naval charges, much smaller than at
present. At most of the garrisons there were gunners: and here and
there, at an important post, an engineer was to be found. But there was
no regiment of artillery, no brigade of sappers and miners, no college
in which young soldiers could learn the scientific part of the art of
war. The difficulty of moving field pieces was extreme. When, a few
years later, William marched from Devonshire to London, the apparatus
which he brought with him, though such as had long been in constant use
on the Continent, and such as would now be regarded at Woolwich as rude
and cumbrous, excited in our ancestors an admiration resembling that
which the Indians of America felt for the Castilian harquebusses. The
stock of gunpowder kept in the English forts and arsenals was boastfully
mentioned by patriotic writers as something which might well impress
neighbouring nations with awe. It amounted to fourteen or fifteen
thousand barrels, about a twelfth of the quantity which it is now
thought necessary to have in store. The expenditure under the head of
ordnance was on an average a little above sixty thousand pounds a year.
[49]

The whole effective charge of the army, navy, and ordnance, was about
seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The noneffective charge, which
is now a heavy part of our public burdens, can hardly be said to have
existed. A very small number of naval officers, who were not employed
in the public service, drew half pay. No Lieutenant was on the list, nor
any Captain who had not commanded a ship of the first or second rate. As
the country then possessed only seventeen ships of the first and second
rate that had ever been at sea, and as a large proportion of the persons
who had commanded such ships had good posts on shore, the expenditure
under this head must have been small indeed. [50] In the army, half pay
was given merely as a special and temporary allowance to a small number
of officers belonging to two regiments, which were peculiarly situated.
[51] Greenwich Hospital had not been founded. Chelsea Hospital was
building: but the cost of that institution was defrayed partly by
a deduction from the pay of the troops, and partly by private
subscription. The King promised to contribute only twenty thousand
pounds for architectural expenses, and five thousand a year for the
maintenance of the invalids. [52] It was no part of the plan that there
should be outpensioners. The whole noneffe