Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/69

ENGLISH WAR ADMJNISTKATION. 25 lessness ; but before proceedino- to measures for chap. . Ill suppressing Parliament, and securing the purse ' of the nation, he miglit naturally wish to feel easy in the artillery arm, and would perhaps send a company, or a corporal's guard to drive in, or capture, the outpost which ' Government * kept at the Ordnance. Doing that, he of course would be passing — overtly passing — the Kubi- con ; but he would enter upon his civil war with great military advantages, because choosing his own time, taking the country by surprise, and assailing an unarmed people with splendid troops long accustomed to regard him as their one supreme commander.(-^^) Regarding all such dangers as fanciful, and not caring to learn that the division of authority between the ' personal ' king and his ' Govern- ' ment ' had liampered the machinery needed for administrative business, our people calmly en- dured that this anomalous condition of things should go on existing in peace-time ; but within living memory, no English sovereign has judged that the Prerogative represented at the Horse Guards could be suffered to use its power freely in time of war ; for all saw that the ' Ministers ' (through whom means of fighting would have to be obtained from Parliament) must be the men held to account for the conduct of any military operations undertaken by the State, and that along with the burden there must needs be corresponding power. Accordingly (sin- less times of peace could be expected to last for ever) there was but one way in which the Pre-