ENGLISH WAR ADMINISTRATION. 23 much abridged in peace-time by the coinpro- ^^^^'• mise we shall have to record ; for except when '. — war raged or was threatening, our regiments of cavalry and infantry remained always withheld from the control of the responsible Government, and kept ready in the hands of the sovereign. It was well that the liberties of the people depended upon something stronger than mere legal defences ; for, so far as concerned its law- fulness, the Prerogative in force at the ' Horse ' Guards ' was quite unassailable, and yet the Horse Guards in peace-time kept all our institu- tions, including what men called our ' Govern- ' ment,' at the mercy of force, at the mercy of royal whim, at the mercy of royal treason. The relations between the Crown and the Parliament have long been so good, that the contingency of a rupture between them could hardly have been made the subject of grave, solemn warning in recent times without bring- ing down ridicule on the alarmist ; but the mountains and mountains of obstacle which rendered the hypothesis so extravagant, were other than legal — were other than ' constitu- ' tional ' safeguards. The well-meant expedient of authorising the maintenance of troops for only a year at a time did not long suffice to prevent them from constituting a real ' stand-
- ing army ;' and our public men — put off their
guard by the stealthiness of the encroachment, or the specious contrivance that veiled it — neglected to take care that the formidable in- stitution thus becoming substantially permanent
