To that question the two parties returned very different answers.

An opinion had during many months been growing among the Tories that the policy of England ought to be strictly insular; that she ought to leave the defence of Flanders and the Rhine to the States General, the House of Austria and the Princes of the Empire; that she ought to carry on hostilities with vigour by sea, but to keep up only such an army as might, with the help of the militia, be sufficient to repel an invasion.

It was plain that, if this system were adopted, there might be an immediate reduction of the taxes which pressed most heavily on the nation.

But the Whigs maintained that this relief would be dearly purchased.

Many thousands of brave English soldiers were now in Flanders.