The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1806-06-07 00:00:00

I ley ,Jeed " COR• it this vtry all, nldier n they wrch of ipee-27 Bandy 4 die vincei In this reface '.ETO N IND did san to be the has:• very Bri een told, ant. with lifer from 'tf LA r of thc not be ttil after well be K tell tim me In !lik• Puri. ice -- pee Would r• • ea; a of a • this n'•• !.* :au. • e P tilt • sr.( - is in ^• cotlan stic4i ~, t 4 f,eJ `' • listed for *time had a power of returning to les patents, to his mistress, ant iris relatives, at the erel of seven yeas, that kind of service would be pe ferred. Indeed, it was absurd to suppose that an Englishman WIS se fond of bondage, that when he was required to serve seven • years only, he would have nothing to do with the army, but would with pleasure bind himself dose:. for life. It was said, that this would be injurious to the service, : but he would mention an is stance which he thought would prove diteetly the eontray. The men employed M the coal-pits, and the salters in Scotland, by the law of the country. were formerly bound to the proptietors for life, but this law, he was proud to say. partly by his means, being abolished, the men were allowed to gn from one pit to another, according as they liked the treatment they received. New this law had no bad efFeet on the management of these works, and he did not believe any of the men had . given over the business. From this he thoug ht . that the enlistment for life would be beneficial oa 'the army, as it could not be said that a British sol dier was fonder of slavery than a Collier (A cry of hear ! hear!) It had been said, thet the whole army might be disbanded at the end of ten years, and that we might still be 'engaged in a war ; for his part, he could not allow that there was any force in the argument. It put him in mind of ft dispute which had once taken place in Edinburgh, with tespeet to a canal which was to have been cut, to supply the city with coals. He strenentuly ad vised a ant to be made on a level country, which wadi not rewire a single lock ; - bet 'it was pro posed by anethet person that the cut should be run over an immense ridge of mountains, which would require 67 locks, for no other reason, but that the cite, by the latter cut, could be supplied with coals fur 500 ) ears. and by the former. only for 900. The present measure would be of the greatest ser vice to the army, and indeed the gentlemen, though they found fault with it, did not well know what to wish for, like his poor countryman, Donald, who Was one day told by his Laird, that be should have three wishes, and was desired to consider of what he liked best in the world. The first thing Donald wished for was, that he should have a kirk full of snuff ; the second, rr barn full of yea rite, or whiskey; and. after much consideration for the third. be chose more srsE. The Hon. Gentleman then concluded, by declaring his intention of supporting the measure. Genteel TARLETON explained. Mr. JOHNSTONE d d not think there was a sine- inducement for recruits to enter under this plan, and he therefore would give it a decided ne gative. He then referred to the speeches which had been lately made on the subjeet by Mr. nerve of which, he thought, were calculated to infuse a stank into the military. Troops inured to arms would ever prove superior, whether raised in a nation of freemen, or a cation of stmt. It seen.ed to him that there was one obvious way of augmenting the army, which the Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Windham) had disregarded. He had announced his intention of reducing the \Mites to 40.003 met' : why, then, Were not the 30,000 awn to be discharged, made :available as regul..rs? he Itiih Militia ale* of fered a considerable field for the increase of the *may. The secret why these omens were not em braced. was, that office: s of the Millea were men of Peiliamentary influence. whose feelings, as it was slope, ought not to be hint by raking from them the sower of their bittaliono Since the Right Honnurable Gentleman had become so caretul it the feelings of Militia Officers, he (Mr. John stone) would ask. why he did not somewhat regard the feelings of Volunteer Officers? ( hear! bear !). Ile could not but think it would be preferable to enthrece tee force derivable from the militia, !..her than wildly embark upon a plan, the policy of whien. it was admitted, could not be determin able in hiss than ten years. Mr. W HITBR E D congratulated the House, that an Honourable General (Tarleton) bad been able to introduce so tench novelty in his speech, epees a subjeer that bed so often been under dis cussion. His Right Honourable Friend (Mr. Windham) had been treated very harshly by those who had denominated him a mere theorist; And he thought the imputation came particularly ill from a gentleman who was biaawit one of she greatest theorists ever known (we understand the allusion to be to the Master of the Rills). In his opinion, every our of his Right Hon. Friend's pie alecessols had :seer. theorists, and he was the man, who first, upon the foundation of experience. at teinpted to rescue the country from the cresse vette,' of their speculations. The authority of the absent and the dead had been ansuecessfully quoted to confute the sound policy of his plan, and the tesenioes of General thficers. which woe Dot before the if. use, had been used for the same purpose. It aos said, that all these opinions were adverse to the system or/Testa to be plumed ; that, however, oas net cotrect ; and from what he (Mr. Whittneed) understood of them. the opinions, on the one sole, an i on the other, wete so nearly balanced, as to afford no bias to jadgnient, hot merely so leave the question in the same state that it wink' )save been, it they had not been taken at all. It ..es alleged, that the measure proposed had been nnJcr the c. ntemplation of a Right Hon. Geode man deceased (Mr. Pry) and abandoned by him as nnadviecable. Upon military subjefle, however, that Right Hon. Gentleman was an authority to which little deference was due ; many of his projects had been, after trial, evaded by himself, and those which he had persisted in, were tar Item being worthy precedents. Of the multitude of theeries with which he had inundated the ceuntry, some expired in their birth, some lived to rick, ty in famy. but none ever attained a creditable coesistency and shape. Did the House remember the nc:able theory for embodying gam-keepers t (Here a few words wet e sail in an under terse from the other side of the H ouse. ) He knew net whether his Right Hon. Friend had any thing t) do with tieet--(ther ! heee!reeas :he , apprise/cm Bowers.) If he was a theorist then, and a party to sn ridienloes a propo sition, he was n..w :Lakin; amends for his' folly. • Then came the Previslonal Cavalry Aft, eilebratsd only for its excessive absurdity: afterwards the augmentaticn of the Militia, until it was *Mind too lame; then the A.% foe allotting Velun. 'teen tutu the bee ; a :maw= iii)casti. - .6 to the militia tbeitiseleci, artdacederinganti 2,, short lived service to tl.e army. After hi: Right Friend had been catechised for his exptessions of i disrespect, he was told by the same Hon Gentleman who gave him the !effuse, that he ou'kfktalake away the officers of the militia, and make those ho liday and burlesque soldiers really of some seiviee To the measures he had enumerated succeeded the Quota Bill, the Army of Reserve Bill, and, lastly.", as a substitute of what had gone before, the fa mous Additional Force Bill, a thing in its nature perfeftly theoretical, .and like which, nothing had' been ever before known. Flom this deluge of theories, it was the object of his Right Hon. Friend to relieve the country ; and, like a. skilful surgeon, he removed the bandages, to allow nature liberty and scope for her own action. It had been ever and over objected, " What ! pull down your home, be: tote you have another to take shelter in ?" But how, t:e would ask. cnnld it be otherwise? no man ever thought of re-tetilding his house before the scite was prepared, and the old rubbish was cleared away. As to the alleged infringement of the Royal Prerogative, how could it possibly be said that the present proposition was innovative, whilst it had been the constant business of that House to pass a Mutiny Bill for a single year. beyond which time, there could mat be a single soldier retained by the Crown ? It was said that the limitation of ser vice to seven years, would prove no inducementte the recruit, as he, like the blacksmith, or toy other artisan, chose his profession for life ; but, was Sisk the blacksmith free? Could he not, if he leased, bet any tiling else? Could he not relinquis h. change; resume, his calling at pleasure? Not so. however, with the soldier; he laboured under tbesingailarhatile. • ship of being tot life fettered with the taste and disposi tion of to-day. From affording him. however , the; option of changing his mind at the expiration of a number of years, little danger was to be apprehended of a serious diminution of numbers, when it was recolletied how frequently persons habituated to a line of life, resume it atter quitting it for a period, and can find comfort only in the pursuits to which they have been inured. Many officers in that house had known prisons who, after being at sea for a short period, had vowed if they once got home, never to set foot on ship-board again; and yet, on the arrival of the wishcd-tor time, returning again, after a short a'sence on shore, to the navy. This disposition was remarkably exemplified by the troops in the East Leslie Company's service. who, on the expiration of their term of service, often got as far home as St. Helena, and went back again to rejoin the army. Where, in any one in stance, was a man found, who, having ever been in the army, did not boast and glory in it ? the Chel sea pensioner spent his hours in the task. It was the ambition of men to recount their ex ploits, Ana thoae who could no longer be active, sighed in remembrance of the days gone by All the experience colletted on the subjeet of limited service, went to prove its expediency. On a former nigia, his Right Hoe. Friend ( Mr. Fox) had evidenced an ordinteasee of the Oid French Go vernment, in which its faith had been broken by re quiring the longer service of the soldiers than origi. pally stipulated for, in order to prove the existence of that limitation. This had been turned as an ar gument against the policy of the system ; but he (Mr. Whitbread)thought it went strongly to prove, that, notwithstanding the inconvenience experienced, the pcatlice of raising men for limited sertice, was, in the main, so specious, as to countervail all disad vantages; and it was accordingly lotted to he rer outed in. No fear could be entertained that the Go vernment of this country would ever have to break faith with its troops: there was not a man who would not, if the country was in a state to need his services, devote himself to her cause till it was happily ter minated : evidence of this spirit was to be found. in the nsea who volunteered to go to Ireland in the last war, and on various other occasions. The Most corm!) faith was kept with the troops of the East India Company, and no hiconvenienee ever 'found to result Am it ; nctwithstaiiding the melan choly effects of the (innate, in which hat ily a 1..u -ropean was to be found alive after 14 years service. This dreadful circumstance was one which strong ly urged the policy. and justice of limited service. When a regiment is now ordered out to India, the very effect produced by the belief which the soldier entertatas of spending his life there, really contributes to accelerate his death ; but if, as able medical men have declared, the troops wefe cheered ad supported with the hope of returning in a few years, and bad the assurance that they could set be kept beyond a certain petiod, it would go very tar to fortify them against falling vi aims to the climate. When Gentl-men said, that the increase of pay to the Nan was a burden upon the coon tty, consequent upon tbis plan, he would only ask, nhetbei that augmentation was not necessary, and :why Parliament unanimously acceded to it ? By some, his Right Hon. Friend's measure was found fault with, becato.e it did not embrace a number of things he bid never said it would contain. If an Order of Merit were to be established, of the expe diency of which he_ had great doubt, conceiving that the possession of baubles might be made we common, and, as under the old French Geitetnment, it might, in time, be more a disgrace nut to have them. than a credit to have them, it could only be the act of the Executive Go..er nrnent ; the haw fetence of Parliament, in such a case, would indeed' be au infringement of the Royal Prerogative. Hoe. Geatlemen seemed to think, if they could, per . chance, snake this measure unpopular, they might possibly get rid of the men. The manner of their opposition evinced much of a faait,a s—( Orrice' seder/ swine!) Mr. Whitbread said, he had ircaunously used the word ; he did not mean to call any set of Gentlemen a faffion, though certainly those wbo talked of a mutiny in :be army being the tome quence•of parliamentary discussion, assumed some thing-the appearance of one. The tt bed of mem" which they had le ft to their successors, he could hardly believe to be so cr.% iable a couch as they had reptesented, an 4 he much donbted whether the Right 11.. n. Gentlemen themselves had been able to repose upon it, without much tossing and tumbling. The .ezpression of an em:. nent Statesman, in his dying moments, is On ! my country !" did net proceed from a mind at ease; nut eia it evince that he left the affairs of the Stase in such a happy tral.i, that those who succeeded lulu had no task Ithiuky imposid upon tliem.— • The Hon. Gentleman concluded by sirjtrtl, that he ' begetied rite plan of his night Hon. tri lend t., be I . s;ittp4ta rni experience, to be calculated to obviate the evils of the theories of his predecessors, and to Merit his warmest sanCtion and support. . ' The question that the Bill be read a third time was then puisind carried, without a division. Mr SULIIIGF.S then rose. He lamented that i the House should have been called npon to come to a decision upon so weighty a question as that before the House, affecting the prerogative of the Crown, find *the deliberations of Parliament, with- Out having keen allowed the benefit of those great military opinions which had been officially called for, and which he therefore thought could not be considered crnfidential This was the first time it 'had ever bier, proposed to limit the Royal authcnity, SO that the King would be precluded from raising a single soldier, except upon the terms prescribed by that House. The Mutiny Bill be considered to be no precedent for the course proposed to be adopted, as that was an Act, which did nut go to restrain the prerogative of His Majesty, but to extend it by the gratis oT powers, for the enact ment of articles of war.• &c. The n;igin of the measure, inia Committee of that House, was also unpiecedenteef, Misting o ff , as it did, four oppor. tunities of di scussing the manner and the efficacy of its operation. • The question on the latter head. was not whether it would produce a number of recruits ? bbt • whether the • number yearly ob , coined, wnuli he adequate to the discharges If the recto:ling for limited Semite had been et- temptel for a few montbsditot lnwer licsiusty than the Co. esssve one, which it was complained was given under the Additional Force it would have been an innocent experiment, acid wonlclat *oar have :Iselin whether the " hope' of future advance.: anent was more attraftive than present advantage of bottaty, He thought the Right Hon. Gentleman. (Mr. Windham) was carrying the military system farther than the country c old afford. It eat not now our aim to cope with the military powers of the Continent, in a vast force disposable for foreign), service. When we stood highest for military en torprizes on the Continent, our navy was at its lowest ebb. It the Right Hon. Gentleman would recollect that the army and militia of the country absorbed 300,000, the navy 120,000 men, and ea vitiation and commerce 150.000 men, hi would find that i: was not solely attributable to the failure of former measures, that a diffieulty was ex perienced of finding recruits for. the army.--; Other countries weer scarcely a criterion n ef the.. probable elects of a military measure in England. as. they possessed power of compulsion and ceinscrip. lion. which, in this kingdom, were not known., Still the Right Hon. Gentleman had arorded no information of I.i. means of obviating the difficulty of recruiting in foreign colonies, and, indeed. seemed to forget that the colonies were under his particular care. If the dominion of the seas should not be maintained, or if, as in the beginning of lost war, the enemy should send out a number of squa drons, and intercept any of our fleets of traroports, what would be the result in the colonies for %%hid) they were destined. when the period for which the troops, then there, Wrl e engaged, would have ex pired? As it could be impossible to ascertain that all the men in our colonies would not take their discharge, is would be necessary constantly to pro-'I vide a disposable supply at home to the amount el l all our men Abroad : :he number, therefore, to be raised atinually by bounty, wculd be SS,OOO. The Hon Gentleman proceeded to /nuke some cal culations on the vast expcnces to which the country would be subjected by this measure; and stated, that ID C. estimate of eapences in the Chelsea Bill, the material charge of b'ol. or 401. per roan for ear risge out to the East Indies, and 121. or 131. per man to the West Indies, was wholly omitted. He concluded by movini to omit certain words at the end of the oath in Schedule A. aid to insert in their place others, to the elle& that the soldier should nut be entitled to his discharge until six months after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace. Lord H. PETTY said, he had not yet troubled the House with any observations on the subject of this sill. but could not refrain from congratulating them, that the first and grand objection, that it in eringed on the prer . ogative of the Crown, seemed now admitted to consist in its giving for seven years that power which the Mutiny At commonly gave to His Majesty butefor one year. (Hear! Hear!) It would be as difficult for Hon. Gentlemen so make others believe this to be an innovation on the Crown, as to alarm the army and the count:eon the subjea of the Military Sy.tern about to be pursued. Those Hon. Gentlenseo complain, that information has been withheld; nothing, however, had been kept back which the publication of would not have been a breach of delicacy and duty. and have afforded a precedent for the promulgation of the most private correspondence between the Com mander in Chief and individual General Officers.— His Lordship nett contended, that this measure would in a great degree do away the number of desertions which were now ip prevalent in the army. particularly is the new raised levies. lie considered the object psoposed would make such an impres sion on the minds of the lower class, that of afford ing them the certain means of a return to the bless ings of their homes and families, after a certain period. In adverting to the desertions of the present day, he asked, ; could the army be in that state of perfeaion, that Gentlemen on the other side of the House were willing to represent, when no less than six thousand desertions were known to have taken place wthin the year E—.Or did the Noble Viscount (Caitt•oe.igh) inclode in the calcu lation he had entered into so folly on a for• men Light, the et r iences incurred by these tie-• sertinns ? This loss amounted to no less a inn' than 1n,C00 1 .. within tile 'ear. Tile measure was one of great importance in the present state cf at fairs ; and reminded him of the man, who, when he was asked what he should do if he wait , placed on the tip of Salisbury steeple ? replied. that he should endeavour to do a. he nintld if on Salisbury ,plain. The magnanimity of the answer, he assimilated to the present subjea. which was to be considered on a bold and liberal plan. Mr. CANNING observed, that the arguments of the Noble Lord were wholly fallacious o he had put mime after quwrr, and at last asked, What a man would do at Ilse top of Salisbury steeple t What he could do there, he would not eay. But what might be the operation of neiure was easily a . . swered ; his motions on the plain must be horizon, . i tal, while those en the steeple must necessarily be of a perpendicular nature.' If it was unnecessary to •, I seek th e danger, Why catch at it ? The Area ques tion i 'adore the kieuse was the dieche-ging men 1 during the war, to which one answer 'only had been applied, that was a vain hope that something i might be •ameteied, somethieg might be obviated, and every argumeet failed, or bec me obsolete. The case of the East India Critupsne did not bear them out, for the service neon Lard Corn wenn.* e!an, for 4 lima ed time, was abandoned, and that oi delimited service adopted. He wished. to know if the present measures pursued, were the Liking up a peel by one party, which had been re linquished by another? ;laving edvested to the in conveeienee which must arise from discharging men et the cad of seven Tsars, he next alluded to the black frame, ar.d could not think that, to emanci pate the staves, by making them soldiers for a cer tain period, and thee letting them Lies* upon the community, would teud to promote the enlist ment into the SITRIT ; ot, however his most sanguine wishes might be to ameliorate the con dition of all deists of people, he could net think this measure would at all promote that great measure, the abolition of the Slew" Trade. After some allusions to the simile of the Salters and Miners, mentioned by the Lord Advocate, he con. eluded by declaring his hearty concur/nee is the propoieJ seealmet - - - • •.* - The LOR D AD OCATE and Mr. CANNING : severally explained. Mr. Secretary FOX tole, and in a most able and enimateif spzecn, which, from the lateness of the hour, we regret we cannot go into fully, strenuemily oppo,esi the Amendment. He eonsi- • dered the object of the Gentlemen on the miser side, was, as much as piessible, to prevent all fair discussion upon the subject, and give as much do lly as they well could ; (a loud cry of bra! hear!) bufaltliough it might be very plc • am to teem, yet the public would. not be tatitiel ; and however they might play the g roe uV.T and over AX .fir, )et the • public duty should be discharged. Ail this niscus sion, they insisted, should go solely on the resnisd• went, which did not beer a proportion of twelve to one to the mein question. He supposed, that by • commencing a debate at twelve o'clock at night, I which might have ben at six, the of jent was to proeuce a long stielit.as had been gone on a very lam • occasion, upon the same question; he confessed he ' should have preferred speAklng sonic Lours sooner, than getting up at I o'clock in tee morning. Until the Hon. Gentleman c-uld state some better argument, and maintain that this country teal.: hold her rank and respedebilky in Europe, wehriat an army on the Continent, he could not agree to his proposition. He admitted the glory and power of our neey, but, on the subjea of nut wealth, he could not conceive that, by hiring foreign troops, we ceuld support that rank. It was speaking against all reason, all anderstanding, and all Neely ; and he challenged the Honourable Gentleman to thew him a single precedent for it. As to whet fell from his Noble Mend (Lord Henry Peaty), it was not what the man would do on the top of the steeple, but "hat he would do if forced there ;,.. in that case, the answer. displayed true magnanimity, by adopting a RUN is the time of mc4. danger. So far for the Hon. Gentleman's (Mr. Cenrang's) joke. Having ad verted to the Swiss and French troops, who were allowed to be the most eminent soldiers, and the Black troops, in the Vest ladies, he considered the greatest recommendation in favour of the present measure, in that respeetewas, that it might, in a con. ederible degree tend to wipe off that dreadful dis grace to this country. the Slave Trade; viewing it upon general principles, he thought that all liberal measures must necessarily tend to assist each other. What had fallen from an Hon. Friend of his (Mr. Grattan) who had been stigmatized with the came of an Irish Orator,when, by the bye, another bish Orator (Viscount Castlereagh) had taken a very Lire share of the debate the same night, and the obser vations other of his Noble and Hon. Friends, had not been answered in any one point. Taking the sabjetn therefore upon broad principles, the feelingof a true citizen was a patriotic love for his country. Lib. ray was the animating principle of the soldier, and when extended to him, he is himself the greater. After sonic further observations, be cone eluded by decleirag the amendment to be the most paltry medicine that could be thought of to remedy the evil complained of. If we cannot in crease our army, we must have recourse to sob eidie,e foreign powers, and be left to this dreadful alternative, or descend from that step on which we at present stand among the rations of Europe. General NORTON spoke against the amend meat, and Mr. GEO. ROSE, jun. in favour of it. Mr. PERCIVAL, amidst repeated cries of qaestiou! question! rose, and replied at soma length, in answer to Mr. Tex, in tire course OrWiliCh be defended the pureelings of a former nigh, as , perfe Parliamentary. Th e uestion was thee loudly called for, and the dtli s House 'vide& when there appeared, For the Amendment ICl—Aril - 11l it len. Majarity. 9?. When strangers were again adetieted into the gallery, Sir James Pulten-y was putting a question to Mr. Windham, witd regret to the periods for which the artillery were to be enlisted • but Laving heard th e latter put sale, we wen un able to collienk the eta& meaning. Mr. PERCIVAL then rose, and wished the Right Hon. Secretary would ii fetus him whether the second period of the cavalry enlistment was tg be for twelve years, as well in the first ? It wa., he thought, necessary that the House should be in formed of the different circumstances with respect 1 to so important a measure. Mr. WINDH inM. in answer. stated, the the list period for the cavalry was twelve years ; and as the Bill was only passed for a year, it would be in the power of the Meuse, before the expiration of the twelve, to make such provision for future crm tiogenc;es, as might seem most advisable. A short conversation then took place between Sir WILLIAM YOUNG and Mr. HUSKISSC N', re. lathe io West Indian regulations. when the Lill was parsed. The other Orders of the Day were poi rponed, arid the House Adjommed at FOUR. 0%.1.0C5• mail Monday. I •