Star.
London, England, 1806-05-07 00:00:00

reafun why the Honourable Colonel had voted oil
the former occafion for the repeal of this Bill, was
I in order to remove it out of the way of the great
meafure propofed by the Right Hon. Gentleman ;
and, with all due deference to the great military au-
thorities who fupported this Bill, and oppofed the
meafure of the Right Hon. Gentleman becaufe it
was new and untried, he begged to °Verve, that fo
aro was the date of the country new and unparal-
leled, and one that called for new and extraordinary
meafures; the (yam of Europe was fuch as made it
indifpenfable for the country to depart from old and
ettablithed ufages, and to become, fnr its own fecu-
city, a great military nation. Unlefs the induce-
ments pi-minted by the new plan were held out to the
lower orders of the people of England, how wcre a
fufficient number of men, cradled in liberty, and
reared from infancy in a fpirit of independence, to
be induced to enter for general fervice ? Such was
,he neceffity of an adequate difpofeable force, that
lintels our army was fo compofed, as to be imrnedi-
defy convertible from defenlive to offenfive opera-
tinny, it could never ate with the necelfary effect for
national fecurity. Therefore, the fyitem for recruit-
ing the force mud be the tole and general one in tile;
to produce its full effeft, it muff meet no rivals in
every market town. A partial trial of it would be
produdive of no gond confequence ; but if upon fair
experiment it (hook' fail, recourfe to coercive mea-
-1 Cures might then be had, upon grounds the TWOik fair
acid mineable. Bet in voting for the repeal of this
Bill, he by no means pledged himfelf to fimport the
whole detail of the plan propofed by the Right Ho.
nourable Gentletnan. There Were, on the contrary,
Come parts of it which he did not entirely approve :
he (hould, for inftance, not be difpofed to refign the'
Volunteers, whole tel vices he highly approved, and
whofe competence for action in the field, fn far as
he had feen them, he thought in no degree objection.
able. He had Peen in Great Britain but a few batta-
lions of them, and thofe in Scotland, whole dilcipline
he thought complete; but in Ireland, where he had
teen very numerous bodies of them m the field, he'
confidered them inferior to no troops of any delerip-
Lion, and competent to ferve in the line wish any
corps whatever. There were other parts of the detail
too upon which he differed; for inftance, on dividing
the period of 2 t years fervice, he timid think the fink
term (hould be much the longed; but he could by
no means agree to the argument which had been ad-
duced, that the fuldiers now entifted for life would
unmoor, or feel ditcontent, becaufe 'others in the
fame regiment fhould hereafter enli(t for (hotter pc
rinds. Tie knew *too well the charader of Britith
foldkrs, to apprehend any fuch confequence ;
they knew the terms of :heir original entitimetto ,
and it was do 1. art of their chat-after to murmur
when faith was fairly kept with them. He fear-
ed no relaxation of difctpline on the account of
approaching dileharge to men entitled for limited pe-
riods. and could not therefore accede to fuch an im-
putation upon the officers of regiments. lie could
never fuppofe it podible that a Bonilla foldicr would
intilt upon his ditcharge Co long at his country was in
danger, nt that he would be content to retire to his
pariah, branded with the fulpicioa of cowardice. He
thought the enlisting for that period well calculated
to obtain a better order of recruits, and to remove
many of the'caufes which led to revere and ignomini-
ouspunifinents, fo defirable to abolifh, if it were at
allpradicable; • and fur his own part he lhonld prefer
troops actuated by that moral courageorod fdife of
honour and love of their country, however fosse
Gentlemen might be difpofed to ridicule thole fenti-
utents in the foldiery, than by that cold mechanical
phyfical courage, created by revere difcipline and
bards treatment, with no other motive of anion, than
the dread of punament, and the confederation of 1
pay : and he would appeal to every officer who had
led troops into )lion, which defcription of men he
would prefer to command in any arduous enterprise. I
Lord CASTLEREAGH was fully aware, that no'
talk could be more ungracious to undertake, than
that of endeavouring to diffuade Parliament from
the adoption of a plan which the Right Honour-
able Gentleman, as one of his Majelly's Minifters, at
fo arduous, had taken fn much pains to con-
vince himfelf, and to convince the Houk, was the
mod eligible for their adoption : but the deep and
tiding tulle he felt, of the fuperior efficacy of the
bill now propofed to be repealed, to all the objets
propofed by the Right Honourable Gentleman for art
efellive increafe of the public force, was Inch, that
he could not, without an abfolute dereliftion of his
public duty, omit to imprefs upon the Houfe the in-
furmountable objeltions he had to the Right Hon.
Gentleman's ph.n, and the motives which induced
him to•give a decided preference to the bill now pro.
pored to be repealed, in order that his Majefly's Mi.
niflers (hould not have inadvertency to plead ; ana
that upon their own Moulders might red the refpon-
hbility of throwing out of their hands, wantonly
and unneceffarily, a plan of military arrangement,
which hadd• been found fo productive, for the fake of
adoptirg a new projel which never had been tried,
and in fupport of which the Right Hon. Gentleman
had fearcely deigned to give to the Iloule a (Ingle
reafon, in anfwer to all the objedions which had
been oppofed to it. Not even the brilliant and du-
' quest (peed) of a Right Hon. Friend of his (Mr.
1 Canning), on a former night, could wring from the
Right Hon. Gentleman a fingle anfwer to any of
his able and irrefidible arguments. In the arr.
intnts he was' about to offer, he (horrid ftridioufly
avoid any application to the military part of the hill,
and dired his obfervations merely to the civil part of
it, which was of fufficient magnitude for the prefers[
difcuffion, and which teemed to be the branch mod
obnoxious to tie Right Hon. Gentleman, and there
who now fupported him. The fird paint to be COO.
fidercd, was the patient deficiency of the army, and
tie further increafe of that deficiency likely to Bow
from the Right Hon. Gentleman's plan, before this
Bill (hould be abandoned for the fuliditution of one
new and untr:od. The pit fait deficit was twenty.
five thoufand men ; and time annual deficiency, ariting
from caftialtier, could not he etlimated at Ids than
' fifteen ihnufand men. 'elk Right Hon. Gentleman
pmpofed t 2 difebarge all torn who had already far,-
ed for twittyaine years, which would amount to 9
battalkalgoof veteran loldiers. This would produce
annually—a very confiderahle addition to the deficit
by calrialties. He propored, betides, to let the Mi•
lids irallfe away to its otiginal eflablament, at the
rate orabout five thoitfand men per annum, which,
added to the ether deficits, would form oue grand j

deficit in the tattling rat of no lets than fifty•one
thoufand men. The ordinary recruiting fervice, to
fupply this; produced, upon an average of the lath
five years, about eleven thoufand men per annum,
In that at the latter end of the nett year, upon` this
calculation, the deficit from the propofed force of
the country would be no lets than f qty thoufand men,
and this alarming deffiva and difficulty would be
produced under the plan of the Right Hon. Gentle.
titan, adopted without any caufe or neeeflity what-
ever. He would undertake to thew, that by this
plan, the cafualties would be doubled, and the necef-
lities of the recruiting fervice increafed from fifteen
thoufand to thirty thoufand men per annum. The
Noble Lord next proceeded to hate the average pro-
duce of the ordinary recruiting fervice, under lime
feveral periods during the war—namely, before the
operation of the Army of Referee; during the ope-
ration of the Army, of Referve—the interval between
tl-e operation of that army and the Additional Force
11 Il—and laltly, the operation of the Additional
Force Bill Will. In. the &ft period, the average of
recruits raifed per mouth, for twelve months, was
nine hundred and eighty. The next was a period 0f..,
eight months, average (even hundred and eight men;
the third was under the Army of Referee, and the
average (even hundred and fifty one; and the fourth
when the Additional Force Bill came into operation,
the average, monthly, was nine hundred and eight
men. Now, during the laft period, neither the Army
of Referee nor the Militia were in operation,and there-
fore, the increafed number could not be fairly reek-
, oiled as a general average; but it was found that while
' the Parith Officers were obtaining their quota of men,
recruiting parties, aBing for the Bill, felt no dimi-
nution in their fuecefs ; and there could not be a
fironger argument againh parting with this Bill, than
that it had given tBOO men within the lath two
months, and that it would certainly have produced
Soon more by the latter end of the year, notwith.
handing the obvious damp cart upon its operation by
the fufpenfe and difcouragement under which thole
who had seed under it, for the WI two months, had
laboured. Thefe fads, then, he defired to be con.
trailed with the plan propoled by the Right Hon.
Gentleman, the firlembjeft of which was to call down
a fyllem that had been found fo-produftive, for the
adoption of one totally novel nod untried, which the
Right Hon. Gentleman had repeatedly, before his
acceilion to office, detailed fro m the oppolste fide of
the Houle, and to which no Members had expreffed
their oppofition in terms of flronger condemnation
and contempt than many of thole very men who were
now piepared to applaud it in terms of the higheß
panegyric. A emellion very neceffary to be confi-
detest, .as, whether the Right •Ilon. Gentleman in.
tended to fubltitute, in aid of his ordinary recruiting
fyflem, any parochial plan of this V ncl ; fur expert
ence had proved, that, without .e aid of fame pa-
rochial levy, he would not be enabled to mite the
complement of men 'requi cd in time of war; for even
fuprding it otherwife pranicable, upon the great
mars 41 population in the United Kingdom, it would
he impoffible, cnnaently with the intereft and effi
ciency of military fervice, to detach a fufficient cum-
her of recruiting partiessfrom the different regiments
of the line to teach the whole of that population.—
. For inftance, the population was calculated at
5,000,000, fpread over ts,coo parifhes ; and fop-
pofiog that Soo recruiting parties were detached, the
proporti us would he a party to every thirty parithes,
or 30,000 men, there would never be fufficient to try
within the year the operation of the recruiting fer-
vice upon to extenfive a field. Loft year the num-
ber of parties detached on the ordinary recruiting,
were 450, while Oink under the Additional Force
Bill were 260. There confined of 4.c00 men, of
whom 630 were valuable' officers, whom the fervice
could hjy.no means fpare ; and when the expence of
maintaining thole officers and foldiers on the reel ult.
ing fervice was conlideted, it wee clear that the ex-
pence mutt be added in the charge of railing the
men. This amounted lall year to co oocol. *Web,
on an average of the men railed, amounted to no lets
a firm than 181 per man, exclufively of all bounty to
'the recruits themfelves. Now, if the Right Hon.
Gentleman would compare thi, with the expence of
railing men under this Bill, he would find, that
the charge in the pariffies did not exceed an average
of four guineas per man. Had his Mikity's late
Minifler. continued in office, it was certainly their in-
tcntinn to have taken advantage of that fyflem, for
the general recruiting fervice, and to have ellablifhed
a kind of parochial agency in every part of the king
dom. He knew too well the opinions of the Right
Hon. Gentleman of filch agency to capriole he would
adopt it, confidering, as he did, every man in co.
hooted clothes, who railed a recruit, as nothing
better than a crimp. But from the belt enquiries he
couldsm;ke, he was able to learn, that any benefit to
be derived in this way, mull be under the local influ.
ence of the parifhes, and not by any unknown officers
appointed by Government, who would infallibly
become obnoxious to tine people, be regarded as crimps,
And their cautions prove tnt.illy unfuccefiful. He
would not deny that abufes had trilled under the
operation of the Aft in rmehion, bur he denied thirt
they exited to the extent that bad been flared, or'
that they were in their nature incurable. With all
there tubules, however, that a 0 had already furniffied
the country with a vet y conli.lerable augmentation of
it. military force, and much more might trill he ex-
peeled from its operation. One ahafe had hrcn Rated
to be, the circuitous bounty which' had been given to
tluda entering the line ; but this enly amounted to
rive guineas per man, :it'd d:4l not extend to more
than 3800 men, who had crililled for general lzrvice.
It had alto been hid, that arc praftice of railing men
by agency bad been an a:ittfe arifing from the A,'.
But he would contend, that it was as much local m
its operation as the Militia Cavite; and that tinder
it the men were in general as firiftly levied within
every pat Ocular county. Betides, there was nothing
in the nature, even of the Militia fervice, which pre.
vested the introdudior of agency to a certain extent.
The fyllemof agency had always (lined in frame de-
gree, even in the Militia, and was not an abate con.
fined to the AO. It was not forprifing that the me -
fure fhould have been at Grit received by Gentlemen
in the country, with tome degree of laffitude and in-
difference, from the experience they had had of pre.
ceding plars t and he would venture to predlft, that
the Right Hnn. Secretary's Levy en Mae would
meet with a limilar reception. It had alit been ftid,
the operation of the Ad had been oppreffive to the
country ; but we bad I;ketrife to confides tha momma.

-• ~.

tots fituation in which the country was placed, and
the difficulties with which we were furrounded.— • 4:
( Here Mr. Windham whifpered the espreflion 4, •
bedinget
that he
miNyao:7laedneLdriotwor
would
udclondthaet
ginaautiineldi
repeat,rinbny ts. flthelshav
et.
;.
Right Hon. G
as the exigencies of the country were great, the pre
fent was not the proper fcalbn for repealing an Aft
that had been found, on the whole, produatve ; and
he unified, that the Houk, and the country, would
compare the expencc occafioned by it with its rernks,
and would make their option. But he contended,
acaxpeedacuepoans,haitdhbeadennoat,tbeened. ait
whlftnhthpfiarso,ll:l:tierliyihnnainced the county of Lekener,
tendedb tWhereti:PaetnPn'wraid, the full complementnd a
at
a much of twolil
th
lap e
cn d r ecd
than men hada e a
fame number had been railed under the Army of •Re-
fcrve AR. Wherever the Ail had been carried into
diva with zeal and attivity, there it had produced
the defied arta ; but its partial failure was not fur-
ptifing, when it was reconciled what Aunties the
meafure had occalioned in that Houk. hany EMIT
efforts had been made to obtain its repqd, and ip
bow few counties it had been sited upon with zeal
and energy. When it was alto confidered how com-
plete had been the ignorance of the Parini 046eers
with regard to its nature, and how much trouble the
applications to the inflicts for its explanation had on-
cafioned, its failure in many parts of the country
would create Inn life futprife. But now, fince Its
nature had been more fully undernood, its produce
had been gradually increafing, and we were entitled,
from the opinions given by the harpotting Field Clf-
ficers, to capita that it warld Rol continue to ine-
creafe. He felt confident that nothing which she
Right Hon. Secra:ary had tithe** Nam* foaw•pd,
was et all calculated to ccunpenfatetbe.lefawhiibehe
country would furtain by aht reptql of the AR I .cad
he would venture to ptcsna, that ware hia plans
adopted, it would be stecy in leis than a year *0
have recoutfe to fume imager meeftlee theft bad yet.
been fallen upon, for fupplying that deficioacj hitter
military arength, which
,his plans wmald produce.—
There was a claufe in the Bill before the }lnure.
to which he had the Ilrongefk objeainnt namely,
that which went to indemnify pariflies from thole
fines which they bad already incurred under the
operation of the AO. This, be contended, would
be equiva:ent to Parliament furrendering its autho.
rity, would be incompatible with the dignity of
the Legiflature, and would operate its A pernecioAs
precedent in future. It was alfounjun, iaaliuscb an
it placed the Olive and the negleaful patinae. exaMly
on the fame level. In proof of this, he Mould ad-
duce the innatice of St. Mary.la.Bonne peril)) : Its
qcota under the Referve AR had been 225, and under
the prefent A t So; but 1% had sot railed, and indeed
had not endeavoured to rails a angle man under
either. On the other hand, Se. Anne's parilh, in the
immediate vicinity, had found every man tilts quotas
and thefe parifhes were now propofed to be placed
precifely on the fame footing, and the letter inigbt
confute itfelf as it bed could, under all its arognce
and trouble, while the former gat off triumphant. •
It went to remove every diliinainn battle* Aga.
parithes that did their duty under the Asi of Parlia-
ment and Mote that negleaed it. He apologised to
the Houk, for having taken up In much of their thee
on this occafilan, but the fubjea id& was of ruck
importance. and branched out into to soma! eitilifwar
twos, that he did noefeel competent in do it juikialt
without entering much into detail. On the Oak;
he was convinced that no meafure which the Righi
Hon. Gentleman could bring forward lynch/ prt
an equal number of men with the Ara which it was
propofed to repeal. indeed he could not oils Milli-
ners more embartairment than that they Mould go
on with the experiment which bad been propo4ed.—
If he and his friends *jibed to fee their menfures
dirgraced, they could not more ereaually ;in their
objcit, than LT withdrawing all oppolliton to tbek
military plans. He bad at prefent confitseti
to the civil adminifiration of the AR, but thould on*
future occaflon Rate thole arguments which went tp
I rapport the military part of its operation. •
Mr. DENNIS BROWNE would not vote for the
repeal of the Ad, becaufe he knew that, in the coon-
try with which he was ben acquainted, it had beep
carried into effefl in st variety of ;seances. In Ire-
land, during the lan (even weeks, it had produced at
the rate of feventy•four men a week, and if naively
carried into execution, it would every where Fadatie
tine &fired number.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQIIEIita
in reply to the Right Hon. Gentleman who (poke
tan, laid, that the relent queition related to the ft.
peal of the 661 for England alone ; and then wont
nn to obferve, that he had felt much *Stature from
the Noble Lord's confining himfeif to the meters of
the 9ueflion immedifitely before the }lnure, withoqt
mixing with it any of that estrawoue nattier which
had been fo profufely brought forward on a former
occalion. The Aft in queltion bad been originally
propored, as founded on a new theory, oppofite tp
Its nature to every preceding meafure. kt was dy-
figned by its author, to have the dike of fubfiituting
local influence to local compulfion which had sir.
iced before under the Army of Iteferve. . The pro.
per method of dill:toting its-value, would, be to con.
fider how ninth it bat aided to the military lirength
of the country; from the degree in whjeltit had attain. '
ed that ohjea mull it now be )'udged. Not money but
men were the proper ',hied at the meafure ; it would
therefore he of impnrtanceyo eke:rain in what degree
that phicet was accnmplifhel. It was computed, that
I by the to of oa,iher afips, 25,000 men would be
raif,d under the AO, while, in fai.ri, up to that pe-
, rid it had no: produced more than tlioo, and penal.
t.tr t9.th :,mount of4E,OOD). were incurred. It had.
r.
I
f the
CbtFa ytatot" work, kn however,,
a li
ti wt lreivaniiitetClhle:fallresncen Piibdtuot chye next
levied
under
machineryxcv,
concludedmi t military
eodi
aori r
wielde
that on
d °A
uf fio.
tb. cnn:".
tive. He therefore took a pr.fpeelive view of the
wpthrotoubalwdbhloaelieneffutunedhe: opinfrotiatitaehp,blelotealsiel
sa,oco men, and the
atsentrineifilidae;thnlsy:o7:wofto,urs.thuhicociedaknrnominilii::.odat.fuSluech.wehreeciotofidered as the probable
permitted to cnotinoe ;
st
ewhatfe
beet,a theufva lr it yi en of a
force Ibissk Din ftlibi iiiitbabeeproni•
toght
held by the
c coe
ountrGydatrt.the qualityimportance Lirgwhoothatdbebalecara Hn
unanttneus in calling ter its repeal. It war., mil •