An Account of Denmark. Robert Molesworth
prize Health without the expense of being Sick, but one may easily and cheaply grow sensible of the true value of Liberty by Travelling into such Countries for a Season as do not enjoy it.
And this can be done by no Nation in the World so commodiously as the English: The affluence of their Fortunes and Easiness in their private Affairs are evidently greater than those of other People of Europe; so that generally speaking, none are in a condition to spend more freely, or may propose to reap greater benefit by Travel, and yet none have practised it less.
In other Countries some Princes and Men of the first quality may have Purses strong enough to bear the expense, but few of the middling sort venture upon it; and those are commonly either Military Men, who have other designs in view than the knowledge of the World; or the Unfortunate, who chuse it as a diversion or a refuge, and who have their Heads too full of their own Miseries, to be at leisure to make their Observations on others. And besides, we often see the like Arbitrary Practices at home (they having been always train’d up in Servitude) do so far vitiate their Reason, as to put them out of a capacity of judging aright; for ’tis not only possible, but very usual, that People may be so season’d to and hardened in Slavery, as not only to have lost the very Taste of Liberty, but even to love the contrary State: as Men over-run with the Spleen take pleasure in their Distemper.
But in England there are very many Gentlemen, whose Estates will afford them either to travel in Person, or to send abroad such of their Sons for four or five Years as have the most solid Judgments, in which time they may acquire such Manners, and make such Observations as shall render them useful to their Country; and thereby advance their private Fortunes, more than what is saved by keeping them at home would amount to.
The Method which has been generally follow’d by us in sending young Gentlemen to Travel can hardly answer any of these ends: on the contrary it has hitherto been so mischievous, that ’tis well travelling has been so little in fashion. We send them abroad Children, and bring them home great Boys, and the returns they make for the Expenses laid out by their Parents, are suitable to their Age. That of the Languages is the very best, but the most common is an affected Foppishness, or a filthy Disease, for which they sometimes exchange their Religion: Besides, the Pageantry, Luxury, and Licentiousness of the more Arbitrary Courts have bribed them into an Opinion of that very Form of Government: Like Idiots, who part with their Bread for a glittering piece of Tinsel, they prefer gilded Slavery to coarse domestick Liberty, and exclaim against their old fashion’d Country-men, who will not reform their Constitution according to the new foreign Mode. But the Travelling recommended here is that of Men, who set out so well stock’d with the Knowledge of their own Country, as to be able to compare it with others, whereby they may both supply it where they find it wanting, and set a true value on it where it excels. With this help such Travellers could not fail of becoming serviceable to the Publick, in contributing daily towards the bettering of our Constitution, though without doubt it be already one of the best in the World.
For it were as fond to imagine we need not go abroad, and learn of others, because we have perhaps better Laws and Customs already than Foreigners, as it were not to Trade abroad, because we dwell in one of the plentifullest Parts of the World. But as our Merchants bring every day from barren Countries many useful things, which our own good one does not produce; so if the same care were taken to supply us with exact Accounts of the Constitutions, Manners, and Condition of other Nations, we might without doubt find out many things for our purpose, which now our mere Ignorance keeps us from being sensible that we want. The Athenians, Spartans, and Romans did not think themselves too wise to follow this Method, they were at great Expense to procure the Laws of other Nations, thereby to improve their own: and we know they throve by it, since few Governments are so ill constituted, as not to have some good Customs. We find admirable Regulations in Denmark, and we read of others among the Savage Americans fit to serve for Models to the most civilized Europeans.
But although the Constitution of our Government were too perfect already to receive any Improvement, yet the best Methods conducing to the peaceable Conservation of its present Form, are well worth every Englishman’s enquiry; neither are these so easily to be found in this Age, which were judged so difficult, (if not altogether impracticable) by the greatest of Politicians in his time.3 ’Tis true, the Wisdom of our Ancestors, or their good Fortune, has hitherto made these our Kingdoms an Exception to his general Maxim; yet we all know how many grievous Tempests (which as often threatened Shipwrack) this Vessel of our Commonwealth has undergone. The perpetual Contests between the Kings and the People (whilst those endeavour’d to acquire a greater Power than was legally due, and these to preserve or recover their just Liberties) have been the contending Billows that have kept it afloat; so that all we pretended to by the late Revolution (bought with so great Expense, yet not too dearly paid for) was to be as we were, and that every one should have his own again; the effecting of which may be called a piece of good Luck, and that’s the best can be said of it. But must frequent Blood-lettings be indispensibly necessary to preserve our Constitution? Is it not possible for us to render vain and untrue that Sarcasm of Foreigners, who object to us that our English Kings have either too little Power, or too much, and that therefore we must expect no settled or lasting Peace? Shall we for ever retain the ill Character they give us of the most mutable and inconstant Nation of the World? Which however we do not deserve, no more than England does that of Regnum Diabolorum,4 so common in unconsidering Foreigners Mouths? Methinks a Method to preserve our Commonwealth in its legal State of Freedom, without the necessity of a Civil War once or twice every Age, were a benefit worth searching for, though we went to the furthest Corners of the World in quest of it.
Besides the Knowledge of the present State of our Neighbour Nations (which is best acquired by Travel) is more incumbent on the Gentlemen of England than any others; since they make so considerable a part of our Government in Parliament, where foreign Business comes frequently under Consideration, and at present more than ever.
’Tis none of the smallest Advantages which his Majesty has procured us by his accession to the Crown, that we make a greater Figure in the World than formerly; we have more foreign Alliances, are become the Head of more than a Protestant League, and have a right to intermeddle in the Affairs of Europe, beyond what we ever pretended to in any of the preceding Reigns: For ’tis a true, though but a Melancholy Reflexion, that our late Kings half undid us, and bred us up as narrow spirited as they could, made us consider our selves as proscribed from the World; in every sense toto divisos orbe Britannos.5 And indeed they had withdrawn us from the World so long till the World had almost overlooked us; we seldom were permitted to cast an Eye farther than France or Holland, and then too we were carefully watched: But at present Matters are otherwise; we have a Prince that has raised us to our natural Station, the Eyes of most parts of the World are now upon us, and take their Measures from our Councels: We find every day occasion to inform our selves of the Strength and Interests of the several Princes of Europe. And perhaps one great reason why we live up no better to the mighty Post we are advanced to, nor maintain our Character in it with great Reputation, is because our Education has been below it, and we have been too much lock’d up at home, when we should have been acquainting our selves with the Affairs of the World abroad.
We have lately bought the Experience of this Truth too dear, not to be now sensible of it. ’Tis not very long ago since nothing was more generally believed (even by Men of the best sense) than that the Power of England was so unquestionably establish’d at Sea, that no Force could possibly shake it, that the English Valour and Manner of Fighting was so far beyond all others, that nothing was more desirable than a French War. Should any one have been so regardless of his Reputation, as at that time to have represented the French an overmatch for the united Forces of England and Holland; or have said that we should live to see our selves insulted on our own Coasts, and our Trade indanger’d by them, that we should be in Apprehensions every Year of an Invasion and a French Conquest; such a venturesome Man must have expected to have pass’d for a very Traveller, or at best for an ill-natur’d or unthinking Person, who little consider’d what the irresistible Force of an English Arm was; But our late Experience has reclaim’d us from these Mistakes; our Fathers and Grandfathers told us indeed these things when they were true, when our Yeomanry and Commonalty were every day exercised in drawing the Longbow and handling the Brown-bill, with other