The National Register.
London, England, 1808-04-18 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

7

z.. ~;

lie asks tOr a subsidiary force, in which no man will be
nitowed ti, ierve 4141614 e, .ftrilsoilgif the 'Crown hill
Le enabida to Consmand entanent4itity- far one-and-toteoly
days in the year. Is this reconcileablc to the principles of
a free Government ? Lord Castkreigh knows that. it is
not, and therefore he makes a relaxation in favour of per-.
sons " prevented by say serimis business." What relasia.--
Goa does he make ? Why, he gives- them the power of
paying " serious fines." Bt.t, says his Lordship, "if Sub-
stittiles ivcre allowed in this Local Militia, it would go
directly to impose a henry lax :- men mould magnify
the importance of the duties of the' service, and would
'' gise large sums to substitutes." So in order to avoid
insposing a 'Leary Lax, his Lordship proposes a serious
free. A strange kind of relaxation indeed ! But then it
will he said, a man a ill escape these inconveniencies if he
belong to a Volunteer Corps : for the Volunteer Corps do
hat generally go out upon permament duty, but content
themselves wiih exercising near their respective homes.
The effect then of Lord Castlereagh's plan is either to
avoid a tax [us the imposition of a fine, or to-raise a sub-
sidiary force by compelling.people to olunteer
In a former number we expressed a regret that after
so great an outcry about reform in the Military System of
Great Britain, Mr. IVindliam introduced nothing more
than an alteration in the business qi recruiting the regular,
ordinary, and subsidiary force of our Military Establish-
ment. But though we have blamed him for having effect-
ed so little where so much was necessary to be dune, and
though we es en conceive that in the reforms he has ac-
tually made, perfection has by no means been attained :
yet ne see still greater reason fur impeaching the rage of
alteration, w hich seems to be so peculiarly the taste of
modern statesmen. The inconveniences of change are
always so great, and most particularly in a military sys-
tem, that no alteration should ever he introduced which
does not give the strongest hope of great and material
benefit. 'flue system of the Militia, though perhaps abso-
lutely necessary fur the existeuce of the country, is felt by
the country as a great annoyance : and if, even when the
pruciples that govern that system are clear and fixed, the
'steno itself be regarded as a grievance, how much more
wirvous does it becsane, when the introduction of some
inefficient alteration gives occasion every year to a fresh
Act of Parliament, puzzles the understandings of the
people, aud keeps their nuisance constantly before their
es es I We certainly conceive that it is the• duty of that
great mass of the people, whom education aud circum-
stances have disqualified from judging on abstruse points
of politics, to submit quietly to the reasonable acts of the
Gosernment, and nut busy themselves, except upon some
;,..ippearance of flagrant 's rouge in investigating matters
which they cannot understand. Rut we also think that it
is the duty , as well as the interest of Gos ernmeutnot to shock
unnecessarily even the instahen feelings of the people : not
to destroy that magic of opinion, on a hick the good order of
the Rate, and the absolute existence of e%ers Government,
must always so materially depend. And when we see the
Uiaisters comieg fofaard year after sear, every- line will:
a fresh plan, but tics er with a plait containing airy thing
fresh, at least any thing fresh that can he of serious ad-
s mange, we feel inclin.al to deprecate, in the strongest
manner, the idle fashion, that occupies the attention of our
country men merely- to tormeut them, and even diminishes

APRIL IS.

the benefits that might be expected from a quiet coutinu-
kacovi Lei aeldati.
.111Iiiiiis scat-lA-Ay -timid he nu-
.merous icl*uaeS, 1h:4114111-not be= 1u to satisfy Eng-
lishmen tolerably well, if it were left to itself, though none
of them exactly suit our ideas of good military system :
• but no one . has•its fair chance : for as soon as the people
-have ceased tO-WarftheinselVcs ivith the last innovation,
and from -habit are become a little reconciled to any in-
COnveniences it may contain, a new plan is obtruded upot}
their notice, and banishes the grievances of the last .ncl
by a better invention, hut by other grievances of its own.
The principal hardship introduced by ,the new Bill is the
compulsion of. permanent duty, unmitigated by the nth
source of substitution. And this is a measure of two-fold
inexpediency : inasmuch as it affects both the liberties and
the morals of the peOple.—The old system of ballot, which
affected only persons in humbler life, .vas a subject of
great complaint : because as such persons had seldom Rit.
means of providing substitutes, personal service became
almost unavoidable to them. • But the present Bill goes to
I extend the oppressive operation or the old principle of
ballot, and at the same time to destroy its alleviations.
The rich and the poor, the man of business and the. man
of pleasure,' are now all equally summoned to personal
service : and though upon the ancient plan, the chance of
poor persons for avoiding personal service was but small;
yet that small chance was better. than none. And none a(
all is there now, for any class of people. Is it possible to
conceive any greater inconvenience than that which this
Bill. will produce to men employed in active mercatitihs
pursuits, which require their constant presence ? To men
engaged in the liberal professions, vs ho cannot excrcis.:
their functions by proxy ? To all concerned in the etluca-,
tiou of youth ? To every clerk, whose weekly salary de-
pends upon the certainty of his attendance in his bi.-iness?
The necessity of paying; for a substitute was a necessity
griesous enougLl to many of these-classes; but the requisi-
tion of personal service on permanent duty for une-aLd-
twenty days, is a matter almost of absolute ruin.
• The mischief's of permanent duty to the morals of the
people, it is hardly necessary to urge. Even the Regulars,
iwho are under much closer discipline than it is possible to
'enforce upon temporary, Soldiers, and who has e nut the
seduction of a new and sudden change of life to betray
them into particular idleness and excess, are nevertheless
exceedingly injurious to the morals of every town in which
they are quartered : and uhett the Local Militia, shifting
from business to sudden leisure, hahited in a new and gay
attire, becuiniog the gaze of the inhabitants of the toati,
iu which they are stationed, surrounded in short with al.
most every temptation that idleness, vanity, and dissipa•
tion cut present to inexperienced and thoughtless wind`,.
shall take up their quarters in the heart of a country, it is
easy to guess what riots and debaucheries will grow among
themselves, and creep upon the society with which they
conic in contact.
If these are the mischiefs of change, the people of this
country will soon shudder at the veers, rumour of it. For
our own parts, we shall never cease to look anxiously for
the time when the words " in;litary reform"
shall assume
the sense that they ought to bear : when they shall no
longer denote a partial removal of petty mischiefs, by the.
introduction of mischiefs on a ditreicut construction, 1)
sisall signify a grand, complete. *ld radical eltc:atin..L...,a