The National Register.
London, England, 1808-06-19 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

JUNE 19.

oppressed by a pecuniary burden, such as that of the present
militia ballot: an adequate allowance of pay will be made by
the public to defray all their expenses. Young men who choose
to serve pt their own charge, may be enrolled in a separate corps,
under the name of cadets ; and from among these, all the cap-
tains and subaltern officers of the local battalions may be select
ed. These officers, at the end of the seven years. will he at
liberty to retire, as if they were still privates. Ills Lordship
subjoins a great number of details as to the hest mode of train-
ofdrafting the men, and of performing other technical mat-
ters by no means inconsiderable; and he proves, that upon oas
plan lUD, 000 young men, between the ages of IS and 23, will be
constantly ready to obey the calls of their country.
It must be confessed that there are some objections to this
lan but they are objections which must occur in every efficient
system ofanilitia ; and we must be content to put up with an- •
avoidable,and iomparatively, insignificant inconveniences, rather
than run the risk of mischiefs so dreadful as tkose which now
threaten the shores of Great Britain.
The principal evil to be dreaded in this, as in every other
such scheme, is the permanent duty to which the local militia must
be subjected. It is easy to see, that without putting the men
upon permanent duty their real utility must be very trifling :
and as Sir Isaac Newton is said to have laid himself upon a
table, and practised the motions of swimmers in striking with the
hands and feet, before he ventured to trust himself upon the
water, so it seems necessary that the troops, whom we raise as
rt subsidiary force, should learn, by something in its nature
a little resembling actual service, that degree of discipline, of
habitual olwilience, and of mechanical celerity, which is indis-
pensable in the hour of absolute danger. But this permanent
duty may induce mischiefs of a nature deeply important to the
morals, and of course to the happiness of the people; and
nothing is left us but a choice between the eviS of irregularity
at home, and of subjugation from abroad.
The moment a number of young men are let loose from their desks,
their tools, or their books, or whatever other occupation it may
be that employs 'their serious hours, a certain degree-of relaxa-
tion must generally take place in their minds. They are assembled
together in large bodies, to lead a life absolutely idle in cmnpari-
son with the regular course of their laboum : they will usually be
prov ided, as in holiday times, with as much money as they can by
;my means collect : they will be surroundsd by all the temptations
of vanity, dissipation, and intrigue : and their dispositions in a
lit :le while will bemene completely detached front the business
et- profession in which they may have been eneaged before. In
the mean time the mischiefs of a military eticanipment will not
e online themselves to the interior of that encampment ; not only
the Militia will become riotous and debauched, (as must be almost
all bodies of idle men, and as even the Regulars, with all their
strictness of discipline, unfortunately are in a considerable de-
gree.) hut the s ices of the soldiers a ill creep upon the neigh-
bourhood, and idleness, seductioa, and profligacy of every kind,
will be the necessary consequence of suca a constitution. Shall
we he told that, as the plan of permanent duty implies an exer-
cise of military law, that law may be so stricly enforced as to
relent the possibility of riots ? Lveit this argument is not
unanswerable : for if the military law shall be ceforee.l wit::
the utmost strictness, in matters not properly military but moral.
him wide a door must be opened to oppression of every kind.
N% hat petty tyrant will not possess ample oep irteeities oI
wreaking, his malice on people below bi.n, w hen, by taking
upon himself the duties of it militia (tikes, he may puniss
despotically the slightest offences, (and wmi do s not cmainit
slight ollenees ?) which the ardour of vontillui passion, and
the temptation of the time, render not in leed Mita., he
merely part! amble. Here the blessings of time co etitu ;so are
ateiended for a while; and for about eight inont;is life,
es cry Englishman will have surrendered to tyrams a• home, (um
voluntarily as in a regular enlistment, but Iss coin piesim) th isi-
ievaluable privileges of liberty which this ver system is int,:ni•
ed to preserve azainst the I. rates .e* foreign realm:.
But on the other hand, how muei greater m.te tie the m.schiet
that a success:ul iimasion wrst] produ,q- N mon y i ts
expected from the 1-reach : they have too 1011,:>, b-e., huagrit
malting for the destruction of this country, to keep dime
tel with us. which, in other coequered eeaerall.
"served. We cannot he sieprised if the French soldiers, otic.•
succ, ssful, were to execute evers• barbarity of ancient (.111,
quest, an I stamp their blo sreatness by the outrages of tot
d lust, ripine, and revenee. All the evils arising t m trai
fronts system of p 'man ea due: for a Militia, are not to le
dr. adso i.t the thous ealtti part so much as the moral ill Via
must sect ue 'soon the slavery of a successt'ul invasioo : for what
ill be, what hat e always been, the murals of slaves ?

SST

Besides it will be observed, that some advantage may spring.
even from the disadvantages of this permanent duty. iirSen
certain spirit of idleness has spread itself among the lower classes
of people, which, as we have been arguing, will be the necessary
consequence of permanent duty, the chance of enlistments for
the regular army must needs become infinitely greater than at
present. Gentlemen who are too idle to work, but too poor to
do nothing, constitute the mijority of our regular officers : and
we believe it will not he very difficult to prove that the same
union of poverty and idleness has hitherto been, and will con-
tinue to he, the most abundant source of recruiting for privates.
Lord Selkirk has not urged this as an argument in favour of his
plan, and as far as morals are concerned, it certainly is not kt-
tisfactory : but as we had shown that one morals must ulti-
mately be more endangered by the n .gl..ct of this system, than
by the pursuit of it, we have thought it fair to adduce, as a
further, though inferior consideration, the advantages which
in a political, if not a moral light, will accrue from the less
vicious course of the two.

Lord Selkirk seems to hope that the business of education may
be carried on in these encampments—that studies may be sup
gested which are likely to interest the young recruits—nay, that
a contribution may be levied of two or three shillings from each
youth for the payment of able teachers in the different depart.
meats of knowledge. We cannot concur in these expectations.
Young men are not too fond of application at any time : and
when they are removed from the observation of their parents,
their tutors, or their masters, we fear that the disposition of
idleness. will take a still more full and unbridled indulgence.
Upon the whole, therefore, our approval of the system of Per.
inanent duty is grounded, not upon a disregard of its dangers,
wir upon a hope of its positive advantages : but upon an opi.
Ilion, that, without such a system, disadvantages vastly more
important must rush upon the country, to the destruction at
once of its moral and its political excellence.
‘Ve are not aware that it is requisite to keep up so large 4,
body of men as 100,001), which is the quota that this plan is ex-
pected to furnish. We shonl3 wish rather to see the number
very much contracted, and the necessary time of service ex..
tended no further than the age of twenty-one. Young men be.
tween the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, may generally he
spared with little inconvenience: but per,ons who have past
their minority, are gene ally too much engaged in the active
business of life to ad'ord their time quite so readily. And as
every in.lividual who his past the a•ge of twenty-one will hive
seen three years dittN, it is to be prestuned that, in case of or-
bital ,lan4er, he will nit b.• much less fit for service than he would
be if he were hima sel with atiai lanes up to the age of twenty.
live.

But this is an objection only to the detail. The general prin.
civic we conceive to be tite Iwst that has ever been submitted to
the legislature and the country. Its peculiar advantazes are,
that at every inilividnal, without e‘ceptiim, n ill 11.0. e been
instructea in the use of arms at the most active 'writ) I of his
life, every individual will he cap7ible of so:n • service to
his country at :thy subsequoiti tine when her daieter shall re.
quire his :assistance: that tile oppressive system ofthe ballot,
Alta ail its consequent inequalities of taxation, will be com-
iletely destroyed : anti that the limb, of men amually enrolled,
.viii he a body, not iourtilling ind;scriminately popl- of dif.
...rent ages. of fixed habits, and therec.ire of tardy apitrehen-
ion iii militai••., discipline, but of .cool. m:.n, probabl ardent
the calm• for w;lich th‘ty art ruse nbled, soli pliant enough to
without difficulty to tlie.aielves, or trouble to their
teaeuers.
tin tie reasonings whieh constitute the latter part of his
tilrdship's paaphlet, w • ItAl tak • al opportuuity of nuking
observatiuns in a follow-jut; number.

FOREIGN IN I'EI4I.IJENCE.

FROM THE paarticH WerrRNRORGH PIPERS.

G 1: it NI V.

BkNKS or TUC DANUTIC, MAY 1'2.--to!ter from Turk'y
say, that a firmait of the G and ti-igiflor ,s ill sp • dd. appe tr,
fora, Ming the introduction of •-e atotit ze into Tar-
key. on pain or death. Groeks tto FurLishlamb,
nit I of the Morava, have •leelarezi t helmet ve, a. aim,: the English,
sine- they have learnt that 'he tr-sian ',;overntneni, whirr' (bey
loo'c op to as 0(.1. •t. e•t.sr, has tieelarea oar E.ogla,id.
.; k ; or, Tit% MAINE:, MAY kit from Vi atm
says—" Our fnr ign relations are manaLed, .t, with se-
crecy, and uothiii, as is proper, reaches the public. But the