The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-06-26 00:00:00

ADMTIONAL FORCE FUR SCOTLAND.

The SECRETARY at WAR moved the Order of
the Day tor receiving the Report of the Bill for
rai.ing an additional force in Scotland.
Lord A RCI JERALD HAMILTON said, that in
duty to the nation at large, and his own constituents
in patticular, he must oppose the present Bill. lie
particularly objated to the manner in which the
men were to be raised ; and the manner in which
th, y were afterwards to he disposed of. He wished
to know how they were to be disposed of in time of
peace ; how were they to be retained in time of
peace? and how were they liable to Le called upon
to serve again, should it be necessary ? The Bill, he
considered as nugatory, in its immediate objeet ;
and in itspermanentobjea, it was unconstitutional.

Mr. Pl.l' l' said, he -was n•'t prepared to give
a precise answer to the Noble Lord's question. All
he would now say was, that whenever peace arrived,
it would be the objea of Parliament to consider
what provisions should be necessary to keep up this
force during the continuce of peace ; and to fix the
times for calling it out.
Mr. KI::NAIRD declared his feeling of this mea-
sure to be that of his having double the objeEtion to
it which he would to the other Bill relating to Eng-
land. He would allude to one point in wAich Eng-
land and Setiland differed materially, and that was
with respell to the Militia. He certainly tlicraglit
the Militia had been encreased to too great an extent
in England ; and therefore the reduaton of it was
no evil ; but that was not the case in Scotland, where
the Militia was in point of discipline nearly equal to
a Regular force. In that country, more than any
other, theyoungersons of gentlemen were in the habit
of getting into the army, and of seeing aau tl s2.tv ice.
Many of these persons went into the Militia, and
the consecinence was, that the Militia of Scotland

►~

was heter officered than that of any other conntriVl
In the 45sznce therefore of regular troops, Scotland'
safely relied on the militia for defence ; and by the
aid of the spirit and the exertions of the distinguished
Commander in in that. comitry. they were ren-
dered so perlea in discipline, :IS L 3 he inferior to no
troops v:h:tever. From these considerations it must
be very unvi.ite to reduce any of the militia in Scot-
land. Ilety.ioin this ISiil an I the other, there was
:mother ntatejal diff2rtvce, and that was the ma.
chinery possessed by England for raking men,
which was not in Scotland. Here th,, poor laws
would be the m7ans of getting 0r n in every parish.
In Scotland there were no poor laws, nod tlitTefore
the heriturs of parishes had not the tam: machinery
to work with. But as these heritors were in general
country gentlemen, the mode they would adopt
would be to meet and assess chem.:lees to raise a
certain sum of money, and that would be given to
the crimps for raising the men. This, therefore, •
would be a tax on the proprietors of land, nr; ie
other words, a land tax ; which was diresltly con-
trary to the articles of the Union with Scotland
a violation of a solemn engagement, which he called
upon the Irish members to oppose, lest a similar
violation of the Union between their country and
this might take place.
Mr. ROBERT DUNDAS defended the Bill, and
observed, that so far from heritors subscribing mo-
ney to empley crimps, he believed they would have
influeuce enough among their tenants and neiglr
'pours to get the full complement of men requ;redcf
the parishes. As to a land-tax in Scotland, the same
elbjeetion apilietl to the Militia and Army of Reserve
Ads.

The SECRETARY at WAR observed, that the
Hon. Gentleman who complained of a land-tax in
Scotland had d.•clared, last year, it was a breach of
the union with Scotland to lay a duty on malt
there. But would the Honourable Gentleman say,
that a measure, which the exigency of the pre-
sent moment rendered absolutely necessary, was
now to be opposed, because it mien contain some.
thing contrary to an Ad passed 100 years ago ?
The Report was then received, and the Bill was
ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.