CHAP. II. Low Status of Officers. 29 to alter a course of life they had now led for many years." The Army therefore was Professional or Mercenary, for the System of Purchase, though not unknown, was excluded, and men of low type entered the Army from no higher motive than self-aggrandisement.' Officers of Army men of 32. The Officers of the Royal Army could, and in fact as the preamble and the provisions of the 16 Car. I., c. 13,2 plainly prove, did forbear their claims to pay on their the Royal disbandment; but the Parliament had sought the higher status. services of men whose need was such that they were wholly dependent upon the public subsidies, or the free quarters of their fellow-citizens. Their claims were as imperative as their necessity, and-united in a common cause in which Officers and Men, as springing from an equal status, were alike interested-the Army was irresistible.3 the army may at any time. 33. The same political or physical strength may at any time be developed in the Army against a weak Strength of Executive Government; but our National experience be developed shews that security is to be found, so far as human foresight can give it against such an evil, in the constitutional arrangements that followed upon the Revolution of 1688. Since that period the Army has been Officered by gentlemen, and the relation in which the Army should stand towards the Crown, -Parliament, the Civil institutions, and-above all-towards the Treasury, has been defined by the Statesmen, and accepted hitherto by the Army of a Constitutional Sovereign. the Constitu guards of 34. To disturb such arrangements by weakening or destroying any constitutional safeguard-originally raised for To disturb the protection of the community-by altering in any tional Safedegree the relative powers of Parliament or the Crown 16ss unwise. towards the Army, by removing the constitutional control of the Secretary of State, or the financial control of the departments in whose hands the Civil Administration of the Army has been placed, giving the Army readier access to the Public Treasure, would be to increase the power of the Army, and, may be, to lead back to, or at least towards, that state of Anarchy in 12 Com. Journ., pp. 438, 444. 2 Vol. v. Stat. Realm, p. 114. Se 5 Com. Journ., pp. 215, 217, 230, 232; compare with p. 268. which, after the destruction of the Sovereign and Parliament, Freedom was lost, and Military Power here-as at times and in other places it has too often done-reigned Supreme. nistration of be main Integrity. 5. At the period now under consideration, the Personal Civil Admi- claims were the advent to the Political claims of the Army to the Army; and at any time the first indication of the tained in its action of the Military against the Civil institutions of the Country will be directed towards that Civil department of the State charged with the duties of finance and control over the Army. No statesman, judging the Signs of the Times, can have failed to notice or to draw his own conclusions from the fact, that in recent years-since the Crimean War— an influence or current has set in against the Civil Administration of the Army. Expense has largely increased, and hence it may lead some to investigate the question whether, as the late Duke of Wellington suggested as the truth, there is any and what connection between independent (civil) control and economy, or class (military) control and a lavish expenditure. Since the year 1855 the subject of Army Administration has been open to criticism, and one purpose for which these pages are written is to give such-and to refer in the Notes to other -information as may be useful to those desirous of examining the Subject for themselves. CHAP. III. The Establishment of the Militia. 31 CHAPTER III THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MILITIA.1 tional Force. Early sta 1. THE Constitutional Force for the Defence of the realm is the Militia. By an early statute every freeman between The Militia the ages of fifteen and sixty years was obliged to the Constitube provided with armour to preserve the peace; but he was protected from leaving his county or shire, "save tutes. upon the coming of strange enemies into the realm." By the 5 Hen. IV., c. 3,3 provision was made that a watch should be kept upon the coast, to preserve the Realm from their approach without due warning.* "12 A.D. 1285. A.D. 1306. 2. Other statutes' secured the Subject from the exactions of the Crown in regard to these or other supposed military obligations, until in the reign of Philip and Mary all the previous statutes concerning the finding of horses and arms were repealed, and the law consolidated. The 4th Philip and Mary, c. 2, imposed upon the owners of land, according to their estates, an obligation of finding, keeping, and sustaining within the realm of England, horses and armour for the defence of it. 3. From the year 1324 to 1557, the Military forces were arrayed and mustered under commissions from the Crown' This word originated with the controversy which the force itself-namely, the Trained Bandsgave rise to. The first entry in the Commons Journal in which the word is used, is under date of 31st of Jan., 1841. (See vol. ii. pp. 316 and 406). "I do heartily wish," said Whitlock, addressing the Commons, on 1st March 1641, "that this great word-this new word-the Militia-this harsh word, might never have come within these walls."-4 Rush., Coll., p. 525. 213 Edw. I., c. 6; 1 Stat. Realm, p. 97. Ib., vol. ii. p. 144. 3 Arts. of Enquiry, 34 Edw. I., ib. p. 246. For the statutes of an early date relating to the Militia as distinct from hired soldiers, see Appendix, Notes B and C. 6 Sec. 15. 7 Hale's Hist. of Com. Law, p. 543. Commissions of Array. directed to two or more1 persons of honour, reputation, and estate in each particular county; but until the 3rd and 4th Edw. VI. was passed, the statute law was silent, so far as the language of express enactment was the criterion of intention, as to the officer by whom these forces were to be commanded. ment of Lords Lieutenant by Crown 4. That Act, which was in the nature of a Riot Act— The appoint and upon the basis of which the present Riot Act —1 Geo. I. s. 2, c. 5-appears to have been passed 2— sanctioned by after providing for the punishment of unlawful asVI. c. 5. semblies and rising of the King's subjects, gave to the Lieutenant of the Crown express authority in these terms: 3 & 4 Edw. "That if the King by his letters patent shall make any lieutenant in any county or counties of this realm for the suppressing of any commotion, rebellion, or unlawful assembly, that they as well all justices of peace of every such county, and the sheriff of the same, as all mayors, bailiffs, and other head officers, and all inhabitants subject of any county, city, borough, or town corporate, within every such county, shall, upon the declaration of the said letters patent and request made, be bound to give attendance upon the same lieutenant to suppress any commotion, rebellion, or unlawful assembly, unless he or they being so required have any reasonable excuse for his not attendance, upon pain of imprisonment for one whole year." by 1 Mary, but reenacted by c. 16, and then 5. This act, though repealed by the 1 Mary, stat. 2, c. 12, Act repealed was re-enacted by the 1st Eliz., c. 16, and continued in force throughout her reign, when it was suffered 1 Elizabeth, to expire. The authority of the Lieutenant was therelapsed. fore recognised as a legal authority by Her subjects ; and at the time of the Spanish Armada, and in later times upon any threat of invasion, all arrangements for the internal defence of the country were and have been made through the agency of these Officers. 1 See Commissions of Chas. I., appointing the Earl of Dorset and Earl of Holland for Middlesex; and the Earl of Arundel, Earl of Nottingham, and Lord Maltravers, for Surrey.-3 Rush, p. 1175. It was decided by the Long Parliament to have only one Lord Lieutenant, except in London, where are still many Commissioners of Lieutenancy.-2 Com. Journ., pp. 423-4. 2 Vol. iv. pp. 1, 104. CHAP. III. Power and Prerogative of the Crown. 33 and the sta appoint Lieutenant lost. 6. Unfortunately (as it may appear), the act of Philip and Mary was repealed in the reign of James I., whereby, Early sta as the opponents of King Charles I. in the Long Par- tutes revived liament contended, all the earlier statute law was re-tutory powers vived and brought into operation. The King had there- ment of Lords fore no Statutory authority for appointing and arraying the people in arms under the Lords Lieutenants. Whatever the objection was worth, it is certain that the Parliament of Charles II. so far regarded it as to give an express statutory indemnity to those Lieutenants who had received and acted under Royal Commissions from that Sovereign before the declaratory act of 13 Car. II. c. 6 was passed. 2 Power of the Crown over the Militia established in Charles II.'s 7. To terminate all future controversy upon a question of such vital importance, the House of Commons after the Restoration proceeded, by one of the earliest acts passed after its election to establish and settle the Militia of the kingdom upon a constitutional basis.3 reign. Time would not allow of a complete settlement of all the details of such a measure, and therefore a short Act was passed for these principal purposes:1-1. That of declaring, by its preamble, the sole supreme command of all Military Forces to be in the Crown; 2. That of indemnifying persons acting under Royal Commissions of Lieutenancy; and 3rd. That of declaring the Crown to have no power of transporting any subjects, or in any way of compelling them to march out of the kingdom otherwise than by the laws of England ought to be done. 8. This Act was soon followed by another passed in the same session; and the basis upon which the Militia was outline of ultimately settled in this reign, and upon which indeed the Militia it rested (save as to the cost of its maintenance) until menti the year 1757,5 may be thus briefly stated. Establish reign of Geo. II. 9. The legislature in the first and second of the three 1 1 Jas. I., c. 25, sec. 7. 2 See 13 Car. II., c. 6, sec. 2, and 15 Car. II., c. 4, sec. 15. 4 13 Car. II., c. 6; 5 Hist. Stat. Realm, p. 309. 5 13 Car. II., c. 6; 14 Car. II., c. 3; 15 Car. II., c. 24. VOL. I. D |