The Sun.
London, England, 1804-03-01 00:00:00

. .
not feed themselves .obligea to Ministers thd cY
eYnptioii; rt..4,VAI niattet of • pure.: actiderafi—the.til
Was :no inrottion. of . eXempting..thent-'rhat
There ,was • no'idea any iyhe7e in, the. :Countsy that
they should. be exempted so mach: to: the, contrary,
-that subscriptions:had-been entprecl. in!”-forti-e pur.i
`pose of.proviiiing.Substitutesioy she Voittateers, .
.! they shoOld-happen to. be.ballatred for the or
. the Army of Resertre.; .het him.ialf had, ben .a.
scriber.. ,Theyrdid.not then v.l: the opinion of the-_.“. •
GgNERAL ;'they thotsght'the cue w0u.,41:::
be too plain, and thersiiii,, '44 let • the matter ret.t)

for the present; weshall . bring ..in. a. Bilt that sh:,ll
puzzle him ;"._ and they succeeded in that object
completely; and- what was most, remarkable;:-.evety.
opinion he gave was contrary' to the:wishes
Majesty's Minister, as. we were assured by :beim%
selves. Mr. Fox thew prcaeeded toAlbser-Ve'„ that
the System of Volunteers 'WAS in iyseif de-leaivei and
had been rendered' worse'bY the mode, in which, it
had been cairied on. Intep.d.of the Volunteer Systems

he should like an Armed. Peasantry,. - It wls true,

that the Volunreers had received rhuthins-truaiutt;

and it was. not their fault that they were not .npsre
efficient -for the Defence of the Country ; the truth.
was, that they had not been instriteted in that which . •
they would be calied.uport to do, bat in many things•
which they would not be called ution: to do, so that
it was time lost and labour misapplied, It was.true- •
that the Volunteers:were 400.000 in number, •but the
Armed PeasantryN7ouh: be two millions. He said, it •
was tvhimSical to• hear the. reasoning of some Gen.,
tlemen in• favour of the VOlunteer System. They
first said that the 'Enemy was temly to! come in the

month of July and AugUseltrst; hut that the number.
of Volunteers raised deterfeil him. They now said
that we must he prepared to Meetlhe Enemy, for
they are coining tcyattrtainry. What reason'then was
to he assigned for the tido' ? The only one char could

be left fir these Gentlemen was, that the' Enetil.r

staid until. the Volunteers here bad an opportunity Of -
being drilled' and made. soldiers ; and' here he cen;
nured Ministers most .severely for nor providing the'

Volunteer's with muskets much sooner than they,didi•
and took-occasion try observe 'that a great mass of th 6
Voltoteets had never yet fired with hall. He preferred
an ArmcLiPeasantry Co' the Volunteer System upon this
principle, • because.in the one case we had'an Arnica
Notion, in the other we had av best but a partial

armament. All modern .history taught us, and as-
to ancient history none- of it resembled the present .
condition of this world ; but all modern history'
.
taught us that the great advantage which the tn..
vaded had over the Invader was, that the one
Party had 'only a large powerful Army which'.
might 'be opposed by another large powerful'
Arniy;'-iiid' so they would 'be only equal ; but
in the other case there was also an Armed Conn:.
try, which • if properly armed and true to itself,
could never be quite subdued : the very idea
of an Army' in an Armed Country was terror
'to the Invader, for he could never be secure'
of one inch but that on which he stood ; in
every village he knew he had a foe, between two
hedges he was afraid of being shot, so that the
Invader might be said to be haunted in an ;armed
country ;' and his conquests, however great, were
never final while a mail was left: but the System of
the VOltinteers did not convey this idea to the In..
vader : here again the article of Dress was import.;
ant, for ' the Invader- knew that none were armed
except those who were dressed like soldiers, so
that where he saw a brown coat he' knew there could
be no weapon ; where there was no weapon there
could be no danger, and thus the whole terror of
• the Invader was done away. He then expatiated
on these and various other topics, to shew the de•
frets of the Volunteer System, and censured the
Condua-of Ministers as well with regard to the
manner in which they had been raised, as to the
' manner they had been trained, and also'to the man..
ner in which they had been kept without arms, and
renewed all his former objedions to the System it.
self, wishing, however, to make it as 'little impel...
perfect as possible.'
He cdncluded with adverting to what had been said
respeding the condo& of the Admiralty. He said
he had the highest opinion of the Noble Lord at the
head di that Board, and had no doubt but that he
would be able to vindicate his conduct ; but at the'
same time, as so many charges had been thrown out
against the Admiralty, he thought it would be bet..
ter at once to institute an Inquiry, which would
enable the House to make up its mind upon this
Most important subjea. •
Mr. FULL sat exolained.'
Mr.-PITT said, that differing as he did from
the Hon. Gentleman who spoke last, in many
points the Volunteers, .yet he had the
sa tisfa
a,
rieasnPaltohg agree with him in many of the
propositions which he had laid down. There was
no one sentiment advanced by the Hon Gent. to
which he assented more cordially than in the necessity
-of adopting some measures to give a degree of con-
sistency and permanence to our Defensive Force. It
was undoubtedly true, that at present the great object}
ought to be to direct our efforts to meet the imme-
diate danger with which the Country was threat.
ened.; -nothing certainly ought to be negleaed in
the first moment of alarm or danger, and all fu-
ture consideration, however important, ought
to give way to the present necessity and immediate
danger. But that having been provided for, they
ought .not to hesitate one moment in adopting the
most effectual measures for rendering our defensive
system permanent, and of providing against a recur..
rence of danger in future times, ' if we should pre.
vent the Enemy from effeding the Invasion thie
year, and that should lead us into a false security,
and encourage us to slacken our means of defence, it
certainly would end in our total ruin. He was
! therefore happy to find the, opinion so strongly
inculcated by' the Honourable Gentleman, that we
ought 'not to be content with our present ex•
ertions alone. It was perfedly true, as that Hon,
Gentleman had stated, that although the flaw-
ral impulse of a brave and loyal people had led them
to make the greatest and moat unparalleled exer.
*ions, which had removed us from all immediate.
danger, yet it was undoubtedly necessary' to adopt
measures to guard against that' long, protraded,
and liagering danger with which the enemy might
threaten us. Because the effect of deterring .the
Enemy from making his attempt; by.a •demonstra.
titan of the fume' and Spirit of. the Country, might