The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
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which was kept up in England at the beginning of
the year 1685 consisted, all ranks included, of about seven
thousand foot, and about seventeen hundred cavalry and dragoons.
The whole charge amounted to about two hundred and ninety
thousand pounds a year, less then a tenth part of what the
military establishment of France then cost in time of peace. The
daily pay of a private in the Life Guards was four shillings, in
the Blues two shillings and sixpence, in the Dragoons eighteen
pence, in the Foot Guards tenpence, and in the line eightpence.
The discipline was lax, and indeed could not be otherwise. The
common law of England knew nothing of courts martial, and made no
distinction, in time of peace, between a soldier and any other
subject; nor could the government then venture to ask even the
most loyal Parliament for a Mutiny Bill. A soldier, therefore, by
knocking down his colonel, incurred only the ordinary penalties
of assault and battery, and by refusing to obey orders, by
sleeping on guard, or by deserting his colours, incurred no legal
penalty at all. Military punishments were doubtless inflicted
during the reign of Charles the Second; but they were inflicted
very sparingly, and in such a manner as not to attract public
notice, or to produce an appeal to the courts of Westminster
Hall.
Such an army as has been described was not very likely to enslave
five millions of Englishmen. It would indeed have been unable to
suppress an insurrection in London, if the trainbands of the City
had joined the insurgents. Nor could the King expect that, if a
rising took place in England, he would obtain effectual help from
his other dominions. For, though both Scotland and Ireland
supported separate military establishments, those establishments
were not more than sufficient to keep down the Puritan
malecontents of the former kingdom and the Popish malecontents of
the latter. The government had, however, an important military
resource which must not be left unnoticed. There were in the pay
of the United Provinces six fine regiments, of which three had
been raised in England and three in Scotland. Their native prince
had reserved to himself the power of recalling them, if he needed
their help against a foreign or domestic enemy. In the meantime
they were maintained without any charge to him, and were kept
under an excellent discipline to which he could not have ventured
to subject them.46
If the jealousy of the Parliament and of the nation made it
impossible for the King to maintain a formidable standing army,
no similar impediment prevented him from making England the first
of maritime powers. Both Whigs and Tories were ready to applaud
every step tending to increase the efficiency of that force
which, while it was the best protection of the island against
foreign enemies, was powerless against civil liberty. All the
greatest exploits achieved within the memory of that generation
by English soldiers had been achieved in war against English
princes. The victories of our sailors had been won over foreign
foes, and had averted havoc and rapine from our own soil. By at
least half the nation the battle of Naseby was remembered with
horror, and the battle of Dunbar with pride chequered by many
painful feelings: but the defeat of the Armada, and the
encounters of Blake with the Hollanders and Spaniards were
recollected with unmixed exultation by all parties. Ever since
the Restoration, the Commons, even when most discontented and
most parsimonious, had always been bountiful to profusion where
the interest of the navy was concerned. It had been represented
to them, while Danby was minister, that many of the vessels in
the royal fleet were old and unfit for sea; and, although the
House was, at that time, in no giving mood, an aid of near six
hundred thousand pounds had been granted for the building of
thirty new men of war.
But the liberality of the nation had been made fruitless by the
vices of the government. The list of the King's ships, it is
true, looked well. There were nine first rates, fourteen second
rates, thirty-nine third rates, and many smaller vessels. The
first rates, indeed, were less than the third rates of our time;
and the third rates would not now rank as very large frigates.
This force, however, if it had been efficient, would in those
days have been regarded by the greatest potentate as formidable.
But it existed only on paper. When the reign of Charles
terminated, his navy had sunk into degradation and decay, such as
would be almost incredible if it were not certified to us by the
independent and concurring evidence of witnesses whose authority
is beyond exception. Pepys, the ablest man in the English
Admiralty, drew up, in the year 1684, a memorial on the state of
his department, for the information of Charles. A few months
later Bonrepaux, the ablest man in the French Admiralty, having
visited England for the especial purpose of ascertaining her
maritime strength, laid the result of his inquiries before Lewis.
The two reports are to the same effect. Bonrepaux declared that
he found everything in disorder and in miserable condition, that
the superiority of the French marine was acknowledged with shame
and envy at Whitehall, and that the state of our shipping and
dockyards was of itself a sufficient guarantee that we should not
meddle in the disputes of Europe.47 Pepys informed his master
that the naval administration was a prodigy of wastefulness,
corruption, ignorance, and indolence, that no estimate could be
trusted, that no contract was performed, that no check was
enforced. The vessels which the recent liberality of Parliament
had enabled the government to build, and which had never been out
of harbour, had been made of such wretched timber that they were
more unfit to go to sea than the old hulls which had been
battered thirty years before by Dutch and Spanish broadsides.
Some of the new men of war, indeed, were so rotten that, unless
speedily repaired, they would go down at their moorings. The
sailors were paid with so little punctuality that they were glad
to find some usurer who would purchase their tickets at forty per
cent. discount. The commanders who had not powerful friends at
court were even worse treated. Some officers, to whom large
arrears were due. after vainly importuning the government during
many years, had died for want of a morsel of bread.
Most of the ships which were afloat were commanded by men who had
not been bred to the sea. This, it is true, was not an abuse
introduced by the government of Charles. No state, ancient or
modern, had, before that time, made a complete separation between
the naval and military service. In the great civilised nations of
antiquity, Cimon and Lysander, Pompey and Agrippa, had fought
battles by sea as well as by land. Nor had the impulse which
nautical science received at the close of the fifteenth century
produced any new division of labour. At Flodden the right wing of
the victorious army was led by the Admiral of England. At Jarnac
and Moncontour the Huguenot ranks were marshalled by the Admiral
of France. Neither John of Austria, the conqueror of Lepanto, nor
Lord Howard of Effingham, to whose direction the marine of
England was confided when the Spanish invaders were approaching
our shores, had received the education of a sailor. Raleigh,
highly celebrated as a naval commander, had served during many
years as a soldier in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland. Blake
had distinguished himself by his skilful and valiant defence of
an inland town before he humbled the pride of Holland and of
Castile on the ocean. Since the Restoration the same system had
been followed. Great fleets had been entrusted to the direction
of Rupert and Monk; Rupert, who was renowned chiefly as a hot and
daring cavalry officer, and Monk, who, when he wished his ship to
change her course, moved the mirth of his crew by calling out,
"Wheel to the left!"
But about this time wise men began to perceive that the rapid
improvement, both of the art of war and of the art of navigation,
made it necessary to draw a line between two professions which
had hitherto been confounded. Either the command of a regiment or
the command of a ship was now a matter quite sufficient to occupy
the attention of a single mind. In the year 1672 the French
government determined to educate young men of good family from a
very early age especially for the sea service. But the English
government, instead of following this excellent example, not only
continued to distribute high naval commands among landsmen, but
selected for such commands landsmen who, even on land, could not
safely have been put in any important trust. Any lad of noble
birth, any dissolute courtier for whom one of the King's
mistresses would speak a word, might hope that a ship of the
line, and with it the honour of the country and the lives of
hundreds of brave men, would be committed to his care. It
mattered not that he had never in his life taken a voyage except
on the Thames, that he could not keep his feet in a breeze, that
he did not know the difference between latitude and longitude. No
previous training was thought necessary; or, at most, he was sent
to make a short trip in a man of war, where he was subjected to
no discipline, where he was treated with marked respect, and
where he lived in a round of revels and amusements. If, in the
intervals of feasting, drinking, and gambling, he succeeded in
learning the meaning of a few technical phrases and the names of
the points of the compass, he was thought fully qualified to take
charge of a three-decker. This is no imaginary description. In
1666, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, at seventeen years of
age, volunteered to serve at sea against the Dutch. He passed six
weeks on board, diverting himself, as well as he could, in the
society of some young libertines of rank, and then returned home
to take the command of a troop of horse. After this he was never
on the water till the year 1672, when he again joined the fleet,
and was almost immediately appointed Captain of a ship of
eighty-four guns, reputed the finest in the navy. He was then
twenty-three years old, and had not, in the whole course of his
life, been three months afloat. As soon as he came back from sea
he was made Colonel of a regiment of foot. This is a specimen of
the manner in which naval commands of the highest importance were
then given; and a very favourable specimen; for Mulgrave, though
he wanted experience, wanted neither parts nor courage. Others
the year 1685 consisted, all ranks included, of about seven
thousand foot, and about seventeen hundred cavalry and dragoons.
The whole charge amounted to about two hundred and ninety
thousand pounds a year, less then a tenth part of what the
military establishment of France then cost in time of peace. The
daily pay of a private in the Life Guards was four shillings, in
the Blues two shillings and sixpence, in the Dragoons eighteen
pence, in the Foot Guards tenpence, and in the line eightpence.
The discipline was lax, and indeed could not be otherwise. The
common law of England knew nothing of courts martial, and made no
distinction, in time of peace, between a soldier and any other
subject; nor could the government then venture to ask even the
most loyal Parliament for a Mutiny Bill. A soldier, therefore, by
knocking down his colonel, incurred only the ordinary penalties
of assault and battery, and by refusing to obey orders, by
sleeping on guard, or by deserting his colours, incurred no legal
penalty at all. Military punishments were doubtless inflicted
during the reign of Charles the Second; but they were inflicted
very sparingly, and in such a manner as not to attract public
notice, or to produce an appeal to the courts of Westminster
Hall.
Such an army as has been described was not very likely to enslave
five millions of Englishmen. It would indeed have been unable to
suppress an insurrection in London, if the trainbands of the City
had joined the insurgents. Nor could the King expect that, if a
rising took place in England, he would obtain effectual help from
his other dominions. For, though both Scotland and Ireland
supported separate military establishments, those establishments
were not more than sufficient to keep down the Puritan
malecontents of the former kingdom and the Popish malecontents of
the latter. The government had, however, an important military
resource which must not be left unnoticed. There were in the pay
of the United Provinces six fine regiments, of which three had
been raised in England and three in Scotland. Their native prince
had reserved to himself the power of recalling them, if he needed
their help against a foreign or domestic enemy. In the meantime
they were maintained without any charge to him, and were kept
under an excellent discipline to which he could not have ventured
to subject them.46
If the jealousy of the Parliament and of the nation made it
impossible for the King to maintain a formidable standing army,
no similar impediment prevented him from making England the first
of maritime powers. Both Whigs and Tories were ready to applaud
every step tending to increase the efficiency of that force
which, while it was the best protection of the island against
foreign enemies, was powerless against civil liberty. All the
greatest exploits achieved within the memory of that generation
by English soldiers had been achieved in war against English
princes. The victories of our sailors had been won over foreign
foes, and had averted havoc and rapine from our own soil. By at
least half the nation the battle of Naseby was remembered with
horror, and the battle of Dunbar with pride chequered by many
painful feelings: but the defeat of the Armada, and the
encounters of Blake with the Hollanders and Spaniards were
recollected with unmixed exultation by all parties. Ever since
the Restoration, the Commons, even when most discontented and
most parsimonious, had always been bountiful to profusion where
the interest of the navy was concerned. It had been represented
to them, while Danby was minister, that many of the vessels in
the royal fleet were old and unfit for sea; and, although the
House was, at that time, in no giving mood, an aid of near six
hundred thousand pounds had been granted for the building of
thirty new men of war.
But the liberality of the nation had been made fruitless by the
vices of the government. The list of the King's ships, it is
true, looked well. There were nine first rates, fourteen second
rates, thirty-nine third rates, and many smaller vessels. The
first rates, indeed, were less than the third rates of our time;
and the third rates would not now rank as very large frigates.
This force, however, if it had been efficient, would in those
days have been regarded by the greatest potentate as formidable.
But it existed only on paper. When the reign of Charles
terminated, his navy had sunk into degradation and decay, such as
would be almost incredible if it were not certified to us by the
independent and concurring evidence of witnesses whose authority
is beyond exception. Pepys, the ablest man in the English
Admiralty, drew up, in the year 1684, a memorial on the state of
his department, for the information of Charles. A few months
later Bonrepaux, the ablest man in the French Admiralty, having
visited England for the especial purpose of ascertaining her
maritime strength, laid the result of his inquiries before Lewis.
The two reports are to the same effect. Bonrepaux declared that
he found everything in disorder and in miserable condition, that
the superiority of the French marine was acknowledged with shame
and envy at Whitehall, and that the state of our shipping and
dockyards was of itself a sufficient guarantee that we should not
meddle in the disputes of Europe.47 Pepys informed his master
that the naval administration was a prodigy of wastefulness,
corruption, ignorance, and indolence, that no estimate could be
trusted, that no contract was performed, that no check was
enforced. The vessels which the recent liberality of Parliament
had enabled the government to build, and which had never been out
of harbour, had been made of such wretched timber that they were
more unfit to go to sea than the old hulls which had been
battered thirty years before by Dutch and Spanish broadsides.
Some of the new men of war, indeed, were so rotten that, unless
speedily repaired, they would go down at their moorings. The
sailors were paid with so little punctuality that they were glad
to find some usurer who would purchase their tickets at forty per
cent. discount. The commanders who had not powerful friends at
court were even worse treated. Some officers, to whom large
arrears were due. after vainly importuning the government during
many years, had died for want of a morsel of bread.
Most of the ships which were afloat were commanded by men who had
not been bred to the sea. This, it is true, was not an abuse
introduced by the government of Charles. No state, ancient or
modern, had, before that time, made a complete separation between
the naval and military service. In the great civilised nations of
antiquity, Cimon and Lysander, Pompey and Agrippa, had fought
battles by sea as well as by land. Nor had the impulse which
nautical science received at the close of the fifteenth century
produced any new division of labour. At Flodden the right wing of
the victorious army was led by the Admiral of England. At Jarnac
and Moncontour the Huguenot ranks were marshalled by the Admiral
of France. Neither John of Austria, the conqueror of Lepanto, nor
Lord Howard of Effingham, to whose direction the marine of
England was confided when the Spanish invaders were approaching
our shores, had received the education of a sailor. Raleigh,
highly celebrated as a naval commander, had served during many
years as a soldier in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland. Blake
had distinguished himself by his skilful and valiant defence of
an inland town before he humbled the pride of Holland and of
Castile on the ocean. Since the Restoration the same system had
been followed. Great fleets had been entrusted to the direction
of Rupert and Monk; Rupert, who was renowned chiefly as a hot and
daring cavalry officer, and Monk, who, when he wished his ship to
change her course, moved the mirth of his crew by calling out,
"Wheel to the left!"
But about this time wise men began to perceive that the rapid
improvement, both of the art of war and of the art of navigation,
made it necessary to draw a line between two professions which
had hitherto been confounded. Either the command of a regiment or
the command of a ship was now a matter quite sufficient to occupy
the attention of a single mind. In the year 1672 the French
government determined to educate young men of good family from a
very early age especially for the sea service. But the English
government, instead of following this excellent example, not only
continued to distribute high naval commands among landsmen, but
selected for such commands landsmen who, even on land, could not
safely have been put in any important trust. Any lad of noble
birth, any dissolute courtier for whom one of the King's
mistresses would speak a word, might hope that a ship of the
line, and with it the honour of the country and the lives of
hundreds of brave men, would be committed to his care. It
mattered not that he had never in his life taken a voyage except
on the Thames, that he could not keep his feet in a breeze, that
he did not know the difference between latitude and longitude. No
previous training was thought necessary; or, at most, he was sent
to make a short trip in a man of war, where he was subjected to
no discipline, where he was treated with marked respect, and
where he lived in a round of revels and amusements. If, in the
intervals of feasting, drinking, and gambling, he succeeded in
learning the meaning of a few technical phrases and the names of
the points of the compass, he was thought fully qualified to take
charge of a three-decker. This is no imaginary description. In
1666, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, at seventeen years of
age, volunteered to serve at sea against the Dutch. He passed six
weeks on board, diverting himself, as well as he could, in the
society of some young libertines of rank, and then returned home
to take the command of a troop of horse. After this he was never
on the water till the year 1672, when he again joined the fleet,
and was almost immediately appointed Captain of a ship of
eighty-four guns, reputed the finest in the navy. He was then
twenty-three years old, and had not, in the whole course of his
life, been three months afloat. As soon as he came back from sea
he was made Colonel of a regiment of foot. This is a specimen of
the manner in which naval commands of the highest importance were
then given; and a very favourable specimen; for Mulgrave, though
he wanted experience, wanted neither parts nor courage. Others
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