or derogate from our own Rights, no man can tell how far it may go. I do not know, but I may live to fee the Queftion put upon a Gentleman's rifing up to fpeak, whether he shall have leave to speak? And if ever fuch a Question should be put, I fhall not in the leaft doubt of its being carried in the negative, in eafe there fhould be a fufpicion of the Gentleman's intending to utter things disagreeable to those that may then have the direction of the Majorities of this House.

William Pulteney, Efq; Jan. 29, 1739.

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I MUST be againft compelling the attendance of fuch Gentlemen in this Houfe; I am far from finding fault with any of those Gentlemen that have returned; I think they have done their duty in doing fo; but I cannot help comparing them to the present King of Spain. He, fome years ago, refigned his Crown, out of a pet, and, I think, it was a religious or confcientious pet too. I wish they had held him at his word, and never allowed him to refume, as they might and ought to have done; for his fecond fon, now Prince of Afturias, was the natural fucceffor to his eldeft, who died King of Spain. But they allowed him to resume his Crown, and we know what difturbances he has fince bred in Europe. If the Gentlemen who left their Seats laft Seffion, had been taken at their word; if we had ordered their Seats to be filled up by new Elections, they could have complained of no injustice: but we have this Seffion allowed fuch of them as have returned, to refume their Seats. In this, we have fhewn ourselves to be as indulgent as the subjects of the King of Spain; and I hope they will take care not to make such an use of the indulgence they have met with, as his Catholic Majefty has done. They have hitherto shewn, that they do not incline to do; but, if we should call in thofe that, for aught we know, are still in a bad humour, I do not know what may happen. Evil company, they fay, corrupts good manners. It is a dangerous experi

ment,

ment, to mingle the infected with those that are but just recovered. For this reason I was against the Call.

Robert Tracey, Efq; Jan. 25, 1735.

No Legiflator ever founded a free Government, but avoided a standing army, that Charybdis, as a rock against which his Commonwealth must certainly be shipwrecked, as the Ifraelites, Athenians, Corinthians, Achaians, Lacedemonians, Thebans, Samnites, and Romans; none of which nations, whilft they kept their liberty, were ever known to maintain any foldier in conftant pay within their cities, or ever fuffered any of their subjects to make war their profeffion; well knowing, that the fword and fovereignty always march hand in hand; and therefore they trained their own citizens, and territories about them, perpetually in arms; and their whole Commonwealths, by this means, became so many formed militias: a general exercise of the best of their people in the use of arms, was the only bulwark of their liberties, and was reckoned the fureft way to preferve them both at home and abroad, the people being secured thereby as well against the domeftic affronts of any of their own citizens, as against the foreign invafions of ambitious and unruly neighbours. Their arms were never lodged in the hands of any who had not an interest in preserving the public peace, who fought pro aris & focis, and thought themfelves fufficiently paid by repelling invaders, that they might with freedom return to their own affairs. In those days there was no difference between the citizen, the foldier, and the husbandman; for all promifcuously took arms when the public fafety required it, and afterwards laid them down with more alacrity than they took them up: fo that we find among the Romans, the braveft and greatest of their Generals came from the plough, contentedly returning when the work was over, and never demanding their triumphs, till they had laid down their commands, and reduced themfelves to the ftate of private men. Nor do we find this famous Commonwealth ever VOL. I. permitted

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permitted a difpofition of their arms in any other hands, till their Empire increafing, neceffity conftrained them to erect a conftant ftipendiary foldiery abroad in foreign parts, either for the holding or winning of provinces. Then luxury increasing with dominion, the strict rule and difcipline of freedom foon abated, and forces were kept up at home; which foon proved of fuch dangerous confequence, that the people were forced to make a law to employ them at a convenient distance: which was, that if any General marched over the river Rubicon, he fhould be declared a public enemy. And in the passage of that river, the following infcription was erected, Imperator five miles, five tyrannus armatus quifquis fiftito; vexillum armaque deponito, nec citra hunc amnem trajicito. And this made Cæfar, when he had prefumed to pafs this river, to think of nothing but the preffing on to the total oppreffion of that glorious Empire.

Mr. Hutchefon, Feb. 12, 1740.

SIR, it is a new doctrine in this nation, and abfolutely inconfiftent with our Conftitution, to tell us, that his Majesty may, and ought, in the difpofal of offices and favours, to confider Gentlemen's behaviour in this Houfe. Let his Majefty be never fo well convinced of the wisdom and uprightness of his measures, he ought not to take the least notice of what is faid or done by any particular man in this House. He is a traitor to our Constitution that advises his Majesty to do so ; and if reports are carried to his Majefty, with regard to the behaviour of any particular Member of Parliament in this House, or at any Election, he ought to do with them, as it is faid King William did with the Papers of a Plot he had difcovered. By perufing one of them, he found reason to fufpect fome of his Courtiers had been concerned; whereupon he threw them all into the flames, that they might not furnish him with fufpicions against those he took to be his friends.

The fame Monarch fhewed another inftance of his generofity, and of his regard for our Conftitution. A poft in the army having fallen vacant, the Gentleman who had the next right to it, happened to be a Member of this Houfe, and one that had opposed the Court, which few Officers do now-a-days; the Minifters, as usual, were against his preferment, because he had oppofed the King's Measures in Parliament; but the King told them, he had always behaved well as an Officer, and he had nothing to do with his behaviour in Parliament.

Honourable Edward Digby, March 23, 1741.

WHATEVER notion fome Gentlemen may have of absolute power, Sir, it has been thought neceffary in all countries for preferving fubordination and difcipline in an army. In the Roman Commonwealth, from its very firft original, the Generals of their armies had a moft abfolute and unlimited power over every Officer and Soldier in the army. They could not only prefer and reduce, but punish even with death itself, by their fole authority, and without the fentence of any Court Martial. The ftory of Manlius, who put his own fon to death, for fighting the enemy against his orders, is fo well known, that I need not put Gentlemen in mind of it. Not only particular men, but whole armies, were among the Romans fubject to be punished by the fole and abfolute power of their General; for we read that Appius, in the very infancy of that Commonwealth, caufed every tenth man in the army to be whipped for flying from the enemy; befides punishing fome of the Officers with death. And, I believe, there is now no country in the world, where their armies enjoy fo much free dom, or fo much fecurity against being oppreffed by their Commanders, as both the Officers and Soldiers of our British armies enjoy.

THE old Nabob Meer Jaffier, if ever Muffulman had a friendship for a Chriftian, had a friendship for me. When the news of my appointment reached Bengal, he immediately quitted Muxadavad; came down to Calcutta; impatiently waited my arrival fix weeks; fell ill; returned to his Capital, and died! Two or three days before his death, in the presence of his wife, and in the presence of his Minister, he said to his fon and fucceffor," Whatever you think proper to give to Lord Clive on your own account, the means are in your power: But as a teftimony of my affection for him, I defire you will pay to him, as a legacy from me, five lacks of rupees." I must obferve, that the Nabob's death happened whilft I was on my voyage, and fome months before my arrival in Bengal. The principal and intereft amounted to near seventy thousand pounds. The whole of the money, added to about forty thousand pounds more, which I prevailed on the Nabob to bestow, is established for a Military Fund, in fupport of Officers, and Soldiers who may be invalided in any part of India, and alfo in fupport of their widows.

Lord Clive, March 30, 1772.

IF Gentlemen will fearch the Records in the Tower, they will find that the town of Calais in France, when it belonged to the Imperial Crown of thefe Realms, was not taxed till it sent Representatives to Parliament. Two Burgeffes from Calais actually fat and voted in this House. Then, and not till then, was Calais taxed. The Writ out of Chancery, and the Return to it, in the reign of Edward the VIth, with the names of the Burgeffes, are ftill extant. I faithfully gave them to the Public from attefted copies.

Mr. Wilkes, Feb. 1775.

THE adopting of the measures of supporting large ftanding armies, to enforce the fovereignty over their provinces, (an alluring motive) has fubjugated them all in their turns, and extinguished