100

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VIII.

1687 .

should become tired of the camp at Hounslow and should goback to his native village. The government appears to havehad no hold on such a man, except the hold which masterbakers and master tailors have on their journeymen. He andhis officers were, in the eye of the law, on a level. If heswore at them he might be fined for an oath. If he struckthem he might be prosecuted for assault and battery. In truththe regular army was under less restraint than the militia. Forthe militia was a body established by an Act of Parliament,and it had been provided by that Act that slight punishmentsmight be summarily inflicted for breaches of discipline.

It does not appear that, during the reign of Charles theSecond, the practical inconvenience arising from this stateof the law had been much felt. The explanation may perhapsbe that, till the last year of his reign, the force which he main-tained inEngland consisted chiefly of household troops, whosepay was so high that dismission from the service would havebeen felt by most of them as a great calamity. The stipendof a private in the Life Guards was a provision for the youngerson of a gentleman. Even the Foot Guards were paid aboutas high as manufacturers in a prosperous season, and weretherefore in a situation which the great body of the labouringpopulation might regard with envy. The return of the gar-rison of Tangier and the raising of the new regiments hadmade a great change. There were now in England manythousands of soldiers, each of whom received only eiglitpencea day. The dread of dismission was not sufficient to keepthem to their duty: and corporal punishment their officerscould not legally inflict. James had therefore one plain choicebefore him, to let his army dissolve itself, or to induce theJudges to pronounce that the law was what every barrister inthe Temple knew that it was not.

It was peculiarly important to secure the cooperation oftwo courts; the court of King’s Bench, which was the firstcriminal tribunal in the realm, and the court of gaol deliverywhich sate at the Old Bailey, and which had jurisdiction overoffences committed in the capital. In both these courts therewere great difficulties. Herbert, Chief Justice of the King’s