac …, the supernumerary Officers and Labernele … 〈…〉 Yard 〈◊〉 … d … p …, … r for Hospitals than Service, are things 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of all but such as should punish them. Indeed such Men are well secured in ill Practices; they have their Brethren in other Offices to stand by them, and a Power of discharging such of the Office as complain against them, as they did several of the poor men that complained against them in Parliament last year; nay one of the Commissioners threatened to discharge one of them in the Speaker's Chamber before the Committee.  
Thus this Office has been managed in respect to the good of the Nation. It will not now be amiss to consider how far this Management has affected the poor Sailors: An English man is not hardhearted enough to reflect on the miserable Condition of our poor Sailors of Admiral Nevil's Squadron in the West Indies. I am credibly informed from good hands, that out of that Squadron in a very short time we lost above 2500 men, whose Lives I am sure were of more value and concern to the English Nation, than all the Advantages of that Expedition, and the mighty Business of Cartagena our Gazette made such a noise about. A hot Country, stinking Meat, and maggoty Bread, with the noisome and poisonous Scent of the Bilge Water, have made many a brave English Sailor food for Crabs and Sharks.  
Now I am victualling abroad, suffer me to take a view of the Navy in the Mediterranean, under the Command of Admiral Russel: I shall not touch too far upon this Head, the Affair being in better Hands, and under the consideration of wiser Heads; I mean before the Parliament. But as a Sailor, I must needs say if so large a Sum of Money as is talked of was imprested to some body upon the account of Beverage, it is a damned shame that our Fleet should be so scandalous as it was there, and go by the name of the Vinegar Fleet, by reason of the sour Wine they drank: Besides, I remember it was a believed Report aboard our Ships, that the Spaniards were obliged by Articles to find Beverage and dry Provisions for the English Fleet; and we all concluded the vast Sums of Money brought aboard the Fleet by the victualling Pinnace, had been upon that account: The Cockswain and some of the Pinnace's Crew once told me how many Tun of Plate they brought aboard the Fleet; but that and a hundred Rogueries beside in that Fleet are out of my head at present: yet this I can assure you, the Folk concerned in buying the Beverage got very pretty Estates out of it; and old nonsensical Humphrey had sense enough to get, as we computed, at least ten thousand Pounds, when I am well satisfied if the Lords of the Admiralty would have been graciously pleased to have kept him at home, and given him twenty thousand Pounds for so doing, it would have been more for the advantage of the Nation, and the Sailors Welfare: for we have abundance of men in public Offices, that it would be for the advantage of the Country to give 'em twice … e Salary to be without their Service. Thus has it fared with the poor Sailors abroad.  
Now let us look into the Channel, and see how our Summer and Winter Guards of Shipping have been victualled. I thank God England is a very plentiful Country, and an honest Man that has money in his Pocket need not go with an empty Stomach; and I think the Parliaments have always made as ample Provision for Victualling as may be; and yet during this War our Fleet has been put to short Allowance in the Channel, have had their guts pinched in view of the most plentiful Country in the World, an unparallelled and barbarous Action hitherto unknown. This is bad enough, but to be fed with stinking Bees and Pork is much worse; and yet in the Year 91 or 92 the Victualling-Office was turned into Pandora's Box, and emitted as many Poisons to the destruction of the poor Seamen, who were fed with rotten and stinking Meat, as the Pursers Surveys, and the Books at the Victualling-Office at Dover will testify. It was not the nature of the Climate made these Provisions stink, this we are certain of, and as certain that it was done either out of a wilful Design against the Sailors, or out of profound Ignorance, both which are very dangerous.  
It seems as if England was still to be perplexed with a continued Series of ill Practices, and that the poor Sailors our chiefest Strength were to be abandoned to all the Miseries of human Life, and as if every one that has a superintendency over them, by that Power had a Right to abuse them: they learn one of the other to make earnings of them, and at the same time get Money out of the King's Pocket and those poor Creatures Bellies. Our Advices from Admiral Aylmer's Squadron affirm their having Irish Beef instead of English: without doubt English Beef bears a good Price in those Parts, and is a very Merchantable Commodity. It has always been contrary to the Custom of the Navy to victual with any other Provisions than what are received from the King's Stores, as long as such Provisions shall last: and the Pursers of Ships are obliged to furnish the Ship with such Provisions as are specified in their several Indents, for which before they gave Security at the Navy Board. Indeed it may be allowable for the Pursers of Ships in foreign Parts, where they can afford it, to victual with fresh Provisions, this change being not detrimental to the King but serviceable to the Sailors overrun with the Scurvy. And having before given Security for the Victualling of the Ship, in this Case the Provisions have been adjudged to be their own, and they have been empowered to sell them for their own Advantage, but not without the Commander's Warrant for so doing; though I have known the King's Provisions fold in the River of Thames, which, if there had been any left upon Return from a Voyage, aught to have been returned into the King's Stores from whence they were first issued. The Commanders of Ships formerly had nothing to do with the Ships Provisions, any further than to overlook and over-awe the Purser, that none of them were converted any otherways than to the use of the Ship; but now it seems the Commanders have usurped a Power in this Case, altogether detrimental to the Sailors: there is now as ill a Custom brought up in the Navy for the Commanders to receive the Ships necessary Money which always was the Pursers' Charge, and for which they always indented with the Clerk of the Issues in the Victualling, being one Article amongst the several Species of Provisions specified in their Indent. But the Commanders being willing for their own Interest to have every thing in their own hands, have gained this Point upon the Pursers, not to their own disadvantage. Now the Commander only having the Charge of the Ship, and giving no Security, being charged with nothing else, it's impracticable for him to receive the necessary Money, the Purser having before given Security for the same.  
If there had not been so great Care in the Victualling to get Estates, there might have been more Care taken in getting good and wholesome Provisions for the Service of the Navy: but any thing is thought fit Food for Sailors, who being long accustomed to bad Diet, hardly know when they are ill used. But indeed the Care of the Victualling requires something of Brains; and as Times and Seasons alter, so must Methods too, for a common Road may lead a Man to the Place he intends to go, though common Reason might direct him a nearer and perhaps a cleanlier way, if his Judgement was suitable to his Necessity. But Men of small Reason are often the greatest Opiniators, and think the Exercise of their Talon outdoes all Mankind, when their Actions weighed in the Balance of Reason are lighter than the lowest degree of vanity. I refer it to the Judgement of any rational Man whether the Method now used in the Victualling in dissolving the Rock Salt into Pickle, and therewith pickling their Meat for Sea Service, be consistent with Reason and the health of the Sailors: we know they are neither Conjurers nor Philosophers, yet a small degree of knowledge will tell a Man, that Pickle with all the ill qualities of Salt in it, can never be wholesome for human Bodies, which the Rock Salt must of necessity have before refining. The Bittern, the most noxious Quality in Salt, is separated only by Precipitation; and this Quality joined with a sulphurous Arsenic in the Rock, and embodied with the moisture of the Meat, if it suit the Victuallers Interest, it can never agree with the Welfare of the Sailor. Mr. Collins in his Discourse of Salt, p. 55. speaking of i●s vicious Effects, says as to Flesh, Besides in general a bad Taste, or a good Relish destroyed, the Moisture, Gravy, and Nourishment in a little time is rendered as salt as Salt itself. Hence the Flesh becomes hard, afterwards very bad or unfit for Food, and at length is mortified or rotten. He further adds as to the Consequences of using it: It causes Scurvies, Consumptions, and other Acrimonious Diseases in the Bodies of Seamen, or Soldiers in a besieged Garrison, that are compelled to the frequent and long use of it. Nay it is of so violent and corroding a Nature, that the Honourable Robert Boyl Esq has so prepared it, as to make it dissolve Iron Bars: but perhaps the Victualler thinks the Sailor's Bodies more durable than Iron, and because their Patience cannot be worn out, their Guts can't neither. There's no great danger that any Body will follow this foolish Example; however herein they have manifested their kindness to the King and Country in using a Method that lessens the Duty upon Salt, considering how many Weigh of Salt is used in Pickle in one Year: and it is very unseemly that a Project destructive of a public Fund, should commence at the King's own House as an Example to the Subject; but the whole Management of the Navy is of a piece. The Simeons and Levi's, though of different Tribes, are embarked in the same Cause, pursue the same Ends, and are alike odious in the eyes of the People.  
But the mismanagements of this Office and of the Navy, proceed from the Admiralty, as filthy Springs from an impure Fountain, these being but branches of that cursed Tree, that has yielded the Nation such sour fruit, as to set all our Sailors teeth on edge: an Office managed we know ●ot how, nor to what purpose; for I dare engage to pick out as many old Women in Wapping, that should have managed that Affair more for the Honour, Glory and Advantage of the English Nation. The Queen of Sheba when she gave her Visit to Solomon, ●xtol'd his Wisdom and his Servants: our S … mon is indeed worthy of Honour, who has been the Care of Heaven, as these Nations have been his; and the Queen of Sheba might justly have done him the same Honour could she have come hither: yet I engage she would have left out the latter part of her Compliment, and took little notice of the Sitting of his Servants in the Admiralty, of their Virtue or Wisdom: She takes no notice of Solomon's nor Hirams Navy, yet the Scripture tells us they were under the Conduct of Ship-Men that had knowledge of the Sea; and in another place, that part of their Loading was Apes and Peacocks, but tells us not where that Apes or Peacocks had the Sovereign Command in Sea Affairs, or that Land men were proper Persons to command Men of War. It is a great Misfortune to a Prince to fall into the hands of Sycophants and Flatterers, who magnify their own deserts to the Ruin of the Nation, get about him so close that his best Subjects can't see him; and if he be unfairly dealt with they know nothing of it, neither how to commiserate his Condition, nor give him that Assistance as is necessary to his preservation: such a Prince is perfectly hoodwinked like a Hawk, and those that hold him will not let him fly, but at some profitable Quarry for their own Advantage; they never suffer him to hear what others can say, left they should speak something to their own Prejudice. And thus the Prince by adhering to and promoting the Interest of a few, loses the Love of many, which often proves fatal both to himself and People. A Good Prince dispenses his Favours as the Sun does its Beams by a universal Reflection upon Plants of all sorts, but the more generous Plants receive most of the kindly Influence of its Rays. Mercy is a commendable thing in a Prince, it may drop upon Criminals, but Favours ought not to pour down upon them. I would not destroy the whole Species of Vipers because they are part of the Creation, and manifest the Wisdom of the great Former of all things; but there is no necessity for me to foster them in my Bosom, and expose my Body to their Poison. If the Managers of the Admiralty deserve the Posts they occupy, it is more than the People know, and the Merchants of England will tell lamentable Stories to the contrary. Some of them perhaps have deserved well of their Country, however not in the Admiralty: for a Person preferred to an Office he knows nothing of, by his Ignorance in one day may do more disservice to his Country, than all the former Services of his Life will amount to. The wisest Men in England have employed their Brains to no purpose, to unriddle the meaning of such Preferments; the old Maxim of preferring Enemies and disobliging Friends has been exploded by all Men of Sense: but the Court Party have now another Maxim, that all Commonwealths Men are Enemies to Monarchy, and not to be trusted; and all Englishmen and Lovers of the Liberties of their Country they represent as such, while the contrary get the best Places of Profit and Trust in the Kingdom. Now I would fain know how this Government comes to be a Monarchy in their Sense, and whether any Commonwealths-man in England can desire a Government more suitable to the common Good, and conform to his own Principles, if it be faithfully administered according to its Constitution. For no Man of a Republican Principle can desire more than to have Kings accountable to the People for Maladministration, and by their forefaulting to make a Forfeiture of the Regal Dignity wherewith they are vested; by which Forfeiture all the Right of Governing devolves again upon the People, who of their own free Will and undoubted Right and Power proceed to a New Election, and place one more Righteous than the former upon the Throne if they think fit, upon which Foundation this Government is built. So that Commonwealthsmen, as the Courtiers call them, must be the best Friends of this Government, because they are for securing the Foundation of it, and not for raising a Superstructure to make it top-heavy and tumble down. Ill and corrupt Officers and Ministers are the greatest Enemies to Monarchy in the World: for when the People see under all King's ill Men in Offices, the Wealth of the Nation profusely lavished, and the Liberties of the People in continual danger, they'll conclude that Mismanagements are accidents inseparable from Monarchy, that the Fault is not in the King but in the Office, and let 'em change the Person never so often, the thing will be the same; and so begin to think of another form of Government.  
There has been such an uninterrupted Progress of Mismanagements in our Naval Affairs, through the Conduct of the Persons concerned in the Managery, that nothing hitherto has been our preservation, but the immediate hand of Providence: The Walls of our Island are our Shipping; those once broken down, we are laid open to the violent Insults of any Enemy: A little Retrospection now would do very well, and not only so, but we ought to look forward, and find out ways and means to prevent the like for the future.  
It is the Business of our Representatives in Parliament to inquire into things of this Nature; they are the Guardians of our Liberties, and are bound to redress the Grievances of the People, by virtue of whose electing Power they have a Right to sit in the House of Commons and enact Laws: They have no Power from the People they represent to make Laws destructive of their Property, or diminishing of their Wealth, upon groundless Occasions; nor ought they to give Releases to such as have squandered away the Wealth of the Kingdom, and betrayed the Liberty of the Subject. He that does not prevent a Mischief when it lies in his power so to do, is equally guilty with the hand that did it, … d equally accountable to God Almighty. It is much more now the Business of Parliaments, since there is no way else to bring Criminals to Justice; and the greatest Justice that ever was done in Casts of this nature has been done by Parliaments, of which I could give many Instances had I time or place. Making public Examples of such Criminals is not only a Debt we own to public Justice, and the common good of the Realm, but will be a Terror to all future Offenders in Cases of the like Nature: for if such Abuses are tolerated too long, they'll become fashionable, and a Man must turn a Rogue to get into an Employment. 'Tis well for the English Nation these Miscreants are not beyond the Reach of Parliament, whose Authority and Prerogative if once lost we may bid an eternal Farewell to our Native Liberty; and indeed the lessening of the Power of Parliaments has not a little been aimed at by some within these few years, who would have us believe the Business of the Commons is only to assemble one year in St. Stephen's Chapel to raise Money for them to squander it away the next; I wonder all this while they have not had the Impudence to attempt the raising of Money without Act of Parliament, that being as legal as the converting appropriated Funds to other uses than such as are specified in the Act. But the day of Judgement we hope is at hand, when the Wisdom and supreme Authority of the People shall avenge the Injuries done to the English Nation upon the Criminals.  
To look forward is as much our Interest; and no less the indispensible Duty of our Representatives in Parliament to take care of the safety of the Nation in the well management of the Fleet. His Majesty in his most Gracious Speech upon disbanding the Army, lays the safety of the Nation before them, as a Duty incumbent on them; and since the Army is disbanded, our main safety is our Shipping. This Security supposed, was, I believe, the chief reason of laying the Land Forces aside; so that now the best Security we have left is our Shipping, and a good and sufficient Security too under a good Management. The Nation has already felt the Effects of the present Management; and to let the Nation suffer any longer upon this Account may bring us under such ill Circumstances, that will put it out of the Power of Parliaments to recover us from ruin. The Admiralty has been in the hands of such Men too long already, and 'tis now more dangerous than ever to repose a Trust of so high a Nature, of such great Consequence to the Nation, in their hands; we know very well what Party it was insisted so much upon the Necessity of a Land Force: and to trust the Navy in such hands for the future, as already it has been of ill Consequence, so it may prove more dangerous; they may so far embarass the Naval Affairs, retard the Erterprises of the Navy, by or … ing Squadrons and Cruizers in such Stations where they cannot be serviceable: so that in a little time the N … doing no service, shall be thought altogether useless, and this shall be made an Argument for the necessity of a Land Army. I wish the Miscarriages of the Navy already have not been out of design for this Purpose: If these Grievances continue, the Commons may at last be forced to prevent such Mischiefs for the future by taking the Charge and Management of the Navy and dependant Offices into their own hands, by appointing Commissioners of their own: and this seems rational enough for those that are at the Charge, to superintend the Management of the Affair; nor is this a new thing and unprecedented. 31 Hen. 6. Richard Earl of Salisbury, John Earl of Shrewsbury, John Earl of Worcester, James Earl of Wiltshire, and the Lord Sturton were appointed by Parliament to keep the Seas; and the Tonnage and Poundage were appointed for defraying the Charge thereof. 8 Hen. 4. The Merchants were empowered to name two Persons, the one for the South, the other for the North, who by Commission had the like Power as other Admirals had. So that you see the Charge of the Navy has been a Parliamentary Care in times less dangerous than now; and those who are appointed Commissioners in this Affair will be more careful in the discharge of the Trust reposed in them, nor will they have so many ways to slip their Necks out of the Collar as now: Here will be no Privy Seal to impressed Money for unknown Services, no passing of Accounts without Vouchers, no abuse of Sailors in Wages or Provisions; the Kingdom will be kept in a good Posture of Defence; the Minds of the People will be easy when the Management of their Navy is in the hands of Commissioners of their own, alike interested in the Good and Security of the Realm; and our Enemies more terrified, when the Business of the Navy is the Care of the whole Kingdom. All which is submitted to the Wisdom of our Representatives in Parliament, before whom the Case lies at this Juncture.  
FINIS.   

A Catalogue of Books written against a Standing Army, and sold by A. Balwin.  
AN Argument showing, that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy. In 2 Parts. Price 1 s.  
A Letter from the A●●hor of the Argument against a Standing Army, to the Author of 〈◊〉 Ballasting Letter. Price 3 d.  
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