The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1806-05-01 00:00:00

!ir err L. be a great Lorimer of men who had served olir their seven years, and who should de mand thrir discharge, would not this h. plociative of great iirconvenience and inisc'.ief ? It ie well that at the commencement of a war, the greatest ea-rtioils are always wanting, and must always be made ; would not a eery largo. oitcharge of m• n, at sot+ a period, paralyse those arrtions ? Would - not their loss be severely felt ? and could • you, iii any adequate portion of timo, ems! Jing to tee brgency of your necessities, e• place and make them good? •.1 the seethed year of a war •-z lion. become •siill more necessary. and yet you ..iU • • 'empeollw.liableto have as mane more en, itlibd to th•ir die large, and here again their loss will be more severely felt. as the difficulty nt.repta'ing them will always be on the increase ; and beam: you may plainly see, said he. Utz danger of 'adopting th.ise new and extraordinary measures. Resides, it may so iseppen, and it is very likely that it should, that toe men discharged may the beta soldiers in the arm), they may be the strong •.st and healthiest in pinta of sonstitution,the most ord-rly and exemplary in point of demeanour and condlin ; men who have seen a variety nf service, and got inured to different climates,whohave acquired t:.e habits of soldier ...and whose less, at the critical moment, when they would .be most wanted, would be felt in the severest man wir, if it were not almost irreparable; for, in ex cnange. the Government must content themselves with raw recruits, who are not in any lot ward state of discipline; who have seen no service; encoun tered no change of climates; but are perhaps in al finest every requisite ta constitute a soldier, tilt, very • eppoeire- to those who have thus been discharged. In short, the difference would he almost incalcu lable. Filer* was also another incanvenience.which scree!: him in a still m ire forcible 13 int of view. • We have, and he hoped always should have, many eery large garrisons in different quarters of the . 'lobe; and if :his measure of the Right Hon. 6entleman should be adopted, it will, ja the *V U- Tal course of events. Ireeuvroly happen, that great • etsmbers of men may be entitled to their dischAtge from ;base gareisn.s, at the same time. In that cote, whet wt.'s to be dune? We ohest either break the faith we have pkdp,. et. or ret•der our selves liable to experience great inconveniencics, difficulties, a .d "eon dangers. 'lb's , garrisons must be supplied 'etesit.h troops. to defend them in the room of those • leetided to their discharge. fit e might not always be &meanie masters of tree seas: be hoped we ever should; but the case had sometimes base otheswise. et was so for some time, iq tie ceurnsof the Ame rican war; and if we should be prevented from lending net renuforseosents to repl i es those who eitmoirtse entitled to their discriarge.and might per haps have *dually bees discharged, the totonv. ni IMCSSIS and difficulties would be immense, and • danger by no means inconsiderable. There was. be knew, one answer, which would. he had no doubt, le given to the gmatest part of Whet he had• said• viz. that when the period fosedischarging the men *nivel rbe greatest number of them would re - emelt. Is ails, however. he differed , widely with c them ; and positively thought they woulet not re enlist : it was a delusive argument, which, he f6ired, • would never be realised. The • Right Hon.•Clent. • • had always stated it as mating in fAvour bf his plan, that it would furnish the army with. higher • order, a better desteepttomof personsi bias have . heretofore been need to enlist: 11 it-did.' St :would maim against: the argument of 'their' re•enlisting. •Fve, y man. at the time ire shcnsio become entitled • to his di.lsarge, would beestthible that he would be We to tern his livelihood by the or calling to •• -• which h•• had been bmvght up before he enlisted, ' and would not therefore be under any absolUte or • considerable neccsrity to induce him to enlist. He slight elm, is. all likelihood, have mit with diA,- views, and been obliged to encounter hardships and dangers, which he a mad be very loth to repeat; and having she option of •cptitting the militarylife `e from the expiration of the • term for which ho had engaged his services, he would be very likely to take advantage of his bargain. and leave his place to be filled up as chimer or occasion might offer; whereas by enlisting men for limited service, or, during the war, as this set does which the Right Honourable Gentlethan wishes to repeal, all these inconveniencies, difficulties, and dangers, would be avoided, and the service would go on in the same prosperous way which it has ever hitherto done. He °beetled further to the measure of the Right H•snourable Secretary, from the very mischievous • effed which he feared it would have on the discip• line of the army. It was very well known, that Officers naturally because attached to the men who had been a certain length of time under their command, and would of course be anxious to keep them. 'I hey were welt aware, that however great t• • their own military ralcros might be, they would he ' elk of nn avail witliriut their men to second them, and 3 to ca rry their commands into rffeet ; they would of emery- he aft. lid of giving them offence, especially as the time of then discharge approached, and onig,ht on that a:count be induced to relax in that discipline, which is to necessary to the good of the service, in the hnpe of preiailing with them to en list again ; and thus not only a great. but an irre pitiable injury, might be done to what was the very ~ , life and sere. of the ;Tenn uottd if ts' crier lost, would easily be regained. This very circumstance " 1 "• "- had formerly raised one of the strongest obje.2ions t 3• to tiling men from the Militia into the secular ar . • r mu for, in the Militia, the Officers were also very anainus to keep their men ; and it des very gene rally supposed, did riot keep them to that extreme serisitness of discipline, which was. prailiseil in re giments of! the line, though the Militia - was now A come to eery high state of discipline, indeed. He wee to-ry he had been obliged to trespass so long on the time and patience of the House, but • ins din+ as a Member of that House. and an Offi. icer of the iii my. impelled him to state his opinion 111: ' 1 :.sin the present ozeset•on ; and he hoped he lad said t„, enough to induce the House not to repeal this Al, tiii ...t.ey knew what the plats of the Right [honour :-• able' Gentleman is to be, and how far it is likely to tattled. He begged the indulgence of the House • . few chely r u se obsetvation more. He had said be hal el.:mgrl his opinion on ::cis subjea, but in that • he spoke gvnerally, and nut of this measure in particular. As to the psovisiuns of the Nil, he luriked on them as out of the question.. The Ho unlit able General concluded without ne. king any snotic.::. • .• : 4.1 :,,... ti AINAV AItIN G then rose, and said, he war' ed to offer himself to the Speaker's witice thus soils the debate, from a consciousness thit, it he ,14 tried it !anger, so many tconaurahle ls;fe'rit ben% whowfisbiliaiess were far superior to his, would ,teliver their opinions on the s uljea, that, after the Ham.- became exhausted, he could not expect to be listened to. tie must, he said, express his concur : one, in some of the sentiments which had fallen inert rite Honourable General, who had just sat dn en : and particularly in that, in which he censer dereTt it a matter of danger, to part with any thing of great importance, till a substitute had been pro vided for it ; and he could, therefore, have wished the Right ft-mint:lle Gentleman opposite had de layed tnineing forward this measure, till lie had something else ready to offer in bee of it. At the same time t h at he said this, he was inimical to the Aft which this Bill was intended to repeal ; and when hr disapproved of any measure, he thought; the sooner he got rid of it the Letter. In looking to that Al, he had not the smallest doubt but that men might be rai'ed under it, and in considerable numhets ton; but, ia getting men, we ought also to look at the means by which they are obtained ; and, in this respect, he objeded to the Ad, because it gave a new charatter and new duties to a certain deseription of men, which it was never intended, by the Constitution of this country, they should piissess. He alluded, he said, to that part of the At, which introduced church-werdens and overseers into par ticular offices and stations, which invested them with military powers and itmetions ; when, in the exercise of their attnal and proper offices, it u as ne cSnsary they should aft entirely in a civil capacity; their functions being, in some degree, ecclesiastical also, and by no means consonant with the offices and duties imposed on them by the House ; for I when it was considered with whom they had been associated by that ad, he did not mean to convey the slightest disrespeft or telethon on the serjeants, Or other inferior persons engaged iii the reel Dicing *Service; they were deserving of pratse for doing their duty, in the profe.sion to which they he. longed; but, however in 1 itorious they might be, certainly Church Wardens and Overseers -ought not to be joined,with them in such orces. Another objedion he had to it. was the undPfined chat after and nature of the Bill. It pretended ta be merely a matter of defetree, Mitneas, in int*, ;tit instrument of tesation., .He was ewer.. that its mat-. eters of detonate ymi-cametia some cases have ii a ith.. out taxation, tot a hen you are at war, you nmst I have the .sineen of war—which was money— I but in il;ki4g. for that, it should ;.!Ar•lb he i done in such a manner, that every part o: the pen- i pie should pay equally, and contribute in the virile I degree of proportion, according to their eircucn ttanees.—ln short, so is every inhabitant of the culinary should know what he has to pay towards it. It shon!cl not come upon them as a kind of bye law, as a meainre which they did not understand. Ho would ask whither the mode r f tatrion esta- ' hlished by this Sill, was at all similarto that which was addteed in lay ing• on the general taxes of the Nasion I He was certain, no one r ould ray that it was not very materially different. The Aft, he said, Iltsterporated as a Levy of Men. and if those could .not be raised in the proportions mat Leclerc for the several Parishes, then it cams to aft upon the inha bitants by way of taxation, and that in a very heavy nod opprostive way. It had fatleit te Isis 'o t where seen malty miserable proofs of the it quality and in jusice.witft which it bare on chffeieni . eactiptiensest , persons ; and, in all cases where there bad been an . unsuccessful levy in any parish, it had fallen with extreme severity on tlis lower and pre ter classes.-- In the parish of Mary-la-bonne, the wealth of which ' every one knew, as well as the splendour if the ha bitations, the tax was sally 4d. in the pound ; in St. George's, which was the next, it was a shilling s in Sr. Giles's, two shillings ; and in parishes East of that, it amounted to three and four shillings in the pound: for this ica-ion, that this was not a tax laid, as all taxes voght no be, equally on the popu lation; not according to the property of the patty taxed, bet according to the whole of the as sessable property in the parish, which was con trary to- every rule of equality and of justice.— It may be, and he believed had been said, that this was intended to operate as a punishment on ;meshes for not raising their respeftive quotas of men ; he believed, in his conscience. it was not in their power to raise the men, and it was unfair and unjust to punish either parishes or individuals for what they were not able to do.—Such a proceeding is to make mention operate in a manner the most odious that can be imagined. The• Poor Rates were desci 'best by the Ad as the basis on which the tax ation was f traded ; but he thought such jeasis WAS extremely unjust and unfair. The objeae of the Ad was general, and for a general purpose, and as such, the operation of it should have been the same. It had beensaid,weshould not getrid of this Aft till we had A substitute for it. On that head he had his dente], and greet doubts. He thoughts-however.. he . might say, “ We are sel as we are ; ' and, therefore, to use a vulgar, but strung expression, •• We ought to let midi alone." Ile hod another objection also to the Mt, which was, that the greatest part of the men who are to be aged on by it, would not be found such moral, sentimental, thinking, kind of men, as to answer the view of it. Having seen the inequality and injustice of its operation, he should give his vote for the repeal, because he considered it as unnecessary, as well as unjust. Mt. CANNING said, he had great satidaftion in bearing what fell atom the hen. General, and the snore so, as the House was refused the opinion of those other General Officers who Intl been con sulted upon the Military System. He felt a satis fattion also in the sentiments delivered by the Hon. Gentleman who followed him, as from what lie said in the beginning and conclusion of his speech. he hoped they would concur with him in his general 1 principles. As to the Defence Bill, he was ready to admit there were some provisions of it unegnal, `and which imposed hardships. particularly on the large towns, but the amendment be had to propose. if agreed to, may tend to do away all objec tions ; at the same time that the House would have au opportunity of retaining its best pro visions, and the most substantial parts of it. If it shcsuld be contended, on the other side, that the op posers of this motion ought to coirfine themselves to the merits a the Bann question ; the cffriduer oh ...artful by the Right Hon. Gracia' also opened t o would afford a very sufficient answer. if the Te r of the Defeace Act were only meant as a • brat* 'swamis, distina from the genet al military sy em, he would ask, why did Ills Melesty's!Mi nisters defer the repeal, during the previeus months 'ny, remeiited in office? In the long and very able speech of the Right lion. Gentleman, which lasted four hours and a half, he dwelt upon a variety of • triples, which• he of coulee lett open for discus sion, totho.e who succeed him in future stages of the discussion. lithe present ISlotioat should be agreed to, the eflea of it would be to induce the Parliament to tread back all the steps of their ancestors, and give up for ever the system of compulsory service, for another, to which no example was to be found, in any country in the world. In the preface to the Right Hun. Gentleman's speech, lie had stated that compulsot y service was a thing which worked well in despotic government:, hut that the erinciple of com pulsion met with a bit - lion in the force end spit it of the British Constitution. When the new poi should be carried into effel, he would as;. is ti ,at w.• were to do in the beginning of a new wer,e/(ter h,t etng prn •clairned to the wutid that we renosinced ter eves all recourse to compulsory service? Hew as this to Ise done, when every retrospea would shew us, that this cum' y was never able to keep op its militat service, without having recourse ,to .compulsion? The Mica of the Defence Ail, indeed. though it did not exclude it, had recourse to the most mild and mitigated shape of compulsion, and 'operated by a salt flion, by lot or belles; but one great detest in the new plan was, that though it a fic3ed and avowed to give up compulsion, it took it tip again in the subsequent Fart of the detail, and enforced it with the utmost degree of rigour. The test of his principle of frietion amongst a free people was, what, tinier this prin ciple, was to be done with the rriilicia ? The Rig:it Hon. Gentleman said, that they were to be raised by bounty ; hut, he would'ask him, by whom were they recruited ? It by the. Crown, it would take them out of the .principle of their otiginal forma tots eonstitroion, and dept ive them of all their distivittis e ei deter. It by she counties, he would tilers ask bow mode ot recruiting differed from Ch: principle of the Defence Bull? hiet'fitas aware' thin compulsory service was liable to znitnrund great ohketinos. anti That it would be very didicult, if even possible,l6 do oh/lout it ; but he contended, bat at was inculidsent on Gentlemen to sheer, what hey :tad nut yet time, some case in which it was "'site/ober inatimiasrble. befine they, called upon shf .tease to ienoursce it. let order to get over the oujeaiou of the re being scarcely one chance of the count! y not being able us do without it, they should be Impend wh:s at least .500 chinces that the one chaece never shituld.arise. faith, the plan held out' little,more than ii•delusien, for the histiny of the country at different pet iuds, wenld fully prnve, that seek mesectations never could be fulfilled ; sod mere lie thought it his duty to use his best en deft to save Parliament Item the distressieg mortification of holding out • pledge, with a great pability Wore deem of its speesly.retraftion.— The neat c.harafter rut, the Defence Aft, wits the provisions it • made 14 the supply of the regular amity. vsltieb led 111111'now to oonsi•ier.it, not k.l its civil, but its maims.) , etfeas. Had lint eo. operati *ton beet per alyzed and suspended lie the notice of its repeal, it would this year have produced from 1G to 16,000 men, which must he elbowed an extranr din:try and unceuraging elf.et ; when et was ecnsi deceireset the House was last year pet Fealy Luis fled With the teepeftation, that it might produce so much even at 9000 effeCtive men.; 'lhesc et, 111,0d0 men would be sufficient to supply ail ;thee :Average casualties of the. whole :only ; wad there-•' fore, in his opinion, should not be pertvd with for a mere speculation, or matter of experiment. The. Right Hon. Gentleman, however, had premisedo with no more edditicinelexpence th inabout 18,00(4.- • to supply not only ahehme casualties, but likewise all the loss of military force wi icb should arjse from the various establishedsources /bleb he meant now to supersede; a promise su extravagant and gigantic, that it was impossible even tor the truest eanguiat man to have any dependence on it. I believe, ego tinged he, I should have abstained from epeaklng oh the subjea of permanent service, if I did nut find myself fortified in the opinion I entertain, by the authority of the Hon. General who spoke ,eaely in the debate. It was indeed compettint let me VI have objeaed to any discussion of it in this House,: because if it were offered as atoms for the army, it .1 should, like all other boons of the same nature, hare come from the Crown. But when, from the irlis 7 . cretion tar precipitancy of a Minister. I find it is brought before the House, I have then no choice, but am called upon to discuss it. The Right Hun. Gentleman . says, that thungh the rule ot pet ma. nent service now subsists in the army. yet the wish for an alteration of it, lies deep in the feel ings of human nature. But, supposing that to be true, and that it was proper to try this 'sentiment, faritie ertitiply no more - than an expel iment, yet does it follow, that lees:ruse it might he right in a dune of safety, it would also be right in a time of peril that, because it might be fitting in time of peace, it must be so in time of war? or that, because it might be proper when our establishment is low, it must be equally so when that establishment is high? The Hon. General has shewn the incor reaness of the assertion so frequently nude in this House, that it is the praflice in foreign countries, or indeed in any country, to recruit for limited service only ; but admitting it, for argument sake, to be otherwise, still I contend, that such a practice is rot applicable to the British service. Foreign powers compel their subjects to do so, but when this country has recourse to compulsion, it always applies it in a very mitigated toim, by limiting the time, or the ,Rent ut the service, and sometimes with alimise dun as to both. Besides, there is a great difference between tryieg the experiment. which the Go vernment may do now, it they think proper ; I say. there is a great differeece between that, and proclaiming it to the world as a fundamental principle of the establishment. It has Leen already tried, during the American war, and may now be tried in the same way again, without making it a formal part of our military system. A Noble Lord (De Blaquiere, we believe) stated, on a former bight, that he had enlisted a regiment for limited service in Ireland, which afterwards fought like in America ; but that Noble Lord might like wise hese added, that the same regiment had pre- ait dbeeseignned already fot et o n t ina volonteered into the regular s e rv i re America. I again repeat, that Ido not oth e r make trial of the expeliment ; but I stron g ly n o precate the forcing of it, as a principle, upo n a il le . tore Parliaments, who might find a great difficulty in getting rid of though it should pi ove e ver soh : . ism. I have somewhere read on heat t h ot i t i s a good military maxim , not to mareeovre too mu c h i s the presence of an.enemy ; and 1 would recomm en d that maxim to the [light Han. Gentlem a n, w hil e the country continues surrounded by so many an d such imminent dangers. For I will ask him, :there is the man now in arms in this country, who has; been disturbed by the agitation of this measure? Is there a Corps in which the present Bill has not turned the thoughts of its Members from t on perils. which impend over its, to thcir own no on ado., and the consideration whether they Obght to — submit o t tothlelleafft is now many Corps of Voltinteers deliberating On the question, whether they abght not to resign? had cry of h:ar! trom tar+ Ministerial bench, which was echoed from that of the Opposition !) Are not the Milit a now looking to a gratleal <Janina tion of their numbers, which may prolizffily be de signed to finriiitete - their ex:bottm? -And, alto all. Sir, where is nine necessity, ter hell this, n n to , is the authority wider which the Ministers anizc:- ing ? There has ceitainiy b **thing in tt,e ;.r.- ceedings of Par liattsCro to lirscootag.e them. its it ;and do they ad from, any ea thee ittof lo t i t n ot o f doors ? The Right Honourabl t e 9 4 utittuaa tells us, though he keeps back their mimes; that Bien rides of the Officers for and against the measure S i t equally balanced. With respettteithet o Sir. I on niftily have heard the names of some Officers of high character and distindioin whom I shall forbear to mention, who were much averse from the plan ef recruiting• for limited service; and I never heod the names of more than two who weie of a differed opinion. I will, however, venture to ask hOn s , whether he can produce the opinion of try Office, from the Commander-in•Cliief to the youngest lin bwl, who approves of the experiment-being male in our present citcurnstances ? I believe he world be unable to•fiud one, except the Hon. Muir (Col. Cranford), who I am now happy to ate in It:, place, as a report lately prevailed, that' he had accepted an official sintation, which would oblige bins to vacate I.is seat in Vaili.nenr:st - ieast, 114 the (resent. From the proceedings of tine Geutletnan Initrion help supposing his prin ciple to be this, " I have teen for m soy years con stantly offering you my new proposals and plans, and you, during all that time.have been in the pow tine of rejeding 'them ; but the case is now altered; I am now Minister; 56, to the right about, and undo every thing that you before have been doing." ' I am, indeed, of opinion, that with so little ineita tion as the Right Hon. Gentleman has had from Parliament, he znight, at least, have paused a hole before he ventured oa so radical a change. My wits„ as 1 said be'ore, is not alteneen.et to m ead, limited sr vise. I tun extremely' solici tous to postpone, a: least..its subAi:ution to sopply the whole ternis of all military services, for Gentle men will allow pie to doubt of its sufficiency.— It is also to be observed. that the Right Honourable Gentleman, in order so receeeiie the 'Hotta, to•bn own plan, finds it uecessary to overcharge the pre sent condition of ansoldier; and to rentesenusetv:ce for life, as if it were one. which was to mime un ' til the extinetion ( f the vital particle. But the Hituse must recollect, that notch hid of late years been done to outfits, ate the Condition of the snider, and. 1 frame* the metitinious exertions and atten tion of the present Commander in Chief has done Much more for that purpose, than will be effeelesi by ary thing proposed by the Right I ion. Gent. He also thcught proper to draw andriavouralsk contrast between the situation of soldiers, and tbat_of :the other foieer orders of the community; bunsurely, it mustre evidiiiCthat the state ref thy soldier has now great attradione for young people, and that 'be has man' adestntoges in physical life, *Okii the other fowtor classes of society. he cer• . tatkatieantages •of food, taitnent, lodging, care is aink:nesi, Soc. at all' times are not potword Li( the peasantry, or thou in inferior stations, and must afford a very strong induce:mid to enter lei to the 49Ni - tory service. The Right • Hotiouralle 0114*tiOnn'also'soisi„ that'when the men were ehargea,afterhaiving completed their time of soon , . they would be circulated through the country, 21. J sitting at horn, comfortably, under the shade , .! the' looters, woulo recount their adventures, and oArve the youth of their families and neighbonshoods, %soh an ardourfor a military life. I own, Sir, that I are wrongly inclined to think that a military spina might be communicated in this way, which may have a very beneficial effect upon the military ate vice. But, Sir, it you mark the sequel of his plan, Tou will find that Isis design of limiting the service, is not to promote the circulation of a military spirt, but that he is actuated by a •hope of being able to retain and re-enlist the men after their term of ser vice shall expire. Tb obviate one strong objection to his measure, he tells you, that it the term offer. vice of the majority of the men, shall he nearly out in a regiment when ordered abroad, his ren lo2, will be to draught these men into other ref" ments.—Upon this I shall only add, that the pro• lice of draughting has hitherto been considered at ewe of the greAt...it hardships is the service and this is certainly the first rime that ever I heard it spoken of in any terms of approha:ion. lc would be useless to refer to all the authorises which tmioht quote in favour of the adv./is:otos tat permanent oyes limited service ; but there 1• ore which lies bean published in the course of lad yearothich I make no doubt will be thought worthy of particular attention; 1 mean that of the late Conetal Washington. In almost all his letters to the Congress, that General comylains of the great evils brought on liv enlistments tor short periods. to tie-. He lamented, that in consequence of too: which he ascribes nearly the whole of their calat7ii: syst:m, his ATMS was mooldering aro_r disum . ing away, sometimes on the eve cl r hattls and adds, had we at first a peril-odor itrv' one enlisted during the war. it wonld have disposed the enemy to ha'-' ?"- • contest, (a suggesti as was here t• to" that the American army was • a few months) ; the general time ti r ./"..:::e:icans then recruited was the pes: • •