The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-06-18 00:00:00

tic
te-estrablishrietet of the fitadtholtirr
tit gaitti Beligum, if the Doges at Yea'ee and
Genoa, and of her vieim at Naples, this iltearatien
is by t o means consoling for the creditors of the
Erglish debt. . Mr. Windham himself. excellent ao
oflicer as he is, knows that it wilt require twenty
campaigns to succeed to this extent ; and the re-es-
tablishment of the Princes who owe their fall to
nothing else than England, dors not offer a very en-
'coaraging prospea to the new Allies who would
engage in this fourth coalitic n.
" But, if we are to believe these orators, their
new military system is to charge every thing.
What nonsense ! At no pei iod have armies purely
English ever rendered themselves conspicuous on
the Continent. Thus the troops of the Bieck niece
were composed of Bretons, Gaseous, Normans.
Charles the Bad, the Dukes of Bu: Bundy, the great
Feudatories who betrayed their Prince, produced
the success of England. Thus the armies of Marl-
borough consisted of Dutch and Germaus, and only
a small number of English. It is true, the Duke of
York commanded an army wholly English, when
he appeared in our days hcfore Dunkirk; but we
know the result of the battle of Hondsconte. It is
true, that this same Prince commanded an army en-
tirely English, when he landed in Holland; but the
retreat of Alkmaar will not be compared with that
of the Ten Thousand. It is true, that more lately
also, and in the last war, the English landed in
Naples; but they only appeared there to overturn
the throne; and, after having thus destroyed it, they
did not honour its fall with a drop of their blood.
" They have also appeared in Hanover ; but here
their teiumphs were limited to the power of re-
embarking—an advantage twhich they owed solely
to the King of Prussia, that Prince whom they treat
at this moment with so little consideration.
" Should it even he true, that England had con-
siderable armies in the time of Louie XIV. and XV.
we are to draw no conclusion from that respetting
her actual military powers. She had not then the
great extent of possessions which now belong to
her. Were her army as great as it has been, it
would be annihilated by the establishments which
these possessions require. Thus, she is elided
to keep forty regiments in the East Indies, ten in
the West, two at Malta, two at Gibraltar, &c. A
nation of nine millions of people, which before
it can have a man for its own defence, is obliged
to send fifty regiments to the East and ‘Nest-in-
dies, to oppose the entire Indian poautatioa, the
Negroes, the Canadians, and the y-Ilow fever,
can never be a military power in Europe ; and it
is in these circumaances that Englrad has lost
twety-Sve thousand Hanoverian soldiers—a loss
which she will never repair. The English are
laughing at the Princes of Europe, when they sup-
port! that Governments are %talc enough not to
maks these calculations ; and not see that a nation.
which has occasion for hi ty regiments to defend its
Colonies. and an hundred and idly thousand sailors
to proted its commerce, and maintain its squadrons
is Inc:wattle of any, effort in Continental affairs.
Besides, these fine speeches of Eaglansl, when she
wishes to seduce Cabinets and tot m coalitions, have
never been justified by facts. Let us recel to our
recolle6ion what Ministers did at the time of the
First Coalition. Instead of employing these means,
which appear so powerful and formidable in the
months of their Speakers, er their Etni-sartes, the
English attacked Sr. Domingo, lotto Rico, Gua-
deloupe, Martinique, and -eemed to have no other
anxiety than to plunder the commerce of their
friends, as well as their enemies. In the Second
Coalition they went to Egypt, in place of fighting
with their allies on the plains of St. Domingo. In
time third, they went to the Cape of Good Hope,
instead of throwing ten thousand men more into
the kingdom of Naples; and when England afted
thus, no one can say that she afted ill, for she
could not aft otherwise. As she is obliged to pay
considerable sums to her allies, she has no other
means of doing it than by plundering the trade of
other Powers.
The English nation is brave ; but it cannot he
denied that the French station has also its warlike
bent. Ihe armies of those two countries must be
in proportion to their respeilive populations ; and
upon this basis it is clear, that the English army can
only be to the French army in the proportion of one
to three. Besides, to preserve this proportion, it
would be necessary that England should abandon
the idea of keeping up fifty regiments in both the
Indies, and reduce, by one half, the hundred and
fifty thousand sailors who are on board her fleet:.
But with all Mr. Fox's eloquence, he will find it
difficult
-to persuade the Bank, the India Company,
and the Chancellor of the Exchemter, that this re-
duttiou of Military Force is a good calculation."