The Peers determined to present an address, requesting William not to place his English troops under the command of a foreign general.

They took up very seriously that question which had moved the House of Commons to laughter, and solemnly counselled their Sovereign not to employ foreigners in his magazines.

At Marlborough's suggestion they urged the King to insist that the youngest English general should take precedence of the oldest general in the service of the States General.

It was, they said, derogatory to the dignity of the Crown, that an officer who held a commission from His Majesty should ever be commanded by an officer who held a similar commission from a republic.

To this advice, evidently dictated by an ignoble malevolence to Holland, William, who troubled himself little about votes of the Upper House which were not backed by the Lower, returned, as might have been expected, a very short and dry answer.