The Sun. — London, England, 1806-04-04 00:00:00

=- y 1 NtIMBER , IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF COMMONS. THURSDAY, APRIL 3. Mr. H. THORNTON obtained leave to bring in' a I; ill for amending the Mt of the 22d of the King, for the more easy Recovery of Small Debts in the Bomb of Southwark. )1r; BALDWIN presented a Petition agaiu't the I,atitbet,b Inclonre ill , praying that the Petitioners maybe heard by their Counsel. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL brought in a Bill for prohibiting the importation of Slaves. in the Islands of Foreign States ; which was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time on Wednesday the 16th inst. and printed. The SECRETARY at WAR presented several Esti mates of certain Army Services, which, he observed, did not relate to this day's Debate, which he would ---inove on Moriday-se'nuight. Mr. VANSITT,ART presented the Second Report of the Comthissioners for considering the. Civil Affairs of the Navy'; which was ordered to be printed, Mr. VANS:TTART brought in the. Additional Duties Customs' Bill; which was read a first time, and was ordered to be read a / sec:6nd time on Mon day se'nnight, as was also the Iron . Duty Bill. Mr. PERWVAL gave notice that he would, after the.recess, move for leave to bring - in a Bill for Bet teling the condition of Stipendiary curates. Admiral Duckworth's Annuity Bill was brought id by Mr. VANSITTART, read a second time, and Was ordered to be committed on Monday se,u night. The Treasurer of the Ordnance Bill was passed, and ordered to .- the Lords. A, Clause was brought in, and agreed to, to exempt the Bank of England from any mistake that might. occur in the 'trans- Mission of monies from the Ordnance Office. to the Bank. , The Property Bill went through a- Committee, and wits reported, and oidered to be taken into fur ther consideration on Monday fortnight, .and the, Bill printed. Mr. R. THORNTOt4 moved, that there he laid be fore"tht House -the Copy of a Letter written from Sir G&rge Barlow, dated October 20th, 180.5, to General Lake, and the .answer of the Marquis. Corn wallis to General Lord Lake, dated OR. 6, 1805. Mr. AD,DINGTO;4 said he bad no obje&ion to the tilotion.—Ordered. Lord H. PETTY moved, that the House, at its lising, should adjourn to Monday se'nnight. NAVIGATION LAWS- • iirr, ROSE said, he v.'as unwilling to take up the time of the I.:Ouse with making a Motion of Which - 11vhad'givezi -- Lotice. .4 - epe4ted- hiorobserlptiow of yesterday, that he Understood, from. a quarter on which he could rely, that it was the intention of his I\l4esty's Mithsters to give a discretionary power to the Governors in the Wcst India Islands to dispense witllthe Navigation Laws during the War. Such r t .ocurer; he confessed, was not unprecedented on particular occasions, but then the Governors were tesponsible for their condua ; and, be tiloughtthat the resi.ousibility ought still to rest with.thein. Lord TLIVLE stated, that it was the,intention of the Board to which he had the honour to belong, to propose sucll a regulation.. They thought it better that tile responsibility should rest not with the Go vernors, but with the Ministers. • NEW MILITARY SYSTEM. M r . PIN.DIMM rose, pursuant to his notice, to submit the measure which he proposed to bring forward, for the improvement of the Military System of :tie Country. 'The measure he had then to lay be -fore the House .was.nothing more than the applica tion of those general principles which he had on many . former occasions stated to'the House whenever sub jeets conneEted with the state of the Army had been uoder discussion. He adMitted, that he and his Col leagues had at different times urged the necessity of making some essential alterations in the Military system ; and it was natural; that. in the attainment of such an objedt much difficulty must be encoun tered. But it was expe&ed, that the moment they 'were _in office, they should be ready to bring forward some plan. for that ptirpose. 'He was at a loss to know upon what authority 'that . expec tation could' have been .founded'; be • had not himself, either before or after he . was office, said any thing that could warrant it, neither did he suppose that any body else had.' The delay that had taken place arose ont of the natureof the thingitsell; because he and his.Colleagues' were not .disposed to bring forward measures to meet the present emer gency, leaving the future out of their view, but to provide for the permonenf imprOvernent Of the Mili tary fiystetn.. With sack an objet in contemplation; it was right in theirt not to produce their measures till after the most mature and grave consideration.— That.the Gentlemen wno felt so impatient on the subjeet should have been anxious for the produelion of such measures, was suite natural: they Were sensible of the necessity that existed for theni, and therefore had been imptiest to see them brought .forward, They were conscious that things were in a :bad state; and naturally looted with solicitUde to the Measures that the persons in a 'situation to discover alSo the necessity of them night bring forward. He -was certainly of the opinion, that -. the situation in - which those Gentleman had ltftibeCeuntry was dif . ficult and embarrassing. Bat 'neither he nor his Col leagues had ever deseribed tliits as in such a state that it was impossible for them to go on, that they would not admit of a, moments nelay, or that ruin would inevitably ensue if the 1-medy were not-in : stantly applied: - ,lt . was undonbudlytrue,That when - a change from bad to better was ixuposed, the Sooner the work was begun the sooner it would be brought jp a state of completion. When ;hey looked to the r. state of Europe, they would find that there was 4)o Country in mihich the Military System was ou such a . • ""4 4 SUN. F-R I,J) AY, APRIL 4, 1800. footing as in this. There wass a term in military lan- e l *gtiage which justly applied to• it, and would afford ! an adequate idea of the actual state in which it is at present. When a battalion is thrown into confu sion, the front men being mixed with the rear, the right 'with theleft, the extremes with the centre, and the flanks jumbled together in the mass, so that no. General, however. excellent, could restore order, it is said to be clubbed. Exa&ly in that state was our military :system at present. The Gentlemen opposite had clubbed the battalion, . and now they sat grinning and rubbing their hands thinking of what a task they had left - to their succeSsors:--- A task, •Indeed, it was; but he could not allow,• . that those Gentlemen had any right to complain of any delay -in. .the performance of it, who had contributed so much to create it. It would be his part that day to propose " the remedy for the existing evil, which he did not charge the Gen tlemen opposite with having begun, but ' bleb they certainly had left to their successors. His plan would embrace the means whereby the establish mdut of the Army would be rendered so .far better, that it 'should,. provide 'adequately for the permanent seeutity. of the Country. His obje& was not to look at the present danger, and to provide for getting rid of that Without paying any attention to the future, to eXhaust in efforts, to meet an immediate exigency,' -the best means of, the Country, on which its ulti mate safety and permanent interests' could alone depend. It might well be ,supposed, that the first, step- towards the attainment of his purpose would be the creation of an Army, or to provide such means as would tend to the certain attainment -of such a desirable obje&, an extensive and for .-midable Army. By this he meant; such a mass of the 'population of the Country as ,could be ade quate to the exigencies, of the times, separated by. their habits and calling from the rest of the corinnu nity, regulated by their own laws, and governed ae . cording to the terms Of their service, forming a total ly &still& corps from their •fellow subjeets; who should not have either to laboUr or toil, to work or spin, whose trade should be war. He did not Mean to Say, that the people of this Country were not!es brave,' as spirited,- and as high minded, as the in habitants of any 'country in Europe, that there did not exist in it as great a number of indiL vidtials possessed of every quality to make •a good soldier, compared with :the exigencies of the times, as would afford an ample supply ,for such a force. He had always professed himselfeon vinced, that thespirit of the Country was is high as ever ; audit - he• or his friends could have taken a different view . of that het, their professions would have been contradiCtory to the aCtual state of the i 'Country._ But for years past the House had toiled and laboured through measures for the iruprovemeat dl' ifi'e' , 4rina*,. and yet the state of that Army had 'not beembettered. It might here be said,that theyhad -not done, nor intended to•do,anyahing for the Army, 'because the Army did `not want any thing to be done for it. But their _professed• obje&` in all the measures that had been brought forward on the sub je& was - the improvement of the Army. And yet they had always failed . in that obje&; because they had provided only - a substitute in its place. They had heard much of levies en masse, of an armed na- tion, Of eight hundred thousand men in ands, trained and disciplined ; btit 'such measures, however im posing, had not provided adequately for the obje& that ought•to have been kept in view. They were too fond of thinking, that when they had a certain number of men in 'arms they had an army ; and in this they ,resembled the child, who, when he stuck a twig in the ground, fancied lie planted a tree.— Whatever might be the nUrriber of men 'of Such a description in arms ; they could not be considered in the light of an army.. An army was a coips, from ',its moral constitution, as different from any other class of the community, as any natural body - from another that had distill& physiCaLqualities. It had ' been said, that the theory of- the militaty-science, and - the art of war, ,might easily be acquired by ha ' dies of men otherwise constituted, and that this. diS tin&ion was wholly ideal. But it • would betray a total ignorance of human' nature, 16 assert that any ;body of that description could be 'capable of the same :spirit, the' same feelinos, the same dispositions and • chargier, as a "corps regularly trained to the profes sion of arms, and systematically formed tosubordina tion and •discipline; As to the obje& he had in view, it was simply to providean adequate supply for the Regular Army, and nor, as heretofore, ,be content with measures of substithtion. It- was unnecessary for him to remind the House what armies had always been, and what'they never had proved to be more - notoriously than in the present times. 'They all knew • that armies decided revolutions, and governed the 'destinies of nations. - They well knew that it was by armies,'by bodies detached from the other' classes of the community, that thefate of empires were deter ' mined, notby levieS=en-masse F r an armed copula • lion;_ when an army falls all •is lost. Look at •the two great battles that had in late times decided the re;pe&ive campaigns and wars. in which they took place, and their efieCts, and they will afford . a ing illustration. Look at the battles of Marengo and I-Austerlitz, and the effeala that- resulted from them, and - though the numbers engaged in.eaCh and the havoc were immense, yet they were inconsiderable' compared with the vast extent of the consequences that had been produced by .the issue of these con -1: tests. When an aEtion is lost; and the army destroy ed, the nation 'must fall. They should look with jealousy, with caution, with distrust, On any measure that might divert their attention frtn the establish= ment of that force Which alone could be looked to, for effeEtual and permanent security. They midst consider the faCt as it really was. The Levy en Masse, in a military capacity, resembled the metal in the ore ;• it was like the iron in the Swedish mine', which, tho' convertible into steel, could neither hew- nor saw • the block. But not to try the fa& as it was' in that ; Country, they might look to what it was in another. When the Austrian Army was advancing into -Basra ria, and the French Artily in motion towards Ger many, was it not to the strength and the progress of these Armies that We 'looked for the fate of the contending nations ? If there had been no Austrian Army to oppose the progress of the French, could it have been-imagined that Bonaparte would be inter:- rupted in .his march against Vienna ? If there had been no army to encounter, nothing else could have stopped his progress. , -After_ the Army of Ge neral,Mack bad been cut off at Ulm; nothing ree mined capable of effedual oppositiOn ; and yet it could not be said that there was- not .a warlike pea •ple inhabiting the countries thro' which he paed ; that they bad no courage, no spirit, no attachment to their Sovereign, no dislike of a foreign Conqueror. But the population of a Country, however disposed, without an efficient Arniy, can afford . no medium of resistance against an invading force. Its. efforts would prednieessts little effect in arresting the-progress of an invading enemy as. the surrounding air.. WaS- this not a truth, bras it not a firm eonvidion which every man who heard him felt ? This Country; too, bad its spirit ; it felt -an, attachment to its lass . , its con .stitution, and' its Sovereign ; and it was impressed with indignation . at _the very.idea of an attempt to. make it the scene of a- foreign conquest: ..He was sensible that it possessed all, theSe -virtuous qualities in a very eminent degree ; he was. ready to ,go as far as any min in- doing justice to the spirit and zeal of his countrymen'e he had his :hopes too, and he clung to Ahem as fondly, and cherished them as Warmly, as any other Gentleman. But when- they looked to the fate --of -Switzerland, they could see but little reason to trUst - to.hopes founded upon such groUnds. If ever there had been a country, the in habitants of which Were determined. tcedefe,nd it— if ever there had been . a country svhich was capable of being defended , --it Was Switzerland. The_ Swiss were a nation of warriors,. all 'trained to the use 'of arms, vigorous in their constitutions, robust in their bodies, as well as devotedly attached to their country: They had conducted themselves tool in a', manner that did hot discredit their national tharader. It was not safe,. therefore ; to trust `to these resources, which had proved unavailing to that warlike nation. It had been said of him -that' he was a theorist, a votiry of. imagination ; . and by persons who enter tained hopes from such resources. . For his part he was desirous to pursue the dull road of experience ; and though he did not dislike theories, yet he did hold it dangerous to trust to any: theory, how ever-well founded,for the -defence - of the Country, or in aid of that defence, if aded upon in such a manner as to interfere with the increase of the Re:- (*War Army, by which .he should once for all say, ° that if the French shoUld ever land in this Country it would be to be defended. There were* present in thiComitry one !Mildred' thousand men, who, from the constitution of that force, could never be present in a battle until they should have to contend against such troops as. might be brought against them. ' Having stated. these fads, and in a manner to give them the importance which they appeared to merit, he next came to explain the measure which he meant to propose for the attainment of the ob jed he. had in view, viz. to provide for an adequate supply for the Regular Army. It. was not his tention to exclude the _present frpm his view, 'fbr :the purpose of providing for _ the future ; - neither did he propose, as had been the pradice heretofore, to bring forward _measures that might meet- the pre 7 sentexigency, and eXhanst the means of the Coun try, without any _regard .to the future. Discard ing such a policy, he proposed, by . this measure, . to. provide 'permanently . for the supply of the Re gular Army. This was his objeet; for. as to -the spirit and discipline of the present force of that de scription in this Country, no man was further than , he wee: from arraigning any part of it. As that Terce was at present constituted it was supplied-either by compulsion or choice., In Governments. of a des potic 'ferns, where the- - Officer could' go into the country and take-off the artisan or the peasant, and make a' Soldier of him by the bare -authority.of the Government, compulsion was the most -prompt, simple, dire` e .and efficacious mode of supplying the Army \vitt-, recruits. But they all knew e thatein this Country, unhappily 'for that objed, but happily for every other connected with the-happiness: and pros perity of a..free people, our .measures'must be framed on a different principle. We must go-by rule, we must ad .according to .the law, and with a regard to -existing rights, and from the slowness and compli-_ cation of out measures their power is 'lost in the fridion. But as there must be of necessity a sovereign .power in every State, and - as that sovereign power in this Country resides in :the Legislature, there is no -act of .power.thA any the most arbitrary. Sovereign -can exercise, that. the; Legislature may not perform but still it must be executed with all the forms of law, or the manner. ofcarrying it into etfea would ! make the - application of the Force less effeaual. • The arbitrary _Sovereign has. and exercises a discretion in the use .and application of his power. His feelings . _ influence him to render the operation of it If a Germ in, Prince, in. the seletaion of the persons he enr.;ans to.take for .soldiers, meets:with one who Could not, without ruin or loss to his family, be forced to. serve. in the army, he passes him by to take* his . neighbour, who is .more fit,: and can ' serve without any inconvenience. But here no such discretion can be exercised, because the .applieation of the compul sion is, regulated ,by the law. The operation of mea sures- for that purpose resembles the working. of a machine. They are like the mill, that will grind alike the miller and the corn. It may so happeri, that the compulsion under the law would: apply to the man least fit, when another more tit would be Pntirely passed, and ,no alternative is given. He bad thou ht it right to say thus much upon the compulsion, because, in general, when speaking of this compulsion, it was the,,,praelice ,to say, that as men must be had, and could not be procured any other way, compulsion must be of necessity resorted to, PiaTiriPir PRICE AixiiEVak After all, compulsion, as praetiSed in this Coning.; operated as a compulsion for money, net for men. We may compel the persons to whom - it applies to spay a certain sum of money, ,but do not get their service. The Militia, to Whom the ballot applied, were all raised: in this "way, for a very saran por; tion indeed of those upon whom the ballot falls gi ve_ their - personal service. One. man pays, and ano ther man serves. It operated as a tax, levied bY. what ? by' .one of the worst possible modes of raising a tax, which, by prodticing h competition unfavourable to the regular recruiting, shut up time sources of voluntary service without having the merit of enforcing personal service. As a tax, it operated severely and partially on the individual who. pald it in: the shape of a bounty to his substitute, s it , as a more regular, though still partial tax, in the shape of a tin s : This tax was not levied according, to airy of test ' fair principles of taxation which, were aded upon by' a late able Financier,, nor to those: upon which the financial 'measures of his 'N'oble Friend (Lord Henry Petty), whose -brilliant tar was p - resent,_ beaming with' lustre above the horizon, were fonnded. If the" comptilsion Operated only to pro= duce money, he was of opinion the - bu.rtht. , qt, should be , borne by the public. - If the pressure v. , cre to be divided amongst the whole of the community, it would not be felt by any one any mote than the . -pressure of the surrounding air ; the weight of which' . he could never be sensible of without the observatkcin . of a. barometer. But if the butlhen were a millions and to beslevied -off one thou Sand persons, it would crush the individual—it would draW blood at uvery stroke.. All - the modes; therefore; 'in which'-the . compulsion was applied,. vere wrong. It was im possible to say, that the exigencies of the Country Might .not. drive therri to the adoption of compul • sion but then it should be the last resort'a--- . . -- " 4 Cunattpri us tentanda. \ - ' It was so injurions in its effeas that every other Mode ought to be, tried before that should be resorted. to. He came now to consider whether they could raise and keep up a Military force by voluntary ser-, vice, - and what the amount 0( that force should be. ‘. The first foundation and rational ground ofsuch a force, since compulsion weald. not apply, 'was to put the Artily on such a fOoting as would induce a stifficient - portion of the Country to-think it worth their while to enter into it. That could never be'done if the nature of the military service, and the - advantages at tached to it; were not such .as Nnake it an object wifh•a large proportion of the community 'to enter voluntarily into the service. The .Gevernment of the State m every country, except iii such.as were :. inhabited, unlike this, by an tin warlike race,' had the means in reserve of raising . the value !'thel' l military profession in' such a degree as to make it a desirable thing to. a sufficient propertion . of the. pixilation to epgage in it to meet every exigency. The diffieul ties they had to encounter in prosecuting this object were great. Ttiey had to plough and labour throgh all the impediments arising from the:injudicious measures hitherto adopted on the subject. What had already been chine, -and the proceedings that had been taken, resembled the condo& of a man who was driving a false trade : he asks more for his goods - than they 'are worth. .All that hitherto had been done was'effeaed by cajoling, deception,.arti- Ice, fraud, and undue influence . , so that the situa tion of a soldier had been rendered not worth ac- - teptance. When wonder was expressed that the men Were not to be had, he - thought it no more stratige!than that, a than, who demands more fur his coamiodities than they are -- worth, should' not get 'purchasers for' them. ' 'ft had heen said by'a gallant. 'Officer, that notwithstanding the boimties, none could be...gibt fur the Army but the idle, the dissolute, "the profligate, and those who ; either from teniporary 'distress, or in consequence of intoxication, were `tempted to enter into it. - . This had driven us to the 'necessity of trying the arts of recruiting, of resorting to; and - encouraging the praCtick of deception. Even :these resources at length failed, and now they were 'obliged to enlist even)oys. Are boys of more value. now'than they were formerly, or are they iii greater abundance ? No : but the arts of deception had been exhausted on those of full 'ageeand•noW t hey. recurred to the neeeSsity . of praaising the same arts of.fraud . • - and deception on the imbecility of a:101-e tender age, So long as' this 'Country had a Sufficient number of .that description of penorls; of the idle and profligate,. • of persons who enlisted in a moment of intoiieation, Which they afterwards regretted, or who were led into • the Army by any irinnediate advantage, solong the Ar miei were filled.. But when the professiem of soldier ceased to improve in.its condition and circurnst:lnces, as every other profession did, when, too, the Areiies Increased-in number and extent, that class was no longer sufficient to afford an adequate supply for the Army. What then was.the most natural course to be pursued but to make the situation of the Soldier more 'eligible; that was not to be done either by the high bounties or the ballot. The Militia and Supplemen tary Militia were. raised by such means, and whilst so large a portion of our Military Force was raised in that way, it could not be said that our Army Was ..on its proper grounds. The measures used to procure the compulsdry service necessarily iii creased the' bounties ; they sent - too many buyers ' into-the market, and then it became ithpossible to purchase. The bounty itself Was an evil. He re-. . membered to have heard in his youth, of a guinea and a crown being the usual bounty. - '.;here • were many letters in the War Office, which proved, that even in the beginning of the American War, Of:Reef:3 were alloWed to raise men for two guineas bounty. Then the service itself was the only bounty, for the `sten paid was . nothing more than was requisite for the purchase 0: alew necessaries. The service alone was then looked upon as a sufficient inducement to tempt an adequate proportion of the population to take on'. In other modes of :life, so far from re ceiving; men pay bounties. So that Government was. in thisqnstance in the situation of buying the buyer, of paying him for accepting its bargain. . Thy prin.. „.......y......:y..........:,0,1 2 , . •-•,, T - '7 . , , A r IA ~,,,t,„ s , .: 1; ;, , ~ ~,, o' s ?,,, ,1 , ~,,, -- ..,-,..-..,.. .. , I 44 4 , N. 4 jl; r i h fk s e . dri.:l7:4, ,_-; y~ ;, ~- _~ \\ 9e/ ' ~-~_ , ,