War.
DO not under-value an Enemy by whom you have been worsted. When our Country-men came home from fighting with the Saracens, and were beaten by them, they pictured them with huge, big, terrible Faces (as you still see the Sign of the Saracen’s Head is) when in truth they were like other Men. But this they did to save their own Credits.
Martial-Law in general, means no∣thing but the Martial-Law of this, or that Place; with us to be us’d in Fervore Bel∣li, in the Face of the Enemy, not in time of Peace; there they can take a∣way neither Limb nor Life. The Com∣manders need not complain for want of it, because our Ancestors have done gal∣lant things without it.
Question. Whether may Subjects take up Arms against their Prince? Answer. Conceive it thus; Here lies a Shilling be∣twixt you and me; Ten Pence of the Shilling is yours, Two Pence is mine: By agreement, I am as much King of my Two Pence, as you of your Ten Pence: If you therefore go about to take away my Two Pence, I will defend it; for there you and I are equal, both Princes.
Or thus, two supream Powers meet; one says to the other, give me your Land; if you will not, I will take it from you: The other, because he thinks himself too weak to resist him, tells him, of nine Parts I will give you three, so I may quiet∣ly enjoy the rest, and I will become your Tributary. Afterwards the Prince comes to exact six Parts, and leaves but three; the Contract then is broken, and they are in Parity again.
To know what Obedience is due to the Prince, you must look into the Contract betwixt him and his People; as if you wou’d know what Rent is due from the Tenant to the Landlord, you must look into the Lease. When the Contract is broken, and there is no third Person to judge, then the Decision is by Arms. And this is the Case between the Prince and the Subject.
Question. What Law is there to take up Arms against the Prince, in Case he break his Covenant? Answer. Though there be no written Law for it, yet there is Custom, which is the best Law of the Kingdom; for in England they have al∣ways done it. There is nothing exprest between the King of England and the King of France; that if either Invades the other’s Territory, the other shall take up Arms against him, and yet they do it upon such an Occasion.
’Tis all one to be plunder’d by a Troop of Horse, or to have a Man’s Goods taken from him by an Order from the Council Table. To him that dies, ’tis all one whether it be by a Pen∣ny Halter, or a Silk Garter; yet I con∣fess the silk Garter pleases more; and like Trouts, we love to be tickled to Death.
The Soldiers say they fight for Ho∣nour; when the Truth is they have their Honour in their Pocket. And they mean the same thing that pretend to fight for Religion. Just as a Parson goes to Law with his Parishioners; he says, For the good of his Successors, that the Church may not loose its Right; when the mean∣ing is to get the Tythes into his own Pocket.
We govern this War as an unskil∣ful Man does a Casting-Net; if he has not the right trick to cast the Net off his Shoulder, the Leads will pull him in∣to the River. I am afraid we shall pull our selves into Destruction.
We look after the particulars of a Battle, because we live in the very time of War. Whereas of Battles past we hear nothing but the Number slain. Just as for the the Death of a Man; when he is sick, we talk how he slept this Night, and that Night; what he eat, and what he drunk: But when he is dead, we only say, he died of a Fever, or name his Disease; and there’s an end.
Boccaline has this passage of Soul∣diers, They came to Apollo to have their Profession made the Eighth Liberal Sci∣ence, which he granted. As soon as it was nois’d up and down, it came to the Butchers, and they desired their Professi∣on might be made the Ninth: For say they, the Soldiers have this Honour for the killing of Men; now we kill as well as they; but we kill Beasts for the pre∣serving of Men, and why should not we have Honour likewise done to us? Apol∣lo could not Answer their Reasons, so he revers’d his Sentence, and made the Sol∣diers Trade a Mystery, as the Butchers is.