Star.
London, England, 1813-03-09 00:00:00

'fay, incurring all the eapences of that period where
we were threatened by an invasion. There were Go-
netals now holding high commands in England, and
he wished any one would shew him where the troops
are which they command. He saw in the present
-Estimates a sum of £lO,OOO fir the repair of the
Horse Guards. He could not see any cause fur
this expellee, and he wished the items had been more
specifically pointed opt. There was another sum
of ar209,000 for Volunteer Corps. Now, since the
establishment of the Local Militia, he saw no neces-
sity for any Volunteers who could not pay their own
espences. Many corps were only nmstittapy kept up,
and many persons kept their names enrolled in corps
merely for the purpose of escaping the ballot.—(lfres:s
Arer).—Out of the sum in question, 414,000 war
given to Inspectors of Volunteer Corps, a set of
Officers for whom ho saw not the slightest necessity.
When all the people of the country, alive to its dan.
gers, were entering into Volunteer Corps, and whea
these Corps were in full numbers and spirit, there
were no such inspectors ; and why should the country
be now hurthened with an expense for such. Officers
4 very great and favourable change had taken place
in the state of Europe within the last six rptunlis ;
and he did not see any reason for calling out the Lo-
cal-Militia, when all apprehension of danger was re.
moved. The calling out these men was nut only at
heavy burthen on the country, but did very serious
evil to the labour in the agricultural districts. With-
out impairing this source of defence, and without
doing away the Volunteer system, we ought to make
a very great retrenchment, which would assist us
greatly in our offensive operations—the only opera-
tions we ought now to attend to.
Mr.IjILEYADDINGTON differed totally from
his Hon. Friend, with respect to the calling out of
the Local M":tia. Threesfoerths of the-re had neves
been assembled, and it would he absurd not to give
time both to the Officers and to the men to know each
other. To do justice to the system, it ought to be
fostered and encouraged in times of absence from all
danger, in order to render it efficient in the hour of
peril : and he should beg leave to maintain that it
Was no solid argument against the Local Militia to
say, it ought not to be kept up and' improved, be:
cause its seryices were not actually w4eted. The ob-
ject Government and the country had in view was, to
render it fit for the pressure of illy exigency, whenevet
real danger might threaten our internal security.
Mr. FREEMANTLE animadverted upon the
vast addition of expense caused by the employment
of the Horse Guards 'on foreign service. The loss
incurred by 913 men in that instance was not less than
£38,000. With respect to the recruiting system, he
Was authorised in concluding, that as 14,000 recruits
only had been obtained for £540,000, each of them
cost 834 per man. He could not suppress his sur-
prise at finding, from 'the papers on the table, that
General Delancey was still employed, although hi
had been dismissed from his office of Barrack:Master
General, and that he continued to possess a salary ot
4'2,075 per mutts). In speaking
.of the Military
College, he wished to do every justice to that excel-
lent establishment. The plan was entitled to his
1 best encomium, and the general execution of the
plan deserved his warmest praise', Yet in some
parts of the internal arrangement, he had from his
own experience remarked some defects. He had to
notice one in particular. There was certainly top
much fuel, and two hundred acres were employed at
an expeece of £l,OOO. This would appear the more
extraordinary, when the late improvements in this ma.
terial article were taken into due consideration. In
1804 the issues for the army were al millions tee.
whereas now *they are 25 millions, without sinjconsi-
derable addition to the force: As the estimates were
thus perpetually increasing, he thought it the duty of
the house to look narrowly into there.
Mr. CREEVEX said, that there was one pert of the
estimates upon which he meant to divide the Corn•
mittee, and which he would again bring forward in
the House when the Resolutions should be diicussed.
An excess had been stated ut 04,000 in the depart-
ment of the Paymaster of the Forces. Now he'should
wish to make a permanent saving mu this department
of 112500 yearly, by flinging one of die ')oint-paye
masters and his Deputy overboard. (4l kn. 'He
would rest his motion on the Report of the Finance
Committee in 1810, who recommended the abolition
of one of those offices of Paymaster as a sinecure.—
Mr. Long, in his evidence before that Committee, ad.
milted that Lord C. Somserset had a salary demo
a-year, and his Deputy 8500; that his Lordship in-
terfered but little, and that his Deputy was fame-
times out of England for a considerable time, with-
out the public business sustaining any loss. The situa-
tion which Lord C. Somerset held was, as he con-
ceived, a complete sinecure, which the Finance Com-
mittee had very properly recommended to be abo-
lished. His Lordship was besides being Paymaster,
one of the Generals of Districts, whom he was him-
self to pay. His district too, was something like a
sinecure, tor there were four or five General Officers
there, and but very few men. He should• proceed
in the same manner upon that occasion, as had been
done in the case of Colonel M'Mahon, although there
was less difficulty in the present case, as this office
was not secured by a patent, but simply held at the
pleasure of the Crown.
Lod C. 'SOMERSET thought that the course
which the Hon. Gentleman proposed to pursue, was
altogether premature, if not entirely novel, inasmuch
as a bill was eoW in its progress through the House
grounded upon that report ot the Finance Committee.
tie did not conceive that the public could gain any
permanent advantage from the proposed abolition of
one of tho ()Rites of Paymaster, for in that case the
law would give to the single paymaster the same sa-
lary which was now divided between the two Joint-
paymasters. The salary of the Paymaster of the
Forces had been for A very long time settled at four
thousand pounds per annum, and was on the same
footing' as the *Treasurer ot the Navy. In 1783,
when this sum seas established as the proper salary
by Mr. Burke's Bill, the issues of money from the
Paymaster's Office was little more than seven mil-
lions; whereas in the last year it was about twenty-
nine millions. lf, then, £4OOO per annum was con-
sidered thirty yeaVs ago to be the proper saiai ) for
this office, it could hardly be supposed that it ought
to be' diminished now when the respinsitmity was
much increased. In the year 1806, when the Noble
Lords, who were then Joint-paymasters, belonged to
that Administration with which the Hon. Gentleman
was himself connected, he had nut then thought it