The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

THE PATENT LAW AMENDMENT BILL.

To a question,

Mr. HINLE)I" objected to send the whole subject to
a Committee, because that would be tantamount to post-
poning legislation for the year.
The Bat was then read a second time.
The Public Works Bill was read a second time.
The House adjourned at Half-past One.

Government last nio,,rh its
militia. A triumph
THE MILITIA. BILL.
Unfortunately f
it ever be put in
nO, the obnoxious t carried, by a division of 127 to
own popularity and peace,
with a vast amount of° this doubtful character, combined
frinciple of conscription for the
the po,aibiiity
of
actill-feeling out of doors, and with
for" resistance to the ballot, should
than a defeat; for a defeat can
only be regarded as worse
the bone of contentioe eat would at least have removed
conscription really amounts Anybody who considers what
tion thus far in the di °lints to, the fate of the conscrip-
tion
the general seussion of the proposed militia,
regular army and !la abandonment of the principle in the
why so crazy and iYijAwili be at a loss to understand
Government ound a craft as the present
The conscriptio is a undoubtedly is chose to run on that rock.
than common forms lotteryof slavery,
of life, and is so far worse
most heavily on the slavery, inasmuch as it falls
and most occupied me mostb industrious, most responsible,
principle in the Prom ers of society. The fate of the
before the House is aigrese of the measure or measures
the general rule of eificant. The ballot, which was
Bill, was subsequently John Russell's first Militia
the Militia Bill modified by that Minister. In
was degraded from its proposed by his successors, the ballot
tional rank, as the last
tprosition as the rule, to an excep-
tional
reading of the BilTource. In order to secure the
source, was postponed tiii, the ballot, even as a last re-
the new Parliament silo. next year, that is, till after
provision of the Bill. The
have had time to revise this
the secondary place, this e conscription thus reduced to
tional mood, was still future tense, and this condi-
ground as a principle, in the Bill, retaining its
to come into practice. What most unlikely ever
natural to inquire, was there t peculiar sacredness, it is
citizens, in a time of profound te
the right of compelling
employments and duties, and dPeace, to forsake their
uncongenial employment of aa opt what might be the
honourable service be injured soldier? Why should an
sion, and this measure be hampered
the stigma of compul-
element of unpopularity? serdered with an additional
not to come into force till January that the provision was
a useless bravado to insist on leaving I, 1853, it looks like
in the Bill. It is difficult indeed to the word " ballot"
shall ever again see an Englishmanto imagine that we
home against his will to a military
dragged from his
life, but the mere existence of thisYfor pseudo-military
sure robs the service of that voluntaryeature in the mea-
sure
its chief merit, and character which
en which it •
have been suffered to rest. might safely
When George Stephenson, or some
gineering Titans, was asked whether other of our en-
tunnel under the Straits of Dover, he It were possible to
only a question of money. Now, re lire that it was
union with France is only a question
our underground
same may be said of the means of defence of money, the
dangerous neighbours. It is only td against our
and plenty will offer, especially when raise- the bounty,
one that the service will begin and
endlt is a hundred to
drills, a few parades, and one annual inspection,
with a dozen
weather permitting. If 51., or a Penn the
period of engagement, will not do, ?Pt; day during the
will; and it is
go soldiering
only fair that they who do not choose to
themselves should pay those who Willand that at the
market price of the work. This is
the principle on
which our army and our navy are recruited;
is found to answer very fairly, the and it
rather on the side of the public, which
hjection being
the cost, than the sol2ier or the sailor, grumbles at
w
to serve for less than the pay of any industrious me-
h 0 is ready
me-
chanic. Mr. Walpole must surely have f
the moment the existence of any other
forceorgotten for
than that
night that,
described in his brief, when he argued last
inasmuch as 80,000 men were to be raised, it
was
neces-
sary to have the power of the ballot in order t o secure
the certainty of that number of men. More than 150,000
men arc found ready to serve her M ;
----nljesty, not
by a few days' drill once a year, in fine weather merely
and at
holiday seasons, but every day of the year, for
consecutive years, winter and summer, in many
frosts and tinder tropical tuns, in stormy seas
climes, constantly exposed to all the
Canadian
miseries,
and deadly
dan-
gers that embitter the life of the civilian only by their
occasional or possible occurrence;—they are
this found to do
for what? For pay that any labouring
ueighboth9o 9
t..
____,.. gardener iu the
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