Collection of 5 items, bound together, on the issue of a Standing Army.: [details below]

PEACETIME ARMIES ENABLE ABSOLUTISM - AN IMPORTANT DEBATE WITH ENDURING IMPLICATIONS - GIFTED BY A JACOBITE LONDON BANKER TO AN IRISH LANDOWNER

Collection of 5 items, bound together, on the issue of a Standing Army, being:-
TRENCHARD, John] An Argument, shewing, that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy.
London: Printed in the Year: 1697 4to. iv (numbered v in error), 30, [2 (advertisement & blank)]pp. ... bound with
MOYLE, Walter] The Second Part of an Argument, shewing, that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English monarchy. With remarks on the late published list of King James's Irish forces in France.
London: Printed in the Year: 1697 4to. 27, [1 (blank)]pp. .... bound with
SOMERS, John] A Letter, ballancing the Necessity of keeping a Land-Force in times of Peace: with the Dangers that may follow on it.
[London]: Printed in the year: 1697 4to. [2 (blank)], 2 (title)], 16pp. complete with preliminary blank .... bound with
TRENCHARD, John] A Letter from the Author of the Argument against a Standing Army, to the Author of the Balancing Letter.
London: Printed in the Year: 1697 4to. 15, [1 (blank)]pp. .... bound with
FLETCHER, Andrew] A Discourse concerning Militia's and Standing Armies, with relation to the Past and Present Governments of Europe, and of England in particular.
London: Printed in the Year: 1697 4to. [2], 30pp..
The five items bound together in contemporary mottled calf, decorative blind tooled panels on sides, marbled endpapers, very small stain at outer top corner of the last two items, small piece of shaved calf (repair to the calf skin prior to binding) flaked away near upper edge of rear board, else a fine fresh copy. Contemporary signature on title of first item "Natt. Horneby" and inscribed on a preliminary blank leaf in a calligraphic hand "Nathaniel Horneby/ Esquire/ 1700" and below that (probably at a slightly later date) "his gift to Robt. Mc Causland".

[1] Trenchard: ESTC r509611 WING T2110. This issue has a press-figure [dagger] only on leaf B1v and an advertisement on final leaf. Signature C2 is under the "ere is" of "there is". This edition is rare with ESTC locating 5 copies only (2 in B.L., 2 in Oxford & 1 other). See ESTC R16216 for another edition. Wing does not distinguish between the editions.
[2] Moyle ESTC r177336 WING M3030 ESTC notes "The first part, entitled, An argument shewing, that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government, was written by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle. It is often thought Trenchard also assisted in the second part; however attributed solely to Moyle by BM, Wing".
[3] Somers ESTC r11547 WING S4642
[4] Trenchard ESTC r16213 There are 2 printings, this one line 8 of title page has: 'Balancing'; there is no press-figure on p. 7; p. 15 has additional paragraph beginning: "Now Sir, if a Parliament should subject all the Lands ...". WING T2113
[5] Fletcher ESTC r5238 WING F1294

Following his invasion of England in 1688, the Glorious Revolution, William of Orange became King William III and reigned jointly with his wife Mary. The English parliament's Bill of Rights of 1689 established a constitutional monarchy with extensive restrictions on the royal prerogative. One of those restrictions was that the Sovereign could not raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent. While William opposed such constraints he accepted them and chose not to engage in a conflict with Parliament. In the following years William was much engaged in European wars that ended with the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.
The wars now over parliament, to the king's displeasure, decided to reduce the size of the army to 10,000 men, and later to 7,000.
The ideological and political significance of the issue was argued out in a series of pamphlets, of which these five are probably the most important, on both sides of the issue. "The pamphlets ... had a powerful effect upon the immediate controversy of 1697-99. The anti-army tracts, moreover, played a vital role in the formulation of an anti-army attitude which lived on in eighteenth century England and was transmitted along with many other ideas in liberal [and republican] seventeenth political thought to the American colonies. ... Against the peacetime army were principally John Trenchard, Walter Moyle, Andre Fletcher of Saltoun, the Rev. Samuel Johnson and John Toland. Arguing for the king's proposal were chiefly the lord chancellor, John Somes [and] Daniel Defoe ... Outstanding among the men who opposed the army was John Trenchard, who may be regarded as the leader of the pamphleteers" [Schwoerer].
Trenchard (1662 - 1723), educated at T.C.D., studied law in London and was a man of considerable wealth through inheritance and marriage. From initial support of the 1689 Revolution he became disenchanted with William and used his wide knowledge of sixteenth and seventeenth century republican political thought to oppose what he judged to be a potentially dangerous power grab by the monarchy. His Argument (written in conjunction with Moyle), the first pamphlet in this collection, launched the debate and determined its parameters. Moyle's Second Part continued their argument. Somers, apparently without great conviction, argued for retention of a standing army and Trenchard in turn wrote a riposte.
Fletcher of Saltoun (1655 - 1716), Scottish writer, patriot and politician, had returned from European exile with William of Orange in 1688 but terminated his support when he judged that William, also King of Scotland, was only interested in using the country to help fight foreign wars. He, like the other anti-army writers, argued that history indicated a direct relationship between absolutism and a peacetime army. He perceived a decay in liberty around 1500, a product of economic and social changes that produced luxury and an abandonment of an old, frugal, military way of life. Such circumstances allowed defence of the realm to slip into the hands of princes who eliminated ancient rights and freedoms. England, the last bastion of liberty, faced following 'all the other kingdoms of Europe' along this path unless she avoided a standing army in peacetime.
Trenchard and his supporters, the group of Whig religious, political, and economic reformers later sometimes Commonwealth men, through their writings promoted republicanism in Britain. However while they were rejected in Britain their ideas were widely influential in British colonial America and on Republicanism in the United States.
Nathaniel Hornby, or Horneby, a London goldsmith and banker, served as a Commissioner of Excise 1683 to 88 and in 1691. From the Restoration in 1660 to 1683 the state's excise was farmed out to investors willing to pay the government for the right to collect taxation. In 1683 a new group of Commissioners was chosen to be more efficient in collection than the foregoing. The Revolution of 1688/89 overturned the leadership of the excise branch and only 2 of the 7 Commissioners in office in Feb. 1688 survived a purge in April 1689, with most removed for political reasons. In 1684, when a remodelled department was considered, "Sir John Somers, whose influence was rising as the Whigs ascended, recommended dismissal for virtually all of the commissioners. In particular he singled out Nathaniel Nornby and Thomas Aram who 'were such avowed Jacobites that there was nothing to be said for them'" [Krenzke].
Nathaniel Hornby, perhaps to provide himself with a bolt-hole far from London, in the early 18th century rented a house and farm at Muff (now Eglinton) in Co. Londonderry from Ireland richest commoner and Speaker of the Irish parliament William Conolly (himself a head tenant of the London Grocer's Company). Robert McCausland lived at Fruit Hill (now Drenagh), only a few miles from Muff and near Limavady. That estate was bequeathed to him on his death by William Conolly in 1729 and thereafter alternate eldest sons in the family were named Conolly. Modern McCausland family sources state that Robert was married to a daughter of Conolly but the latter was (officially at least) childless. Conolly did however support the families of his siblings which may be the connection. Evidently it was as neighbours that a rich London Jacobite banker came to know McCausland and present him with an important collection of pamphlets flagging the perils of creeping central power. From the inscription both men perceived the pamphlets as significant both in themselves and as a gift.
Lois G. Schwoerer 'The Literature of the Standing Army Controversy, 1697-1699', Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3 (1965), p. 187-212
John Krenzke Change in Brewing. Industrialization of the London Beer Brewing Trade 1400-1760.