The musketeer was generally provided with a weapon which had, during
many years, been gradually coming into use, and which the English then
called a dagger, but which, from the time of William the Third, has been
known among us by the French name of bayonet. The bayonet seems not
to have been then so formidable an instrument of destruction as it
has since become; for it was inserted in the muzzle of the gun; and in
action much time was lost while the soldier unfixed his bayonet in
order to fire, and fixed it again in order to charge. The dragoon, when
dismounted, fought as a musketeer.

The regular army which was kept up in England at the beginning of the
year 1685 consisted, all ranks included, of about seven thousand foot,
and about seventeen hundred cavalry and dragoons. The whole charge
amounted to about two hundred and ninety thousand pounds a year, less
then a tenth part of what the military establishment of France then cost
in time of peace. The daily pay of a private in the Life Guards was
four shillings, in the Blues two shillings and sixpence, in the Dragoons
eighteen pence, in the Foot Guards tenpence, and in the line eightpence.
The discipline was lax, and indeed could not be otherwise. The common
law of England knew nothing of courts martial, and made no distinction,
in time of peace, between a soldier and any other subject; nor could
the government then venture to ask even the most loyal Parliament for
a Mutiny Bill. A soldier, therefore, by knocking down his colonel,
incurred only the ordinary penalties of assault and battery, and by
refusing to obey orders, by sleeping on guard, or by deserting his
colours, incurred no legal penalty at all. Military punishments were
doubtless inflicted during the reign of Charles the Second; but they
were inflicted very sparingly, and in such a manner as not to attract
public notice, or to produce an appeal to the courts of Westminster
Hall.

Such an army as has been described was not very likely to enslave five
millions of Englishmen. It would indeed have been unable to suppress
an insurrection in London, if the trainbands of the City had joined the
insurgents. Nor could the King expect that, if a rising took place in
England, he would obtain effectual help from his other dominions.
For, though both Scotland and Ireland supported separate military
establishments, those establishments were not more than sufficient to
keep down the Puritan malecontents of the former king