The Sun.
London, England, 1806-05-31 00:00:00

of discipline, nor,more. respeatible in amount.' The
Cavalry and Infantry; including 14 or 15 thou-
sand men for limited .service, • amounted 'to 150,000
men: The number wanted on,the 26th-.of June,
1805, to complete them to their fun establishment,
was 44,846. But as-the establiishinent varies often,and
many men had been added by the Additional Force
Bill;he thought. that the number now wanted could
not be above 30,000 to complete the establishment of
the Regular Army. There must of necessity be a large
floatingdeficiency in an army of such an amount. The
casualties on an average of the years 1803-4-5, were
17,000 on the whole military force, which after de-
'du&ing for casualties in the Militia and local Corps,
left-for the Regular Array casualties to the amount
of 13;000, or i-12th of the. whole. Any measure
brought forward ought to be such as to provide for
the existing deficiency and casualties ; and could the
Right Hon. Gentleman suppose his • measure would
raise 33,000 within the year ? .;Since the Revolution
the Arrny had been recruited as it is nbw, by enlist-
ing for Unlimited tithe and space, except in the two
instances he had alluded to, and that was' the true
principle neon which the Army ought to be kept up.
The attempt now proposed bad been made in -1713,
the year.before the atkeiSion.of the House ofHano-
vet', by the introdu&ion of a cpuse ins the Mutiny
Bill, giving the soldiers of the existing army, and those
who sheuld enlist, the right to demand their discharge
after three' years service,- upon giving three months
notice to the Colonel in the former case. This sys.
tern lasted tlien but two years-; for when the Whigs
were In power, after the 'accession of the souse of
HanoVer, de e), left the Clause out of the Bill, which
was a, strong proof of the notion our ancestors had
of fat ciftil- theories. He should not. impute to the
Right Honourable dt_ntleman any disorganizing
views ; brit Certainly, if Lord -Bolingbroke, as had
been said, and he believed, had any design of de-
feating the succession of the, HoUse of Hanover, he
could not have taken • a mere effedual step. for that
purnose than to disorganize the .'Army:- that had
fought under King-William and the Duke-of Marl-
bcirough. The -satire system had been introduced
in 1775, and continued to the end of that war:.
The- men' were' raised "'for three years,- or' dining
the Rebellion. In 1779; the recruiting, 'which-.
had till then been -carried on under the authority
of the-King's prerogative, was sau&ioned, by the in-_
troducaion of a clause 'similar to the present into the
Mutiny Bill. What theeffeet had been; he should
Shew from comparison of three, different periods.—
The first period he should consider -was_ the- three
first years of the present war-a-nd that be should
consider in three distiriot views : Ist, 'the effeCt of
the ordinary recruiting; 2d, the effe& of the ordi-.
nary 'recruiting combined with the numberS that.
bad volunteered froni limitedserviee; and.3dly, the
whole number of men that had been .raised for li-
mited and unlimited service, The first View gave an
average of 12;780 per annum; the second, an aver-
age of 19,310;' and the third of 28,470 per annum.
He took this occasion to deny,- that the measures.
taken to raise thesemen had cut up the regular re-
cruiting. He admired the wit of the Right Hon.
Gentleman, but the subjeCt under diScnssion Was no.
joke; and when the House ought to• look to • that.
Gentleman, 'as Secretary of State,, both. for informa-
tion- and argument, they had to expeet something
besides lively
,and witty. flashes of imagination. The
'tight Hon. Gentleman ought, according to the hum-
ble saying, to be-" witty and wise." The next pe-
riod -he should consider was the three first years of
last war, when His Majesty's Ministers had a&ed
upon a much wiser system than Lord North, by rais-
ing the men in the usual way. The average (Winer]
raised . per annum by the regular recruiting was
25,955. In the three first years'of the American
war, when the whole number raised were for limited-
service, the average ef the three first years was 11,631
Men per ann. --By these statements it appeared, that
the greatest number-of tnen had been raised in the.
three first years of 'this war, when the regular re-
cruiting had been bacle.' by subsidiary measures; that
the piOlvice next in amount had been obtained when
the recruiting had been made wholly for unlimited
service; 'and that the smallest number had been ob-
tained when, in the first years of the Amei-:can war,
the limited service was exclusively resorted to; in-
somuch, that 50,000 more men had, been raised in
the-three first year of the present war than in the
correspondent period of the American war. He had
great respeCt. Ibtethe talents of Right Hon. Gen--
tleman, but unless he could. state' some fa&s in sup-
port of his Plan, he could not accede to it: In-point
of effeCtive men, those raised daring the present war,
. were in general better men than those obtained last
War, and in all cases than those in the American
war. If the Right Hen, Gentleman's argument was.
worth 'any' thing—if he meant any thing in his
'statement, he must have. meant that his system
would be sufficient to keep up the army to its esta-
blishment, and to supply the ordinary casualties,;
but the Right Honourable Gentleman ought -also:
to look to the extraordinary casualties that might ,
take place in, an event, which, he hoped, would
not happen, of the EneMy being to be met -here-
or in -Ireland, by the loss that would he the conse-
quence
• of a great battle lOst, or of a great and bloody
viEtca'y gained. That should be in the contetn-
plation of His Majesty'.s Ministers. If the measure
which:they now brought , forward. bad failed in
the American War, why, in the name of God,.were
they then called upon to 'sandien it ? The Hon.
Gentleman.had stated 'some of the inconveniencies
of the measure, , many of which he could not get
over. But what had been the state of the Army in
the American War ? He proposqd to, consider that
question in three yieS---first, the state Of the
Army in North Americle and the West Indies;
in 1779 ;-2dly, the casualties thereon in the years
1778, 1779, and 1780; and, idly, ,the arnouut`of
all the Troops that had been sent out to sup-
ply that Army. The' Army in 1779, was an
establishment of 25,299, in AMerica and the West
Indies, wanting 11,24.9 to complete it, being nearly
one-third. The casualties, including desertion, &c.'
amounted on an aVerage to 17,855 ; and with all
the- eflbrts that could , have been made with the
system in full' aetivity, the • number of Troops
sent out, including thirteen new Regiments, did nut
exceed 19,161., leaving a balance, after dedualing,
the-caSualties, of 1296, being only as .a supply for an
Army that was fighting for the-brightest jewel of the
British Crown, and for the dearestinterests of the
Nation. Whenthey had such an experience there-
fore of the *systeM, he asked Gentlernen who -may
t-ot have inade up their minds previously to vote on