nt would annually fix the number, an army for which Parliament
would annually frame a military code, an army which would cease to
exist as soon as either the Lords or the Commons should think that its
services were not needed. From such an army surely the danger to public
liberty could not by wise men be thought serious. On the other hand,
the danger to which the kingdom would be exposed if all the troops were
disbanded was such as might well disturb the firmest mind. Suppose a
war with the greatest power in Christendom to break out suddenly, and to
find us without one battalion of regular infantry, without one squadron
of regular cavalry; what disasters might we not reasonably apprehend?
It was idle to say that a descent could not take place without ample
notice, and that we should have time to raise and discipline a great
force. An absolute prince, whose orders, given in profound secresy, were
promptly obeyed at once by his captains on the Rhine and on the Scheld,
and by his admirals in the Bay of Biscay and in the Mediterranean, might
be ready to strike a blow long before we were prepared to parry it. We
might be appalled by learning that ships from widely remote parts, and
troops from widely remote garrisons, had assembled at a single point
within sight of our coast. To trust to our fleet was to trust to the
winds and the waves. The breeze which was favourable to the invader
might prevent our men of war from standing out to sea. Only nine years
ago this had actually happened. The Protestant wind, before which the
Dutch armament had run full sail down the Channel, had driven King
James's navy back into the Thames. It must then be acknowledged to be
not improbable that the enemy might land. And, if he landed, what would
he find? An open country; a rich country; provisions everywhere; not a
river but which could be forded; no natural fastnesses such as protect
the fertile plains of Italy; no artificial fastnesses such as, at every
step, impede the progress of a conqueror in the Netherlands. Every
thing must then be staked on the steadiness of the militia; and it was
pernicious flattery to represent the militia as equal to a conflict in
the field with veterans whose whole life had been a preparation for the
day of battle. The instances which it was the fashion to cite of the
great achievements of soldiers taken from the threshing floor and the
shopboard were fit only for a schoolboy's theme. Somers, who had studied
ancien