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

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was a new one,for he remembered a similar one in the
American war, hut never knew any success derived
from it. The Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Pitt).
who was the framer of the B:11, had said, that it
had completely answered all its purposes, and the
Noble Lord (Castlereagh) could not conceive hew
the I louse could go into a Committee upon it. He
was sure no man could say it has had any good
cfred. It was said to have created a facility in pass-
ing men from limited service to general service;
but he contended there was no disposition in the
people to prefer this limited service to the old mode
of recruiting; and, most certainly, the inconveniencies
arising from it were excessive. There was another
point in which he differed from the Noble Lord in
the system of enlisting men. He considered no
mode so good for recruiting the army, as the Army
of Reserve; but, above all, he agreed with his
Honourable Friend in the opinion, that when a
soldier was enlisted for life, he was a better and
braver soldier in the field, and was more attached
to his officers. He then adverted to the mode of re-
creiting the army in other countries ; and, in con-
clusion, asked, if the fifth part of the army was to
be discharged every five years, how would it be pos-
sible to keep up a regular arms, ?
General NORTON said a few words against the
motion.
Sir WILLIAM ERSKINE was sorry the House
should look on the dark side of the subject. There
Was no country in Europe which had not been in a
similar situation, and all were obliged to resort to
the made lately adopted. The French were obliged
to compel their subjects by force in time of war;
and, when there was such a competition in this
country, when so many hands were employed for
the purposes of agriculture and manufadories, was
it not reasonable to review in reference to other
countries, and convince that we do what we can to
keep up the military force. With resped to the
Volunteer System, ho declared he could not sup-
pose there could be any jealousy between the Office;
of the Army and those of the Volunteers ; on the
contrary, he had ever known them to errert tin a re.
sped for that body, and he considered the Volunteer
System the sheet-anther of the country.
Mr. WINDHAM, after some observations upon
enlisting for the army for life, or a term of years,
considered the argument to rest upon the danger of
the country at the end of two years war, aod he
doubted whether the Noble Lord's statement went
to counterbalance the fa!ts, and he did not know
how far he had deceived himself and others. But
there was such a jumble of statements, that he
could not catch hold of more than three or four of
the main fans. In former times there was but one
mode of recruiting, but now there were four or
five. There was also an immense establishment of
staff, and, among other expedients, that of raising
men for rank ; but, above all, a'aotit le months azo,
came the great street-anchor, the inttar OFRAIUM of all
other modes—the Defence Aft ; and, Irk? a river
which swells in the time of flood and is again reduc-
ed to a narrow stream, the Noble Lord got at last
to ,s Well, it will do ; there's no harm in it." Then
the Noble Lord said it was necessary to go
on for sake of trial. Such fallacy was whimsical
enough. And after the many experiments it
came to this terminating—o No. it has not failed ;
nos rensburt. "try it again." !iris put him in mind
of an apothecary who i'ad a favourite medicine he
used to recommend to his patients for every disease;
some got the gripes, others were affefted in various
ways, and the whole country felt the effeds of it,
without relief; but the Dottor's constant cry was,
" pray try it again," as a sort of accelerating, mo-
tion to what had gone before. Toe trial of this
Bill was continued from time to time by the author,
and that which was to have done wonders, instead
of bring a growing concern, turned out to be a
losing concern. The parish officers, like Setjeant
Kite, resorted to all wakes, fairs, bull-baits, &c. ;
and there were no less than 20,000 recruiters over
the country, who were so many bidders against
each other. This Bill was brought forward when
other measures failed, which were propped up by
these temporary expedients. It was, he said, in
vain for him to think of making any impression
upon the House ; and, he concluded in supporting
the proposition of his Noble Friend (Col. Craufurd).
Sir JAMES PULTENEY, in explanation, said
that he supported the Army of Reserve; conceiving,
that if a great number of men could be brought to-
gether in any sort of military way, many of them
would enlist in the Regular Army.
The SECRETARY at WAR complained, that
the Right Hon. Member (Mr. Windham) had said
our Army was such a medley and jumble, that it
was impossible to ascertain from the accounts, what
our British force really is. He accepted the chal-
lenge. It appeared, he said, from the papers upon
the table, that the actual British disposeable force,
exclusi4e of Fencibles, Blacks, Mulattoes, ltc. was,
on the lit of January, 1805:--
Cavalry
larAistry


. 11,200
. 104,800

Total 124,000
From wl:ich, if you decla& tu,ooo serving abroad,
there will remain an aCtual disposable British force
at home of 104,000 on the Ist of January 1805.
It appears from toe same papers that, on the Ist
of June 11105, our attual British disposable force is
as follows:
Cavalry • ,
Infantry

. .

. 21,300
. 115,700

Total 137,PU0
From which, if you dedult 18,000 serving abroad,
there remains a disposeable force of 119,000, ma.
ing a difference in favour of the present time, com-
pared with the Ist of January last, of 3.000. Our
disposeable force has consequently improved in six
months to that extent. It had been objeCted to the
additional Force Bill, that it was only calculated to
raise money and not men. It appeared, however,
that in the last four months it had produced 3,439.
or at the rate of 11,000 in the whole year. So
much I,r this stigmatised Bill, which produced at
nearly the rate of 1,000 men per month, and that
without interfering with the regular recruiting for
the army. The comparison drawn between this and
foreign countries was unjust. There was no ana-
logy between them. Foreign countries had no co-
lonies to defend. England had seventy-four batta-
bons in foreign countries. Were the measure pro-
posed so be adopted, we would have to bring home
9,000 men every year, and to send out the same
stunsber...4 system difficult and dangerous to carry

rw-

into execution, considering the circumstances of the
war in which ere are engaged ; and even thous
that argument did not stand in the way, he thought
we should pane heroic we alt red so materiaily the
fundamental principles of our army.
Col. CRAUFURD made a short, but pert'nent
reply, in which he contended that a Cavornitt.e was
necessary, if it were only for tie purpose of ascer-
taining whether he, or the Gentler:len on the oppo-
site side, who differed from him so much, were right
in 'their calculations. In relatosn to the enemy, he
said, we had only sent 11,000 additional force for
the defence on foreign settlements, while the enemy
had sent 14,000 for their annoyance; and while
France had required the co-operation of Soain. our
force was reduced to 4,000 less than befure. Ile
did not mean to speak lightly of f !reign troops, as
had been obje*ed to him. He spoke merely
of them as they appeared on the face of the re-
turns; a mixture of Ceylonese Mina:foci. with-
out a specification of the proportion of etch
To speak of some foreign troops as o.s a level
with the Ceylonese, if he had any means of discri-
minating them, was out of the question. lie hal
been also represented as having sp,keu with ens.,
tempt of the Volisnteers. " I ri-rpea the in-
dividuals, but I think the system the mist riJ co-
lout that could be devised." He wai not singular.
Other officers had felt thrum! disgiht at the idea of
a rigular Colonel being placed under the command
of a vol steer offi:er. A pastry-took volunteer of-
ficer (Mr. Birch) had been allude) tn. lle might
be a very good man, an/ was, he uaderstood, s'iPe•
odor in tin:a:ion to most people in his way of We.
It was also probaMe that he did nut m Ice his soups
himself, but emirl iyed persons fur the: piirpose.
Still, however, he (Col. Crawfor I) would not like to
be under the command of a pa.try-couk. (Lea
Laugh).
The question was now loudly called for, and the
gallery was cleared for a divisiun, the motion being
negatived without a clorisi.m.
Adjourned at ONE O'CLOCK.