The Sun. — London, England, 1804-03-01 00:00:00

out stareely any Cruizers to annoy our Trade; her whole naval means were shut up in her Ports, with a view to that fiirmidable expedition which she rn ditatcd against thiS , • Country. He meant no di rea accusation against the Admiralty, but lie had beard that with respeft toa Flotilla for the defence of our coast, there had hien - great negleft ; he had heard it said, that on apart of the coast where seve ral persons had volunteered their services for its defence, they were •Oot provided, even so late as Christmas. last, with guns for their vessels ; and this he heard from Gentlemen residing in that part of the country. When he adverted to the Con sideration of our land force, what were the means we possessed at the breaking out of the War ? We had an Army not very strong in point of num. bers, but strong in experience and in point of mi litary discipline ; we possessed what we might call the soul of an Army, greater than at any former period ; we possessed also a population, brave, and ready to take an aElive part in the defence of the country. What was then to be done to diffuse the spirit of the Army through as great a mass of people as possible ? The natural way of proceeding would have been, to have filled up all the old Regiments, and in procuring additional Bat talions, to have economized as much as possible the experienced Officers. After filling up the Regular Regiments, he would have formed something in the way of Reserve, that should have been intelligible : lie would have formed from the youth of the Country who were unincumbered with families, a Body of Men tinder the tuition of a certain number of Officers of the Line, stationed in each distria, who should have taught them their exercise in the mast simple way, merely confining it. to the use of the fire_ lock. These persons need not have beers called into aftual service unless in the event of Inva sion, and then in being placed in Regiments of the Line, they would have had a confidence in their Officers, knowing that they would not be exposed to any unnecessary danger. But an irre gular Force, like our VoluNeers, where. the whole body of Officers from the highest to the lowest were completely without experience, could not be parat. leled in any period of history. Xh.e whole consti., tution this force from beginning to end, he hear tily disapproved of. Coe of the principal evils which Pun through the whole establishment was, the blunder about the exemptions from the Militia and Army of Reserve ; this certainly must have arisen out of mistake ; it never was expeacd by the peo_ ple ; it never was intended by Parliament; and if Ministers intended it, they deceived Parliament.— The only exemption intended to be held out was, that if a sufficient number of Volunteers came.for ward in any particular Distrift, that the compulsory provisions of the Defence Aft should not then be car. ried into execution. This was a sufficient exemption, if any inducement Were wanting ; but it was a libel ' upon the people to say, that they required any such in. (lucerne nt. The die& of these exemptions was this, that they crippled every other part oft= force. — For making some observations upon this subject, he had on a former occasion been called the 4t Regu. lar Colonel ;" he wished all the Colonels of the Line might be allowed the privilege of being called Regular Colonels, for now when Colonels were to be met with at every corner of the street, he thought that those who sacrificed the greatest part of their lives in the service, were entitled to some mark of disrinelion ; and to be called Regular Colonels would distinguish them from those who ,were not. Much had been said about the number of . Men we had in arms, and it was asked if four hundred thousand men in arms were not enough ? He granted that they were enough to prevent the subjugation of the Country, but not enough for the destruftion of our Enemy in the way in which be ought to be destroyed. It had been said that uot above one-feorth of the Volunteers were of the first Class ; he should like to see the second. and third Class employed, not in driving the cattle, or destroying property, but in destroying the Enemy. He should like, in short, to see an armed Peasantry, whom he sheuld conceive to be not merely as good as the present Volunteers, but much better.' It had been said on a former occasion, that we had expe rience of the Volunteers, but none of an Armed Pea santry ; but many instances of the efficacy of the latter description of Force might be adduced from modern history. In La :Vendee the exertions of an Armed Peasantry were sufficiently evident ; the Troops at first sent against theirs were what our Volunteers now are; they were attacked by this Armed Peasantry and totally annihilated. Many of the peasantry of that country were in fact on. armed, or armed only with implements of agricul. tore. So high an opinion had he of a force of this description, that he should be happy to have the command of iOOO peasants to be trained according to his ideas upon the subject, and if he did not do something that should he creditable to them and to himself, he should he willing to be dismissed the service. The distinftion between an Armed Pea santry of this description and our Volunteers was great : in the first place, there would he an Un important difference with respect to' dress, for an Armed Peasantry would not be cloathed like soldiers ; he would give them notirieng but a great.coat, a knap sack, and a bag to carry provisions. As to training, he would not wish for a better Serjeant to teach them the use of the musket than a Game-keeper, or an old Poacher, for it would be only necessary to teach them h ow t o handle it so as they might not shoot them selves or their - neighbours, and in the next place that they might shoot an Enemy; but whether they carried it on the left shoulder or the right, or on, no shoul der at all, was of very little consequence. As to manoeuvres, he would teach them none but the most simple, and such as would take them no more than three or four days to learn. To climb a hedge, or get through it to attack the Enemy at the next, to go through a gate, and charge the Enemy in line, would be all that they need - learn. What had we in the Volunteers ? 'they looked like Soldiers; so much the worse ; they were not Soldiers, nor could he made Soldiers, and therefore to make them look like Soldiers was setting a bad example, which might have a very ill effect upon Regular Troops. It had been said, that they might be taken by an Enemy for Regular Troops, but this might have a very bad effea, for if they were defeated, the most injurious `consequences might result—whilst if they defeated the Enemy's Troops, they might say, that they had been LeAten by Troops of the Line. On the con trary, if they w"re beaten by an Armed Peasantty, who were _immediately to be recognized as such, they would see at once that it was impossible to proceed lurtlicr in a Country defended by the whole of - its' population. Mil to th;S,.that if a body of Volunteers, forming part of an Army were de feated, the General might conceive that a part of his Regular Troops had been beaten, anti make his arrangements accordingly. The system of training the Volunteers he extremely objeaed to it; was not better than that of an Armed Peasantry, hut a.great deal worse. It was upon a system bor. rowed from the Prussians, and formed by the King of Prussia, which was extremely well adapted to the War he carried on upon a large plain, where solid and extensive movements were necessary ; but here it was wholly inapplicable from the situation of the Country, interseded as it was by hedges and in. closures. He had a very high respect for General DUNDAS, but let any man take the Book contain ing his system, in his pocket, and mount his horse and ride over the Country, and lie would immediate ly see that it was not applicable. All that Troops could do wou!d be to fire behind a hedge, or to ad vance, to the next hedge, and charge the Enemy through a gate as well as they could. But when the Volunteers found they could not prac tise what they had - learned, they would be disconcerted, they would not see an Enemy, but only feel the fire as they advanced along hedges and ditches.. They would see no solid body, and from this difference 'to what they had been taught, they would not only be disconcerted, but might eventu ally' be defeated, and that by a smaller number of men.. He remembered when he was in Ireland, that he ordered a Company 'of Militia to take possession of an extensive Inclosure ;, what did the Captain do ? Instead of placing his men along the ranks, he drew them up in the middle, thus immediately rendering them liable to be defeated. It had been objeeted to the formation of an Armed Peasantry, that our force could not be increased because there were not sufficient arms. He did not mean to blame the Board of Ordnance, but if the state. meat that had beep made to the House was cor. rest, there did appear to have been considerable neglea with respell to arms, as hotly that,, statement he believed, it would appear that not more than from 3o to 40,000 stand of arms had been issued above what was in store at the commencement of the war. It might be said, that there were arms in store, but if so, why not put them into the hands of the Peo ple There was another point which demanded their serious attention, and he wished that some persons would be patriotic enough to set the fashion for the use of the Pike, which might be rendered of essential service in the hands of an Armed Peasantry. The Peasantry in La Vendee, armed with Pikes, Pitchforks, or whatever weapons they could get, had advanced against the French Troops pro. teaed bynumerous artillery. By throwing them selves on their faces, whenever they saw the flash, they avoided destruaion, and then rushed upon their adversaries, 'by which means they took a great number of cannon. In this Country, like wise, it 'had been seen that a number of High. landets, much inferior in point of discipline, had beaten regular troops, 'by falling upon them with the broad sword, after two or three discharges of musketry. He had seen also, in Bengal, twelve battalions of regular troops attacked in a similar manner by the Sheiks, when that part of the Army which was attacked was completely annihilated. He felt that so much utility might be derived to the service from the use of the pike, that he could not help pressing His Majesty's Ministers to bring it into use as generally as possible. He could not help adverting to one subjea relating to, Volunteer Corps, namely, the Volunteer Committees. The Right ,Hon. Secretary of State had said, that whilst confined to financial matters they could do no harm, but how were they to be confined to this ? Nothing was said about this in the Bill ; he thought they ought to he expressly de. Glared illegal. It might be said, " dismiss a Corps, if it aels improperly," but the condufl al. laded to, for want of a law to the contrary, might be general, and then would they dismiss them in the moment of danger ? It might be said they could go into other Regiments, but would a man dismiss. ed with disgrace from one Corps readily enter into another ? Another evil was, the general assemblies of Corps, who met to deliberate, like armed Parlia. meats. Against this also there should 'be a po. sitive law. With respea to Fortification, Mi nisters had not done all that they might have done ; they might t ave foreseen that Bonapart had deterrilined to attack this Country, and that the Peace could not be of long duration, and there fore ought to have provided accordingly. During the Peace there was nothing but one continued se. ties of insult and aggression on the part of the Ene my, and 'he should be ashamed of his Country if he could suppose that Englishmen could have sat down in the confidence that ...hat Peace could be of long duration. Ministers ought to have been pre pared for what they must have foreseen would hap pen. As it was, if the Enemy should be enabled to land in any great number, it was impossible for any one to say that we might not experience some great temporary disaster, He begged leave to be understood, that in recommending Mortification, he did not recommend such measures as the entrenched. Camp at Chelmsford. He was glad to hear that a part of that Camp had fallen into the ditch, and he hoped the remainder would, as it could be of no advantage whatever, unless the Enemy had a particular wish to run his head 'against an entrenched camp. By Fortification he meant strong detached works, and certainly not one continued line, which could only lead to the defeat of an army. It put him in mind of a remark made by a person in Ireland, who wished all the Cavalry in that King dom to be colleaed on the Curragh of Kildare. If Infantry could be persuaded to come and meet them there, this would do very well, and so if an enemy chose to come to the entrenched camp at Chelms- ford, he might be defeated. When an enemy's army was advancing, there appeared to him two modes of stopping it, the one by forming an en trenched Camp in such a position that he cannot ad vance without fighting ; the other by forming a camp in the Enemy's line of Communication . hetwcen. him and his magazine. But would any man say that the camp at Chelmsford could prevent ail Enemy from reaching the Capital, as he might easily come by ano ther road, whilst the : idea of its being upon this line of cornmunicatiortsyis absurd; He would undertSke to prove that Ministers had not - done all they could for the defence of the:Country ; there were vulnerable points which might easily have been proteled, and even considerable Magazines were left without that proteoion•which they ought to have had, They might have been fortified so as not to have been taken by assault ; - not by the small' low batteries which were now used, and which were easily taken, nor by Martello towers, but by a species of impreg nable battery, which could not be taken by assault by any number of infantry, but could only be by sap s or by ereding another battery close upon the spot. He had the opinion of an Officer of high rank, that if orders had been given for ereding these batteries, they might long since have been constructed, and have tended materially to the pro. [cajun of the vulnerable parts of our Coasts. Upon all 'these points he pledged himself to prove, that Ministers had not done all that they ought to have done for the defence of the Country. General 111 AITL AND said, there was much gal. lantry in the Speech of the Hon. Member who had sat down, although there was not much novelty in it ; but he confessed he heard much of that speech with very considerable regret and concern. In looking at the preparations of this Country, he might have been led to suppose that the I-lon. Mem ber would have looked at them as a whole, instead of entering into a minute detail, and dwelling upon particular parts with a curiosity of criticism. He should have thought that he might have taken some pleasure in . stating points which appeared to be favourable to this Country in the present prospect of things, in the present contest ; he should have thought some notice might have been taken of those things which were apparently to the disadvantage of the Enemy—not a syllable of the Army of France, but of its being an excellent Army, headed by a man of uncommon genius and fortune, full of enthusiasm &c. that they were an Army of-Veterans, &c. He should have thought it might have occurred to that Hon. Officer that they were not all Veterans ; he should have thought that Hon. Officer might have stated, that among our own Army there were some veterans competent' to meeting 'those -of France, or ,any other Army in this world; he should have thought that the Hoh. Officer would haveltad'Seinie pleasure in stating that of this mighty and boasted Army of France, there were some parts composed of Italian and other Conscripts ; he should have thought it might have occurred to the. Hon. Officer that the Militia of ibis-Country were equal and competent to meeting an- equal number- of any men; and that the Hon. Officer might have look ed at the Volunteers in a differenr point of view from that in which he did view them—that - he, would have found some consolation' in reflecting that the mass of doe Volunteers cf this Country was a body of men preparing to fight for the King, the - Constitution, the Liws, and the Liberties of it, and that the Hon. Officer would have had some pleasure in reflecting on the contrast between such men and those Conscripts of France, who were torn from their relations, fathers from their children, and children froth. their parents, coming towards our shores in fetters. He should have thought that the Hon. Officer would have had some pleasure in expa, slating on these fads ; but he took'no such view of the subjed. The Honourable Officer had ailed, ,he was bound to believe, from the purest motives, pod other Hon: Gentlemen who had pursued the same line orcondud, 'had aded from the purest motives, for what appeared to them to be the' interests of their Country ; yet he could not help saying, he had heard their rspeeChes 'with considerable regret, not that he apprehended the ingenuity which they'shew. ed, would in the least degree shake the determina. tion of the people - of this Country in the pursuit of their cause, or todtice them to fear the Enemy, but he took up the subject in another point of view ; he thought the speech of the Hon. Officer and some other speeches he had of- late heard in that House, would, or might have in some respeCts a bad effect, for it must be well known now to every body, that what was said within the' doors of that House -was not confined to the Members of that House, nor to this Country, but went to the Enemy, as Cvelhas all over the rest of the world, and he could not help thinking, there was no ingenuity that could be em ployed in France ;hat could more increase the energy, and inspire the enterprize of the Troops there s() much as some of the Speeches which had of late been delivered in that House. He knew that was not the intention of those Honourable Members, but that he thought was likely to be the circa of their Speeches.—This course of speaking in that House, had a tendency to invite the Enemy to come among us, and if they did, he had the confidence and hap piness to think that the event would be ;nose glorious to this Country than Kad ever yet been re ' corded in the annals of the world. Having said this on the tendency of these• Speeches, he should take a short view of the topics urged by the Hon. Officer who had just preceded him in the Debate, although he should not be minute upon them all, many o f which, unless he had heard them pressed repeatedly, were such as he hardly should have thought neces. sary to answer. The first point he had to take no tice of was, that of the Exemptions of the Volun. teers. The Hon. Officer had stated broadly and roundly, that these Exemptions had had the effed of hindering the Recruiting of our Army, the rais ing of the Army of Reserve, and of interrupting the progress of the Militia, and possibly that it might have had the effect (for sometimes that had been in sisted upon) of hindering the raising of our Marine Force; that was the force pf Land-men of .the Navy. The best answer to these round and broad assertions was, that they were contrary to the fad as it stands. As it was only an as. section, without proof, he should have thought it would have been followed up by some arguments to shew at least the probability of this assertion ; but the Hon. Officer had been contented with stating it as a fie}. Now he would ask, upon the subject of these Exemptions, if there - was any thing to hinder Volunteers from entering into the service of the Navy or of the Regular Army in any part of the world ? He knew of no such exemption ; he knew of nothing that prevented any Volunteer from enter ing asa Substitute in any part of the Army; neither • did he know of any exemption which preVented i n Volunteer trom entering as a Substitute to ser ve the Militia. Nor dirt he believe that any consi derable number of the Volunteers would have served theeithe n r o in exetp n A t l i, i l l n it ; ia f or or the iie A k rArmyo them to be persons capable of providing Su bstitutes, and this was the last part and most material one, in the great Reserve gre at t fui tlley4. the whnie of the Hon. Officer's speech upon wh at he called the evils of the exem i .tions of the 'V o l un teers , • for he intl pressed it much to the House, tha t manY of .the - Volunteers; if drawn, must have served:, personally in the Militia and in the Army of Re ', serve, because they could not find Substitutes. Noivi to judge of that, it would be necessary to see tile . number of Substitutes who are now serving , an. 3 ' then it would appear that with regard to the i )k, had tia and the. Army of Reserve, the numbers were patA. ; one to loco of those who could not provide Soh'. t satiates ; anti thus- it' appeared to him that Gerstlf‘ men would do better if they adhered a little more rd matter of fad, and indulged less in speculations and round assertioos upon these topics ; a little n"fi e• adherence to the fad would have spared the observa-!. tion that the Volunteer system had prevented the raising of the Militia and the Army of Reserve'.. As to the price which these Substitutes would ha ve cost for the Army of Reserve, the principle o ° , ll • which Gentlemen proceeded was erroneous ,- price was not higher now than it had been in t "; course of the last War. This exemption of , Volunteers had been stiled a bonus:. now in e°ll ' sidering this matter, and estimating the value of t hll. • exemption, the correct way was, not to consider' the price of a Substitute, but the price of the insurance by which a man might secure a Substitute in the event of his being drawn. Now upon c hae . subject the average price in Scotland was a gu ifle ; and an half ; in some instances a guinea, in marl ";e guinea and an half, io same few, two guineas , be k t never higher than two guineas ; and then he u. )° ', ask, what became of this famous bonus ? What V/3 ‘ . granted to the Volunteer by way cf exempt i l:. was next to nothing in value ; and the Volunic in this re , ped, instead of receiving a bonus sustai t ' e a , f . a loss, and that a considerable one, by being a d ;:t. lunteer, instead of being subjea, like anYs 13-the person, to all other levies—Having said this (30 c t he Volunteers, he shmild now take a short v iew discipline of the Volunteers ; and upon that subl he owned he was astonished at• almost every ar g t" ment which had been advanced by the Hollu urab.6 Officer to the discredit of the System of -Volunteer —What the Honourable Officer, and indeed maaf l others ccnvey'ed; was" ,neither more nor less illac this, ,that they are sorry that the Volunteers 11 0 . :learnt too much : Now if they had.learot too Much.'„, had they not at least learnt as m u ch as thesefla; nourable Gentlemen wished them to learn. A flea the Armed Peasaatry, the General said he , G never been able to understand precisely whit et'', r oficex• tlemen meant by them. The Honourable : '-'% O , 'had said that an Armed Peasantry would drive lightning the French into the Sea if o ' o ' must hither—Now -if they were to do this, th e y he some how or other do it by tangible matter presumed would the Volunteers. The Hoii• however wished these Peasants to stand b ehind bedgesin twenties anti tensaogether, and those w° _ e asse -- be Men who learnt the use of artns only for a few Op or perhaps only a few hours. Such a pos'se cootila. as that would never do. The Hon. Officer sh ° h 'i s his head, and yet this was what he had said i e to. Speech, and these were the persons who '' ve tfe ero drive the Fren c h i nto t h e s e a , an d the Arq ldl . s reill were not to do it. This species of defensive i - which' the Honourable Officer would adopt , make these Armed Peasantry good soldiers after soy tot o y or three c a mpaigns, and they had met a disasters, for that would he the only sPe cl j - drilling . which they would have ; and this W_, s t , speci es 'of adversity which that s ystem would "'" Je probably bring upon the Country if it was adO t t s c ie for u nt il men h a d been drill e d, a musket on tafh. shoulders was hardly of any use to them a t r i m C With regard to the Book of Regulations t es s Eiereise, published by order of his Royal the Commander in Chief, the Honourable said it was to:ally Useless as applicable to th e f p. lunteer C o rps. Now he agreed with t he the nourahle Officer; when he said that as te „,ltr" 4 Regul ar Army, - or Militia, or Volunteers , "TO tog i n this Country, that the mode they would be called upon to ad must be d 2ll- : the from that which is adopted in other Counif ic h isvai tr ut h was, thittour system of matters t- auallY of training had more tactic in it than wa s 04 11 , necessary, or ever a d o p te d in a ction, but were brought to ad further than was n ecessa r P o ss.• not incapacitate them from awing, as far as L il t t he sity required. He thougrht, thetefore, that wil a o nly . Volunteers had gained in knowledge, was 0 0 0 0 useful to themselves, but would be highly " 5c a be the Country at large in the hour of adioni 31 : 5 014 could not help saying that theme was much n i ffi . cer information in the Book to which the 1 4 °"*, - „ s lue had alludtd, and which he thought of so little .gel to the Volunteers in this Country. 1-1°- ; s tet° this, and having said that in his opinion the 6 0 ' t hat adopted by the Volunteera was preferable short stated by the Hon.. Officer, lie should take 3 .,„biel view of the cloathing of the Volunteer s ' re ds was objeded to on account of its )iti n g, n "rtP• He owned he did not see. any objet I°to this, and the Honourable Officer s eetTle,l quarrel with the cloathing of the Volunt eer A ' r alY; cause it was better than iliac of the Regu lar to t he nor did he agree with the Hon; Officer as the effect which their appearance would have ur_ t e a s, Enemy., He had said also, that we would ha: . fie Reserve if any of the Volunteers were d eteite° o did not assent to that, fur if 30 1 ,00 0 of thetanooll the field of battle, another JO,OOO %%4)110 ilijoiep fill up their place, or fill the place of His un tor' ty's Regular Troops, if the Enemy shOU iro n tunately defeat them. Neither would rhe t.t .d s itil 4 think of beating them so easily as they miry/ere t tl of beating men in smock frocks ; but if they othe r 0 defeat one army, they wo uld so on see sit e S O well cluathed, possibly better, perhaps not„q.i,,filli well drilled as the former, yet dril led sub 016 ; 0 13* id for the purpose of action , which, he sa''' , . case at this infunent, for he had tie heel er° saying, that the Volunteers of this Count c .. .. WI ( ; sufficiently drilled for the purposes of alto