Star. — London, England, 1805-03-07 00:00:00

though they had teen in their time to the national force. They taw al and a half of men in arms, they taw half martial throughout its population ; ted and imbecile and infignificant were ley could not, in the eftimation of the Gentleman, go on any longer. ' Let ya the Gentleman, clear away all the till come and let every thing to rights.' :omen—and when I comes what does I log( nothing half fo good, nor half fo s the mitch.abufed and fiupid Minillers treed out for him ! Why now, Sir, I to the country the nature of the impol: tot the country been impofed upon ? Is tf this Defence Bill a proof of the im !fed upon it ? Are thefe new Minitters places they have contrived to pulls , o by the changes that have been made? will cry out Oh ! it is dangerous and 11 the country that the Bill has failed. public fpirit and deprefs the national Let us conceal it, let us all be quiet, let ale fnug among ourfelves.' To fay that polkaed another let of Minifters of their -dged incapacity, and brought in a bill round their claims to pre-eminence, had -n Bill ineffedual, and even worfe on ; to fay that the great man's meafure . that a Bill to ?life men has been con. mere Bill to raife money by the moft means, has been converted into a moft 111—why that, it teems, would be to dif :oy the patriotifm and energy of the would ruin the neceffary confidence in -nt of the Country. The country has flourithing Ratements of the numbers • army to a great amount, though it it to be only a fiatement on paper; ton in the prefent infiance will not do. to make it fueceed, mull be as abfurd the Bill itfelf. It is no mealtime in tple are only to judge of a matter in not the aBors. No, Sir, all the peo a is going on ; they are behind the are under the apron of this famous Every one .of them has fomething to inefs. They have to pull the wires s of the machine. They won't make they have railed men, when they AVC railed none. There teems to be points on which this queftion turns.— ... Bill failed or not ? Secondly, if it is it likely, by continuing its opera for its failure by future (nacelles ? I, is the experiment itfelf mifchiev. (germ's ? Here the Houle will not died, that this was a meafure recom not as a flow and progreffively ope which, in prrcefs of time, should im tory force of the country, and perfed railing a regular army : No, Sir, it welled upon the Houle, at a time when tor (poke of nothing but of counting, weeks, but days and hours, whenever and the dangers of the country are to It was a plan by which a quick and :ed addition of force was to be made tar exceeding any thing that the filly !ration were capable of effeding. It is, and to give us fpeedily, the means foreign efforts, and of enabling us to -cot of liquid fire about to be poured ion, and to retort upon the proud and all the honors with which, in the kis infolence, he had dared to menace en laid by Come perfons, that my Right 'dead, who introduced this fubjed this ' it with confiderable levity, and that (dance of his merriment it is net pof that he was really ferious in his re the very deficient ftate of the militn7 iced by the prefent Minifiers. There figs, Sir, that are of fuch a defcription ibly awaken the fenfe of ridicule: Ridleulum serf quid vetat." being liftened to attentively, and the rded him unfparingly, the hoarier fails every one of his grand and vaunted tenfe of ridicule is irrefitlibly excited. -omife ? Was it a mere meafure of ich thing ! It was a meafure for the for military fervice 1 The only hope , any man can expel from the Bill, is from the objet held out to the Houle / at the introdudion and palling of c to contrail for a certain number of les to mount a corps of light artillery ur contradors bought, inftead of them, fiber of Rout, orderly, well-behaved oxen, tutu your light artillery upon them, or tk he had performed his pronsife and . the terms or the fpirit of his contrad 40J-10 order to try whether the Gen failed or not, in his lofty and extenfive Houfe, it is neceffary to touch but matters of figures, fence the portico already fo ably detailed to you, and ipon. On this point your attention direded to the general fiatements of force. And here it 'bikes one, at the tat it is afferted by Come Gentlemen, lure on the part of the prefent Admi their performances, is very different on the part of the late Minifiers. It is J bad or fo dangerous, beeaufe, fay they, (pen the whole Co confiderably increafed; tht Hon. Gentleman himfelf teemed, ied was firft mentioned, to pant after he might have the opportunity of &m -ight Honourable Friend oppofite lays, has been augmented by the number fifty !hips of war. Sir, I deny it. one more effedive fhip of war, nor an 'dual efficient naval force, than we talk Naval Adminiftration. But it that there is fomething fo very peat tpofition of the preterit Adminiltration, . and to command fuch an cfpecial and (egree of confidence, that no man (hall that any thing in the fhape of inquiry iry. On the fubjed of their superior :onfidence of this Houk and the pub little more by and bye. I muft ob. change, as it refpeds a claim for con- Rdence, has, indeed, altered cirenmßances, bat has altered them very much for the wotfe. Here the Hon. Gentleman enumerated feveral comparative flatements of our force, taken from the different re turns of the years 1804 and tens, which were al luded to in the fpecch of Mr. Windham, on the pre fent dircufflon, both of the Regulars and the Militias, and Rated the particular branches of the military fer vice on which there had been any pofitive increafe Cay.lrs, on the return of 18os, amounted to 21,223 That of 1804 • • doss Increafe 3,046 The Artillery, ilos 8,517 , 1 8 04 - 7,661 Inmate - 836 Foreign Corps, d- os - - ipal 1804 1 3.94 0 Imre& 7PBB From the documents altogether, Paid the Hon. Mem there refults an augmentation of the whole body of the army of only 11,469 men, making the whole difference between the returns of force of the two years, and confequently the sum of the efforts of the prefent Adminifiration. But you are to confider, that of the increafe, 7000 men are in the Foreign Corps, and 4000 in the cavalry. We find, however, that in the Britifh infantry, there is a deficiency of 853 men. Surely the Ceylon troops are not in fair. nefs to be reckoned. Indeed, augmentation in that quarter cannot juilly be taken into the account for' Minillers, fince,with the increafe of diflant territories it becomes a matter of neceffity to increafe the troops. To call this an afloat extent - ion of your dif pafable force, is a downright fallacy. But what we do find, Sir, is this ; that there is a pofitive decreafe in that particular branch of the military force, which it was the peculiar and boated objea of this bill to increafe. To what was this Bill particularly to apply ? Was it to the railing of troops at Ceylon ? Was it to the Black Corps ? W 45 it to an addition of German Legions ? No ! It was to augment greatly the numbers of the Briti(h infantry 1 Has it done fo ? Has it produced the promifed and defired augmen tation ? No ! And if there be any increafe upon the whole, it is not the Right Hon. Gentleman, but it is his predecelfor, who has the right to claim the merit. It is he who was at the head of that wretched, inca pable, naufeous, milk and water adminiltration, with whore laurels the Right Hon. Gentleman attempts to adorn hirnfelf. I mutt therefore fay that Gentlemen should be inclined to retraa thofe fevere and taunt ing cxpreflions againft the late Adminiaration, on a comparifon of their merits with thofe of the prefent Miniflers. I know it was aid, that let thofe Mini tiers go when they would, worfe could not follow.— Some others, as well as myfelf, were of a different opinion. We thought that worfe could follow, and we think now that worfe have followed them. We may now prefume to think, that we were then in the right. We (aid, infinitely worfe may fucceed men who would perform their promifes much worfe, and keep far lets good faith with this Honk and with the country. By what means have they railed the in create of 4000 horfe, but by the railing of men for rank? Did the prefent Miniflers introduce that? No! And the fame rank holds good as to the Foreign Corps. Whatever merit, therefore, is afcribable to any perfon for the augmentation of our military force, is not at all owing to the Right Hon. Gentleman, or his boafled Bill, but it is owing to the; Noble Lord now at the head of his Majefty's Councils." (A load cry of hear I hear I front she Otivfisioss Beaches.) Mr. Sheridan proceeded. " Perhaps I have made a mitlake. I mean the Noble Lord, now Prefident of the Conn cil. (A loud laugh.) I don't know whether he is at the head of his Majelly's Councils or not, that might be a minake ; I don't enquire into that mat ter. It is not now of material confequence, whether he is fo, or not. But Ido fay, that if any thing has been done to enable the Right Hon. Gentleman to make any grand exploit, any attack on the enemy's l poffeffions, the merit is not due to him, but to my Lord Sidmouth. Whatever returns may appear from the Right Hon. Gentleman's own Bill, they can have no effell ,• but it is molt ludicroully clear that his Bill has failed, completely failed 1 And, Sir, what does appear? Why, it appears that the 51 coun ties of England and Wales have jointly, under the operation of this formidable Additional Defence Ad, produced 1,295 men ; that out of this number there have deferted, or have been difcharged, 266 men, leaving 1,076 effeeive foldiers. And it further ap pears, that out of this number railed throughout all England, by the moR extraordinary means ; by all thofe grand efforts, of which we heard fo much ; by local influence aad attachments ; by honk/the& feel ings, and a thonfand other operations, aflitled and enforced by Jullices and Churchwardens, and all de. fcriptions of par& officers, I fuppofe not lets than 40,000 men at work altogether, at work to raife a few more than tOOO men; there have been procured no more than 343 men to enter forgaseralfervice; that is to fay, Sir, that the gentleman has, with all his machinery, been enabled to raife after the rate of four men and a quarter for each county in England I In Scotland, it teems, 267 men have been procured, out of which 43 have gone for general fervice. In Ire land, where the parith officers alone have done this bufinefs. they have got 1 oft r ; but there, Sir, the zeal has flopped. Ido not find that one of thefe has en tered for the general fervice. It does appear from a particular examination of the whole matter, upon abundant proof, that the Ron Officers are much worfe agents, with all the local and sympathetic en gines, for railing men for the army, than the Regi. mental Recruiters. It appears that they have not been fo folicitous to give the King a good foldier, as they have been to get rid of a vagrant. Hence in one county (Lancashire, we believe, the Honourable Member mentioned) there have been 255 deficient by defertion or otherwile. Where the Gentleman's own influence was particularly directed, eleven men were procured, all of whom deferted, and that particular diarid where his own authority and popularity are In abounded, where all the people admire him as a General, as much as they venerate him as a politician and a Statefinan—l mean the Cinque Ports, the fpot of his own refidence, he has contrived fo far to (Li mulate martial policy as to have been able to raife we man I with we could get a look at this extraordi nary man ;he mutt be a very Hercules. He is an extraordinary recruit indeed— At isle two eft.' (Loyd 10,46i5r.)—1 remember a (tory of a favourite blind horse of Lord Donegan's. Somebody called out, " Where is Lord Donegall's blind boric HO, (Cays a man) I am Lord Donegall's blind hods !"—(Laugh.)—Why, Sir, when the men come to be examined from this part of the country, and the enquiry is made where is Inch and fuch a corps of recruits ? and the men appear, it may be a(ked, " 4 Where are the Cinque-Ports Additional Defence Men?" Up comes the man—" Here, here we are," rays he—" I am the Cinque-Ports Corps !"—(Laugh ). " Here am I ;" and a moll extraordinary perfun he no doubt mull be! But, to be ferious, if ever there was a Bill framed for the purpofe of difgracing its author, this is that Bill. I am not difpofed to refute credit to every man for his zeal, according to his ability, in our prefent fituation, to do fomething for the country ; but after the mai:deflations of the inefficiency of this Bill, it is grange in the extreme, that any Gentleman fhould think of paufing upon the quellion for the repeal of this ablitrd meafure, this public cheat, this beggar that thrufis himfelf into every parifh in the kingdom, and turns bully and crimp—" put me down twenty pounds in a certain place—you (hall hear about it."—Really, when we are talking of the penalties to be inflicted on parifhes for their inefficiency, 'it Teems much more rational to think about levying a penalty on the Members of the Privy Council, or that Minitiets of the Cabinet who are but a Committee of the Privy Council, for (hew ing their incompetency to carry into effeß their own rneafures ; I mean at lea% while the prefent Miniilers remain in power. 4 4 Now. sir, the argument we have heard, and which, I fuppofe, we than hear again, for want of a better, is, ' Give the Bill a fair trial.' 'Why, what is meant by this ? As a Bill to attain its objed ex peditioufly, the time is over. 1 have heard lately of many expedients to accelerate the progrefs of troops by land-carriages. Machines have been devifed, on which four planks may be laid, and you may mount the foldiers upon them, and off they go. But then, fuppofe a new great projector comes : I am the man to carry your troops with expedition ; drive away all that nonfenfe ; I will do it for you' Well, we truly to him, and he undertakes to carry a number of your foldiers on his new invention, to Wincifor, and back again to town, fey in fix hours: the time dapfes. Well, has he got back ? No ! —Where is he ? Somewhere about Kenfington ?—Then he'll be back again loon ?—No !—What is the matter ? Oh, he has not got any further on his way to Wind for; but never mind, do not complain; let him take a little time ; he is .in no hurry about it ; give the fchemer Come more time, and a fair trial (a loud laughs. There is another man (hews me a very curious gun, well mounted, a hair trigger, and every thing very complete. Try it ; it is the find} piece in the world for (hooting; but then, upon trial it won't go off ; it hangs fire. What can I do with it? Oh I never mind, this is rather damp weather. Keep it a little longer. Suppofe you keep it fix months, and give it a fair trial! (a laugh)— Really, Sir, the mode of proceeding adopted by Gen lemen oppofite, upon this Bill is fomething like laugh ing at the Houfe."*They bad better call it a tax-bill at once, and defend it on that ground, though that was never profeffed to be its objed. If it wo'nt do for one thing, it may do fur another. If it cannot attain its intended objed, it will Serve fur a different one.— Heres a (word and a fhield ! If the (Meld cannot be ufed for its proper ufes, it will make a fifh kettle, and the (word may be turned into a Soup-ladle! (a laugh) Now it is jolt the fame thing with the Right Hoo. Gentleman's Bill. It will not anfwer for recruiting the Bridal army, but it may be a notable finance meafure. But pray do not venture to fay, that for all its profeffed ends, it has not totally failed. My Right Hon. Friend oppofite thought we were in fuch a date as entitled us to overlook this failure ; but he wi(bed us to fee the increafed Rate of our Naval Force. Now, I fay, we have not added one man to the efficient force of the military department of our navy. I Cay, that in that point we are not equal to the Rate in which the Earl of St. Vin cent, the late' Firtt Lord of the Admiralty, left us. The force he left us, I affert, was fuperior to our prefent force, for the protection of our Trade and for the annoyance and chailifement of our enemies. If you examine impartially and carefully all this trash of fifty additional flips of war, you will find more than thirty of them old broken down Welt India vefrels, and others of a fimilar defcription, bought in the River. One of them got to the Downs, but could not keep the tea any longer ; another, a fifty gun (hip, a n o ld W e il- Indian, was broken backed in the River, and was re ported in that Rate, but was purchafed neverthe lefs, and others of them are (till in the River.— One went out neither fit to go to tea nor to ride at anchor. She went without her convoy, not becaufe they could not keep up with her, but becaufe the was quite unmanageable. Such is our new addi tional Naval Force. But in fad we difmantled (even fail of the line and Several frigates. The number of our Marines is inereafed by only gOOO men.— When you take the flight trouble of confidering what was the great increafe made by the Noble Earl during his administration of the Naval Affairs, and compare it with what has been done Since, after all the boaß you made, and aU the charges you beard, the performances of the prefent Administra tion fink to ridicule. Why does not the Right Hon. Gentleman put his affertiuns to the tell? Why does he not bring forward an examination of the condo& of the late Board of Admiralty ? While he refufes to come to that tell, how unjunifiabie is it in him, to Rate in this }lnure, to the prejudice of that gal lant veteran Officer, that all he has heard, and all he has read, and all he has teen, convinced him of the juffice and propriety of the accufations he had made, when he arraigned in this Houfe the conduct of the Noble Earl's Naval Adminiftration ? On this fubjed I do not wilts to Cay any more at prefent. But he mutt obferve, that if the evil hour thould ever come when Government would find it necefrary to call upon that noble and gallant Admiral again to hoift his flag, not more for the terror and difgrace of our foes, than for the benefit of his example throughout the Briti(h Navy, by his (kill and valour, and his aria obfervarice of that difcipline, which is Ib effentially neceffary to the exittence of our fleets, and of which he himfelf is fo decided an inftance, in his own rigorous obfervance and his Pelf devotion to the Service, they will be deeply and folemnly refpon. fible for having fent out that Naval Hero with all the impreffions they have made, by endeavours to lower his character in the eyes of the Navy, by fending him out calumniated, and half difgraced and dit heartened (u far as they could), to the fleet, with the name of a harth, rigorous, oppreffive tyrant. " It is not neceffery to call to your reeolledion the many boans and promifes of the Author of this Bill. The. Bill itfelf is full of fimilar prefumption. It profeffes to raife 85,000 men, and it proceeds upon this great point, as if there could be no doubt upon the accomplifhment of it. So full of confidence is it, that in the fecond year of its operation you are to proceed to fill up all the vacancies. Vacancies, by what ? Why by the enliftments into the general ler vice I It is quite lure about this; and upon the next, that is, the third year. having atfained this grand object, it grows rather moderate after being to far fatisfied. Having got all this amazing run, of men into the army. what then ? We won't exhao// the country; and then it muddily limits its exertions, and lays, ' provided the nember than not exceed 9,000 men' Then the parilhes are to recruit in their , immediate neighbourhood, arid to fpecify whence each recruit comes. If the Government lhould choefe to make this a mere Tax Bill, there is nothing to hinder them, and they make all the parithes in the kingdom delinquents. It would be a new and curi ous tight to fee all the parilhes in the kingdom pro fecuted in the Court of Exchequer under this famous Bill. The Right Honourable Gentleman altered this part of his meafure, in adapting it to the cafe of Ireland, but he would not confent to put England on the Irifh footing. The Gentleman, however, con tended all along that it was a Bill to raife the men, and not the money. Now there is a claufe to prevent that, if he pleafes, and it is become quite manifest, that it cannot raife the men. He can fine every where. Well, do we know what he may make of that money he choofes to raife in this manner? What will he do with all his fines? What if he choofes to change his Recruit Bia ire° a new and arbitrary, unjult, unprincipled, and atrocious tar on the landed interea of the country, for the purpole of creating a new fund ? How do we know to what purpofe he may apply it ? Sir, I have already obferved, that in the opinion of fome pertons it teems as if there were fometLing of a very peculiar nature in the prefent Adminiltre lion that gave them a title to an unbounded confi dence from this Houle and from the country, that no ad of their's thould b. marked with reprehenfion, and that we ought not to feel the fame fulpicions at the failure of their plans, as we ought to have done refpeding the condud and meafures of the late filly, imbecile, infignificant Minitters. Now, in what confifts all this boafted improvement, and where are the merits of this great change ? A change has been made, it is true. Many Ge olemen expreffed their defire, at this crifis of the affairs of the nation, to fee an Adminiftration founded on a broad and comprehenfive balls, combining all the great talents, genius, and experience of the glen public cherafters of this country. It was not only the with of Par. liament, but it was, I believe, the with, hope, and expedation of almoft every man in the kingdom. I give to my Right Honourable Friend opponto (Mr. Canning) full credit for his fincerity in the willies he expreffed, and the part he took for the promotion of this great object. But if Ido not give an equal degree of credit to the motives and con dad of others, it may be becaufe I have not had the fame opportunity of knowing how to eltimate and approve their charaders, habits, and principles. I believe that the Right Hon. Gentleman fincerely wished an Adminifiration to be formed upon a broad balls, but furely he mull be as fincerely difappoint ed from having failed in his endeavnurs. I fuppofe he foon found his Adminiftration was too firong— fpirit above proof ; therefore neceffery to dilute it ; the gold was too pure, therefore it required an alloy ; that filch a conflellation of vigour was col leaCd as to be too great for the eyes to behold, there fore oeceffary to diminith it by intermixing fome of the dregs of the old Adminiftration. But can the Right Honourable Gentlem a n fupp o f e th a t he really came into office with the fame luitre am when be went out of it ? He went out becaufe of the great queftion refpeding Ireland; and when out, he warns the Cabinet of Ireland to look to him land his friends alone, and to regard his re-efieblifh ment into office as the fignal of their fuccefs. But has he, fir,ce his re.eftabliftiment, taken one Itep, or given the leell encouragement to reafife the expec tations he has railed ? Nay, has he not come back to office with a Iligma of having broken faith ? He will recoiled alfo how he has cafhiered the Noble Lord (Hats ketbury) from the department of Foreign Affairs, whom he had held up as the fitted man in the world, and afterwards degraded him, by turning him over to the Home Office. It is no thing, that he has (hewn an incapacity to judge of the fitnefs of mots to condud public affairs! I confefs, 1 1 then, I do not think he has the fame claim to the confidence of the country as he had when he went l l out of office. But fuppofing, as has been infinu ated, that he has refilled to fit in any cabinet in which he could not fit foie mailer, I cannot be lieve that thefe noble, independent pert ins would condefeend to fit in it as mere puppets, as if they had no eyes, no nofes. But if loch be his ambition, that he will not only not be placed in a fubordinne flotation, but even that he will not be on a footing of equality with the ableti men in the kingdom ;—what (hall we fay when every thing thews, at the fame time, his warn of judgment and difcrimination ? As to one and another of the component parts of the prefent Adminifiration (and who alfo formed part of the IA), I fuppofe they were all thought as capable of doing their ofiis•iet in their former fituation, and under the former A I • ministration, as now. But as to the Secretary e! State for Foreign Affairs, whom the Right Ho. nourable Gentleman held out as the molt able mem, he has now cafhiered him ; and first, Lord Har rowby—and now Lord filulgiave is introduced in his place. What fulosiority of talents has this Lift Noble Lcrd dilcovered ? I recoiled he got fomehow into Toulon, and h e th en thought himfelf in a fate of comfortable fecurity. Whether he finds himfelf in a Rate of equally comfortable fecurity now I know not. But this I acknowledge, the Right Hon. Gentleman has never told us that he was the fitteft man for hie office, and hence I augur that he has force chance of continuing in it. Bet if there be no fuch firiking proofs in thefe high departments of a change for the better, furely in the .-rdmicafry fume thing of the fort mull be vifible ! But whether the Noble Lord, appointed to the head of that Depart ment, be the &tett for it, I have no: the nicaue of alMease APtal inaAilitl, tho •trcellion to mnfl a million ak the country half r yet fo wretched at they, that they ct Right Hon. Gen' me come,' fayk th ruhbifh. I will cc Well, Sir, I camel do ? Why I does rigorous, as the that- were turned with to expofe to tl ture. Has not tt not the effect of thi pofition pradifed worthy of the pla therofelves into by But then they will Shocking to tell thi It may damp publ energies. Let u us keep it a little f they who diipoffetl places for alledgesi on which to found • found their own B the compar iron ; ti has tailed, and tha vetted into a mere objectionable mean odious Tax Bill— pirit and dellroy ,Ration, it would the Government a often heard of Hon of the regular art has turned out to but the dcluGon it Any attempt to en and Ilupid as the which the people which they are net' pie know what is fcenes ; they are puppet-fhew. Evi do in the bufinefi and the firings of them believe they know they have three finiple points 11111, has this Bi have failed, is it tion, to atone for And, Thirdly, is pus and dangeron fail to - recoiled, mended to us, not rating !acme, wh prove the military the means of raifi was a fcheme prat ft: Great Author not months and we the necefilties and be confidered. It an unprecedented so our wow, far e peak adminiliratil was to give us, an Of refillii.g all fors repel that torrent out on this nation, daring invader, all intoxication of kis cis. It has been tai Honourable Frienc pellion, treated it from the abundant fible to believe tha prefentation of the meafitres purfued are Come things, t as mutt infallibly "Ridkul When, after being mean. afforded hi egregioufly in eve projects, the fenfe What did he prom finance ? No fuch t railing of men for of fervice that any quite different from and the country at it. If you were to excellent boric. to upon, and your cob an equal number ef could you mount y would you think he complied with the —(A lewd laqh.)— tleman has failed c promife to the Hot lightly on new mat Jars have been alre commented upon. ought to be direB your military force, very outlet, that it that even a tenure nillration in their from a failure on th nothing like fo bad star force is upon th and the Right H when the futtjed w the time when hem ing it. mr Right that our Navy has of no lets than tilt; We hare not one n atom more of mem had tinder the left would appear that liar in the compofiti AS to chal'enge arid unbounded degree prefume to fay that is at all neceffary• claims to the confi.'. lie, Intel' fay a lilt km, that the char