The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-02-22 00:00:00

.'.raring the ancient Governmesto *MAW t• a parti-
r.i'ar ~,w i't the Theatre. Was'Mont to be supposed,
ls ! a,kol, that such grants or raniunerations astbnse
l•^ he.l ins seemed would operate in this country as
• they had dime ithothers, and not only be a dseacts of
(hawing men intti the army, but of making them
hood and attentive to their duty, while they were
in it ? For his own part. he could not entertain the
rm,,t distant doubt of it. It now remained only
I ir !hie to touch as. briefly as possible on the sten.-
•- !, objcaions which slight. perhaps, be made t i
t.';• •e different alterations and points of reform.
v; ich he had taken the liberty to suggest to the
F.:oitse, as applicable to the present state of the
frrres, and the peculiar circumstances of the country
at the present moment. Qne of those was, that
this change will require time, and that at present
. we have none to spare. This was an old argu-
ment, he said, but it weighed very little with hint.
In order to aft as Ise ought to do, we must boldly
look our situation in the face. If our measures are
.‘r have been bad, the State will be in danger;
e •- cannot therefore change them too soon ;
". ill- the state will 1, i• danger, beause our treasures
are had. 's'. a; .ntld be found, according to this
ationent, to Ise in the same sittiAtion with the hare
that is hare pressed with the greyhound ; she must
go oil became she has net time to turn, and yet in
turning lies her only safety, for if she persists is go.
int foeward. she is sere to fell a sacrifice. Such will
precisely, .ltd he, he the state of this country, if we
blindly end obstinately persist in pursuing the same
measures as have led us into our present unfortunate
circumstances. Can acs one, lie asked, oretcusl to
tatter himself that the danger we bad to s!read is
over, and ha, passed away ? He cautioned the
liouse to beware how they suffered themselves
to be deluded by such an idea. It; theietore,
that should be allowed, and that it should be
granted. that it was still hanging ever us, then
he contends .d, there was n.i time like the pre-
sent; we Lad net a moment to lose, and, that
our geeaten safety lay in looking the danger
' tardily in the face, and endeavouring to avert it by
an immediate adoption of measures different to those
which ha • been proved to he so imbecile in them-
selves, alol so tatally contrary to the ends and pur.
poses for which they hat ot iernally been intended.
He was of opini. r., Was that part of the plan
which he had propos. ,i, again to be adopted;
the re:ruit.ng for a term of years ; (but then he
IS.IS Aft .t 1 I It would be resorted to, and carried •
on in ,rich a way as to deprive the country
of tl:e greatest part of its most material and i
hopnttant .t lvantages ;) it should he done at once,
or the gehlen opportunity would be lost, and
we would suffer our iron and water to cool without
&tiring any benefit from the temperament, which
might otherwise have been the result of their prompt
and due combination. In short, these must, he
said. be a regular and radical refoon in the whole
of the recruiting system. We have, said he, a
Crimp Exchange as well as a Stock Exchange, and .
the speculations in the formerhave Icing been such as,
if persisted in, cannot fail us bi:ng she country to ruin.
Oar particular argument he had heard in regard to drafting, which would, perhaps,. be used in the ,
same way as to enlisting men for life. It has
been urged by His Majesty's Ministers that they
have foond a convenience in drafting men, and
that not draftieg them would therefore he attended
w.th great inconvenience ; so of enlisting men for
years, they say, that when the time is expired,
there is n:,t one in ten but will take on again. So
much the better, said he, if so, you will get him fur
next to nothing, and what is .:ore, you always net
him both at last aee.t Iht, with his own free will a• a
"glsgnh 'ht.:Cause he is free fturn the degrading and '
desponding idea of having made himself a slave for
life. It has, however, been objected, that by thus en•
listing men for a term of five or seven years,
you materially injure the service of the regu-
lar army, by sebjerning it to a considerable Went
of discipline. What then, he asked, have we
been doing all this time with our Militia and our
Army of Reserve ! According to this argument,
we mast at this moment have no less a number than
140,000 men, who are without discipline, or at any
rate but very badly disciplined. What must Aus-
tria, the old Government of France, and the pnwet s
on the Crntinent have for so many years been doing.
when they have been coestAntly pursuing this very
system of enlisting men, for a term of years? and
yet, during all that time, we in this country have
always understood, that these very powers. in all
that period, possessed the most numerous, most
powerful, and best disciplined Armies: in the
world. But to return to our own Inrcec..—
Surely, said he, it cannot be denied that
the men of this country will enlist fee a term of
five or seven yeas s, sinner than they would for their
whsle lives; there could net, he thought,. be ii
doubt of it. The Right lints. Gent. here adverted
to the praelice of enlisting boys of fifteen Or sixteen
into the army, which he condemned, as a system
. fraught with the Most serious and mischievous con-
',genets. He did not mean to allude, he said, to
what was done with boys, generally speaking, but
he particularly alluded to those boys who were the
•' sous of soldiers, and who were too often seduced
•:!.ir into the service, by means of the lowest end basest
• arts that mild be devised, which, when they came
• to find nut, and that they had rashly and unthink-
'l'. tinily rendered themselves slaves for life, become
. • uneary in their minds, were but too often driven to
'n'ts .dielancholy, despondency, and despair, and finished
lion their unguarded and thangliesen imprudence, by
irs."• putting an untimely end to their wretched and
Miser:o4e stare of existence.- HVvrits, therefore,
clearly of opinion, and melt confirmed in it every
hour, that enlisting men foe -a term of years was
the best plan that coulu be punned, in order to re-
cruit
the Regular Army ie the most speedy way
that was possible. He was also convinced that it
- would be a very 'treat mean& of preventing desertion,
that was -su prevalent, and at the same time so en- •
feebling to our armies, as well as so highly expensive.
Besides, if you must have men for life, let it be atter
they deserted. It would then he 1 kind of merited
punishment, am-as:ire of-jastice, and could not
fail of being Attended with the most salutary con.
istitiencta. Ile 'had heard a great deal said
about the spirit ef.tisis Bilk- not only as the ser-
vice ,n( ri courting- wratld be benefited by the
adivity and rah:ions .d•' parish 'officers, but that
freely Gendenean woulde in each parish favour
• the system and are his* personal infinenee towards
• Main • fteruhres Those were abe framers at i

the Measure • and, enniequeetly tett a little
sanguir e is effects they expe&ed to remit from it,
might have deceived and deluded themselves by
rich fanciful ideas; but to him it always appeared
in its true colours—he saw from the first, that no-
thing but a complete failure was likely to ensue, in
spite of all the efforts of the parish officers, even if
they should be aided and assisted by the Gentlemen
in their respe.fhve neighbourhoods; but that even
a•iniitting for a moment the truth of the argument, it
was extremely clear to hint, and he thought it might
be the sime to every one that heard him, that the
influence of the Gentlemen of the country in their
several neighbourhundo would have been much
more unives sally and cheerfully exerted, in case the
enlistment had been fur a term of five or seven
years, than as it then stood—tor life, and the suc-
cess of the parish officers would Lave been propor-
tionably great. Thus then, said the Right Hon.
Gentleman, thii country seems to be &totted at the
present moment. We confess, that the mode which
has been adopted, and that so unsuccessfully, for the
last 20 years, is at length arrived at a complete stop.
We are at a positive stand, and in that way cannot
proceed one single step further. What is to be
done? Why, said the Right Hon. Gentleman, we
must seek for other means, and, in that case, it ap-
pears clear to me, that to remove all obstructions
which remain to oppose us is the spediest and most
effeautd way to retrieve ourselves on this important
subjea. We have teen 'Oka to the various incon-
veniencies to which wavering councils, during a pe-
riod of 30 years past, have, from time to time, sub-
jeffed us, and we now find their effeas have a dirca
tendercyto consequences not only highlymischievous,
but aaually ruinous in the extreme. Taking, there-
fore, into his view all these measures relative to
our Army, and combining these with other
leading and prominent circumstances which have
lately happened, he could not, he said, help sna-
p...ding that the present government of this coun-
try were di iving on to a system of shutting us
out from all councillor with the powers of the con-
tinent; and he west further, he did not think they
would content themselves with that, but that their
design was to withdraw us not .inly from a participa-
tion in the affeirs, but to render us complete stran-
gers to the feeliggs and the interests et the several
Continental Cabinets. He thought he saw a set-
tled and confirmed inclination in His Majesty's Mi-
nisters to pursue. a similar conduct to that which
had been adopted during the whole course of
the American war ; a conduct which had been
produaive of the most melancholy and serious evils
to this country. From these circumstances he found
it his duty to offer the various observations, which
he had submitted to the Hotfle. He begged par-
don for having trespassed so long ; returned his
warmest thanks for the kind attention with which
' they listened to him ; and begged leave to move
•• That it be referred to a Committee t.. revire the s•Teral
Aeu prod during the two last Seciions of Prrlia neat r:lrtive
i the o,fettee of Si.. Country, sod to remiter that defence nnrc
complete an.' permanent."
The question having been read from the Chair ;
Mr. CANNING rose and sa?ch that hawc ver
•widely he Might differ from his Right Hon. Friend
who had just sat down, on the general principles of
the case, that Jiffetelice would only been the appli-
cation of the principles as appied to the present
Ad.niniatraticn. He had no doubt but his Right
Honourable Friend would feel eolisiflerable as-
tonishment, and perhaps indignation, when be
allowed that he believed there was not one
man in the country who did riot find fault with the
Lill passed last session. lint he .still contended,
however, that the Bill had two purposes to answer:
lost, that of raising a present t.ipply of troop), ; and,
secondly, of laving the foundata in of is permanent
system. To alfeet this latter point, it had not yet
been fairly tried, and it sets only on that pi inciple,
therefore, that it ought now to he crammed ; for. it
had only had a trial in those distrals which were al-
capable and exhausted by drains for With, and
Army of Reserve ; and therefore it was wrung to
iefei that it must be radically defective. There
tees, however, no fair calculative that held out
tile positive future failure of the Bill, for it had
not received a fair chance. Another cause of its
partial failure was the expetience et many changes
in Hi, Majesty's Couneile, and of the con:Leung
opinions of that /loom. That the people have
looked to those ophados, and to none more than
those of ,his Right lion. Friend, woo, he contended,
however, went tin tar in de.iring the repeal el this
which, whatever might be its general merits,
had taken away many rrestaeles to recruiting, such
as the high bounties, competition, and the failure of
the parish adiceri, had now left the recruiting
service cam* in the hands of the Crown. He
observed through the whcle speech of his Right
Hon. Friend, that Be thought it necessary to retain
some part of the Militia system; but he still disco-
vered in this art appeal to the feelings of the Militia
Coloaels, and while he lamented over the grave of de-
parted ballots, the conclusion seemed made for the
argument, and not the argument for the conclusion.
He differed from his Rt. Hon. Friend as to the point
of rendering thewhole force regular and systematic,
because it a peace should soon happen to take place,
what could be done with the Army ? It could not
be immediately disbanded; and if •kept on foot in
time of peace would be an enormous 'science to the
empire; and if his Right Hon Friend proposed such
.1 measure, be believed there would be few of that
class to whom he had appealed, as Militia Co-
lonels, would go along with him. He coincided
with his Right Honourable Friend as to the pro-
priety of introducing modification of punish.
vent, and alteration, tis soon as it could be ef-
fettled, in seeding out our culnnial supplies, and
should be a friend even to the black corps in
the West Indies, rather than we should ex-
haust our own population, by sending out supplies
as heretofore, but thought this not a time for going
into a Committee on die subjea. He went into
a variety of statements of the troops raised since
the passing of this Aa, and insisted that us
had gained by it a disposeabie body of troops,
amounting to 12,000 men, and that out of 306,000
Volunteers, 160,000 are reported fit for service.
From all which he drew a conclusion, that there
could be sr, reason for the Motion, and that he
should therefore oppose it-
Sir W. Yoeno spoke in favour of the Motion.
The Question being Iwsdly called tor, the (louse
divided, when there appeared, for Mr. WI N 0 AWS
Motion, Ayes 96—Noes 242--blajurity against 146.
Adjourned.

~~

THE COURT.

. .
. .A 94 •IL 21.1*.:••
"NrJlllll7l..ibrnme.