ministers put on the resolution of the eleventh of December was, that
the army was to consist of ten thousand men; and in this construction
the House acquiesced. It was not held to be necessary that the
Parliament should, as in our time, fix the amount of the land force. The
Commons thought that they sufficiently limited the number of soldiers by
limiting the sum which was to be expended in maintaining soldiers. What
that sum should be was a question which raised much debate. Harley was
unwilling to give more than three hundred thousand pounds. Montague
struggled for four hundred thousand. The general sense of the House was
that Harley offered too little, and that Montague demanded too much. At
last, on the fourteenth of January, a vote was taken for three hundred
and fifty thousand pounds. Four days later the House resolved to
grant half-pay to the disbanded officers till they should be otherwise
provided for. The half-pay was meant to be a retainer as well as a
reward. The effect of this important vote therefore was that, whenever
a new war should break out, the nation would be able to command the
services of many gentlemen of great military experience. The ministry
afterwards succeeded in obtaining, much against the will of a portion of
the opposition, a separate vote for three thousand marines.

A Mutiny Act, which had been passed in 1697, expired in the spring of
1698. As yet no such Act had been passed except in time of war; and the
temper of the Parliament and of the nation was such that the ministers
did not venture to ask, in time of peace, for a renewal of powers
unknown to the constitution. For the present, therefore, the soldier was
again, as in the times which preceded the Revolution, subject to exactly
the same law which governed the citizen.

It was only in matters relating to the army that the government found
the Commons unmanageable. Liberal provision was made for the navy. The
number of seamen was fixed at ten thousand, a great force, according to
the notions of that age, for a time of peace. The funds assigned some
years before for the support of the civil list had fallen short of the
estimate. It was resolved that a new arrangement should be made, and
that a certain income should be settled on the King. The amount was
fixed, by an unanimous vote, at seven hundred thousand pounds; and the
Commons declared that, by making this ample provision for his comfort
and dignity, they meant to express their s