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

injure the discipline of the airily, and aj an officer
he must protest against it. In the American war
he was employed in the recruiting service, and got
as many men as he wished for, who enlisted for five
and seven years, or during the war and he had no
doubt but they would be equally glad to enlist on
those terms now, with the exception of the difference
in the quantum of bounty. Ile highly approved the
idea of his Right Hon. Friend for improving the
situation of the Chelsea Pensioners, as he knew that
those poor old men being liable to be called on
again after they had served twenty-four years, if
they had not completed twenty-five years, and taken
from their families, had done great injury to the
recruiting service. For these reasons he should vote
for the third reading of the present Bill.
Lord:DE BLAQUI ERE said a few words; but
we could not hear whether for or against the Bal.
Mr: YORKE complained most seriously of the
extraordinary silence observed by Ministers on this
subjeft, and said, the only reason given for the re-
peal of the Additional Force Aft had been the de-
velopemeat of the plan of the Right Hon. Secre-
tary, on the details and nature of which he had been
silent ever since. lie had, he owned, opposed that
Act when first brought forward, because it pro-
fessed tolproduce a greater number of men, than,
he thought, could be raised by it ; but inasmuch as
it was similar in its principle to the Army of Reserve
Al. which retained the ballot, he would not
agree to repeal it, without some substitute in its
stead. He expressed his astonishment, that Minis;
ter s should thuspersist in withholding from the House
exery kind of explanation as to the nature of the
system they proposed to adopt, instead of that
which they were so eager to get rid of. lie could
only attribute it to some froward prejudices they
had taken up, whilst on the other side of the
House, and which they seemed determined pertina-•
ciously to adhere to. They ought, howeet, to
recoiled, that they were the King's sworn servant,,
and bound, in such perilous times as the present, to
give His Majesty the best advice, unwarped by
prejudice of any kind, and that they ailed to ail
cases under great responsibility. He approved the
Additional Force Aft, because it appeared clearly
from the papers on the Table, that it had produce.'
10,000 men yearly, over and above, and in addi-
tion to the ordinary recruiting for the Army ; and
that if suffered to continue, it was likely to he still
I more produsieve. The ordinary recruiting, he said,
was 12,000 men a year—the casualties of the army
we5,e1.3.000 men ; so that by recruiting in the ordi-
nary way, sistiaersd sot keep up the army establish-
mint by 1900 snen* year. Ministers ought to pre-
parefor gfeatet exigencies. and more extensive ca-
sualties, for losses ;eds. field, which mgt., amount,
by different battles, to several thousands, and enlist-
ing for limited service was not likely to do this.
There must be some intermediate and subsidiary',
course, and that the Additicmal Force Bid provided;
and though he proffered the Army of Reserve and
the ballot, yet the Additional Force Bill did raise
certain number of men. This was the first instance
of so important a change being proposed without
any reason given for it. Had the Right Honour-
able Secretary prepared any calculation of how
many men were to be obtained by his neer plan ?
had he any proof to adduce, that aches men were
once discharged. they would be likely to en-
list again ? In the American War they took the
cnsuaMes at 17,000 moo, and they never could, at
that tine' with their effixts and aftivity in recruit-
ing, reins the army, beyond the casitalties, more than
1,2u0 men, and she Right lion. t.Frentlem in ought
not to Hatter himself, thaa his philosophical and
sentimental plans will be likely to lured more. He
would not, ehergore, consent to the repeal of the
Additional Force 43, till something further was
substituted in its snake.
Mr. AY RE thought the Right Hon. Gentleman
(Mr. Windham), evasaserfeftly right in not assign-
ing the reas ens on which he aftelLtill he brought for-
ward his plans for the consideration of the House
he hat no doubt lie lentil! then give them at full
length, and that would be the hest and most proper
season for going into a discussion on them. The
only thing then before the Flouse was the repeal of
the Additional Force Aft; if he thought it a good
one, lie would not vote for its repeal ; but he deemed
it to he very much the contrary of a good one ; it
had been explained by General Officers, instead of
Deputy Lieutenants and Magistrates, and more for
the advantage of Crimps than Parish Officers. The
former of those had raised the bounties to twenty-
six guineas a man, and if we were compelled to
raise the number of men we wanted yearly, at that
rate. it would amount to upwards of five millions
a-year. The Bill was, on his opinion, in many other
respells, highly oppressive, and he should, there-
fore. vote for its repeal.
Mr. Secretary Vs'INDIIAM said, he should not
have occasion to trouble the House at any length,
as the Hon. Gentleman, who spoke last, had so
ably and so handsomely anticipated him in many
observations he should otherwise have thought it
necessary to make. It appeared to him from what
had been said from various parts of the House, that
his silence seemed, by some I lon. Members, to be
looked on as rather contumelious ; though, for his
own part, he could not see• bow contumely could
Lilly or properly be attributed to him for not speak-
ing on matters not then before the House. The
Hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House.
bad made a great clamour about p. pees which had
been laid before the House, and which, they said,
contained so much intportant information. A Noble i
Lord had indeed brought forward a mass of papers
and the Hon. Gentlemen were so eager and zealous
to cull their sweets, that the only guest at the
table. who could not get a seat, was the master of
the feast. And what were those important papers,
with all their information? They had never been
heard of during a year and a halt after the Aft had
passed. That Aft had never, during all that time,
been arced upora--it was really defund—absolutely
dead, till Lord Hawkesbury's letter first endea-
voured to revive it. his was the prologue to the
play. The Hon. Gentleman put him in mind of mo-
dern novelists, who, for the sake of variety, began
with a marriage, with which others used to con-
clude ; so the Honourable Gentlemen begin
the r tragedy with the death of their hero; and iu
tie sec ma aft, they take the part of the Humane
Jo,:icty, and with all the apparatus of those papers.
endeavour to bring him to a complete state of re-
. Tin Noble Lattl's Letter /sad been