The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-30 00:00:00

soldier, it should be remembered also that under 0/
_present admirable regulations it would only retatlir:
mf re tr•fh- to buy man off'. the best mode of etlg„
men for the service was the men that vroula stand 74
theca the longest—British men and Beitieht beyone°,-.
and he sincerely hoped Goiarnment would not, for to
sake of false theories, go against ell Tratitice..' ,'
thought Government could do no better good then DI
restoring the pensions of the nor:-commissioned oMesrl
and privates to the position in which they stood forifelA
He entirely concurred in the opinion, that if
should pass, that bounties should be given. He prefe7,
Mr. % ynd ham's Bill to this, for now they would
placing one large body of soldiers in opposition W
auother, and he would therefore recommend the Minis 4
to take a leaf out of that excellent book. He told the°
beforehand, in order that they might know what thel
had to do. Supposing they saw that they could not 101)
the Bill in the other House, and could not therefore Per
vent this injustice to the old soldier, as comparel wahl •
the new troops—supposing they were to vote foe,
whole clause, the Noble Lord must see what a predler.,
meet they would be in. The army, he believed, Al
never in higher discipline or in better condition than.l;,
was at the present moment. He believed it was invinol:ol
and as. for comparison with foreign armies, there was mr,.
sort of comparison that could be instituted with ouenw.;
for they were altogether different bodies. He lutait;
ceived a letter from an officer of considerable stitn7i
in the army, in which that gallant officer denonnA.
the proposed change as being injurious' to. n;
discipline and the service of the array. 0
Noble Lord then proceeded to read an e,-troctrhs
a speech made upon the subject in 1806, by the .01
Hon. George Canning, in order to show thetl4
eminent statesman's opinion was unfavourable to
co
enlistment. He warned them against any interfere
with the discipline of the army, said I`.e hoped the Sot°
would in some degree check the desire of eome 111t1'
Gentlemen to " experimentise" in matters which T 1
did not understand ; with these opinions, he ber3,.o
move for copies of all the correspondent,* that had gob'.,
place upon the subject of this measure, between the
Government and the Horse Guards ; also of all the
correspondence that had taken place with:general 00°1
in reference to the same matter.
Earl GREY said that he would follow the aale
of brevity, which •the Noble Marquis
laid down, on principle, but which he *
so much overlooked in practice, He would take snothe,
opportunity of speaking to the question of the toesst
of limited enlistment, for that measure was not yet
fore the House ; but with reference to the motionafi'L
Noble Marquis, he thought it must be apparent to tboo
Lordships that it would be subversive of all the prinni.
pies in which the business of the Governrant was Of;
ried on, if such returns as those moved for were grant
The Government had consulted the authorities of 111°.
Horse Guards on the framing of this measure.
trusted that their Lordships would not accede to the
proposition of the Noble Lord.
The Earl of CARDIGAN said, he must state that be
looked with great apprehension on the policy of the GI);
vernment in the introduction of this Bill, for
shortening the period of enlistment in the arra/.
He thought that the objects which the of,
sure contemplated could be better obtained- tio
giving a better pension, when those individuals two
served were discharged, and by taking means tosh°llo
the period of colonial service. Even by the present J;;.,
it was only proposed to give, after a period of 34 yeiii;
service, a retiring pension of? 6d. per day, which was no
lowest amount of parochial relief given to the pertie
who were employed to break stones. He did not tb','""
that they were thus holding out any inducement to P;
to enlist in the army. But if the Legislature did intendd
carry this measure into a law, he trusted that they 00.wcte,
take into consideration the propriety of at any rate rentrio
ing the present unlimited power which was granted 0.0
'
men cf purchasing their own discharges. He could
thbo
conceive how the law could be made to operate in, ,
relief of men stationed in the colonies. They svon
obliged to keep up a perpetual system of transport 11:0,
this country to the colonies, in order to relieve 111`,..
men ; and they placed the officers who
there stationed in a most difficult position he',
removing the men just as they had
come disciplined. He should wish to make jo
other observation, which he had not seen adverted to
the other House of Parliament. There was a el:*
prejudice in this country, as their Lordships were Ord.
against a large standing army. Some of their; °,O,
ships might remember that, ten or fourteen year Ted
a large body of men, somee here above 30,000, War° p
o
through the streets of London, in all the P°.
and panoply of marshal array. He might be told tna
ro,
that body of men had dispersed quietly; but the Golebeir
meet of the day were not at the time so sanguine of ' 0
doing so, for they had given orders to have every
in readiness who could be found in the neigh
hood of the metropolis. Now, supposing that atis°ool.
future time a similarly large body of discharged
diers—men who had been taught the use of the 0! to
ket for ten years—suppose that these men refuse?ti;
disperse so quietly as the others had done, he could
sure their Lordships that it would be found a most
co be
cult matter to suppress them. For these reasen-,
believed tha !ale intended measure would be folios