The Sun.
London, England, 1806-04-01 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

Lord HAWKESBURY said, that he should have
to trouble the House with a few Motions, which, in
his opinion, would follow up and tend to give a more
comprehensive etre& to the Motions which had just
been submitted to the House by his Noble Friend.
The objcat of them was, first, -to obtain a Return of
the number to which the Volunteer Force of England
and Ireland amounted in the year 1804 5 and,of the
number that had been certified to be effeCtive.—He
should wish a similar Return to be made of the state of
the Volunteer Force for the year 1805.-It must.be
obvious that the end he had in view was to ascertain
whether that Force had diminished or increased; and
how far it might be relied on to form a part of our
Military System and Means of Defence. He was not
aware that there could be any objeetion to these
Motions, but if there - was, he „should be ready
to adopt any other less objettionable mode-of fram-
ing them; which any Noble Lord would take the
trouble to suggest.


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tPRICE

Lod GREIML LE -felt no dasire 'Objed., to
the Motions ; though, as they now stood, worded, he
did not well Conceive how a satisfaCtOry Return could
'be Made in consequence of them. Much WOOld/tuci
on the word etreaiveand. Reti-trn in :that view
by • the' jnspeding Officer. The Volunteer Force
should- notrbe considered,in the same fight; or under
the same regulations; as our Regular Force.. He him-
self-was an Officer of Volunteers, and a _Member Of
Parliament; but in neither capacity did he knew that
the efficiency of a Volunteer Corps dependedlipolv the
Return of an Lisped* Officer. In the parka-
mentaT'y sense:oitha word ejAcient; as applied to- a
Volunteer, _all,those were efficient who had attend-.
ecl- the number of days' restribed by the Ad of
Ru•liatiiebt; -Whether among these days of attetidance
was the days 6f itispedion or not. The. Inspecting Of-
ficer bad no anthority to compel theVolunteersofany
Corps to attend such days; acid it might happen
that' fewer attended on the day of inspedion titan otx
ordinary da);s: Besides tip.±-re were many reasons- and
circumstances; Which, wilen duly_ weighed,
he was sure,, dissuade the. Noble Lord from pre:.;si
his Motion in these wOrds; ionit would be impossible
for any Enspedi agOfficer to make arty Return respect::"
ing the greater or less number of efficient men, other 7
wis'e • than by'g4-ing his. opinion.that such a particular
Corps was better disciplined than another. The Noble
Lord would also recoiled that the: Irish VolOnteee
System was eery-different in its formation from that
which Prevailed in Great l'oitain. To make the same
order' far both must ,thereforeihe produCtive of con-.
fusion, and render it impoSsibl6 to make an satis-
fadory Return. • We hoped, 'thOrefore, the y N'rOble_
Lord would so word his Motion, as to hlcinde only
Great Britain, and to omit the Return by the Inspe6t-
ing Otbeer. • .

. .
-The Earl of ROSLYN6bserved, tliat there might
be such an, infinite variety of. shades of difference be-
tween the greater or less degree of perfN:7-:ion . in-dis-
cipline in this or that Volunteer Corps, that it wOukl
;beutterly impossible to make:any gencral*Return ac-
cording to the ;s 'efficient, in the sense uY whip.li
he. supposed the Noble Lord to tinclenitand it.
Lord DAHNLAY'_ e.xpr4ssed the same opinion.
• Lord IiA#KESBURYrouId sc.. no clitticti:ty in
.
making the. Return, but _be was still willing to adopt
theametidinents.suggestcd, to omit Ireland, and to
move only for the anyiunt of the number of Volun-
teers during theyears ho had mentioned, stntnz'also
the .n.unber that had been returne‘l as efficient.
The question 'ryas then pdt on the Motions so
amended, -aind agteed'to. ,