Star. — London, England, 1807-01-22 00:00:00

n 0, re political mind might be improved, by arouzing him to confillt his owtt name and his own charaaer, from' the confederation of the inefficiency and the mifchief o f his own meafures. He knew well enough the ar dour and fincerity of that Right Hon Gentleman,' even when he differed moll dillinttly and from himfelf, and when in doing fo he even thought his ground moil maintainable. He had been eager, formerly, to Rate the urgent neceffiry of railing the military to the highelt pitch, and to condemn the meal - tires of ethers as weak and contemptible. He might, indeed, Rand a comparifon with ilimielf, but with none of the Grivernments he had accufed ; and he though , he fhnuld be inclined to exercile a little I of his own judgment, and a little more de• fercnce to others. Nothing was fo harfh, vilifying,' and reprehenfory, as his obfervations upon Lord Sidmouth's Adminiflratian. But let Gentlemen fee what his meafure was. From about 93,0c0, as the force flood in 1803. that Noble Lord's Adtniniflra tion made an increale, in 1804, to 140,119 men, be ‘,.g an advance of 40,777 men in one year. The Right lionyurahle Gr.ntletnat,'s (lore of military criticisms tax not, however, expended :—his magazine was as abundant as ever, and there was no wart on any occafion, cn hi part, of Parliamentary calliga tion and condemnati'n, whenever oprrttinity otftr ed. 'this drain of cenfute ccntinued up still F,:b. 18°6 : but !wilting to the period of March, ioc6, be would find a force of 173,600 men, making an increase of 33,481 men in the twenty months piece. ding. Now let the Houle look to the Right Hon. Secret try of state's fylfem, from the middle of re bi nary up to the prefeid time, making it months, and fee the whole addition. amounting to 4 or 5030 men ! Ent had not Mr. Pitt's detetable bit exited, fo far fo m being able to (hew any return, he mull have !hewn either a flationary or a wafting army. So much for the two Adminillrations he had been to atlive to turn out, in order to get in and raise a nu. merous army ! Lord Sidmonth railed 40,cc0 men, Mr. Pitt railed 33,0c0 men ; and but for Mr. Pitt's Bill, the Right Honourable Secretary had not railed a man ! But he was molt fanguine, and his Right Hon. departed Friend teemed to with to go farther, though, for his own part, the Noble Lord obferved, he always thought the object to ro mantic as to preditl a failure, from the ablurdity of its magnitude. If the Houk looked at the great quettion of ordinary recruiting, they would hear the Right Hon. Gentleman finding every thing wrong but the Crown recruiting. What washis language?" Take away your Bills, refcind your Refolutions, remove y ur machinery, and leave me matter of the field, and I will get you a better army than you ever have had before !" Comparing the annual ordinary re cruiting of the latl and preceding year, the numbers were 11,967 to 11,900 ; fo that this lat year, v ith all the recruiting arguments employed in thole hal cyon fix months, was really lefs than the year before. The Right Honourable Gentleman tiled to argue,,, that men were not brought into the line by direa means, but entered through tedious and unneceffary circuitous routes. Admitting him the advantages of that argument, what had he performed when relieved from thefe incumbrances ? Dinino the lilt fix months he had every advantage : what was the re• cult ? In the fir ft fix months of fall year, 6or 7coo men were railed ; and during the fait fix months, giving him a regiment into the bargain which he is not arida) , entitled to reckon, not 6000 men wete en lifted. Thus not one man had .14114111 y come in under the new impretion c.f his new: bill ; but fuch as had, came in the old way. The ordinary re cruiting of 1805 was 11,779, and Mr. I'irt's bill pro. &Iced 8388. For the line there were produced of Britith troops 33,cc0 men, independent of foreign levies to the amount of 9000 men ; fir that above 43,000 men were added to the Britith army. Now, tire whole produce of his fyftem in this point of view, giving him in the hints refpetling the recruits from Ireland, amounted to 13 or 14,030. This w a s t he reallt of the Right Honourable Gentleman's scheme compared with the mode put fued by his predeceffors, by which every Gentleman mutt fee that expel i 'tient had failed beyond any thin% that had been witneffed in public life. His Laird'hip waned to compare the expence as to how the quellion toad before the introduttion of this uklefs and inefficient plan? The Right Hon. Gentleman took an elliinate of the new expence at 450.0001. His Lordfhip took a higher amount, and calculated it at 493,cca01. ;-- and he was now happy to hear that it would be era- ! mined and tilted to the bottom, when he believed it would be found to amount to more, without Laving produced a tingle man. Great part of the additional expence in the navy had been rendered neceltry in confequence of the conduct of the Right Hon. Gen tleman refpe6ling the army. We were now left lid tionary with regard to the army, as to its number., but nut as to its expence ; for the Right Hon. ,Se cretary had (addled the country with 700,0cc1. for an unneceliary and ufelefs experiment. He knew it might be laid, that when he oppofed the continuance of an experiment, he ought to recollect that, upon a former oceafton, he had liimfell prelfed on the nonce the continuance rf an experiment. But he thought that he flood in a different fituation no's, than when he urged a farther term for the trial of Mr. Pitt's Bill. It had, for eight months preceding, yielded at the rate of 9000 men per year, and the ordinary recruit ing of the army as high as ulna], and higher than tinder the new fylicm. The language ufed for that piirpofe was, " You fee our fyllem is not working badly and inefficiently. As the law becomes better undertood, the returns will be mote confielcrable. We, therefore, call on Parliament to continue the effort they have made, that we may augment the pro duce." In confequence of its continuance by Pat lia nitro, the Bill protpered and encreafed in its produce, till the Right Hon. Gentleman care into power. It had then arrived in an impede& adminittration of its powers, to the rate of r; or 16,0c0 men a year, which ju Rifled the pal cy r f continuing it. Upon that ground the Noble Lord had preffed upon the Houle the pro. priety and neceffey of prolonging the duration of the Bill—the powers of which might be carried to a Rill higher extent. He mull, therefore, diilin- Onith between the grounds on which he formerly fapparted an experiment, and thole on which lie .w oppofed one. We had no more time to try is ibis cafe ; and he would tell the Right Honoura ble Gentleman fo failly. Were he, indeed, pre pared with tome auxiliary meafure, of any probable efficiency, he would have brought it out to 1 alit its deficiency of mono men. But he bad r othing to :TY his Olt let us on our legs in our military affairs. The Bill oft adoption of his councils. • There was no individual the Right Honourable Secretary of State haJ Town ! lefs difpofed to take a gloomy or defoonding view the feeds of weaknefs and decay, and went to the of the fituation of the country than Itimtelf, and if very root of the &halt Army ; and the winking of he were new to take a glorious view of the fobjeit, this new fyflem, the longe r it tailed, would make he thould be ailing inconfittent.with his conduit on matters wrote and work. We were now at a former occafions. He mutt, however, obferve, that (land, and could ant get on ; with new and accumm in all the condo& of the Right Honourable Gen toting expences, and at a time, he feared, not vet y ' tleinan 'nom this fyflem, he petceived the greateft remote from the decayand wade of the Brioills At soy. want of (neon imy, not only of money, but what It was therefore neceffary, that a new Parliament ' was often of more confequenee. of time. He thould not fit down under this new military fyflem, thought the No pion of the country now now loch as without probing and rifting it to the very bottom.— to he fufficient to rook his Majesty's Irfiniilers to He thould have abandoned his duty, had he not come forward before the end of the &Ilion, and bring I Hated fully and &finials , his fettle of this mealitre• in fime Itipplemental meafore which might comperal Every objeition he before felt had fwclled into an fate for the Wells of their prefect fyllem. He could alarming magnitude, fence the recent Order of Coon. nor, however, b u r ohierve, that notwirhttanding the cis. He thould trefpafs much more on the attention ardent and emboli-laic mind which the Right lion. of the Houle, were he to enter fully into all hit Vie *" . Gentleman pofTefred, and which lie difplayed to much of the Bill. Whether he fhuuld reftime the fobjent ' when inn-educing his fyflem, yet he appeared to be on the Right Hon. Gentleman's Mutiny Bill in its quite a philifopher unw it had failed. After all that various Rage., or by certain fpecific wiirlittionsen all h e h a d f ormer l y urge d i n f up p ort o f i t ,h e y et rema in the points of detail, involving tr"if"'es of (. "'lda" • ed f •tir months in ofTwe before he hrottaht it in, and mental militat y ruin, he fh:;uld make up his mini four mendts mole hefirte a lingle lien was taken hereafter on reflection, or on the advice and opird•di to its execution, or be fare it was made public by that o f his friends. But he fltneld not at towaols the i or d er of hi s at e j e n y which wan then it the table. Right Hon. Gentleman with candirut whiie he had Sirwe the prefent Salon begin, the Right 'Tomlin tl e mortification of differing with him fo wid,:ly, able G.--.rlenran had preferved an exwaord-nary were he not to !late his objections in the manner he taciturnity, and had not delivered any opinions po had done. He of jeited to the foldier being allowed litical, military, co- financial. This filer.ce was dd . - his penfion on the ground of legal tight, independent welling to him, and in world really gi , e him great of the recommendation of his officers, or et the Immo fatisfailien to hear once niore the felled of his ry of his Mikity. He next objected to the giving voice. H e thoold v.illi to hear hint explain why' generally fo high a pennon as one chilling and fix- he had fa long flood Hill in the execution of his pence to men difabled and unfit for fervice, without own meafore ? WI.) , this ww rata of his Islajefly reference to the time they had fen ved. The only ex- was not Klett omit after G .vettiment had fe et ption to this right appeared to he, when the fol. ceived intelligence that Imid Lauderdale was on dier had brought on his own difability by vice er mil- his return from Pat is ? He withed to know parti conduit ; but it did appear by the ouder, that if cularly why reinforcements were not earlier fent a fuldier thould be difabled by accident, after one or to Buenos Ayres ? Government had, early in the two years fervice, he would he entitled to claim month ~f June, received a letter from Sir Home the whole penfion at a tight of Inch a nature, as he Popham, informing them of his arrival at St. He could maintain in a court of justice. The next point lora, on his way to the attack of that colony, and that he mug advert to was the difcharge of men after vet it was . not until the month . of Oilober that they twerayow.e.years. Although this was the point from fent any teinfoteements. If in the month of June, which ditltight Hon. Gentleman had pr• poled In three regiments of infantry bad been difpatched. much rood, yet he appeared now to be frightened (which might well have been (pared) there was no at it I.im:elf, and it feemed that he frill was led to reafon to prevent their failing ten drys after that no retain in the fervice men who had ferved beyond that rification. If they had been detached in June, and time. The inducement held out to them, betides the found it not neceffary at Buenos Ayres, they might increafe of pay, was, that for eve, y year of fervice have gone forward to the Cape. as paw of the rept. after that time, their petition fheuld be increaled one lar annual fopply of our army in India. If they had halfpenny a day after they thould finally quit she gone in June they would have probably an ived in fervice. This was purchafing the fcrvices of thufe the Rio de la Plata early in Atiguft. The Moen - - men at a very dear rater. They would colt the Pus frigate, which left Bitenes Ayres the latter end country rel. yearly a man more than other fol. 43,4 w i s h t h e intelligence of the capture, arrived diers, which would be 84,0001. for noow fnldiers here in the beginning of September, being a paffige Thefe men would, for the future, h ave an addition only of five weeks. (Mr. Windham, acrols the honk, of three fourths of their afloat twilling pay, which, contradieted this Ilatement). lithe celany was taken on the fcore of ex pence to the public, was no very on the 12th of Auguß, that force might not have tilling conlideration. He seas convinced that tliefe, arrived in time to fave it; but (till that was not a cir. as well as many ether objeitions which he had to cumilance which Minitlers were entit'ed to take cre make to the fyfiern of the Right Hon. Gentleman, were of filch a nature as to be inam mountable. Al - die for. It was their duty to have Intl no time in reinforcing them. The governing princinle, however, tho' the Right Hun. Gentleman miglit fora few yeas s of all the Itig,ht Hon. Gentleman's military policy, fupport his meafine by the mere weight of Minitterial was the negotiation at Pat iw and the re•or nof Lord majorities, yet he was convinced the inefficacy of it Lauderdale. When the return of that Nsh'eman was would loon be fo evident as to make iLfall with announced, then Government appeared to think about douhle Shame on the heads of thole whffhould at- Britons A vies. His Isordfhip c"ncluded by recapi tempt long to force it on the country by Inch mean s. wilating his ebieilions to the new military fyitem, There was another view of the fubjelt in which he which he would feel hind - elf boom! in duty to urge could not hut think that the Right lion. Gentlemanmote folly on a furore "porturiiiy. had endeavoured even to alter the whole comfe if I\lr. WINDHAM tamed the Henre he fhculd not time :—in fume places he made two years of fervice l occupy any great portion of their lime, neither equal to three in other places. The climate of the I would he incur the reproach call. on hint by the No- Welt Indies, it was true, was very uotavourable to ble 1... , •rd who had lull fat down ; for had that Noble the conititution of Britifh fcleiers, but it was alto Lord hot given hint an opportunity two hours ate, known that the climate of the Ertl Indies was not un- he would have anfwered all the points urged in a favourable. They enjoyed nearly as good a (late of f peec h of that Noble Lord, which employed nn lets health there as in their own country, and the Eall than three hours of the time of the Houle in its de- India fervice was generally a favourite one with the livery (.1 gercral laugh). He thould therefore cew j troops, from the fuperiur comforts they enjoyed there. tainly be loief, and follow the onlet cat ionsjurt model And yet in the Eail Indies the Right Hon.Genneman with as much precifion as the nature of each of them i had fettled it that fourteen y e a rs o f fe r vi ce thould be would allow. In doing In, he would Hot pm foe the equal to twenty-one in this country, and entitle the order ad: pterl by the Nat,le ',rod, but begin coherel soldier to his nenlion and dileharge. It would there- ihe concluded. and reverie the mcchanifin r f his elo fore follow that a young man who went out a 1..1d ee (lichee ; and if the lionfe were to rely on the ti toll at the age of eighteen to the Eaft Indies, was in be ; ,f leis argnments, from tile fpecimen he had jir:l given difchaiged as a seteran at thirty-two, and entitled to i of his teafoning upon the matter of Buenos Ayres, I his full penfien of a (Lilting a day. If he Humid Ilan t h ey mo lt fo r m an awkward opinion indeed ef the' another period until he was forty, his nention would whole or his arguments. The Noble Lord fry g, ~ That I be confiderahly higher. [His L-ndllrip then went the Growl nment received information of the exnedi• I into a variety of calculations to thew what was the I lion ageitin that fettlement in the early part of tall value of this penfion to discharged foldiers, reckoning i June, and that luccoirrs might have been feet thither their lives a' wroth twenty two y eats each]. When •i n time to have laved it, lithe reports be true that it ' the Right lien. Gentleman contidered the enormilus was recaptured on the rzth of Augull, and that capence of thole penfions, he toppled that it it ever there 1 - twenties might have been fent in ten days (torn Should become meal - ay to reduce the army forty or I this country from the period of loch 'inf o rmation." 50,000 below" the prelent ellabliihment, he would of I —hie nulled the Houfe would attend a little to the cootie di;rniA thole of the first s l a w, w h o h a d not faits in /his cafe, and hear them as be thould Rate acquired rights to thole penfion.. In fi lc h c a fe he them. The first intelligence that Mi&fters had of would be dilinifling the very flower of the army, and the expedition arrived on the 24th of Joie, and the' thole who ought to be kept in it. It he was to difrnila intelligence molt certainly was tine x oefted : from 1 any of the third dais, they would be abfolutely enti• the moment the intelligence was received, no time tied to the pennon of thole who had served fourteen w as 1011 in preparing to fend out fopplies both of ' years, with an inchoate right to the profit n of the own and means ; but the traniports that could only whole pet iod of fervice. The fectond claf, had an al). be relied on to proceed on r, long and tedious a folute right to the pentions of firldiers having let lied vo y age were not to he obtained ; the late Adruini (even years, and he therefore could not but trippole, n r ation had n , .t made any provifions f x fuch, and 1 that whenever there was to be a redu c tion it would no ne could he obtained calculated to carry troops fo ! be made out of the fillt clafs, who had no right to a lung a voyage, and to anuthe: hemifphere; title were penfion, but who mull be contidered as the flower to be looked out for ; and 'inlet's troops could have and the hopes of the army. As to the veteran batta- I been fent in balloons, it was impair - 11,1e to tranfport lions,they were to lie compofed of men who had ferved them thither by the math of Auguft. The Narciffus, fourteen years ; but l i e thought it wrong that men l although a quick failing frigate, and coming with who, at that time might be supposed to be in youth, good news, which at all times accelerates the (heed 1 f health, vigoor, arid with perteit knowledge of the a meffenger, . was eight weeks on her way home, for ' bulinefs, thould be confined to home fel - vice, when th e capture was made on the Bth of Judy, and being their conftitutions were well feafoned, and bell fit- fent as fooa after as could be, use did not arrive till ted for fervice in the Well Indies. He objected the Igth of September. Su much for the Noble peculiarly to the fyflem of the 1? ight Honuutable I L o rd's OM - creations concerning the reglelt or delay of Gentleman, beeline he conceived teat it was prin. Min - tilers, refireiting their tranfmilfion of rupplics to cipally addreffed to the mobility and the bargain- I Buenos Ayres. The next object in rotation with i making part of the crriormun'ty. The Right Hon. the Noble Lord, was the expence fuppoled by his ) Gentleman laid to them, " All you who chufe to go arguments to belong to the new fyflem of railing:l into the army, to get increaled pay an I penfions, i forces, " the ruinous expence," as he is plcafed n) come to me, and I will bring you forward." He did term it. It was rather unfortunate for that Noble not however rir w mean to objelt fo much to the ge- Lord that he did not profit by the tiff .n he received! natal nature of the plan, as to the plan in that tan- on a former eccafion, when this fitbjeit was agitated j gible Shape in which it was placed by the paper that in the tali Parliament, when his arguments were fa was now upon the table. The expences of this Mi. completely refuted ; but the Noble Lord was not lh.sry Syflem air() made an increated expence is the eafily to be put down ; he continued to perfevere in Naval Syllem new:diary. It however appeared that the lame error, till befit refutation Should bring frefh I the Right Hen. Gentleman could not be deterred by matter of objection, and fo he would pertift to the ' any conlideratiun of public expence, and theta - me if end. It is urged, that, uyin a Chid iiiveltigation of the Parliament did not interfere to arced his pro. the new fyttem, it would be found ro lets incffi grefs, the country would have deeply to lament the cient than capenfive. He would take upon him to • fay, that nothing was fo fallacious as acenmpts. and therefore nothing more fallacious than the Noble Lord's calculations ; it would be as endlefs as unin forming to follow them, and he fhould take up the , fubjett in. another way. The Noble Lord, in his ar. pimento, makes the bafis of his reafoning reft on die principle, that the life of a foldier was to be com pared with the life of any other mah ; but this was by no means the cafe. Yet the Nobl....Lord afferted it with great gravi;y, Rad calls in the aid of the In. !mance Offices to (import bin; in his theory ; but nothing could be more fallacious than that. But grant him this bafis, and he would allow him Lis cod-. cluiions. 1: was alfa urged that the expences alluded tot)) , the new fyllem might be regarded as a premium for recruiting ; he contended it ss as no fuch thing ; was tupporting in the decline of life a ufeful and de fer wing clafs of men. and he thought the object of ex. pence on that principle not to be taken into a moment's coufideration or coninat Arm with the good that would ari'e from both to the individual and the coun:ry. Ooe hundred pounds were in rune points of v;ew an b • e 4 ni CI when t00,c%-;ol. was no mote, or probably rua fo much an cibjeft of magnitude.. Epences were great or little in proportion to the objeel in view. The Noble Lard glanced at the Vo. I,lunteer Sy hem as a favourite topic, but he could fairly take upon him to declare that the volunteer cauf: was in Ito way !educed by the new fyllem ; the reshielion that had ••ccurred was merely in the extra ' allowances, and not in the actual ettahlifnments, infortitich that one half of the volunteers would fay fo of the -the, ; the reduction arofe principally in the diminmion of'chatges that fume favoured corps had incurred and tectived, aid which it was time to abolilh, and which laved the country no lets a fum than 300,0001. annitally. In matters rf this defcripti.m, the No L-rd, when in uflice, and his Colleagues, were lavifh to a degree, but the mo ment they hear of a f lirary lixpence given to a worn out veteran who had fuffered in his coun try's cattle, and that this dole was to be given him to luppott old age and infirmity, then they cry out at the extravagance of hi. fy item, and the waning of the public money by the Adminidration. But the Noble Lord and .his c iadjutors may reproach him as much as they &eared, he wculd Rand before any tribunal for the confcqucnces, ar.d take all the reproach on him they might pleafe.to bellow, confcious that his crime was that of reudeting the old folitier comforta ble, and allot ding him, in ii.firmity and decrepitude, the humble means of making the evening of his life as tranquil as he could. The laving fuch a trifle in loch a cattle w as at , loell but a narrow aeronomy, un worthy a wile and enlightened Leguflature. The Houle would now confider that the pittance now af forded this clafs of men was a provifion made in the days of Charles II and never altered till the prefent period. They are the only dials negleeted by the public bounty, whillt all tithe's have availed thernfelves, more ter Ids, in evety deg:cc of life, as the value of mo ney fence that petit* has fo confiderably diminifhed. —( fear ! Hear ! generally echoed through the Houle.) If it would be r.lh tied that the country could not afford it, then he might fubmit to retrenchment ; but that :lifer Lion would be idle, when the wealth and re tool ces of the enspite were duly confidered. The Noble Lord would have the Route underlland that, puttitig the new fyliem in force, bargains, tricks, and device;, would be reforted to, unworthy of the army, and injurious to the fervice. But was it to be contracted with the old regime, where bounty was the objet afpired at, and where the whole race of crimps had their moiety and their (hares ? In his plan none of that dangerous ingredient was to be found; the men would enter fur future confiderations of advan tage, inflead of making the enjoyment of prefent gain the only °Ned of entering the fervice, and in a mili tary point of view operates as a pledge for their flame good condo& The expence to be incurred is that of obtaining the belt men upon the belt terms, and has already had the effeel of obtaining at lealt more than any other fyllem could in the fame time. and at thi• day produces *early two to one of that plan fo much the eulogium of the Noble Lord, and which was in face lall year. (This elation was re. caved with an acclamation of Hear ! from the wb3l.! hoot •) Added to which, there was an actual la ving in bounty of five guineas a man, the effect whereof will be—that by the time the fyllem becomes familiar and known to men, the bounty will be abo- Wired altogether. It will not be injurious in any fenfe of the word, or in any flare or lunation the country tray he in : it will operate as a reduElion in time-of war, and be a nurfery for foldiers always to be had at a Gorr notice in the time of war, and the country still not he under the neceffiq of looking for men; the will have soldiers ready trained to her hand, at the moment the may Rand in need of them. The 1 fame fyllem has been propofed for our navy; the ' French have already adopted it; this therefore is a let off againit the charge of expence. The great point. however, which the Noble Lord teemed molt to rely ' ()it'll was the .` inefficiency of the meafure ;" but, as the Noble Lord has no more than his own affettions ti (Import hint through that lubjeCt, as he had through that of Buenos Ayres, he floould be exceedingly flume and compendious indeed in anfwering him thereon. He has Dated this to be the opinion of a great man, now no noire (the late Mr. Fox); but the Noble Lord was miltaken vi hen that great man, for whom his heart was filled n ith kindnefs, had talked of the fub . jeCt, it was not that he differed in opinion with him up , .n the Ilruelure of his Iyilem, but that, when he talked of a means for railing a quick fupply of men, another plan recited better calculated for it. He did not approve of the Pad& Bill, nor of the Army of Rcferve, and he blamed them as violent meafures, and unlit for the purples of fupplying the Britifit army with good and faithful faldiers; they could not be effatrol without violent means ; they could not be accomplifhed without laying violent hands on the mi• litia ; they were not expedient, and they certainly were not efficient ; they promifed to raife ao,cco men in lit months, they did not raife t 3,000 in two years. In recruiting the army two chalks of men are to be had, thofe who enlilt for extent of prefent bounty, which operates like a dram ; the other, is that not railed on the fudden, upon the emergency of the moment ; but to operate as a Ready and certain fupply for the fervice of the latter, was the number railed by his plan ; and in the ftatement be had made be rather underftated the progrefs it had made than otherwife. From his fyftem two circumftances would accrue, namely, it would constitute your army an army of volunteers, fupportable to themfuclves, and 1 i ‘ I