JAMES THE SECOND.

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third and fourth regiments of dragoons, and the nine regi- c hap.ments of infantry of the line, from the seventh to the fifteenth 1685 .inclusive, had just been raised.* The effect of these augmen-tations, and of the recall of the garrison of Tangier, was thatthe number of regular troops in England had, in a few months,been increased from six thousand to near twenty thousand.

No English King had ever, in time of peace, had such a forceat his command. Yet even with this force James was notcontent. He often repeated that no confidence could beplaced in the fidelity of the trainbands, that they sympathizedwith all the passions of the class to which they belonged,that, at Sedgemoor, there had been more militia men in therebel army than in the royal encampment, and that, if thethrone had been defended only by the array of the counties,Monmouth would have marched in triumph from Lyme toLondon.

The revenue, large as it was when compared with that offormer Kings, barely sufficed to meet this new charge. Agreat part of the produce of the new taxes was absorbed bythe naval expenditure. At the close of the late reign thewhole cost of the army, the Tangier regiments included, hadbeen under three hundred thousand pounds a year. Sixhundred thousand pounds a year would not now suffice.** Ifany further augmentation were made, it would be necessaryto demand a supply from Parliament; and it was not likely thatParliament would be in a complying mood. The very nameof standing army was hateful to the whole nation, and to nopart of the nation more hateful than to the Cavalier gentlemenwho filled the Lower House. In their minds a standing army

* See the Historical Records of Regiments, published under the su-pervision of the Adjutant General.

*' Rarillon, Dec. 1685. lie had studied the subject much. ‘‘C’esttin ddtail,” he says, “dont j’ai connoissance.” It appears from theTreasury Warrant Book that the charge of the army for the year 1687 wasfixed on the first of January at 623,104/. 9j, lid.