Star.
London, England, 1822-03-13 00:00:00

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-dieera ne Ai Igoe the 4111 et the Crown, or thotair
g4lnister, orj. go stivillne, that bardtelfd hireself coneeive it
esti, if no otehroWilpttept Person undertool the task, to infra*
for Irate to tiring Ins HUI for the eictuilon of, ail Milker* Offi;
nets from teats-in that House i and alto_from the right of voting
for arty person bekomlng a candidate for a seat in that Holise..
Colonel WOOD deprecated the Idea of any attempt to deprive
Milltirf Officers of their Civil prciileges, as Many Of those Gen-
tlemen, on both ides of the House; were daily in the habit of
etincing as much independence as any Members below tag to it
The SOLI C !TOR-GENERA I. urged thZ propriety of with-
drawing the AmendMent, observing, that the Crown never ex.
seeded the sentence of a Court Martial in severity, .although
often commuted the sentence of death for transportation; and
could the lion. Mover desire to deprive the Crown of that
poWer of extending mercy, by chaining its will to the sentence of
a Court Mirthd?
Colonel DA V I FS observed, that to the case of the Officers of
the 86th Regiment who were acquitted, the Crown dismissed
them the service and their prosecutors also. •
After a few words from Lbill PA Lll num). and Colonel Dams;
Mr. 11UAIF expressed his wish to withdraw hi's Amendment
for the present, pledging himself to bring it forward on anothes
occasion, and also to support most cordially the proposition of
his Hon. Friend the Member for Weymouth (Mr.. Williams);
believing, as he did, that Military Officers were at present not
. merely dependent upon, but the actual slaves of the Crown:
(hear, hear).—But this was naturally to be expected, from the
recent attack made upon the independence of the Army by the
dismissal of a celebrated and gallant Officer, who had given no
offence but in the assertion of his manly independence.
Mr. W. SMITH should be glad if the Hon. Meinber for
Aberdeen withdrew his motion. . •
Sir M. NIGHTINGALE was anxious that it should cot gri
forth to the country that Officers were liable to be influenced in
the manner which had been imputed to them: He was not a
slave himself, nor were the Officers of the Army haves,
Sir I. CO FFI N hoped, that when the Hon. Member for Wep:
mouth brought in his 13111, be would include the Navy, that they
might all go together !—(A laugh).

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Colonel TRENCI I expressed his indignation at the language
which had been used that night on the other side of the House:
He threw back the foul insinuations which had been cast un the
Officers of the Army to the foul source from which they sprung;
It was the first time he had ever heard sUch aspersions cast on
the Army in that House, and he was astonished that I lonourable
Gentlemen should dare to throw them out.

Sir FRANCIS BURDETT neither wished nor feared tei
offend any man; but he rose to remark upon the extraordinaty
tone adopted by the gallant Officer who had just sat down. If
the Honourable Member for Aberdeen had spoken of the Offi-
cers of the Army as .slaves, he (Sir Francis Burdett) had no
hesitation in expressing his conviction of the propriety of that
language. Standing up in his place for the Constitution of Eng
land, he declared the existence of a standing army to be a gross
violation of the principles of that Constitution ; and, that the
employment of such a force would be the destruction of the
Constitution, had been predicted by men as wise and as able as
any who bad addressed the House upon the present occasion.—
It was the opinion of a person, who must be admitted to be a
man of some genius even by the side of the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman (the Solicitor-General, he alluded to Montesquieu,
in his [took on the Spirit of Laws—it was an opinion held by the
sound. st lawyers; and the ablest constitutional writers this coun-
try had produced. It was to be found almost all the great
writers, both ancient and modern, who had treated on the science
of Government. To come down to one of the latest of our mo-
dern writers on the laws of this country, it was the opinion of
Mr. Justice Blackstone, a man who would not he suspected of
being ever anxious to support liberal opinions, though certainly
sonic of his sentiments in favour of liberty would be considered
as licentious in these days by many Gentlemen on the other side
of the House, and especially by Gentlemen of the Long Robe.
Now what did this writer say? Ile complained of the Act, of
which the House was now discussing the provisions. Ile never
dreamt of the doctrine which had been maintained by the
Learned Gentleman opposite ( Mr. Wetherell), the Learned Sale
citor-General, and other learned assentors of prerogative, namely,
that the controul of a standing army was a part of the King's pre-
rogatives ; but he declared that the power or the Crown over the
standing army was conferred on the Crown by the Mutiny Act.
I Everything which had been most deprecated by this learned
commentator, which would have made our fort fathers shudder,
and at which every friend to English freedom must tremble,
had been since adopted. The English soldier was set apart frets%
his fellow-countrymen, he was made a sort of artificial Mame-
luke, he no longer lived under the same laws, he was shut out
from the protection of the Constitution. Another writer, who
was not over-zealous in maintaining the liberty of the subject—
he meant Mr. flume—viewed this subject in a very different
light from that in which the Noble Lord opposite (Palmerston)
had considered it. The Noble Lord considered a standing army
the best defence or the People of England. This was, indeed,
making rapid strides towards overturning all the prejudice s of
our forefathers. What was Even far. I !times opinion on this
subject? Even that writer, With all his monarchical prejudices,
was of opinion that a standing arniy would give a final blow to
the liberties of the country—that it would he the eittlraiimia, Cr
natural and proper death of the liberties of the People of Eng-
land. And. well might we be said to be approaching rapidly to-
wards this consummation, when we considered the amount cf
our standing army, the vast sums of money which were ex-
pended to support it, and the systematic means which news
employed to perpetuate it. This system might be seen under
the guise of charitable institutions for soldiers' chil.:ren.—
Infants were brought up by the beat of the drum ; aod a race
of artificial Mamelukes was created in the country. For G:n 'a
sake let the children and orphans of soldiers be protected ; 'Jut
was it protection to exclude them from all other eniploymee:s
or professions, or to bring them up as a fighting class in tle. c );:r -
try? The Hon. Baronet proceed to advert to the pow.: es-
sumed by the Crown to dismiss the Officers ..f the .ttmy a •1:s
pleasure, and without assigning the cause of dismissal. It was
a power which it was most dangerous to exercise, and which
ought not to be suffered to exist in any country. It was said
that the King could have no interest in the improper exercise
*fetich pow. r ; but it was the principle to which he objected.—
'As to the power-of subverting the decisions of a Court-Martial,
or dispensing with a Court-Martial altogether, by the fiat of the
Crown, or rather of the Ministers of the Crown, it was a most
monstrous, irrational power, and mischievous even to those who
exercised it. The Crown might in this way, by listening to the
calumnies of some insidious enemy, and affording no opportunity
of explanation to the party accused, do injury to its best friends.
Such a power existed, he believed, in nu other country of Eu-
rope, for in every country the soldier had at least the protection
of being subjected to a Court-Martial—of being heard betore be
was condemned. The Hon. Baronet concluded by thanking his
Hon. Friend, the Member for Aberdeen, for having drawn the
attention of the Country to this important subject, and by ex-
pressing a hope that he would not withdraw his .Sinendritent.
Lord PA LNIERSTON said, the lion. Baronet was much in
the habit of favouring the House with the result of his private
studies, and he had done so on the present occasion. If, how-
ever, he had adverted to a subsequent passage of Mr. Justice
Blackstone, he would have found
.that that writer admitted a
standing army to be at present almost identified with the Con-
stitution of the country. With regard to the Institution f r
Soldiers' Children, to which the Hon. Baronet had adverted, he
begged to observe that a great part of those children had been
apprenticed to various civil employments.
Mr. BENNET said his Hon. Friend (Mr. Hume) bad not
applied the term " slaves" to the Army tauntingly or sneeringly,
but lamenting their situation, and expressing at the same time
an anxiety to relieve them from the burthen of it. The lion.
Member was proceeding to comment on the words which bad
fallen front the Hon. Member for Cambridge (('olonel Trench),
a stern patriot, who had once sat on his (Mr. Rennet's) side of
the Ikuse, when
The CHAIRMAN observed, that he had beard nn expressions
from the Member for Cambridge, which deserved to be charac-
terised as disorderly.
Mr. BENNET—If I am driven to quote the words used—
(Question, question).
Mr. CHEM' EY said, he certainly did hear the ll.:ii.Nleistber
for Cambridge (Colonel Trench), whom he hail (ewe the Lipid-
ness of knowing on his ( Mr. Creevey's) side of the House, say
that he wondered how lien. Gentlemen "dared" to throw out
such aspersions en the army.
Mr. BENNET said, the word "stare" was not what he al-
luded tn. The words he partieulerly meant were, "the foul
source"—(Cries of Order ! and Question !)
• The CHAIRMAN declared that it was not orderly to go into a
discussion of env words which might have been used in the Com-
mittee in the heat of debate.
Mr. BENNET said, that If sech expressions were allowed at
all it was right that lion. Gentlemen on bulb sides of the House