The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1807-07-28 00:00:00

r could do nothing withelst the consent at the Commanding Officers. They could only io. spea the arms and make their returns ; matters which he should he glad to know why the Com manding Officer. of Di%.riEis could not equally well accomplish ? Did Minis,ers not know the benefit that would arise to the country by the saving which would be made by the non-appointment of such office. s? Did they not know that the saving would amount to no less than 300.0001. a year Was this nothing under such circumstances, when so much exertion bad been used by the former Ministers to husband the resourc.s of the country, prevent patronage, and rectify abuses ? PI dwell upon this subject, how ever, would only lead him, into a repetition of apposite expressions, which had been so often used upon similar occasions. He should only further ob . serve, that this measure appeared to him to he what might be justly denominated a complete job, and proposed for no other purpose than to create patro nage I and upon these grounds he should conclude with moving, " that instead of being read now. this Bill should be read this day three months." Colonel STANLEY also spoke against the mea. sore ; And observed, that he should be sorry to op pose Any plan that appeared calculated for the pub lic service. He understood it was intended to en courage Militia Officers to join the Regular Army; but how, he would wish to kens,, were thevacancies in the Militia ro be filled up t Had not difficulties been already experienced in procuring Officers, par ticularly subalterns, to enter into the Militia t While he acknowledged the Bill was such that he word be under the necessity of opposing it in every stage. yet, should it pass into a law, he should en deavour to promote its successful operation, because to Jo otherwise would tend to injure the Defence of the Country. Should the Bill come to a second reading that evening, he should, in an atter stage of • it, take the liberty of proposing a clause relative to the appointment of officers, so that it should not iv ied'''. with suose belonging to the Militia, as he would much rather have no additional measure of dole ice brought forward, gran establish. it upon the annihilation of tha• most constitutional force. gr. H. WILLOUG i-IBY observed, that at this period, when so many Powers of the Co..tinent were overwhelmed, and others threatened wit. .-rteral ruin, it surely ought to be now our most important considerasion, what ought to be done at home ? He could not help observing. upon such a discussion as t' e present, tt:e negleil of late Ministers timely to assist the P. 'weee upon the Co..tinent. As to the Volunteers, whom th. Right :lon. Gentleman op. posite.(Ai. Winas's)). had formerly used all his eloyselice vs decry, ae •hought they were ratified to the 411APCS of their country for their laudable erns. aid ' aoproy lof the Nahle Lord's plan, in g. oe.vensieng to rei 4 re them to the footing upon whit :bey were previnns to the c"eck which t .ey received from the Rigor Hon (lends-non, whose talents, although admirable in other respects, had not been displayed to much advantage ia Ina mili tary plans. The number • t los:wiling Field offi cers might, however. be limited, as he really theught they were of some use, although the situa tions or employment of some of them were so trill.ng, as to render them complete sinecures. He approved highly of the plan of permanent duty, and particularly for Corps raised in the country, not having those opportunities of improvement which town Volunteers enjoyed. He sincerely la mented the unfortunate dissensions which existed in the House, as to those measures that were calcu. laced for the Defence of the Kingdom, and conclud ed with recommending unanimity in our Councils, which, in his opinion, was equally necessary for our salvation, as unanimity in the field. He should vote tor the second reading of the Bill now. Lord EUS VON, in a tone of voice which we could not distinaly hear, expressed himself hostile to the measure, so long as it tended to raise a force et the expense of the Militia. He, however, thought, that the Bill might be made effeltual. it one or two points were yielded ; amongst these, we understood the Noble Lord to state, that no proposition ought to be made to induce the men to enter into the re gular army under any other terms than those es tablished by the last law upon this subjeft. Mr. LOCKHART said, he most heartily ap proved of the measure proposed, because it did not interfere with any plan formerly established for me`• uiting either our home or our regular force. It was to be viewed as a measure of a temporary na ture, to answer our present ernerg.ney. It was one which hammed our army at once, and it had the merit of ;giving to the regular force of the country soldiers et the description 4-anted formerly by a Right Honorable Gentleman app asite. They would be soldiers, sal gesseru ; soluiers by pro fession ; and men who bad satisfied themselves with a =airy life, and who had found that the path they had already tried was too norrow for their glory. Such was the sort of soldier to whom the country might look for the highest exploits. It was said that this was a measure of compulsion—it was so; but if such an objeltion was to be argued to its fullest extent, it would apply to the whole of our Militia Laws, which were compul sory. These were opposed &first, but the good sense of the country had over-ruled the olsjealon. The whole system of taxation was also compulsory; and while the inveterate enemy to whom we are opposed is using compulsion to get the nations of the earth to enrol with him, in order to achieve additional con quests, it was surely not too much for this country to resort to such means, merely to place ourselves in a state of safety ; and who could doubt that a nation, with eleven millions, can effeetttally do so, if she be governed by wise, prudent, and resolute Ministers ? Had we rot read in a late Bull,. tin, that the French soldiers Wilfred at the Cossacks for using arrows against their European weapons. This was ridiculous. But should we not be equally so, if we did not compel the people to defend themselves with whatever weapons they could be most easily accustomed to ? As to this measure discouraging the Militia Officers, he knew that they, AS patriots, seeing as they must see, that the fate of this country must depend, not upon the steps which she takes at this instant, but on those which have a more permanent tendency, would stih exert themselves with the utmost promptness. — No time must be lost. It was impossible that these of could show any degree of relaxation in their eft rts, or feel any uisgust, provided they were convinced that the measure was essentially name Wiry. It was not our fate, lts s kingdom,. that alone depehded upon energetic Means. but It was thebonour, the private psoperty. and the fate of every ladividual inhabitant of it, which were at stake. Let no man believe. that if our implacable enemy conquer us, he will leave us any thing 'calla dle. Has he (Bonaparte) 'Maid that he will take five hundred years vengeance upon Britain t This was because it was now nadir five hundred years since we had displayed ourselves the rivals of France; and it was an expression used for no other purpose than to excite the rapacity, last, and avarice of his soldiers ; and let us be assured, that what that man has said he will do, if he have it in his power he will realize. Ha is one that has never broken his word in his coati. towards other nations ; and do we believe that he will do so in regard to us ? If then these things be true, there can be no disgust iu the mind of any person, provided the country be convinced that such a measure is necessary. As to the alleged hardship upon those who had fa milies, he thought some means might be sug gested to alleviate it ; but the paying of fel. would onlye in the end, aggravate the evil, as it would tend afterwards to raise the bounties for rectuiting the army. He concluded with saying he should support the original motion. Mr. CALCRAFT next rose, and stated, that he was exceedingly happy in having heard the anti meats of those who had preceded him, both those who concurred with, and those who disagreed from, the present measure , __ as it gave him additional argu ments against it. He trusted the House would be lieve that he was as anxious as any man to concur in any defensive measures which the necessity of the times might call for, and to promote that energy in our force, which the critical situation of the country might require ; but before he did this. by acquiescing in a measure of this sort, he must look to the actual situation of the country, and the pretext that was held out for this plan, as well as the plan itself. If, then, in reviewing those things, he should find, that the force of the country was sufficient to repel all our dangers, he should feel himself bound is duty, as a represents live of the people, to spare them the trouble and expense of resorting to those compulsory measures which the Noble Lord seemed to think so aece.sary for the salvation of the country. He conceived he had just grounds to entitle him to oppose th.s plan. In answer to an observation that had fallen from an Hon. Gentleinan on the other side, rela tive to the Yr:enterer Force of the Country. he meld riot sit silent. and bear the friends he attvd .ksith AO his side of the House, called to account for the diminution that had taken place in that arce. He knew well, that it Gentlemen would take the trouble of turning their attention to the returns that were laid upon the table, they would find, that that diminution did not arise cut of rug peculiarities in the goveramcnt of the Volunteers, or their mode of regulation ; but was the mental consequence of the establishment itself. (Cry of :leer ! hear ! from one side of the House. and Ne. fie, from the other.) If they looked beck to the year MS, they would find that the Volunteer force amounted to 400,000 mem it they would look forward, they would find, that at the commence. meat of the year 1806 the Volunteer force amounted to 318,000 men, and this was a period pievioes to his Right Hon. friend (Mr. Windham) coming into power; and therefore Gentlemen should not in considerately make these observations, but. as far as possible, when there were documents to prove faas, concur in them what rendered so notorious. He should deny that any part of the diminution was owing to regulations adopted by that Right Ho nourable Gentleman. Those who had served amongst the Volunteers for four years, as he had done, must necessarily discover that a thousand circumstances, existing in the institution it elf, must vary the extent of its force. .1 he reduaion from 1806, down to the latest period, amounted to nearly 10,000 men ; a diminution. which, from the docu ments he alluded tn, could not be laid to the charge of the late Administration. Now, with respell to the last:rotting Field Officers. he thought it was cer tainly necessary that there ought to be some orders and regulations to produce a connexion betwixt the Volunteers and the Government of the country, so as to learn the state of their discipline ; but what they (die late Ministry) contended for was, that the country already had a complete Staff of Military Officers, with little or nothing to do. They might be the organ for conveying to the Government, a knowledge of the discipline of the Vol'inteets.— Although the expense that would thus be saved to the country would be a trifle, yet. put this trifle, and other things called trifles together, and the amount would be found pretty considerable, and well worthy the attention of a government anxious for the good of the people. These inspeaing Offi cers ought to have been taken from amongst the officers of the army, on half pay, but instead of this, 'that had been done t It WAS found that out of seventy persons, who were appointed Inspeaing Field Officers, not more than sixteen of them had anually been M the army.—Did not this look like a whispered favour ? It surely resem bled something of that descriptien.—This was not a measure of compulsion, as to the of ctes and men who entered from the militia into the regular army ; but, surely, it was otherwise in regard to those who were t t supply their places; so Lost the measure ought to be looked upon in another view, than merely as it tended to supply the army. (Hear! bear!) If it were necessary to ball tor men, or to have recourse to compulsion at all, he would surely prefer the ballotting for men, in the most drat'sl way, as had been done in the Ai any of Reserve Aft. There would he another advan tage arising from that mode of balloting, that dur ing the operation of the All authorising it, our existing Militia force would remain unhurt ; but, by the Noble Lord's plan, when carried into eil:6l, what viand& become of than Could there be a.iy thing made of them t or would they be in the per fett state they are in now ? No, they would be totally destroyed, by being rendered un serviceable whereas, by the former Aa, which he alluded to. we should be able to aid to our regular force, without interfering with that most impart int branch of our army, the Militia To illustrate his argument, he should take this op vrtunity of recalling to the recolleaton of the House, the ;rent exertions which this country has already made, in calling out a military force, great and important indeed, when compared with the ere. tent of its population. By the last Returns laid be fore Parliament, it apreared that the regular army consisted of upwards of 181,000 men ; the Militia of 77,00 men, the N iv; a td Marines, of 1200e0 men, and the Artillery of upwards of 20,000 men ; making the number applicable either to home defence, or ti toe proiedion of our colo nies abroad, amount to more than 400,000 men, in the pay and asiive service of this e.,t i e•ry. Add to this, the Voluteers. estimeed at 500.000 men in Great Britain. All these, with the Sea- Fencibles and Irish Volunteers, making upwards of 930,000 men for the defence of our country. out of our limited population. besides the men employet in our commercial marine, who may be called upon in cases of necessity, to assist in our defensive ope rations. Thus we have nearly a million of men ac tually employed in defending the country ; arid surely they were fully sufficient to guarantee its safety ; at least, those who thooght otherwise must be more forcibly struck with the valour and crier. gy of the French force than he was. It was of more consequence to employ ourselves ip reguleong those properly, than to impede our operations by making additions. In the plan of the Noble Lord, it was very probable ear he could not raise a sufficient number to supply their places, even in the Militia, by ballot, as many would rather pay the pushy. He disapproved of this inode of rais ing men, as this expense fell upon a description of men least able to bear it. Complaints had been made against the late Ministers for send ing the regular force out of the country ; yet t, the present Ministers seemed to forget that I they were sending infinitely more men nut of the kingdom than thil late Ministry had done.— They, in fail, seemed to embark men, and as semble ships, without any objett. Such was the case with the grand mysterious and secret Expedi tion now going forward. While the Noble Lord seemed to wish to be very civil to the Militia offi cers, he was surely degrading them very much by frittering away the Militia force, at the very time they were fit to ad under them. This was taking from them the means of being useful in the &fence of the country, and was not merely altering or changing the sytem, hut subverting it altogether. He was afraid, that notwithstanding ell the proles. skim made by the Noble Lord, his grand and sole °Neff was merely to undermine the merit of his Right Hon. Friend's (Mr. Windham) plan. as had seen attempted in every other instaitce by the present Ministers. against those veto preceded them. His Right eiloeurable Friend's plan t 4 succeeded in raieng Al many men as the Aclai At and the regular recruiting could have chute together, and this was surely a great deal.—(Hear! bear!) -• It had railed between 11,000 and 12.000 men, within the space of half a year—was pot this most creditable to that former plan ? The Right Hontimoble Gentlemen opposite, however. seemed to with to have all the merit of saving the country is their own way Oa these grounds be certainly felt it his duty to oppose the measure before them, being altogether an enemy to such a mode of recruiting. Colonel WOOD said. that however commend able were the measures introduced by the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Windham) for recruiting the Army, yet, when the great number of desertions was taken into the account, it was evident that some more efficacious plan ought to be resorted to, at the present jinifture, lot recruiting the Regular Army. I he Volunteer force was useful as tar as it went, but did not supersede the necessity of adding to the troops of the line. He disapproved of the appoint ment of Inspefting Field Officers to the Volunteers, es incurring a needless expense: their office might As well have been executed by Generals of the Distil& ; for he was inclined to think that too frequent inspeoions were not advamageous to the discipline of the Volunteer'. Colonel (or Sir.) CRIPPS was of opinion, that it was impossible, merely by altering tt.e time of service in the Army, to raise it to a sufficient energy upon an emergency. The ee. 7 cruiting had, indeed, increased ; but it was to be considered, that this was at a time white :elk competition with other species of military force, was at an in. He did not think the late plan of recruiting had completely succeeded ; but even supposing that it should fill up the vacan cies in the Army, yet something more was now wanted. The Defence of the Country must not be rented on what may possibly occur as to the in creased number of soldiers to he raised by means of recruiting. Tle plan of ballotting for the Militia WAS objeGied to, on ace not of the bounties ; but surely the ballotting f. e the line would increase that expense tenitild. When the bounty formerly had been high, it was for the Army of Reserve, and not for the Militia. Toe expense of substitutes for the latter was confined to 101. fur which sum the person drawn had an exemption for five rats, at the same time that a distinction was made in the hallooing between the rich and the poor ; for if the man baliotted was not worth 50g. he had one half the penalty restored to him. But it had been said, this measure would prove disagreeable to the Mi litia Officers. But he would ask, was this the eon test, which Militia Commanding O ffi cer should have the best regiment ? He had himself a come mind in the Militia, and should naturally feel heepy to have his regiment appear as good sol diers ; but at any rate he hoped to have the good fortune to inspire them with the spirit of soldiers. Were the present measure rejected. might not the Militia. in case of invasion, refl.& on Parliament, and say, ff we would have served in the line, under experienced Oiliest s whom we could confide in ; hut you put us to the discouraging alternative of fighting under Officers of less experience, when evert thing dear to us is in danger. He approved of tbo plan of the Noble Lord, as best eaulated to ' our force, either for offejlihe operations i abroad, or for home defence. Colonel BASTARD ohje&ed to this measure, because it gave a prelerence -to the Line over the Militia ; wneie officers were attached to the soil,. where there was a mutual attachment between oEii crr. and men, their mutual zeal and enthusiasm would answer every purpose, when conduced by ' general officers who knew how to lead them on.— But the Noble Lord's Alen tended to degrade the Militia. He saw no otherconsistency mine various nrilitay measures which Parliament had framed for thelast 1.5 years than this, that they had uni formly adop:d one and as uniforml y rejeffed anoth er of the p rec -.ling Giver .ment. Besides, we had as yet no other communication as to the ersting %tat- of pita: danger, than what the newspapers afforded. Bat he w... unwilling to b e . here that we were in soda a p situation: H e could hardly think that one h loss could occa sion such danger ; at the same time he professed himself ready to adopt evert- tra a .ure which might be redly recesaary for the oh fence and security of the Empire. Bat there were still other measu res which he considered o-ce.sary as he inquired into ; with reord to the finances of the cou:stry, whetherlov means could h- alopt-d to t the burden of heavy addiiiciiial taxes ; also, tai h re. spe3 to the cultivation of the waste land;, both to p- wide food and also meet ials for our naval stores. Beret ting to the plan of drafting from the Militia in.° the Line. he asked, was it grateful to tell the Militia that they mint be turned into the Line, h.. cause we could not depend upon them for the dr fence of their coutarr, although they were raised I.:. that exp.ess purpose ? And what must be the feelir. of the Militia Officers, when it was pr-ptisi•l them to have commissions in the army ? they be a whit the better officers on ti at s ccount An Hon. Gentleman had said, that the Militia was almost worn nu; ; hut it was not by age it was worn cut, hut by the repeated and various npa sures which had been adOpted of late years, tending to discourage it; and should the present Bill pass into a I.w. he co-aiidered that it would be stoat to death In that useful h , dy. lie believed the v orst disciplined Militia Regiments wmald soonest fill up the chasm occasioned by drafts into the line, whilst the hest disciplined iegi. ments would be kept (both officers and men) in a state of irritation, till theii quota was completed.-- The measure was also ohjedionable on the score of expense, as it would he found that men, who would otherwise have recruited into the line, w o . l id fiat take the bounty, as substitutes, under the b4l r for the Militia. auu then take a fresh bounty for enteri ng into the Line; so that they would cost fuur or use times a much as if they at once recruited into the Line. Die Noble Lord (Castlereagh) tattered tam self that the zeal of toe officers would soon recruit the chasms t +at would be occasioned in the Militia by this measure; but he was afraid that such world be the damp thrown upon that body, and such the want of confidence and conciliation manifested towards them, that it would have a contrary eff:i, and teed to depress and debase them, as it they wits llgt capable of d-fending their native soil. Such ai ne d m e as u resM i lit i a.c con tempt t had em p a t l in e a d Officers e ar t s ° ofh his s he iain e knowledge,tow towards ettha; bisinutit M oliat r tis.h . aetw F h U eßase L mgm L iuiril E taai ß rant observed, that the origin of the Army to was eti.ocwwha sconstituted,i men n sp the ed arms; ed us lr o ei f tc.rui.tii.nsge Militia was only to serve for three years, but when the time of service was made much longer, the gmal design of the Militia was perverted. N w if, as the Militia are now constituted, many mro were thereby kept from entering into the Krgtil Army, he thought it bet fair that the Militia should give up to the Line some of those men, whet the exigency of public affairs required it. Lord BINNING argued in favour of the mm. sure. Our defensive system could n t consist e;:ly of one species of force, and the rcgul sr ar m y what must be chiefly looked to. No syges nf ordinary recruiting could answer the pirpow4t the I present crisis; and at best it was a ix qvessive measure ; whereas an imniediate supply we; what was sow chiefly wanted. It was mire tinm-distely necessary to increase oar disposable force, Sec.tuse when our threatening enemy brought back Lit nu mercies forces to the coast, he might then mediate an attack on our colonial possessions, when we might stand in need of an adequate disposable fore. to countered his efforts. He denied that this measure • was brought forward with any idea of throwing a stigma upon the Militia. The system and language of the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite, (Mt. Windham), reseeding the VOW*• teer force, had proved injurious to that body ; net only ia the decrease of their noMnal numbers, bat in preventing those of them who were to have gone upon permanent duty. The Volunteers had bees discouraged tinder the late Administration. Mr. WHIT BRF.AD thought it might be conj.. dered as a singular circumstance, that after it war, w• tk scarcely any interval, for 14 years, the Leg;.- Ware should now be called upon to deliberate an oar Military system ; although toll agaia sal spin by the late Mr. Pitt, that not a moraent was 1 to be lost in firming some greed Military system. yet still, tram the year 1793 to 1807, no permanent system had b-en adopted for the defence of the country. The plans ad pied were only temporary. With all the ability and enlarged mind which Mr. Pitt possessed, yet the truth was, that upon his re turn to offi.e, the measures he then introduced were contradidory to those which he had formerly proposed. The Additional Force Bill, which was proposed as a measure of per . inat.en t s ecnriiy and defence, had completely faile d 4 and at the pr . scot moment the House was c alled on to deh berate on a new plan, and to make fresh effoi against a powerful enemy. But what was th great or sudden emergenq t if the Emperor 6 the French were af%ually encamped with :.35 trots; at Boulogne, then ind..ed Parli mem would justified in taking a large body of men of the bet discipline, when the country v. as about to thro the last die for its salvation ; but was there any p' bability that the French Emperor (for he a bstains frnta loading him with harsh and opprobrious,ep diets), could speedily realise his threats? t.. 1 even if he were, he would ask, was this a a tt ain The of energy adapted to meet the oc casion ? preset Admintstration came into office about three moot. ago, if they now say that there is not a su.fficient no; bee of men vs cope with the enemy, surely they d wrong in dissolving Parliament, and thereb y I peding the produdiou of new military pla Sur his own part, he was satisfied that the military force of the country was su ffi cient, it sv Admini. We had 169,000 men for home fence. If stered we are but an united people, wes not tht sufficient force to combat with any insulting cram If this could not screw us, the country . had means of salvation. He therefore thenght it set be unwise to increase our force now, because tip t the -ward w.t pi it al ;t i g ht at At d Wig" at cal st; itep h e ni cu th I3s n' voLld raw :hlra ably