The Sun.
London, England, 1806-07-15 00:00:00

• . .
. On/ the:Motion of Sit' CHARLES POLE, leilve was
g:aa.ted to bring ia a Bill for Preventing Nuis4nces
and linpedi:nents in public Harbours. '

MILITIA OFFICERS' PAY BILL.
Mr:WIND' HvAheil moved the Order of. the Day
for the House going into a Committee on the

tia Officers' Pay Bill. •
Sr IP" ELPOPD stronljeassUo_the..present-
f3ill,on the ground of its making a distiu&ion between,
the Militia and the Army, that.was utterly inconSist-,
enf with those Aas of Parliament. on Which the Mi-
litia was established. It was founded On, the absurd
principle that men .of fortune should accept no re-
muneration for those services :Which they.rnight per-
form to the Mk. But supposing, for a moment, that.
a Gentleman Of large fortuti e, in the County of Norfolk'
for instance, should be appointed one of the Secretaries
of State, and that his colleagues should propose to him,
that he'should, perforrn' the duty Without any salary,
he had no doubt that fir,: proposition would appear
to him very absurd. The Militia, he contended, were
placed on the same footing with the Army, and 'the
Officer, .withoufdistinaion, were equally entitled to
the same additional pay that might, be thought pro7'
per to bestow on those of the Regulars. Was it not,
dangerous to innovate on what had been determined,
by the wisdom of our ancestors,• and what, besides,
had given general satisfaCtion
_lt was not so much.
tlie idea of paythat was to be considered, as the dis-
- tinetion which was now proposed to be made, which
he.was convinced would sow the seeds,of discord in

the Militia.
.11,1 i• YORKE contended,' that this Bill might have,
been brought in Weeks and months ago, when 4.15r,e,
Was a full attendance of Mernber3,,and particularly of

those who were conne&ed with the Militia serOce.
On this ground alone he would oppose the SPEAKER'S
leaVing the Chair. The Right Hon. Gentleman had
already struck,..a • blow at the Volunteers, as much,
perhaps, by the manner in which he had introduced
his measures, as by the bbjeas which they had in
view, and now he made a- similar attack on the Mi-
litia service, while, from the thinness of the House,
he thought himself exempted from. the necessity of
'defending the measure. He then- took-a vieeveof• the
arguments against the Bill, and concluded with ob-
serving, that the invidious distinaion now Proposed
to be established -would not' 'save more than 5000 L
to the country. .. • •
• Colonel BASTA RD contended that: 'the present
measure, was a- breach of the faith of Parliament,
which was pledged when the:Militia. was firit.raised,
that they shoold.be on the same-footing in all- respects
with the Army. Their services were kept, while they
weie deprived of thdse privilege- to:which they were
entitled. The distinction now prppoSed was odiOus,
and for a pitiful saVipg, the Whole,Militia service was
to be disgusted. ,
- Lord TEMPLE totally differed from the opinions
of the Hon..gentletrian,and disclaimed his .assistance
on the terms he had mentioned; he could not approve
that wanderingg-Manner with which Gentlemen on the
other side seemed determined, whatever was' the Ties',
tion, to inveigh against expressions said to have been
used by his Right Hon. 'Friend (Mr. Windham) respea-
ing the Volunteers. Those topies were now intro-
duced into every debate. He would, however, leave
it to the House, from' which side the expressions now
caMe, which had an obvious tendency to irritate the
Volunteers, and to disgust ,them ? Who were the
men who noi,,c avoided all conciliating language,, and
who appeared to wish to diminish both. the.numbers
and the:spirit of the Volunteers ? There was an ob-
jeaio6, however, whiCh he had to thel3lll;and that
was, that it gave to Volunteer Officers, when called
into eaiori, superior advantages to what the Officers
of the Militia .would' have.
Mr. BANKES said that he should him-self make
no observation, but he would leave it to -the~ House
to judge, on the manner and tone with which' the
Noble Lord (Lord Temple), upon this, and indeed
'almost upon every Occasion, reprehended those
who differed with him in opinion. The souse
would discover on what ground his title to give
such lectures rested, whether it was on his -su-
periOr :aibility, or his great experience. It ap.
'peared to: hint, that it was too late in the Ses-
sion (when the extraordinary pressure of business
was Considered) to bring- forward a measure which
might disgust such a considerable body of men Who_
formed the constitutional army of the country. As
to the economical. saving, he considered that it was
a mere trifle when compared to the serious mischief
of disgusting the Militia. He thought that a mea-
sure of such moment should not have been 'brought
forward'at such an advanced period of the Session,
when a regular and decent, attendance of Members
could not be expeaed,
• Mr. Secretary if INDHAM took a review of the
• objeaions that had been urged by different-, Gentle-
men, from the temperate and argumentative speech
of an Honourable Baronet (Sir W.' -,Elford), to the
intemperate, unreasonable; uninteresting, and (as he
conceived) most unargomentative speech of a Right
Hon. Gentleman (My. . Yorke). , He differed from
the Hon. Baronet in, the whole view of the- case. In-
Stead 'of considering it an innovation on :any funda-
mental principle, it appeared to be one of those mere
matters of. discretionary , regulation which was al-
ways supposed to be Completelyeopen to the wisdom
of Parliament. It had been laid down as the gene-
ral rule, that the Militia were to have the same.- pay
as the Army. It should, however, be. recolle6ted,
that this role was not tbunded upon any constitu-
tional principle, lout merely as the words ,of ail A&
of Parliament.. It 'was therefore to. be. codsidered,
what were the words of the mt, and •what wa's the'
meaning of it ? Were,' Called out ac-
Cording to. Law, but as there before existed no Law
to determine what provision should beassigned for
them, the A& of the 42d of the King 'Stated, that
that should be the same aswas allowed to the Army.
The Meaning of the' A6t,was clearly, that as it was
necessary to assign them some provision, the Legis-
lature thought, that what the Armytheßreceived was
not too much. In: assigning them that for'their pro-
. yision,. the Legislature never meant to tie up the
baodi -of the Sovereign, or prevent his increasing
the pay of any Other 'description of his fOrce. If it
was contended, that on.. account of the words of
this ;,.61, the King could'not now make any .provi-
sion for any other description of force which should
not.etend to the Militia., the -conclusion appeared
to him a non sequitur. That. His. Majesty might.
fram'timn to tit-net-Make alterations with respect to
one part of-'his force -which should 'not er4end
to the other, was a thing agreeable to reason, and
to the fad, In reason, it could not be contended,