The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-06-29 00:00:00

•
et Captains and Statesmen of the e
le age,ran hek mineahnits
ee,l•eick the Great, of Prussia, m e
see i,•e an envi
ble thing ; for the pay
.
of a PTIIC,I2II
Calais was 9001. ; and, at the time he eas in that
ci„op country,
sl!_eapiain in the army WAS not on y
e 1 the necessaries, but AS most of
l','lti.:: ~e.:•risr'' 4' . life. The last of the improve-
;eel'i,',.achi-eis he had this night to recommend, was
c
the service open to the Roman a-
t" I,hwil I„13.1.1, which he thought might easily
CPI..:' r.
. h t enfOrcing the genera: claims of the
bft.'l,;"l°l•l‘‘m.lt,inof.":atholics. It WAS melancholy to re-
,' „c e while these gentlemen filled the other ar-
,.,le -"l.' Europe with their beat officers, and when it
'''',',, d that the celebrated battle of Torgott,
l',hts;Lll,-:iirienCl,l the fate of the war in favour of the
E,..ves, :Maria Therese, that was gained by an
Au man army under the command of Irish
cetera's, these chereSers should be excluded
fee all the superior ranks in our service,
„eel alone could stimulate the ardour of
„hie miuds thirsting for military glory.. These,
I,', said, contained the substances of the improve-
wets he meant at present to propose, the propriety
d which, together with the truth of all his state-
ment,, he pledged himself to prove, should the
Howe go into a Committer; and, after reca pi tulat-
I of his speech, he concluded with mov-
gg thiheshas
first resolution, to this effeet,. R —esolved,
that it is expedient that the State of the Army he
kept up to the establishment proposed by Perlia-
meat ;" which being seconded;
L id CAS fLtItEAGti said, that he should
1* to follow the Hon. Officer through all the
en ine
went of tis military details, and the more, as his
eight li• n. Friend (the Secretary at War) was bet-
ff ,' talifi.id to do so than he could be supposed to
the - The lion. Officer seemed confident that the
HOOK would
concur in his motion for a Committee,
but he rendered this impossible himself, when he ac.-
kneeled:Ted that he meant to call upon Parliament
te undo ill that had hitherto been done, and that it
iteuhi do nothing effeetual in substitution for it dur-
ing the present session. He seemed to suppose thr.t
the Ministers should be ready to go into a Commit-
tee as soon as it was called for ; but he seemed to
forget that when a Rieht Hon. Gentleman (Mr.
Windham) had, eat ly in the session, made a similar
retina, and declared himself prepared to offer a
substitite for what was befrfre adopted, his pro-
posal was rejeCted. He should put out of his
stew all the first part of the Honourable Officer's
speech, which related to the policy or impolicy
of the Spanish war, and the effe& it had upon
our military sittretion. Every thing cenneeted with
that had already been discussed and decided on,
and it was sufficient to say, that we were now at
war with Spain, and had to combat all the adui-
tienal force that she mild bring into the scale
seenst us. But when he 'went into the genera
rehjeet, he must shortly advert to that system which
fe country was now looking to, and relying on as
the permanent source of military recruitment. As
far as may be judged from the temporary experience
we had hitherto had of it, we found that it was peo-
renively improsieg, while the regular recruiting
not oats kept pace e ith, but exceeded the progress
it was making its the highest year of the last war.
-It was, therefore, no small se,isfeetion to think,
that, whether or not it had done all that was
so sanguinely expelled from it in the full extent, it
at least went on without prejudice to the recruiting
service. Though the Hon. Officer may dispute sonic
of the details of the phut. yet he could not deny
that it gave to the gross force of the country from 9
to 10,000 men annually, supposing its future effects
to be judged of only from what hail been done
tinder the most unfavourable circumstances, and the
disadvantage of incoming upon the counties so soon
after their former quotas had been furnished. It
was a very gloomy and unfair view of it, to state
that it fir-nil:red no more than 4000 ; when, in feat
it furnished, on the whole, no less than 24.000 to the
general iorceinangland, and in the last four months
7000. So that, deducing the casualties, which were
great, and the transmits front the Militia, what it
contributed to the effeelive force of the country,
since its adoption, was no less than from 19 to
20,000 men. The Hon. Officer gave a preference,
and he was not singular in doing so, to a service for
a term of years, over that of service for life, and he
nutted the House that there never was any sabje.2
which hal i,een more serionsly and deliberately
canvassed than :his had been. The Military
authorities, however, were against it, and he
.
relieved that in the number of persons disposed
for a military life, the description of those who
would prefer a rcrm of years, at a smaller
bounty, to a term for life, with a greater, was in-
deed very contraaed. As an instance of this, he
mentioned, that, within his own knowledge in Ire-
land, out of 90'J0 recruits, who at one time present-
td themselves, there were only 250 who-preferred
a term for years, with a smaller bounty. He con-
tended, that the propriety of the two battalions
was evinced in the case of the regiments lately going
to India; when, upon the first upplication, the re-
giments were immediately raised from the 2d batta-
lion, to one thousand men each. Tne Honour-
able Gentleman was wrong, if he supposed that the
Ministers altogether dismissed from their minds the
danger of invesein ; for though the enemy might
think proper to detach 'a considerable fence to
foreign pans, it would not be sale in this country to
imitate them so far as to leave us much more un-
covered than we were before, and therefore it WAS
thought highly expedient to have these second bat-
talions at home to throw into the regular army as
eon ' as there shoals' be any necvssity for doing so.
The Hon. Officer talked of a general deficiency of
49,000 men, and he confessed that he was borne out
in doing so upon the face of the papers before
them. But when it was considered that nn tome
was tettuned, than the numbers of the respetive re-
giments, without any allowance for the supernume-
raries, who were not attached ; this error in the re-
turns would be easily account, d for. He could not,
however, see how the Honoureble Officer was at
all borne out in asserting that the present Litman. on
of the army was not equal to tire wants of the court.
_try. So far was that Cr em being the case, that Ire
'was prepared to maintain and prove that this corm-
ft y now retested a gross disposable force superior
to any which it before had, particularly infantry,
welch the Hon. Gentleman represented as the most
desirable. To these should be added the number ot,
200,000 Volunteers. He admitted that the prejire
dices of military men were natural enough against

ic4
her
37,9
.en•

, no
her
:g Nit
Of

this kind of force, and no man was mere entitled
to the allowance of such prejudices than the Hon.
Colonel. But whatever ridicule they may think
prover to throw on the Volunteers going upon per-
maitent ditty, he was confident that it made a deep
impression upon the enemy to observe such bodies of
men, who at home might remain in the enjoyment of
every comfort and luxury,volunterily relinquish them,
and placing themselves for weeks together, under mi-
litary discipline, with an honourable disregard to their
nmal occupations Such a force, so constituted, so
well disciplined, and actuated by such ardent and pa-
triotic principles, could not be held cheap by the Hon.
Colonel himself, or any of those military, characters
to whom he had alluded. Coming to the compara-
tive estimate, he stated, that in the year 1802,
when oar military force was at its pitch, the returns
were, of regulars, 274,000; in the present year,
they were 299,000 ; in regular disposable force, in
1804, the number was 150,990, it was now 160,000.
Of regular infantry, disposable, the number in
1784, was 90,500; at present it was 121,70 U ; mak-
ing an encrease in that ,material branch, of 31,300
men, in the last year. The foreign troops were
nearly the same in both periods. As to the foreign
establishments, it was true the Ceyloo Corps were
not equal to British troops ; but, notwithstanding
the slur attempted to be thrown upon them. we know
that the Sepoys in our Indian armies were able and
formidable opponents to any troops in the world.
But supposing an inferiority on the part of the Cey-
lonese, could the sam r be said of those German
troops who had served in so distinguished a manner
under General Stuart in the East Indies ? What
he rested most on, however, was the increase in the
last year of 31,300 men in disposable infantry,
which amounted to nearly one third of its number at
any former time. The Hon. Officer would not
consent that he should discuss with him the
expediency of sending expeditions to the Medi-
terranean, or any other quarter, as the Hon. Gen-
tleman must, for the present, remain in total igno-
rance of the motives or reasons which Government
had for doing so. But as to our force abroad, it was
to be observed, that in the last returns for 1805. the
foreign Artillery Corps were not included, which
WAS not the case in the former returns, and the
reasons for which he could not at this time ex-
plain. The force now employed abroad was 69,300
men, and, in the former year, it only amounted
to 49,000, of which 20,300 were artillery. The
Hon. Officer was also under an error in stating, that
when the enemy detached to foreign stations 13,000
men, we sent only 14 or 16,000 to oppose them ; fur
the fact was, that we detached for that purpose no
less than 20,000. So large a detachment would
sufficiently account for any deficiency that might
be pointed out, and as to our own home defence, it ,
WAS not the more neglated, when we considered the
quantity of the men who now remained behind.
Upon the whole, therefore, taking the state of our
military and naval force at home combined, he consi-
deied the country to be in so much a more proud and
formidable situation than before. that the (fairer of
invasion certainly was not so great nor so pres-ing as
before it might appear tohave been. It may,hosever,
be contended, that though we secured ourselves
from all imminent danger, either abroad or at home,
that should there occur any favourable opening
for that purpose on the Continent, we could not
avail ourselves of it, for want of a sufficient slls-
posable force fur that purpose. In answer to that
argument, he would say, that were there any op-
portunity ofemploying a considerable force to strike a
blow on anyvulnerebliPoint of the enemy.after effat-
ing which, the troops were to return again, it may he
done to-morrow; but if there, on the other hand, ap-
peared any effort on the part of the great powers on
the Continent, capable of contending with the mili-
tary power of France, it was evident that, while die
enemy was ctherwise occupied, it would he in the
power of this country speedily to detach a consider-
able force, capable of affording the most formidable
and effeCtual co-operation. and be at the same time
in complete security, proteEted, as it were, by the
remaining Regulars, the Militia. and the numerous
Volunteer Establishments. After all, he said, he
must admit, that though the militat y forts of the
country was in a mach higher state than it was be-
fore, yet it had not hitherto arrived at that pitch
which might be most adsiseble. But greet expec-
tations were to be formed from a plan, which added
from 9 to 10,000 men annually to the Regulars ;
while the ordinary recruiting was going forward in
such a state that, without confining it to the standard
of the last year, it may he concluded, that in future
it would produce at least 15,000 men annually.
With these prospells, he must deprecate any thing
like tampering with systems, or inconsistently
throwing any thing open from time to time. If the
plan had not hitherto succeeded to the utmost, it
was no fault in government, which had done its
duty ; ior which reason, thinking that there was no
charge made out against the present system in the
speech of the Hon. Gentleman, nor any ground for
going into a committee to undo what had been done,
at a time when it was ton late in the session for any
other system to be substituted, he should con-lude
with moving the previous question (the Order of
is day).
Mr. FULLER wished to ask Honourable Gen-
tlemen whet they were afraid of, with 600,000
armed men at their back ? He could not conceive
how Gentlemen could talk in such a manner. He
had seen the Right lino. Gentleman's corps, the
Cinque Pont, and he bore testimony of their spirit
and discipline; and assured General Johnston, he
would take an opportunity of mentioning it to Par-
liament ; these were, most of them, laborious men,
an 1 went through manoeuvres, for a whole day, as
well as any troops, and walked upwards of eigh-
teen miles home at night. lie would ask then,
what men could do more ? Ile was a Colonel of
Volunteers himself; he bad been once in the Ca-
valry, and one thing or other;; he was, to be sure,
but a bad orator f but he knew Gentlemen who
were teed orators and no soldiers. What was Mo-
reau himself ? He was once a lawyer. and after-
watds a great General. Speaking of a great writer,
he remembered he had said, " that no man ever in-
listed in the army as a philosopher." Upon the
whole. he considered the matter only a sort of po-
pular cry against the question ; and if we have not
succeeded better their our ancestors, we are not
worse.
Sir JAMES PULTENEY ohs/teed, that it had
la •en said, that this enlistment of men by the parish
officers was as cape:meat : he did not conceue it