The Sun. — London, England, 1806-05-31 00:00:00

of a _measure for increasing our military strength, did • the Gentlemen opposite mean seriously to say, that 'Government was not pressed by necessity to adopt the measure ? What had the House been about for the last fifteen years ? Were -not the-va rious Plans adopted - during that period so many, modes of recruiting out of the common method ? And did not this, evince an universal confession that theor dinary mode was inadequate to the wants of ‘he State ? If these Plans did not arise from a strong feeling and copvidion of this fad, they certainly were part of the 'most wanton and most extraordinary system of innovation that the world had ever. heard of. What induced the House to agree to the augmentation of the Militia (as it was originally proposed) toloo,ooo Men ? If the ordinary recruiting bad been deemed . Sufficient, would recourse haire been had to a measure so harsh - and unpleasant ?It had been tried, however,. till it could do no more, till it had accomplished all it could accOmplish, and this was to stop at 80,000 instead of 100,000 men. Peace ensued. When the War again broke fOrth, a sudden augmentation of the Militia was again deeined expedient. It was once more 'tried to increase the. Militia. to an extraor dinary ainount, and to- give a sufficient stimu lus to the increase by penalties, which - accumulated quarterly. What was the 'const.quence ? The pur . pose of Government was not carried had execution, and yet the effe& of the measure was tobe nearly destructive of the means of ordinary recruiting. The Army of Reserve followed. This was compulsion umier- another form, with the penalties doubled. Did' this sheW that the regular recruiting was suffi .eient? He would not say that. the Army of Re-' serve - Ad ,had' failed, because it certainly had produced' a nuinber of men, although it fell far, short of what was promised by the authors of it., It did its 'utmost, and 'it Only professed to be tempo-: Then . .came the Additional Force Ad. He would not sa4:r of the - Gentlemen opposite, what they .said of the present Administration, namely, that they brought forward a new military measure because out of office they had, talked about it, and pledged then - i. selves to do so ; and yet the pledge of those Gentle men was-much stronger .than any pledge which the present AdMinistration . ' might be supposed to have given; for the Administration which immediately 'preceded, that of which those Gentlemen formed 'a part, were actually removed from office on the ground7if the inefficiency of their military measures. They were 'therefore bound, as it were, to bring 'forward rnethipg ; and he must confess that what the did .bring forward was very like a something 'that 'they were compelled to 'produce: The fad was, that that Admlilistration felt themselves obliged (having destroyed the Militthy Plans of their prede cessors) either to revert to the ordinary Means of re cruiting, which were avowedly instiffiCient, 'or in troduce some new and original measure in its kind. Could it be said, then, they did this wantonlyi and not from necessity ? was whimsical enough, that when an Honourable Gentleman subsequently moved efor the continuance of the Additional Force Ad; he asserted, that if it was 'not con , . tiOued we should have nothing. Why, what-was there before ?• Something.' There was Ihe ordinary recruiting " But (said he) if you take away this new system you leave.nothing.': No ! Did you not leave the..old mode ? The old Mode, however, s'as evidently insufficient ; and of this new mode, if he might venture to pursue it to its grave, " to 'draw it from its dread abode," he would repeat that it had completely failed. There was indeed a principle in it (as he had formerly observed) of self-destrudione— An Hon. Gentleman had accused him of never hav ing read this same Additional Force Ad. However this might be," he was perfectly satisfied to under stand it, even if he had not read it. The Hon. Gen, Oman, on the contrary; had read it„ and did not un derstand it. He certainly did not understand it, if h e did not see that' had the Ad succeeded it must have reduced its quota to 9000:men, and all its subsequent operation would have, been-to supply the defieiency in those 9000 men. As it was, the Ad was in dan geroaf coMpletely falling in arrear, for it had begun with a deficiency of 16,000 men, and it ended With a deficiency of 26,000.. It was running a race in which the farther it ran ahe more it was behind. It would have been equally ruined either by success or by failure ; and khe only chance of its exist ence would have been in an intermediate state, as • had been well said by a Right, Honourable Friend of his (Mr. Sheridan), " Certain 'feeble' constitu tions, always ailing, but never ill, frequently hold out better than the Mostrobust habits." Not only did the Ad produce few men, but it prevented men from being raised by other means. What men" had been gained by it were gained by the infringement of its provisions, and at the. expence of morality and virtue. - He trusted, therefore, after haVing thus stated the various means used to add to Our Military Force, it 'would - no longer be said, that no necessity existed for a measure in aid of the regular recruiting. That necessity being admitted; the - question was, What should be . done ? 'He was happy to observe the' change in the opinions of Gentlemen opposite, who now all' were anxious, in, any new measures, to look to'the interests of futurity. • It was a laudable alteration, of sentiment, although the declaration seemed to could rather oddly from individuals who were so recently and systematically, preferring tem porary measures to permanent ones. Nobody bad any new projects. He had none. All , the good sense on this subjed, in his opinion, lay in a little compass. Al) the option that the nature of the.case ollered was tutee or choice, or a combination of the two. Where force had been hitherto. used, all had 'been got Mat force could give,but the future sources of supply ha' been destroyed. In the Navy, compulsidn' was perhaps indiSpensible: it quickened the operation. of the bounty. But In the land service it was a differ ent thing, for there substitutes could be provided,and the only result t liereforeofcompulsion - was toproduce a competition • that 'raised the bounty to 30, or 40 gui neas;.and.destroyed all futurerecruiting for the.army. Compulsory measures were like those cordials ap plied to relieve severe indisposition, but which tend-. ed eventually to injure the general tone of the health. It was inexpedient to havC: recourse to such mea sures until others of a milder nature had been tried inetfeolually..Such was that now proposed in volun tary enlistments df making that which was propos ed worth acceptance.. The utmost that the skill of legislators and recruiters could do was to communi cate to those likely, to accept them the advantages which were offered. If, after this bad been tried, it was not found that a 'sufficient portiop of the pop lation - of the country thought the state of a soldier better tl as their oWn, compulsion must be'resorted to, but Certainly not otherwise. The high wages and 'the other advantages that the great population of the country enjoyed were the" causes that had hitherto rendered the situation of the soldier coin paratively ineligible, You cannot, and you would not if you could, change the state of your popula tion, but you may change the state bf your soldiery. If any one thing was more than another in the pow er of a - Government, it was to meliorate the situation of those in their pay. How was this to be-done ? It was not possible to make the life of a soldier a life of safety, ease, or great profit, but at no period would motives be wanting_ to attra& men to that honoura ble profession. If the existing ,inotives were not sufficient they ought to be aided by others. One of these was abolishing the enlistment for life, or at least for an indefinite term, in the option of the perc. son in whose service such enlistment might be made. He had heard it strangely argued, .that if the ser vice were not considered .eligible for, life •it would not be eligible for seven years. The reasons,.how ever, which-must weigh with a recruit for preferring the limited time were numerous. The option of quitting at the expiration of his term, or of continu. ing in the service, must be considered by him as ad vantageous. .He made a trial of a soldier's life: His circumstances might change, and a thousand events occur to influence his determination one way Or other. It was childiSh to argue against it, far it must be evident to the sense of. all mankind that such a power of rejection or acceptance, after -a cer tain period, must operate powerfully in inducing a Man to enter into the service. With respe& to the opinion of an Eton., General, who thought mere men might be obtained by offering to enlist nienj - or litrtit ed space as well as for a limited period, he could not agree with him. One great attra6lionto the Army would be done away by limiting the space of service. , What were the present attractions which a man felt. to, induce hith to enlist in the Army.?. To. go abroad, to see the world, to become a real soldier, to partake of action, lb witness the deaths of heroeS, , to tell of the " autres 'vast and &Lifts wild" he had seen, and of the. hair-breadth escapes i' th' sent deadly breach he had experienced, to some rus tic Desdemona, the daughter, perhaps, of the village, landlord,:who, returning from drawing a tankard of ale for herfather'S customers, would " with greedy. ear devour his discourse." He would diaTfe the evils _which had been attributed to the measures he pro. posed, under three heads : Ist, the supposed ill effectit would have on the character of the Army ; the incumenicncies that would result from it' to the Colonial Service ; . and acily, the in jury that would in many cases. be sustained by dis charging Wien during War, at thedifferent periods of the expiration of, their, ter m s o f service.. With re gard to the ill effect that it would have on the cha rgler of the . Army; the experience of every service; in every part of the world, proved that this objec tier) was without foundation. He could ,not here avoid noticing the remark of an Hon. Gentleman On this,subjeft, who, in his examination of the military systems of modern. EUrope, wished to : exclude France udder her MOnarehy—a Monarchy which had:con tinued for 1400 years, and which, highlyenlightened, had served in many respe6ts as a model to its neigh bours, That.under the FrenCh Monarchy the Troops were enlisted for a term of 'years was indisputably: true. •Tiie only- doubt that had .arisen was, whe, ;her or -not they were discharged durinc , the con-' tinuance of War. This dotibt. will be done away by the inspeaion 'of an ordinance issued in i 778, which declared that - the liberty of dischrge should no longer be allowed, and which, therefore, thew ed, that it had been granted to that period, al-, though, with the arbitrary power, of a 'despotic Go:, vernment, the right was then taken away'. Previ ously to year 1765, the term of in - France was for six years. In 1765, it was changed: to eight years.. At the commencement of th e Wa r . in / 1778; the Government of Franco. wanted 'Soldiers, and the. ordinance to which- he had before alluded W as pro mulgated; an ordinance which distinctly proved the prior "exisence of the Rraefiee of discharging, at certain periods, even in the time of a6luaar. Nobody denied the inconvenience of discharging men at the time they were wanted, as nobody de nied the inconvenience of paying .money when it became due on Bonds: The- inconvenience was borne for the sake of a superior advantage. AS to the'supposed incompatibility of limited service with, the Military charader, all the experience of fhe world was against such a supposition. An those countries in which the rights of Soldiers weri the least attended to, limited service - was the praEtice. He did not wish to rest the question on authority, but if he chose to instance a case .in whidh caldischarges, and during time of War, were al loWed ; lie would ask Gentlemen opposite if they had ever heard of such a people as the Swiss ? They were among the most esteemed troops on the Con tinent.; and yet there was not a single Bwiss Regi ment, the Soldiers of which did not enlist for a short term of years, and who were not entitled to be' discharged during War. What became then of all the .specious arguments that had been adduced against the adoption of this system in England ?--Except, indeed; it•was urged that , Swiss were not English ! As truly too might it be said, that French were not English, nor Austrians English, nor Swedes English ! He had been called a theerist. He bad no objection to the term, if it were . not intended to convey re proach ; and it ought no t t o convey reproach, for what was it to be a theorist, but to try something Which had not been done before, and it was hardly possible to do any thing exacaly . :as it had been 'done' before.. If he had adverted to a different and distinct class of people for examples, such as the Negroes or the Chinese, he might have deserved censure ; but the experiment h a d been Successfully tried by those whose resemblance to ourselves was so near as to Warrant our expecting a simi lar result from a 'similar process. In considering the second point, namely, the inconveniences that would 'result from the periodical discharge of Men, he repeated, that he-was glad to find the Gentlemen_ opposite had so Suddenly. become alive to the inte rests of futurity.. It was not long since their anxiety was solely about the present, " Oh save us from the evils of the present day !" was their cry, " and let the future take care of itself." No set of Epicurean philosophers was ever more solicitous to secure pre sent en j oyments. Now on a sudden they • were all for posterity, " For God's sake take care what you are about, or at the end of seven years the Country will be ruined !" This feeling might be pushed to , excess. At Any rate the arguments of the Gentlemen opposite were completely •inconsistentS' fir in the first place, they' contended that few Men would be raised by the measure, and then they asserted that the evil produced .by this diScharge at the expi ration \of seVen years would be 'considerable...-. Now nothing was more certain than that the, present good and the future evil must be proportioned to each other. They declared too, that the' effect Of the Measure would be to . discharge periodically a se venth of the Army. -This was a complete_ fallacy. It was rather an odd supposition, that in the Army (of all bodies sf - t - rien) no casualties would occur ! What did they suppose the annual loss . would be ? Taking the annual ,mortality at 12,000, it must be fifteeen years before the loss which the. Army would sustain by the limited service for seven' years, would amount to a twelfth of its fnrce. And at no 'period would the loss arise to an alarming amount. Besides, the ii jury be discharg ing men would not be incurred but for thepurpose of securing; preponderating advantages. And in acting thus,:he 'was only following the principle.by which society had become cultivated and improved. What distinguished the British Merchant, or the British Agriculturist, from the Merchant '0 Agri culturist of any other Country ? The. readiness with which he 'made sacrifices to obtain advans tages. Why did a Planter send in the axe to-a fine grove of young trees, but for the purpose of destroy ing some, to give greater value to the- remainder ? In the only part of hcisharidrY with which he was familiar; the cultivation of turnips, What benefits re sulted from sacrificing a part to the improvement of the rest ? This was not a subject on which the opinion of Officers would weigh so much with him as in ssime others. He knew' that Officers were often justly proud of the appearance of their 'Regi-- ments ; they had probably a grenadier cOmpany, not an individual of which was under five feet ten inches in height, and they did not like the idea of • parting with such men. It was a popular, avaricious feeling, which dilated the sentiment— `.` Get all you can, and keep all you get. - By keeping all we could, we did not get all we might. We must not count on what we parted from, and not count on that for which we made the sacrifice. Now for the . third head; the injury likely to accrue to our Colonial Service, many means of supplying that service might be resorted to. It was an injury that could not take place for-ten or seven years at least ; and there would therefore be room enough left to apply - means which would diminish the inconvenience. Look; at the East Indies, the strongest instance that could be ad duced, because the most distant. The East India Company had enlisted-men for five years, and kept perfectly good faith with them, and they vent on from time to tide recruiting for that term, nor - ais; continued until they were stopped by Government, on account of their interference with the recruiting for the Regular Army. If therefore in this strong.: est instance, recruiting for limited periods was found eligible, surely we need not despair of expe riencing the same success in other and more favour able quarters. The. Right Hon. Secretary here re capitulated all his arguments ; and, in the course of that recapitulation observed, that it would perhaps be desirable to give to the Soldier retiring from,ser vicethe enjoyment of certain civil privileges ; par tici:liar-1y the eleaive franchise, not for boroughs, or the Scotch counties which- resembled . boroughs, but for English counties. • Such a privilege would mate rially tend to raise the charader, of the Army. He concluded by proposing the Clause containing the oath to'-be taken by a recruit on his enlistment. Sir JAMES PULTENEY, in.rising to reply to part of, what hadfallen from -the Right Hon. Gen tleman, meant to 'confine himself strictly to those' points which the -Rin - ht Hon.- Gentleman had done hiM the honour to .notice from' his speed' on this subjed on a former occasion. The Right' Hon; Gentleinan . hadobserved, upon an opinion expressed by him on that occasion, that a - greater number of men could be raised by having the limited and un limited serVices ,open :to.them, and contended that more would be induced' to enlist by.a passion for glory, and a desire to see.the world, and to serve in foreign climates.—For his oWn part, he was reads' to admit that some might be influenced by such mo tives; . though- he should still maintain, that the ad , vice of friends would have -an effeet• in favour of service limited in point of. space,. and create a pre fe`rence for . home service.—Could the , Right. Hon. Gentleman think that, with a view to a praaiCal measure, the passion for glory, or any ,other feel ing that he had mentioned, would be an induce s merit ? He • did not think meanly' of English Mens but they - were like other men, and , they were- to be taken as they really were. ' The Right Honourable Gentlemari had • expressed surprise that lae, who was attached, to an •Army enlisted for life, should think so favourably of a home Army-. • The reason ,was, he wished to have an Army for unlimited.sers' vice, if possible ; and if not, to take into-the limited force such men as could not otherwise be had; and because 'men, when they acquire a taste for a soldier's life, night more easily be induced to enter for unlimited service. He thought the-Right Hon. 'Gentleman's plan, if it was the opinion ofthe House that it ought to be tried, , should be confined to the 2d battalions. As to what he had said respeaing the military systems of foreign Powers, the general prac tice was enlistment for life: That was the 'case in Prussia, except that- a few foreigners might be en gaged on other terms ; .it was the case in Russia ; and 'limited service had only lately been introduced into the army of Austria. The practice of France had. been not to discharge a man during a war. Why should this country take up a system that Prance . had laid down ? Whilst the French armies hid been recruited on that principle they had been unsuccess ful in all quarters of the world. , They had been held in utter contemptby the Auslrian armies, then enlisted for The alteration in the period of service- would have a serious effect on a soldier, who, within a year or two of the expiration of his term would be look ins, to it with anxiety, arid could not feel as a soldier. If enlisted for life, or during the war, he would make up his mind, and look to the service as a profeSsion. His opinion - was still the same he had communicated in writing. He. had not been able to follow the Right Han. Gentleman in his calculation of the deficiency that would arise from the discharge of the • men at the conclusion 'of their term of service. He sup posed the calculation might be well founded ; but there must be some loss in his way, which, added to the drains of Colonial Service, and the casualties during a tong War, would make a,considerable defi- ciency. The men too that wonld be to be dischar4- • ed would be men of the very j3est,description in the Army, perfe& in discipline, seasoned to 'different Climates, and they to whom - Reeruits • usually looked up. To discharge such men under such circum stances would ruin the Army.. It was not clear t o him that any amelioration' would be produced in th , e• condition' of the Army by the Right Lion. Gentle- 'mart's system, becalpie he did not think:_ bat a better description of men would 'be induced to enter into it. The last ordinance that had been made by _the French Government relative to rectUitik; direaed 'that the tern' should be eight 'years, butit allowed men to enlist for a lOnger period if they chose. If the House, therefore, shoUld determine thatthis ex perimeut should be tried, be -was of opinion thai it should be tried in such a manner as would leave the regular recrniting to be carried-on as usual. • • Mr. 1 7 011Kehncl i g . iven way with pleasure to his Hon. Friend, because.as bee differed himself so entire ly from the Right Hon . . Secretary, he thought that it would be desireable to hear an oftion - from suelt an authority: The Honse, he was sure,. ought not. to decide on this important question .without hearing and attending to the -opinions of all the experienced Officers that were Members of it. He had listened with great attention to the able and eloquent speech of the Right Hen; Gentleman, without being vinced, or induced to alter any part of his former • opinion. The discussion then pending was a;question to leave out. an usual clause in the Mutiny Bill, tb K the purpose of introdUcing au innovation that was not likely to produce any practical good effeCt, and might be attehded With much Mischief.. '.He was one of these whO thought, from thedelay s that had occur red' bet Ween - the opening speech and the produaion of the ,measnre, that -His Majesty's Ministers had abandoned .the proje&, or resolved to put off the con.: sideration of it for the present, becetuse be thought, that otherwise they would not, upon What-appeared to him shallow pretences, have refused to the HouSe such lights as could be'derived from the written, opi- • pions of experieneed Officers, one of which, if he was rightly informed,, had-been given in lately. -He had hoped that they, had re,consulted those Gene ral Officers, and were disposed to as upon their opi nions. Butas they had not, he, upon a feeling of duty, felt himself called upon e tdenter his protest in that stage against this dangerous innovation. He did se, not according tO the distindion made by the Right Hon. Gentleman, relative to the sworn Servants of the • Crown and those on the side of the House on which he was speaking. He, as a Member sworn of His Majesty's Council, was, bound,.' if called on, to give his advice to the best' Of ,his judgment-,- as - he gave his opinion there as a -Member of that House. A great objeCtion which be felt to this measure wai,• the manner in which it. was attempted to be ingrafted on the Mutiny Bill,' because it -was wholly unnecessary in the first place, and unconstitutional in the next place, for His Majesty's Ministers to attempt' to introduce. it in this manner. It Nvas un necessary, because, as the Right Hon. Gentleman. - oppesite (Mr. Secretary Fox) had observed on ano fifer occasion, that House_ ought not tO legislat e on •subjects that did n o t require legislation. He • should ask that' Right Hon. Gentleman, why in.;. troduce the matter into thus Bill,, if the undoubted prerogative.of the Crown .Were sufficient ? On what pretence, then, engraft this clause on the, Mutiny • Bill ?' Were not the f a ith of Government, and the solemn pledge of His - Majesty sufficient ? Why were they called. on to depart frotu • what had been the praetice of our ancestors, which 'had never been. departed from, . but in i tN.Vo instances, one of w7hich had occurred in the worst tinles, in the reign of Queen , Anne, and the administration of Lord Bolingbroke; The other instance had occurred in the Adnunistra- • tion of Lord North. The manner in Which the mea sure was to be introduced into the Mutiny Bill ap peared to him unconstitutional, beCause it would de prive His'Maje§ty and Parliament of their constiqi tional, right of resisting the measure. He admitted that it might be debated as a clause in every stage till . it shohld come to . the question on its passing, when the HouSe could not think of rejeaing - the Mutiny Bill containing' such a provision; i)ecause theyinigltt - be reduced to a day, and on t h e Mutinyflill depend- • ed the discipline of the Army. The same Consi:der , • arionswould prevent His Majesty from exercising his constitutional prerogative, if he disapproVed. of the measure. These ,were they . preliminary ohjeatiOns which he felt to the . measure. There were otheri . Which weighed very powerfully with his mind, and which he should nett 'cchisider, "Nothing that he- . • could say, he was sure, Would induce His Majesty's, 1 Ministers to give -up their measure. He had had experience enough of some of them to know, that, though they brought forward crude t measures e which excited considerable difference of opinion in that House and elsewhere, they had pertinacity to bear • them through. He did nut expect even to persuade. them to delay their measure. The Right Hon. Gen tleman had stated before, and repeated that night, that he did - not look for any immediate effe.6l, but to the ultimate advantage to be derived from his mea- • sure. If he did not expea any iemnediate beheti cial result, why did he bring forward: a .measure Upon Which Considerable doubts existed in that House, and which had excited so much appre- • henSion in the-Army. ? What necessity was there to press the matter at present ; why not put- it Off to next Session, and take time to consider it - more maturely; ,and to consult able and experienced Officers on. the subjea ? He did not: despair, how- ' ever, of being able to persuade some MembLfrs of the Committee that they ought to 'pause , before- they e shonld adopt a measure of such . mischievous ten dency to the Artily ; ; before they Would sanction innovation, in the system of that Army, to which, in . these perilous, alarming, and critical times, they. were, • under Providence, to look for security and proteCtion e and.that at a time too when the Army was admitted to be sufficient for the occasion.. This subjea lie in , sisted 'depended upon fact and - experience: Though he.. had heard -the ingenious speech of the Right .. Honourable Gentleman with attention, he had .not been able to disco ver a • single IA- or a Single calculation on which his measure was to. be grounded. It was not sufficient for that Rt'. Hon. Gentleman to say that he expe&ed his measure would be successful; lie ought to have produced faas to justify that opinion. There were documents upon the Table to which he should refer for fitaS as to the measures that had beed taken at different pe riods to remedy the defects in the. Army. The objet of His Majesty's Ministers was . not to improve the state of the Army,, which never was iu a higher state