Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/461

 APPENDIX. 417 Note 19. — The belief derives support from no less au authority than that of the late M. Lanfrey, the gifted historian, whose pre- mature death is deplored by lovers of truth. He considered that by making Germany her field of conflict, England might have brought about the overthrow of Napoleon in the year 1809 ; and those who examine the grounds on which he based his judgment will at least pronounce them quite strong enough to secure him against charges of 'paradox,' Including her body of 80)000 militia, which was on a good warlike footing, England then had an army splendid in quality, with a strength of about 320,000, supported by between 300,000 and 400,000 volunteers, either foot or yeomanry cavalry, with besides some foreign troops in her pay ; so that altogether, without counting sepoys, she had a land-service strength of about 700,000; and this, added to her insular security, to her dominion at sea, and to her command of great financial re- sources, made the power she wielded immense. Including her seamen, and also the sepoys, England seems to have had under arms in 1809 more than a million of men. Note 20. — It was not before 1810 — nearly two years after Vimiera — that the definitive resolution was taken. The corre- spondence from which it resulted was one opened, or rather re- opened, by Wellington on the 31st of January IStO. Note 21. — See on this subject ante, p. 412 6< seq. Note 22. — The Fall of Personal Monarchy of George III. in 1809. — So far as concerned its moral attributes, and especially its mischievous bearing upon the conduct of war, the ' personal ' monarchy of George the Third may be said to have tottered in the early weeks of 1809 under the shaming disclosures of 'the ' Mrs Clarke scandal ; ' to have met its fall when that scandal on the 28th of March drove the Duke of York from the Horse Guards ; and to have been subsequently kept down under hatches by not only the accusing results of the Walcheren Expedi- tion, but also some new ugly truths soon afterwards dragged to light. It is probable that, if health had permitted, the ' personal ' kingship of George the Third might have soon been reviving, and once more raising its head against patient, long-suifering Eng- land ; but in the November of the following year (1810) a change in the state of the king withdrew him — withdrew him definitively — from public life, and his eldest son reigned in his stead. The Regent was a man so repulsively selfish that his memory is much loathed in this country ; and no doubt, when he thought that without much trouble or danger to himself he could attain a VOL. VII. 2 D