[204] Moyle now published his "Argument, showing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government, and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy" (_State Tracts_, ii. 564); and Trenchard his "History of Standing Armies in England." _Id._ 653. Other pamphlets of a similar description may be found in the same volume. [205] Journals, 11th Dec. 1697; _Parl. Hist._ 1167. [206] Journals, 21st Dec. 1697; _Parl. Hist._ v. 1168. It was carried by 225 to 86. [207] "The elections fell generally," says Burnet, "on men who were in the interest of government; many of them had indeed some popular notions, which they had drank in under a bad government, and thought this ought to keep them under a good one; so that those who wished well to the public did apprehend great difficulties in managing them." Upon which Speaker Onslow has a very proper note: "They might happen to think," he says, "a good one might become a bad one, or a bad one might succeed to a good one. They were the best men of the age, and were for maintaining the revolution government by its own principles, and not by those of a government it had superseded." "The elections," we read in a letter of Mr. Montague, Aug. 1698, "have made a humour appear in the counties that is not very comfortable to us who are in business. But yet after all, the present members are such as will neither hurt England nor this government, but I believe they must be handled very nicely." _Shrewsbury Correspondence_, 551. This parliament, however, fell into a great mistake about the reduction of the army; as Bolingbroke in his _Letters on History_ very candidly admits, though connected with those who had voted for it. [208] Journals, 17th Dec. 1698; _Parl. Hist._ 1191. [209] Journals, 10th Jan., 18th, 20th, and 25th March; Lords' Journals, 8th Feb.; _Parl. Hist._ 1167, 1191; Ralph, 808; Burnet, 219. It is now beyond doubt that William had serious thoughts of quitting the government, and retiring to Holland, sick of the faction and ingratitude of this nation. _Shrewsbury Correspondence_, 571; _Hardwicke Papers_, 362. This was in his character, and not like the vulgar story which that retailer of all gossip, Dalrymple, calls a well-authenticated tradition, that the king walked furiously round his room, exclaiming, "If I had a son, by G-- the guards should not leave me." It would be vain to ask how this son would have enabled him to keep them against the bent of the parliament and people.