ABSTRACT
EVERY Writer who has treated upon Laws and Government, has particularly, laid great Stress on the Necessity there is that every Nation should have a Military Force, sufficient to protect and defend it against its Enemies; / no Government, even the best constituted, can exist for any length of Time without it. At the same Time it is likewise agreed that every Country should suit that Military Establishment to the Nature of its Government, and Dispositions of its People. They have all given the Preference to a well regulated Militia, wherever a People have any Rights or Privileges to maintain; and even in absolute Monarchies, where the People have been so unfortunate as to lose what every Man seems to have by Birth-right, are of opinion that a Militia, under proper Regulations, is the best and most œconomical way of Recruiting, or encreasing the Standing Army at any time of exigency. It is allowed then that a Militia is in general necessary, and absolutely so, where there is any publick liberty to be preserved. That the Kingdom of Ireland has natural rights, and as a free people that we have legal ones, which we may justly maintain, and which no Legislative Authority upon Earth can deprive us of, I hope the most abandoned Courtier will not have the Effrontery to deny. The Question / is then, how are they to defend those Rights, whether by a Standing Army, or by a Militia. This Question has been debated both in Publick and in private, but I believe has not been as maturely considered as the Nature of it requires. The Sound of the Word seems to have captivated many; but few, if any, have given themselves Time to consider what Plan would best suit this Country. We must have a Militia it is said like that of England, without considering whether that of England be the best that could be established for that Country, or admitting that it is, whether it would be adapted to the circumstances of this, which differs in so many Respects from 104England. I mean to shew in this little Essay the absolute Necessity there is for a Militia in this Kingdom, and to sketch out a Plan both practicable and adapted to the Country; one that will be effectual without being Burthensome, one calculated to support the Prerogatives and Dignity of the Crown and at the same Time to protect and maintain the Liberties of the People. /
