Star.
London, England, 1808-04-13 00:00:00

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a subsidiary force of :400,00) mat in times of
peace as well as of war, and also a regular Mi-
litia army of 250;000,r. We 'might consider sour-
selves as abundantly* secure from arty attack of the ene-
my. Upon military principles, and from the best mi.
litars opinions he had heard, it would he utterly im-•
possible to bring a greater force than this to action in
this' country ; and it must always be remembered that
everyexpence, greater than theobject requires, was as
much wasted. As to the armed peasantry, he had no
idea in the world of their acting with effect against the
enemy. There were very few countries in the world
where a peasantry of that description was able to act
with any effect. He did not think that this was a
country where much could be expected from a force
of that deseriptson. He relied, however, that with
such a force as he had stated, the country would be
abundantly strong enough to repel any attack. After .
several general observations, his Lordship concluded
by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to carry into
effect the plan he had opened to the House. It was
his intention to bring in a Bill to-morrow, that it might
be printed, and lie in the hands of the Members dur-
ing the recess.
Mr. YO RK,E approved of the plan of his Noble
Friend ; he: wished however to suggest some ideas in
order to perfect the 'plan so as to render it a complete
barrier against the enemy in case of attack. If peace
was to be obtained, it could only be, under the pre-
sent circumstances, by being prepared for war. The
principal parts of the plan which met his concurrence
were those which provided for filling up the vacan-
cies in the regular force with so large a number of men
as 50,000, and ror raising a Militia force in those coun-
ties where the Volunteers were not kept tsp. He was
aware of the objections to a large standing army, but
it was the spirit of independence and sense of danger
which reconciled the Country to the innovation made
on the Constitution by the increase. The Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman suggested the necessity, nut to
a good Regular Army, and of a stationary local Mi-
litia, that an intermediate force should be raised ap-•
plicable to local and regular service—that while the
local Militia 'should never be called out of their coun-
ties, except in cases of invasion, the 'intermediate
corps should, as occasion might arise, serve either in
Great Britain or Ireland. He thought we could not ,
proceed better in respect to our Military, than in• imi-
tating the French, who founded their system upott the
Romans, the greatest nation ever known—they had a
sort . of, National Guard, which were sedentary and
moveable. He hoped this would be the last plan the
Country would hear of, and that it would be perma-
nently settled.
Mr. WINDHAM made soMe observations on
what had fallen from the Right Honourable Gentle-
man. (Mr. Yorke)' with respect to- his• hopes of the
present measure being the ,last of the kind the House
should hear of. These remarks would more properly
apply to those who came with• new propositions.
Their language was, u why 'c'annot we be unani-
mous?" The answer was 'very.easy—u why then, do
not you come over to our opinion ?". The Right Ho-
nourable. Gentleman, who was so extremely anxious
for a settled plan, had stated some half dozen ideas
which would have the effect of making the Noble
Lord's plan more complex. For• the present he
should not go into a detailed examination of the plan,
• which no doubt the Noble Lord and his friends
thought a good one, and which indeed combined
process on process, had wheels within wheels, but
not the machinery necessary for deception. It was
iiht a plan which the critics would call full of bustle
Mid incident, full of stage effect, to keep the audience
on the tiptoe :
" Quod potent fieri per paueiora,
" Non debit fieri per plum."
Howe.= the means were complicated, the end was
simple enough—(4 /aegis !I—The Noble Lord had
two objects in view; first, to,provide a supply for the
Regular Army, and next to meet the danger from
a foreign foe. On the first object, the ' Noble Lord
had been silent ; in fact the supply was provided to
his hands before he came into office--the former Ad-
minFstration had rendered hini that service. ' The
Noble Lord had done him the honour to say, that he
(Mr. Windham) expected great virtue from the
Training Act. The fact was, that all he expected
from it was, that the men would enrol themselves.. -
But it seemed that the present plan was to save the
country from the dreadful effects of this Act, which
was a sort of " raw-head and bloody bones" to the
present Government—(A laugh).—ln order to do
• that, this revue Act was to be made more mild, by
engrafting on it measures of greater severity. Vas
the Noble Lord aware of the danger of taking men
a distance from home ? All ages would be corrupt.
ed in their morals by being on permanent service
in towns. If the Noble Lord would ask any sober
resident Magistrate in the. country, he would find '
that the great objection to the system' of perma-
nent duty was, that the men's morals became
corrupted. The Right Honourable Gentleman. then
vindicated his own plan of defence, and..ridiculed the
idea of the Noble Lord's procuring men of military
time, merely because they had been inspected, in red
coats on a fine day on the parade. Such an idea was
childish in the eatreme; it was like dressing out a ship
pf the line in fine colours, for show, not for service. He
must still retain his opinion, that the Volunteer system
was a false one. He condemned the rage, the passion,
the appetite, which Government upheld—of having
s,)lciiers for life. Ministers, however, get patronage by
it, while the plans of the last Achoinistratitat had not
a single job in them; they had noticing in.fact in
view but beneficial advantage to the country. With
respect to the _Volunteer System, it was the
.fmest
fund for favour and enmity which Govcrnment.could
have. They had 2000 Volunteer Serjeants employed
on the recruiting, each man had WI. 'if he procured a
recruit ; these '4OOO got about 600 men. Under the
former plan, 400 officers were employed, who pro-
cured 200 G men, and 'gave security fox 401. This was
proceeding by the rule of inverse proportion. • Those
- l:erjeants, if they did not get men, got money 0-,-for
they save no security, and pocketted it. this was
hieing penny wise and pound foolish.
Lord CASTLEREAGH and Mr..AVINDHAM
minim* explained. . •
Girieral RLY.TON contended, that the army
was alieady sufficiently strusig .for the defence of time
• kintclom. The gigh,t Homily/14e Gentleman, (Mt.
. Windham), in hine!gard (sir his bantling, reminded
m ctj the lamentation of Rachel weeping over her
Laren, laugq Pee-Rig-lit Honourable Gm:.