Star.
London, England, 1804-04-24 00:00:00

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matt affeas to acquit Miniffers o'any Warne in intro-
ducing the affertion of that particular prerogative
into that Bill, by ',returning that in their anxiety to
prepare for the defence of the country, a finitary in-
fiance of recognizing it might have efcaped their
obfervation. Sir, 1. defire that principle may be
thoroughly examined and enquired into, I defire
that it be not taken, po odmip, but that it may
(land on its fair, and general conflitutional grounds.
With refpedl to the Hon. Gentleman's motion,
I am to look for other motives, than thole he has
thought prudent to avow, for propoting it. I am
to leek for other reafons, for a motion peculiarly
calculated to collet:I all the floating opinions of the
Houle, and to create Mich an oppofitiois to his Ma-
jelly's hlinillers as would tend to produce a change
of adminiliration. If that be the objedl of the Hon.
Gentleman's motion,. let him (late fo, broadly and
unequivocally ; let him produce fome fpecific accufa.
tion ; let him bring forward fome dire& explicit
charge ; and let him take the fenfe of the Houle on
It ; but let him not bring it forward in this covert
and underhand mode, and by a detour endeavour to
fligmatize thole he has not the courage to accufe
boldly and manfully. Let not the Hon. Gentleman,
I fay, have recourfe to a paltry expedient of this na
tore, it is unworthy of him. If we are fairly at-
tacked, if we are accufed upon fpecific grounds, we
are ready and willing to meet the charge, and we
(ball find, I troll, no difficulty in defending and juf-
tifying mirfelves upon fair, open, and conflitutional
principles. To the motion of the Honourable Gen-
tleman I feel the Itrongeft objedlions, and I am
bound to refill it upon every conlideration of pru-
dence and of public policy. I call upon every
Member of this Houle to look at the (Late of the
country, and to fay, whether fuch a Committee
Is pradlicable or advifeable ? To accompilfh all
'he objeels propofed by it, you mutt bring officers
from their duty, with great inconvenience to the
public lervice, and poCibly with greater danger
to the public fafety ; you mull condi documents
and information from various quarters, you mull
lave all the records and accounts, the plans and the
propofals that are poffeffeft by, of have been fubmitted
to the different departments, laid on that table and
examined t and, what is no trivial objection, made
public, before you can come to a right, or indeed to
any conclufion, as to whether the naval and military
force of the country has been properly employed
and adminiftered. Ido not mean to fay, that a
great [late neceffity may not juilify the appointment
of fuch Is Committee; but I leave it to the wifclom
tot the Houle to determine, if any proofs of fuch ne-
eeffity have been advanced in fupport of the prefent
dangerous and extraordinary meafure. It is, upon
thefe grounds, I oppofe the motion of the Honour-
able Gentleman, and 1 hope that a great majority of
this Houle will agree with. me in opinion, that no
-found reafons have been urged to recommend it
that no neceffity has been proved to jutlify it ; and
that as it has been brought forward from motives
different from what are profelfed, it is unworthy to
be entertained or adopted by the Houle."
Mr. Before I proceed to explain to the
Monk, the reafons which induce me to give my cor-
dial and zealous fupport to the motion of the Hon.
Gentleman oppofite ; I cannot help laying a few
words upon the mode of argument purfued by the
Right Hon. Gentleman who has kill fat down. The
Right Hon. Gentleman lays, that the motion of the
Honourable Gentleman is calculated to embrace
numbers who entertain different views and opinions
refpeEling the fyflem of public defence. The motion
indeed, is undoubtedly calculated to obtain the con-
currence, not of thole merely who differ on minute
grounds : nut of thole who make infignificant criti-
cifms upon the various mcafures of adminillration ;
but it is calculated to unite all thole who have grave-
ly and difpaffionately weighed the dangers and diffi.
culties of our fituation ; all thole who by a careful
retrofrea of the condo& of Government, previous to
that war which they have declared to be fo long im-
pending, and fubfequent to its commencement, have
arrived at a retie& convidlion of the inability of Mi-
milers to devife, or to execute any meafures ade-
quate to the demands of the public lafety, and to the
arduous nature of the contlia. The motion is cal.
culated to unite all thole, who, by the espe:ience of
the hit twelve months, in which Minifiers have ex-
baulled their minds in attempts to modify, to amend,
or to improve the various meafores for the public
defence that have been fuggelied ; and who Rill are
lb far behind what the ciicurnitances of this eventful
moment required, what the refources of the Empiie
would have afforded, and the zeal and fpirit of the
Country have ha cheerfully fupplied to petted the
fyttcm of public defence. In a word, a motion cal-
culated to unite all thof: who conf:i..minutly bd eve,
that from and under the prelent Islinillet s no MCA-
force of fuitable vigour and energy are to be ex•
prEted ; that no fair chance can be given to the Coun-
try that its fafety will he fufficiently provided, its re-
fources wifely called forth, and its poster luccefsfully
exerted. It is in this view that I confider the motion,
for almoil all the reafons urged by the Right Hon.
nviver, and for others which he did not Rate. The
11.mourable Gentleman below, however, who has
enjoyed the opportunity of acquiring an intimate
liiowledge of the proceedings of the linuie, flys,
that neither in h:s recolledlion of tl.c Journals has
Mich a motion been made, nor even in his imagina-
tion can he conceive that any thing In extraordinary
could dilgiace them. But if it were true that the
tooti,4l is extraordinary, perhaps it v.:old be
cient to urge what bias often been ty,;.d ~...er

lit.at

it wo•.:dlsc aufwer tnongh to 11.
hab row laded a year, an .t
peace avowed in the manifeffs,• c ••
b: -n a pct petual feetsc of aggr..f.. u.
fist wardtt• thing but v hat WA•C.,IIII
inadequate ; that whatever 0
lay, la (station and unces ; that,
famed f-r a moment to he “nd:sst lust. vikasr, st v
quickly fneceeded by a cond,l4l that kernel •
rim retrafiatirn and dis:tvt•v•al of tho
mipulfe. It is. nielanclmly indeeJ
time for mature CMlflic. /tit ono. tcpe.t•J ut..t
ao lyttem had been found which cs uli Alf ua of t
fectuity to which the country WA s ZI
w" ..1 k•••• 1.

c,,n)

m,n)(

;tied, and

an bring the war to a fuecefsful termination. The
Honourable Gentleman lays, that Minitters do Dot
greatly differ from thole who think an armed pea-
fantry calculated to be ufefully employed, but that
they prefer the Volunteer force. The queflion,
however, is not of but of adding. It
is not that the Volunteer fyftem Shall be abo-
lifhed, but that an additional force in aid of them
is to be obtained. If, then, Minifters approve of
fuels a mode of increafing the means of defence,
why do they not announce their intention of taking
tome Reps to obtain that advantage ? Hoverer Gen-
tlemen may differ as to the degree of utility, the mode
of application, the local circumllances in which an
armed peafantry would be defirable, it is not difput-
ed that, in many fituations, the efforts of the pea.
fantry world be of the greateft advantage. Why
then does not the Honourable Gentleman propole
to enter upon the confideration without delay ? Have
we not been told by Minillers for thefe fix months
pall, that the invalion might take place perhaps with-
in 24 hours ? Is it a time to procraStinate any wife
meafure, any efficient plans of defence, at a period
when we fee that the enemy have furmounted
many of thole preliminary difficulties which Some
months ago were deemed invincible ? Have not the
enemy fupplied thofe means of conveyance which
it was at firft thought mull render all the threats
of the enemy vain and futile ? Have they not,
in the face of that navy which Minitters fo confideni.
ly !naafi has been carried to its utmoft Strength, and
has been difiributed with the moil pale& judgment,
have they not, within fight of our Shores and in defi-
ance of our oMtruCtion, affeinbled in one port between
t 3 and t.poo veffels, capable of conveying from 50
to too and 150 men each ? Have they not proved
that all our reafonings about the impdfibility of fail-
ing from one port, the difficulty of a concerted attack,
the obStacle of winds and tides, were unfounded, and
that the contempt we entertained for their prepara-
tions and for their menaces were ill-founded and un-
warranted. With fuch facts before us, ought we to
fufpend or drtay any means that can contribute to
our fafety ? We ought not to treat with contempt,
or with a faille fecurity pronounce impraCticable,
the projects of a bold, enterprising, and defperate,
though often fortunate enemy, and one, too, that
never flood in the way of good fortune by a dread
of bad. If, then, an armed peafantry is calculated to
be of any utility in Elk:, Kent, or Suffex, in oppofing
an enemy and retarding their progrefs to the metro-
polis, it is fit that no time fliould be loft in deviling a
plan for obtaining this additional aid. The Hon.
Gentleman next contends, that the motion is uncon-
Ritutional; but what is there unconftitutional in refer-
ring to the confideration of a Committee of the whole
Houfe, which I underfland to be the objet of the mo-
tion (Mr. For nodded Arent), certain Aets pallid by
the Legiflature, fo that they may be modified, altered,
and improved. Is the Hon. Gent. who In long filled
that chair, with fo much credit to hinsfelf and advan-
tage to the Houle, fs little acquainted with parlia-
mentary ufages as not to know, that in a Committee
of the whole Houle alone feveral proceedings can re-
gularly originate. Matters of religion, grievance.
trade, finance, Ste. mutt firft be difcuffed in a Com-
mittee of the whole Houle. If, then, queftions on
thole fubjeets mull originate in a Committee, can
there be any Scruple to refer to a fimilar Committee,
a meafure, the object of which is to defend everything
that is dear and valuable to a State, the religion
which exalts, the commerce which enriches, the laws
which regulate and protelt ? Is there any thing ex-
traordinary, any thing dangerous, then, in the preterit
motion ? Will it be laid that the fytlem of defence is
fo good that there is nothing to be added to it ? Is
the experience of it on its fruits and effeCts fuch as to
encourage us to rely with implicit confidence in the
energy and refources of Minifters ? What meathies
have they ever adopted that have not been thwarted
by fome other of their meafures ? What efficient plan
has been propofed for the recruiting the regular ar-
my ? Can we indulge the vain and chimerical hope,
that, without any new regulations as to the period
of fervice, fuch as thofe propofed by the Right
Honourable Gentleman, recruits will be obtained
for eight guineas, when they could hardly be pro-
cured for forty or fifty pounds ? Is k upon the wit-
dons, the vigilance, and the energy of theft Mini•
nets that we can r e.y, n hen we have teen that no one
meafnre for the public defence, can be Paid to have
truly originated from them ;when feveral they have re-
tarded or enfeebled? I am fatit•fied that fome plan fur
the permanent recruiting of the army ought to he
fettled, and that we ought with all ditpatch to proceed
to that important fulsjeCt. But ncgletning the rep!.
lar army, have hlinillers improved and per fated
that ()aunt of the Volunteers, in which they have
fnent fu much time. I venture to affirm, that the
Volunteer fy Item is Still far from that Rate of per-
fettion to which it might be carried. The Army of
Referee, inflead of being fufpended, fhould be modi-
fied. In regard to fortifications too, in which, hi-
thci to, to little has been done, I will venture to date,
due precautions in that department have been much
neglelled, and that many things have been omitted
to be done, which, in cafe of invation, would tend
both to lave the lives of men and to check the pro-
grefs of an invader. From all that I have heard
too on the fithjed of the navy, arid in fpite of that
magnificent catalogue of (hips which Minitiers have
produced, and which I (hall not' at preterit diffea, 1
mull repeat, that the conduit of that branch of our
defence, has not been Such as the public had a right
to capett, and upon this Subject I !way take an oupor-
i:y to flute circurndarices that will the
I and the country. Theft ay.d many uglier con.
11.;etation. form the moll conclufis c argonivit r, fa.
s Lir of 1!:e motion, and though the it:. 1 /...a (;en:
ria.!a it, did not dilate on Oleic topics, he
..1.• %..1, and !fated his ea pedatital, th.„
s, : it en up by other fpcaLers in the coolie t I
t:e It I, true that Minifters on Obi. as en for
4-.k_have given us aynnipous enuno•-

~~:_~

_ .
(.! tic of t.c country. I have lica:d that :Luc
ni:nt A I,l*.dc. It •tr..tds the mnft cord,dotary
cci-
t the country is capable of doing.
Myn,her, of this Houle have at Icafl
1 a righ.: to exult in that Purvey of onr liretigth as
:!cr,. We Lave r. ~t been wanting in our CICT-
I. conttisute to call forth the fpi, It of the e••iir-
-30,1 to organic,: it,. Ilrength. That fpilit and
Lewevci, l.clong to the country, and a:e
af.:ribcd to the ditc.9ion or the enercy of the
Indeed, it time he auy ought

(;. c t'lliClit

perfonal merit, it is the prefentßas who have
had In little (hare in the national energy. No one
meafttre can they claim as their own ; no one met
lure have they improved and perfected; very mans
ilicy have weakened by their vlelays, and dedroyed
by their incongruities. Whatever then the fpirit
and zeal of a free and brave people may have beer,
under the fenCe of danger, ought fairly to be fepa.
rated from the tardinefs; languor and imbecility nt
Mini:lets in every thing of which they have alrumed
the direttion. Minitle,s boa:t of what othars have
fogge,ied or voluntary pubic zeal has effeacd, a-
if what was done were perfeetly adequate to our fc
curity. But is it enough to hay.; provided againti
the danger of a final conquell ? Enough has not
been came, toilet's we have adopted every pi afti
cable and rational means of checking the enemy
(hould they invade our then-es, with the leaft facri.
five of life, with the leatt wane of the public re•
fonrces, with a rapidity that will difappoint the ene-
my's prcjeas of devallation. Enough has not been
done, unlefs every thing has been provided by which
in the lhortell (pace we may be enabled to defeat the
enemy with that lignal overthrow and deltruftion,
as will for ever deter them from a repeLition of the
attack, and for ever relieve the country from the alartn
and anxiety of invasion. Ido not mean to fay that
the enemy would, according to all human calculation,
fucceed in their defigns, even had we no other means
of defence but thole which now exilt ; but have we
reafon to believe that our arength is yet arrayed in the
bell manner, that our forces are diftributed at the
proper points, fo as to aft with the mull &chive
effect ? Unlefs this be done (as I fear it is not), it is
not enough to fay that we have 184,000 Regulars
and Militia, and 400,000 Volunteers ; and indeed,
when it is proved by their own Ratements that the
refources of the country are fo great, it forms an
additional ground of cenfure againft Minillers, if our
fyßem of defence be not adequate to every demand.
—As to the obfervations which have been made upon
the amount of force which Ihould have been kept up
during the peace, and the proportion which exalted
at the renewal of the war, whatever I may think
with Yelped to the opinion held by the Hon. Gentle
maa who opened the debate, on a former occafion, I
cannot without furprife hear from the Right Hon.
Gentleman who has jolt fat down, that he conceived
the force which was maintained during the peace as
amply fufficient to meet any probable emergency ;
for that Right Hon. Gentleman was in pciffeflion of
much knowledge of the difpnfition of the enemy
which mull have fatisfied his mind of the propriety
of making more extentive preparations for a Rate of
hoftility. That knowledge the Right Hon. Gentle-
man, to be lure, Rudioufly concealed from Parlia-
ment ; and, therefore, the Hon. Gentleman upon
the oppofite Bench was, with many others, incom-
petent to form any opinion of the impending danger.
But not fo his Majetty's Minifters, who had yet ne-
gletied to provide againft it. They, who by a mani-
fcflo lance publifbed to the world, explained that there
were grounds alnaoß from immediately after the con-
clufion of the peace to complain of the condufl and
to fufpeft the intentions of Bonaparte, had yetomitted
to &vile meafures to counteraCt his defigns, and to
put the country in a Rate fitted for the delcription of
hoftility to be apprehended. In this Rate the country
is not in point of fait even now placed ; and this
forms one of my reafons for concurring in the mo-
tion before the Houle, becaufe, as they who thought
the peace not likely to continue, did not prepare for
war, and who, tince the war has commenced, have
not preferved that courfe of vigorous exertion
which the fituation of the Empire called for, are
not thole in whom I would confide for the ettablifh-
ment cf our fecurity. Minilters forefaw the war,
and yet they did not attempt to ballot for the mili-
tia as they Ihould have done during the peace. They
Ihould have availed theinklves of that period, when
they mull, according to their own coot-olio:is lance fo
repeatedly made, have contemplated war as lome-
thing more than probable, fro every means in motion
for defending the country againa invalion. The ob.
fervations they were enabled to make at the chile of
the hitt war, of the plans and purpofe of Bonaparte,
were fullicient to allure them that his firlt motion was
an invalion of this country, which the (port period
that elapted between the eßablifitment of peace upon
the Continent, and the conellifion if the Treaty of
Amiens, did not qualify him to attempt, hut the
',rowel; of his then preparations ferved to thew that
his refolution was not to make defultory attacks upon
us, but to do that which he has lance accomplithed,
viz. to colic& a large farce upon fon:e part of the
coati molt convenient for the purpofe e f making a de-
-Icent upon this country. What then are we to think
of thole Ministers who, with fuch an opportunity of
obfervatti n, overlooked renewing the ballot for that
important part of our force, the militia, during
peace ? And how did they aft towards the volunteers,
on whole gallantry they now profefs fo much to rely ?
The Haute mutt have in rerolleftion the letters which
Miniftera addreifed to that body of met, duriog the
peace, which letters were 10 much calculated rather
to clamp than to animate and ei-courage the zeal of
thole cot ps. But this was not all ; for, under circum-
fiances peculiarly aufpicions for the put pole, and with
the prolpefts before them I have already mentitilied,
they rettikel to attend to a plat, lopgetted to them
tor orovioing a certain ret.out ce fur the recruring •old
lopply of our regular army. This plan was founded
upon the f•me pi iiaiple as that of the Army of
ltekt ve, with the addition / toil ne•
cafiun lately to lay bcf..re Ine I bode, .I.d which. if
adopted v hea my ti. !:!II urged to Mini
Reis, would haee :!._ rl.t -in. ul adding to
out :t: ni y, with; l.tt •.., srt I.:ia than
40 in p!.in has, 1 a ni,;t, been
lance adoioed in rut ; ind I ceitaii.ly f-el it

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