The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-01-27 00:00:00

Gl.NhitA!, DorLt.'s SPEECH.

An ispelfcct Account hiving Appearel of the eloquent and
very interenang Speech delivered by Levitt -Gen. Sir John
D•tyle u? the Question of the Aim, Estimates, on Friday
la•t, induces us to tiviert the following corrected Copy.
Siirt admit that it would be much more con-
venient 5.' agree to the adjourionent proposed by
the Hon. Member (alluding to Mr. Rose), though
it certainly does not c me with the best grace from
this side of the House (the General spoke from the
Opposition bench), for, in their long calculations,
they forgot to calcilate time (A loud laugh). Be-
fore I ooserve upon what has fallen in the course of
this discussion, I w sh, Sir, to account fur my ad-
dressing you from this side of the House, differing
so materially as I do upon this suOjeft from the
Gentlemen who usually sit here. I have not, in
truth, come into their camp to spy the nakedness
of the land ; but speak from this side for reasons,
perhaps, similar to those of some of my oeighbours,
because we cannot getl_guod places at the other side—
(l bra created a :corral horst of laughter throes both Me
House.) I perteely couctir with my lion. Friend
who sp tkis last (Sir James Pulteney), that we ought
to have an augmented, a well-organised, and well-
disci plired army—that we should allow no relaxation
of our efforts to °horn that desirable object; because
I feel that the perils which tail for that army are by
no means abated—that although danger is at a dis-
tance, it is not at an end. But yet I differ must
materially from my Hon. Frieed as to the means of
providing the army we require. I differ from him,
par titularly, as to his opinion leveeing the Addi-
tional Force Al. that A6l appeals to me to have
done almost every thing hut what it professed to
have in view. When it was :alive, it was mischiev-
ous ; when it was inasive only, it was tolerable. '
Alter IR months trial it was found defellive, but I
then Ministers' were just going to mend it. 1 his
puts me in mind of one of our poets, who was very
deformed, and who was in the habit of exclaiming
" God mold me," and having once uttered it be-
fore a country clown—" Mend thee !" quoth Hodge,
it would be easier to make a &lien new ones,
than mend such an ill-formed one as thou art."—
So may be said of this ad (of book./ The time
they proposed for the Amendment, reminds me of
the story of a certain priest's maid, who, when
found fault with for having omitted to do any thing,
her constant reply was, " 1 was just going to do
it ;" the priest, to try how far she would carry her
excuse, asked her why she had not washed his hooks
and pope's ? " Lord, Sir," replied she, " I was just
going to do it."—/ if loud laugh).—ln this they
(the late Ministers) seemed to have resembled the
Duke of Wharton's puppies, who never opened their
eyes till they were in the all of drowning. The
Parish Bill was to aid the ordinary recruiting ; but
in this it followed the French example, and began
by cutting off the resotirces of its new ally ; whereas
the plan of the Right Hon. Secretary is calculated
to produce a gond regular income, without racking
the tenantry. It appears from the statement of the
Noble Lord (1 lowick) that since it has begun to
operate, it has produced more men, for a similar
period, than the Parish Bill and ordinary recruit-
ing put together, even without including the enlist.
ments at head-quarters, and the dttscrtions consi-
derably diminished ; and here 1 must say, that the
Right Hon. Secretary has not treated his measure
so well as the measure has treated him, by having
lost sn much time in carrying it into effeel. I will
not follow the Noble Lord (Castlereagh) in his in-
finite ,et ies of diverging calculation, wl.ich rapidly
accumulating in its progress, was to overwhelm the
country with the expence of providing for its brave
and worn-out defenders A calculation that would
deprive the veteran of a chance of spending, in
calm repose, the evening of that day he had dedi-
cated to the service of his country, and bring " his
grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." A calcula-
tion which stooped to visit the truckle-bed of info..
mity. in Chelsea and Kilnoainhani Hospitals. A
cal.ulation which wanted n ,thing but just data to
stand upon ; thereby following the mode of demon-
stration ascribed by Mr. Locke to a certain class of
unhappy people, who always reason right from
wrong principles—(A load laugh ).—1 am perfealy
willing to pay every tribute to the eloquence of the
Noble L. rd, and his Right lion. Friend. I can-
not, how. ver, but deeply lament, that it should, at
such a moment, he employed in obstrubing that
unanimity so essential to the interests of the coun-
try, and which Gentlemen themselves profess to
Lave so much at heart—for surely there never was
a period in the annals of our history, when unanimity
was so imperiou.ly demanded: for a nation, no
more than " a hou,e divided against itself, can long
stand." But I am not so romantic as to suppose
that political hostility shalt be for ever buried in
oblivion. I lend only hoped it would have been
allowed to sleep, till the great obje3 of rational
security was petrel and complete. I am aware,
Sir, that in a free country like this, an opposition is
a wholesome check upon Ministers—if so, the gigot-
er the talents in apposition, the more effeflual the
check. Now, as every man must admit the pre-
sent Opposition to possess great talents, it follows,
a, a natural corollary, that the longer the present
Gentlemen iemaiti in that state, the better for their
country—/.l lough).— But, to give them greater
weight, I would humbly recommend they should
adept the words, us they have done the arguments,
of M. Talieyrand, and make them serve as a pree-
n:inns to their speeches against the Treasury Beech
—" ltloast tie roes detnaadorm rite," in plain English
—it %Vesta for nothing that you possess" (A laugh).
The Noble Lord alluded to the Negotiation, starch
I am the snore surprised at. after the unanimous vote
of the House, aperoving of the measures that had

•
been taken to uphold the charafter of the country
in that transafticto Ihe proposition originated with
France—the Negtsciation tom:wooed ender aos-
pices the most propititots. At the head of the Foreign
Department was that Minister whose loss the nation
sn jtotty deplores—a 111A11 who, amid the endow-
ments of a mighty mi•ol, was peculiarly gifted woh
those qualities which fitted him for Negotiation in
difficult times. To a vast, comprehensive, arid cul-
tivated understanding, h • joined the most intimate
knowledge of the vari ars interests of Europe, a
suavity of manner, and • spoil of conciliation,
which engaged Foreign Ministers to treat. while
his probity and known honour irsur .d the con-
fidence of their Masters. Des old of guile, he had
nothing equivocal in his condua—nothing a m'oiguous
in his language. He moved straight onward to his
ohj-11, without turning aside into the winding ways
of crooked policy or left-handed wisdom. There
was nothing counterfeit in hitno-his affability Rowed
from the heart--his natural greatness required sot
the aid of aoumed arrogance to give him conse-
quence ; he was too great to be hty, ten wise
to be cunning. He was one of thew statesmen
who knew the value of that adage, which,
though homely, is tole in politics as in morals,
that " honesty is the best policy." Far be it
from me to attempt his praise ; it would require
powers gigantic as his own to do him justice.
--Were he living I should be silent. I never
received favours at his hand. I leave it to those
who have. to treat his memory lightly. 1 speak of
him as a man who loves his country must do, ishilst
deploring its brightest ornament.— (Hear ! hear!/
If Mr. For were qualified for negotiation in gene-
ral, circumstances rendered him peculiarly so for
that with France. His charatter stood high on the
Continent, as at home ; and a former acquaintance
with the Prime Minister of France, gave a facility
in his Case, that would not have applied to
other Ministers, however capable. Thus com-
menced the negotiation ; in its whole pro-
gress, it was condo Red, on the part of England, in
the true spirit of peace, and with a sincerity which
has always charaaerised this country. Its rupture
was occasioned by the duplicity of a GOTernfilent,
whose fidelity to its engagements is measured by no
other standard than that of its own immediate in-

terest. If Gentlemen were serious in their profes-
sions of unanimity, here was a favourable oppor-
tunity to display it ; for it was not a question of
party, but one between France and England, to be
tried at the tribunal of the Nations of the World ;
and it was essential to the eharsater of the coun-
try, that its good faith should stand contrasted to
public view, with the chicane and subtilry of
its wily opponent.—But to serum to the plan
of the Right Honourable Secretary—lt has been
remarked, that this measure of limiting the term
of service, would have no erre& upon the
minds of soldiers, or those likely to become so.
—Now, I have in my hind, Sir, two papers that
will show the futility of an observation so opposite
to common reason. The one is the return of a bat-
talion of reserved men, in which, for the six months
previous to the new measure, 147 men engaged for
general service, while 994 engaged in the six
months subsequent to his measure. The other is a
still stronger case, for seven months prior to
this change, only one man, out of a battalion of
400 men, extended his services ; but in the
month when the Right Honourable Secretary's
plan was explained to the battalion, 264 immedi-
ately turned out ; thus polling, as it were by accla-
mation, for his measure (Hear ! hear!) These were
good men, fit to be soldiers, capable of a military
life, and not such as were received into the at my, un-
der the Parish Bill; for the recruits obtained under
the Right Hon. Secretary's measure are not only
superior in quantity;but better in quality, than those
furnished by that notable Bill. 'there has been a
great difference in the desertions also, as a Right
Honourable Gentleman has observed. But per-
haps it is not quite correCl to set down as de-
serters al! those who received bounty under the
Parish Bill, and were never heard of more—for
such fellows never joined, or meant to join any
corps, and therefore could not striftly be called
deserters, but robbers; and I am not sure that
it would be quite incorre& to consider those as ac-
complices who held out such temptations to them.
A great part of those, whom this Bill colleded, were,
in fail*, unfit for service; even where they were honest
enough to chew a disposition to serve. How many of
them have 1 seen, each bring a wife and six children.
The old adage says, that it requires nine tailors to
make a man, but nineteen of the fellows I have al-
luded to would not make a soldier. They were
really for the most part such as Falstaff would
be ashamed to march with through Coventry.
You would in fart imagine that they were raised
by a general gaol delivery of the Nation, and
a discharge of all the parish workhouses. It was,
in short, taking a heavy load off the parishes,
and transferring it to the army. The force which
is entitled to our confidence, must have the habit,
the shape, the charafter, the soul of an army. I lay
it down as a proposition, as incontrovertible as
any theorem in Euclid, that whatever weapon the
enemy assails you with, he must be met by one of
equal efficiency. If the enemy were to invade you
with the Trained Bands of Paris, I should be eon-
tent to meet him with the Trained Bands of Lon-
don. But as he will come, if he can, with a regular
disciplined army, inflated on the one hand by re-
cent vietories on the Continent, and impel:3 on
the other by the prosprAive plunder of this country,
he must, therefore, he met by a regular disciplined
army, prepared to conquer or to die. But by this
allusion, although it naturally indikes a reference t
the Volunteers, I would, by no mean-, be under•
stood to speak lightly of that meritotious body. I
admired, as much as any man, that brilliant effu-
sion of national spirit and valour, which burst forth
so nobly in the hour of danger ; and, I have no
doubt, that the manifestation of that spirit had a
very powerful impression on the enemy. It is not,
however, inconsistent with the eespeCt and regard
which I always entertained for those gallant men,
to express my disapprobation of the system under
which they were originally organised and trained.
A great deal of unnecessary iiistruelion and inap-
propriate discipline was, at the outset, attempted to
be communicated to them. It did happen to me in
America to meet with a circumstance lions which I
derived much useful information on this brad. About
IA recruits were seat out to the regiment of which

; •
I was Mliont ; I immesSatoly prom,
them taught, *Weed! M amen, eyes to th
nut, dm But I was Isom:toed in r
the Major, who was a very sensible,
and who told me, that, " I beg,
end." I aconolingly changes!
ranght my men to manage , ti.e fire)
the Major's advice. who thougf.t it
particularly when time pressed, that.
learn to fire at the enemy, and this 4.,
wise, for in three weeks after they arrived,
cruits had to meet the enemy.—Now the
ought to have been so instructed. for
the enemy was almost daily repeats.' .
time that a kind of discipline was commenced,
they could not learn for montho,
unnecessary even if they could. They
tremely useful :IS ouxiliaries to our army
landed. particularly from the name et
and their local knowledge, were they
as light troops ; in which caseo the f
of the individual, and his parrieti
have fair play. Be.ides, it is the
which we are the most deficieut
peculiarly applicable to an inclosed
perhaps I ought to apologise for speakini
upon a military subject, because On--
military, speak must leuruedly upon
in other cases, men seek to know
well as theory of a subj tf, be fore
a ivise upon it, at least it is but nat
should inquire, whether they hat
ledge, before their advice is taken.
conclude men to have some kuowledt
profession in the ordinary concerns
don't send our watch to be mended by
unless, indeed, we inverted Horace's
nit Sapient est Solos;" but even in
further diredions should be obsero
ultra crepitlont." ( Hear! hear
proceed farther upon this topic at present,
opportunities will occur for discussing
now let me implore Gentlemen to
the eyes, not only of this Country, 1
and of the whole civilized world,
fixed upon the proceedings of the British Semi;
and let it not be said. that the Imperial Parham-so
forgetting the great objetas of its dignified chatoo
ter, shall occupy itself with the little disputes tI
party politics, contending how to get this mu
or to get that man cut of the Government, iosteao
of employing all its engines to Letg owe the atca-
enemy of all legitimate GJvernments. We are en.
gaged in no ordinary warfare. We contend wita
no common enemy, unless, indeed the eormaro
eoenty of mankind. Ile has stvcrn vengeance.
Your sins are of a nature he cannot forgive. lee
are loyal, content, and tree; you aggravate these
crimes, you resolve to continue free. Your punido
went would be extirpation. Ile comes not tor coo-
quest only, neither would pillage satiate his wrath.
Desolation and destruction are his objeCts—the
Deleado Cartiego he applies to you. The existence
of all you hold dear is at stake—property, kleent.
and life. Be but unanimous—banish potty churn-
sions—let every hand and heart b• joined in the
common cause. Be but vigilant—let him advance
—he will he met by fieenaeu, determined to lose
their liberties but with their lives."--( liver /seer.'
hoar!)

IN7'ELLIGENCE.

TORBAY, JAN. ft.

On Thursday last, it blew a tremendous pie of
wind, but I am happy to say, that the men of war
in Torbay, all rode it out, without sustaining the
least injnry. A merchant vessel parted her cob;cs
and drove out to sea; she returned to this post ycs-
terday, without damage.
Sailed yesterday, the Mars 74:guns, for Plymouths
and the Nary-isless frigate, on a cruise off Brest.
This day the w lad got round to the Northward
and Eastward. Vice-Admiral Sir Chailea Cotton
proceeded to seas to resume his station off Ushams
with the following ships under his command :
Sate Prince of Ilfalet, Bari/cu►s Princess 14,44
Leedom, Giiraltar, Bsileroy.kon, Csavearses
Rose, and Ckassetion.

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