The Sun.
London, England, 1803-07-23 00:00:00

SATURDA Y, JULY 23, 1803.

Sir. W. PULTENEY explained.
Mr. Kf N 14.11 R D said a few words.

Mr. .P ITT observed, that a shilling a day was.
not equal to the day's work of a labourer, if the
whole day, or even halt a day was given to train-
ing, it was therefore necessary that the husbaind-
man should get through his exercise, as soon as
possible, in order to get home to his daily employ.
Mr. WYNDHAM concurred with the Right Hon.
Gentleman, Mr. PITT:
The Clauses and the Amendments were then
agreed to. ,
On the question, that this Bill do passe
Cal. C R A WFO R D said,, he was convinced of the
necessity of this measure, and also ofour having a very
large Army at this momentous crisis. He had former-
ly delivered his opinion on the necessity ofour having
a large Regular Force, and he was now about to de-
liver his opinion again upon our Military situation.
There was no person in that House who was more
fully
,convinced than he was, that the Government
of this ,Country never did -propose, nor did the
Parliament ever adopt a measure better adapted than
this for the purpose for which it was intended. He
thought this measure wisely adapted to meet an in.
vasion, but he thought that forcible as this measure
might be, something more ought to be done ;we
ought to be placed in a situation, that if the whole
world was' to attack us we might be able to defend
ourselves, and we might be placed in that situation;
that vas his opinion, and he had expressed it be-
fore ; he confessed he wished to see the whole mass
of the male population of this Country in arms, and
with some measures which he should submit to the
consideration of the House, he was• convinced that
if the whole world were to attack us, we should
not be subdued. The points to which he alluded
he attached great importance to. He approved of
this Bill entirely, and he thought the Right Hon.
Gentleman who brought it forward' had a great
claim upon the gratitude of his Country. This Bill
was a seal to the ads of the Right Hon.Gentleinan's
labours in the service of his Country, to the tote.
yetres htsoefcwouhlidcl not
o lit helpewas absorbed in his attention ; but
be done towards saying there was much yet to
putting this Country in a state of
petted security. He did nut mean to speak a• lan-
guagewas it with
that waonuyldwish
raisetaaenxy groundless alarm, nor
to perform what appeared to him ourto
be weakness,h
isuty butby
apprizing the House of that which appeared to him
to be the danger to which we were exposed. In
doing this he should be under the necessity of justi.
fying what he had said on a former. occasion, al.
though it had been called, and might be called des-
ponding language, but himielf, and others who
were accused with having held that language, were
misrepresented. He thought that at the time, and
under the circumstances, the Peace of Amiens was
welt concluded, and that Ministers deserved the
gratitude of their Country for" that endeavour to
procure the blessings of Peace; hut he was con.
vinced we must not make another peace until some
reparation was made for their intolerable insolence,
as well as security against the repetition of it; but we
must not look for any thing of this kind until we
had convinced the world that we, had nothing to
fear from an Invasion: He subscribed to every thing
which had been said, and indeed it had been said
with an eloquence which it was impossible to de.
scribe, by the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite to
him (Mr. PITT), he subscribed- to it entirely.; he
was delighted with it, and he thought it impossible
for any human effort to go beyond it : but he must
still say, that although that Right:Hon. Gentleman
had praised this measure so highly, yet without
some measures besides this, we should continee to
be in 0 state of comparative weakness; and he must
be permitted to say, he sincerely lamented that more
prompt anti decisive measures had 'not been taken
to increase the force of our regular 'Army, for to
that we must principally look, even after-this tinea.
sure was enforced, for the true defence of England ;
and however Gentlemen might differ from him, he
must take this opportunity of sincerely lamenting
that measures much more prompt and decisive had
not been adopted for extending the regular Army
of the Country. • He remembered it was said, that
he had not sufficiently considered the difficulties the
French would have in coining :here, when lie had
talked of their landing scOoo men, and of their
coming up with that number to London : after
making allowances for the difficulties of wind and
tide, he had said they might possibly land that num-
ber; now although he had been ridiculed upon the
occasion, yet the Right Hon. Gentleman, the Se.
c ETAR Y at VAR, had afterwards himself admitted
the possibility of that number landing. He had
supposed that too,ooo of them might embark, and
that 50,000 of them might land here, anti on which
occasion he had expressed a patriotic and English-
mau-like wish, that out of she 100,000, 50,000
might be drowned; but be would rather take the
number of those who should land at 30,000. This
he only mentioned to shmi that the Right Hon.
Gentleman (the •SICR ETARv at WAR), had changed
his opinion upon the probability of the 6100 land-
ing a considerable force in this CoUtitrY. How-
ever this might be, he had an heartfelt' concurrence
to this Bill, as a measure of prompf'and necessary,
vigour. 'With resped to the exemptions of the Bill,
it was a matter entirely in the care of the Executive
Government. He hid no difficillty in saying he
was perfeetly convinced that five or six thousand
Englishmen would drive ten thousand Frenchmen
into the sea, if they invaded this land, and he
thought it would be adviseable to train a
,great
number of men under this Bill to the' use of pikes.
A Corps of pikes might soon be formed, even of
those who had nut yet been trained, and they might
do great execution among the enemy. He knew
the force of' this son of armament ; he had witness

sea the dila of it in the Irish peasantry, when em-
ployed against their own Countrymen in the late re.
hellion ; and if they had been so efficient against their
own Countrymen, what might., not be expected
when they Caine to be employed. against a foreign
and invading foe ? For this reason he wished to see
this armament extend to the whole of the male po-
pulation of the Cotintry, some with firearms and.
some with pikes. But supposing that Invasion
should take place before all the people could be
armed, and that 70,000 French troops should
and that they might gain some military advantage
of positibn, he thought that in such case the,Capital
might be exposed to the danger of battle ; and al-
though it might be three thousand to one against
this being the case, yet we ought not to risk, even
with so much odds in our favour, the Capital falling
into the hands of the enemy, cwt.() for the shortest
of all periods, because the disgrace of the thing
would be incalculable in its effetti, as it would be
most galling in refledion., 'therefore we should not
say that we had done our duty until we had done all
that could be done by human effort. It would be an
indelible disgrace to us to leave a possible chance
against ourselves, if it could be possibly avoided ; but
the chance of the, Enemy getting possession of the
Capital was a think not to be endured in thought, if
'provision could be made to render it impossible ; we.
therefore could never say We had done enough for
that purpose until we were perfectly sure we could
do eo more. As to what . had been spoken on a
former occasion by an Hon. Baronet (Sir WILLIAM
ERSKINE), who spoke..so much like an Englishman
and a Soldier, he must observe that in his opinion,
and it was not a light opinion, but a deliberate one,
after hearing all and reading almost all that had been
said and written upon this subjeCt,- that 60,000
might possibly be sufficient to decide the fate of a
battle, and that then the-Enemy in the event of
succeeding in that battle, might proceed a consider-
able way before they could be checked, and as their
place of landing might nut be very distant from
the Capital, they might come to it, and they might
gain possession of it. This would be an indescrib-
able disgrace to us, if it should happen ; it was our
business to take care it should not. The question
then was, what wire the means to prevent such a
disgrace ? There were two means by which it
might be avoided. The one was by increasing our
Regular Army—the other by having recourse to
Fortification, of which latter we were destitute at
present, and wholly defenceless; and by a due at-
tention to which the advantages might be almost in-
finite: and the advantage of increasing our Regular
Army would also he very great. Upon those two
topics, however incapable, he could not help saying
what occurred to him. Without entering into any
professional discussion, lie would ask this plain guys-
ti there were 60,000 of the Enctny. in this
co°—lf
onorty,and they had gained one military advantage,
could we feel confident that if we had an Army of
one-third of the Line only to oppose that, we should
be successful in. Battle; or would we not be more
likely to succeed if we had an Army composed of t wo-
thirds of the Line ? Ile was persuaded that every
man who .had any knowledge -upon the subject,
would say, we should have more confidence it the
whole Army to be thus engaged were of the Line ;
why then if the danger which hung over us was
imminent, as indeed he thought it was, that we
were in great peril, and considering what we
might, and therefore ought 'to be, of comparative
weakness ; when we came to set about a new
arrangement, we ought to take care that it should
be the most effeetual that the nature of things
was t
of admitting ; this had not yet been
tooe:atiPl:eirte was one measure which had been omit-
ted which ought to have been set on foot, Which
was to redo* the Militia Force to a due proportion
with that of the Regulars ; foe he thought that the
Militia in this crisis ought not to be More than one
third of the regular force-of the army. He would
carry up every one of the Regiments to the
highest point of streng,h, by supplying it out of
the Militia, as much as that could possibly be dune ;
this appeared to him to be a matter of mere necessity,
and he thotight that a little exertion on the part of
the Militia. Colonels might effeetuate this purpOse,
when once they were convinced of the propriety of
it.' He believed that io or -30,000 men might be
got low the Regulars out of the Militia, in the
course of a month, that expedient might be of in-
calculable value, but the present measure, great and
patriotic as it was, would take a great length of
time to carry 'it. into execution, and he must
say he -did not think that our power was made
use•of in the best manner. We had 6o Regiments,
he thought that between 20 and 30,000 men ought
w be added to them out of the Militia, as well as
to supply that stock out of the Army of Reserve.
In this manner we might in the course of five or
six weeks have such an Army as we might haVe oc.
casion for, and such as would be equal to any con-
test We might expea, and we might then be confi.
dent of success in any adion that might take place
in the vicinity of the Capital ; but by the measure
now before the House,. without some such addition
as he was now recommendireg, we might, and even
n several months before we -were in the state
to best bdies
desired to face our danger, part of which was
mast
that of London falling into the hands of the enemy;.
for if they gained any military advantange after
landing, they might come a great way before
we could stop them : if London were to fall into
the handi of the Enemy, he would not say that
England would thereby be absolutely conquered,
but it would be the most disgraceful situation that
England ever was placed in without being 'wholly
crinquered, for in.that case the Enemy might have
the means of recruiting their own Artily, and so.
make it extremely difficult for us to drive them out
of the CoOntry- : for these reasons he wished our