For a brigade of Dutch troops was part of the military establishment which was still kept up; and it was to Dutch favourites that William had been most liberal of the royal domains.
The elections, however, began auspiciously for the government.

The first great contest was in Westminster.

It must be remembered that Westminster was then by far the greatest city in the island, except only the neighbouring city of London, and contained more than three times as large a population as Bristol or Norwich, which came next in size.

The right of voting at Westminster was in the householders paying scot and lot; and the householders paying scot and lot were many thousands.

It is also to be observed that their political education was much further advanced than that of the great majority of the electors of the kingdom.
A burgess in a country town, or a forty shilling freeholder in an agricultural district, then knew little about public affairs except what he could learn from reading the Postman at the alehouse, and from hearing, on the 30th of January, the 29th of May or the 5th of November, a sermon in which questions of state were discussed with more zeal than sense.