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Parliament.
For certainly a Waste or a Desert has no Right to be represented, nor by

our original Constitution was ever intended to be: yet I would by no
means have those Deputies lost to the Commons, but transferr'd to
wiser, more industrious, and better peopled Places, worthy (thro their
Numbers and Wealth) of being represented.
A Whig is against the raising or keeping up a Standing Army in Time of
Peace: but with this Distinction, that if at any time an Army (tho even in
Time of Peace) shou'd be necessary to the Support of this very Maxim,
a Whig is not for being too hasty to destroy that which is to be the
Defender of his Liberty. I desire to be well understood. Suppose then,
that Persons, whose known Principle and Practice it has been (during
the Attempts for arbitrary Government) to plead for and promote such
an Army in Time of Peace, as wou'd be subservient to the Will of a
Tyrant, and contribute towards the enslaving the Nation; shou'd, under
a legal Government (yet before the Ferment of the People was appeas'd)
cry down a Standing Army in Time of Peace: I shou'd shrewdly suspect,
that the Principles of such Persons are not changed, but that either they
like not the Hands that Army is in, or the Cause which it espouses; and
look upon it as an Obstruction to another Sort of Army, which they
shou'd like even in Time of Peace. I say then, that altho the Maxim in
general be certainly true, yet a Whig (without the just Imputation of
having deserted his Principles) may be for the keeping up such a
Standing Army even in Time of Peace, till the Nation have recover'd its
Wits again, and chuses Representatives who are against Tyranny in any
Hands whatsoever; till the Enemies of our Liberties want the Power of
raising another Army of _quite different Sentiments: for till that time, a
Whiggish Army is the Guardian of our Liberties, and secures to us the
Power of disbanding its self_, and prevents the raising of another of a
different Kidney. As soon as this is done effectually, by my Consent, no
such thing as a mercenary Soldier should subsist in England. And
therefore The arming and training of all the Freeholders of England, as
it is our undoubted ancient Constitution, and consequently our Right;
so it is the Opinion of most Whigs, that it ought to be put in Practice.
This wou'd put us out of all Fear of foreign Invasions, or disappoint any
such when attempted: This wou'd soon take away the Necessity of
maintaining Standing Armies of Mercenaries in Time of Peace: This
wou'd render us a hundred times more formidable to our Neighbours

than we are; and secure effectually our Liberties against any King that
shou'd have a mind to invade them at home, which perhaps was the
Reason some of our late Kings were so averse to it: And whereas, as the
Case now stands, Ten Thousand disciplin'd Soldiers (once landed)
might march without considerable Opposition from one End of
England to the other; were our Militia well regulated, and Fire-Arms
substituted in the Place of Bills, Bows, and Arrows (the Weapons in
Use when our _training Laws_ were in their Vigor, and for which our
Laws are yet in Force) we need not fear a Hundred Thousand Enemies,
were it possible to land so many among us. At every Mile's End, at
every River and Pass, the Enemy wou'd meet with fresh Armies,
consisting of Men as well skill'd in military Discipline as themselves;
and more resolv'd to fight, because they do it for Property: And the
farther such an Enemy advanced into the Country, the stronger and
more resolved he wou'd find us; as Hanibal did the Romans, when he
encamped under the Walls of Rome, even after such a Defeat as that at
Cannæ. And why? Because they were all train'd Soldiers, they were all
Freemen that fought _pro aris & focis_: and scorn'd to trust the
Preservation of their Lives and Fortunes to Mercenaries or Slaves, tho
never so able-body'd: They thought Weapons became not the Hands of
such as had nothing to lose, and upon that Account were unfit
Defenders of their Masters Properties; so that they never tried the
Experiment but in the utmost Extremity.
That this is not only practicable but easy, the modern Examples of the
Swissers and Swedes is an undeniable Indication. Englishmen have as
much Courage, as great Strength of Body, and Capacity of Mind, as any
People in the Universe: And if our late Monarchs had the enervating
their free Subjects in View, that they might give a Reputation to
Mercenaries, who depended only on the Prince for their Pay (as 'tis