a march, throw down their arms and refuse any longer service.
That such a rotation in the army, would discipline our men, and turn the nation into a regular militia; which would give this great security to the present establishment; that an army, much more numerous, and as regular and well disciplin'd, might be the seduc'd and drawn together to subvert it, as that kept in pay to support and defend it.
Confesses that he had formerly treated them as a lazy, profligate indolent tribe, enemies of liberty, and the support of tyrants and usurpers; but having consider'd how they may be made useful, now commences patron for standing armies, that is, a free standing army, who can disband themselves whenever they please, without any bad consequences to themselves.
The Free Briton, Thursday, March 25. No. 69.
'TIS an act of generosity to rescue the virtues and the praises of such worthies who have surviv'd the services they have done the publick, from oblivion; few are now remaining who had any share in the publick transactions of the reigns of K. William and Qu. Anne; oppressors, betrayers, of the publick trust, and blundering servants, become gradually less and less obnoxious to the people.
Hence it happens, that many unjust proceedings, transmitted to posterity in the fair forms of publick justice unattended with their genuine marks of secret iniquity, have an ill-deserv'd reverence from those men who never examin'd their merit. Had such a venal magistrate as Chief Justice Saunders, or such an over-bearing tyrant as Scroggs who follow'd him, been living in the four last years of Queen Ann's reign, neither the city of London's charter, which the one seized on, nor the innocent blood which the other shed, wou'd have been thought objections of any great weight against such virtuous characters.
The persons who influenced the ill conduct of those times, would not have been caress'd and espoused, had the people been sensible of the former oppression and tyranny; therefore when such as acted extraordinary parts about 20 years ago, would again impose upon an abused people, it shou'd be our care that such proceedings are not forgot when they shou'd be most remember'd.
Here he animadverts on the methods and arts which were practised to remove, supplant, and displace the illustrious D. of Marlborough, and the upright E. of Godolphin; and reflects on the accomplishments, virtue and integrity of those patriots who succeeded them; and from thence infers what noodles the Whigs were in their impeachment against such a Patriot as the late Lord Vis. B———ke, and what Numsculls the Tories were, in their famous protest, against restoring his title to his patrimony.
Lastly, bids us learn to value health by the sight of sickness, and liberty by the sad appearance of civil and religious tyranny.
The Craftsman, Saturday March 27. No. 247.
TAkes for the subject of his discourfe a report which he had observ'd about town, of a proposal intended to be offer'd for a general excise, under the pretence of taking off the land tax; shews the pernicious consequences of such a scheme; traces the excise to its first original, and in the words of John Hampden, Esq; tells us the occasion of it's being first introduc'd; of it's enlargement from time to time; the various methods used in successive reigns to keep it a-foot; and the mischiefs of it; which may in short be comprehended from his motto to this Paper, viz.Excise
