3. The great reputation and security such a league will give to this state, which will cover them as with wings of protection against France, and whosoever else would prey upon them.

If I have not expressed these things so as I would, I have done it as well as I can in a short time. And so, submitting it with all decent humility to the grave considerations of those excellent personages whom it may concern, I leave it to its fate.

Hague, May 24, 1680.

ADVICE TO A SOLDIER,

IN TWO LETTERS,

WRITTEN TO AN OFFICER IN THE ENGLISH ARMY,

PROPER TO BE EXPOSED AT THE PRESENT TIME,

While the Peace of Christendom (if not the Liberty of it,) seems to be very short-lived.

From a quarto, containing fourteen pages, printed at London, by John Shadd, 1680.

The first of these letters endeavours to convince every candidate for a field-commission, that he is petitioning, not for a small and trivial matter, but for a preferment, on the due execution of which depends his own and his king's and nation's welfare; and that therefore the author adviseth every one first to engage a voluntier in some action in the wars, before that he accepts of the post of the meanest officer; because the military arts of battles and sieges are as little to be learned by reading and theory, as any other worldly employment; and they that have the commission, and must be beholden to the instruction and direction of a subaltern in the execution of their duty, lie subject to this dilemma, To lose the credit of their success when fortune favours, or to bear the blame when it happens otherwise.'

The second letter contains the moral part of military discipline; and that not only in regard to the soldiers in general, but to the officers in particular. And they are both not only now, but at all times, worthy the perusal of the gentlemen, who serve their king and country with their hearts and swords.

The first Letter to a young gentleman, who, by the mediation of great friends, had obtained the grant of a considerable command in the English army, against the prevailing power of France, in the year

1678.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

IDO highly approve the resolution you have taken to serve his majesty

in the wars, if any happen, it being a duty which every good subject owes him, especially the gentry, who derive all their streams of honour from that original fountain. But it may possibly seem strange, that, while all the rest of your friends are congratulating your good for tune, in the preferment proferred you, I only shew myself dissatisfied;

I will assure you I am so far from envying your promotion, that no man living does more heartily desire it than myself; it is the reality of my friendship makes me jealous, that preferment is arrived at your port, before you are ready, before you are fit for it. It is no small or trivial matter which he undertakes who receives a commission from the king, how light soever you and other young gentlemen think of it; and I should not be worthy any place in your esteem, if I did not deal very candidly and plainly with you. And in the first place I will tell you, 'He cannot be a fit man to command, who knows not the duty of those that are to obey him.'

I doubt not but you have read books relating to war, and may understand something of the theory of it; but all the reading in the universe will not enable a man to perform well the meanest of the mechanick arts. We usually allow seven years experience for attaining the skill to make shoes, &c. and do you believe that the military science (upon the success whereof depends the safety or the ruin, the standing or falling of towns and citadels, kingdoms and empires) is to be learned amidst the softnesses and ease of courts, and rich cities, and reposing on the laps of ladies? or by the imperfect ideas of a battle, and a siege represented in a play? or at best by a little superficial reading of commentaries ? No, the art of war is to be attained by other methods and means more studious, more laborious, more manly; and, if you accept of a command at this time, it is odds that you neither efficaciously serve the king, nor yourself; not the king, for the obtaining preferments by favour, without merit, is the greatest discouragement in the world, to men of low fortunes and high spirits, and such, in times of danger, are the usefullest men to a commonwealth;' who, having served many years in the wars, and made themselves capable of the greatest offices, shall on the sudden find themselves defeated, by such young gentlemen as you; although, if you come to speedy action, you must necessarily be baffled, and disappoint his majesty's service, or else owe your success wholly to chance, for which none but fools will commend you. You cannot serve yourself, because the main thing you aim at is honour. Now you must know, they lie under a vulgar error, who think that to have a great office, or great title, is sufficient to make a man honour. able. True honour does not so much consist in possessing great offices, or great titles, as in the using those great titles, and in discharging those great offices so, as the prince may be well and faithfully served, and the publick good advanced and promoted.'

of

Which can never be done by one who wants experience, unless, as I said before, it be by chance, or by the discreeter menage of the underofficers. I will add further, that what miscarriage soever happens under you, will be imputed, right or wrong, to your want of conduct, and the credit of all good service you do, shall be carried away by those your officers who have more skill, even then when they do not deserve it. Wherefore my advice is, if you would serve your prince and your country, as becomes a good subject and a gentleman; if you would bring an addition of honour to yourself and family; 'let your advancement be the reward, rather than the obligation of your merit.' Content yourself, for a time, to serve as a private gentleman, a voluntier, and

you will find, that one year's experience, in time of action, will instruct you better than twenty years' reading without it. It has been always my manner to express my mind freely, and so I do now, when I assure you, I am,

London, Aug. 20, 1678.

Your faithful Friend.

A second Letter to the same young gentleman, after he had received his commission, wherein is chiefly discoursed the moral part of military discipline.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It seems, before my letter came to your hands, you had received the commission, from which I was too late endeavouring to dissuade you. The wisest men do many things in their lives, which they are sorry for when done, but cannot undo without greater disadvantage. This act of yours I look on to be one of those; it was the desire of honour made you take a commission, and though now you wish it had been deferred till another time; yet, since you have put your hand to the plough, you must not look back, you cannot lay it down without shame, without disparagement. Therefore, I will give you such general advice as I can; for particular or practical, you know, I do not pretend to.

It will be impossible for you, at first, to conceal your unskilfulness in arms, from your men, and therefore all attempts of that nature will be fruitless and ridiculous; wherefore it will be your best way to own it, to such of your officers as are ingenious, and do not think it any disparagement to learn of your inferiors. It is no shame not to know that which one has not had the opportunity of learning; but it is scandalous to profess knowledge and remain ignorant.'

In regard your experience in martial matters is green, as well as your years, it will be needful that you use all the helps you can, to make some amends for that defect.

And, first, I would have you get intimately acquainted with some of the best of our English officers, especially some of those who have been either on the side of France or Holland, or both, engaged in the present war of Christendom; and, by a frequent converse with them, and by your own heedful observation, you may the sooner make a good improvement of your time; and you would do well to get yourself provided with some of the best books, describing the modern way of military discipline, for books are great assistances to those who every day compare their reading and practice.

When you have made a choice of persons with whom you intend to be intimate, be careful you are not by any of them drawn into private or particular quarrels; and if any such accident happens in your presence, between others, endeavour what you can to compose, not widen the breach. If the difference grow so high, that nothing less than a duel can reconcile the feud in point of honour, make them sensible what a shame it is for men of true merit, to receive the laws of honour from faint effeminates, the hectors and huffs of the town, who possess none them. selves but what they are indebted for to their schools of honour and

morality, the play-houses. Ask with what justice they can expect the king's pay, or hope for his favour, or his pardon, while they shew such contempt of him and his laws, and hazard their lives in a quarrel, destructive to his service. Remind them that the French, the great promoters of duelling in a more pusillanimous age, having now shaken off former fooleries, and put on the bravery of a warlike people, look on that man who offers to send a challenge, as a fellow fit to be kicked by their foot-boys; and that is the usual way the gentry of France think themselves obliged in honour to answer him. He who charges most briskly at the head of his troops; he who first mounts the enemy's wall; and he who is forwardest in attacking their fortifications; are the only men among them, who now obtain the title and the esteem of honourable.

But if you meet with any so fond of false honour, so false to the principles of loyalty and true glory, that no reason can divert them, even in a foreign country, from assisting the enemy, by diminishing our strength, and making factions in our own party; let them alone by themselves to destroy one another, for it is pity they should live, and it is pity they should die by any worthier hands than those of the hang

man or their own.

If you would ever arrive at greater preferment than you have, or deserve that which his majesty has already bestowed, you must be beholden for it chiefly to the valour and affection of your soldiers; therefore endeavour, what you can, to get them their pay in due season, and, if that cannot be done, at least let them see that it is not your fault; observe and abhor the example of some others, who detain the soldiers wages, the price of their blood, and throw it away on the turn of a dye, or spend it profusely on their pride and their lusts.

Despise all base ways of inriching yourself, either by cheating the king with false musters, or defrauding or abridging your men any part of their due; such practices have been the undoing of many a good cause, and are so far more worthy a gallows, than common robberies, by how much the loss of a battle is more considerable than the loss of a bag of money, and the ruin of the publick, than that of a private single person. Consider, your men are equal sharers in the danger, though not in the profit or honour of the war; and that as you are the head, they are the body, containing, beside the trunk, the usefullest members, hands, arms, legs, and feet, without whose executive power, all your contriving faculties will prove insignificant. So that you must not think you discharge the duty of a good or prudent commander, when you only shew yourself bold, and bring them on bravely to battle; your care must be, both before and afterwards, to see that they have as whole. some food (and physick when it needs) and as good quarters as the place will afford; and since English constitutions cannot so easily endure famine, as the people born and bred up in less plentiful countries; you must make it a principal part of your endeavours, to have them sufficiently provided, and when upon any action, your under-officers or others have deserved well, you ought to use your interest to get them encouraged and promoted.

A good commander will use his soldiers, just as a good father uses his children; and he who governs otherwise, through covetousness, negligence, pride, or ill-nature, shall never get any great honour himself, nor ever do any service considerable, for his king or country.

But though I would have you love your men well, because you can do nothing without them, I would not have you spoil them with overmuch kindness. It is the wise dispensing of rewards and punishments, which keeps the world in good order. They never had their business well done, who through an excess of goodness reward mean services too highly, or punish great miscarriages too lightly.' Therefore, as you must. take care of the back and the belly, the pay and provision of your soldiers, so you ought to be very severe in your discipline; the two former will gain you the love of your men, the latter their fear, and all mixed together, produce compleat obedience. Or, to express it better in the martial phrase, Pay well, and hang well, makes a good soldier.'

The frequent company of women, and the tippling strong liquors, debilitate both the mind and body of a soldier, rendering him soft and effeminate, lasy and sickly, unapt and unfit for heroick exploits. Restrain, therefore, as much as may be, the debaucheries of your men, and be careful to refrain your own, and take this along with you as a general rule; that, when you teach your men to live innocent, you do at the same time make them valiant.'

To the end you may with greater facility effect so good a design, you ought to be always attended with a good chaplain; and if I were wor thy to advise your general, I would beg him to be as careful in the choice of his chaplains as his captains. Nay, I would adventure to say, they are as necessary, and many times have done, and may again, as largely contribute towards the obtaining happy successes. And now there is as great an occasion for able divines in our army and navy, as ever there was, since England professed Christianity. For the fops of this age, under the notion of wits, endeavour to buffoon religion out of countenance; talk blasphemy and atheism, in common discourse, speak treason against the majesty of heaven, a crime which no prince upon earth will endure, at an easier rate than mortal punishment.' And so while nothing is allowed for fashionable wit, which is not athe istical, or prophane, or impudently immodest; the young gentry, fond of that foolish humour, called witty, are in a fair way to be debauched. For what shall restrain their exorbitancies, who have learned to despise the supernal power? And by their ill example, a door is set wide open, to let in, among the vulgar, all the lewdnesses and immoralities in the world.

Therefore you should chuse for a chaplain a man reserved in his life, grave in his deportment, fixed in his principles, and faithful to his prince; one that will not be abashed, when fools deride him; one that will not be afraid to exhort and reprove, as occasion requires; one that is patient enough to endure scorn and reproach, and bold enough to oppose himself against the greatest torrent of impiety. And then you ought to shew him respect, as unto the messenger of God, and to see that the martial laws relating to religion, and good order, be put in