the arms which corresponded to his rank.'* That this was the case was due to the fact that the ancient obligation upon every freeman to be prepared to go to war in defence of his country still held good in the sixteenth century.'t Henry VII emphatically asserted this in a Statute (II Hen. VII, c. 18) in which the duty of every subject was stated to be to serve and assist his sovereign at all seasons where need shall require.' Commissions of Array were issued, as of old, conferring full and absolute power upon the commissioners to raise the specified quotas of men.§ A series of rigorous statutes enforced on every man from the age of seven upwards regular Sabbatic practice of archery. By a remarkable exercise of arbitrary power, the unrepealed Edwardian and Lancastrian Statutes limiting the liabilities of the fyrd were ignored, and the impressed levies of the shires were used on foreign service.¶ A considerable increase in military efficiency was given to the national forces by the appointment in 1550 of a new official, the Lieutenant (later Lord-Lieutenant) to take over from the many-functioned sheriff the supreme administration and command of the levies in one or more counties. The Lord-Lieutenant's commission directed him to 'levy, gather and call together all our subjects, of whatsoever estate, degree or dignity they be, dwelling within our said county or counties.' ** The well-known Mustering Statute' of 1557 (4–5 P. and M. c. 2) graduated afresh the universal liability to bear arms, and made the interesting arrangement that poor men should be equipped at the public expense. The levies called up year by year for military training under the new officials, and in accordance with the revised regulations of the Mustering Statute,' acquired the name of the Train Bands.' Their prime function, of course, * Froude, J. A., History of England,' vol. i, p. 63. Prothero, G. W., Statutes and Constitutional Documents,' p. cxix. § See example in Prothero, op. cit. p. 156. Froude, op. cit. vol. i, p. 67. Impressment for foreign service was after a time legalised by 4-5 Philip and Mary, c. 3. Cf. Hallam, H., Constitutional History,' New Edition, vol. ii, p. 131. ** Cf. Prothero, op. cit. pp. cxx and 154. was home defence; and a general levy of them was appropriately made in 1588 when the country expected a Spanish invasion. For foreign service or service in Ireland forcible impressment was still the normal method of recruiting. Barnaby Rich in his 'Dialogue between Mercury and the English Soldier' (1574) tells us that the constables welcomed an opportunity of pressing 'any idle fellow, some dronkard, or seditious quariler, a privy picker, or such a one as hath some skill in stealing of a goose.' The claim that it is an Englishman's privilege to refuse to defend his native land in an hour of peril would have made Shakespeare gasp in amazement. The idea that voluntarism is a 'real heritage' of the English people would-if the purport of the monstrous proposition could have been conveyed to his understanding-have filled Francis Bacon with indignant scorn. For, said he, 'The principal point of greatness in any State is to have a race of military men.'t When Bacon uttered this profound remark, however, the days of the great Elizabeth were over, and James I sat upon the throne of England. On this, as on many other matters, he disagreed with Bacon. It is interesting to note that the Essay of Bacon just quoted contains the first example in standard English literature of the use of the word 'militia.' 'Let any Prince or State,' says Bacon, 'think soberly of his forces except his militia of natives be of good and valiant soldiers. Even so late as 1641 the word was a novelty unwelcome to some ears. Thus Whitlock, on March 1 of that year, protested in the House of Commons: 'I do heartily wish that this great word, this new word, this harsh word, Militia, might never have come within these walls.' § When Bacon wrote and Whitlock spoke, however, the question of name mattered little; for the national forces, whether known as English trained bands or See Summary of Lords-Lieutenants' Returns in Colonel C. J. Hay's History of the Militia,' pp. 89–96. + Bacon, Essay XXIX, On the True Greatness of Kingdoms.' Cp. Spencer Walpole, History of England,' vol. v, p. 447. The New English Dictionary gives an example dated 1590 from Sir J. Smyth's 'Discourse of Weapons.' § Clode, 'Military Forces,' vol. i, p. 31. Latin militia, had been allowed to decline into deplorable inefficiency. James I was a pacificist of the worst typea victim of great illusions that were bound sooner or later to plunge his kingdom unprepared into war. He signalised his accession to the throne of this country by securing the enactment of a statute (I Jac. I. c. 25) which relieved his subjects of the burden of providing arms for themselves. Henceforth arms were to be provided for them by a beneficent government and stored in county magazines. The statute, however, expressly reasserted 'the authority of the Crown to impress soldiers to serve in the wars,' and, of course, it left untouched the common law obligation of defence.† The militia, indeed, continued to meet month by month for training; but the meetings degenerated into matters of disport and things of no moment,' and became notorious for their orgies of drunkenness. As a contemporary writer expressed it: The God they worshipped in their trainings was not Mars but Bacchus.' The defence of England ‡ became dangerously weak. When, at the close of the reign of James I, war with Spain broke out, impressment of course was resorted to. Charles I continued his father's military policy. In the expeditions organised by Buckingham in 1627-8, 'his soldiers were the pressed men of whom regiments meant for foreign service were usually composed under the later Tudors.'§ When trouble arose later between the king and his subjects concerning the levy of Ship Money for the defence of the realm, no one denied the obligation of every citizen to bear arms.'|| Even in John Hampden's famous case, St John, the counsel for the defence, together with the judges who gave judgment in Hampden's favour, expressly recognised that 'in case of necessity and danger, the King may command his subjects without Parliament to defend the Kingdom.'¶ The army required in 1639 for the campaign against the Cp. Clode, 'Military Forces,' vol. i, p. 352. + Cf. Medley, 'Constitutional History,' p. 470. Cf. Firth, C. H., Cromwell's Army,' p. 6, where the sources of the quotations will be found. Scots was duly raised by impressment, and provided with weapons from the militia depots.* When the Civil War broke out, both sides equally admitted and applied the principle of compulsory enlistment. First of all the King by his Commissions of Array, the Parliament by its Militia Ordinance, summoned the trained bands to fight.'t The divided allegiance of the trained bands, however, combined with their general unwillingness to move beyond the limits of their own shires, rendered them ineffective. Volunteers, who for a time poured in to each camp, were most useful; and their numbers sufficed to supply the armies of both sides during the first two campaigns. But in 1643 impressment had to be resorted to. On the one side, Parliament by Ordinance (Aug. 10) ordered a forced levy of 22,000 men between the ages of 18 and 50; on the other side, the King issued Commissions, similar in purport, to 29 separate counties. When, a year and a half later, Parliament resolved to establish a regular professional army-the 'New Model'-it had to fill up its ranks by the usual process of impressment. Less than one half of the infantry of this famous Puritan force were volunteers. Each county was required to supply its quota; and in most cases force was needed to secure it. The last great impressment of 10,000 men was made for the completion of Cromwell's work in Ireland in 1651. 'It was remarkable (says Prof. Firth) that the men raised by impressment for that service were better than those who had voluntarily enlisted.'§ 6 At the Restoration the New Model' was disbanded, and the militia restored. It underwent a complete reorganisation. The King was recognised as commanderin-chief, and the lords-lieutenant were his representatives in the shires. The county magnates supplied the officers, the landed gentry the cavalry, the yeomen and citizens the infantry. The universal obligation to serve was the Clode, op. cit. vol. i, pp. 21-2. Firth, op. cit. p. 13. Firth, op. cit. p. 15; of Gardiner, S. R., 'Const. Documents,' pp. 244-60. Firth, op. cit. p. 20. § Op. cit. pp. 36-38. I See Statutes 13 Car. II, c. 6; 14 Car. II, c. 3, and 15 Car. II, c. 4. For summary of main features cf. Macaulay, 'History of England,' chap. 3, and Fortescue, History of the British Army,' vol. i, p. 294. basis of the force as of old; but, since only a certain quota was required from each county, those who did not wish to serve in person were allowed either to provide a substitute or pay a pecuniary equivalent. The militia at once became, and long remained, an immensely popular force. It was regarded as the bulwark of English liberties against the menaces of that standing army which the troubled condition of European politics made necessary. So late as 1798 Wilberforce said: 'The circumstances which rendered our militia so dear to us as a constitutional force was its being officered by county gentlemen, whose arms were in no conjuncture likely to be turned against their country.' This view of the militia was emphasised when James II, in pursuit of his despotic designs, tried to destroy it by dismissing lordslieutenant and disarming the gentry, and when he tried to use the standing army to subvert the religion and the constitution of the realm. The expulsion of James II and the close of the Stewart period saw the national militia in the heyday of its popularity. During the early years of the new era, the militia was called up and used on three notable occasions-in 1690, when a French invasion threatened, and in 1715 and 1745, when the Stewarts made attempts to recover their forfeited throne. The long Continental wars of the 18th century, however, of course demanded a regular, professional, standing army. This, like the navy, was filled by impressment. 'It is a stern fact,' says Captain Hime, that limited conscription was resorted to on every occasion on which troops were required from 1695 to 1781. This conscription was regulated by a good many statutes during the period in question, the most notable of which was that of 1756 (29 Geo. II. c. 4), whereby criminals, vagrants, and paupers were delivered to the mercies of the press-gang. In 1778 smugglers and deserters of families were included. Meanwhile the militia, which had lost its first zeal during the long, slack era of Walpole's easy-going |