The Sun.
London, England, 1806-04-04 00:00:00

• ""4
4

SUN.

F-R I,J) AY, APRIL 4, 1800.

footing as in this. There wass a term in military lan-el
*gtiage which justly applied to• it, and would afford !
an adequate idea of the actual state in which it is at
present. When a battalion is thrown into confu-
sion, the front men being mixed with the rear, the
right 'with theleft, the extremes with the centre,
and the flanks jumbled together in the mass, so that
no. General, however. excellent, could restore order,
it is said to be clubbed. Exa&ly in that state was
our military :system at present. The Gentlemen
opposite had clubbed the battalion, . and now they
sat grinning and rubbing their hands thinking of
what a task they had left - to their succeSsors:---
A task, •Indeed, it was; but he could not allow,•
. that those Gentlemen had any right to complain
of any delay -in.
.the performance of it, who had
contributed so much to create it. It would be
his part that day to propose " the remedy for the
existing evil, which he did not charge the Gen-
tlemen opposite with having begun, but ' bleb they
certainly had left to their successors. His plan
would embrace the means whereby the establish-
mdut of the Army would be rendered so .far better,
that it 'should,. provide 'adequately for the permanent
seeutity. of the Country. His obje& was not to look at
the present danger, and to provide for getting rid of
that Without paying any attention to the future, to
eXhaust in efforts, to meet an immediate exigency,'
-the best means of, the Country, on which its ulti-
mate safety and permanent interests' could alone
depend. It might well be
,supposed, that the first,
step- towards the attainment of his purpose would
be the creation of an Army, or to provide such
means as would tend to the certain attainment
-of such a desirable obje&, an extensive and for-
.-midable Army. By this he meant; such a mass of
the 'population of the Country as ,could be ade-
quate to the exigencies, of the times, separated by.
their habits and calling from the rest of the corinnu-
nity, regulated by their own laws, and governed ae-
. cording to the terms Of their service, forming a total-
ly
&still& corps from their •fellow subjeets; who
should not have either to laboUr or toil, to work or
spin, whose trade should be war. He did not Mean
to Say, that the people of this Country were not!es
brave,' as spirited,- and as high minded, as the in-
habitants of any 'country in Europe, that there
did not exist in it as great a number of indiL
vidtials possessed of every quality to make •a
good soldier, compared with :the exigencies of
the times, as would afford an ample supply
,for
such a force. He had always professed himselfeon-
vinced, that thespirit of the Country was is high as
ever ; audit- he• or his friends could have taken a
different view .of that het, their professions would
have been contradiCtory to the aCtual state of the i
'Country._ But for years past the House had toiled
and laboured through measures for the iruprovemeat
dl' ifi'e',4rina*,. and yet the state of that Army had
'not beembettered. It might here be said,that theyhad
-not done, nor intended to•do,anyahing for the Army,
'because the Army did `not want any thing to be
done for it. But their
_professed• obje&` in all the
measures that had been brought forward on the sub-
je& was-the improvement of the Army. And yet
they had always failed. in that obje&; because they
had provided only - a substitute in its place. They
had heard much of levies en masse, of an armed na-
tion, Of eight hundred thousand men in ands, trained
and disciplined ; btit 'such measures, however im-
posing, had not provided adequately for the obje&
that ought•to have been kept in view. They were
too fond of thinking, that when they had a certain
number of men in 'arms they had an army ; and in
this they ,resembled the child, who, when he stuck a
twig in the ground, fancied lie planted a tree.—
Whatever might be the nUrriber of men 'of Such a
description in arms; they could not be considered in
the light of an army.. An army was a coips, from
',its moral constitution, as different from any other
class of the community, as any natural body-from
another that had distill& physiCaLqualities. It had
' been said, that the theory of- the militaty-science,
and-the art of war,
,might easily be acquired by ha-
' dies of men otherwise constituted, and that this. diS-
tin&ion was wholly ideal. But it • would betray a
total ignorance of human' nature, 16 assert that any
;body of that description could be 'capable of the same
:spirit, the' same feelinos, the same dispositions and
• chargier, as a "corps regularly trained to the profes-
sion of arms, and systematically formed tosubordina-
tion and •discipline; As to the obje& he had in view,
it was simply to providean adequate supply for the
Regular Army, and nor, as heretofore,
,be content
with measures of substithtion. It- was unnecessary
for him to remind the House what armies had always
been, and what'they never had proved to be more
-notoriously than in the present times. 'They all knew
• that armies decided revolutions, and governed the
'destinies of nations.- They well knew that it was by
armies,'by bodies detached from the other' classes of
the community, that thefate of empires were deter-
' mined, notby levieS=en-masse F r an armed copula-
• lion;_ when an army falls all •is lost. Look at •the
two great battles that had in late times decided the
re;pe&ive campaigns and wars. in which they took
place, and their efieCts, and they will afford. a
ing illustration. Look at the battles of Marengo and
I-Austerlitz, and the effeala that- resulted from them,
and-though the numbers engaged in.eaCh and the
havoc were immense, yet they were inconsiderable'
compared with the vast extent of the consequences
that had been produced by .the issue of these con-
-1: tests. When an aEtion is lost; and the army destroy-
ed, the nation 'must fall. They should look with
jealousy, with caution, with distrust, On any measure
that might divert their attention frtn the establish=
ment of that force Which alone could be looked to, for
effeEtual and permanent security. They midst consider
the faCt as it really was. The Levy en Masse, in a
military capacity, resembled the metal in the ore ;• it
was like the iron in the Swedish mine', which, tho'
convertible into steel, could neither hew- nor saw
• the block. But not to try the fa& as it was' in that
; Country, they might look to what it was in another.

When the Austrian Army was advancing into -Basra-
ria, and the French Artily in motion towards Ger-
many, was it not to the strength and the progress
of these Armies that We 'looked for the fate of the
contending nations ? If there had been no Austrian
Army to oppose the progress of the French, could it
have been-imagined that Bonaparte would be inter:-
rupted in .his march against Vienna ? If there
had been no army to encounter, nothing else could
have stopped his progress. , -After_ the Army of Ge-
neral,Mack bad been cut off at Ulm; nothing ree
mined capable of effedual oppositiOn ; and yet it
could not be said that there was- not .a warlike pea-
•ple inhabiting the countries thro' which he paed ;
that they bad no courage, no spirit, no attachment to
their Sovereign, no dislike of a foreign Conqueror.
But the population of a Country, however disposed,
without an efficient Arniy, can afford.no medium of
resistance against an invading force. Its. efforts would
prednieessts little effect in arresting the-progress of
an invading enemy as. the surrounding air.. WaS- this
not a truth, bras it not a firm eonvidion which every
man who heard him felt ? This Country; too, bad
its spirit ; it felt -an, attachment to its lass., its con-
.stitution, and' its Sovereign ; and it was impressed
with indignation. at _the very.idea of an attempt to.
make it the scene of a- foreign conquest: ..He was
sensible that it possessed all, theSe -virtuous qualities
in a very eminent degree ; he was. ready to ,go as
far as any min in- doing justice to the spirit and zeal
of his countrymen'e he had his :hopes too, and he
clung to Ahem as fondly, and cherished them as
Warmly, as any other Gentleman. But when- they
looked to the fate --of -Switzerland, they could see
but little reason to trUst-to.hopes founded upon such
groUnds. If ever there had been a country, the in-
habitants of which Were determined. tcedefe,nd it—
if ever there had been . a country svhich was capable
of being defended,--it Was Switzerland. The_ Swiss
were a nation of warriors,. all 'trained to the use 'of
arms, vigorous in their constitutions, robust in their
bodies, as well as devotedly attached to their country:
They had conducted themselves tool in a', manner
that did hot discredit their national tharader. It
was not safe,. therefore; to trust `to these resources,
which had proved unavailing to that warlike nation.
It had been said of him -that' he was a theorist, a
votiry of. imagination; . and by persons who enter-
tained hopes from such resources. . For his part he
was desirous to pursue the dull road of experience ;
and though he did not dislike theories, yet he
did hold it dangerous to trust to any: theory, how-
ever-well founded,for the -defence -of the Country,
or in aid of that defence, if aded upon in such a
manner as to interfere with the increase of the Re:-
(*War Army, by which .he should once for all say,
°that if the French shoUld ever land in this Country
it would be to be defended. There were* present
in thiComitry one !Mildred' thousand men, who,
from the constitution of that force, could never be
present in a battle until they should have to contend
against such troops as. might be brought against
them. ' Having stated. these fads, and in a manner
to give them the importance which they appeared to
merit, he next came to explain the measure which
he meant to propose for the attainment of the ob-
jed he. had in view, viz. to provide for an adequate
supply for the Regular Army. It. was not his
tention to exclude the _present frpm his view, 'fbr
:the purpose of providing for _ the future ; -neither
did he propose, as had been the pradice heretofore,
to bring forward _measures that might meet- the pre7
sentexigency, and eXhanst the means of the Coun-
try, without any _regard .to the future. Discard-
ing such a policy, he proposed, by . this measure, .
to. provide 'permanently . for the supply of the Re-
gular Army. This was his objeet; for. as to -the
spirit and discipline of the present force of that de
scription in this Country, no man was further than ,
he wee: from arraigning any part of it. As that Terce
was at present constituted it was supplied-either by
compulsion or choice., In Governments. of a des-
potic 'ferns, where the- -Officer could' go into the
country and take-off the artisan or the peasant, and
make a' Soldier of him by the bare -authority.of the
Government, compulsion was the most -prompt,
simple, dire`
e.and efficacious mode of supplying the
Army \vitt-, recruits. But they all knewethatein this
Country, unhappily 'for that objed, but happily for
every other connected with the-happiness: and pros-
perity of a..free people, our .measures'must be framed
on a different principle. We must go-by rule, we
must ad .according to .the law, and with a regard to
-existing rights, and from the slowness and compli-_
cation of out measures their power is 'lost in the
fridion. But as there must be of necessity a sovereign
.power in every State, and-as that sovereign power in
this Country resides in :the Legislature, there is no
-act of .power.thA any the most arbitrary. Sovereign
-can exercise, that. the; Legislature may not perform

but still it must be executed with all the forms of
law, or the manner. ofcarrying it into etfea would
! make the-application of the Force less effeaual. • The
arbitrary _Sovereign has. and exercises a discretion in
the use .and application of his power. His feelings
. _

influence him to render the operation of it
If a Germ in, Prince, in. the seletaion of the persons

he enr.;ans to.take for .soldiers, meets:with one who
Could not, without ruin or loss to his family, be forced
to. serve. in the army, he passes him by to take* his.
neighbour, who is .more fit,: and can ' serve without
any inconvenience. But here no such discretion can
be exercised, because the .applieation of the compul-
sion is, regulated ,by the law. The operation of mea-
sures- for that purpose resembles the working. of a
machine. They are like the mill, that will grind
alike the miller and the corn. It may so happeri,
that the compulsion under the law would: apply to
the man least fit, when another more tit would be
Pntirely passed, and ,no alternative is given. He

bad thou ht it right to say thus much upon the
compulsion, because, in general, when speaking of
this compulsion, it was the,,,praelice ,to say, that as
men must be had, and could not be procured any other
way, compulsion must be of necessity resorted to,

PiaTiriPir

PRICE AixiiEVak

After all, compulsion, as praetiSed in this Coning.;
operated as a compulsion for money, net for men.
We may compel the persons to whom- it applies to
spay a certain sum of money,
,but do not get their
service. The Militia, to Whom the ballot applied,
were all raised: in this "way, for a very saran por;
tion indeed of those upon whom the ballot falls
gi ve_ their -personal service. One. man pays, and ano-
ther man serves. It operated as a tax, levied bY.
what ? by' .one of the worst possible modes of
raising a tax, which, by prodticing h competition
unfavourable to the regular recruiting, shut up time
sources of voluntary service without having the merit
of enforcing personal service. As a tax, it operated
severely and partially on the individual who. pald it in:
the shape of a bounty to his substitute,sit,as a more
regular, though still partial tax, in the shape of a tins:
This tax was not levied according, to airy of test'
fair principles of taxation which, were aded upon by'
a late able Financier,, nor to those: upon which the
financial 'measures of his 'N'oble Friend (Lord
Henry Petty), whose -brilliant tar was p-resent,_
beaming with' lustre above the horizon, were
fonnded. If the" comptilsion Operated only to pro=
duce money, he was of opinion the -bu.rtht.,qt,
should be ,borne by the public. -If the pressure v.,cre
to be divided amongst the whole of the community,
it would not be felt by any one any mote than the
.-pressure of the surrounding air; the weight of which'.
he could never be sensible of without the observatkcin .
of a. barometer. But if the butlhen were a millions
and to beslevied -off one thou Sand persons, it would
crush the individual—it would draW blood at uvery
stroke.. All -the modes; therefore; 'in which'-the
. compulsion was applied,. vere wrong. It was im-
possible to say, that the exigencies of the Country
Might .not. drive therri to the adoption of compul-
• sion but then it should be the last resort'a---

. .
-- "4 Cunattpri us tentanda. \ - '
It was so injurions in its effeas that every other
Mode ought to be, tried before that should be resorted.
to. He came now to consider whether they could
raise and keep up a Military force by voluntary ser-,
vice, -and what the amount 0( that force should be. ‘.
The first foundation and rational ground ofsuch a force,
since compulsion weald. not apply, 'was to put the
Artily on such a fOoting as would induce a stifficient -
portion of the Country to-think it worth their while
to enter into it. That could never be'done if the
nature of the military service, and the-advantages at-
tached to it; were not such .as Nnake it an object
wifh•a large proportion of the community 'to enter
voluntarily into the service. The
.Gevernment of
the State m every country, except iii such.as were :.
inhabited, unlike this, by an tin warlike race,' had the
means in reserve of raising. the value !'thel'l military
profession in' such a degree as to make it a desirable
thing to. a sufficient propertion . of the. pixilation to
epgage in it to meet every exigency. The diffieul-
ties they had to encounter in prosecuting this object
were great. Ttiey had to plough and labour throgh
all the impediments arising from the:injudicious
measures hitherto adopted on the subject. What
had already been chine, -and the proceedings that
had been taken, resembled the condo& of a man
who was driving a false trade : he asks more for
his goods-than they 'are worth. .All that hitherto had
been done was'effeaed by cajoling, deception,.arti-
Ice, fraud, and undue influence., so that the situa-
tion of a soldier had been rendered not worth ac--
teptance. When wonder was expressed that the
men Were not to be had, he- thought it no more
stratige!than that, a than, who demands more fur his
coamiodities than they are --worth, should' not get
'purchasers for' them. ' 'ft had heen said by'a gallant.
'Officer, that notwithstanding the boimties, none
could be...gibt fur the Army but the idle, the dissolute,
"the profligate, and those who; either from teniporary
'distress, or in consequence of intoxication, were
`tempted to enter into it. -.This had driven us to the
'necessity of trying the arts of recruiting, of resorting
to; and- encouraging the praCtick of deception. Even
:these resources at length failed, and now they were
'obliged to enlist even)oys. Are boys of more value.
now'than they were formerly, or are they iii greater
abundance ? No : but the arts of deception had been
exhausted on those of full 'ageeand•noW t hey. recurred
to the neeeSsity. of praaising the same arts of.fraud .
• -and deception on the imbecility of a:101-e tender age,
So long as' this 'Country had a Sufficient number of
.that description of penorls; of the idle and profligate,.
• of persons who enlisted in a moment of intoiieation,
Which they afterwards regretted, or who were led into
• the Army by any irinnediate advantage, solong the Ar-
miei were filled.. But when the professiem of soldier
ceased to improve in.its condition and circurnst:lnces,
as every other profession did, when, too, the Areiies
Increased-in number and extent, that class was no
longer sufficient to afford an adequate supply for the
Army. What then was.the most natural course to be
pursued but to make the situation of the Soldier more
'eligible; that was not to be done either by the high
bounties or the ballot. The Militia and Supplemen-
tary Militia were. raised by such means, and whilst
so large a portion of our Military Force was raised
in that way, it could not be said that our Army
Was ..on its proper grounds. The measures used
to procure the compulsdry service necessarily iii
creased the' bounties ; they sent- too many buyers
' into-the market, and then it became ithpossible to
purchase. The bounty itself Was an evil. He re-.
. membered to have heard in his youth, of a guinea
and a crown being the usual bounty. - '.;here • were
many letters in the War Office, which proved, that
even in the beginning of the American War, Of:Reef:3
were alloWed to raise men for two guineas bounty.
Then the service itself was the only bounty, for the
`sten paid was. nothing more than was requisite for
the purchase 0: alew necessaries. The service alone
was then looked upon as a sufficient inducement to
tempt an adequate proportion of the population to
take on'. In other modes of :life, so far from re-
ceiving; men pay bounties. So that Government was.
in thisqnstance in the situation of buying the buyer,
of paying him for accepting its bargain. . Thy prin..

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