The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-06-07 00:00:00

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listed for *time had a power of returning to les
patents, to his mistress, ant iris relatives, at the erel
of seven yeas, that kind of service would be pe-
ferred. Indeed, it was absurd to suppose that an
Englishman WIS se fond of bondage, that when he
was required to serve seven • years only, he would
have nothing to do with the army, but would with
pleasure bind himself dose:. for life. It was said,
that this would be injurious to the service,:
but he would mention an is stance which he
thought would prove diteetly the eontray.
The men employed M the coal-pits, and the salters
in Scotland, by the law of the country. were
formerly bound to the proptietors for life, but
this law, he was proud to say. partly by his
means, being abolished, the men were allowed to
gn from one pit to another, according as they liked
the treatment they received. New this law had
no bad efFeet on the management of these works,
and he did not believe any of the men had.
given over the business. From this he thought.
that the enlistment for life would be beneficial oa
'the army, as it could not be said that a British sol-
dier was fonder of slavery than a Collier (A cry of
hear ! hear!) It had been said, thet the whole
army might be disbanded at the end of ten years,
and that we might still be 'engaged in a war ; for
his part, he could not allow that there was
any force in the argument. It put him in mind of
ft dispute which had once taken place in Edinburgh,
with tespeet to a canal which was to have been cut,
to supply the city with coals. He strenentuly ad-
vised a ant to be made on a level country, which
wadi not rewire a single lock ;-bet 'it was pro-
posed by anethet person that the cut should be run
over an immense ridge of mountains, which would
require 67 locks, for no other reason, but that the
cite, by the latter cut, could be supplied with
coals fur 500 ) ears. and by the former. only for 900.
The present measure would be of the greatest ser-
vice to the army, and indeed the gentlemen, though
they found fault with it, did not well know what
to wish for, like his poor countryman, Donald,
who Was one day told by his Laird, that be should
have three wishes, and was desired to consider of
what he liked best in the world. The first thing
Donald wished for was, that he should have a kirk
full of snuff ; the second, rr barn full of yea rite, or
whiskey; and. after much consideration for the third.
be chose more srsE. The Hon. Gentleman then
concluded, by declaring his intention of supporting
the measure.
Genteel TARLETON explained.
Mr. JOHNSTONE d d not think there was a
sine- inducement for recruits to enter under this
plan, and he therefore would give it a decided ne-
gative. He then referred to the speeches which
had been lately made on the subjeet by Mr.
nerve of which, he thought, were
calculated to infuse a stank into the military.
Troops inured to arms would ever prove superior,
whether raised in a nation of freemen, or a cation
of stmt. It seen.ed to him that there was one
obvious way of augmenting the army, which the
Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Windham)
had disregarded. He had announced his intention
of reducing the \Mites to 40.003 met' : why, then,
Were not the 30,000 awn to be discharged, made
:available as regul..rs? he Itiih Militia ale* of-
fered a considerable field for the increase of the
*may. The secret why these omens were not em-
braced. was, that office: s of the Millea were men of
Peiliamentary influence. whose feelings, as it was
slope, ought not to be hint by raking from them
the sower of their bittaliono Since the Right
Honnurable Gentleman had become so caretul
it the feelings of Militia Officers, he (Mr. John-
stone) would ask. why he did not somewhat regard
the feelings of Volunteer Officers? ( hear! bear !).
Ile could not but think it would be preferable to
enthrece tee force derivable from the militia,
!..her than wildly embark upon a plan, the policy
of whien. it was admitted, could not be determin-
able in hiss than ten years.
Mr. W HITBR E D congratulated the House,
that an Honourable General (Tarleton) bad been
able to introduce so tench novelty in his speech,
epees a subjeer that bed so often been under dis-
cussion. His Right Honourable Friend (Mr.
Windham) had been treated very harshly by those
who had denominated him a mere theorist; And he
thought the imputation came particularly ill
from a gentleman who was biaawit one of she
greatest theorists ever known (we understand the
allusion to be to the Master of the Rills). In his
opinion, every our of his Right Hon. Friend's pie-
alecessols had :seer. theorists, and he was the man,
who first, upon the foundation of experience. at-
teinpted to rescue the country from the cresse-
vette,' of their speculations. The authority of the
absent and the dead had been ansuecessfully quoted
to confute the sound policy of his plan, and the
tesenioes of General thficers. which woe Dot before
the if. use, had been used for the same purpose. It
aos said, that all these opinions were adverse to the
system or/Testa to be plumed ; that, however, oas
net cotrect ; and from what he (Mr. Whittneed)
understood of them. the opinions, on the one sole,
an i on the other, wete so nearly balanced, as to
afford no bias to jadgnient, hot merely so
leave the question in the same state that it wink'
)save been, it they had not been taken at all. It
..es alleged, that the measure proposed had been
nnJcr the c. ntemplation of a Right Hon. Geode-
man deceased (Mr. Pry) and abandoned by him as
nnadviecable. Upon military subjefle, however, that
Right Hon. Gentleman was an authority to which
little deference was due ; many of his projects had
been, after trial, evaded by himself, and those
which he had persisted in, were tar Item being
worthy precedents. Of the multitude of theeries
with which he had inundated the ceuntry, some
expired in their birth, some lived to rick, ty in-
famy. but none ever attained a creditable coesistency
and shape. Did the House remember the nc:able
theory for embodying gam-keepers t (Here a few
words wet e sail in an under terse from the other side
of the H ouse.) He knew net whether his Right Hon.
Friend had any thing t) do with tieet--(ther !
heee!reeas :he, apprise/cm Bowers.) If he was a
theorist then, and a party to sn ridienloes a propo-
sition, he was n..w :Lakin; amends for his' folly.
• Then came the Previslonal Cavalry Aft, eilebratsd
only for its excessive absurdity: afterwards the
augmentaticn of the Militia, until it was *Mind
too lame; then the A.% foe allotting Velun.
'teen tutu the bee ; a :maw= iii)casti.-.6 to

the militia tbeitiseleci, artdacederinganti 2,, short-
lived service to tl.e army. After hi: Right
Friend had been catechised for his exptessions of i
disrespect, he was told by the same Hon Gentleman
who gave him the !effuse, that he ou'kfktalake
away the officers of the militia, and make those ho-
liday and burlesque soldiers really of some seiviee
To the measures he had enumerated succeeded the
Quota Bill, the Army of Reserve Bill, and, lastly.",
as a substitute of what had gone before, the fa-
mous Additional Force Bill, a thing in its nature
perfeftly theoretical, .and like which, nothing had'
been ever before known. Flom this deluge of
theories, it was the object of his Right Hon. Friend
to relieve the country ; and, like a. skilful surgeon,
he removed the bandages, to allow nature liberty
and scope for her own action. It had been ever and
over objected, " What ! pull down your home, be:
tote you have another to take shelter in ?" But
how, t:e would ask. cnnld it be otherwise? no man
ever thought of re-tetilding his house before the
scite was prepared, and the old rubbish was cleared
away. As to the alleged infringement of the
Royal Prerogative, how could it possibly be said
that the present proposition was innovative, whilst
it had been the constant business of that House to
pass a Mutiny Bill for a single year. beyond which
time, there could mat be a single soldier retained by
the Crown ? It was said that the limitation of ser-
vice to seven years, would prove no inducementte
the recruit, as he, like the blacksmith, or toy other
artisan, chose his profession for life ; but, was Sisk
the blacksmith free? Could he not, if he leased, bet
any tiling else? Could he not relinquish. change;
resume, his calling at pleasure? Not so. however,
with the soldier; he laboured under tbesingailarhatile.
• ship of being tot life fettered with the taste and disposi-
tion of to-day. From affording him. however, the;
option of changing his mind at the expiration of a
number of years, little danger was to be apprehended
of a serious diminution of numbers, when it was
recolletied how frequently persons habituated to a
line of life, resume it atter quitting it for a period,
and can find comfort only in the pursuits to which
they have been inured. Many officers in that
house had known prisons who, after being at sea
for a short period, had vowed if they once got home,
never to set foot on ship-board again; and yet, on
the arrival of the wishcd-tor time, returning again,
after a short a'sence on shore, to the navy.
This disposition was remarkably exemplified by
the troops in the East Leslie Company's service.
who, on the expiration of their term of service,
often got as far home as St. Helena, and went back
again to rejoin the army. Where, in any one in-
stance, was a man found, who, having ever been in
the army, did not boast and glory in it ? the Chel-
sea pensioner spent his hours in the task. It
was the ambition of men to recount their ex-
ploits, Ana thoae who could no longer be active,
sighed in remembrance of the days gone by
All the experience colletted on the subjeet of limited
service, went to prove its expediency. On a former
nigia, his Right Hoe. Friend ( Mr. Fox) had
evidenced an ordinteasee of the Oid French Go-
vernment, in which its faith had been broken by re-
quiring the longer service of the soldiers than origi.
pally stipulated for, in order to prove the existence
of that limitation. This had been turned as an ar-
gument against the policy of the system ; but he
(Mr. Whitbread)thought it went strongly to prove,
that, notwithstanding the inconvenience experienced,
the pcatlice of raising men for limited sertice, was,
in the main, so specious, as to countervail all disad-
vantages; and it was accordingly lotted to he rer-
outed in. No fear could be entertained that the Go-
vernment of this country would ever have to break
faith with its troops: there was not a man who would
not, if the country was in a state to need his services,
devote himself to her cause till it was happily ter-
minated : evidence of this spirit was to be found.
in the nsea who volunteered to go to Ireland in the
last war, and on various other occasions. The
Most corm!) faith was kept with the troops of the
East India Company, and no hiconvenienee ever
'found to result Am it ; nctwithstaiiding the melan-
choly effects of the (innate, in which hat ily a 1..u-
-ropean was to be found alive after 14 years service.
This dreadful circumstance was one which strong-
ly urged the policy. and justice of limited service.
When a regiment is now ordered out to India,
the very effect produced by the belief which the
soldier entertatas of spending his life there, really
contributes to accelerate his death ; but if, as able
medical men have declared, the troops wefe cheered
ad supported with the hope of returning in a few
years, and bad the assurance that they could set
be kept beyond a certain petiod, it would go very
tar to fortify them against falling vi aims to the
climate. When Gentl-men said, that the increase
of pay to the Nan was a burden upon the coon-
tty, consequent upon tbis plan, he would only ask,
nhetbei that augmentation was not necessary, and
:why Parliament unanimously acceded to it ? By
some, his Right Hon. Friend's measure was found
fault with, becato.e it did not embrace a number of
things he bid never said it would contain. If an
Order of Merit were to be established, of the expe-
diency of which he_ had great doubt, conceiving
that the possession of baubles might be made we
common, and, as under the old French Geitetnment,
it might, in time, be more a disgrace nut to have
them. than a credit to have them, it could only
be the act of the Executive Go..er nrnent ; the haw-
fetence of Parliament, in such a case, would indeed'
be au infringement of the Royal Prerogative. Hoe.
Geatlemen seemed to think, if they could, per-
. chance, snake this measure unpopular, they might
possibly get rid of the men. The manner of their
opposition evinced much of a faait,a s—(Orrice' seder/
swine!) Mr. Whitbread said, he had ircaunously
used the word ; he did not mean to call any set of
Gentlemen a faffion, though certainly those wbo
talked of a mutiny in :be army being the tome-
quence•of parliamentary discussion, assumed some-
thing-the appearance of one. The tt bed of mem"
which they had left to their successors, he could
hardly believe to be so cr.% iable a couch as
they had reptesented, an 4 he much donbted
whether the Right 11.. n. Gentlemen themselves
had been able to repose upon it, without much
tossing and tumbling. The .ezpression of an em:.
nent Statesman, in his dying moments, is On !
my country !" did net proceed from a mind at ease;
nut eia it evince that he left the affairs of the Stase
in such a happy tral.i, that those who succeeded
lulu had no task Ithiuky imposid upon tliem.—

•
The Hon. Gentleman concluded by sirjtrtl, that he '
begetied rite plan of his night Hon. tri lend t., be
I.s;ittp4ta rni experience, to be calculated to obviate
the evils of the theories of his predecessors, and to
Merit his warmest sanCtion and support.
. ' The question that the Bill be read a third time
was then puisind carried, without a division.
Mr SULIIIGF.S then rose. He lamented that
i the House should have been called npon to come

to a decision upon so weighty a question as that
before the House, affecting the prerogative of the
Crown, find *the deliberations of Parliament, with-
Out having keen allowed the benefit of those great
military opinions which had been officially called
for, and which he therefore thought could not be
considered crnfidential This was the first time it
'had ever bier, proposed to limit the Royal authcnity,
SO that the King would be precluded from raising
a single soldier, except upon the terms prescribed
by that House. The Mutiny Bill be considered
to be no precedent for the course proposed to
be adopted, as that was an Act, which did nut
go to restrain the prerogative of His Majesty, but
to extend it by the gratis oT powers, for the enact-
ment of articles of war.• &c. The n;igin of the
measure, inia Committee of that House, was also
unpiecedenteef, Misting off, as it did, four oppor.
tunities of discussing the manner and the efficacy of
its operation. • The question on the latter head.
was not whether it would produce a number of
recruits ? bbt • whether the • number yearly ob-
, coined, wnuli he adequate to the discharges
If the recto:ling for limited Semite had been et-
temptel for a few montbsditot lnwer licsiusty than
the Co. esssve one, which it was complained was
given under the Additional Force it would
have been an innocent experiment, acid wonlclat *oar
have :Iselin whether the " hope' of future advance.:
anent was more attraftive than present advantage of
bottaty, He thought the Right Hon. Gentleman.
(Mr. Windham) was carrying the military system
farther than the country c old afford. It eat not
now our aim to cope with the military powers of
the Continent, in a vast force disposable for foreign),
service. When we stood highest for military en-
torprizes on the Continent, our navy was at its
lowest ebb. It the Right Hon. Gentleman would
recollect that the army and militia of the country
absorbed 300,000, the navy 120,000 men, and ea-
vitiation and commerce 150.000 men, hi would
find that i: was not solely attributable to the failure
of former measures, that a diffieulty was ex-
perienced of finding recruits for. the army.--;
Other countries weer scarcely a criterion nef the..
probable elects of a military measure in England. as.
they possessed power of compulsion and ceinscrip.
lion. which, in this kingdom, were not known.,
Still the Right Hon. Gentleman had arorded no
information of I.i. means of obviating the difficulty
of recruiting in foreign colonies, and, indeed.
seemed to forget that the colonies were under his
particular care. If the dominion of the seas should
not be maintained, or if, as in the beginning of lost
war, the enemy should send out a number of squa-
drons, and intercept any of our fleets of traroports,
what would be the result in the colonies for %%hid)
they were destined. when the period for which
the troops, then there, Wrl e engaged, would have ex-
pired? As it could be impossible to ascertain that
all the men in our colonies would not take their
discharge, is would be necessary constantly to pro-'I
vide a disposable supply at home to the amount ell
all our men Abroad : :he number, therefore, to be
raised atinually by bounty, wculd be SS,OOO.
The Hon Gentleman proceeded to /nuke some cal-
culations on the vast expcnces to which the country
would be subjected by this measure; and stated, that
ID C. estimate of eapences in the Chelsea Bill, the
material charge of b'ol. or 401. per roan for ear-
risge out to the East Indies, and 121. or 131. per
man to the West Indies, was wholly omitted.
He concluded by movini to omit certain words at
the end of the oath in Schedule A. aid to insert
in their place others, to the elle& that the soldier
should nut be entitled to his discharge until six
months after the ratification of a definitive treaty
of peace.
Lord H. PETTY said, he had not yet troubled
the House with any observations on the subject of
this sill. but could not refrain from congratulating
them, that the first and grand objection, that it in-
eringed on the prer.ogative of the Crown, seemed
now admitted to consist in its giving for seven years
that power which the Mutiny At commonly gave
to His Majesty butefor one year. (Hear! Hear!)
It would be as difficult for Hon. Gentlemen so
make others believe this to be an innovation on the
Crown, as to alarm the army and the count:eon the
subjea of the Military Sy.tern about to be pursued.
Those Hon. Gentlenseo complain, that information
has been withheld; nothing, however, had been
kept back which the publication of would not
have been a breach of delicacy and duty. and
have afforded a precedent for the promulgation of
the most private correspondence between the Com-
mander in Chief and individual General Officers.—
His Lordship nett contended, that this measure
would in a great degree do away the number of
desertions which were now ip prevalent in the army.
particularly is the new raised levies. lie considered
the object psoposed would make such an impres-
sion on the minds of the lower class, that of afford-
ing them the certain means of a return to the bless-
ings of their homes and families, after a certain
period. In adverting to the desertions of the present
day, he asked, ; could the army be in that state of
perfeaion, that Gentlemen on the other side of the
House were willing to represent, when no less than
six thousand desertions were known to have
taken place wthin the year E—.Or did the
Noble Viscount (Caitt•oe.igh) inclode in the calcu-
lation he had entered into so folly on a for•
men Light, the etriences incurred by these tie-•
sertinns ? This loss amounted to no less a inn'
than 1n,C001.. within tile 'ear. Tile measure was
one of great importance in the present state cf at-
fairs ; and reminded him of the man, who, when he
was asked what he should do if he wait, placed on
the tip of Salisbury steeple ? replied. that he should
endeavour to do a. he nintld if on Salisbury ,plain.
The magnanimity of the answer, he assimilated to
the present subjea. which was to be considered on
a bold and liberal plan.
Mr. CANNING observed, that the arguments
of the Noble Lord were wholly fallacious o he had
put mime after quwrr, and at last asked, What a
man would do at Ilse top of Salisbury steeple t

What he could do there, he would not eay. But what
might be the operation of neiure was easily a . .
swered ; his motions on the plain must be horizon, . i
tal, while those en the steeple must necessarily be of
a perpendicular nature.' If it was unnecessary to •, I
seek the danger, Why catch at it ? The Area ques-
tion i
'adore the kieuse was the dieche-ging men 1
during the war, to which one answer 'only had
been applied, that was a vain hope that something i
might be •ameteied, somethieg might be obviated,
and every argumeet failed, or bec me obsolete.
The case of the East India Critupsne did not
bear them out, for the service neon Lard Corn-
wenn.* e!an, for 4 lima ed time, was abandoned,
and that oi delimited service adopted. He wished.
to know if the present measures pursued, were the
Liking up a peel by one party, which had been re-
linquished by another? ;laving edvested to the in-
conveeienee which must arise from discharging
men et the cad of seven Tsars, he next alluded to the
black frame, ar.d could not think that, to emanci-
pate the staves, by making them soldiers for a cer-
tain period, and thee letting them Lies* upon the
community, would teud to promote the enlist-
ment into the SITRIT ; ot, however his most
sanguine wishes might be to ameliorate the con-
dition of all deists of people, he could net think
this measure would at all promote that great
measure, the abolition of the Slew" Trade. After
some allusions to the simile of the Salters and
Miners, mentioned by the Lord Advocate, he con.
eluded by declaring his hearty concur/nee is the
propoieJ seealmet - - - • •.* -
The LORD AD OCATE and Mr. CANNING :
severally explained.
Mr. Secretary FOX tole, and in a most
able and enimateif spzecn, which, from the lateness
of the hour, we regret we cannot go into fully,
strenuemily oppo,esi the Amendment. He eonsi- •
dered the object of the Gentlemen on the miser side,
was, as much as piessible, to prevent all fair
discussion upon the subject, and give as much do-
lly as they well could ; (a loud cry of bra! hear!)
bufaltliough it might be very plc • am to teem, yet
the public would. not be tatitiel ; and however they
might play the g roe uV.T and over AX .fir, )et the •
public duty should be discharged. Ail this niscus-
sion, they insisted, should go solely on the resnisd•
went, which did not beer a proportion of twelve to
one to the mein question. He supposed, that by •
commencing a debate at twelve o'clock at night,
I which might have ben at six, the of jent was to
proeuce a long stielit.as had been gone on a very lam •
occasion, upon the same question; he confessed he '
should have preferred speAklng sonic Lours sooner,
than getting up at I o'clock in tee morning. Until the
Hon. Gentleman c-uld state some better argument,
and maintain that this country teal.: hold her rank
and respedebilky in Europe, wehriat an army on
the Continent, he could not agree to his proposition.
He admitted the glory and power of our neey, but,
on the subjea of nut wealth, he could not conceive
that, by hiring foreign troops, we ceuld support
that rank. It was speaking against all reason, all
anderstanding, and all Neely ; and he challenged
the Honourable Gentleman to thew him a single
precedent for it. As to whet fell from his Noble
Mend (Lord Henry Peaty), it was not what the
man would do on the top of the steeple, but "hat he
would do if forced there ;,.. in that case, the answer.
displayed true magnanimity, by adopting a RUN
is the time of mc4. danger. So far for the Hon.
Gentleman's (Mr. Cenrang's) joke. Having ad-
verted to the Swiss and French troops, who were
allowed to be the most eminent soldiers, and the
Black troops, in the Vest ladies, he considered the
greatest recommendation in favour of the present
measure, in that respeetewas, that it might, in a con.
ederible degree tend to wipe off that dreadful dis-
grace to this country. the Slave Trade; viewing it
upon general principles, he thought that all liberal
measures must necessarily tend to assist each other.
What had fallen from an Hon. Friend of his (Mr.
Grattan) who had been stigmatized with the came
of an Irish Orator,when, by the bye, another bish
Orator (Viscount Castlereagh) had taken a very Lire
share of the debate the same night, and the obser-
vations other of his Noble and Hon. Friends,
had not been answered in any one point. Taking the
sabjetn therefore upon broad principles, the feelingof
a true citizen was a patriotic love for his country.
Lib. ray was the animating principle of the soldier,
and when extended to him, he is himself the
greater. After sonic further observations, be cone
eluded by decleirag the amendment to be the
most paltry medicine that could be thought of to
remedy the evil complained of. If we cannot in-
crease our army, we must have recourse to sob-
eidie,e foreign powers, and be left to this dreadful
alternative, or descend from that step on which we
at present stand among the rations of Europe.
General NORTON spoke against the amend-
meat, and Mr. GEO. ROSE, jun. in favour of it.
Mr. PERCIVAL, amidst repeated cries of
qaestiou! question! rose, and replied at soma
length, in answer to Mr. Tex, in tire course OrWiliCh
be defended the pureelings of a former nigh, as ,
perfe Parliamentary.
Th e uestion was thee loudly called for, and the
dtlis
House 'vide& when there appeared,
For the Amendment ICl—Aril-11l it len.
Majarity. 9?.
When strangers were again adetieted into the
gallery, Sir James Pulten-y was putting a question
to Mr. Windham, witd regret to the periods for
which the artillery were to be enlisted • but Laving
heard the latter put sale, we wen unable to collienk
the eta& meaning.
Mr. PERCIVAL then rose, and wished the
Right Hon. Secretary would ii fetus him whether
the second period of the cavalry enlistment was tg
be for twelve years, as well in the first ? It wa.,
he thought, necessary that the House should be in-
formed of the different circumstances with respect
1 to so important a measure.
Mr. WINDH inM. in answer. stated, the the
list period for the cavalry was twelve years ; and
as the Bill was only passed for a year, it would be
in the power of the Meuse, before the expiration of
the twelve, to make such provision for future crm-
tiogenc;es, as might seem most advisable.
A short conversation then took place between Sir
WILLIAM YOUNG and Mr. HUSKISSC N', re.
lathe io West Indian regulations. when the Lill was
parsed. The other Orders of the Day were poi rponed,
arid the House Adjommed at FOUR. 0%.1.0C5•
mail Monday.
I •