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 APPENDIX. 401 Note 5. — The parenthetical words in the text allude, of course, to the expedient— that of taking the vote for only one year at a time — by which statesmen hoped to prevent our national forces from becoming a ' standing army. ' Lord Somers, I think, was the author of the contrivance ; and its operation is such, that in any year any one branch of the Legislature (as, for instance, the House of Commons) can disband the whole army by a simple negative vote. Note 6. — Upon the negotiation with Lord Grenville on the 31st of January 1806, for the formation of ' The Talents ' Adminis- tration, George III. seems to have put forward this royal claim with care and precision, maintaining ' that the army had been ' kept distinct from the other branches of the admrQistration since ' the time of the first Duke of Cumberland, and had been con- ' sidered as under the immediate control of the kmg, through the ' Commander-in-Chief, without any right of interference on the ' part of the Ministry except in matters relatmg to the levying, ' clothing, and paying of the troops. ' Upon this. Lord Grenville broke ofi'; and it might appear at first sight that on the 3d of February the king abandoned his claim ; but this was not the case. He consented to let Ministers propose what they wished, but stipulated that ' no changes in the government of the army ' should be caiTied into eifect without his knowledge and appro- ' bation.'— See Ann. Reg., 1806, p. 25 et seq. The statement, I think, bears marks of having been furnished (whether directly or otherwise) by Lord Grenville himself. I observe that, owing no doubt to their long exclusion from office. Whig members, after the close of the great war, were in ignorance of the practice which withdrew our army from the command of the ' State, ' and gave it to the ' personal king. ' Note 7. — This sentence is not meant to convey more than its sti-ictly literal import ; for we shall see that, though the Com- mander-in-Chief always ' took the sovereign's pleasure,' his act had to be, in some cases, governed by the ' compromise ' after- wards mentioned. With respect to the arrangements under which the Commander-in-Chief now takes the Queen's pleasure, see in Appendix the last of the set of Notes relating to chapter iv. Note 8. — The Staff always wore plain clothes — not iiniforms — but this was far from being an unwarlike arrangement. When the Duke of Wellington undertook the defence of London on the 10th of April 1848, he not only avoided the display of Staff uniforms, but caused aides-de-camp to be disguised as common- looking fellows, so that they miglit pass in the streets without attracting attention. VOL. VII. 2 C