The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-15 00:00:00

now had his suggestion been carried inte operation
The Government would not have had to propose to Par-

liament the employment of foreigners : their lordships
would not have heard of the difficulty of obtaining na-
tional troops for national purposes ; the militia, had it
been then called out, would have supplied all that was
necessary for the service of the State. The most obvious
views of public policy were, however, contumaciously
rejected. (Cheers.) He bad also stated last session that
the recruiting for the militia could elyrays be effected
by personteof influence who exerted themselves for that
purpose ; and he proposed that a 'pecuniary fine should
be imposed upon each district where a sufficient number
of recruits was not obtained. It was more than pro-
bable that no fine would ever have been imposed, because
the exertions of those persons would have been sufficient
to prevent the imposition of such a fine. But, instead
of proposing this fine, the noble duke had suggested the
probability of a resort being had to that most objection-
able of courses—the _ballot. He (the Earl of Ellen-
borough) had ventured to propose a fine; but the propo-
sition was rejected because her Majesty's Ministers were
in a dream, and had not yet made up their minds as to
the reality and magnitude of the undertaking upon which
they were embarking. He repeated his determination to
oppose the measure licr.v brought forward, because lie:
thought it totally unnecessary, and injurious and op-
pressive to the people, who had already done so
much, and had shown such a disposition to submit to
any sacrifices for the purpose of carrying on the
war. He opposed the measure, because he thought
the effect of it would be to give us an inferior
descripti6n of force. It was a measure calculated to
lead to very serious cons?quenos in the general ail-
.rniuistra.tion of the country, and was contrary to alt
the constitutional principles which had obtained in the
best times of what was called the Whig Administra=.
tion, and was only acted upon in those times when the
Ministers succumbed to the German dispositions and.
prejudices of the First Lord—it was a measure which.
was not in accordance with the more recent feelings of
the people, and he should feel! it his duty to offer to itr
every opposition in his power.
The Duke of RICHMOND, after expressing a Lope
that the Government would not think of enlisting pri.
soners of war or deserters, stated his anxiety to remove
any erroneous opinion which may be formed of the
value of foreign troops by any statements made by the
noble earl. He felt it to be but an act of justice to the
brave offieers who had served throughout the Peninsular
war to bear witness to their zeal and gallantry upon
every occasion, when serving with the British forces.
In the Peninsula the King's German Legion was at-
tached to the division of the Guards, and was con-
stantly brought up as a reserve when the danger was
most pressing. On the occasion of the famous sortie
et Badajoz, that legion nobly performed its duty, and
the light corps of that body, under the command of Sir
Colin Halkett, acted as well as any of our light infantry
regiments, and the German cavalry was quite equal to
our own cavalry. (Cheers.)
After a short pause, and no noble lord having risen
to address the house,

The Es‘H of DERBY expressed his surprise that no
Minister of the Crown present had ventured to address

their lordships in reply to the powerfal speech made by
the noble earl (the Earl ef E ilenberough). He (the Earl of

Derby), in his extreme and, perhaps, overweening
anxiety not to interrupt the progress of the public busi•
ness more than was absohitely necessary, had;before he

saw the present bill, or knew the exact nature of its con-
tents, engaged with some members of the Government
that any opposition which he might desire to offer to

the bill should be reserved for going into committee, in
order that no time should be lost in the progress of the
measure ; so that, if his noble friend should persist in
his intention to oppose the second reading of the bill,
he should, in consequence of that engagement, not feel
at liberty to vote with him. He regretted that his
noble friend, while doing justice to the valour of the
British troops, should have felt it necessary to say a
single word in disparagement with respect to the mode
in which the German Legion had acted with our troops
during the last war, or should suppose it impossible that
there should be any foreigners who, were not capable of
vindicating their claim to the honour of fighting with
the British troops in a cause of common danger.
(Cheers.) He believed that if we now had the old Ger-
man Legion, with all its feelings of sympathy and
almost of conntrymanship, with common feelings and
common interests, now engaged by the aide of the British
army, these troops would fully vindicate their ancient
reputation for bravery and gallantry. The noble duke
at the head of the War Department had treated the
matter somewhat lightly, and had even expressed a doubt
whether it was not within the prerogative of the Crown,
even without the sanction or consent of Parliament, to
enlist foreign troops for the defence of the country, but
stated that he thought, perhaps, the better course would
be in the present instance to apply to Parliament, inas-
much as in 1794, and again in 1804, the previous consent
of the Parliament to such a course was taken by the
Crown. The noble duke had somewhat understated his
case, for in the act of 1804, not merely was this consent
given, but it also contained a clause of indemnity for
those Ministers who had undertaken to enlist foreigners
in the service without having obtained the previous
sanction of Parliament. In his opinion, the jealousy of
Parliament was a well-founded one against the employ-
ment by the Crown of any such power, and no precedent
vas of the slightest value as affecting the measure now
sought to be introduced. Who were the foreigners
proposed to be enlisted in 1804 and 1806 ? The act of
1804 specified that there were a considerable number of
foreigners resident in this country who had been driven
from their own country, and consented that the Crown
should be permitted to avail itself of the services of those
men, who were anxious to obtain the re-occupation of
their country. A. very large proportion of those people
were, in fact, not foreigners at all ; they were Hanove-
rian,, and as the crowns of England and Hanover were
then united upon the same head, they were subjects of
the same sovereign, and were engaged in the battles of
the same sovereign, and they possessed the same sym-
pathies with the people of this country, and no distinc-
tion could be drawn betwoen them. (The Duke of
Argyll here made some observations which we under-
stood were to the effect that the troops new proposed
to be employed also possessed the siarne sympathies.)
The nqble earl, resuming his remarks, aoked what nation
it was whose troops were to be employed that possessed
the same sympathies ? What were the troops that were
about to be employed ? The noble duke *vho had intro-
duced the bill had said that he did not know who they
were. Were they to be Greeks (A laugh.)
The Duke of NEWCASTLE, with considerable
warmth, said that he had not stated that he did not
know who were the troops proposed to be enlisted.
What he had said was, that until communications had
been made with the foreign governments it would not be
right that he should state them to the house. He re-
gretted that the noble earl appeared to be anxious of
following his old precedent of misstating the facts and
arguments addressed to their lordships. (Cheeri.)
The Earl of DERBY was happy to see, last night,
that the noble duke was somewhat more humble and
civil than usual, while making his defence, but was sorry
to find that he was now returning to his old habits,
which were not quite in accordance with that courtesy
usually exhibited by most members of their lordships'
house towards each other. (A. laugh.) But the other
noble duke had stated that a sympathy did exist between
the troops which were about to be employed and those
of this country. lie (the Earl of Derby) was, however,
ignorant that there was that sympathy ; the people of
this country did not know it, and if the noble duke
knew from whence they were about to draw their sup-
plies, he had at all events not condescended to inform
their lordships ; and until Parliament knew who were
the men to be employed there was an additional reason
for that constitutional jealousy on the subject of any em-
ployment of foreign troops. When a bill of that kind
was brought forward and treated by the Government as
a matter of course—when it was proposed to substitute
for our own troops a foreign force of 15,000 men for the
defend of our arsenals and towns—he thought there was
some ground for jealousy on the part of the Parliament
and the people, and some necessity for a little further
information. In 1804, as he had already said, a large
portion of the troops were subjects of the same sove-
reign 'as those of our own army ; there were, too,
among them the subjects of that deposed monarch
with whom we were in alliance, and whom we were
itoootsre
tthryeinsgub 'hotshee
oo,thunrotryne
notbheenrns
over-
runwereOPflaalleetiLPS°;
With all these men we had a common
and had been subjugated by the power
cause, and
France.
ay
ow
cy
ncluct in the field.
they were fighting for their coewunetnratioano,dfoirntthheal
wown
interests, and for their
-
you had a perfect security forn
their o
From whence did they prose to draw their forces now 1
on . There would a Polish leg The Government refused to tell the
i Parliament. Were
they
in re
they going to form
e
some significance such a course as that. There would
in such a force as that be something like a common inte-
rest,
and we es
against
h o u 1 d
R
b e secure
ussi
a.
of
(Cheers.)ww
ThehhoowpossessedGovern-
,
d ready
perfect hostilitye
m mercenariese atappearil
any
y (l
b e
quarter
rt
ct of
tdraw w
etrhiedgr importance
—of forces.ghreeat fact
of This
the
troops from any
qiumesptnio importance—and
of
e_an grave for the mere sake of pay, to be placed by the
he t
side of
hof our
own a
wasa
in the first year of the
that the
constitutionalh e
Governmentwar, although after two years' indication of the imme-
diate pressure of war, being compelled to come down
to Parliament with the humiliating confession that the
millions of the population of England, Scotland,' and
Ireland were not able to turn out a force which would
enable the Government to send 50,000 men to the scene
of hostilities—that they were unable to draw supplies
of men for the due maintenance of the garrisons abroad
and for keeping peace at home, and were -compelled
to place a humiliating reliance upon the aid of mer-
cenary power, as well calculated to give, encourage-
ment to the Emperor of Russia. What encouragement
could be so great to the Emperor of Russia as to hear
that our War Minister had conic down in the first year
of the war, and had stated that we had exhausted our
military resources, and that we could not man our garri-
sons in the Mediterranean, nor could preserve peace at
home, without relying upon the aid of mercenaries. He
took this bill in connection with the whole scheme for
iament by the advisers of
augmenting the military resources of the country. which
thea. been Theesubd to Parl
Crown.
be taken in connection with each other, and
thre.e measure.s which bad been pro-
posed must
as forming part of one plan. One of these bills proposed
to increase the numbek of companies in each regiment on.
active service in such a manner that there should be
available fir actual service in the- field eight out of the
sixteen companies ; four were to form the advanced
guard in the Mediterranean, and four other companies
to form a depot in 'this country. To that proposal he
not only took no objection, but thought that a better
arrangement could not possibly have been made, and if
that immure bad been followed up by one which afford"