Star. — London, England, 1804-06-19 00:00:00

I ~~ fight of its nncontlitational principle, particularlyki it was aimeature intended to be permanent. Mr. CANNING laid, he was unwilling to trefpafs on the Howe, but he was entitled to forme indul gence, confideting lie had not had an opportunity of Rating his opinion He was defirous of esprelThig his thoughts, becaufe the opinions of thofe who bad preceded him were In various, and becaufe there had been introduced into the fubjed the quetkion of the Etnefs or incapacity of the prefent Adminiliration. The quellion of the meatuie before the Houle had never been fairly Rated. His Right Honourable Friend had been arraigned for bringing forward fomething unworthy of his great character t and it had been imputed to him, that he willed to raife an army upon an arbitrary principle of his own. Was that a fair way to argots eonlidering the difficult ,fituatiun in which be bad fund the country .He 'maintained he had done the 1,01 that could be done .in the prefent Rate of the country. He had found .a general opinion prevailing. that by tompullory mvafures the army could not be kept op, and the re gular army was contetTedly too fmall. He had found a militia larger in extent than was compatible will the ferric, of the country, and betted alto found a middle force, partaking of the nature of both: rind ing st militia chained to our Chores, as well is this &potable f..rre, if be had done no move than con verted the heifer difpnfable force into a larger limited one, an t i had titeceeded in doing to, without violence to cu fling inftitutions, he would have been entitled to the tupport of the Honk ; yet Gentlemen com plained of this as nothing. He proceeded to argue the merits of the Bill, snaintair.ing the propriety of destroying the ballot, and intitting that the :mature would not have the effea of dettroying competition for recruiting ; he inferred that if a tingle man was not produced by this Bill, it would not preclude Govern ment from retuning to the former mode of recruit ing. In that cafe the Bill merely railed anotherfond in aid of that which was already in the hands of Government. He admitted that this plan would bring an 'Onset in perpetuity upon the country; but the precut Rate of Europe rendered that expence indifpenfable. He paid Come ironical compliments to Mr. Addington for his open tondo& in hating no time to declare himfelf, and join, on the moment of his quitttog . office, a regular and fyftematie Oppoli. tion. and, on concert with them. attack the very firft propofal of the sew Adminiftration. As to all that may be laid about esclufions and proCeriptions, all that he had to do war to regret that his /tight Ho nourable friend had not much abler colleagues, and containing all the bell talents in the country; but sot being able to pet what he wanted, he thought it right that be &oak! do the heft he could, fantod as he was. Mi.BOIdERS COI (aid a few words in explaaa- Con. Mr. BRAGGE defended Mr. Addington from the obfervations made by the lag [poker, alerting that )se teed upon principle; of which that Right Ho nourable Gentleman had not perhaps a very coma idea. He cenfurcd the prailice of making reference to other points not at all committed with the habite in debate, which ought to be stied apoulte own me. nits. He concluded with makin foist genial re. marks upon the Bill. Mr. Addington had not entered the Houle when this coneerfation took place. Lord H. PETTY oppofed the Bill, which he thought would prove inefeaual, in confequeaee of giving up the ballot t and added, that it would have a deplorable effea on the poor to make peel& offi cers turn crimp'. It would eventually tend to bring into the fervice the molt improper people, and the fine to be paid, if the men were not raifed by a given time, would fometimes tend to make the parith offi cers tyrannical, as he would not have time to be le nient or Impartial. It was vain, he thought, to ar gue that the troops of the fira battalion would, on ;their return to their relations and friends after their limit d ferrice, make them with for military glory by the recital of their exploits in foreign parts. That was an effect by no means to be relied no, and he re membered a cis cumliance which confirmed his doubts pa it. Leopoll, Grand Duke of Tufeany, was a Prince who poirifeJ more wifd.im than his Mini. Revs Some occurrences fpread among the Tafeans a great difpofitinn to emigrate, to fuch a degree, as to alarm the fears of the Government. In a (bort time, however, numbers of there emigrants returned, finding their lot men hopes difapporated ; and the Miniaer advifed the Grand Duke to Inllia exemplary r anifbment. " " replied the Prince, " I will In- Ma no other punifhment, than to oblige every man, ea hi s return, to relate his travels, toils, and perils, to his neighbours." This was accordingly done, and there was an end to emigration in Tufcany. Such, he apprehended, would be the effect of the recital of fuck nodes by the fcci.nd battalion. Colonel CBAUFURD was Apia! the Bill, and contended, that rod troops were never to be got in this country but by regular recruiting. Mr. LEIGH laid, that he would fupport any mea• lure that tended to inert:tie the military force of the country. He defended Mr. Addington from the Charge of baring gone into a fydeatatic oppofition. and laid he would prefer of the two t!te former Bill to the prefent nne. _______ _ _ Mr. A DDINGTON Cnid, that afterhaving given hit opinion of the Bi 4 l in a termer fine, he h•dabflain ed from raying any mare on it till he thould know *hat amendment: might be made in it ; though he tonlidered the plan itfclt to be Co radically bad and tnconditutional, that no amendments could recon ode him to it. He difclaimed ever having raid that the Country was already futticitot!y defended and the Biil, which remained yet upon their table; for increafing the armed force, was the bed proof that fuch was not his opinion. He objected to the pre:nu 11.11, that it could not have any immediate effed— not fecuting the addition of even a tingle man to the iegular army for a confidcrable time, until after a trdious procefs. He then defcanted oo the compara tive merits of his own Bill and the prefent. EarTy in February le t t, a Bill was b roug h t i n by the Right Mon. Gentleman then in Adminillration, the effca of which was to be to cede ; I new regiments to the troops of the line, to do which fpeedily, it was propofed to fulpend the operations of the Army of Referee Ad , until the new fo rce fb ou ld be completed. The Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Canning) haj raid that the H 'life did not know but the Army of Referee Ad was am in operation, He hoped some full and faLi.eiaory esibasatioa would be gi 9k that tub ' jeit route time in the centre of tledebate, ball! appeared to him impollible that it coal-stork czeded on. Hs then traced the Wary of Se tWo Bills, obfertion.how the Chancellor nr the Exilic quer came to that 'Houle, and, in the prwirrallArPiel iirtn.r, declared, that he bad hixtifelf tirepated P !ii• gelled (Olen), of which he then developed the WWI eipal features, and perfuaded a large minority noun, concur in any farth er p rocee di ng in the Army of Ae- I fetve Sufpention Bill. After that, he fnbasitted in dead of it his own plan, and thus, in his °pillion. only commuted vigour for infufficiency. 'ln nor' - dering the whole cofe, he bad adw neon to ter the plan of another Right Hots: Gentleman • Fox) to that which was now the fnbjed in dif es E He laid, that amid it the fobjeas of grief and mortifi cation wish which he had been lately Aided. it WI great confolation and fatisfatlicin to him to have heard it lately avowed by Lord Caillereagh, in the Com mittee upon this Bill, that the Army of Referee bad already added 32,000 men to the troops of the line It gratified him to refied diet this, as well as fevers] other adinifßoul made at the ratite time; did away the teproothes of fupinenefs and infufficiency in the late Adminifirittion. He next controlled the comparative Rate of the different ferukes :fusee the commence• ment of the war, from which be again reverted to the prefent Bill. It pr o p o ted s h e hid, to raife an ad• ditional army of ea,csoct men, chiefly out of the re dutlion of the Militia. He "enlisted the manner in which it was propofed to be attempted. He indeed held it to be a principle in which the moll patriotic would not, he believed, concur ; that it would, in tome extreme cafes, lath as the defence of the coun try; be junifiable to go beyond the limits of the con- Ititution t but on the prefent occalion the neceffity had not been proved: He detelted, he Shuddered at the' idea of breaking in upon and violating the ancient habits and feelings of the people. And he was con vinced, that ff the meafures fhould be perfilled in. the men could not be had, though the Right Hon. Author of it declared; hat he expelled a confidera ble part of that force in the eourfe of two month.. By the former Bill, yOOO would have been fitortly railed to a certainty ; this Bill gave no certainty of ived a Tingle man. after the ballot was difpenfed with. By the former mode, men *mild till& with ferjeants of the regulars at fairs And fuch public affcmblieu , for the ;dual bounty ; under the propoied plan they would begin to calculate, and nn one wo u ld elilill for unlimited - fel-vice when he could get a double isgun ty, by entering eat for limited, and in a few days for unlimited. This was Paid to he a lenient meafute 1 but he could not fee with what propriety. The vital and fundamental principle of ballot had bear given , up. and the consequence would be, that the measure mutt be inefficient. He then recapitulated his diffe rent objeßions to it ; fiat, that it was incolifident with the principles of the !Ind& Coldlitu:ion ; ad, the ages and the defcription of people on whom it waraneant to operate ; and, 3d, that it would mili• talk with and nand in the way of any augmentation tithe regular b nops. Having done this, he adverted to fosse allufions made to him before he entered the Houk. lam not accountable for my conchs& to the Right Hon. Gentleman who made the allistion. I am guided by principles which are bet known tit my fells but whatever may be the line of condo& I may purfne, I (hall never be afraid to fubmit it to the 'judgment of this Houle. Mr. RHERIDAN declared that his intention was not to go into a lull reply to all that had been urged in the debate, nor did he think he Should have Spoken in this debate at all, were it not for an allufion made to a Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr.Addingron) to whom lie begged leave to return his bed thanks for the wife and manly manner in which he declared himfelf, without having recourfe to any circuitous methods. He had fairly, and in the millet. Ilatcd the Solid and fundamental objections which he felt to this, while his Right Honourable Friend (Mr. Can ning) went from the real qeseltion, in order to con found the alteration, by mixing rit'..er topics by no means conneeted with it. He adverted to the Shoe of parties in one part of his Speech, and feemed to won der how thofe who opooted the mealtbe could Alem bic together in the Lobby withoot quarrelling with each other. My furprife, on the contrary, is excited by the circumstance of that Gentleman and loon of his colleagues, particularly the N. , ble Lord (Cattle reagh), feeing and meeting each • , ther without getting together by the ears, fence the Noble Lot d teemed to helitate for tome moments before he d e cid e d what firing be Should put to his bow. The Right Hon. Gentleman. continued Mr. Sheridan, has thought pro per to reprefent, that however attached he may be to his Right Hon. Friend who fits near him, he 'lever thought of Whig any adulation, and pays me the com pliment to tap that fad in the lame way towards my Hon. Friend (Mr. Fox) to whom he kn.iws me to be warmly attached. But he mail give me leave to tell my Right Honourable Friend, that there is a mate rial difference between Isis attachment and mine, which I (hall. In a few monstriti, take the opportu nity to thew him. Ht has ago thought it a fine ti• dieole of the Right Honourable Gentleman to pay him compliments on his late refignation, obfervniz, that nothing in his political life became him Co much as the ending of it. I, however, perfectly ogee* with my Right Honourable Friend, for viewing the fiate of the country at the different periods, he cool! not help thinking that his going isle, office, at the time, and under the circumlionces ha did, was a pain, and his going out a triumph. I certainly gave him all the feeble and infigniticant foppon my powers would enable me to do, and I did it becaufe I found in him a manlincfs of character, an uptiglancfs of intention, and, above all, a reefed attention to the found pi inci- Ides of the Britifh Couftitution. .When out of of fi ce he tided in the fpirit of the fame manly and fpiti:cd therader. He did not like others, give his thereof an loadious commit—Le did not rtcommeuJ and af terwrintla abandon him—be did rot lay Cannes for &planting while apparen&y Cuppor t.:vg him—bc did aot Gt behind Lira ht the honk, wade he iniettcd the operations molt likely to undermine him. As fools as, in the progrefs of the late tricafu e. he found the fear: of a confiaktaLle part of the ?arlia ment againfi him, he did not li&ete to sale beim, and like a eonditutional Enithinans mit c form his fituation. I agree with my Itigh:. Hon. Friel% that the lett ea of his AilmailfrAt.on became sins the mat, and I cannot but couilder the applauk ted , wcd 1 on my Right Hon. Fiiesd in Oat aßion as sie mod hitter UrcArm on the prank Miui:ter. by the :united he oppoki Iv it. ULLA' oat actlth tt.e ;o be 4plau4- . precut Minihers retain their offices in rim, and (hobby manner. Tote one obeyedthe kale of Parliament, the other treate I it with mutts* g Ute one rergned his fitoat'ou when his majority was reduced to Unslatr: ; the oilier retained having only a majority of gurelire;gbe ; and that a very declining majortje, as lie will experience, 1 hope, Weight. My Honourable Friend lays, be willed for an Aisninlitration upon a broader fc.ale, and laments, as he orght indeed to . do, (then* ea the Uppelsiee Pe of the lioaft.)—ln this declaration I certainly believe him to be fincere, as L know his at tachment to be (income towards his Right Honourable Colleague ; but the continuance of that attachment I can no longer much applaud, as my Right Ho. nnurable Friend (hould confider the difference be tween what the Miniller was when that attachment commenced, and whit he is now. He (Mould aIF) dittinguifh between his attachment and mine, which has at !edit the advantage of being of a much longer Rending. The fincere attachment I have to my Right Hon. Friend near me, was my firlt and my only political attachment, and is of that nature as never to be estiognifhed or transferred. My Right Ron. Friend oppofite me has thought it necefary to judify himfelf for being in a high, lucrative. and dignified fitnation. I have no occafion to make any.joltiSca tion for my attachment to a man wittiest pow* or office, driven from his fi ttuttion, and attempted to be deg4ded, and who, under there circus/laws. is Itill loved and followed by the greatelt talents, vinges, and wealth in this kingdom ; who never (toad in fo high .and exalted a (tenon as he is in at pretest is the ellimation of his country. He then adverted to the objettions taken by Mr. Canning to , the admisiara lion of the different departments of the lag Govern ment. He objefted to the way in which the depart meats of foreign affairs war, and yet had ht the BR of bib prefent colleagues the fame Noble Lord (Hiwket. bury) whom lie then difapproved of, whore incapa city it had been the objet of Mr. Pitt's tpeeehes to depreciate, and who certainly ought to have religaed When unable to fend any fatisfaaory explanation of Mr. Drake's correfpondence. That Nobleman was al. ternarely extolled and deprecated by the Gentleman oppofite him, and by Mr. Pitt in particular, though he Since thought proper to take him as an attociate. He dtflitod the .dadua of the Admiralty, and therefore that / ! 'y, incapaPe, pet-fon, Earl St. Vincent,' is re moved ' • and his place is filled by thatttied tspriencel /roman,. Lord Melville. (eitastsb.) In the office of the War Minifier alfo, my Right Hon. Friend raw ground for complaint, and therefore the Noble Lord NHobart) who held that fituation is fuperfeded by a oble Lord ivho gallantly reigned the Government of Ireland becaute " it was a time of war and teo l3 - bier and mods dittutbance was apprehended in that country. Under loch eircumflancer, it isao wonder that my Right Hon. Friend thould expects his regret that his Right Hon. Friend has not better fupport ; 'fw all thole being diftnifed for detected, acknowledg ed incapacity, according to the language of my Right Honourable Friertd, of whom his Right Honourable Friend fpoke in loch lofty terms of Fair., now re main in office, but thole fix of whom his Right Ho nourable Friend did not think worth while to utter one word in the way of commendation. But of the Right Honourable Gentleman's praife much now don't teem to be though:, and therefore it is, perhaps that we have had no panegyric plonounced upon the qualifications of the perfons jail introduced into his Cabinet. After the imperfeet knowledge of human nature which the Right Honourable Gen tleman has manifelled, particularly in the expedition to Holland, and the reprefentation of tome of the late Mjahlers, his opinions of mankind don't appear to be held in any ellimation, and therefore, no doubt, it is that the houfe has not heard one word from the Right Honourable Gentleman as to the merits of his new Colleagues. I dare fay, that this lilenc: was in contegoznce of a previous 'limi tation. They molt probably laid to the Right Ho - noorable Gentleman, " Yon may give us ribbands, title., pennons, places, or Any thing you like, but a character ; do, (or Gon's fake, tave our names from the peril of your praife—for, if you praife us, both you ana we mall be laughed at." My Right Hoi nourable Friend has frequently laid," away with the cant of not men but meafures, for it is a frivolous no tion, as it was not the hairnet's, but the horfes which drew the carriage ;" but I would afk my Right Ho nourable Friend, what is to become of the barna: and carriage with filch horfes as his Right Hon. Ft iend tliS now engaged? There are fax of them that are old, and fix new — a double let, to be fore. The former are part of that "flow paced, lumpifit, auk ward collation," upon which my Right Hon. Friend In feverely commented in the difctanon of Colonel Patten's motion. They of elude can be of no ufe, and the cafe was rather unfortunate, for the fa new etas: had not only to draw the carriage of the nat.., but 411 . 0 the other lit old r.y7 ejf half betide it. [in this place, attempting to roster to the notes he took in the tourfe of the debate, he was unable to find them, and (aid he made no thmbt that his Honourable Friend would not be difpieafcd that he had 101 l his owes.] On this fplendid projeft of the Minikes, this dejrakratrat w hich was to fupy I y every deficiency—this erred Materva which was to fpring 11111 t f the head of lajsiter—it was now feamly ncceliary to obferve, that it proved lobe notiling more than a r:lety . apt fin:. which with all its tarvb nooks. could never be furniLed w llts any thing like a Ripply of Iwne. Thus, however, Was too gercrAlly the c..te with that Right Hon. Gentleman, whole arrir promifcs had rarely produced mnr. than pi;;u.s performances. Soppofing for the moment, v:liat fcsrcely could be luppoled, that the fro:mtus rf the Bill were to find their ideas realifed, they would be, perhaps. as much *Unitised as the 1: 1 7,ht Iron. Genii-man Was lately, on finding that the steam maj •rity pi toe principals chofen by ballot did not cuter into attiAl iervice. If the awn. bcr of men were ACtually to tie tailed by the parilhes, 1 what would b: their tu•roile cn finding theraelves obliged to nod fax or -coo of:jeers to head them? was a cafe for which no provision had been made, becaufe fuels a *hilt had never been dreamt of, even by the framers of the Bill. sup r fin g again, that the ad battalion was tit he railed and ofilcerea, what was in be the natore of the iaterconift between them Would it not b- like the courtthip between an elderly man and a young woman. the ft lends of the latter en couragiog her coynefs, and fending her to hear "what the old ot.c had to fay." This would lead to that kind 01 intimacy which was vulgarly termed " keeping company," but which mull end in a divorce a 16111'd et Amp. All eilkary Jit related ; ate of any e 3 'plead that they Were only I ferrite.' and the latter vrvm only attending to inflroaimi. this moll important topic, he that a limitation of lervice of would in the fiat inflance he efficient force thin the oneros The esillence of libertr and a danding wholly incontinent with each other. the etence of political williom fa Ara between thole difficulties. TM this country looked with iefpeit to If their energies were not duly empin the (Ault of their rulers In their faba nothing of Oavery or clanOs;p: hecauk they knew that the laws we rich and poor, and that the Inwelt canary might ionic, under certain cirei the fus:etlion of his Sou to the Great land. Such was the Rate of Intim as to call &rill the valour of the brave, and all the power and inla..l enee of the great and wealthy. 'With fupport malls* the part of the people, and filch a coincidence orge. nerd sentiment, he lamented to find that fo many Gentlemen Ihould confider the defence of the coaster in a mere political point of view, and without any re terence to conftitational principles. He mall aria repeat, that Liberty crotid not en.etift with a memo. nary army. Mr. Sheridan noticed briefly in his eon. elution the mode of the prefent Adminiltration. Too much tire, he apprehended, had been made of an &mutt name, which fbould never have been men• skewed for filch purpofes in that honfe. It was • however, to be forgotten, that there was an Mull 'cos Petfonage, who, when the defence of the country was at Rake, had laid afide - all perfnnal cott fi dera; liens, Ind w ho, if refentment could lurk in his illu sions break, had much perhaps to forgive had no Aleaion whatever to any arrangement which mill Midler the uhlmatefervice and benefit of the country. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER tore, and commenced his fpeech by replying to the arguments sled againß the meafure in a conflito trona] point of view. The Honourable Gentletaas who fpoke la had truly Rated the ratios. motives which induced the people of this country to join is the defence of the Conftitution ; in that rerpett how ever he had Rated nothing new, though he certainly carried the principle much too far. - tinder all the circumftances of Europe, it wat looking with too much jealoufy to a Rending army to fay that it never ought to be united with the defence of the country that kind of force never could be meant to be entirely excluded, and the only nutlike was es to the degree in which it ought to he employed. Now, the peculiar charatteriak of the matfett he.propolltd was, that it maintained the doe partialities which ought to be' eferved between all the different deferiptious of force in the country. No warlike pr parutions could be tarried on with vigour, if Gentlemen were always to be looking, not to the means of refitting the enemy , but to the keeping op a certain balance between the Militia and the Regular Army, by which the former was to be a check on The latter. An Honourable Member had gone back to the time of James IL se prove that this Bill was unconftitotional. mid= to the declaration of rights; bat the leered os which he wilted to refer the Houk was not what be reprefinted it; that principle was, that the keep kg op a landing army in time of peace without the c•infent of Parliament, was a violation of the cool& tution But what bad this priaciple to do with a meafure which was dependent upon Parliament for its origin and continoance ; which, by the amendment introduced this night, moll be difembodiecl wi: hit; fit months after a peace, and which was liable to the twiny law only while embodied. The Wight Hon. Gentleman then replied to all the various arguments that had been ufed arena the Bill, and maintained that the meafore was not contrary to any opinion or notice he had formerly given, except with refped to the ballot. With regard to what had been fad re fleeting the formation of the late Adminitiration, that was a fubjeft on which it was not agreeable to him to (peak. Whatever might hive been his willies re fpaling a more or left extended Adanniftratioss, or what might have been the willies of the Houk, no thing could have been more Ilrongly Rated than the eonititutional principle on that futijes, by the Hes. Gen-leman oppofite to him; he agreed with hint, that if, from a Series of meafures. the Houfe thought it fit that a change of Admmittration fltioild be made. it was their duty :o mark their opinion by their votes but as to who was to fucceed thnfe Knitters whole condo& was thus cenfured, his Welty could alone decide. If then the Houfe was not competent to agitate the queflion of alto &mild succeed to his Ma jetty's Government, upon what principle of reafoning was a new Adminiltration not allowed a fair trial/ Why oppofed upon s &It meafure without any refe tenee to the principle of that meafore. The oppofi lion on this Bill, he knew, was intended as a kis to him to refign, but he ceuld allure the Hon. Gentle. men, that them hint was not yet broad emagd, and he would not take it. He was confident the Bill would' pals, and if it were pollible that it did not pats. he would net confider its failure as proceeding from any other egotive than the dry confideratiow of the bun ; for he mail again afore the Hon. Gendsesan oppofite In him, that he never would undertlaed their hints. This twilit* had, however, brought toge ther a number of troops who never before joined is one cry. The Houk fatly would sot fah that there was any one individual on whom the Crow* had not the right of calling upon or not. as might be thought proper. If the contrary was intrmdedby the orponriost to this Bill, the vielation of a fundamental 1 Conftitutional principle was meant. He regretted that his ailing with fame of the Members of the late Adminiflratton had depraved him of the fume: of the Noble Lord ( rctaile) and his friends. He had rearm to have formed a contrary expellation, fur he recoliefied the declaration of the fitends,ot that Noble Lord, that it his Mildly pleafed to include him in that Adminiiiration, they wou!ti withdraw ail op pofition. After fuch declaration, he could not un derhand why the esclution of others, with whom they had not sifted before, lhOuid be a caufe of dais oppoAtion to him new. With refpeA to the forma tion of the Cabinet, it was not to he fisppofed teat public hufinefs c told be carried on in the way the Hon. Gtnleman had chosen to reprefent The prekrit Cabinet was sot one which always deseieles 4.4 by counting soke, eadthwided by the imiding I i { f