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

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iII.IIIIIIIII.I.IIPARLIIMENTART PROC EiilN --
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}MUM OF COMMONS. MAY 6.
Mr. SPEAKER took the Chair at near. are o'clock.
A Mange from the Lords annotated their Lon:Nips' affent to
Usti-gal prtva c Ws, aed alto that their Lordihlps would proceed
w.th the sl nal of Lord Vilcount Melville at tw o'clock on .1 hurl.
der m. name next.
A Petition was prefented from the Tanners and Carriers of Lao-.
tirri sod Southwark, againft the Bill for reputing the ad James I.
f far as relates to the ruatadadture of &nu had bhogi. Ordered
Colic on the table.
Mr. D N T moved to revive an order of the Houfe made In
July lilt, fur an account of the runts paid to the Sierra Leone Cult- '
cany, and the date' of the feveral Payment,. Ordered.
On the motion of Mr. VANSITTART, the Report of the Ban
Duty Bill was deferred till Friday next.
Mr. W. SMITH brought lop the Report from the Committee
for confident's the Drawback Datice *pan Iron escorted. Refer.
Iv*" "24 and Weed to, and ordered that it be an Inlt radii= to
the Committee on the Iron Duty Bill to make premiums tinsel
awhile ev.
ItIPFAL ere Tiff ADDITIoNAL armies SILL '
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Mr. Secretary WINDHAM moved the Order of
she day far going into a Committee on the Bill for
• repealing the Additional Force A&
Th: order having been read, and the queftion put,
that the Speaker, d a now leave the chair,
Mr. JOHNSTONE rofe„and oblerved that hay.
erg upon a former occation voted for the propoiition
of the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Canning) ta-
t tpeaing this Bill, he now role to trouble the Houfe
eriOs a few explanations of the motives which had
.4cided him to give that vote. When the Additional
Ferree Bill was fit it brought in he had (visaed it, be-
. ;anti he thotiwlit it would never be produelive ; and
though it had-moved more In than lie had expeCled,
get &many objeftions occurred to its principle an&
pia/lite, that he Ihould not have voted as he had, if
the repetition hid been of a nature to prevent the
• • Bottle from repealing the AEI during the Seffion.
From the devel •pensent of the Right Hnn. Gentle-
inan'e (Mr. Windham) plan, which had been given
to the !Annie, he had the firongell objeflions to it.
The expreffion of the Right Hon. Gentleman, in de-
. kribing the prefent late of the public force, was, that
51/1
our army appeared as if they had clubbed battalions,
and every thing was in an order of inverfion or retro.
gra/di-it : he therefore firongly dwelt upon the ne-1
eeffity of a fyllem of regulation calculated to cure
thee diforders. The Right Hon. Gentleman had em-
phaticelly Paid, that the fate of nations was decided
by armies; and after fisting that petition in a man-
ner fo forcible as he had done, he (Mr. Johnftone)
owned he was prepared to expel (note plan infinitely
more efficient than that which had been fuggefled.
When experience had fbewn the extreme difficulty of
procuring recruits for our army under the high boun-
ties that were given, and after ill the exertions that
were made, be could not fee the teal profpat of re-
medying the defett by the propofed rcdulion of boun-
ties ; in lieu of which the Right Hon. Gentleman pro-
poled an advance of fixpence per week to men who
bad leveed (even years, and one Chilling per week to
men who had ferved fourteen years; this would never
be felt as an adequate compenfation. The Right Hon.
Gentlemen had conceived, that in order to render the
recruiting fervice more effective, reliance was not to
be placed on high bounties, but an appeal to the ho.
Pourable feelings of the foldier : if this could be of.
reeled, it would certainly be defirable ; bur he doubt-
ed the propriety of depending on fuels a principle.—
Something.he thought, certainly ought to be done for
the encouragement of the army, in the fame manner
es was propofed a few nights finest by a Noble Lord
(Howick) for the navy, by intruding the number of
petty officers in each regiment, and thereby not only
;tendering the difcipline more perfett and orderly, but
pointing out more frequent opportunities of prefer-
ment for good behaviour. This wain principle pre-
valent in all the military Cervices of the Continent, and
bad the bell elle& in exciting men to fignalize them-
(elves 4 he would lift it adopted in relation to fubal-
tern officers as well as common foldiers, particularly
where the approbation of a Commander in Chief was
mentioned in General Orders, or pointedly expreiTed
to Government. This was the praelice in our Navy.
He did not taped to hear from a firong Government
fo timid a pretence, as that of declining to rem..
from the militia into the army of the line to the ex-
tent which might he done. It had been propofed by
the Right Hon. Gentleman gradually to reduce the
militia down to its original force of 40,0c0 men.—
Why nos do fo at once, and thus let 20,000 men at
liberty to join the regular army ? or why not recruit
the regiments of the line from the militia to the m-
utat poCfible extent, and then ballot the counties
over again ? This had been done in 1799, and it.had
no prejudicial effect whatever on the militia fervice.
In the dal year 14,000 men were recruited from the
militia, ...n4 he would appeal to the country whether
it had done any injury to the fervice. Without fame
filch meature !sow was the propofed force of aoo,ooo
men to be vai ..c1 for the fervice of the United King-
dom ? It might be thought, he would allow a men•
fur: of beillinefs ; but it was one to which he was litre
the country would cheerfully fubinit under the pre•
tent exigency. He complained that in the growing
wealth of the country, many arrangements had taken
place to defeat the objets of the militia law, and to
deprive the fervice of many valuab:e men. He in-
lanced the lowering the fines to ten pounds upon
perfons hallo:tee, and not chtifing to ler we perfnnally. '
The parithe'. out of their rates, in molt inliances,
paid thofe fines fur the poor man, and the money
went to raife a man for the militia, who would other.
wife have enlified for the line.
Colonel GRAHAM recurred to a (umen' he
had made upon the dal night this Bill was in Oilcuf-
lion, refpeCting the prafttce on the Continent of
entitling men for limited fervice, even its time of war,
which an He.nourable Gentleman on the other fide
of the Houle was pleated totally to deny, He was
not pill at that moment prepared to refute the Hon.
Member, by the preduetion of any authority op
which he could poloively rely. But lie had (lace felt
it his dory to make more minute enquiry, from per-
fans moll competent to give him information, Darne-
ll-, feveral French Officers, now in London, all of
whom had corroborated his former affertions, and
flared, that both before and since the Revolution, the'
pradice had prevailed in t.ie French fervice, subbed
been attended with the bell effects in recruiting the
army. In tau, groups of young fellows entered the
•-- env eight or 1••• - ~ as it were on a party
dears thought of en.
of the provinces no
1 who had not previ.
'in the army. TM

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lervice for eight or ten aid% a
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of afore, who wou tai l
-1.. .ittirg for life I and in any •
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tilY Deco el/4ht or al pan