d returns from his
Embassy--William is reconciled to Marlborough

THE rejoicings, by which London, on the second of December 1697,
celebrated the return of peace and prosperity, continued till long after
midnight. On the following morning the Parliament met; and one of the
most laborious sessions of that age commenced.

Among the questions which it was necessary that the Houses should
speedily decide, one stood forth preeminent in interest and importance.
Even in the first transports of joy with which the bearer of the treaty
of Ryswick had been welcomed to England, men had eagerly and anxiously
asked one another what was to be done with that army which had
been formed in Ireland and Belgium, which had learned, in many
hard campaigns, to obey and to conquer, and which now consisted of
eighty-seven thousand excellent soldiers. Was any part of this great
force to be retained in the service of the State? And, if any part, what
part? The last two kings had, without the consent of the legislature,
maintained military establishments in time of peace. But that they
had done this in violation of the fundamental laws of England was
acknowledged by all jurists, and had been expressly affirmed in the Bill
of Rights. It was therefore impossible for William, now that the country
was threatened by no foreign and no domestic enemy, to keep up even a
single battalion without the sanction of the Estates of the Realm; and
it might well be doubted whether such a sanction would be given.

It is not easy for us to see this question in the light in which it
appeared to our ancestors.

No man of sense has, in our days, or in the days of our fathers,
seriously maintained that our island could be safe without an army.
And, even if our island were perfectly secure from attack, an army would
still be indispensably necessary to us. The growth of the empire has
left us no choice. The regions which we have colonized or conquered
since the accession of the House of Hanover contain a population
exceeding twenty-fold that which the House of Stuart governed. There are
now more English soldiers on the other side of the tropic of Cancer in
time of peace than Cromwell had under his command in time of war. All
the troops of Charles II. would not have been sufficient to garrison the
posts which we now occupy in the Mediterranean Sea alone. The regiments
which defend the remote dependencies of the Crown cannot be duly
recruited and relieved, unless a for