complete. Before this measure was adopted, bounties had risen in some parts of the country to 501. and 601. and substitutes could not be procured at any price. The descrtion of recruits had increased to an alarming degree, in consequence of the temptation of high bounties, on re-enlisting successively in different corps. The character of the army was therefore degraded by a measure, which added, at such exorbitant expence, to its numbers.

It must be confessed, that, after the pernicious influence of the army of reserve bill, he, who attempted to establish a better system for recruiting the army, had serious dif\ficulties to overcome, nor could he expect, whatever measures he adopted, that their effect would be at first considerable. Of militia, supplementary militia, army of re serve and troops of the line, more than 140,000 men had been raised in the short space of 18 months, so that the country was, in a great measure, drained of that description of persons, who form the great body of our soldiery; and, as it was essentially necessary, that the excessive bounties should be diminished, to which the army of reserve bill had given rise, it was not to be expected, for some time at least, that recruiting, in any form, would be attended with success. Pitt's additional force bill professed, however, to have the twofold object, of raising immediately for the army of reserve and militia, a sufficient number of men to complete these corps; and of providing for the army, in future, a permanent supply of recruits to the number of 9,000 annually. In the attainment of the first of these objects it confessedly failed. How far it had

Mr.

answered, or, when repealed, how far it was likely to answer the second purpose, is a subject to which we shall afterwards revert ; nor shall we, at present, make any observations on the principles or provisions of the bill. It will be sufficient to remind our readers, that the recruiting service was, under this act, entrusted to the parish officers, who were prohibited from giving a higher bounty than three fourths of the bounty allowed for recruits in regiments of the line, and in case their efforts, thus limited and restricted, should prove unsuccessful, the parishes were to be fined 201. for every man deficient. Great opposition had been made to this bill, when brought into parliament, and, the following year, an unsuc cessful attempt had been made in both houses to procure its repeal. It had been passed into a law about a year and a half, when parliament assembled in January 1806.

On the first day of the session Mr. Sheridan gave notice of his intention to move for the repeal of the additional force bill, but without fixing any particular day for his motion; on which lord Castlereagh observed, that some alteratious were intended to be made in the bill, which might possibly obviate the honourable member's objec tions. Mr. Sheridan replied, that no alteration could possibly render it fit to be continued any longer.

Next day (January 22) a petition from the county of Berks for the repeal of the same bill was presented by Mr. Charles Dundas one of the members for that county, in which it was stated that "eleven men only had been raised in the said

county by the Overseers, and the enormous sum of 6,6201. had been imposed on the

county

county for penalties." This petition was followed (February 18) by another from the parish of St. Maryla-bonne in the county of Middle. sex, setting forth, "that the number of men required to be raised in the said parish, under the provision of the said act, amounted to 225; that it had been found impossible to raise a single man in the manner and upon the terms prescribed by the act; that the parish had in consequence been assessed in the enormous sum of 4,500l. of which 2,0001. had been already paid to the treasurer of the county of Middlesex; and concluding with a prayer, that the said act may be repealed, as it had failed in its intended object in every respect."

The change of ministry, which followed within a few days after Mr. Sheridan's notice, rendered it unnecessary for that gentleman to bring forward his motion, as the subject naturally devolved on Mr. Windham, secretary of state for the war department, whose attention was known to have been long directed, in a particular manner, to the military branch of the public service.

Mr. Windham did not resume his seat in the house of commons, after he received the seals of secretary of state, till the 24th of February, and ten days having afterwards elapsed, without any motion from him on the military establishments of the country, the new opposition be. came impatient of further delay, and on the 5th of March, Mr. Long asked Mr. Windham, whom he saw in his place, at what time he intended to propose to the house his plan, respecting the arrangement of the military establishment. He (Mr. Long) disclaimed any inten

tion to produce inconvenience, orto embarrass the government by this question, but he felt it of high importance that any alteration intended to be made, should be known as soon as possible. Mr. Windham declared himself ready to give every satisfaction in his power, relative to the point alluded to. "The right honourable gentleman had, however, in asking the question, desired to know, when he meant to bring forward his plan? He did not understand what was meant by the words his plan.' He had never talked of any plan, nor had he ever heard that any member had done so for him." He added, that as soon as the business of the military establishment for the present year, which had already engaged the serious, minute, and attentive consideration of ministers, should be brought to a state of sufficient maturity, both their duty and inclination would lead them to lay it as speedily as possible, before the house. To a question from Mr. Canning, relative to the additional force bill, Mr. Windham replied, "that in the plan of defence now in contemplation, that bill certainly would not have a place."

Two days afterwards (March 7), in a committee of the house on the army estimates, general Tarleton expressed his surprize that the new ministers had not yet brought forward their plans for the defence of the country.

"After all the activity which the secretary for the war department had displayed in his speeches, and all the plans which he had given grounds to expect, nothing had yet been produced." Mr. Windham replied," that the rapidity and decision recommended by the honourable general, might

be

be proper in the field but not in the cabinet. All delay must be viewed as relative to the object to be accomplished. He objected to gentlemen calling for plans from him, as the frequenters of the theatre called for an entertainment. He did not feel disposed to indulge them, and their impatience should never provoke him to lay any thing before the house that seemed to himself immature."

Mr. Windham having spontaneously announced, on the 14th of March, that he hoped in the course of the following week, to be able to fix a day, for laying before the house the measures which his majesty's ministers meant to propose for the defence of the country; general Tarleton took occasion, on the 20th of March, to ask him, whether, according to the half notice he had then given, he meant to bring forward the subject on the Monday following. Mr. Windham replied, “that he saw no necessity for hurrying measures of such vast importance and delicacy, requiring the maturest deliberation; that it appeared to him, that the object of the greatest importance was, to give the fullest consideration to any changes that were to be proposed, and that he saw no other inconvenience that could result from the unavoidable delay, than that it would disappoint the curiosity and anxious expectation of a number of persons."

So eager were the opposition to provoke discussion on the military plans of the ministry, that in the interval between the 14th of March, when Mr. Windham announced his intention of bringing the subject speedily before the house, and the 20th of that month, when the pre

ceding conversation took place, they contrived to produce a debate on the subject, on a motion for the second reading of a report of the committec of supply on the ord nance estimates. General Tarleton began by stating, that the additional force bill had become highly productive, having furnished in the last week 353 men. After some comments on the hostility which the secretary for the war department had shewn towards that respectable body of men, the volunteers, he wished to know the determination of government with regard to them. "It was now near the end of March, and our military preparations were standing still. The ordnance estimates before the house were those which had been formed by the late ministry, unaltered and unimproved." After some remarks on a continental confederacy, and the probabilities of invasion, the honourable general concluded by suggesting, that Woolwich should not be the sole depositary of our means of defence, and that government should establish some great depôt, more in the center of the kingdom than the one forming at Wedenbeck.

Mr. Calcraft, secretary to the board of ordnance, having confined himself in his reply to general Tarleton's speech, to those parts of it which related to the ordnance, lord Castlereagh rose, and, after a variety of observations and questions with regard to the measures that were meant to be taken for the defence of Ireland, and of the cast coast of England, objects which, he said, the late ministers had in contemplation when they went out of office, and, after animadverting on the dread and discouragement with which the volunteers must look to

any counsels which the right honourable secretary for the war department was supposed to influence; he urged that gentleman in the strongest terms, to disclose what his intentions were in regard to the additional force bill. "On this and other questions connected with the military defence of the country, it was indispensible that an immediate determination should take place, and that the men of talents, of which the new administration was said to be composed,

should hasten to exert those talents in a way calculated to be of advantage to the public. The patient might otherwise expire before the state physicians had made up their minds as to the prescriptions that ought to be adopted."

The

Mr. Secretary Windham observed in reply, that the delay complained of by opposition, arose from difficulties which they had themselves created. Their military system had been so bad, that it naturally, produced those difficulties. noble lord had very properly compared the present military system to a sick patient. But who had reduced the wretched patient to that languishing state? How came the patient to be in his present situation? Was it not the noble lord and his friends who had brought him to death's door? And yet they who had brought the country to that state, were now loud in their reproaches of their successors, for not restoring the patient instantly to health." After some observations on the questions put to him by the noble lord, he ended by saying, "that the subjects alluded to were now under the consideration of government, and would, in due time, be submitted to parliament,"

He acknowledged

Mr. Canning then rose, and after denying that the inferences were just, which the last speaker had endeavoured to deduce from the noble lord's speech, expressed his surprise that an administration, combining, as had been asserted, and as they themselves had represented, all the talents, all the abilities, and all the experience and wisdom of the country, should require so much time to mature and bring forward their measures. "that if these questions were agitated with a view to draw from the right honourable gentleman a premature disclosure of his plans, opposition would ill discharge their duty to the public;" but he nevertheless went on, stating his reasons for wishing to have an answer on the subject of the volunteers and additional force bill, and expressing, in the course of his speech, his total want of confidence in the secretary for the war department, as a warminister, in which opinion he was sure that nine tenths of the nation coincided with him.

Mr. Whitbread, after some remarks on the tone and spirit of Mr. Canning's and lord Casticreagh's speeches, observed, that the recent efficacy of the additional force bill, was not owing to its natural operation, but to the activity of crimps and recruiting officers, in turning over to the parish levies, men under-sized for the line and militia.

Mr. Fox, in reply to Mr. Canning, observed, that " that right honourable gentleman had stated, that the present ministry comprised all the talent in the country; and he had even stated it in such a manner as might lead to a supposition that they had so represented them

selves.