The Sun.
London, England, 1803-12-10 00:00:00

eyes. of Europe, that after the parade of Inva.
sion,s slier coming to reconnoitre our Coasts,
'fie found. them .unattaekable.—Great as that tri-
.tnels 'would he, we. ought..'to- temper it. with the
leeoliedion pf what might happen afterwards ; we
.ought never to forget, with whom we werecontend.
big. He might decline- the attack for the present, .
butHaccompany it with a determination to resume
theattack at a future period, without. giving so
much waroing.. We ought not always to calculate
Litton. having' eight or ten months giveg to us to
prepare er his .reception.• Rut in proportion as
men might indulge-in congratulation, csnseing the,
Enemy baffled in his attempts, in the,samedegreeit
was to ~be apprehended:that when the,. danger, was
withdrawn, that spirit would be suffered to; linger
and'ittoulder for a time, though it certainly would
not be- extinguished., and then the Country might
be.called upon to meet the- sudden but long.metii.
wed attempt of ,the Enemy. It. should he their
peat objea to prevent that spirit from subsiding,'
and in doing so they would • not chew any diyrust
of the people, because they would only be think.
ing for them by the great, Council of . the . Na.
don. It would be the .boenden duty of Parlia.
ment to take
,care to .prevent the possibility that
any temporary termination of the danger should
lead to the disbanding of that Force on which
the safety of the Country depended. Perhaps,
something like the compulsory mt of last Ses.
sion :should be adopted, and to be. in force during
every period of the war, not with a view alone to
keeping up numbers, however important that might
be, but to pittiftnal attendance and that subordiea.
'don which Is essential to progressive improvement.
It might be proper, therefore, to provide, that no
person should ne permitted to withdraw from a Corps
withent the most substantial grounds, without 0b...
raining the leave of his Commanding (Nicer, and
providing, a proper Stibstitute. Though all these
regulations might be proper, he did nut mean that,
they were, so pressing in their nature' that they
ought to be adopted before. the Recess, There was
:another point connekted-with the subjed then tinder'
'disCussion, on which be would' only detain the Com.
Mime a few minutes---He meant Ile:, f (Itittg
which Volunteers stood with regaid to
He would not now inquire Why this point had re.
mained so long doubtful, or the Law did ri„t now
stand as it did at first upon hutj.:4t —.But he that
as it might, by the Law nett, sCood, no Volun.
teer was entitled to exemption whit had uota.regular •
Certificate of 24. days service before tta asst Sept.
delivered to him previous to that. time. 'ibis he
believed was nut generally Understood, but it purely,
could not be' inter t litedwho had served the
twenty -.four days, in ~,tlti fro/ nr not understanding
the All had neglected t) obtain their certificates,
slwold not have their exemptions,- or -would it be
"mid that those who had beeri accepted since that
time, and who had served the 24. days should not be
entitled to their exemptions; certainly that could •
not be the Intention of iris Isaljesty's Ministers. He
thought the brit;,t way would be to pass some short
Rxefivatot:, •,•1 upon the stibiA previous to the
Recess. There was another point respelling el.
emptions which required come explanation--the. Alt
listed' that Volunteers should not he entitled to
their exemption finless they mustered and 'exercised,
a mini,' tiugnixt of days with alms. Now in many
G,Neroment had riot a sufficient.. number of
Jos to, supply them. He did not mention this as a
!natter of blame, because considering the immense
number of men, that ,were mite armed in England
and Ireland, it was riot surprising that they 'had not
sufficient arms in readiness at once, but it. would not
be contended that those who were ready to receive
their arms, and who were adually drilled in march.
ing, ought not, to have their exemption.- He was
glad to find from the manner in which this ohsetva.
lion was received, thatsuch was not the intention of
Ills MajeStrs Ministers. At all events these points
ought.not to he left in obscurity, and he hoped that
beto re the adjournment these doubts would be cleared
toi by an explanatory Mt. These were all the ob.
servations,' With
,which he wished to trouble the
Committee; and he apologizedfor having taken up
so much of their time. Wltatever might be his
opinion respelling many parts of the cooduCt of His
nijcsty's Ministers, he woultiTabstain from enter..
ing into them at present, because he was determin-
ed to mix no consideration of that kind with the
great question of national defence. He would wily'
atouble the' toMmittee with one word more, and
that .was upon the subjea of the Sea ,Fericibles upon
which; his ,Rt. Hon; Friend had made some observe.
(ions, He should certainly agree with hid) that if the
Stm Fericibles were composed of that class of men who.
were liable to he impressed into His Majesty's Sea
"twice, it would, not only. be an neeless but an im.
proper institution. If they were only to stand be.
hind batteries with pikes in their bands, it would
undoubtedly be absurd. But the main objedl for.
which they were. employed was to lierve;agqat on
board the Gunboats, for which, they were pe.
culiarly qualified, and lie lamented that' there
was not more expetlitiOn in the Nye!! Depart.
merit in equipping those vessels, of which there
were very numerous offers. In this point of view
nothing' could lie more useful 'than this body
Of men, because it 'brought into altivity ' those
Who could .nnt'be employed on Waal Ships in' the
Navy, and who being chiefly Pilots and
,Fishermen,
could not be permanently liken from their families.
He had rid doubt,but they would in their Gim.boats
Ma ititain a most decided superiority over the boasted
Fletilla of the. Enemy,, and therefore,: instead of
counting thicinlui nothing, as his Right Hon. Friend
had doee, he; Itioked upon Mein as one of the most
!likable parts of our Force, and he was sure they
would not disappoint the
,expectations that. were
formed of them. lie would not, at present! , enter.
field
into any wider`eld of disdis'siont,litit When they
Cattle to that part of the &Mentes, he woOld pro.
po'e the Refolutione he had alluded to, -
Air.Seeretaty YO K observed, that, the. Right
k-lciii;Getilleman (Mr, girt)' had urged iheneces.
si ty Of voting more money-than nose:proposed
fur tti* service of -the Volunteers,' in:order to make
Olen!, as he advised,. more petfeet, by means of the
addition of a Field Officer and an Adjutant, arid he
had stated his convietion thit this would have a very.
,good effe4. He wished with the Right
.Hori.'
Gentlemen' that this important force should be made
as complete as the nature of it was capable, consist.

antsy at the same time whit necessary economy.'
.11ut he could not. help observing on that s9hji!et)
that time would be necessary to consider this mat-
ter before it should he adoptei. ail the- Corp+
Adjutants were allowed pay ; but it could not be
.contended that they, should be.allowed pay for the
wick year, it they had to attend only eighty-four
days, as stated by the Right Hon. Gentleman..
and Government should not rashly run into this
sort of expence. The, last 4Et ofrParlianient made
_upon-this subjeti provides, that the Volunteer Corps
should hCsubjett to such Regulations as His. Majesty
_tomuld chink 1-,t to, make, and .the compulsory clause,
in the Aft for calling out the Mass, might be re.
fared to as occasion should require. He observed,
11 that although twenty days pay was to be allowed
to those who had been trained for. twenty days, yet
they were not to be allowed it uoless they. had been .
trained and exercised on, the Sunday preceding,—
And most of !he Volunteer Corps hail been exec.
cised 40 asil-podoys, and many of them much more.
Now 411 the Volunteer Corps bad not only
lants upOn their. Establishment, but they were en.
,titled to pay, yet they were not entitled to pay
until called out ; and upon the principles of econo.
my, he, did not think that Government would be
justified in granting them permanent pay, ,unlesi
their attention to the station was permanent. It
could not be expetted that they should receive pay
for the whole year, for 84 days, any more than for
forty Qcfor twenty days. He thought, however, that
whet was stated by the Right Hon. Gentleman de.
servesigreat consideration. He said he wished to
be careful of incurring great expence; he did nos
say it war ati expence that might not to be incurred,
although the price was stated to besot:40001. It
certainly was not absolutely necessary to be voted
tonight, because the 'present Resolution proposed
• to the Committee, if adopted al. it stood, would
not preclude the 'other from being adopted after.
wards ;' for it might he voted at any time, as a sum
of money tin ace mot of the Volunteer Serviee, and
that, if necessary. might be very easily granted
but that would be improper now, not only because
it war not Clear ;hat 'the plan was eligible, al.
though he did not say it was not, but also be.
caitse the exr.nce of the Volunteer Corps as it
(rands at present' is not yet well ascertained ; for
these reasons he should:hope that the Right Ho.
nourible Gentleman would nor persist in this plan
for the present. • With regard to the advice of
the ;Right 110 Gen t I c itta n with reaped to the
Counties,Matititsie that.' they should have a
larger • proportion Of Volunteers. than 'the Inland.
Counties, .it hail 'l,-en already adopted, he-did- not
know whether to the full 'extent • or in exaa.pro.,
portion that they ought to be in each particular in.
-stance, but Certainly to a very considerable extent.
In De.Vonaliire, for instance, there were not less
thaw t 1,000, exclusive of Plymouth and the Dock.
The lame 'might be 'said 'of Portsmouth. At to
Kent,' there was a difference of opinion ; it appeal.,
eki,.however,' that from td to ti,ooo had been
fabled there., beside the of the 'Cintple-Ports,•
tome of which wor! ac x, as 'the Comtnitve
kneW, but in all the,- • .1 to cod° mew; so
that the Volunteers in the .only of Kent were not
less 'than 1.5.0450 men, This, he apprehended,
'would shew: the COmmittee that- the Maritime
Coiltities. in the South of the bland had been,
allowed to rake Volunteers in a manner suit.
able to the distinetinn 'stated by the Right' Ho-
nourable Gentleman So again in' the Counties
of Cumberland and Otarltam, and those Olt extended
to that part of the Coast,.there was a greater mint.
iver of Volunteers raised than .in other Counties ;
'not that the Inland Counties were scanty, but the.
Maritime Counties were abundant in' the number
of 'Volunteers. Now, on the subject of. Exemp-
tions, it was a subje4V on' which he should not en.
,ter.into detail: there had been doubts entettained,
ond these doUhts arose Out of the Aft of Patna.
went ; snme'of which doubts, .he ' could not' help '
were'occasioned by those who 'had not read
the Bill. Some of these points he had stated.-
However, if these doubts, were so considerable as he
apprehended,them to•he,'!it would 'be proper,. even
beiore the Recess, chat a Bill shotild be brought in
to remove those doubts.' He then proceeded to
exploits what he understood to be the operation of
the Army of Reierve as it bore on' the subjed al.
bided to by -those who had already spoken, and
then repeated,. that as he understood a considerable'
ntrttsber of 'Gentlemen Wished to have the matter of
Exemption of the Volunteer Corps' better explained
than it is at present, lie should propose 'to bring in
a Bill for that purpose, and observed, that he should
propme it before the Recess ; for he thought it
essential to remove doubts upon that lubjeet.
Mr, Wirrotiom explained what he inrant in that
part of his spec& which adverted to 'Sea Fencibles,
to refer only to the places in which they were to
be be employed : all he wanted was, .that they should
Ica employed in proper 'places, and for proper put.
poses, '
ORENTILLE said, that when he came
down to 'the House he intended doing as his Right
flori.,Friend (Mr. WiNottOtst) had done, that of
considering the present as a fair opportunity. fur
.reviewing the whole of the conduet of Administra.
Lion respetling the defence of The Country since the
time that salted* had been discussed in that House
last Session of Parliament, and upon that subjett
' he must set of with observing, 'that he was •not
under the necessity of enlarging much uptin many
of the topics which had been brought forward by
his Right Honourable Friend (Mr. Witinit Ma);
for they alb hitherto remained unanswered. He
observed, that when his Right Honourable reia.
'tiOn (Mr.. PITT) 'spoke, (whose late absence from`
the House, which was 'Unavoidable, he laniented),
he was attended to. With the respea his superior •
talents excited, • lie 'had wished to confine the
,titteniion ofilte Wise- tiiivisat was fit to be done in
future, without any reference to the past. This
sentiment of his Righi Honourable %dation einbar.
raised him a little, because the lesiva for the quer.
tee froni whence it came,4tatle him lament'lltal he'
could trot atiopr the sentiment. The quesiion' now
before thiCotnmittee way, to consider the Volunteer
Corps as a' force to enable Government to-disinose
-of them to any purpose Fps Majesty might' deem
expedient: Now he slid not conceive it possible to
form kcArretiopinion° up 'n that subjea, without
cbrisi&iiitz• .bo* .the Regular' Army 'cith exist a

long- tune -in this Country, c nisistently with the'
present system- of the Volunteer Corps ;, many "of
the doubtslie entertained were ni-that nature. He
admitted that the rivire',discip7ine the Vo!uureet
Corps had, the more efficient they would be ; hilt
if they were to be substituted let the Artny, as his
Right. Hott,'Relation stated, .he was 'apprehensive
that' the Recruiting of •the -Army would become
quite impossible. • Hr expatiated oh thii and other
topics at considerable length, end disapproved net
of the Volunteer Corps being raised, but of the
manner in which he conceived the Regular Force
had been interrupted in the Recruiting. He oh.
served, that he could net agree to the idea of con-
fining the discussion of to. night to the subject of
disciplining the Regular Corps, He conceived, o
the contrary, that the most important thing to be
attended" to for the true interest of the Country at
present, was that of pursuing means for augmenting
the Regular Army, and he apprehended that this
was more likely to diminish, than increase that
Army. 'We might be exposed to such danger in
Ireland as to be obliged to Send a regular force
there. We might also have occasion before this
War was over to send an Aimy again to Egypt, to
obtain, be *taped, the same laurels as they had
gained already there: bur all thin append to him
to be impossible, according to the system at pre.
sent adopted. He took occasion to observe, that
the Army of Reserve being raised by such immense
bounties, must interfere with the recruitingin the
Regular Army; and besides this, he conceived the
Army of Reserve and those of the Regulars to be is
very improper mixture, for thin mine, that one
man who lied received a bounty only of 81. or zol.
and who , was bound to go to any part of the
world, and to tontinue in the arevice'for life, would
have an ether by,ltie side who had received '504
bounty, anitiVho ;was nut beend to out of. this
'dead, nor to continue his serices longer than the
present,War. The one of these 'wOuni naturally
laugh at the other. With regard to the at for
regulating Volunteers, it was SO .defittive, that
many very ernellterlships were frit by Volunteers,
!He stated the case if same Volcw.,ers who had ex.
ctelsed i‘,.days without arms. 'Lite Lord Licuie-.
met ailVjeed them nor to train any mare until they
had attnsitfitr that otherwise they would toile the
benefit of the Att,.which required that they should
Ikai/e been trained with arms tot apart of this time.,
They accordingly desisted for. the four days wait.
ing for arms, but they' got none. In the mean
time, they were ballotted in for the Militia, and
when they claimed their exem,itian as Volunteers,
they could not be exemeted thus they lost their
exemptions, not byany ad of their own, but by the
at of ;Government. This shewed the 'absolute inc.
cessity of reeisig, this A.R. He recommended' a
revision of all the measittli of Govermitent in Mill.
tars Aft i rs:
Mr. P ITT explained. . - •
•
Lux.!C4STLIiRE4GfI entered into a very long'
-defence.of the_coneurt of Administration since the/
commencement of the present War. Ile admitted
that it was perfedly fair to canvass the whole orate:
measures of Goiernment previoui to the voting a
SUM of money of w`ich they were to' have the dii;
tribution. That it isaobe expected that Minister.
should satisfy the House they hail` not negleded
their duty iaatehigabey lied_ hitherto done, before
they could
,exped the confiderree''Of the-/Liuse or of
the PUblic. He went further, and most reaaily
admitted that- n Administration had ever met
so little, opposition in the Of so much
general support
,out of it, by the zeal and public
spirit of ;a ranks and descriptions of persons, as
the present bed' hitherto !net. They were, therefore, •
he was ready to admit, without excuse, if they
had negleded to put tit,. Country in a proper nate
to meet its present. exigency ; bat he apprehended
it would .not appear that they had, when he came •
to state what had beenalone since the commence-
ment of the present,. War. It •was urged triumph.
antly, that the Bounty of the Army of Reserve hint
put an end entirely to recruiting. One fad'. wee •
worth all the speculative reasoning that could- be
made use of on this orany other subjed: Jr ap.
reared in point of fed' that the Bounty of the
Army of Reserve had only occasioned, for the -
last two months, a diminution of one-third of the
Recruiting Service for the Regulars. The truth,
was, that money was not the only incentive to:
men .to enlist in the Army, of which this- laft •
was a proof. As to the state of our present'
Force, the Noble Lord said, that a simple
statement of it would -skew to the House 'whe.
titer Ministers had been diligent or negligent...l.
Our present Force stood thus :, In Great Britain
the 'number of Volunteers, exclusive of: Officers,
Was 34.0,000 men, and in Ir:lurid 70,000 men,"
making the Volunteer Force, Ralik and File
4.10,0013. The• Regulars were in Great Britain
120,000 IWO Rank and File. Taking the Force
in Guernsey and Jersey, and' 'Regulars, Artillery,
dec. the amount of which was -113o,ocio• men, the
whole amonht was 590,000, exclusive of ze,006
Sea Fefreibles,- which he considered as part of the
general Force for the Defence of the Country,
i,,,,,a401 as they may eerve,on Lund as well as on
Sea. He ask whether this was evidence,
supineness in His Majesty's Ministers ? So that
we had 'now a Force of between 600,000 and
700,000' men. There 'might he some delicacy
perhaps in, speaking Minn this • subject, yet he
thought the ' troth better he stated than
concealed upon this as well as on every other Ma.
sion. -Them were stlme of the Volunteers who had
not yergot their arms, but the number who had
been trained, and at present armed, were in Great
Britain 350,000 men, and in Ireland t 20,000,
making in all .470,610 armed with firelocks; in
this he did not ikiclude the a s.aDoo Sea Feneibles,
nor did he include any pikes that were to he given
to Volunteers, which itneunfed to 70,000 MUM ut
primps nearer 80,000.- There would be new left
fr nn ;about 130 to 150,000, yet to arm in this
Ccuntry.= Besides, there was a great store of
:qt.'s' now ready to be delivered as mew be
jut! Jed expedient, besides the' 326,000 'Staii'd of
arms that had been provided 'slime the commence.
Menu of this War. Nor. was: this all, . for the
Ordnance had kept pace with this adivity, which was
greiter than ever-had been known in any former
period-; for, as lit had stated, not less than 350,c,n0
itend'Of Met had- been• issued since the commence.