Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/115

 A RETKOSPECTIVE ENQUIRY. 71 modern times. No such statesman could well chap. IV help believing that, so far as indeed might be ' possible, the Department of ' War and Colonies ' should become to our troops what the Admiralty was to our fleets, and, in order to that desired end, should have its sphere of action enlarged, receiving, to meet such new exigencies, the needful accession of strength. Twelve months earlier, any approach to so wholesome a change would have been violently opposed by the king ; but under stress of disgrace, his obstinacy was now breaking down. The year I am speaking of — the year 1809 — was one of dismay to upholders of ' personal ' rule ; and in like pro- portion brought hope, brought strength to the cause of the ' State.' Dragged to light at the 1809. ., . . The ' per- time bv a cluster of shaming discoveries, the 'sonai'mie •^ .... of the king actual contact of Eoyalty with military business so diacred- . ited, became in one view so grotesque, m another so revolting a spectacle, that under the jeers and the frowns of an astounded country, and the guarded yet steadfast severity of an indignant House of Commons, the personal monarchy fell — fell not so mortally stricken as to be heard of no more in these realms, yet still so cast down for the moment as to be hugely reduced in its power of doing harm to the State ; (2^) and this condition of things made it possible for the Ministers to effect a wholesome change by en- larging somewhat their authority over the mili- tary business of the country. Whilst acknowledcjed under the terms of the that the -1 1 <• 1 'State' 'compromise' to be responsible for the conduct could und^j