The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1805-06-29 00:00:00

eluded by fejt ng he sird r.nt think the aliment% made use of on the other side of the House, could stand for a moment. Doctor LA\VRENCF. explained. A new clause was then brought up for the pu nishment of persons for carrying contraband goods ten larses. Colonel CRAUFURD said, he had given a nn tf:e of a motion for this night, and as it was the general rule that notices should have precedence, se thatinht this debate should be adjourned. The SPEAKER said, he understnod the 'ineniir ble Gentleman had given a kind of consent to busi ness of this nature goiog on. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, the Hon. Gentleman need not make very uneasy, as it would nosy take up but a very short time to go through the business. The clause was then agreed to, added to the Bill by way of rider, and the Hill passed. General FITZPATRICK gave notice that he Would on a future occasion bring forward a motion of a very important nature ; but, it this late period, he did not think it could be accomplished till next Session. It related to a gross and alarming viola tion of the military law of the country, in respect to the duty of the office of Advocate General of the army. Every one knew that the prerogative of the Crown extended so far as to dismiss any person from the army without calling him to a Court Mar tial, and to annul or confirm the sentence of a Court Martial ; but he never knew that the Advo cate General of the Army was the sole adviser of the Crown on these occasions. It certainly was not So until lately, and since the worthy Baronet (Sir Clarks Morgan) obtained the office. He did not see why there should not be the same solemeity in the case of person. convicted by Courts Martial, as in other convictions, namely, the advice of the Council, and then instarced the case of Colonel C. Johnston, who had lately been acquitted by a Court Martial, and nevertheless was exposed to penalties and punishment by the Advocate General. He would therefore, next Session, bring forward a Mo tion in two parts ; t'-e first, in the nature of a com plaint; and the second, to limit the power of the Advocate General. MHITARY STATE OF THE COUNTRY. Colonel CRAUFURD rose to male the motion of which he had given notice, relative to the military state of the country. He began by saying, that be fore he entered on the business which was to be the immediate subject of the motion, he should this night have the honour to submit to the consideration of the House, he begged leave to assure them that he was not :ablated by any such motives as had so frequently been insinuated against him ; that he did not wish, by any means to take up the time of the House at this late period of the Session ; nor did he think, that his opinion on this subjed was of greater weight or consequence than those of many other Members of that House. What he did was from a sense of duty, and he was sure the House would anew that he did not frequently trouble them ; and, indeed, that this was the only subjeCt on which he had ever done so. He was, however, on this, more mistrustful of him self than he had ever been before, as it had been taken up in so very masterly a stile towards the close of tlaklast Session, by an Hon. Gentleman, wliche high character was far beyond his praise (Mr. Fox), slid early in the present Session by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Windham), who had treated it in the fullest and most enlightened manner. A still fur ther disadvantage he had to encounter, was, that the war had now gone on so long without our hay ing aduelly sufl.ired any of those dreadful disasters and evils with which we had been threatened front the beginning, and therefore the people were natural ly grown weary of the subject. To him, Lowever, our danger, both at home and abroad, appeared to be equally at least, if not more formidable than it was in the beginning of the war, and as our means of defence and opposition to the enemy seemed to be every day getting worse and worse, instead of increasing in strength and vigour, he thought it was his duty, and that of the House also, to endeavour to obtain an inquiry first, as to tile true state of our mi litary strength, and secondly, how it may ibe made stronger and more efficient. In attempting to effect so important, so salutary, and so desirable a pur pose, he had endeavoured to shape the course he should pursue in such a manner as that he should be entitled to the approbation of the Right Hon. Gen tleman (Mr. P)tt) himself of the Motion with which he meant to conclude. Before he proceeded &redly to the subject, he thought it necessary to refer the House to the recolledion of that Right Hon. Gen tleman's plan, in which he undertook to legislate for the army, when, in eloquent and military a style, he condemned the modes pursued by his pre decessors, and now his colleagues, for raising addi tional troops, in order to increase our military strength, and particularly that part of it which is denominated our dispmeable force ; and by a fair comparison to ascertain whether that military strength has been increased or diminished, and in what proportion, allowing for the difference of time. Ile must also observe, that a considerable and important change had taken place in the political situation of this country, which required that our exertions should be still greater, be cause the Right Honourable Gentleman and his colleegues had thought proper to give us an ad ditional enemy to contend with. Whether it was the West policy that could be pursued to provoke a Spertieh war, he would not pretend to site, but he thought the expediency of it was very doubtful, and Ice had no doubt but it might have been avoided. He was of opinion, he said, that if we had behaved in a candid, open, generous manner, to the Spa niards. we should have had them, instead of an in veterate enemy, which they now are to us, an nn willing ally of France. If welted pursued a mode rate conduct in regard to her, Spain, labouring under the double Aldine of disease and famine, would Ire have so easily been induced to enter upon a state of active hostility and warfare with this country. France might perhaps have taken possession of the ports and her ships; but the Spaniards, once so high minded a nation, and to a certain degree he believed rill were so, would never have submitted to du more Against us than what aCtual force and compul sion would have effeeted, and that must in compa rison have been small indeed. The question is, whe ther we could derive more advantage from a war with Spain, or by being circumstanced as we then were, at peace with her? It had been said that we derived giivant.tge *tom it by Use opportunity and power it gate us of intercepting, their treasure coin ing from South America, and thereby preventing it from getting into the hands of the Emperor of the French, and enabling him Therewith to equip his Stets, and support his armies. Let us, said he, see hew this stands. In the course of the last twelve months he had found, he said, by the papers on the table, moved for by an lion. Member for another purpose, anti since printed, we had in this country iectiosed our Navy by the addition of six ships of the lire, hut that there had been a diminution of five 59 gun ships. Now, as it had always been held that our 50 gun ships were equal to a Dutch ship of the line, and were once used in the File by us, the aaual increase in our Navy in the course of twelve months was only one ship of the bee during that period : by an aft which he thought was a disgrace to the conntry we had added 25 sail of the line to the enemy's naval force. It re main el then to be considered whether we had in the same time improved our milit try force in an equal proportion to the addition of semi strength we ha I thus bestowed on our enemy, and if in that way we had obtained any additional security ? He would begin his statement with 1804, he said, and in doing se he should give the Right Hon. Gentleman the advantage of - four or five months of the efforts of his predecessors. On the Ist January, 1804, we had 46,698 men ; on the Ist June, 1805, we• had 65,358, but out of the last number, upwards of two hundred, instead of being already stated in the returns, he found were in the Isle of Wight, and of course included in the home trawls, which made the number 63,358, being about 13,360 more than we had in 1804. During the present year, the enemy had detached 18 sail of the line from the port of Toulon, accompanied by a proportionate number of troops, and he thought he made a moderate computation, when be estimated these troops at 9000 men. There had, during that time, two French squadrons sailed from Ro:hefort, the first consisting of six sail of the line, and by which, he computed the troops at 3,000; the second five mil of the line, and 1,500 troops; so that it appeared the troops sent out by the enemy to attack oar distant possessions amounted to 13,500 choice, picked, re gular disciplined soldiers ; and begged to ask which of the two in this respea had added most to their land forces abroad—France or England ? In the uonps returnedfor the Island of Ceylon, there were, he said, 1 ,700 composed of the miserable natives of the island, who, whether it was good or bad policy to employ theta at all, he would not then enter upon, but who ware certainly not entitled to the name of soldiers, and ought, therefore, to be struck off. This would bring the total amount of ours to 14,858, and the enemy's to some few hundreds above 13,000. Where ours a-e he 'would en deavour to show—where the enemy's are, God only knows. Our increase in Gibraltar this year had been 1639 ; and on what ground of policy that was done he could not conceive, for they were so many men locked up in that spot, and totally un serviceable for any ether emergency whatever, and therefore they ought also to be struck off the dis poseable force, which would then he reduced to 10,229. Of these 1,300 were in Nova Scotia, and different numbers in places of a similar kind, which, why they should now be particularly reengthened, more than they had been in former wars, he was at a loss to guess. There was, however, one body of men had lately been sent out of the country, on an errand which appeared to him incomprehensible, so far as it could answer any good or beneficial pur pose to the country. He meant the expedition under the command of Sir James Craig, which had sailed to the Mediterranean. He knew nu tting could be done in the Mediterranean except to take Minorca, and that could do us no service but for the purpose of blockading Toulon ; and to talk now of blockading that port, was like it shutting The stable-door after the horses were gone." It Ap peared from this then, that the real increase of our army was only 7,500, while the enemy's were 13,500. How these 7,500 men were disposed, he could not say ; but he thought no one could doubt that our situation abroad was much worse than when the Right Hon. Gentleman made his violent complaint against his predecessors, for their want of energy in effeaing an encrease of disposeable force. If our situation abroad was not more secure, he was afraid that it was still worse at home. He meant as to tile danger of invasion. He was one of those who, at the beginning of the war, thought that danger very great. When he considered, that we had to contend against an enemy so :Olive and so enterprising, he thought then that he would have endeavoured to have surprised this country by an immediate attack, before our navy could be in creased and properly dispersed ; and that, having so large and well-disciplined an army, and so numer ous afl itilla, he would have risked an immediate invasion. It seemed, however, that he had prefer red taking more slew, more deliberate, and more digested measures of attack ; but, during the whole of the period in which his threats have been post poned putting into execution, he has unceasingly and unremittingly added to his force of every de scription; not, he was afraid, as had been said, for the mere purpose of amusing the people of France, or to frighten us, but from the settled and firm deter mination to do it with more effeft whenever the opportunity may, in his opinion, most favourably occur. A Noble Lord, who is now in the Cabinet, had declared, in his place, that the plan of the war was changed, and that it was become altogether colonial ; be hoped that Noble Lord was singular in he opinion, but, if not, as that is to be the case, the' Administration will be prepared to meet them there. as well as at home, from which they suppose the attack to be diverted. If the Toulon squadron should have sailed direfl for Jamaica, and should have landed 10,000 men on that island, where we have only S cr 4000, they might not be able to take it ; but they would be able to carry on a very serious and destruaive war in the colony.— The commander of the fleet might, as the commanders of other squadrons have done, re turn (bred for Europe, and take his anchor age in the Downs, for the purpose of furthering the enterprise of that immense flotilla, which is lying on the opposite coast:" He was sorry, he said, to see the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite (Mr. Pitt) smile, as if he thought what he said ridiculous. 11 it was, however, lidiceleus, it was not new. It was very well known that during the American war, when Mons. de Grasse commanded The French fleet ia the West Indies, and Mons. de Doodle the land by Parliament. forces t Mont. de finttnle, heinre the engagement with Sir G. Rodney, praposi•d to the Admiral to sail direaly for England, and to make a sudden attack on it. If at that time they could conceive plats of this kind, he saw no reason why they should not now, when they had such an immense force, and nothing wanting to put it into aaion, bin a sufficient number of large ships to prated and cover its pro. gross across the Channel. He was afraid. that if they had increased so much abroad,, they had full as much so at home; whilst we had de- creased at home in horse-men only 4,000, and in the whole of the army are deficient not less than 49,346 men, which is not more than one-thirty-sixth part of what has been voted as necessary. In May 1804, our number of ships compared with that of the enemy was 88 to 50, which was very near two to one ; whereas it is now only 94 to BS, so that in that species of force the enemy has greatly eceeded us. It appeared that the atival increase of men in the last seven months was 5633 so that, supposing them to go on as before, which it was not very pro bable, it would take 11 years to complete the army to the establishment at which it was now voted. lie wished, therefore, to apprise the house of the na ture of the resolutions, which he meant to propose as . . the ground-work of his motion. The first was, That the army ,h,uld be kept up to the e tablashntent voted The army estimates had been voted at two millions. In' the present month there was a tioficiencv of nearly 50,000 . men ; and though he had no doubt but the estimates voted were applied as direEted, yet it was the duty of Ministers to shew the reason of this deficiency. He .pledged himself for the ace's racy of his resolutions. but if any inascuracy wsti found in them, nn investigation by a Committee he should move for, the House could very easily rescind that resolution. If our navy was nearly 2to I, and our land forces nearly 50.000 defative, this measure of a Committee to inquire into the state of our military strength must he as necessary now as when the Right Honourable Gentleman brought forward his proposition for a similar measure, unless on the ground that he was not the Minister then, and ano ther person was. He should, perhaps, be asked, If this Committee be not granted, what would you do then ? He did not think it at all incumbent on him to point out any further nv.asure4 but if really asked, he would desire the House vs undo all that has been done, if they wished to do an essential service to the country. What, it would be said—de stroy this beautiful system, this notable Parish Bill, and have a Committee only for that—Oh sacrilege It was, however, what he would do as the most effeOive way to increase the Army. Hie first complaint of the Right Hen. Gentleman was, that we had not enough of disposeable force, and that he since proposed to give us 5) or 60,000 m , -n that were more undisposeable, had been so ably and incontrovertibly shewn by his Right Honourable Friend (Mr. Windham) that it was unnecessary for him to go further into it. He was convinced the best and surest way to obtain a disposeable force was to enlist men for a term of years, in stead of for life. What were the feelings which aOulted men to enter into the army The first was, perhAps a dislike to hard labour, and the love of an idle lite ; eh! second the pomp and parade; and the third fine claatlis. These are all to be attained by going into the Militia, and you never want Militiamen where the service is fora term of years ; not so the Regular Army —into that a man enters as going to the bourne from which no tra veller returns." The other is merely an experi ment, which will cease in five, six, or seven years. Did the Right Hon. Gentlem in wish that the Parish Officers, who ought properly to be the proteaors of the morals of the lower class of people, should daily sit tippling in public houses with the peasants of the country, for the purpose of seducing them into the service? Such a line of conduit might be proper enough in recruiting serjeants, but must be very in consistent with the gravity of Parish Officers. He begged the Right Hon. Gent. on such an occasion as this, trait to deal out and trust to his fine and splendid flashes of eloquence, but address plain language 'o A dull, common, and homely understanding like his, it he meant to prove that this w.ts an effeanal or consistent mode of proceeding He represented to us, that the parish officers would go from door to door, and explain to the people the advantages of the bounty they would receive, as it tl.ere was any man who did not know that, without the inter ference of the parish officers, by going to the next market town might receive the bounty. Not withstanding all that had been said of its ad vantages, he would maintain that there was not • one man raised either in Great Britain or Ire land, by the operation of this bill. According • to the . statement mentioned in that House, the Bill was said to have produced 3399 men, of which 2200 hid been raised in Ireland; so that the Irish Parish Officers seemed to have made the best Recruiting Serjeants. An Irish Member had asserted, that, in the county he represented, the parishes did not raise a single man by any other means, hut that of giving additional bounties ; and he believed that wherever -.hey were raised at all, that was the only means of doing it. The bill made it the interest of parish officers to give bounties. They were subjea to a fine of 201. for every man they failed to raise, and, when they got a man, they received a bounty of 141. ; as the Mt compelled them to give, if necessary, a bounty from their own funds of and it was their interest to give any sum within 141. to save the fine of 201. Therefore, upon the whole, there were few men got for the first ballot or muster, under 3 tl. ; to which, when the 121. or 141. which they again received after entering into the second battalion, was added, the price of each recruit might fairly be •fated at an average of 4til. The whole of the establishment appeared to him to be a heavy and unnecessary expence upon the pub lic, amounting in the empty useless battalions, and altogether to no less a sum than 390,0001. annually. Upon all these grounds he maintained, that if the only effea of what the Committee determined should be to get rid of this oppressive Bill, he thought he should have dime a most material benefit to the service. In what he had to propose, his main objeft would be, so to model the establishments, that none of them should interfere with the regular recruiting ; but should rather concur in promoting it. The first thing that he should suggest then was, to revise the whole of the Volunteer Establishment, but abo►e all, that glaring and preposterous absurdity, of giving their officers rank Oen so high as that of Colftels. - V . . " Gond God !" continnett he, n what ran st se e House think of the feelings of military gentlemen, who can scarcely arrive at that rank, after a long life of glorious and laborious service, when they see men of that description in the rank of Colonels? Can the House suppose that, to see such persons in the same line with them, and partaking of the same titles and honours, will not muse their indien miner and rah:test their patience? Can professional Officers hear t 7) see a Pastry-cook, after selling his tarts and cheese-cakes to them 'in the morning, taking rank with their Colonel in the eveniug ? I do not wish to speak disparagingly of any rank of penple; I make no doubt of their being highly respeetable in their station ; hut, I eit - cis that I should think it hard, and highly de grading, if' I myself, a Lieutenant-Colonel, atter re. turning from foreign service, should come home to be placed under the command of a Pastry- Cook I—Neither I, nor any otter military man, who at all regards the honour of his profesion, could, without the greatest rein lance, receive any orders and instrueitions from a retailer of tarts and cheese-cakes. I repeat again, that I do lee mean any disparagement to any particular vidual, such a person may be, and is, I dare say, a very respetable man, and an excellent pastry-co but he mty be ell that without being qualified to command Lieut.-Colonels of long service in the bar. If rook is to be so prostituted and debased, let us net, at least, be subject to the must mortifying absurdity of serving under such masters. !have heard boasts made of the ridiculous experience they require, I.e going upon permanent service. IVltat a miserable gratification is this for a Commander of troops; and how contemptible a spectacle must it exhibit to the eyes of foreigners! Yetis mighty permanent duty consists of a diligent and laborious march of feet or five miles through the villages of a neighbaring district, eating and drinking all the way thit go, while their parade and military music tknied military men ut what they must have seen and heard at other times, and ou very ditfcrent ocCeliiol2l. This, however, I own to be a matter whice, after all that has hitherto been done in this system, would require some deliberation that might there. fore be di }erred to another session." The rest thing he had to propose was, to change the terms of service from an establishme it for lite to an enlist ment for a number of years. When the euhjed was before 'stated, the Hut. Gentleman opposite said, that it was a subject deservinte of very serious attention, but in a short tame afterwards they in. formed the House that it did not meet the tippre tioe of some of the first military authorities of the country. With the utmost deference to these high authorities, he thought it would have been no more than tespedful to the House to state to them who these military authorities were ' and what were the grounds upon which they fo rmed the.e opinions, for. however great their judgeremt may be, it WAS nether toe much to rate teeny beyond the coPeeire wiselo. - n of that Ho .se. In fad, military teen were no' the best judges of such a subjed, as they came to it with the professional prejudices of a long lite, all were not so well aequ :hued as others with the feelings of the people. This consideration divided itself into two branches: First, whether it was tight th 4t ; evens sedte.ed into a military lie at thl age of 16 years, as heretofore, but of 13 or 14, as lately pranised, should be Allowed to deprive themselves for life of all the benotits of that glorious con stitution which eve, y Member of that House, he hoped, prized so hieh;y as to be ready to shed the last drop of his blood for it. As to the second branch, he should not waste his own breath, or so much abase the indulgence of the House, as to argue that more men could be enlisted for a term of years than for life. The nest consideration was, what men we are likely to lose by this change of service ? There was an opporti . nity of forming some opinion of this from the num. bers of those who returned from their time being ex pired, or from their being lameter worn out ism the service of the East Indie Company, by which it ap• peared, that they did not amount to one fifteenth of the whole. This, he said, was easily accounted for, as he o b served, in th tt park of the East Indies where he served, the men usually enlisted again, when the term of their former service was expired. When men should return to their homes, after five or seven years set vice, they might justly boast of the exploits they had atchieved ; and by representing the glories and chances of a nails tary life, become the best possible recruiters through out the country ; but the affair was tar different now ; for as no man was ever seen to return home but with broken bones or constttution, it could not operate as the least inc-utive to a military life.— The next thing he should advert to was the punish. ments inflided in the army. lle admitted that the Courts-martial themselves were highly hum..oN and desirous of ading so ; but the defect lay is the extreme severity of our military code, which did not correspond with that of any other. country in the world. It WAS extremely wrong', that the charges which e one before Regineee. tad Courts Martial should be decided la' awls young men as generally composed them, an d he thought the revision of the cnee seotr i ,d at tended with any relaxation of diselpliee. Within his experience, he knew of an instan.:e a man's being convided, who did not d eserve punishment; in the and the difference of it lay m ere l y *dot be degree of it. He believed there was no each thing es confine ment amongst the punishments for the army; but in many, he thought it the best method, as tie eve. rity of corporal punishments and whipping, for whet civilly would be no offence at all, must of itself he sufficient to deter men from ealisting in the army. The next point which he had seriously to recom mend was, to increase the pest of Officers, so as to enable them to support the rank of Gentlemen ; for, it was shartieful that a Captain's pay WAS not more than what it cost a Volunteer Officer every year in keeping one of his domestics. He himself knew 01- cers now, after teS or SO years of service, had artisedt nor were they ever likely to arrive at any higher rank, than that of Captain, and were placed at a pay of about 1901. a year. The subalterns also, though obliged to wear a mare expensive dress than other Gentlemen, had only from :01. to 801. a-yrat to subsist upon; therefore, if this Home bed no feeling for them, though they had it for all the other. branches of the establishments, policy Al lead shoe ' induce them to make some allowance for the gr tit rise in the price of every article, since the pa. I , of the army was originally focused. One ;date g' .at- et t Copt:6;ns and F„ I,iick the GT Kt , an env iol! Captain WAS 300 cheap country, a c sie m e,j,ty the luories of h• izit he rent , „ t hrow the cf 4.langer T think prof foreign par imitate thei covered tha thought htl tabors at soon as the The Hon. 49,000 mel in doing them. llu Was Tatum girneuts. rar ies, whr turns woul howecor. all borne of the atm try. So f 'was prepa try flow r to any Ira su..ich the desirable. 400, 00 dices of si