The National Register. — London, England, 1818-11-15 00:00:00

Wbr No. 562.—V0L. XI. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. REDUCIION OF THE ARMY. Ar length we have reached the period so long wish ed fur, duo. of tbv s.cdac'tioo of the army to a peace eats blishment. There are, however, two ways of doing this; either by reducing the number of reginients, offi cers, and men, or by reducing the numbers in each regiment. The former plan is that which is to be adopted. The Morning Chronicle says, The more closely that the scheme of army reductions is examined, the less satisfaction will be derived from 6 itas a measure of retrenchment. In the House of Commons, last year, Lord Palmerston distinctly said, that it would be infinitely more economical to reduce regiments altogether, than to keep up a purrther, of 6 skeletons. Seventy regiments at 800 men each would ' be infinitely more advantageous to the country than • ninety at 620 each; suul he held out this as the plan 6 of reduction to be pursued, stating the amount of say ing that would thereby accrue. flow will the No ' ble Secretary at War reconcile the plan of reduction actually adopted with that which he announced ?—• The extravagant course is preferred to the economical. The country is saddled with much more expence than would have been incurred by following the plan of the Noble Lord ; and what is of almost equal int ' portance, influence would have been diminished in ' the same proportion as expence. 6 But through the whole arrangement, official regard has been paid to the preservation of patronage ; and acordingly we sec that that branch of the service • which is• the most desirable to young men of interest, ' the Cavalry, is to be kept on a much higher scale • than the Infantry. The expense of this is not the ▪ only evil. The Line will be made merely a transit ▪to the Horse. Every Cadet of Parliamentary fami lies will look for removal to the Cavalry, that he may ' act be sent to the West Indies ; and the influence of • the Crown will thereby be promoted to a dangerous ' extent in time of profound peace. At no former time was the Cavalry kept up to so high a rate, and there ' can be no good reason for it in the present state of our resources.' The argument adduced by the Courier is, that by preserving skeletons of regiments, we may, in any war breaking out, in a few months raise our army to •a war establishment, fur that there will be nothing to do but to distribute the new levies among the skeleton regi ments thus preserved, where they will be commanded by veteran officers, and surrounded by veteran soldiers ; whereas, were the regiments reduced altogether, the new levies must in such a case be formed into new re giments, and they would be much longer being brought to a state of discipline. But, granting this argument its full- force, on what supposition does it proceed ? On one of preparing now for a future war. Bat was not this painful necessity the very thing which was to be avoided by restoring the Bourbons 'Was it not the very evil we complained of in Buono parte's time, that peace must always be accompanied by preparation for war ? What have we gained, if this necessity still exists ? The fact is, this necessity does net exist to Me recut alleged, but in sonic measure it does, and the reason is plain ; we did not finish our all& after the battle of Waterloo. Our Ministers im puted too much of the past evils to the sole character of Buonaparte, and imagined they did every thing 'in re storing the Bourbons They forgot, in Boonaparte's grimes, those of Louis XIV. and of Louis XV. !lad they remembered these they would have been ratisfied in expelling Buonaparte, and instead of insisting on Louis XVIII.'s restoration, ►hey would have insisted on the cession of Alsace and Lorrain, and the iron bar rier of the fortresses of Elantlias. o~~: /1 9 ( THE QUEEN. PRICE 90. The following Bulletins of the Queen's health have been issued since our last :=-• " Kew Palace, Nov. 9. " The Queen felt herself more eat y throughout yesterday, but her Majesty's night was a restless one. " Kew Palace, Nov. to. " The Queen has not rested well in the night ; but her Majesty has had sonic good sleep this morning." " Kew Palace, Nov. I 1. " The Queen has had little rest in the night, and her Majesty remains very much indisposed." " Kew Palace, Nov. It. " The Queen was in a less uncomfortable state through the whole of Yesterday ; but her Majesty has had a bad night.' " Kew Palace, Nov. IS. " The Quest had sonic sleep in the uight ; her Majesty appears to suffer less to day than she did yesterday." Kew Palace, Nov. 14. "The Queen continues in much the same state. Her Majesty rested ill in the early part of the night; but had some good sleep this morning. " F. MILLMAN. " H. HALFORD.' The Queen has experienced a considerable abatement of her sufferings since Thursday noon. • Throughout the latter part of that day, the violence of the symptoms gradually subsided, and she passed the night ithout any recurrence of them. Towards morning she slept for several hours, and apparently with some degree of comfort, for on Sir F. 111illtnait visiting the Royal Chamber at the usual hour on Friday morning, he found her Majesty a good deal refreshel, compared, at least, with the last two or three days. Her Majesty continued without any relapse through out the remainder of the day ; and, when Sir Henry Halford returned from Windsor, at three o'clock in the afternoon, she was considered out of immediate dan ger.. Sir Francis Millman availed himself of the cir cumstance to visit hia family at Pinner. It was, how. ever arranged, that he should return to the Palace at an early hour, yesterday. The Prince Regent went away on Thursday nig h t, somewhat earlier than usual ; and on Friday night his Royal Highness omitted his visit altogether. A mes senger arrived from Carlton House, between six and seven o'clock, and the evening roport of Sir H.Halford was forwarded by him to the Prince. The Princess Augusta was sufficiently recovered from her indisposition, to accompany ber Royal Sister, the Duchess of Gloucester, in a walk on the lawn. Their Royal Highnesses remained out upwards of an hour, and were attended by General Taylor. The following paragraph is from the Morning nick : " It has been the constant observation of the puW.i;,, that the Bulletins and Circulars from kew have given very imperfect notices of the nature or.pro g re s s o f her complaint. While rumour salted, from time to time, the private opinion °is the. Phy?icians, that the Royal sufferer was fast approaching the uuiversal duora —and that the certainty of a general mourning put a stop to all other manufactures, but that of articles is black, it was observed that no Prayers - were offered up to the Almighty in our churches for the recovery, nor was it understood that she bad desired the spiritual mt. solution of any Divine. Indeed, it was tanderstool th‘fit her own confidence in her strength was at variance with the opinion of her Physicians. We have onee• or twice stated circumstances in her ease, that Came to our knowledge, differing essentially from the aectmatt of the Court Reporter. in like manner we now A T I it our duty to state, that on Saturday cw_ e oing last,'hcr Majesty felt cozsiderable temporary relief 1)y a f•mall rupture of the skin in both ankles, front v i t ich - t h ere has been since a considerable effusion of w e , 'lt was not occasioned by any puncture, but the etiitrt ii;tare, and as we have stated, it had the elliut of affording temporary relief; hot it ton frequentl7rhaispens that such cracks in the skin of a dropsical ixttiertt produce symptoms of more speedy termination thati the disease itself. We fcar that her Nlajesty's malmly is come to that stage when the most loyal, as well as filial tend . ness, may pray for relief from bier sufferidr... ller N. . jesty received the week bcfitre last a :due packet of di s p li tcheo from the Duchess of I lombtreg, and we Ito. derstand that but a few days ago she gave orders to her silversmith to manufacture a sumptuor t s set of plate kir aticica tpgct her with several articl es tf silk, as e ra scats for her favourite tlaughter." ~1 ationalf v•Lt iOttr+ Ql)ur itinut Con6titution ann i1a1336. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1818. The fact is, France is too powerful. Under the weak Louis XV. she endangered Europe, and under Louis XVIII, or his successor, be lie ever so mild, or pious, or legitimate, she will over-run the kingdom of the Netherlands iu one campaign, Whedietwe reduce our army by egiments, or preserve skeletons, shall we venture tc go to the expencc of a war to preserve these Netherlands i The expence is what we cannot stand, and that plan of reduction which saves most money, is that which will best enable us to renew a war when necessary. Had the war been continued another twclvc month to accomplish the reduction of the French empire, it would have been real economy, for then our work would have been done, and we might have gone to bed ; at present it is plain Ministers have. so little confidence in the durability of peace, that we arc to lie on our arms. CANTFRBURY, Nov. 13.—The remainder of the ed Dragoon Guards, whose destination is Irelaad, have been landed at Dovcr, as also the 3d (King's own) I)ra goons, the teth Lamers (680 men and 600 horses,) and the 18th Hussars; these will be followed by the 1 lth.Light Dragoons, which is to give up part of its horses to the Sd (or King's own) which regiment re mains in this city for tile purpose of receiving them. The leth have marched by the line of the coast for Chichester. The embarkation of the 3tl (Buffs) 'for Ireland, which was previously prevented by a fresh wind from the coast, was yesterday completed at Deal, that of the eyth foot was also commenced on board the •Brilliant and Lady Ha..-,ilton transports, after which the 7th and '2 Jd Light Infantry will proceed to the same point for a similar purpose and destination. We are sorry to state that, in consequence of a very severe attack of the gout, the Lord Chancellor was not able to attend IVestminster Hall yesterday. On the 7th inst. the tburth regiment returned to their old quarters at Winchester, which they quitted previous to joining their companions in the Peninsula. Only 50 men remain of the number formerly there.— Many of the privates have brought with then French women as wives, and a numerous assemblage ofzipildreri. Query, as they are not married according to the Pro testant church, will not the women be returnable to France in case of the man demanding relief from his parish ? The men look well, and are remarkably healthy; not more than twelve of them on the sick list. They will be disbanded shortly. Battalions of the 4th, sth, and 74th regiments of infantry, part of the army returned from France, have marched through East Grinsted and Horsham this week, on their route to Winchester. It will be readlected • these three regiments bore a conspicuous part in most of the dreadful conflicts, wherein the British troops were engaged during the late war. It is understood, that the dispatches which Captain Brine, of the Musquito, arriva at Portsmouth, from St. Helena, brought, relate to a plot which was near upon being carried into effect, and which had for its object the release of Buonaparte.--S:ome 'persons re siding in. England are the principals. The substance of what has been suffered to transpire at the Government Offices relative to their contents is, " That a corres pondence had been intercepted by Sir 11. Lowe, which proved the existence of a communication between that island and certain' persons resident at Rome, Paris, and Mu nkh ; and that this communication had for its object the liberation of Buonaparte from St. Helena." From its being deemed requisite to consult the Attorney and Solicitor-General, on the subject of the connnanication from Sir H. Lowe, we may infer, that it actually does implicate some persons re.ident in this country, though, from prudential reasons, an attempt may have been made to suppress that circumstance while the matter is under the consideration of the Law Officers. By the following provision in the Act for confining Huonaparte in St. Helena, it will be seen that any at tempt to rescue him, is made a capital offence:— '• And he it further enacted, That if any person or pawn is, being a subject or subjects of, or owing allegiance to, his Majesty, Ins heirs or successors, shall rescue. or attempt to rescue, the said Na poleon Ittronaparte, or shall knowingly and wilfully aid or assi:t in the escape of the crid Nopoleon ntionaparre, or in any attempt to c‘rape Piton such custody as aforesaid. or from any limits or hounds hereir, lie 1104 is or at any time hereafter shall or War be detained and kept in custody as aforesaid, or in which he shall or may be suffered to go at large within the limits of any island or country, territory or place, or within the I . to of any districts or bounds within any island or country, territory or place, upon pantie or with out parole. all amid every such persons is offending, upon being coovieted thereof, be adjudged guilty of felony, l a nd 4 1 , 4 11, w irer de 4 th, as in cane► of felony, without !midi. 01 clergy."