The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-05-14 00:00:00

"7"

used as a kind of Coronet's Inquest; to discover,
if possible,' how their hero came by his death;
and the AR being professedly passed for pro-
viding a permanent and effeEtual force, and
having done every thing else but that, he thought
they might fairly return a verdid of feta de sr.=
In reality it was so to all intents and purposes ; for
if it should produce the number of men required,
it would go beyond its quotas ; it would, in fact,
do nn service, for the quotas would be reduced tO
supply the casualties for 9000 men—not 9aoo men;
and in that case the Act is equally inefficient, whe-
ther it succeed or fail. One thing it had produced,
which required its speedy repeal, and that was the
evil of high bounties, which had actually in a man-
ner destroyed the ordinary recruiting; and as his
Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Fox) had said on a former
night, he did not know that die MI had obtained
a single man for general service. In fact, its ore-
ration had been nothing but the influence of
money, through the medium of oppression ; for how
could you expect to make parish officers understand
how to recruit with effect against regular-bred, tho-
rougL-paced crimps. The churchwarden, or over-
seer, is generally looked upon to be a grave and so-
lemn man, whose conduct and behaviour are ex-
pected to give a good example to his fellow pa-
rishioners—a kind of Custer Martini in the parish.
Would you have such a character go skipping
about the parish, from alehouse to alek,u.e, d.vert-
ing .end seducing the lads of the village ; and like
Serjean: Kite. with his jovial recruits, Timor .1p•
pierce and Cater "'carousals, singing—
: tt We shall lead more happy bees,
sy getting rid at brats and wives,
That scold and brawl, both night and day,
Over the hills and far away..
—Would you have these grave and sober men cry-
ing nut to the servants in the parish..-. 4 Come, my
lad, you tha'n't any longer brush your master's coat,
nor carry your mistress's cloak and pattens to
Church on a Sunday—You are a fine lad—l can
see preferment written in your face—you shall be a
Gras/men Soldier, and I would underwrite you for
a Canter, at lea: t.''—This is a language certainly
not sui•ed to parish officers though he had no
I..uts , rt oraperly encouraged, they would corn: to
it in tme. and most eloquently declaim in favour
of " a short life and a merry one ;" but let the
House consider what havoc this must make
in the habits and morals of the people ; and in his
opinion, that consideration Acme would say enough
against the ; rho cotattr y would be ruined by
its success, and that was a strong argument against
it. He alluded to the instance mentioned by an
Hon. Member on a former night, of a Parish Of-
ficer, at Leicester, having found out the secret of the
Ad, by svf.i.:ll he hat made a pretty pickings, and
became one at the completest sad mast atlive crimps
in the kingdom. The Biil pretended to want men,
and no: money; but the people of the country knew
better, and answered A`a, ..tie—you say you want
men, but we.ltnnw you want monef, and money
you .hall haste, and not men ;" and in this hewn.. Id
back the sagacity of the country politicians against
those of St. James's ; the fact had been proved,
that scarcely a man had been procured by it,
but from the high bounties. He would only say
one word more, which was in answer to the
objetion started by an Elonouroble Friend of his
on a former night, against the clause for re-
turning the bounties. H: thought the evil of refund-
ing was the least of the two. If those who had al-
ready paid the fines, were to be held to it. aod oblig-
ed to lose the money, injustice and oppte.sion would
take place ; they h.ad been compelled to pay for
'not raising men, which it was not in their pow er to
rai<e, and the House should not lose sight set that
escelleut adage--

•-•
Nitmu tenetor al i tatcm.
his was not a tax, but a penalty; and there was no
pr.:Tat-60n between the inconveniencies that would
result from the ez.aalion of the fines. and the es
pence to the public of repaying them beck. rider
all these considerations, he must press the third
reading of the present Bill.
Mr. PERCIVAL thought the last topic the
Right Hon. Gentleman had touched on, required
some further consideration, and, for his part, he con-
sidered the injustice of it glaring, whether it was
looked at prospeCtively. or remove:lively. The
effeCt of the clause he referred to Wes. that it would
indemnify the country for their disobedience to the
last Bill ; and here he could not help observing on
the triumphant manslet in which the pro sent Min-
ster: aCted, with respect to this Bill ; they thought
it a high honour to triumph over the measure of
that great man, now no more, being well aware that
they never could have done it in his life-time. But
he would advise the Right Honourable Gentlemen
not to be so much intoxicated with their own sweet
fortune, as to prevent them front paying that atten-
tion to the affairs of the nation, which the circum-
stances of the time required. The more he considered
the effeft that this clause would have, the more he
was convinced of its impropriety ; it would create a
sort of appellant juriediztion over the Legislature of
the country, and woul4 give the great mass of the
people the power of jot in of the propriety or
utility of any At of Parliament. Henceforth,
instead of the d,fferent branches of the Legislature
receiving petitions against any Bill, they should.
collectively. when about to pass an Ail, petition the
people for leave to do it ; and, instead of the Aa
rimnieg--" May it pletse Your tslaje.ty, be it
'maned, &c." it should be worded, •• Be it sub-
mitted to the gaud sense of the people " This
would be the situation we should be brought to by
this clause ; and he should have thought the Right
Hon. Gentleman would be the asst person who
would have legislated in this mantic ; sod, indeed,
he did think that it the Bill passed, As it row stood,
the Right Honourable Gentleman, after he had the
triumph of cart ying it through the House. would
see the absurdity of this clause. This grows injus-
tice in the Defence Bill, which the Right Honour-
able Gentleman had said so much of, aftually
existed since the year 1799, in the Militia Bill, as,
by it. .51. was to be paid by the parish. for every
mill they were deficient. It was, in fan, an as.
aimed habit of the Right Honourable Gentleman.
to dell nut his censure on every mea.nte which
came in his way, provided it was not introduce.' by
himself, and en institute a system of reviling against
this and every other minimum. One, in particular,
that of balloting, had received much abut;
• bet. es we were not sure that he would net rely
4 on it next year, he did not clink tee

Gentleman should have dealt sn hardly with it, as
it would be very awkward for hint to have recourse
to it hereafter. It had been stated, that by the Ad.
ditional Force Bill, there was a total imponibility of
raising men; now this he never could believe, as it
was evident, that some of the parishes procured
their entire number. Now, the Right Hon. Gentle.
man, if he chose to ael consistently with this clause
of his Bill, should go back to the original system
of the Army of Reserve, and suffer it to ad on it
also; but, he supposed, the Right Hon. Secretary
thought that would be purchasing justice at too
dear a rate. Insteitd of doing this, however, he
brought in this fresh measure, which was to aft
&petit on all, though it originated from the de-
fault of some who gave themselves no trouble
about the raising of men, and not front any defi-
ciency in the Bill, which, no dank, was competent
to supply the army. The Army of Reserve
Act, under which some men were raised, wl.o
were now in the Army, contained a claute
which made provision for the wives and children of
the soldiers ; now by the present 8.11, that Act would
be repealed, sad these poor people would be totally
deprived of support. From this it was evident that
it wanted amendment, and he thought it would be
the best way to add a rider to it. which shoal,' ge
with the Right /lon. Gentleman, in his tiiumplisuit
car, and telt the world, that he, no more than tithe: s,
was infallible. He then concluded'by saying, that,
for the present, he must give his voice ageinst the
third reading.
Mr. WINDHAM, in explanation, declared, that
he never had said he wished for the total abolition
of ballot, but merely that it was the last measure
that should be resorted to.
Mr. eiHERIDAN said, he had linened with at-
tention to the arguments, mixed with vehemence,
of the lionoureble Gentleman, and perceived
tnat he directed the former ageing the clause,
and the letter against the Bill itselfe—With
rope fl to what had been said of the etre& this
Bill would have, by repealing the Army of R.:-
set ye Dill, he could only observe, that even if his
Right Honourable Friend had not been aware of all
the bearings of his Bili, it should rot have been ad-
verted to by the Right Honourable Gentleman, as
he and his friends were more than twenty months in
understanding their own Bill ; and indeed from a
specimen the Honourable (nice gave
in the bill-drawing way, ix supposed, from
the little imowleage he had of the Defence
Bill, he must have drawn it also. He could
not but thank the Learned Gentleman for the
advice he had given him and his friends,_ not to
be intoxicated with the sweets of their present si-
tuation, and in return, he thought he might recom-
mend it to him, not to lee out of conceit with, or
mortified at his present situation. Much stress had
been laid on the circumstance of some of tite pa-
rishes producing their complement of men ; but the
fa 3 was, that not one of them had raised the men.
except by a breath of the law, and he defied any
Gentleman to prove to the contrary t n.,r did be
think it any thing paradoxical, for this reason, to
say, that the perishes which found the men should
be fined in preference to those which did not, as they
had raised them in dire •.olaiion of an A.% of
Parliament. In the case of Leicestershire, the House
had hems informed by the Hon Member lie that
county, that a wholesale Crimp was there met e nth.
who took the hesiuess on his own hands, and produ-
ced the men t and here he could not help reverting
to .1 very ungracious remark which had been made
on a former night, on the Hon. Member he had just
spoken of, by In Hen. Gentleman opposite to him
( Mr. Canning, Member for Tralee iu Ireland), for
atit living more amongst his constituents. It was
strange. he thought, that that remark had been
made, as he very mach questioned whether the
lion. Geutlemen who made it, knew, or had even
ever seen the face of one of his constituents. The
Right Hon. Gentleman then referred to several pa-
tithes, in all of which, he said. the men woes
raised in direft violation of the law. He was the
more astonished at the Opposition to the repeal
of the present Act, as he was convinces that tite
Right run. Gentleman, who hioright it in, if now
alive, would not only not oppose it, but ntuld him-
self move for the repeal of it. The simple question.
he thought was, whether it WAS. or was not. sue-
cessful ? he certainly thought it was rot, and that at
should be celled in the preamble, « A Bill for de-
grading the whole king& sm, a Bill for rectuitine,
and a Bill fur raising bounties, end more effectually
encouraging mutiny and desert.on." Tne Hon.
Gentlemen professed themsely-s not in the heist in-
clined to oppose the repeal of the Defence Bill, but
all taiey wanted was to know what would be the
substitute. It was like a man who had a wen on his
throat, but would not let the surge in take it oh,
who ofered to put him in the same way he wa.
before. because he would not tell him what he in-
tended to substitute, and he supposed, by the saint
rule. he would not be permitted to shoot a mad dug
in the road. The circular letter of the Noble Stets-
tary of State, of ntst Dec. went directly to serriede
the law, and was of a tendency man culp able. The
instruatons dealt out in this way. and through the
inspeaing ollcers who were sent about the country.
were of a nature which left' little to regret that the
All had not ;vowed more efficient 1 tot had t.•n times
the number of men beon raised under it, they were
obtained in a was, so eiaremely disateefill, that the
evil would only have been aggravated. It had
heen atttibuted to the Gentlemen on this side of the
I louse. that they assumed triumph over the Bills
and uncharitably stabbed a: the mesncry of a de-
ceased stateemee (Mr. )'its). He disclaimed such a
Jesporitinn ; said, as fer'as regarded the letter of the
Sift of Dec. which, as being little less than treason.
was so justly the sobjent of the sorriest enlmadverieon.
he totally acquitted that distinguistied man from
having been a party to it ; it was unhappily indited
whilst he lay on his death bed, or he (Mr. Sheridan)
believed the Noble Lord (Hawkesbury) would not
have been permitted to fully his reputation by issu-
ing it. It hal benn said also, that the Bill was op-
posed by some out of hatred to the person by whom
it had beets. introduced. He was sure it was not
sentiment which found hatnottr in the bosom of any
man. to died to the Bill. on account of hatred to
his (Mr. rites) TORMUI. For himself, there was
Oct a nlaw hying of whose transcendent talents sed
intlexibln inter•ty he had R higher opinion. lit he I
had the misfortune, for rniny years of his life, to
the political opposes: of that Right Hosboulib.,'