rt had sustained a
defeat on a vital question. [21]

In consequence of this vote the expressions which the King had used
respecting the test were, on the thirteenth of November, taken into
consideration. It was resolved, after much discussion, that an address
should be presented to him, reminding him that he could not legally
continue to employ officers who refused to qualify, and pressing him to
give such directions as might quiet the apprehensions and jealousies of
his people. [22]

A motion was then made that the Lords should be requested to join in the
address. Whether this motion was honestly made by the opposition, in
the hope that the concurrence of the peers would add weight to the
remonstrance, or artfully made by the courtiers, in the hope that a
breach between the Houses might be the consequence, it is now impossible
to discover. The proposition was rejected. [23]

The House then resolved itself into a committee, for the purpose of
considering the amount of supply to be granted. The King wanted fourteen
hundred thousand pounds: but the ministers saw that it would be vain to
ask for so large a sum. The Chancellor of the Exchequer mentioned twelve
hundred thousand pounds. The chiefs of the opposition replied that to
vote for such a grant would be to vote for the permanence of the present
military establishment: they were disposed to give only so much as might
suffice to keep the regular troops on foot till the militia could be
remodelled and they therefore proposed four hundred thousand pounds.
The courtiers exclaimed against this motion as unworthy of the House and
disrespectful to the King: but they were manfully encountered. One of
the western members, John Windham, who sate for Salisbury, especially
distinguished himself. He had always, he said, looked with dread and
aversion on standing armies; and recent experience had strengthened
those feelings. He then ventured to touch on a theme which had hitherto
been studiously avoided. He described the desolation of the western
counties. The people, he said, were weary of the oppression of the
troops, weary of free quarters, of depredations, of still fouler crimes
which the law called felonies, but for which, when perpetrated by this
class of felons, no redress could be obtained. The King's servants had
indeed told the House that excellent rules had been laid down for the
government of the army; but none could venture to say that these rules
had been observed.