We find, however, that the Saxon kings | It is to that period that the introduction had powerful armies at their command; of fiefs is to be referred, a system which and the most probable account of the mode provided, among other things, for an in which they were got together seems to army ever ready at the call of the sovebe this: the male population were exer- reign lord. The king, reserving certain cised in military duties, under the inspec- tracts as his own demesne, distributed the tion of the earls, and their deputies, the greater portion of England among his sheriffs, or vicecomites, in the manner of followers, to hold by military service the arrays and musters of later times that is, for every knight's fee, as they being drawn out occasionally for the were called, the tenant was bound to find purpose, and being thus ready to form, the king one soldier ready for the field, at any time when their services were to serve him for forty days in each year. required, an efficient force. The extent of the knight's fee varied with the qualities and value of the soil. In the reign of Edward I. the annual value in money was 201. The number of knights' fees is said by old writers to have been 60,060. The king had thus provision made for an army of 60,000 men, whom he could call at short notice into the field, subject them when there to all the regulations of military discipline, and keep them for forty days without pay, which was usually as long as their service would be required in the warfare in which the king was likely to be engaged. When their services were required for any longer time, they might continue on receiving pay.

We see from that curious remain of those times, a piece of needle-work representing the wars and death of Harold, that the Saxon soldiers were not those halfclothed and painted figures which had presented themselves on the shores of Britain when the Roman armies made their first descent. We see them clothed from head to foot in a close-fitting dress of mail. They have cavalry, but no chariots. The archers are all infantry. Both infantry and cavalry are armed with spears, to some of which little pennons are attached. Some have swords, and others carry bills or battle-axes. They have shields, the bosses on which are surrounded with flourishes and other ornaments; and there are sometimes other devices, but nothing which can be regarded as more than the very rudiments of those heraldic devices which were afterwards formed into a kind of system by the heralds who attended the armies, and by which the chiefs were distinguished from each other, when their persons were concealed by the armour. The piece of needle-work representing the wars of Harold is supposed to be the work of Matilda, the queen of William the Conqueror, and the ladies of her court. It is preserved in the cathedral of Bayeux, whence it is commonly called the Bayeux tapestry. One of the many valuable services rendered to historical literature by the Society of Antiquaries has been the publication of a series of coloured prints, in which we have, on a reduced scale, a perfectly accurate representation of this singular monument of ancient English and Norman manners.

A great change took place in the military system of England at the Conquest.

Writs of military summons are found in great abundance in what are called the "Close Rolls," which contain copies of such letters as the king issues under seal. But this system, it is evident, had many inconveniences; and the kings of England had a better security for the protection of the realm against invasion, and for the maintenance of internal tranquillity, in that which seems to be a relic of Saxon polity. We allude to the liability of all persons to be called upon for military service within the realm; to the power which the constitution gave to the sherif to call them out to exercise, in order that they might be in a condition to perform the duty when called upon; and to the obligation which a statute of Edward I. imposed on all persons to provide themselves with certain pieces of armour, which were changed for others by a statute of James I. We see in this system at once the practice of our remoter ancestors, and the beginning of that drafting of men to form the county militia, which is a part of the military polity of the country at present.

The sheriffs were the persons to whom | on the nature of the military services due the care of these affairs was committed; from those who held the feudal tenures of but it was the practice of the early kings the crown disposed both parties to consent to send down into the several shires, or to frequent commutations. Money was to select from the gentry residing in them, rendered instead of service, and thus the persons whose duty it was to attend the crown acquired a revenue which was musters or arrays, which were a species applicable to military purposes, and which of review of these domestic troops, and was expended in the hire of native-born who were intended, as it seems, to be a subjects to perform service in the king's check upon the sheriffs in the discharge armies in particular places and for partiof this part of their duty. The persons cular terms. The king covenanted by thus employed were usually men exindenture with various persons, chiefly perienced in military affairs; and when those of most importance in the country, the practice became more general, there to serve him on certain money-terms with was a permanent officer appointed in each a certain number of followers, and in county, who had the superintendence of certain determinate expeditions. There these operations, and was called the lieu- appears little essential difference between tenant: this is the origin of the present this and the modern practice of recruiting lord-lieutenant of counties, an officer who armies. It was chiefly by troops thus cannot be traced to a period earlier than collected that the victories of Creci, Poicthe reign of Henry VIII. tiers, and Agincourt were gained.

Foreigners were also sometimes engaged to serve the king in his wars; but these were purely mercenary troops, and were paid out of the king's own revenues. We see, then, that the early kings of England of the Norman and Plantagenet races had three distinct means to which they could have recourse when it was necessary to arm for the general defence of the realm: the quota of men which the holders of the knights' fees were bound to furnish; the posse-comitatûs, or whole population, from sixteen to sixty, of each shire, under the guidance of the sheriffs; and such hired troops as they might think proper to engage. But as the posse-comitatus could not be compelled to leave the kingdom, and only in particular cases the shire to which they belonged, the king had only his feudal and mercenary troops at command when he carried an army to the continent, or when he had to wage war against even the Scotch or Welsh. We are not to suppose that troops so levied, especially when there were only contracted pecuniary resources for the hiring of disciplined troops of other nations, would have been sufficient to make head against the power of such a potentate as the king of France, and once to gain possession of that throne. And this leads us to another important part of the subject.

The mutual inconveniences attendant

In the office of the Clerk of the Pells in the Exchequer, Dugdale perused numerous indentures of this kind, and he has made great use of them in the history which he published of the Baronage of England. A few extracts from that work will show something of the nature of these engagements.

Michael Poynings, who was at the rattle of Creci, entered into a contract with King Edward III. to serve him with fifteen men-at-arms, four knights, ten esquires, and twelve archers, having an allowance of twenty-one sacks of the king's wool for his and their wages. Three years after the battle of Creci, King Edward engaged Sir Thomas Ughtred to serve him in his wars beyond sea, with twenty men-at-arms and twenty archers on horseback, taking after the rate of 2001. per annum for his wages during the continuance of the war. In the second year of King Henry IV., Sir William Willoughby was retained to attend the king in his expedition into Scotland, with three knights besides himself, twenty-seven men-at-arms, and one hundred and sixty-nine archers, and to continue with him from June 20th to the 13th of September. When Henry V. had determined to lead an army into France, John Holland was retained to serve the king in his "voyage royal" into France for one whole year, with forty

The few troops who formed the royal guard were the only permanent soldiers in England before the civil wars. The dispute between Charles I. and his parliament was about the command of the militia. Charles II. kept up about 5000 regular troops as guards, and to serve in the garrisons which then were established in England. These were paid out of the king's own revenue. James II. increased them to 30,000; but the measure was looked on with great jealousy, and the object was supposed to be the destruction of the liberties of Englishmen. In the Bill of Rights (1689) it was declared that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom, in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. An army varying in its numbers has ever since been maintained, and is now looked on without apprehension. It is raised by the authority of the king and paid by him: but there is an important constitutional check on this part of the royal preroga tive in the necessity for acts of parliament to be passed yearly, in order to provide the pay and to maintain the discipline. [MUTINY ACT.]

men-at-arms and one hundred archers, | the range of science, and made them whereof the third part were to be foot- more than before matters which required men, and to take shipping at Southamp- much time and study in those who had to ton on the 10th of May next following. undertake the direction of any large body In the 12th of Henry VII., John Grey of men, led to the establishment of a perwas retained to serve the king in his wars manent army, varying in numbers with in Scotland, under the command of Giles, the dangers and necessities of the time. Lord Daubeney, captain-general of the king's army for that expedition; with one lance, four demi-lances, and fifty bows and bills, for two hundred and ninety miles; with one lance, four demilances, and fifty bows and bills, for two hundred and sixty-six miles; and with two lances, eight demi-lances, and two hundred bows and bills, for two hundred miles. These were nearly half what is now the usual complement of a regiment. Troops thus levied, together with foreign mercenaries, make the nearest approach that can be discovered in English history to a permanent, or, as it is technically called, a standing army. The king might, to the extent of his revenue, form an army of this description: but as to the other means of military defence or offence put into his hands, the persons engaged were only called into military service on temporary occasions, and soon fell back again into the condition of the citizen or agriculturist. But the king's power was necessarily limited by his revenue, and the maintenance of a permanent force appears to have been little regarded by our early kings, since, before the reign of King Henry VII. it does not appear that the kings had even a bodyguard, much less any considerable number of troops accoutred and ready for immediate action at the call of the king. In modern times, Charles VII. of France (1423-1461) first introduced standing armies in Europe: this policy was gradually imitated by the other European states, and is now a matter of necessity and of self-defence. In England, probably in a great degree owing to her insular situation, this took place later than in most continental countries. Still the example of the continental states, a sense of the great convenience of having always a body of troops at command, and the change in the mode of warfare efted by the introduction of artillery, ich brought military operations within

ARMIES. MILITARY FORCE.]

ARRAIGNMENT. This word is derived by Sir Matthew Hale from arraisoner, ad rationem ponere, to call to account or answer, which, in ancient law French, would be ad-resoner, or, abbreviated, «resner. Conformably to this etymology, arraignment means nothing more than calling a person accused to the bar of a court of criminal judicature to answer formally to a charge made against him. The whole proceeding at present consists in calling upon the prisoner by his name, reading over to him the indictment upon which he is charged, and demanding of him whether he is guilty or not guilty. Until very lately, if the person accused pleaded that he was not guilty, he was asked how he would be tried; to which

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