up to that number; that there were but two ships of a thousand
tons; and twenty-three below five hundred, some of fifty, and some even
of twenty tons; and that the whole number of guns belonging to the fleet
was seven hundred and seventy four;[v*] we must entertain a contemptible
idea of the English navy, compared to the force which it has now
attained.[*] In the year 1588, there were not above five vessels fitted
out by the noblemen and seaports, which exceeded two hundred tons.[v**]
[40]

* Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 470.

** Camden, p. 388.

*** Monson, p. 256.

**** Monson, p. 300.

v Monson, p. 210, 256.

v* Monson, p. 196. The English navy at present carries about
fourteen thousand guns.

v** See note NN, at the end of the volume.
Monson, p. 300. Spaniards; and the queen equipped a
fleet and levied an army in a fortnight to oppose them.
Nothing gave foreigners a higher idea of the power of
England than this sudden armament.

In the year 1575, all the militia in the kingdom were computed at a
hundred and eighty-two thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine.[*] A
distribution was made, in the year 1595, of a hundred and forty thousand
men, besides those which Wales could supply.[**] These armies were
formidable by their numbers; but their discipline and experience were
not proportionate. Small bodies from Dunkirk and Newport frequently ran
over and plundered the east coast: so unfit was the militia, as it was
then constituted, for the defence of the kingdom. The lord lieutenants
were first appointed to the counties in this reign.

Mr. Murden[***] has published, from the Salisbury collections, a paper
which contains the military force of the nation at the time of the
Spanish armada, and which is somewhat different from the account given
by our ordinary historians. It makes all the able-bodied men of the
kingdom amount to a hundred and eleven thousand five hundred
and thirteen; those armed, to eighty thousand eight hundred and
seventy-five; of whom forty-four thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven
were trained. It must be supposed that these able-bodied men consisted
of such only as were registered, otherwise the small number is not to be
accounted for. Yet Sir Edward Coke[****] said, in the house of commons,
that he was employed about the same time, together with Popham, chief
justice, to take a survey of all the people of England, and that t