164 THE SQUIEE AND HIS VOLUNTEERS. 



called out at tliat date, and the regular army of 

 130,000 already voted, the House of Commons, on 

 June 28tli, agreed to the very unusual step of raising 

 50,000 men additional, by drafting, in the propor- 

 tion of 34,000 for England, 10,000 for Ireland, and 

 6,000 for Scotland, which it was calculated would 

 raise the regular troops in Great Britain to 112,000 

 men, besides a large surplus force for offensive 

 operations. In addition to this a bill was brought 

 in shortly afterwards to enable the king to call out 

 the levy en masse to repel the invasion of the enemy, 

 and empowering the lord-lieutenants of the several 

 counties to enrol all the men in the kingdom, 

 between seventeen and fifty-five years of age, to be 

 divided into regiments according to their several 

 ages and professions : those persons to be exempt 

 who were members of any volunteer corps approved 

 of by his Majesty. Such was the state of public 

 feeling generally that the king was enabled to 

 review, in Hyde Park, sixty battalions of volunteers, 

 127,000 men, besides cavalry, all equipped at their 

 own expense. The population of the country at 

 the time was but a little over ten millions, about a 

 third of what it is at present ; yet such was the zeal 

 and enthusiasm that in a few weeks 300,000 men 



