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To Strengthen the King's Hands: Dynastic Legitimacy, Militia Reform and Ideas of National Unity in England 1745–1760*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Eliga H. Gould
Eliga H. Gould
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
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Extract

A national militia has been the cry of every patriot since the Revolution, and this measure, both in Parliament and in the field, was supported by the country gentlemen or Tories, who insensibly transferred their loyalty to the House of Hanover. In the language of Mr. Burke, they have changed the idol, but they have preserved the idolatry.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 329 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 The autobiography of Edward Gibbon, ed. John, Right Hon., Sheffield, Lord (1796)Google Scholar, reprinted in The world's classics (London, 1972), p. 104.

2 Thompson, , The making of the English working class (London, 1963)Google Scholar; idem. ‘The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century’, Past and Present, L (1971), 76–136; idem. ‘Eighteenth-century English society: class struggle without class?’, Social History, III (1978), 133–65; Speck, , Stability and strife: England, 1714–1760 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979)Google Scholar; Langford, , The excise crisis: society and politics in the age of Walpole (Oxford, 1975)Google Scholar. Speck's, study of the government's response to the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, The Butcher: the duke of Cumberland and the suppression of the 45 (Oxford, 1981)Google Scholar, is a notable exception to this tendency, as is Hayter, Tony, The army and the crowd in mid-Georgian England (London, 1978)Google Scholar. Brewer's, JohnSinews of power: war, money and the English state, 1688–1783 (New York, 1989)Google Scholarppeared after this article had been completed.

3 Plumb, J. H., The growth of political stability in England (Oxford, 1967)Google Scholar.

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6 30 Geo. II, c. 25.

7 Williams, E. N., The eighteenth-century constitution, 1688–1815 (Cambridge, 1960)Google Scholar, for example, makes no mention of the Militia Act of 1757.

8 13 Car. II, c. 6; 14 Car. II, c. 3; 15 Car. II, c. 24.

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11 See The dynamics of change, p. 24–6; idem, English society, pp. 119–98; idem, ‘The decline of party, 1740–1760’, English Historical Review, XCIII (1978), 499–527; idem, ‘A general theory of party, opposition and government, 1688–1832’, Historical Journal, XXIII (1980), 295–326.

12 In defiance of oligarchy, pp. 23–50. As she makes clear in ‘Eighteenth-century English radicalism before Wilkes’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., XXXI (1981), 1–19Google Scholar, these strategies included a good deal of what might be termed Jacobite role playing in order to curry popular favour.

13 Even Walpole could find himself exposed to allegations of disaffection when, during a brief stint in opposition, the tory William Shippen observed to the Commons that ‘when he is contending for the service of his country, [he] is no more afraid than myself of being called a Jacobite, by those, who want other arguments to support their debates’. Walpole ultimately skirted the dynastic question by ingeniously advocating an increase in the ratio of infantry to dragoons, thereby saving a substantial sum without actually seeming to reduce the size of the army: see The parliamentary history of England from the earliest period to the year 1803, ed. Cobbett, William (36 vols., London, 1806–1820), VII, 507, 522Google Scholar.

14 Ibid. p. 508.

15 Ibid. VIII, 884.

16 Ibid. pp. 889–92.

17 Ibid. pp. 896–900.

18 Ibid. pp. 900–3.

19 Schwoerer, Lois G., ‘No standing armies!’: the anti-army ideology in seventeenth-century England (Baltimore, 1974), pp. 155–87Google Scholar; Pocock, J. G. A., The Machiavellian moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition (Princeton, 1975), pp. 423–36Google Scholar; idem, ‘The varieties of whiggism from Exclusion to Reform: a history of ideology and discourse’, in Virtue, commerce and history: essays on political thought and history, chiefly in the eighteenth century (Cambridge1, 1985), pp. 230–1.

20 [Trenchard, John], An argument, showing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy (London, 1697), p. 4Google Scholar. See also [idem] A short history of standing armies in England (London, 1698); [Fletcher, Andrew], A discourse concerning militias and standing armies… (London, 1697)Google Scholar; [Toland, John], The militia reformed… (London, 1697)Google Scholar. Moyle probably contributed to Trenchard's pamphlets: Schwoerer, , ‘No standing armies!’, pp. 173–6Google Scholar.

21 In defiance of oligarchy, p. 87.

22 Trenchard's Argument shewing was reprinted in 1726, 1727 and 1728, as was his Short history in 1731 and 1739. Fletcher's, Discourse concerning militias reappeared in London in 1732 and 1737Google Scholar. See Schwoerer, , ‘No standing armies!’, pp. 188–96Google Scholar.

23 Plumb, J. H., Sir Robert Walpole: the king's minister (London, 1966)Google Scholar, passim, stresses Walpole's skill as a fiscal administrator and his fear of being ensnared in an expensive war: see especially pp. 121, 202.

24 Fortescue, , History of the British army (13 vols., London, 1910–1935), 1, 581–4, and II, 20–1, 35–6Google Scholar. It is a matter of some debate as to when the secretary at war acquired direct authority over commanders in the field. Certainly William Blathwayt, who held the post under Charles II, James II and William III, and Henry St. John and Robert Walpole, who served under Anne, exercised broad administrative powers. Yet because William III acted as his own field commander and because the Duke of Marlborough enjoyed such ready access to Anne, Fortescue seems correct to fix 1715 as marking the consolidation of the secretary's position. See Scouller, R. E., The armies of Queen Anne (Oxford, 1966), pp. 10–22Google Scholar; Childs, John, The army of Charles II (London, 1976), pp. 95–103Google Scholar; Hayter, , The army and the crowd, pp. 54–74Google Scholar.

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26 Western, , The English militia, pp. 52–74Google Scholar; Speck, , The Butcher, p. 38Google Scholar; Schwoerer, , ‘No standing armies!’, pp. 188–96Google Scholar.

27 Robertson, John, The Scottish enlightenment and the militia issue (Edinburgh, 1985)Google Scholar, passim, makes this point with particular emphasis.

28 See, for example, Defoe, Daniel, An argument shewing that a standing army, with consent of parliament, is not inconsistent with a free government (London, 1698), pp. 5–6, 11–12Google Scholar, and Cobbett, , Parl. hist., VIII, 900–3Google Scholar.

29 See Hume, David, ‘On the protestant succession’, Political discourses (1752) in Essays, moral, political, and literary, ed. Miller, Eugene F. (Indianapolis, 1985), p. 509Google Scholar: ‘A Prince, who fills the throne with a disputed title., dares not arm his subjects; the only method of securing a people fully, both against domestic oppression and foreign conquest.’

30 For a contemporary decription of the '45, see Smollett, Tobias, The history of England from the Revolution in 1688 to the death of George III (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1822), 1, 774–87Google Scholar. See also Ferguson, William, Scotland, 1689 to the present in The Edinburgh history of Scotland, ed. Donaldson, Gordon (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1968Google Scholar; reprinted, 1978), IV, 150–3.

31 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XIII, 1364Google Scholar.

32 There was, strictly speaking, no Scottish militia in the English sense of a body formally constituted by parliament and capable of being embodied at the discretion of the king. Winnington was apparently using the term to refer to irregular troops in general.

33 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XIII, 1374Google Scholar.

34 Ibid. p. 1383.

35 A bill for the better regulation of the militia in that part of Great Britain called England [1746], p. 1.

36 See A joyful ode: inscribed to the king on the late victory at Dettingen (London, 1743)Google Scholar; A poem on the battle of Dettingen. Inscrib'd to the king (London, 1743)Google Scholar; A sermon preach'd in Little-Wild-Street, the 17th of July, 1743, being the day appointed by their excellencies, the lords justices, for returning thanks…for the late glorious victory obtained…at Dettingen (London, 1743)Google Scholar; Hogwood, Christopher, Handel (London, 1984), p. 184Google Scholar. Handel's role as a Hanoverian propagandist warrants greater attention than most political historians have given it. On his occasional music in general, Dean, Winton, The New Grove Handel (New York, 1983), p. 99Google Scholar, observes that ‘the spaciousness, energy and architectural splendour he was able to impart to these public utterances was exactly appropriate and has never been surpassed in its kind’.

37 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XIII, 573Google Scholar.

38 English society, p. 179.

39 Ibid.

40 John, Henry St., Bolingbroke, Viscount, The idea of a patriot king in The works of Lord Bolingbroke, ed. Mallett, David (4 vols., London, 1754Google Scholar; reprinted 1967), II, 396–7. This and the quotes that follow also appear in Clark, , English society, pp. 181–2Google Scholar. The manuscript, which circulated privately, was first published in 1749.

41 Works, II, 401.

42 English society, pp. 173–4.

43 Jacobite sympathies which did remain by the 1740s seem to have been confined to sections of the Anglican clergy and the universities.

44 Ambiguity, after all, can heighten the force of an argument; when properly deployed, it can even make a position un-rebuttable. See Condren, Conal, The status and appraisal of classic texts: an essay on political theory, its inheritance, and the history of ideas (Princeton, 1985), pp. 167–285Google Scholar.

45 Works, II, 402.

46 Ibid. p. 397.

47 The English militia, p. 125.

48 Peters, Marie, Pitt and popularity: the patriot minister and London opinion during the Seven Years War (Oxford, 1980), pp. 39–45Google Scholar; Colley, , In defiance of oligarchy, p. 274Google Scholar.

49 Western, , The English militia, pp. 127–34Google Scholar; Clark, , The dynamics of change, pp. 225, 230–7Google Scholar.

50 Fortescue, , History of the British army, II, 575–7Google Scholar; Whitworth, Rex, Field Marshal Lord Ligonier: a story of the British army, 1702–1770 (Oxford, 1958), pp. 184, 199–228Google Scholar; Peters, , Pitt and popularity, pp. 35–6Google Scholar. Walpole, Horace, Memoirs of King George II, ed. Brooke, John (3 vols., New York, 1985), II, 91Google Scholar, observed: ‘Oppositions from the very spirit of party, had frequently attempted a revival of the militia. Opposition to the Duke, who had drawn his notions of war from the purest German classics, prompted his enemies to promote whatever he would dislike.’

51 The English militia, pp. 104–25.

52 Memoirs, II, 91–2.

53 For example, see Henry Pelham's speech in the commons during the army debates for 1752: Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XIV, 1118Google Scholar.

54 Williams, , The eighteenth-century constitution, pp. 180–1Google Scholar.

55 A treatise concerning the militia (London and Dublin, 1752Google Scholar; London, 1753), pp. iv–v. (All quotes come from the 1752 Dublin edition.)

56 Ibid. pp. 10–2, 25–46.

57 Ibid. p. 12.

58 Ibid.

59 The counterpoise, being thoughts on a militia and a standing army (London, 1752Google Scholar, 1753). (All quotes come from the 1753 edition.) See also Western, , The English militia, p. 121Google Scholar.

60 The counterpoise, pp. i–ii.

61 Ibid. p. 17.

62 Ibid. p. 45.

63 Ibid. pp. 52–3.

64 Ibid. pp. 45–6.

65 Ibid. pp. 3–4; A treatise, pp. 8–10.

66 The counterpoise, pp. 3–4.

67 The dynamics of change, pp. 236–37. Horace Walpole, whom Clark follows closely elsewhere, saw it as a highly partisan issue, one the ministry felt compelled to treat with kid gloves: see Memoirs, II, 91–3, 149.

68 Pitt and popularity, pp. 39–45. See also Sherrard, O. A., Lord Chatham: Pitt and the Seven Years' War (London, 1955), pp. 94–97Google Scholar, and Colley, , In defiance of oligarchy, p. 274Google Scholar.

69 Horatio Walpole to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 4 Apr. 1756, Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XV, 706 fnGoogle Scholar.

70 Memoirs, II, 92–3.

71 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XV, 767–8Google Scholar.

72 Ibid. 729–30 fn.

73 An enquiry concerning the nature and end of a national militia (London [1757]), p. 47Google Scholar.

74 Ibid. p. 8.

75 Ibid.

76 Ibid. p. 14.

77 Proposals for carrying on the war with vigour, raising the supplies within the year, and forming a national militia (London, 1757), p. 41Google Scholar.

78 Reflections previous to the establishment of a militia (London, 1756), pp. 21–8Google Scholar. For the Scottish response to both Pitt and the militia, see Robertson, , The Scottish enlightenment and the militia issue, pp. 81–91Google Scholar; Murdoch, Alexander, ‘The people above’: politics and administration in mid-eighteenth century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1980), pp. 85–103Google Scholar; and Sher, Richard B., Church and university in the Scottish enlightenment: the moderate literati in Edinburgh (Princeton, 1985), pp. 224–36Google Scholar.

79 Walpole, , Memoirs, II, 87Google Scholar.

80 Short but serious reasons for a national militia (London, 1757)Google Scholarin Scottish militia tracts, ed. Mizuta, Hiroshi (Nagoya, 1977), p. 57Google Scholar.

81 Ibid.

82 A word in time to both houses of parliament…by a member of neither house (London, 1757), p. 4Google Scholar. In reply to numerous pro-militia responses to A word in time, the author published Further objections to the establishment of a constitutional militia: being a reply to The Monitor, The Review, city and country newspapers, and many other formidable opponents (London, 1757)Google Scholar.

83 Walpole, , Memoirs, II, 92–3Google Scholar. The author of A scheme for establishing a constitutional militia with a postscript, relating to the landed and moneyed interest (Eton, 1747Google Scholar; London, 1756), p. 9 observed ‘that undisciplined Troops, mixed with Regulars, have in many Instances, behaved as well as Regulars, and that the County Regiments raised during the late Rebellion, probably saved the Nation’.

84 Gentle reflections upon the short but serious reasons for a national militia (London, 1757), pp. 13–4Google Scholar.

85 See Proposals for carrying on the war with vigour, pp. 41–3.

86 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XV, 716Google Scholar.

87 An essay on the nature and use of the militia, with remarks on the bill offered to parliament last session, ‘For the better ordering the militia forces in the several counties of the part of Great Britain, called England’ (London, 1757), p. iiiGoogle Scholar.

88 The important question concerning invasions, a sea war, raising the militia, and paying subsidies for foreign troops: fairly and impartially stated on both sides, and humbly referred to the judgment of the public (London, 1755), p. 23Google Scholar.

89 Ibid. p. 25.

90 An essay on the expediency of a national militia (London, 1757), p. 9Google Scholar.

91 Andrew Fletcher, A discourse concerning militias, made the fullest use of this idea; other militia advocates spoke of it more as an institution for balancing the constitution.

92 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XV, 757Google Scholar.

93 The voice of the people: a collection of addresses to his majesty, and instructions to members of parliament by their constituents upon the unsuccessful management of the present war, both at land and sea; and the establishment of a national militia (London, 1756), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar.

94 See footnotes 76 and 77.

95 N., Machiavelli, Esq., A scheme, I. to raise immediately fifty or sixty thousand men…in a letter to a member of parliament (London, 1747), p. 14Google Scholar.

96 Ibid. pp. 9–14.

97 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., XV, 767–8Google Scholar.

98 In defiance of oligarchy, pp. 273–6.

99 A plain address to the farmers, labourers, and commonalty of the county of Norfolk ([no place of publication given] 1757), p. 4.

100 Ibid. p. 15. Elsewhere, the author reminded his readers that ‘We are engaged in a War with the French, our old and implacable Enemies; they hate us both on Account of our Religion; and because we are rich, happy, and Free, while they are poor, miserable, and Slaves…’ (p. 9).

101 At the spring assizes at York, 1758, four persons were sentenced to death for obstructing the Militia Act; one of them was hanged. See Clode, , The military forces of the Crown, I, 39Google Scholar.

102 Britain's dynastic problems were, of course, hardly unique. Europe's extended monarchies each had to contend throughout the eighteenth century with the impression that the ruling dynasty's interests might not coincide with those of the subjects they controlled: SirButterfield, Herbert, George III and the historians (London, 1957), pp. 255–6Google Scholar.

103 In the droll words of Walpole, , Memoirs, III, 58Google Scholar, the tories by the silent douceur of commissions in the militia were weaned from their opposition, without a sudden transition to ministerial employment’. Gibbon, , Autobiography, p. 106Google Scholar, recalled that ‘my principal obligation to the militia was the making me an Englishman, and a soldier’.

104 Quoted in Western, , The English militia, p. 152Google Scholar.

105 Quoted by Western, , The English militia, pp. 157–9Google Scholar.

106 Colley, Linda, ‘The apotheosis of George III: loyalty, royalty and the British nation, 1760–1820“, Past and Present, CII (1984), 92–129Google Scholar; idem, ‘Whose nation? Class and national consciousness in Britain 1750–1830’, ibid., CXIII (1986), 97–117.