The Sun.
London, England, 1803-09-15 00:00:00

COUNTY, OF
.L.DINBURGIL

On Tuesday the 6th inst. :there was a Meeting
of the Lieutenantcy, Justices of the Peace, and He-
firms of this County, held•in the Parlitlmeet-House.
His Grace the DuKE of Bvcct.svoil, the Chair.
His Grace stated, that Itched called the Meeting
for the purpose of concerting such measures as might
be considered best adapted for the Defence of the
County, and for carrying the General Defence At
inter tiff, in so far as it applied to our local Biwa.
don. The Licutenantcy, he observed, hail found
themselves a good deal, perplexed as, to what line of
conduit they should follow with regard ,to this
measure. This arose principally from the runner.
ous Ads lately, hurried through Parliament,.and the
different Letters which had been transmitted by
Ilk Majesty's Ministers, which were by no means
in unison, with, each other, and tended, front • the •
partlai changes made in them, to produce doubts
atel ties in their minds with regard to the in.
terprctation to be put upon some cf these MIL—,
Byone of these Letters, it did appear as if the ope.
rations of the D:fence Mt was total dispensed with,
at least to a certain extent, in those places where
certain Volunteer Force shoUld be formed. His
Grace said, he Lad, however, that mottling teceiv..
ed•another .Letter front Mr. Yoeftr, now aropint.
e.l one of His Majesty's Secretaries of State, which
seemed to affurd reaion', f believing that the oil,
eerpose of completely arming; the. People,
apteahly to the terms of the Defence AO, would
still carried into effen. OK'ing to the receipt
of &it Letter so recently, the, stothrtents the.
Lienfrom,gc:y had been. in a great measure changed,
void thou,;h they had not yet been enabled fully to
make up the minds on the subjeet, they had in the
mean time drawn up a few Resolutions, Which
would be suinnitted for Ole consideration of the
Meeting.
Lotto CH !Fr 1111.0 N said, before reading the
Resobitions, he begged leave to observe, that. the
Ceunty must be fully Sensible of the attention which
his Grace had always bestowed upuil the interests
of the County, and to the properly condating the
important concerns in 'which they were all connetted.
Upon the 'present occasion, there was, no doubt, a
considerable degree of difficulty in diicoYering arid
following.out the proper line of duty. At this im.
portant crisis, it was very gratifying, however, to
observe:the unanimous sentiment of loyalty and at-
eachment to the Zeontry, which pervaded all ranks
of :the people; without, he believed, one solitary
oteePtion.• .• He could for himself say, that in the
dart cif the Country where he resided, he found every
one, ready ro give their best services, and anxious
td be enrolled and trained , to defend their• Country ;
and he :hoped, that the ,ardour which had been ex.
cited in their minds would not be checked in its
‘operation. As to the measures which may beldopr.
ed by ,this. Meeting, though they could'nut yet with
certainty know the precise *intentions of His Ma.
jesty's ''"Ministers, they might nevertheless resolve
to, follow such, a mode as would, be produdive of
esseetial service at the present.coejuttatire. Among
other steps to be taken, probably, a• Subs.Criptioe
'Would be set on foot, and the money arising from
thence, would fall to he appropriated to proninte; the
objed which all had in view. lo regard to this,
he begged leave before the'Resolutions were read, to
lay before the. Meeting two letters. which had came
into tis hands,' One was from a Meeting of the
Field. Wilms of three of ..tite Corps of Edinburgh
Volunteers, written in their name by Mr.. bAv
Fl m F.. It stated, that • the allowance made by
Government hail been-,foilial very inadequate to
what Was becessaty for securing theeTeCtual ier.
vices of ,Beset Corps: that-tinding this ,• to be the
case the Officers had chearfully thrown all their al:
lowances into one common stock, to make up' the
deficiency so far it would go, but still they f!onid,
wouh' fall far short of whit was wanting. If the
Corps should be: called OW t‘i ai.tl:3l service, among
other -articles' with which they would require to be
foroished, would' he great coats and knapsacks. With-
out these, if the men were exposed to the inclemency
of the weather, there': rnight Soon, be a greater num
ber in- thee_ hospital than' in the field, and in place'
of being efficient for t service, •they would prove an
ioeumbraoce. Such being t)te'vase, the 'Officeri
had, it: in View to open 'a Subseription; bui'
ing informed ihe proper mode was an appliCation to
the County, and having learnt that a Meeting Was
to he held, they .had delayedadopting any measures,
but" resolved in this manner to acepiaint the County,
as prObably it Might ba better to ad in conjenction,
where one ohjits wits in view. The other letter
was from Lieutenaet-General VYSg. ; The purport
of it was to state, that in adopting measures our the
defence of the CoUntry, great regard. should berhad
to the cleans for quickly transporting gutmers from
one part to another. Fixed
,batteries: might Out be
timod efre4tual to guard a coast so extensive; end
the erection of round towers was too expensive ;
,therefore it was of high importance, as there were
now parks of artillery et Musselburgh, l laddington,
Donbar, that Means Of transportiet the Men
should ere always,
,ready, whicil would be, found to
answer the purposes cf the late invention' of cur.
rielesgens, and would in some measure. supply the
want of horseartillers , which has been found to. be
of so Muctrailvantage iii .the South of Britain. The
Machine with which Col. CatcrtroN had made an
experiment might be ad9pted .to 'advantage. The
exeence'of one of time, `Was..sol. each of these
would ratty la men ;60",ftliat-cfgnt of them would
be sufficient to tranipetea,o6 men, and the ex,pence
would be .}cols" HIP condeded by recoil)-
. mending these'letteii'co the attention of the Meets