ervatism of the English character, and in the political ferment
which marked the years 1794-5. The mere proposal to merge Line, Militia,
and Volunteers in one national array would have seemed mere madness. For
the populace had recently been protesting against the facilities given
to the loyal to arm and drill themselves. It was rumoured that, by way
of retort, the men of Sheffield, Southwark, and Norwich secretly
mustered for practice with pikes. In such circumstances, conscription
might well spell Revolution. Here was the weak place in Pitt's armour.
By parting company with the reformers, he had embittered no small
section of his countrymen. In 1794, as we have seen, he was considered a
reactionary and an oppressor. He therefore could not appeal to the
nation, as Carnot did in France. Even his Bill of March 1794 for
increasing the Militia by an extension of the old custom of the ballot
or the drawing of lots produced some discontent. A similar proposal,
passed a year earlier by the Dublin Parliament for raising 16,000
additional Militiamen in Ireland, led to widespread rioting, especially
in Ulster. Not until 1797 did the Scottish Militia Act ensure the
adoption of similar methods by Scotland, though regiments of Fencibles
were raised in the meantime.

The preparations for national defence continued to proceed in these
parochial ways. Pitt's authority at Westminster was at no time more
firmly founded than at the time of the meeting of the new Parliament in
the autumn of 1796. Yet the piecemeal methods went on as before. He
proposed to raise by means of the ballot a levy of 15,000 men in order
to recruit the navy and the Line regiments; and he further asked for a
levy of 60,000 men as a Supplementary Militia, one tenth being embodied
by turns so as not to withdraw from work too many hands at one time. Nor
was this all. For the purpose of strengthening the irregular cavalry, he
proposed that every person who kept ten horses should be required to
furnish one horseman and a horse for such a corps, and those who owned
more than ten horses were to subscribe a proportionate sum towards its
maintenance. He also required gamekeepers and those who took out
licenses to shoot either to serve on horseback or to find a substitute.
In all he expected to raise 20,000 horsemen by these means.

The attitude of the House was on the whole highly favourable to these
proposals. Fox accused Ministers of raising an invasion scare in order
to