The conclusion of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was followed by the usual reduction of the forces in Britain. The ten new regiments² and several other corps⁴ were disbanded, leaving for the cavalry⁵ all the regiments now in the Army List down to the Fourteenth Hussars, and in the infantry⁶ the Foot Guards and the First to the Forty-ninth Regiments of the Line. The strength of all corps was of course diminished and the British Establishment was fixed⁷ at thirty thousand men, two-thirds of them for service at home and one-third for colonial garrisons⁹. The rest of the Army, thirty-seven regiments in all, but very weak in numbers, was as usual turned over to the Irish Establishment. Efforts were of course made in both Houses of Parliament to cut down the numbers of the Army to a still lower figure, and the antiquated¹⁰ arguments in favour of such a step were repeated as though they had not already done duty a thousand times within the past forty years. Nay¹¹, so vigorous is the old age of folly¹² and of faction¹³ that men were still found, when the Mutiny Act was brought forward, to urge the needlessness of courts-martial in time of peace. These childish representations, however, received little notice or encouragement; while, on the other hand, divers¹⁴ projects for reform in the Army were brought forward which, even though they led to no result, received at least careful attention and intelligent debate. Of these matters it will be more convenient to speak when the

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