Every
interval of peace witnessed the rapid reduction of the regulars. But the
times were adverse. Wars were frequent, and on an ever-increasing scale
of magnitude and duration. The standing army had to be maintained, and,
indeed, steadily enlarged.

But the militia for home defence was never allowed to become extinct,
and it enjoyed an immense popularity. In 1757 it was carefully
reorganized by statute.[20] The number of men to be raised was settled,
and each district was compelled to provide a certain proportion. The
selection was to be made by ballot, to the complete exclusion of the
voluntary principle. During the Napoleonic war, when invasion seemed
imminent, the militia was several times called out and embodied. In 1803
an actual levy _en masse_ of all men between the ages of seventeen and
fifty-five was made. In 1806 the principle of universal obligation on
which it was based was clearly stated by Castlereagh in the House of
Commons. He spoke of "the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to call
upon the services of all liege subjects in case of invasion."[21]

At the moment when he spoke, however, the imminent fear of invasion had
been removed--removed, indeed, for a century--by Nelson's crowning
victory at Trafalgar. From that time forward the military forces of the
Crown were required not so much for the defence of the United Kingdom
itself as for the provision of garrisons for the vast Empire which had
grown up during the eighteenth century. These imperial garrisons had
necessarily to be drawn from professional troops voluntarily enlisted.
Thus the militia declined. An effort was made in 1852 to revive it, and
again the underlying principle of compulsion was explicitly recognized.
The Militia Act of that year[22] contains the provision: "In case it
appears to H.M. ---- that the number of men required ... cannot be raised
by voluntary enlistment ... or in case of actual invasion or imminent
danger thereof, it shall be lawful for H.M. ---- to order and direct
that the number of men so required ... shall be raised by ballot as
herein provided." The effort at revival was unfortunately vain, and when
in 1859 international trouble again seemed to be brewing, instead of
appealing once more to the immemorial defence of the country, the
Government weakly and with most deplorable results allowed the formation
of a new body, the volunteers--a body whose patriotism was noble, whose
intentions were admirable, but whose ine