The National Register. — London, England, 1808-04-18 00:00:00

PRIK7 7.7 rr-~ THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 7 z .. ~; lie asks tOr a subsidiary force, in which no man will be nitowed ti, ierve 4141614 e, .ftrilsoilgif the 'Crown hill Le enabida to Consmand entanent4itity - far one-and-toteoly days in the year. Is this reconcileablc to the principles of a free Government ? Lord Castkreigh knows that. it is not, and therefore he makes a relaxation in favour of per- . sons " prevented by say serimis business." What relasia. - - Goa does he make ? Why, he gives- them the power of paying " serious fines." Bt.t, says his Lordship, "if Sub stittiles ivcre allowed in this Local Militia, it would go directly to impose a henry lax :- men mould magnify the importance of the duties of the' service, and would '' gise large sums to substitutes." So in order to avoid insposing a 'Leary Lax, his Lordship proposes a serious free. A strange kind of relaxation indeed ! But then it will he said, a man a ill escape these inconveniencies if he belong to a Volunteer Corps : for the Volunteer Corps do hat generally go out upon permament duty, but content themselves wiih exercising near their respective homes. The effect then of Lord Castlereagh's plan is either to avoid a tax [us the imposition of a fine, or to-raise a sub sidiary force by compelling . people to olunteer In a former number we expressed a regret that after so great an outcry about reform in the Military System of Great Britain, Mr. IVindliam introduced nothing more than an alteration in the business qi recruiting the regular, ordinary, and subsidiary force of our Military Establish ment. But though we have blamed him for having effect ed so little where so much was necessary to be dune, and though we es en conceive that in the reforms he has ac tually made, perfection has by no means been attained : yet ne see still greater reason fur impeaching the rage of alteration, w hich seems to be so peculiarly the taste of modern statesmen. The inconveniences of change are always so great, and most particularly in a military sys tem, that no alteration should ever he introduced which does not give the strongest hope of great and material benefit. 'flue system of the Militia, though perhaps abso lutely necessary fur the existeuce of the country, is felt by the country as a great annoyance : and if, even when the pruciples that govern that system are clear and fixed, the 'steno itself be regarded as a grievance, how much more wirvous does it becsane, when the introduction of some inefficient alteration gives occasion every year to a fresh Act of Parliament, puzzles the understandings of the people, aud keeps their nuisance constantly before their es es I We certainly conceive that it is the• duty of that great mass of the people, whom education aud circum stances have disqualified from judging on abstruse points of politics, to submit quietly to the reasonable acts of the Gosernment, and nut busy themselves, except upon some ;,.. i ppearance of flagrant 's roug e in investigating matters which they cannot understand. Rut we also think that it is the duty , as well as the interest of Gos ernmeutnot to shock unnecessarily even the instahen feelin g s of the people : not to destroy that magic of opinion, on a hick the good order of t h e R a t e , an d the absolute existence of e%ers Government, must always so materially depend. And when we see the Uiaisters comieg fofaard year after sear, every - line will: a fresh plan, but tics er with a plait containing airy thing fresh, at least any thing fresh that can he of serious ad s mange, we feel inclin.al to deprecate, in the strongest manner, the idle fashion, that occupies the attention of our country men merely - to tormeut them, and even diminishes APRIL IS. the benefits that might be expected from a quiet coutinu kacovi Lei aeldati. .111Iiiiiis scat-lA - Ay - timid he nu .merous icl*uaeS, 1h:4114111-not be= 1u to satisfy Eng lishmen tolerably well, if it were left to itself, though none of them exactly suit our ideas of good military system : • but no one . has•its fair chance : for as soon as the people - have ceased tO - WarftheinselVcs ivith the last innovation, and from -habit are become a little reconciled to any in- COnveniences it may contain, a new plan is obtruded upot} their notice, and banishes the grievances of the last . ncl by a better invention, hut by other grievances of its own. The principal hardship introduced by ,the new Bill is the compulsion of . permanent duty, unmitigated by the nth source of substitution. And this is a measure of two-fold inexpediency : inasmuch as it affects both the liberties and the morals of the peOple.—The old system of ballot, which affected only persons in humbler life, .vas a subject of great complaint : because as such persons had seldom Rit . means of providing substitutes, personal service became almost unavoidable to them. • But the present Bill goes to I extend the oppressive operation or the old principle of ballot, and at the same time to destroy its alleviations. The rich and the poor, the man of business and the. man of pleasure,' are now all equally summoned to personal service : and though upon the ancient plan, the chance of poor persons for avoiding personal service was but small; yet that small chance was better . than none. And none a( all is there now, for any class of people. Is it possible t o conceive any greater inconvenience than that which this Bill. will produce to men employed in active mercatitihs pursuits, which require their constant presence ? To men engaged in the liberal professions, vs ho cannot excrcis.: their functions by proxy ? To all concerned in the etluca-, tiou of youth ? To every clerk, whose weekly salary de pends upon the certainty of his attendance in his bi.-iness? The necessity of paying; for a substitute was a necessity griesous enougLl to many of these-classes; but the requisi tion of personal service on permanent duty for une-aLd twenty days, is a matter almost of absolute ruin. • The mischief's of permanent duty to the morals of the people, it is hardly necessary to urge. Even the Regulars, iwho are under much closer discipline than it is possible to 'enforce upon temporary, Soldiers, and who has e nut the seduction of a new and sudden change of life to betray them into particular idleness and excess, are nevertheless exceedingly injurious to the morals of every town in which they are quartered : and uhett the Local Militia, shifting from business to sudden leisure, hahited in a new and gay attire, becuiniog the gaze of the inhabitants of the toati , iu which they are stationed, surrounded in short with al. most every temptation that idleness, vanity, and dissipa• tion cut present to inexperienced and thoughtless wind`,. shall take up their quarters in the heart of a country, it is easy to guess what riots and debaucheries will grow among themselves, and creep upon the society with which they conic in contact. If these are the mischiefs of change, the people of this country will soon shudder at the veers , rumour of it. For our own parts, we shall never cease to look anxiously for the time when the words " in;litary reform" shall assume the sense that they ought to bear : when they shall no longer denote a partial removal of petty mischiefs, by the . introduction of mischiefs on a ditreicut construction , 1) sisall signify a grand, complete. *ld radical eltc:atin..L...,a ' 2 , 12 6.1.•°•• -