been effected with a general concurrence of both the great parties in that country.  Had we remained in office, that would have been done.  But we were destined to quit it, and we quitted it without a murmur.  The policy of our successors was different.  Their specific was to despoil churches and plunder landlords, and what has been the result?  Sedition rampant, treason thinly veiled, and whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation a candidate is returned pledged to the disruption of the realm.  Her Majesty’s new ministers proceeded in their career like a body of men under the influence of some delirious drug.  Not satiated with the spoliation and anarchy of Ireland, they began to attack every institution and every interest, every class and calling in the country.  It is curious to observe their course.  They took into hand the army.  What have they done?  I will not comment on what they have done.  I will historically state it, and leave you to draw the inference.  So long as constitutional England has existed there has been a jealousy among all classes against the existence of a standing army.  As our empire expanded, and the existence of a large body of disciplined troops became a necessity, every precaution was taken to prevent the danger to our liberties which a standing army involved.

It was a first principle not to concentrate in the island any overwhelming number of troops, and a considerable portion was distributed in the colonies.  Care was taken that the troops generally should be officered by a class of men deeply interested in the property and the liberties of England.  So extreme was the jealousy that the relations between that once constitutional force, the militia, and the sovereign were rigidly guarded, and it was carefully placed under local influences.  All this is changed.  We have a standing army of large amount, quartered and brigaded and encamped permanently in England, and fed by a considerable and constantly increasing reserve.

It will in due time be officered by a class of men eminently scientific, but with no relations necessarily with society; while the militia is withdrawn from all local influences, and placed under the immediate command of the Secretary of War.  Thus, in the nineteenth century, we have a large standing army established in England, contrary to all the traditions of the land, and that by a Liberal government, and with the warm acclamations of the Liberal party.

Let us look what they have done with the Admiralty.  You remember, in this country especially, the denunciations of the profligate expenditure of the Conservative government, and you have since had an opportunity of comparing it with the gentler burden of Liberal estimates.  The navy was not merely an instance of profligate expenditure, but of incompetent and inadequate management.  A great revolution was promised in its administration.  A gentleman [Mr. Childers], almost unknown to English politics,