The Sun.
London, England, 1804-03-20 00:00:00

not think that t',.: Melt I-ion, Gentle Man could
with candour persist in his Motion. •
Mr. YURKE said, he could not sit still while
any imputation was thrown upon:his Conduft; in
his public or private capacity. He had made the
regular •Motion which it was his duty to make,.
and he should certainly persist in it.

Mr. WINDHAM said, he hoped the Right Hon;
Gentleman would tit)t persist in his MotiOn, becaose
it was certainty. made when the House were waiting
for elle opinion of the Chair. upon the mode of ptcL7
ceeding.._

•
BRAGGEdenied that the House were wait-
ing for information from the Chair," bee`ause the

SPEAKER had given the information which was re-
quired, to the House, before the Motion was made.
Tile SPEAKER shortly explained the proceeding
which had taken place, and said; 'that the Question

now beforc the.tiothe was, that the AmeridMents be

read a second time.

Mr. W. WYNNE then proceeded, and argued at
some length•against the Bill.
Mr. FOX said that in opposing the, Motion for.
the ...second reading of the Bill, he wished distinctly
to be Understood, that lie did
.not wish to throw out
the -Bill; he merely wished to have it recommitted,
in order that it might be' amended.- His principal
reason for wishing it to be recommitted was, what
might in4uce. some Gentlemen to oppose it altogether;
viz. That if it is passed io its preseat form, it Would
make the Ministers, and, what was worse, the Le-
gislature, appear contemptible ,in • the. eye's of this
Country, and of Foreign Countries., The Volun-
teer System, whetter it was good'or whether it was
bad, was admitted, on all hands, to fotirea conSider-
able part of the Defence of the Country ; and it was
admicted, .even_ by Ministels, that the System was
one Which required revision and alteration. Par-
liament met on the IS th of November ;'they had now
reached the 19th' of *Match; and the'only Measure
that Minister :had taken fOr the, Defence of .the
Country, .was the Bill, before the tieuse—Ttt 'We
know," 'said Mr. Fox, " that:the Enemy have made
ps•enarationsfur the Invasion of this Cenntry.e gi-
gantic bey*ond. all former preCeslent ; we were told
by., the Secretary of State, that ~those menaces
were immeltately to be carried into execution ; we,
know that upon the issue of this contest depends
tvery thing that,cao be dear to men ; and yet, after
a Se'ssion of.alsove four months, the only Measure
of Defence that Ministers have brought forward is
ibis Bill. Gracious God, Sir, What is there in' tills
Bill ? No steps have beeh taken to•recruit fhe Army',
no means have been taken to improve or complete
the "Nrmy of Reserve ; all, all has rested upon the
'Volunteers ; and this is the Bill Which Minister's
have proposed for the completion of the Volunteer
System. Let'any man, the roost blindly attacned-to
this Bill, be asked, wjtat.is its chief merit ; and he
will say it is, that it does that which it was at first
professed thatit would do,. v iz. 'Nothing."' Mr.-Fox
then continued ; he said he liked theVolunteerSystern,
because he knew the.spirit, the zeal, and the courage
of the men who composed that hotly' ; nit man could
deny that the VOlunteer, would be highly useful its
die defence of the Country, Oh •siCcount of their
• readinesS, their spirit, and their numbers ; but .dial
this flill assist them in any of these points ? Cer-
; tainly not. After the time *which Ministers had
taken to prepare the Bill, it was natural to suppose
that at least they .would have considered the regu-
lations they meant- to . propose, hut was that the
case ?, It now appeared, that in cast of any attempt
upon IreVud, and that'* an Insurreetioe its that
Cduntry should unfortunately be the result, all the
Volunteers of this Country,might be called out,.and
placed under Martial Law, and must_ continue Sol-1
diets to all intents and purposes while thilt Im,ur-
reaion lasted ; was 'ltch a thing ever in the con-
templation of the Volunteers ?, Btu it now seemed
that this was to be given up, and certainly 1;1 tier
late than never; but this was the sysietri Mirti ters
had always pursued with the Volunteers therhad
done ,every, to damp, to check, to harass
them.; ,as soon as they were beat from one trench
by the Volunteers, they took post behind another.;
and 'so they 'were heat out of trench after trench,
and• still they seemed determined to die in the
last dyke, This was the case with ,regard to the
power of Resignation; upon this
rsubjeaa the CHAN
C FLLOR of the EXCHEQUER had; as usual, no opi-
nion ; however, he asked the*ATTORNEY GENE-
RAL, who it appeared had a wrong opinion : it was
however circulated through the Country by the.
Ministers, who professed that they had at the same
time an intention of bringing in a Bill to give the
Volunteers'a power of Resignation, and they wisely
waited till the dectsnon of the Court of king's
Bench had rendered such a Bill unnecessary. . First
of all it was intended that the Volunteers might re_
sign, then the AT+ORNET GENERAL was ui (*Mimi
that they could not resign,then,thecort of King's.
Benect determined lbws they could resign, then
Stets bring in a Bill, professing to give' them the
power to resign, .and then they insert a proviso* in
this bill which in many cases win render it impossible
for them to resign., arid he had no doobt it 'Would end
in their giving up the prOvuo and 'saying they had
a power to resign. It might be said that Ministers
meant to give up these points, and that it might as
well be done in the House as in the Committee ;
but he prefetred going into the Committee again,
because there were many other ObjedionableclauSes;
one of them was the Clause Which took away- the
exemptions" if a man did 'not attend a certain mim.
her of days, but it professed to restore the matieto
his exemptions if liiifterwards,a,teetsded his full nuns.
ber of days e.bunhow was this- possible if the Corps
had 'been out their fUll number of days ?' 'Was the
Corps to be called out eight or ten days more, to
giye this man an opportunity of making up his re_.
gtilar number of days ? that could not be intended
then it was mere deception to tell a man that it was
in his power to recover his exemption. The Clause
which related to contraets between masters and sera.
vants was equally liable to objection,because it
would be a very serious thing in the Country to
take a servant away from a farmer for forty days
but that which related to apprentices waystill worse.
ft was an undoubted point, that thelabour of the
apprentice belonged to the master, but this Bill
took away the apprentice from his master . for
40 days. But it would be said that
it
atagicvoe, m,-?.
ptosation was given, and to whom w
Lcy the master. who had a right to the labour ?

. .
no; tc the apprentice, who Ivai .'secitiied: and
peid for neg.e4ing his .master's - labour.., Vpan
a
the same principle he supposed that if scanal
was to he cut through A-man's ground, they would
give the compensation to those who Made the canal,
and not to the 'man whose property was taker? -from
him. Another oljedion which had been taken by
an Hon. Friend or hiS, and which bad not been

atiswertd was, that which rendered the men of

any-. Corps liable to all Fines and SubseriptiOns•
agreed totby the rriajJrizy. There
,were a great,
Many other obj.tiotls, but it was unnecissary to
repeat them ; he had'stated enotighto-shew the ne-
cessity of 'recommittit'ig this What .sittration-
wouldthey,standi in if this Bill were to pass in its
.present form ? It would he this : that Parliament
had now sat above four Montfis, at a titne'Velten this

Country was threatenert with the most' formidable
Invasion that eve: any
.Country was", threatened
with, and that tleynly,measnre. they had taken for
the public defence *as, that the VOlunteers 'should
Fie vtefciried 10 :day S' in the year mOre thatillefore,
for this was in fad the only essential Clabseein-the
Bill. What would the people thirk ? Would, they
nOt'suppose, that the story of the Invasion was only,
invented to put' theni on Their gtia'td; 'arid thae:Par--
liament did not seriously .belietie it, for they, could-
never suppose, that Parliament would have thrown;
away so much time about this Bill, it they really
exPeeled rn revasion, without' taking one 'step to
recruit the Army, or to- improve the Army!of Re.
serve. The, Voin:;tt'eresmight lie iike-a Regplar,
Force, in bravery he was sure they would, but then
the Count!), would haVe nothing eke, they would;
have no Levy en Masse to support thernEveri
strong arm, eve:_, willing hears ite:lhe Country,
that Nve;s not in a Volunteer Corps, would be com-
pletely useless in thehOurofdanger, an:t they would
be in the; si t d'esetihed by a Right Honourable
Gentleman, exclaiming; when, the Enemy handed,
'.laln desirous tO serve my Country, but i know
not what to do l!-1 The Volunteers ,were certainly.
in a different situation, but he believed
Of them had never fired- with ; it Might betsait,l7.
that when men were taught to pull. a trigger, it mat.,
tired not whether the piece was loaded or not.; but
they must be, igtiorant'of 'human rat tire 'WhO argued
in that manner,•• -because' every body' had seen
the degree of trepidation manifested •by ignorant
rd,tic3, who did not .vane courage, the, first time
they fired off a loaded g, in. ntlerStood;
that- in many- Counties they had not -received above
t 4. or. rs-roundl of ammunition ; anti be instanced
the County -of Wdts i earticular. He .was viii
of tbdse wlnis did not titHk the danger so great as
others ; but it certaiele was an Awful crisis; and he
only begged the House to compere: the danger with
which we were threatened, with this Biil, which
Was all that Ministers had prepared to meet it.—
It- was impossible to makc that comparison', and
not to tremble. But," said Mr.. Fox, ""I (rem-
ble'. less,. because. Ido rely. upon the . Volunteers,
because I do believe, that not the constant bickerings
which Ministers have, had with., them, not their
fighting with them point after point,, and. being
beat our of trench after trench, not all, the conten-
tion and litigation which Ministers have had with
Ahern, not all the 'damns and checks 'whieh had
been' thrown upon them; not the refusing their
zealous offers of service, not the negled 'in fur-
nishing 'their), with ammunition ;-1.; do not trein
ble so much, I say, because I do believe that
even all these things cannot destroy the Spirit of
the Country, which „will, I ani sure',, nor only rise
superior to every effort I the Enemy, but I am
,even sanguine nnougli tobelieve (and I cannot reach
a higher climax) that it will rise superior, to. the
v. A
eness, the incapacity, and the imbecility of
the present Ministers."
The' ATTORNEY GENERAL,
.in answer to
what fell froM YoX`, spoke at some length
in defence of the cOndud Of Ministers icspeo.
ing the Volunteers, and adVerted to the 'repeat-
ed and very (Wise discusSions Which had taken place
upOft tl;ie subject the Bill had 'thee,n •twice re-oom-:
milted, and, what. Gentlemen may
.have- further to
propose could, he thougfat, be very well considered
in the present stage 'of the Bill. The Hon: Gen.:
tleman (tad laid muChitresi upon the supposed rre-
laYs which had taken place, and the proposition he-
so:Warmly recommended; must induce still- further'
delays. There 'Were one or two slight alterations
to be made, which-he thoUght would remove a *so:
lid objedion which Uri' been advanced, and that
. evidently could be done in the present stage of the
Bill.
Pr. LAWRENCE argued at full length, in fa-
; your of the Recommitment of the Bill, and adverted.
to .some details therein, which be considered as ten-
' tiering -the proceeding indispensible.
ATIORNEY:OENRAL and Dr. LAWRENCE.
spoke respedively in, explanation. •
, Sir.
`7. W Lira SLEY adverted to some points:
which he thought rendered it necessary -to recom-
mit the Bill ; one :of. those points was, the consider-
ation that nearly one half, or between 15 and i 6,000
of the Volunteers of the Metropolis, were not bound
to' go' beyond the precinds thereof, while the re,
mainderwere liable 't'o be marched' to a Considerable
distance. It was hisiintentiOn -to propose a general
regulation, thatinoeY,oitinteer should heeentitied to
the exemptions specified in the Bill, except he agreed
to march to any part of Great Britain in-ea:.e of In

vastoo.
. . .
. 'Mr.-Alderman CONI3E spoke warmly in `praise
cif the'spirit and patriotism of the• Civic
teets, and adverted to the circumstance. that they,
were not liable to
.c,•mpuisory service,.in the like,
manner that. the Ibliabitants
:cf the Kingdom in.
general- were.'•
. PITTr. observed, altar tinder th,! present cir-,
cumspnses, he slipuld, vote,.against tile re7commit.!
ting the Bill.' With respect" to the just exiietta.
Lions of The Public from the•MeAsure, how fir it'
conferred, those: fait'' benefits they 'lrv' ere!entitled
he had
,already • stator. opinion, he :therefore .
should'aqt trouble the House with a repetition of it.
The measure under .c(insideration left many'deficieri-
cies. in the systoo ;there was not a proper'degree Of,
encouragement held out with respect, to the import..)
ant point of discipline ; neither were' there a sufii-
; cient number of days allowed, for the purpose ; and
even when they had aSsetni)led, the'means ofinstrtie-_
lion were not adequately afforded. At the smine time,:
he: was .of -opinion., that :the, Bili, tyitli refetApce
.to