the dykes and narrow causeways
along which we must pass; but a great superiority of force will
enable us to surmount many of these. The French papers talk of
having marched against us the garrisons of the Generality. So much
the better if it is so, for then we shall not find them there, and
the fact itself proves (if even our intelligence were defective)
how little other force they have in the country.

I am greatly obliged to you for what you have written on the
subject of the Militia. It seems to me that allowing the Militia to
volunteer by companies for a fixed time is the best suggestion I
have yet heard. But it would be necessary to consider, on a
statement of numbers, how many could be so procured from all the
Militias--English, Scotch, and Irish--though, with respect to these
last, there is, I fear, an insurmountable difficulty, from the
necessity of assembling Parliament, which could not be done in
Ireland without broaching the question of Union before we are
prepared for it.

Less than twenty thousand men would not, on the most sanguine
calculations, answer our object, and the issue of the war so much
depends upon it that we should be unpardonable to omit any possible
effort that we could make for it. What we want is to be able to
garrison Holland with twenty thousand men so as to have as soon as
possible after the conquest of it the means of disposing of our
whole army now there. It is a very doubtful question, I think,
whether our Militia volunteering would be more or less promoted if
we confined our proposal to that particular service, and sent our
Militia battalions into the Dutch garrisons, employing the army now
there in the active service, or if we took the offer generally for
foreign service, and made such distribution between the two as
might best suit our convenience.

There would be no difficulty as to Parliament; we can call them
together at a fortnight's notice. We would do so for this object
alone. The King would speak of nothing else, and ask no supply; and
we could easily, in a moment of triumph like the present, exclude
all other discussions, so that the execution, were the plan once
arranged to the satisfaction of the Militia officers, would take up
not more than ten days or a fortnight at most.

If anything