CHAPTER IV
Fletcher’s Political Writings—‘A Discourse on Militias’—The Affairs of Scotland—Supports Slavery as a cure for Mendicancy—Attacks the Partition Treaty.
It was in 1698, while the fate of the Darien expedition was still uncertain, that Fletcher first appeared as an author.
In their original form his writings may be described as short, anonymous pamphlets, of duodecimo or small octavo size, and printed in italics. They were republished, some years after Fletcher’s death, in one volume, in 1732, under the title of The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher, Esq., and since then there have been other editions.
These earlier works consisted of—(1) A Discourse of Government with relation to Militias: Edin., 1698; (2) Two Discourses concerning the Affairs of Scotland, written in the year 1698; (3) a work in Italian, called Discorso delle cose di Spagna, scritto nel mese di Luglio 1698: Napoli, 1698; (4) A Speech upon the State of the Nation, 1701.
After the Peace of Ryswick there was a war of pamphlets on the question of standing armies. William III. desired to maintain a force sufficient to cope with France; but, as Burnet says, ‘the word “standing army” had an odious sound in English ears’; and most Englishmen thought that a thoroughly trained militia and a strong navy would afford the best means for repelling an invasion from abroad, and securing order at home.
Fletcher plunged into this controversy with his work upon militias. His argument is that standing armies kept up in peace have changed the governments of Europe from monarchies into tyrannies. ‘Nor,’ he says, ‘can the power of granting or refusing money, though vested in the subject, be a sufficient security for liberty, when a standing mercenary army is kept up in time of peace; for he that is armed is always master of him that is unarmed. And not only that government is tyrannical which is tyrannically exercised, but all governments are tyrannical which have not in their constitution a sufficient security against the arbitrary power of the Prince.’ Therefore no monarchy is sufficiently limited unless the sword is in the hands of the subject. A standing army tends to enslave a nation. It is composed of men whose trade is war. To support them heavy taxes must be imposed; and it thus becomes the interest of a large and formidable party in the state, consisting of those families whose kinsmen are soldiers, to keep up the army at the expense of their countrymen.
No standing armies, Fletcher points out, have ever yet been allowed in this island. The Parliament of England has often declared them contrary to law; and the Parliament of Scotland not only declared them to be a grievance, but made his keeping of them up one of its reasons for disowning King James. But, on the other hand, every free man should have arms, which are ‘the only true badge of liberty.’ Military service ought to be compulsory upon all classes; for ‘no bodies of military men can be of any force or value unless many persons of quality or education be among them.’ The only men who are fit to be officers are gentlemen of property and position.
He has a plan all ready for organising the national militia. Four camps should be formed, three in England and one in Scotland. All men, on reaching their twenty-first birthday, must enter them, and serve for two years, if rich enough to support themselves, and for one year, if they must be maintained at the public expense. They are to be taught ‘the use of all sorts of arms, with the necessary evolutions; as also wrestling, leaping, swimming, and the like exercises.’ Every man who can afford it should be forced to buy a horse, and be trained to ride him. These camps were to remain for only eight days in one place, moving from one heath to another, not only for the sake of health and cleanliness, but to teach the men to march, to forage, to fortify camps, and to carry their own tents and provisions. The food of all, both officers and privates, was to be the same. ‘Their drink should be water, sometimes tempered with a proportion of brandy, and at other times with vinegar. Their cloaths should be plain, coarse, and of a fashion fitted in everything for the fatigue of a camp.’
Each camp was to break up, at certain seasons, into two parties, and spread over the mountains, marshes, and country roads, and practise tactics by manœuvring against each other. No clergymen nor women should be allowed to enter them; but ‘speeches exhorting to military and virtuous actions should be often composed, and pronounced publicly by such of the youth as were, by education and natural talents, qualified for it.’ The strictest discipline was to be enforced. ‘The punishments should be much more rigorous than those inflicted for the same crimes by the law of the land. And there should be punishments for some things not liable to any by the common law, immodest and insolent words or actions, gaming, and the like.’