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ANECDOT E.

N the Grecian and Roman Commonwealths, their tradesmen and labourers gained laurels in the field of battle by their courage, and returned to gain a fubfiftence for themselves and families by their industry; but when they began to keep standing armies, their foldiers, it is true, for fome time gained laurels in the field, but they returned to plunder, and at last to fubdue their country; which put an end to their freedom, and of course to every thing that was praise-worthy amongst them. God forbid our fate fhould be the fame! It is a mistake to imagine, that our tradefmen would be drawn away from their labour by breeding them up to military discipline; on the contrary, they might be brought to use it as their diverfion, and then they would return with more alacrity to their ufual labour." In former times, our holidays, and even Sundays, were em ployed in the exercife of the long bow, and other warlike diverfions; and I muft think, that fuch days would be better employed in that way, than in fitting at an alehoufe, or loitering in a fkittle, or nine-pin ground: but fuch a change of manners is not to be introduced without the affiftance of Go

vernment.

Mr. Sandys, Feb. 3, 1737•.

OLIVER CROMWELL, when he turned every Member of this House out of doors; when he bid one of his foldiers take away our mace, that fool's bauble, as he called it, had not a much more numerous regular army than we have at present on foot; and though the army under King James the Second behaved in a more honourable way, yet fuch a behaviour is not much to be depended on; for I am convinced, even that an army would not have behaved as they did, if the difcontented had not had an army to repair to; or if proper measures had been taken to garble them a little before hand.

VOL. I.

D

Mr. Shippen, Feb. 3, 1737.
BEFORE

BEFORE I make my Motion for fettling on his Royal Highnefes the Prince of Wales, one hundred thousand pounds a year, give me leave, Sir, to inquire into these several foundations and to begin with the laft, I fhall fhew, from many undoubted authorities, that the Prince of Wales has always had, and ought to have, a fufficient provifion fettled upon him, in such a manner, as to render him as independent of the Crown as any other fubject can be. To recount all the precedents that occur in our hiftories and records, would take up too much of your time, and therefore I fhall take notice of only the most remarkable. King Henry the IIId granted to his eldest fon Edward, afterwards King Edward the Ift, the Duchy of Guienne, before he was fourteen years of age; and the moment the Prince was married, he not only confirmed his former Grant by a new Patent, but likewife granted him, and put him in poffeffion of, the Earldom of Chefter, the cities and towns of Briftol, Stamford, and Grantham, with feveral other caftles and manors; created him Prince of Wales, to which he annexed all the conquered lands in that Principality, and appropriated him Lieutenant-Governor of Ireland, though he was then but just turned of fourteen; all which was done, as the hiftorians exprefs it, ut maturus ad res graviores gerendas expertus redderetur. By this generosity and benevolence of the King towards his eldest son, that Prince was early in his youth established in a state of independence and grandeur; and those paternal favours were afterwards fully repaid by that illuftrious and heroic Prince, for he afterwards proved his father's chief and only support. Every one knows how by his conduct and courage, at the battle of Evesham, he relieved his father out of the hands of his enemies, and reftored his affairs after they were brought into a most dangerous and desperate state. Nay, not only the King himself, but the nation reaped fignal fervices from the free and independent circumftances in which the King had fo early placed his fon. A state of independency naturally ennobles and exalts the mind of man; and the effects

of

of it were moft confpicuous in this wife and brave Prince, for he afterwards became the glory of England, and the terror of Europe.

The next precedent I shall take notice of is, that of Edward the Black Prince, upon whom Edward the IIId his father, fettled at different times the Earldom of Chefter, the Duchy of Cornwall, the Principality of Wales, the Duchy of Guienne, and the Principality of Aquitain. That wife and grave Prince, Sir, was fo fenfible of the reasonableness of the ancient maxim of England, with regard to the King's eldest fon, that he took care every future Prince of Wales should have fomething to depend on, independent of his father, from the very moment of his birth : for which purpose he settled, by Act of Parliament, the Duchy of Cornwall in fuch a manner, that the King's eldest fon, and Heir Apparent to the Crown, has ever fince been Duke of Cornwall as foon as born, and without any new Grant from the King; from whence has arisen the common proverb, natus eft, non datus, dux Cornubia. Some of the latter Grants of that King might, indeed, proceed from the great perfonal merit of the fon, but the firft Grants could not proceed from any fuch confideration; they could proceed only from his own wisdom, and from the general maxim I have mentioned; for the Prince was not then three years old, when his father settled upon him. by Patent the Earldom of Chefter; he was but seven years old, when Cornwall was erected into a Duchy, and fettled upon him by Act of Parliament as before-mentioned; and he was but thirteen when the Principality of Wales was settled upon him. Soon after that time, indeed, his perfonal merit began to appear: But how came it to appear? Its early appearance did appear, and could only proceed from his father's having employed him in, and inured him to the study of weighty affairs, at an age when most Princes are industriously taught to think of nothing but baubles and toys.

The fame conduct, Sir; that wife King obferved during that brave Prince's life: he was continually heaping favours upon

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the Prince his fon, and the Prince was continually repaying them with glorious acts of gratitude and filial duty. When he was feventeen, he fully repaid all former favours, by having the chief fhare of the victory obtained over the French at the famous battle of Crefly. In the twenty-fourth, or twenty-fifth year of this Prince's age, the King invested him with the Duchy of Guienne, which new favour he foon afterwards repaid by sending the French King home prisoner to his father, after having taken him at the ever-memorable battle of Poitiers. And in the two and thirtieth year of that Prince's age, a great part of France having been conquered and fubdued by his valour, the King his father erected Guienne, Gascony, and several other provinces of France, into a Principality, under the name of the Principality of Aquitain, with which he invefted the Prince his fon: this new favour the Prince likewife foon repaid, by carrying the glory of the British arms into Spain, and replacing Peter upon the Throne of Caftile, after having defeated the ufurper Henry at the battle of Nejara in that kingdom: for all which glorious victories, and many other great fervices done to his native country, the nation was fo grateful to his memory, that immediately after his death, or at least as soon as their grief for the lofs of fo brave a Prince would give them leave, the House of Commons addreffed the King to create his fon Prince of Wales, and Duke of Cornwall, which that wife King immediately agreed to; for his grandson being then Heir Apparent to the Crown, he became entitled, by the maxim I have mentioned, to an independent fettlement: but as he was not the King's eldeft fon, he had no pretence, from any former precedent, to the Principality of Wales; and his right by the late Act to the Duchy of Cornwall, was thought to be doubtful by the Lawyers of that age; the Lawyers being then, it feems, as dexterous at ftarting doubts and fcruples, as the Lawyers of the age we now live in.

Give me leave, Sir, to mention one other precedent; that of Prince Henry, afterwards the glorious King Henry the Vth,

whom

whom his father Henry IV. in the very firft year of his reign. created Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chefter, though the Prince was then but twelve years of age; all which grants were recorded upon the Parliament's request, in order to prevent any poffibility of a revocation: and though that King was naturally of a jealous and a fuspicious temper, yet we find, during his whole reign, he was every now and then making new grants to the Prince his fon, even tho' he was sometimes maliciously made to believe the Prince was confpiring against him. This Prince, it is true, fell into fome exceffes incident to youth and idlenefs; but, from the first part of his life, and from his conduct after he became King, we may judge that those exceffes were rather owing to his father's jealousy than to his own natural temper: for when he was but about fixteen, he by his valour contributed greatly to his father's victory over the rebels at Shrewsbury; and the very next year, having been entrusted with the command of his father's army against the rebels in Wales, by his conduct and courage, he gave them two fignal defeats; by which he gained so much esteem, that the King, his father, from his own natural and unhappy temper, and not from any undutiful behaviour in his fon, began to grow jealous of him, and therefore never afterwards employed him in any public affairs; so that the exceffes he fell into, probably proceeded from the idleness of his life, and the activity of his genius; or, perhaps, rather from a defign of removing from his father all future occafions of jealoufy. This, indeed, feems to be confirmed, or at least rendered the most probable conjecture, by his conduct after he became King; for immediately upon his acceffion, he banished from his prefence all the companions and fycophant upholders of his former debaucheries, and became one of the greatest, and one of the most glorious Princes that ever fat upon the English Throne.

The late King James the IId, when Duke of York, and the late Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, were both provided

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