Star.
London, England, 1807-01-28 00:00:00

planded the military ertr.ltro,of Mr. Addington's i
Administration„to which he had given his cordial I
fupport till a th'trt time hefore ire dilfolurion. He;
had then been lett to believe that fill more might be
clone; 'Mr. Pitt had Ed I'Ver for hi, fitpport by his'
Additi,nal Force Bill, which recommended iifelf by
its engagement to provide, at an eat ly period, a large-
addition to . our exittirg force, and to eitablith a.
fy Rem tar its pet manent fiipport. This hope had been-
ray:Ta3/y difappointed: themeaftre had totally failed,
and he himfelf, had felt it to be his duty to vote for
its repeal. He fooke of Mr. Addin?ton's Army or
I Ittt.f.:rve Bill as a rozafure of unexampled vigour and
; ellieiency ; and laid, that experience had taught him
bow much more fueeefsful the military me:-.lure;
f that Minifler were than thofe of his fucceffot s.—
He had himielf indeed, contttbuted to the removal
of his Government by the vote which he had given,
but it was given under an impreilion which fubfoquent
events had proved was fallacious and delofive.
Sir ROBERT WILLIAMS politively dented that
the new military meafures had affeaed the volunteer
fyftem. He commanded a coaiderable corps himfell.
The expence of the Juneallowances was immenfe, and
the original pay of the Drill Serjeants extravagant,
and it was right to reduce them. The Infpeeing
Field Officers were, generally (peaking, of very little
nfe. No one complained, or could Frilly complain
of thefe regulations, not even the volunteers them-
felves. He had not IoR a man, nor was he likely to
lofe any.
Tire .CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQTER,
in an eloquent fpeech, which the limits of our Paper
will not admit of our doing jollier to, replied to the
leveral attacks that had been made on the new fyftem.
He Rated, that it was already produaive to as great
an extent as could hive been ,xpefled in fo short a
(pace of time, even by its moll fanguine advocates.
In the coma: of the Lail year near rz,033 men Mad
been railed ; an..l the moll recent returns warranted
a well founded hope, that thofe for the months of
' January and February, would be decifive as to the
gradual progtels which recruiting for the regulars
was now experiencing. This meafure, however,'
was not merely intended to operate as to the
number, but to the quality and charneh:r of the men
to be r-iiled by it. It Lid the foundation of improved
' refpeßability in that branch of the pul-,lic fervice, on
which fo much of our future falety might depend ;
its provifions would afford liberal remuneration for
1 honourable and laborious fervices. He law no reafon
1 to entertain a doubt, but that a generous country
would be willing, and a wealthy country abundantly
able, to bear whatever expence a meafure, with fuch
objeas in view, might be attended with. This in-
creafe, however, would be amply compenfated by the
redtthion of high bounties, by the diminution of de-
fertion, and by the confiderable retrenchments to be
made in other branches of Military Departments.—
His Lordthip particularly inilanced thofe of the
Commiffariat, the Barrack Mailer, and the Staff. In
the fir( there was a Caving from the tedudlion of the
I 1 number of Commiffaties; in the fecund there had _c
1 a faving Tall year of 503,0331. to which an additional
1 faving of 50,0001. would this year be made ; and
from the annual expence of the Staff 43,3001. had
been taken off. The retrenchments tco in the ex-
pence of the Volunteer Corps had been confiderable,
without impairing that important branch of fervice,
without wounding the feelings, or ciiminifhing the
numbers of that meritorious body of men. They
were not mercenaries, but men who, unbiaffed
by fcififh confiderations, were the foremoll to ap-
prove and applaud meafores calculated for the ge.l
neral advantage. The diminution of their numbers
was comparatively (mall : in the preceding year it
had amounted to nine thcufand, when their allow-
ances were the moll lavilh and extravagant ;—in
the lot only to 11,003, when thok allowances had
been reduced. He had repeatedly heard from the
Hon. Gentleman oppofite to him (Mr. Rofe) who
was not a little fond of talking of economy, of the
boafted reforms intended to be made by the Govern-
ment to which he had belonged. Tilde boafts, how-
ever, were mere words, never realifed, never ailed
upon ; and he could not but think it a pity that the
country fhould have 101 l the benefit of the Honourable
Gentleman's talents, from the exertions of which he
hirnfelf taught the country to have expaled fuch be-
n- ficial refults. His Lordihip concluded by repelling
the charge againa Government for not having former
fent out reir.le:rcements to Buenos Ayres.
Mr. ROSF. explained.

Sir JOHN NEWPORT, in anfwer to what had,
been faid refpeaing the Muller Matter in Ireland,
obferved, that whether that office was executed by
one or more, it occafioned no increafed expense to
the public, as the emolument arofe wholly from fees,
not from falary. He then adverted to the bill then
on the table, for abolifhing tinny eight finecure offices,
and reforming twenty fix more in Ireland, which he
h ►d brought in, and complained that its beneficial
operations had been in many inflances defeated by the
]with grants of feveral of thele offices, by the late
Adminill ration, often too deep in reverfion, by which
means, in one infiance, though the office intended to
be abolifhed had twice become vacant, fince he had
filled his prefent fituation, it was (till full, and the'
public could not have tbc bent of the reform for
m iny year; to come.
Mr PERCEVAL defired to know, whether all
there reforms, Which were fo much bodied, had not
been introduced in confequence of the fuggeftions of
the Commifiione►s appointed by the lel Aeminifira-
tion ; if it could be flitted, that the bill referred to
had carried the reform fill further, f,,me merit might
be claimed by the new Adminifiration; but it not,
they were cuti'led to none. He laid Mr. Pitt's abo.
lition of iinecilres, on coming into office, was not to
be meaftied by zo's or 33's, but by too's: at leaft
it had es ended beyond one hundred. Perhaps
the bell ground of complaint for the Hon. Baronet
would be, that fo few offices were now left for him to
increaft 1.i.; economical fyfiem upon. He faid, it was
curi,,us to hear Minificrs vaunting in terms of high
fl:wn panegyric the military meafures of a Noble
Vifcnunt (Sidmouth); praifes, which were perfonally
grateful to him, but which ill became thofe who had
coofantly vilified them with every term cf reproach
.vhich their imagination could fuggell. On the new
plan fer recruiting the army, by which it was expec•
ted not only to raife mote men, but men of a better
deScription, Le afked, in what new clais of the com-
munity were fuch men to be found ? Were they to be
created or generated for the purpo* of this meafure ?
The wilts watt there was only a certaitl proportion

of the population that could be brought into the mill-
ury fervice of the country, and he believed thole
now engaged in the various military and naval ells•
hlifliment., in the commercial marine, bore a
19rger proportion to the general mats of the People,l
than they did in any other people. He concluded by
adverting to the orders and regulations eflablifhed by
his &I...jelly's late warrart, and cleared to be informed
whether foldiers difcharget, when called upon to
fer ve till they had completed their periods of fervice,
were to retain the pention to which they were at the
I time entitled ?

Mr. I,VINDHANI ftid, that the Honourable
Gentleman had the talent of throwing fo much ani-
n:atiou into a debate, as to route the molt exhauQed
attenfir,n, in which flotation at this late hour, he
cr.rifeEd he found himfelf. Fatigued, however, as
he was, he mutt fay a tew words.
In anfwer to the quetlion, be flake!, that the pen-
fion would be fufpended dt:'ing the time of fervice,
but wr uld revive, according to the right icquired by
the foldier, whenever the refpeftive period of fervice
ar.ived. He defended the new plan, which had
been propofed by him, and denied that he had ever
difparaged the meafures of the Noble Vilcount al:
lu:ted to, except as far as they appeared to him to
prevent the adoption of filch a plan as he had now
brought forward ; upon which, he maintained that
the belt hopes of at all times procuring a numerous
army properly conftioned, mutt tell He repeated,
that whatever force we at prefent poffeffed, was un-
doubtedly owing to the mealures alluded to of the
Nuble Vilcount.

Mr. PERCEVAL exprefflol himfelf fatisfiect with
the explanation given,refpeetiog the foldier's Penfion.
Colonel WILDER faid a few words refpeEting the
manner in which the clothes were preferved by
Colonels of Regiments, who, he thought, had been
charged with neglea by Mr. Rot, who in explana-
tion Ihewed, that the obfervation was founded on a
miflake of what he had laid.
Mr. BATHURST ohferved, that if the vivacity
of his Hon. Friend (Mr. Petceval) had roofed the
attention of the Hon. Secretary on the general fob-
jeas in difcuffion, it had induced him to rife from
motives of mere perfonal feeling. He regretted that
his Hon. Friend fhould have thought it neceffary to
introduce among the various topics arifing nut of the
Report on the table, the name of his Noble Relative,
and in a way of taunting Miniflers with doing what
had been admitted to be no more than an aft of jut
tice towards the meafures of that Adminifiration.—
This made it neceffary for him to juflify the line
they had -taken, by referring ro what had oecafioned
it. The Noble Lord oppolite (Lord Caftlereagli)
had exprefsly fired on a former night, after doing
juliice to the efficiency of the military meafures of
the Adminiltration of which he formed a part when
the war bloke not, that the late Adminiftration, of
which he al:o was a Member, had railed 33,030
men in the 20 months that they continued in office
Had the Noble Lord contented hindelf with limply
,1
fiating the fait, that fuch a number of men were,
during that period, added to the army, he fhould
have thought it unneceffary to interpofe ; but when
the merit of thi; addition was claimed exprefsly by
the Noble Lord for the latter of the adminillrations
to which he belonged, to the exclution of the Er-
mer, it was proper to be obferved in anfwer,
that the fait was, that the whole of the num-
ber, whatever it might be, except the produce of
the Additional Force 13i11, was produced by the con-
tinued operation of the meatuses propofed by the
preceding Adminifiration. He had no doubt the
impreffion conveyed by the Noble Lord, was the
circa of inadvertence or mifiake, though he ,bferved
that a fimilar liatement had been made is a former
Seffion. He thought it peculiarly hard, that the Noble
Lord who upon detraaing (as he was ettitled
to do) from the number Jilted as railed under the
prefent Adminifiration, thofe which were produced
by the Additional Fore Bill, as being no meafures
of theirs, tbould yet aflame to the credit of the Late
Adminiltration, thofe equally the produce of the
meafures of that which preceded it. He complained
too, t -ltA in order to Avert this number as much as
polliblt.-Whe Noble Lord had carried his calculation
down to March, rBc6, which he had avowed was'
done fur the expel; porpole of including the rhino-
verians, who, upon the evacuation of their country,
in the beginning of that yzar, had entered into our
fervice. lie begged to be ondertlood as claiming to
the Adminittration in which it was formed, no extra-
ordinary degree of merit for the .intlitution of the
German Legion ; but whatever it was, it was the
foundation of all the additions which had ever'
fince been made to it, which could only be con-
fidered as the effects of accident or misfortune, and
certainly not of any new meafures. He obferved, in
general, that neither he nor his Noble Friend, who
had been alluded to, could feel any &fire that his
military meafures thoold be made a topic of unnecet-
fary eulogium, lets did he with to impute as a
matter of blame, that the additions made, in fiabfe-
quent years of the war, to our military Itrength, were
not equal to thole called forth in an early ltage of it.
Undoubtedly, it was his duty to bring forward all the
refources of the country at fuch a moment of public
danger. All he wiffied to have underttood, was, that
he had in fast done fo, and that the continuance of
the operation of thofe meafures had been the means,
(with the tingle exception above referred to, of the
Additional Force Ad, and which alone would not
have kept up the efiabliffiment to the point where he
had left it) of colleaing the force now vatting for
the defence of the. country.
Lord CASTLEREAGH faid, he had been fo
particularly adverted to, that he felt himfelf called
upon to fay a few words. His Hon?urable Friend
had done him bare jutlice in fuppofing that nothing
could be farther from his intention, than deprecta-
t7zg the meafures of one of the admiciftrations with
which he had been conneeted, to enhance thofe of
the other. In truth, he felt an equal refpea for both,
but the courfe of his argument the other night had
led him to make no dilliation between them. He
had been controlling the efficient meafures of thole
aclutiniltrations with the theories and experiments of
the prefent Minitlers, who had been former:y in the
habit of reprobating all the meafures of • defence
which had been adopted w hile they were in rippofition.
Mr. BATHURST faid, he was perfealy fatitfied
with the explanation given by the Noble Lord'who
had jolt fat down ; but in excufe foi- the imprenical
which he had before received, and which had hit
duce) him to rife, ke begged to remind the Noble