assed the
lower house, and was sent to the lords for their concurrence: here it
underwent several amendments, one of which was the reduction of the
number of militia-men to one half of what the commons had proposed;
namely, to thirty-two thousand three hundred and forty men for the whole
kingdom of England and Wales. The amendments being canvassed in the
lower house, met with some opposition, and divers conferences with their
lordships ensued; at length, however, the two houses agreed to every
article, and the bill soon received the royal sanction. No provision,
however, was made for clothes, arms, accoutrements, and pay: had
regulations been made for these purposes, the act would have become a
money-bill, in which the lords could have made no amendment: in order,
therefore, to prevent any difference between the two houses, on a
dispute of privileges not yet determined, and that the house of peers
might make what amendments they should think expedient, the commons left
the expense of the militia to be regulated in a subsequent bill, during
the following session, when they could, with more certainty, compute
what sum would be necessary for these purposes. After all, the bill
seemed to be crude, imperfect, and ineffectual, and the promoters of it
were well aware of its defects; but they were apprehensive that it would
have been dropped altogether, had they insisted upon the scheme being
executed in its full extent. They were eager to seize this opportunity
of trying an experiment, which might afterwards be improved to a greater
national advantage; and, therefore, they acquiesced in many restrictions
and alterations, which otherwise would not have been adopted.

BILL FOR QUARTERING FOREIGN TROOPS, &c.

The next measure that fell under the consideration of the house, was
rendered necessary by the inhospitable perseverance of the publicans and
inn-holders, who conceived themselves not obliged by law to receive or
give quarters in their houses to any foreign troops, and accordingly
refused admittance to the Hessian auxiliaries, who began to be
dreadfully incommoded by the severity of the weather. This objection
implying an attack upon the prerogative, the government did not think
fit, at this juncture, to dispute any other way, than by procuring a
new law in favour of those foreigners. It was intituled, "A bill to
make provision for quartering the foreign troops now in this kingdom,"
prepared by lord Barrington, the ch