WILLIAM TI-IB TIIIED.

Mediterranean, might be ready to strike a blow long cttap.before we wc-re prepared to parry it. We might be J6 . J7 ,'appalled by learning that ships from widely remote parts,and troops from widely remote garrisons, had assembledat a single point within sight of our coast. To trust toour fleet was to trust to the winds and the waves. Thebreeze which was favourable to the invader might pre-vent our men of war from standing out to sea. Only nineyears ago this had actually happened. The Protestantwind, before which the Dutch armament had run full saildown the Channel, had driven King James’s navy backinto the Thames. It must then be acknowledged to benot improbable that the enemy might land. And, if helanded, what would he find? An open country; a richcountry; provisions everywhere; not a river but whichcould be forded; no natural fastnesses such as protect thefertile plains of Italy; no artificial fastnesses such as, atevery step, impede the progress of a conqueror in theNetherlands. Everything must then be staked on thesteadiness of the militia; and it was pernicious flattery torepresent the militia as equal to a conflict in the field withveterans whose whole life had been a preparation for theday of battle. The instances which it was the fashion tocite of the great achievements of soldiers taken from thethreshing floor and the shopboard were fit only for aschoolboy’s theme. Somers, who had studied ancientliterature like a man, — a rare thing in his time, — saidthat those instances refuted the doctrine which they were