Note 3 — Historico-Political Information. (continued 2)

We have now learned from Mr. Motley’s researches to estimate more correctly the worth of the army at Tilbury. “There were,” he says (History of the United Netherlands, vol. ii. p. 515 et seq.), “patriotism, loyalty, courage, and enthusiasm in abundance;” but “there were no fortresses, no regular army, no population trained to any weapon.” “On the 5th of August no army had been assembled—not even the bodyguard of the Queen—and Leicester, with 4000 men, unprovided with a barrel of beer or a loaf of bread, was about commencing his entrenched camp at Tilbury. On the 6th of August the Armada was in Calais Roads, expecting Alexander Farnese to lead his troops upon London.” Good fortune and gallant sailors saved us from this calamity; but the undisciplined mob which was assembled under an incompetent commander on shore would have done little to avert it; and we have in this case a sufficient proof of the difficulty of improvising an army in an interval of “diplomatic correspondence.”—Quarterly Review, No. 223.