The Sun. — London, England, 1803-07-19 00:00:00

of arms. This, lie said, was stilled of regret to Ittin, as he believed it was to many others",. for we ortglo take the population of this Country, which was certainly very . great ; —we might trust in Ge resources of this Country, whith were also very great ;—we might trust to the courage of tlse people of this Country, which was iodisig able—stiil if men di.i not know how to make use of arms, they were exactly in proportion to their ignorance, inefficient. Our Ancestors knew • this, and provided for t this dcficiency,, for there were moty Statutes in our . Statute Book, compell ing all persons who were able to do so, to pro. vide themselves with arms, and to exercise their arms ; and. this system was to be found from the earliest periods of our History down to . the time of Harry - VIII.---There was a provisiOn in the time of that Monarch, requiring. all manner. of per. sons to provide bows, for • the bow and arrow was then in use, and the Townships were ordered to provide butts for the purpose of shooting, and such as negleCled to do so, were fined for, such ne, gied. Here he quoted the 38 of Harry VIII. chaps. • 8 and 9, providing to that effed, by which every man, nodet the age of 60, and not under any law, ful impediment—the Ecclesiastics and the Judges were excepted—was compelled to learn the use of arms ;—servants and young personi were compelled, under the direttion of Fathers., Governors,'and Mas. • lets (a wise Law,. and be should be glad . to see it applied now to, all great Public Schools, so that all yaung men in the kingdom, of whatever denomina_ . lion, were taught the use of antis . ) we lived in times in which no man ought to be ignorant of the use of arms, for without the use of arms, and he was valiant enough to use them, neither his proper. ty, nor his family, nor his life, nor his . honaur, nor any thing that was dear to man, was safe, -neither was the Country safe .without knowledge of the use of arms, and a disposition to make use of' them - in the people-,-Under the provision of the ancient Law to which he referred, every man or boy above the age of t 7 was to provide a bow, and the Town ship was to provide Butts to exercise such persons in shooting ; and as to those young men who could not buy -these - bows, their masters were to buy howl - fur them, which was to be deduded out of their wars for bows and arrows—and there was a penalty fixed upon the Township if Butts were not duly provided for that purpose. .Now, referring to . this Law as the ancient Law of the realm, he should propose that His Majesty should dired the Lieute riants of every County to exercise the first class yearly in their respedive Parishes, and train them to the use of arms once. a week, and that the King may diced at his discretion sufficient arms for train. ing young roan to the use of them. That these arms when provided, should be lodged 'in churches, or such other place for safe.custody as the Lieutenants of the Counties shall aired : such arms to be kept • in envier at the expellee of the Parishes, and proper provision made for the safe custody of them: that the Parish Officer should be responsible for the custo. • sly or tl•ie removal of them, by order of the Lieu. . tenant and Magistrates of tl,e. County. Provision • was also to be made to dived the Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants to appoint Officers in each • Parish to'vorinnimst the men dividing into Compa. ..nies, or where any Parish was too small, the Lieu, tenant should have power to blend it with another, and there was to be a Captain, two Lieutenants, and an Ensign to every 120 men. He should then pro. pose, that every person in the first Class in every Palish should attend fur the purpose of being exer. cised, the Lieutenants should appoint the place of -assembling, provided it be not distant from the home of the man more than duet miles ;—that they should be trained and exercised once a week, on Sunday, between Lady.day and Michaelmas. 'lbis was really no more than our ancestors con. stantly did without any exception, and the tired of it was, that when we were insulted, instead of waiting to be invaded by France, they conquered a great part of it. Now he should propose, that persons who did not attend the exercise, should pay a small fine ; those who were assessed a given rate, should be tined five shillings for every instance of omission to perform the exercise, and poor men one shilling, and in case of a repetition of the omission, the fine was to be increased in a manner eo be stated in the Bill. He proposed that there should be provisions, enabling one Deputy Lieu. tenant of the Subdivisions, and the Officers corn. mantling the Company, toagree with the Serjeants of out.pensions, , or others who had been trained to arms, and skilled in the use of :hem,to train these, and • to make them an allowance for their trouble in train. ing these men. lie was perfedly persuaded that if it should appear io the House fit to adopt measures of this kind, nothing would he more easy than to find persons in every part of the Country, and in great numbers, competent to this task, who were well acquainted with the use of arms ; and that the ex. ercise, that is to say; the purpose for which the men were to assemble, which was to prime and load and lire a piece, and to face to the right or left, and do those things which arc necessary for adion, and which once learned are never forgotten ; anti fur ther,, they . were t o . consider • of the best use to be made of men who had received instructions, or some wholiad received no instructions before, if they were assembled and mixt with other men how hang it would be before they would be useful and operative ; for it did not require a great length of time to make a man an useful soldier, although for parade and mancenvre( there would be but litte parade ;Jot) mantrotv re in this Country in case of in Tovasion) there was a great deal ; if a man knew how to make use of his firelcick, he would be a respectable person for the defence of his Country. There were one or two points more to be observed upon, and which he had to propose.—lf a young. man b e i ng c.illed out into ri is service, and he should prefer the Cavalry, and he chose to appear armed and equipped :13 a Dragoon, he should have the honour of serving in the Cavalry---.iHe observed, that in the case of an emetgeney like the present, when it was the bounden duty of every man to come forward and to march at the word of command, wheresoever within the k.ing tloal dlogercalled and every man ough t o declared infamous, aed proscribed from the of honourable men, considered as disgraced ilhe did not only march at the word of 13:tm ,1 , 11 before whatever danger was opposed, but .11 e did nut do it cheetfully,"for it was the meanest thing any min could he guilty or to spew any uttm.q.P &guess in this cause, and «) he hold and forwhed the tmost tje had n<i gone throt,64l general Outline -of the Bill w Wei lie was : lave the honour of !loving for leave, to -introduce. +le should propose that it shOuld 'extend to t4Whole of Great Britain, It was a measure founded on the ancient usages of England, an:l was nothing more than merely-enforcing and renderibg more efficient, because more expeditious, ,the undoubted : . preroga tive of the Crown of England. He believed, though of that was. not' quite certain, that the ancient usage and prerogative of the Kings of Scot. land were of a similar nature to our own, -but whe. ther that be so or not, he was assured that no part of that country would object .to the principle of the measure he. was about to propose, so limited as it was, and as he conceived, so wholesomely and, effq.lually limited. Every thing that was done under this. Bill was. to be done within the different parishes, unlesi the Enemy came among us.- It was a mere parish exercise. while the Enemy was out of the Country, but when the Enemy came into the country, then the Bill obliged every body to march arid fight the fee, which every body was bound to do already ; the only difference was, that this Bill made more prompt and easy the law,as it stood. With respell to Ireland,. it was not his intention to apply this measure tti that part of the United Kingdom, because the ma.: chinet* of it did not apply to the state of that Coon.' try ; the_ loCal divisions did not suit it. 1-le hoped that a considerable progress would be made in that Country in the way of its defence, and preparation to meet the Enemy : He hoped that the Civil Ma. nagement as well as Military Force, would be made to suit the convenience of individuals, as well as the general safety tt be hoped, that in that Country, as well as in this, every effort would be made for the benefit of the Empire ; but the state of Ireland could not admit of this regulation : the power given to raise Volunteers in that Country had been carried with that zeal, courage, impetuosity, and decision, which was so natural to that people, but this mea. sure was not at present applicable to the state of . Ireland. Now, it might be said, that putting arins . into their hands, allowing all Parishes to arm and • all the men in them to exercise arms, was dangerous ; now he did not know but that in some instances there might be danger in it, but the House would consider what the present state of this Country is— what the state of Europe is—what the present state of the world is, and the question was, whether we were not right in pursuing the ideas of our Alves. tors in times when the History of our Country was glorious I He conceived that we had now a , choice only of difficulties. He hoped that thivwould be a Bill to.prevent'danger, for the execution of it would be under the disposition of His Majety, and, would depend much un the discretion of the Lieu. tenants of the Counties ; and the custody of the Arms would be with Parish Officers, who would be bound to follow ell the orders of the Lieutenants of the Counties ; and Gentlemen of the House of Com. mons would observe, that the office of Lieutenants and Deputy Lieu's. of; Counties were becoming every day more and more important.. They were undoubt edly at this time, to all intents and purpose s , repre. sentatives of His Majesty for military purposes, and they might be entrusted with very considerable mili tary commands and controul ; he hoped that Noblemen holding these high stations would consider theris in a military point of view, more than they had been accustomed to look upon them, for they had hitherto,. especially in modern times, considered t h e o ffi c es of Lieutenant and Deputy Lieutenant too much es civil offices, and too little as military, With re. ape& to the danger . of putting arm s i n t h e h an ds o f the People, admitt ing there might he some danger, yet it was infinitely better to give arms to all the . , People, and to teach them the use o f t h em , e ven if: by a wrong use we should be under the necessity of subduing.some of them for our own safety by force of arms also, than that the people should be igno rant of the use of arms, or afraid to use them. • He had rather be under the necessity of fighting his own Countrymen, if some. of them rebelled, than. entertain the thought of submission to a Foreign Ene my; but with respeet to the feelings of the hearts and thoughts of the minds of his Countrymen, he would not allow, himself to harbour the thought ofimy dan ger in giving arms to them, or training them up to the use of arms—As to this, the enemy had put arms into the hands of all the people, and they had been taught the use of them, and in this as we ll as i n some other points, they held out something worthy of our imitation, for what they had done in a bad cause might be worthily employed in a good one— It Was proposed that His Majesty should have power to call'for private arms to be brought forward for the public use, for although the arsenals of this Country were never so well furnished as they are at this moment, yet there may not be a sufficient number of arms for all those who may have occasion to use them on the approaching emergency. -It was therefore proper to empower His Majesty to call for such armsaa may be in possession of private individu. als—but upon this subjea more might be said when the provisions of the Bill came to bediscussed—Now it did. appear to him that this plan being consistent wit'a the ancient law of this ,Country, if carried into execution, it would be pursued with zeal and animation by the whole mass of the people, when they came thoroughly to understand it. • The real meaning was this : the enrollment in this case was nothing but mere exercise for each man in his own Parish, except in the case of the En e my coming among us. In the case of an aOtial invasion, it would form an ample and efficacious mode of bring. log the power of the Country into immediate and decisive ;talon. He was nut without hopes that if this plan should be adopted in addition to the measures already adopted by Parliament, that this Country will prove to France, to Ettrope, and to the World, that we are capable of defending our. selves, and that the Chief Consul will lay aside those insolent speculations in which he has vaunt. ingly indulged himself. If he finds us thus de. fending ourselves, rising in arms in the field, he will be induced to think a little less of attack_ ing us :. he may not wish to meet the People of this Country, such as they arc ; but he should very freely express his opinion upon this subjeet, which was, that the minti and opinion of the Chief Consul and the Rulers of France at the present day were the most considerable persons there were elevated . to such a pitch, that tbey cared not ' ; ‘trlutt they tried. : : He apprehrnsie.; thilt their curio -. t.tty would enaavotir to he satisfied.* He never had . the honour to be in France, but he understood that they were a atiotts•People ; hit he understood also that their curiosity, was easily satisfied, and when (MCC Satisfied, they were not remarkable for renew. ing the same curiosity. He did 'not believe that the great Chief Consul was much of an historian ; he did not expect him to know much about our an cient charaaer. He seemed to doubt whether .weare capable of producing Sold ier3. 'He did not apprehend that the great Chief Consul's knowledge was very extensive in antiquity, but he might have heard that the people of this land and of Ireland had pro. duced some excellent Soldiers, and that in consider. able numbers too. He believed that the great Ge. neral and Chief Consul of France had himself a very full opp?rtunity of judging something about us, at Toulon particularly, where with a handful of men, at: the redoubt called De Grasse, Colonel Duncan, of the Artillery, defended it in a way that gave the French no inclination, with all his force, to renew the attack. Nur was Acre to be forgotten; there the great General had an oppor tunity of seeing what was done by another h.►nd;ul of English Seamen and Marines, who stopped the progress of his powerfUl, his invincible Army, for 6o days, behind nothing more than what might he called an old garden-wall. This was a symptom to the mighty General of what he was likely to meet if ever he should do us the honour of a visit. But there was another little circumstance of modern date which gave the Chief Consul a very good specimen : at Cateau, 2500 British Cavalry come featly deteat., • ed the left wing of the French Arniy,, and took za pieces cannon.—Nor was the Cavalry of this Cain- . • try then inferior to any, nor is it noWi . inferiAr to, what it was then, and he believed the British Ca. valry would be found to know how to use the sabre! to the oerfed conYidion of their Enemies as to its. efficacy. In short, they were equal to any in the whole world. And if the Great General was nut -satisfied with the specimen he had at Cateau, he would refer him to the battle of Lincelles, where a,, Brigade of r too men attacked 6000, and drove them. from the Redoubt, and took eleven pieces of caneoo and if that was .not sufficient he ivLadd refer the great General to General Fox, a gallant Officer who with a weak Brigade, he believed of not more b t than n t h e Soo ire x men, ert village of Pontichy, and o r n e s ga c i f i ,n e( t t ri t l i ) 'e utedcortsiderably to de— cide the fate of the battle of Fournay. He then concluded with moving that the ACI of the corn. mencement of this Session, for the Defence of the Realm, be read—which being entered as read—he moved, " That leave be given to bring in 'a Bill 'to amend and render more efFedual the said At, and- to enable His Majesty the more effedually and speedily to exercise his antient and Undoubted pre. rogative, in requiring the military service of his liege subjeds in ease of Invasion of the Realm." Mr. WINDHAM said, that though he aid not mean to oppose'this measure, but on the contrary, if possible to give it more than an unanimous con.. currence, he still retained his opinion that Mini sters had by their delay ~ brought this Country into • a state of great danger. This was a charge which he could not avoid taking that opportunity o f re _ asserting. The first inquiry that was necessary to make upon this occasion was, whether the Country was really in danger ? He did not mean to say, that because the Country was in danger, that Ministers were therefore of course the cause of its being in arl hlaidroutglohtt it,lrioevCidte(tinttrhye his accusation aga i nst them was that sitdation, o nettinto ( tia n n l g u e c r h , a t i s ia. h tt a l t i e y they, i' necessary means of defence : he wished the House to consider whether it was probable that the Enemy would make an attempt at invasion : this point was now admitted, for the first time, by Ills Majesty's Ministers, if not in words, at least by actions ; but he was apprehensive it was not suffi ciently felt by the Country at large. He knew very well, that if after all the exertions the Coon. try could make, no attempt at invasion should'take place, they would have a great deal of vapouring and high language from those who would assume a superiority over the rest of their Countrymen, and whO would 'say that they never had the least idea of. Invasion, and that t h ose measures of defence were only necesvoy to quiet th e a l arms of the People. A great deal had been said of the difficulties that would attend an Invasion of this Country—they certainly were many, but he begged leave to ask, whether Gentlemen supposed thq: the Enemy had not considered this sobjed, as well as we had, and were not pettedly apprised of the difficulties of the enterprize ? They knew as well as we did the dangers of the sea ; they knew that the sea would drown those who were unfortu. nately swallowed up in it, and though they might not know our means of defence, quite as well as we did, they might be supposed to understand as well as us their own means of attack. He certainly had heard from many most respedable Gentlemen, very decided opinions upon the impradicability of lova. sion—they come from many sages of the Law...... many very respectable Divines —many very opulent Merchants--many very skilful Agriculturists-- many very worthy Country Gentlemen, and many very handsome women I but, from Soldiers and Sailors of experience, he had never heard such an' opinion. If you, were to ask the opinion of a Sailor upon this subject, he would immediately tell you of the uncertainty of naval operations, of the variations of the wind and tide, and the extent of the coast you are to guard ; and he would conclude with saying, it would be impossible to rest with. absolute security upon our naval means of defence ; but if you were to ask a landsman who had' never seen the sea, perhaps, x his annual excursion to Margate. Or Brighton, ce who had n ever erriar k e d upon except it} it, except in a bathing machine, he would itn. tnediately tell you, that to attack art Islan.l, 'with ar superior Navy, was utterly impossible. He would tell you, ,with his wooden head, to rely entirely Upon the Wooden Walls of the Country : you would meet with men, who never saw a battle in their lives, who would with great facility di - spatch you zo or 30,000 men in a morning, with as great ease as Capt.. Bubad l himself ; but if the gnestion Was put to Officers who had seen service, ;old who has'e the means of forming a judgment, their : • language would be different indeed. There waA no dais of men, who held the Enemy cheaper, or' who thought that they would not make great and daring exertions, than those who were in capable of making these exertions themselves,.-- - ° Ministers have constantly represented the necess ary of inspiring the-People of- ,iris Country witilao7e rage, taken the 611 e -it means of iro smog courage that can be conceived; which:Os, ' l 4t 41 telling ;help they have no danger to.apfle- ; hend. Every man who held a different language was. aceused of exciting despondency ; and here he , '. could not help expressing his thanks to an Honour.. ' able Officer, who had in the most clear and clistin4r!: : manner given his opinion upon the subjed. It weist - ' . l , however, a little hard that he,•and those who enter.. • tained the same notions of the danger of the duos try that he did,should not only be accused of despcin• dency,but that they should be accused by His Majes ty's Ministers ; this Put him in mind of what 'be had hearth from a NOW Lord, upon a former*. casion, respeCting the Knights of the Bath, who, if they turned recreant, were not only to .1114 e their spurs cut off, but to aggravate the disgracer were to have them hacked off by the 1(1 6 0 Cook : so he and -his friends were not :01 , 4 Y to be acc use d o f despondency, but to make. ttie accusative stronger, it • was to come from the framers ,f sltcty h OW wi tied et he wi~hed o Amiens, aanattcSiell,a7:ll;l:loltieti"eriblerii appr e ehensive 1 0 : M ui t b i sii i i u e ff vt i t, C I ;i st s s e i:10 1 !e l en t i t o i r l .e l i t ,i,2 l a , sion of His Majesty's Mini ste r s 'h e d vci} l tired upon them, f or i t Uri'. them .ro conclude. that • ~ Treaty. We are accused of posit' tnimity, becal e we pointed out the danger, in ,orde r that it tnig t obejelisted. There were c a se s , inothich ro'coece,."* meat of danger mi g ht be pr o p er . If ' a mat; vei l .vith malady, in which, iso effiro of Is!' own could assist him (unless he had some worldleft -44chreeon; spiritual affairs to seplej, it certainly coulttheoole rri alarm hiM, by aelliog him orhis &imam accordieg to the language of Ministers-, ii : re env , tsite. of their houses on ke,. it Would be'llio?;1; . ' ::o.a 'fur him to knock lout,liy at the door no-d A:aro : lntro doss,tf t h eir! o danger, tut' li must tap gcntly.af the ~t' -• lie ,would illustrate the case by &opposing' otlou - was on board a Ship which 'he diicoverect tot be /0 fire. It would not be said, that he . otight tokeer; this' discovery :o himself; but when the et , N 0,41 C reitt.o l to a sense of danger Which threateneSilietti'Vif then,saw the fire aiptoachin t o to the magazitoo he would .not acquaint them with that, because that, instead of stimulating them to ixertions;toiAt..; drive them to despair.. It was in this view, he coo. , sitLreal the state of the Country, and these*Prhi' ciples governed his conduCt. He had On objgdk' n to the present measure, but he wished to knOr ruby it was not brought forward before ? Why W:4 l it nut brought forward four months ago ? 'Whets His Majesty's Message was delivered, and theideia of Invasion was held out, they 'must have knout s the danger at that time. indeed they must have known it whenohey signed the Treaty of Atniertf, because it was the necessat - y..offsiartoitif that Tteatys; it :was in its belly, oit the time 'it was tigned‘vit had now gone. its full time.; the period of ifs.- gestation was elapsed, and it had now been happily delivered of two daughters, War and Invasion. It had been often said, not only, that it W4s wise child that knew its own father, but that it was a wise father that knew his own child. 'HO Majesty's Ministers, however, did not appear' t 0 have that wisdom, for they did .not know their own natural and legitimate offspring. The present con test was one which men ought not - to look to as an ordinary one—they ought to look at it as if the enclof the world were approaching. What could in. duce Ministers to aft in the manner they had done? ' they had certainly no interest in the ruin of the . Country. He could never suppose that t he CHAN , . cei.i.oit of the EXCHEQUEIL was looking to hie Omaiuer, in conceiving the situation of the Coun . try ; hut he ought to have recolleded, that theta was an o.lltlh/M of much more importance at stake' t`-ere were many modes of defence, which Ministeri Might have adopted, which could have been ee.. treniely efficacious, and nut at all expensive there were many military opinions of the first weight and importance, which they might have ; taken, for instance, those of my Lord Howl , ' % 1 Sir CtinitLes Gary, and others. The charader aj .of the times was such, that nothing ought to ha ver been left .undone, more especially as it was the;ll principle upon which the Enemy . afted. He then proceeded to make 'some observations upon the plan which had been suggested for driving the Country ; it Wight be in some cases necessary, but as a gene. rah Sturgeon on the subjed. With resped to th e mead. o fi r a t h su e r lt i t t d iwcraosuasbs d u e r s d c „ f li p nd tiolia)utgliivimeninbnyiiimidiir Majiv or Sturgeon sure itself, he certainly had no obje(tion to its c t h u O u u ld g lii m li p e ro thought t h h i . c r i t l i volu ) ehatditanroy doubt se r might, it w.nilti be infinitely more efficacious than any that could be derived from compulsion, because the tore compulsion was to disincline to the service ' which they were forced upon. Still, however, 118 did not objeft to it, because it was a goad measure to have in reserve, if voluntary service could not be obtained. The great objeft. was that of time, and the great danger was, that the machine they were no w making could not be brought into action befor e the French might come and completely spoil L He then proceeded to observe, that the fate this Country, if the result of the contest should he disastrous, would be wretched. We must neve r fancy that we could live in the same s tate of sec ar : vassalage, that the people of Spain, of Holland) ort 'of Switzerland dial : the fate of the people of thi s Country would be infinitely more severe and Lk: grading. If there was a man base enough to &him; otherwise, he would not advise him to " lay the trai~~ir. Clio assenting n flattening unCtion to his soul." Mr. W. !` lc of under this Bill, made some general observations . upon the mode s a the adoption of a more regular force, har-" I • so the Motion. Lsrd H A fricz s B u my said, the point before Ole House ; that his Right flan 3; and wcortimen oe i. Frietal had said very little which seemed to be nt L...ill:email had, il()Vicver, made an attack upon the Right P" is