The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-23 00:00:00

Irish preperty would be under the Bill,. the annual
assesenent would be not 5,000,000/. but 23,000,0001. ;
„nd this, he said, would be an act of gross injustice I
tewarec, In.land. In cousequence of the confusion which
exi-eed in ;lie House at the time when he was speaking
he could easily account for the misunderstanding having
taken place.
Air. FOX MAULE then rose to move the second
reading of the Army Service Bill. He deemed it in.
canal:tent upon him to make some statement to the House
reletive to the principle which this Bill contained,
and also to the motives which had induced the Go-
quirhsliisttteahoei
vernteent to bring forward a principle of this nature.
He could, by following the precedent of 1806, have
changed the service from unlimited to limited, by a
eimpl eiteration in the ..Nlutiny Bill, but as it bad been
the practice to remove from that Bill all that which
gave occesion to continual discussion, and make it
simply contain the law and discipline of the army, and
as the disewsion on that Bill had been carried on from
year to year with very little notice, the House, relying
mainly on the judgment of the Executive Government,
he preferred to call the attention of the House to the
principle involved. It would be in the recol-
leciion of the House that a former measure
regulating the service had been repealed,
after two years, when no experience could be bad cif its..
merits. Ile did think, that no one in that House would:
sfart any permanent objections to a standing army in_.
the country. He assumed that as a matte! which
none would dispute. All would admit that.
;s3bsut
tinn permanentof
when armyhi
their domestic interests, their extended colo-
n.cs, our position among the nations of the.
recruiting
H I i
aonsnt .
tyia, thiseenadr, country., armyGhae
ilwas
daind p
.-.
earth, required
aft vaolstinsat'adryt
Friend broueeit forward his motion,
not at that time give any distinct opinion on the,
subject. It was promised by his Noble Friend tets tiles
head of the Government that the question should receiVe
the careful consideration of the Government during die,
recess of Parliament. The question had been well con--
sidered, and in considering that question it appeared to,
him that there was no system of enlistment that was.
voluntary in its name that had not been, by the.
practices which had been resorted to, depriveelt
of all the virtues of a voluntary enlistment in effect..
He found, on looking into this matter, that there might.
he very serious doubts whether any one who ever
enlisted into the army did so for the purpose or
making it a regular profession for life. He found that.
there were some classes tsf their recruits who have.
very readily gone into the ranks, not with any view to,
the future, but rather with the view of eicuping tem-
porary distress. He fennel that their ranks were very'
much accustomed to be recruited by those who were idle
and averse to labour, and who thought that in the life:
of a soldier they weuld find that idleness and indolence
consonant to their disposit nns. He found that it was;
too often the case that. the prodigal sought
in the army a la fuge from his improvidence,
and it too' often occurred that where lads.
el: o had got into disgrace immediately had
n course to eidietinent in order to avoid their temporary
masters. With that class voluntary enlistment was at
an end. All the rest were voluntary in name, but it was.
in reality brought about by the artifices and
promisee ef recruiting parties.—(flear.) The place
to which they adjeurned was the public-house, and men
were temTted to enlist by the fallacious promise of'
bonne) money when they were in a state in which they
could I, oedv he called amenable for their actions, and
the enheppy man too often found that in a moment of'
h iris ty he had disposed of his liberty for life..
Ile did not mean by this that the men became slaves ;
but there could not be a doubt that they surrendered
their ton life and disposition to those who com-
manded them, and when a man found himself in
this position be often deserted in the first moment of
disappointment. •He is no doubt arrested in
the course of a few deys, and the man who had
voluntarily joined the regiment is brought back
in clistmly rind inveluntarily made a soldier. Then
they had often heard of ne n who bad maimed them-
selves, under the influence of such feelings as
these engendered by a disl.ke to the service;
and when they considered that a man was taken away al-
together from domestic ties—when they were severed by
the ditties be has to tulfil—e hen he knew he had no hope
of regaining his fireside except under a high fine,
in the shape of purchase-meney, lie (Air. Fox Manic)
did say, that it behoved the House to consider
whether, now that the army was receiving somewhat
more attention than it had done for many years past,
by revising enlistment, and by removing those
painful circumstances which he had described, they
might not make the life of a soldier less objection-
able than at present, and at the same time
improve the condition of the army. He did
not pretend to say that limited enlistment would cure
all those evils, but he did think that it would have
the effect of curing many of them. But with
other measures of improvement such as formed
the subject of the military administration of
the late Government, and with the measures
of improvement being carried on by the present Go-
vernment, he did believe that many of the evils of which
they had now reason to complain would be effectually
cured if they had recourse to limited enlistment. He
need hardly say a great many of the evils in connexion
with the army had been removed, that the discipline
had been improved, especially now they had so
little of the degrading punishment of the lash.
What he proposed to do with regard to the limiting the
period of enlistment was to alter the period to ten years
in the infantry, and twelve years in the cavalry, artillery,
and ordnance departments. After that period elapsed
an option should be given to the soldier of re-enlisting
the infantry soldier for eleven years additional, and the
cavalry for twelve years, making, in the whole, twenty-
one years for the one and twenty-four years for the
other—the period when they could claim their dis-
charge. Ile also took a power in the Bill to en-
able the commanding officer to retain the sol-
dier for another year when the regiment was
abroad, should the public service require it. He
might be asked the reason why he made any
difference in the terms of the period for infantry and
cavalry soldi,rs. The difference of training however, was
the reason of the extension of the period for the latter.
The Government proposed then that they should
have the opportunity of enrolling themselves for
a deferred petrien, and during the time they
were enrelled for that pension they should serve
twelve days in each year, upon, the same principle as
the pensioners who were entitd under the 6th, 7th,
9th, and 10th of Victoria. he deferred pensions
should equal in amount the 14west sum which wan
at present fixed by royal warrant. After ten years
active service in the army, if the soldier enrolled himself on*
his discharge, it was proposed to require twenty-two years'
servire, at the end of which period he would obtain a clear
title to a deferred pension. The effect of this measure would
be, that a person entering the army at the age of eighteen
wouli serve tor ten years, which would bring him to the age
of twenty-eight ; if, then, he enrolled himself at the age of
twenty-eight to serve for twenty two years, at the rate of
twelve stays per annum, he would then. at the age of fifty, re-
ceive
a smail deferred pension, of vaich he would be left in
uninterrupted eriiiyment during the remainder of his life.
This plan would, therefore, affect a doubly object—it would in-
duce many young men to enter the army, with the full pur-
pose of spending the first years of their enlistment in the ranks,
knowing that their discharge would take place at a
period when they were still young, and fitted to enter into
any other kinds of business, or turn their minds to agricul-
tural, mechanical, or mercantile pursuits, and if they en-
rolled themselves for a deferred pension they would carry into
the society and the country these habits of order and regu-
hirity which they had learned in their military care ,r,
and also provide a reserve force of great importance, should
the country be called upon on a sudden to defend its
shores from foreign aggression or to man its garrisons, so
that the troops in active service might be employed elsewhere.
He took it upon himself to say that these pensioners, especially
behind wails, or in entrenchments, or in any service requiring
not much labour, were as thoroughly conversant with the
duties of soldiers as when they carried their firelcolcs at V. a.
terloo, or even previous to that, and twenty or five-and-twenty
thousand of these men world be sufficient to provide
for any sudden emergency which might arise. A few
regulations for these pensioners constitute the principles
of the present bill. He did not intend to wake the Bill
retrospective, for the prerogative of the Crown could do much
in the present case, any! therefore if he was ask, d why he did -
nut extend the privilege to the army at present, he would say
that the authority of the Sovereign could of its own accord
effect all t hat was desired, and although he did not see an i
I danger in the extension of the principle, yet common prudence
i required that they should have some experience of its working.
\Even supposing that such a privilege were to be extended
who
the army, that every man were to receive his dischare_wahvee
had been ten years in the rank,
Ito do would be to place such restrictions upon th g
1 , and such
as to hinder too great a Mae of men fromntthethranan
the first thicg theyere would h
ulation
gat present
a system would cause even more discontent
after five years he might
. mark
it for lr3/., provided he had a distinguishing
existed. In the present system, under five years' service a man
might purchase his discharge for 20/. ;
purchase
for good conduct. After seven years' actual service he might
purchase it for 151. ; and after ten years' service, with two
marks for good conduct, he might purchase it for 51. ; and
after twelve yeast, with two marks, he was entitled to a free
discharge; and after fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years, he
could receive a pension of 4d. or 6d. per day. Although he
, did not intend. to exterel this plan to those at present in th
; army, he anticipated good results from it, becauseefoduinddner
I Although he had adopted i think those complaints which had beensvith rese were
mad
I army and those yet to Join it, esh should take care that all thss
.eP eatto well
those in the
provisions of those warrants which emanated from his Right
I literally fulfilled. For these reteous he did not intend to
i Hon. Friend who had preceded him should be punctually and
limit enlistment to the present army, but he did propose to
, extend it to those yet to join it, and that they should be car-
' rigid into effect, if the House should agree to them, as soon as
he could being them into operation. He had proposed them
l y
deeply legislate
i interested
rfe for--
under the conviction that it could make the service much
i more pepular than it was in tins country at present.
e they mweigreht ins,as safely ( Hear, le ar. ) The public or popular feeling in this matter
1 (wi-laseaorn, h one
whichbrat)-bei t•a )izthu'isssse
vih
e those
in the mater were the males from whom the arm
I recruited, and unless they u•ade the service lywattpaabal e
--( Hear, hear)—and agreeable to h t ose classes they.
I might i eiv span it that, esth the exception
, clistiegaid:ed corps, such as the Horse of
some*
Guards,
and
regiments
of a
similar Guards, the Life
be-
lieved were nails sought alter by h character, which he a
higher class of i.ndividonuall;
! than those who generally joined
1 fied reach diffisulty in =offing good emu:,
nregiments,
unless
they
thtneyadwe the
serviee palatable to the masses. They might depetad upon i
they a 'mini liot get the class cf recruits they required in so an-
t portant a branch of theublic service. But on ecenomical
i grounds he shield recomin,t,a limited enlistment --(flear)—
' because the expense of keeping up recruiting depots in various
parts of o.e country, and of transmiting recruits backwards
and forward,, and by circuitous routes, was great. In many
iestaeces all that expense might be avoided, if the
sery c were made more popular,, and instead of the
:,
Pruett sy,t cm of recruiting, depots were established
in different places to which recruits might repair.
The question of bounty be considered might be attended to in
M
a few years after this. r. Wy d ham said that he should
never be contented till the profession of arms was in thi
respect put upon the same footing as other callings. He (Mr.
F. Maute) did not think that this could be carried into effect
far some time, but he thought in these days of peel,' by the
1 ie,:asuieis they would sake to .mpruve the condition of the sole
\ dies, they would be enabled in a few years to dispense with
she system of giving beentiee. There was another lubjere to