Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/68

24 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, should ha withdrawn from the control of the l^}: personal — that is, the irresponsible sovereign. Out of all the three arms it was over our artil- lery only that the lulled Constitution of Eng- land kept even one sentry at watch. (^) The other two arms of the service were under the personal sovereign, and not ruled by what men call the ' Government.' Living — happily — in the reign of a sovereign who never played false, our people are, moreover, so strong that the contingency of their being trampled down into a state of subjection by their own English army seems too absurdly remote to be worthy of a busy man's thought; but, if passing through the Romagna, one would scarce grudge a look at the rivulet which once sliowed where lawfulness ended, where usurpa- tion began ; and so here, having come on a landmark in constitutional England, one per- haps ought to spare it a glance. This is how the old border line ran : — A king, who was traitor at heart, and in- tended to undertake civil war, might have looked with some complacency upon the mili- tary opportunities at his command ; because having in his own royal hand, as distinguished from the hand of his 'Government,' not only his Staff at the Horse Guards — a ready and whetted instrument for the conduct of hostilities — but also all the cavalry and infantry within the four seas. All this power, I say, he would find ready gathered in his own hand, without having yet ventured upon any one act of law-