expensive.

It cannot be denied, sir, that by augmenting the regiments, there would
be immediately saved to the publick the expense of the officers which
are necessary in the method now proposed; but it is to be considered how
much the number of officers contributes to the regularity and discipline
of the troops, and how much discipline and order promote their success.
It is to be considered, sir, that the most successful method of making
war is undoubtedly the cheapest, and that nothing is more expensive than
defeats.

If by raising the same number of men under fewer officers, we should
give our enemies any advantage, if a single party should be cut off, a
garrison forced, an expedition rendered fruitless, or the war protracted
but a few months, where will be the advantage of this admired frugality?
What would be the consequence, but the same or a greater expense, not to
gain advantages, but to repair losses, and obviate the effects of our
former parsimony?

In private life, sir, it is common for men to involve themselves in
expense, only by avoiding it; to repair houses at greater charges than
new ones might be built, and to pay interest, rather than the debt. Weak
minds are frighted at the mention of extraordinary efforts, and decline
large expenses, though security and future affluence may be purchased by
them; as tender bodies shrink from severe operations, though they are
the certain methods of restoring health and vigour. The effects of this
timidity are the same in both cases, the estate is impaired insensibly,
and the body languishes by degrees, till no remedy can be applied.

Such examples, sir, are frequent, and the folly of imitating them is
therefore greater, for who would pursue that track by which he has seen
others led to destruction? Nor need we search for remote illustrations
to discover the destructive tendency of unseasonable tenderness for the
publick, for I believe the whole history of the wars of king William
will prove, that too close an attention to parsimony is inconsistent
with great achievements.

It may be expected that I, who cannot claim any regard in this
disquisition, from my own experience, should produce some decisive
evidence in favour of the method which I have taken upon me to defend;
this expectation I shall endeavour to satisfy, by alleging the authority
of the greatest commander of later ages, whom neither his friends nor
his enemies will deny to have been well versed in t