The Sun.
London, England, 1804-02-28 00:00:00

time to complete the .discipline of Volunteer
Corps- than by all the detached attendances they had -'
hitherto given. The expellee might be urged as an
ohjeCtion, but he world ask if too,oool. 'or even
100,0001. was to be put, in .Conapetition
the benefits which the Gauntry would derive
from the advantages in point 'of discipline to
be by. this means attained by the Volunteers,
who he was ciansdent would. cheerfully at-
tend a call of this nature without pleading their
avocations? or any other excuse. Corps thus- as-
sembled for a short time on permanent duty, would
have the advantage of being inspeaed by the Field
Officers stationed in the neighbootheod,'from whom
they would learn those points of discipline from
which the Country would derive the greatest 'ad-
* santaae . This brought hien to the second tided,
which he had stated to exist in the Volunteer-
System, and which he had involved in the first
point,. namely, theo want of sufficient means of
instruaion for the Volunteer Corps. .He had
prpposed - before Christmas the appointment of
Field Officers and Adjutants to Volunteer Corps;
to ,this, two objeatona were made-, "the one
that it might be disagreeable to the Corps;
and the other, • that a sufficient -number of
Officers could not be found for the purpoite. Now,-
as he only proposed to appoint these Field-Officers
to such Corps as applied for .thens, to.,be told' that
such measures might be disagieeable to those who
aid not apply, was not exoaly an answer. As to
not being able to find a sufficient number of Officers,
his only reply was, try—nothing cough 'be lost, by
the experiment, as they were only just in- the same.
atate they wee; if it did not succeed.- -Besides, to
soy that Corps would not like it, was to say ohat
few_ wetritl apply. for it, 'and therefore: the fewer Of-
ficers would be wanted. He was of-opinion, there--
t'ore, that the experiment ought to be tried', but he
thought that much might be obtained by Officers being
appointed to that service; Who were- not above the
tar k of Captain or even of Lieutenant, many of
whore might make very ette-ellent Field Officers, -as
Assistants to the Commanders of'Volunteer Corps,
veld not ceriainly.to talcae the eommantl, of which he
- had 'never entertained an idea. As to economy, it
was too niirrow an objeftion to be considered in the
present instance. All these Corps which had: been
formed prior to Aug. ISO 3, were allowed to have
Regular Officers., who were in sortie cases entitled
rQ full, and in others to half pay ,'upon their Original
Commission's ; but of the Corps "established' aub.
Sequent to that period, none were allowed-upon that
. It could- not be supposed. that Officers
were wanting when theft were at present two Lieu_
tenant Colonels .and two Majors to each Battalion
of• Regulars, many of which were incomplete ; and
if Cores were e sembied'Orr permanent duty, as he
had paoposed, aoteof these Officers need go but a
sport distance from -their atatiams to discipline such
Corps, whilst So or -00,600 -men might by "this
means be assembled in 'the. course of twenty.four
hours, in caae of any suddet-oalorm. He intendeti
to make a proposition on chi) stiljeo on a future
day. With respeCt to the third point to which he
Itati.alluded, he thenght that some system ought to
be adopted, and that- not a harsh one, to -enforce
regular attendance, good order, and discipline. By
tl.e Defence AA, Corps Were direaed aid be gt'ojaa
to such regttlationsatts 'His Majesty ahould appoint.
The-Making of regulations- ha.d, however, been con-
fided wholly to the different Corps, and no steps upon
the subjaa had been taken by. Goverranent• He
therefore theught, that an' Aa.should,be passed for
makitg such general' regulations, for the purpose of
ensurteg in every Corps regular attendance, good
alder and discipline, by the infliaion of moderate
floes', and perhaps in some cases by arrest and de-
teroitio ; toe latter of which modes might probably
Irc• better substituted fur fines than in levy by dis-
tress. Some suche regulations appeared to him es-
sential—lt had been said by the Right lion, Veit_
tietnan (:11r. Secretary Yontea), 'that we ought to
eo as little as possible with respea to thei,Volun.:
tiers ; he would rather subatithte no more -than was
necessary. He could not agree, that any such sys-
tem of regulations . would be likely to deprive
the service .of many Volunteers ; lie on the con-
trary thought, that they would he submitted to
with cheettulness, coupled with the right of re-
signation, which every Volteercer possested, but
which he did rot think- would be used to any
catent worth .mette:aming. There was another
euiot of very considerable importance, which was
theoippointmeot :of Officers. In point of form the
,'.commendation certainly rested with the Lord Lieu-
, tcnanr, but at the same time it 'was not to 'be sup-
posed that the Lord Lieutenant would recommend
-an Officer for a Volunteer Corps without consulting
the, Commaroler, who, it'
*• be was not fit to re-
. L.:um:tend, was not fit to remain Commanding Officer
the Corps. It was not to be sopposed either
that a Commanding Officer would recommend any
;eee a; tot a Commission without consulting the
,:eaeie;a of his Corps, without however: any
e like a regulate Eleaion. This point, how-.
e.,er, he thought ought to be settled by Parlia-
ment. 4nother point now pressed upon his atten-
tion, for he must say that whilst he was extremely
aoxious with respeti to the Volunteers, it was yer
necessary that. we should 'pay attention to our
other force. They were not 'merely to' consider
what force was necessary for the exigencies of fhe
moment, but to consider it as conned with the
Regular Army,' Militia, and Army of Reserve.
could not deny that the Volunteer Force had
narrowed the sliallot fur the Militia and Army of
Resetve, but that only arose from the Ballot of a
single year, and of course must be. materially
lessened in future .years. He contended, that by
an_Army of Reserve, .or by some force to be
raised by Ballot, the Regular Army might be
regularly and certainly recruited, by allowing a
certain number, a. fourth, a fifth, or a sixth,
tp. volunteer fur the Regulars, every year, and
again filling up the vacancies by Ballot. , It was
et ident to his mind that they must resort-to some
method of securing an effective Regular Army,- and
he could not bring himself-to agree to an); mode of
raising men for that servile, in the first instance,
by Ballet ; but men raised by Ballot to serve in
Great Britain and Ireland,, under .regnlar Officers,
would tioon be induced to volunteer fer general
service. He wished that an Army of Reserve.
of this •o4t.tre shOuld be increased to 72,000
men, rind that the should be reducd to