which it judged to be most expe dient. But the whole number of persons liable to that service should be enrolled in classes according to their age, and on any emergence a discretionary power might be left with government to call out and embody whatever classes it should think proper, and in whatever parts of the country it should find necessary. With respect to the militia Mr. Windham had at present no alterations to propose. He meant to continue the suspension of the ballot, and he would certainly recom. mend, in future, recruiting for that service on the scheme projected in Ireland, and at a limited bounty. He was also disposed to promote a measure, introduced by the late government, of permitting the Irish militia to enlist in the line; and he intended, in conjunction with the Irish government, to propose some permanent arrangement for that purpose. Mr. Windham concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act passed in the 44th of his majesty called the additional force bill. Lord Castlereagh after enlarging on the inexpediency of undertak. ing a fundamental revision of any of the leading establishments of a country in time of war, contended that it was unnecessary to enter into such a revision of our military establishments at the present moment. In proof of this position, and to shew how much the army had been increased in its numbers dur. ing the late administration, he stated, 1st, that, the gross strength of the army at home and abroad, inelud. ing militia and artillery, in effective rank and file, was 3dly, The regular army disposable for general service, was 1st January, 1804 115,947 1st March, 1806 165,790 increase 49,843 He admitted that the annual loss of the army, independant of extraordinary occurrences, amounted to 15,000 men; and that the annual supply, by the ordinary means of recruiting, did not exceed 11,000, or at most 14,000 men. He ad mitted also that an addition of 43,000 men was still wanting to raise the army to its full establishment. But, he contended that the annual supply which might be ex. pected from the Irish militia, and the operation of the bill now proposed to be repealed, were fully adequate to supply these defi. ciencies. He entered into a detailed account of the reasons why this bill had been so long unproductive; but he contended, that since the progress of the inspecting field officers through the counties, it had furnished 300 men a week, being at the rate of 16,000 men a year; and he endeavoured to shew that, in future, it would afford a still greater number. He argued against the plan of enlisting men for a limited term of years on various and not very consistent grounds. seemed to think the experiment was dangerous, and yet argued it would produce little real change in He the condition of the soldiers. He was apprehensive that if the same privilege was not extended to the existing army, it would excite discontent among the troops, and yet be considered it so small a boon that none would be induced by it to enter the army, who would not have done so though it had not been granted. It would increase the annual waste of the army, and might create at certain periods a still more alarming deficiency. It was not a practice that had been followed by any of the great military powers, except by France before the revolution, and by Austria since the peace of Campo Formio. After reprobating the indirect course, which he alledged the right hon. secretary was pursuing to get rid of the volunteers, the noble lord concluded by a studied eulogium on the present greatness and prosperity of the country. "I do not hesitate to assert said he, that on the essential points of the finances, the navy, and the army, compared with the difficulties and embarassments under which they represent themselves to have undertaken the government, the present administration may be considered as on a bed of roses." Our limits will not permit us to give at length, and we shall not attempt to abridge, the spirited and indignant reply of Mr. Fox to this extraordinary assertion, that the ministers with whom he acted had succeeded to a bed of roses. The right hon. secretary proceeded afterwards to point out the numerous and striking inconsistencies in lord Castlereagh's arguments with respect to limited service, and in an. swer to his complaint, that, in repealing the additional force bill, Mr. Windham substituted nothing in its place, he observed" that it was the merit of his right hon. friend's plan, that it proposed no complicated machinery to produce an effect, which would be gained by the simple mode of recruiting. All the schemes adopted for raising men had, as far as they were successful, only defrauded the ordinary system of recruiting, and that with a great expence and no inconsiderable oppression. It was something that the market would be again left open to the government as the only recruiter. The noble lord might call this theory, and say that no more men would be obtained. "Now I should think," said Mr. Fox, "that the theory which tells me that you have the best chance of being cheaply provided, when you are the only bidder, is preferable to the noble lord's practical argument, that the more competitors you let into the market, the more recruits you are likely to obtain, and at a smaller bounty." Mr. Fox concluded with expres sing his opinion, that we should find it necessary to maintain a large army, even in time of peace, for he saw no prospect of any peace, that would exempt us from the necessity of watchful preparation and power. ful establishments. Mr. Yorke was averse to the plan of limited service, which he considered as a dangerous innovation; and he argued that the soldiers of our army could not be said to be enlisted for life, when the existence of the army itself depended on the annual votes of parliament. He added that it was an invariable practice in our army to give a soldier his discharge after 2+ years service. Sir James Pulteney and general Tarleton objected in the strongest terms to the plan of the right hon. Secretary. The former was of opinion, “that the character of British soldiers would be materially injured by the introduction of limited service," and among other objections to that form of engagement, he suggested, that the prospect of returning to their friends and families might have a mischievous effect on the minds of those, whose term of service was nearly expired, and lessen materially their promptness and alacrity to encounter danger. The latter boasted that he had in his pocket the clearest proofs of the efficacy of the additional force bill," and from its success in Lancashire, he inferred, that where it had failed, the fault lay with those who had been charged with the execution of it. Whereupon sir W. W. Wynne rose and observed, that Denbighshire had procured the men it was bound to furnish by the act, from Manchester and other manufacturing towns.in Lancashire, by means of crimps, and he had no doubt that Lancashire had raised its own quota from the same places, and by the same instruments. Colonel Crawford, colonel Graham, and Mr. Huddlestone spoke in favour of limited service; and lord Temple, Mr. Charles Dundas, and sir William Young vindicated those entrusted with the execution of the additional force bill from the imputation cast upon them of having neglected to do their duty. The subject of limited service was again brought before the house (April 17th) by Mr. Yorke, who moved for the production of copies of all such military opinions in writing as may have been given, in consequence of a requisition of his ma jesty's government, on the subject of recruiting the army in future, by enlisting for a term of years." This motion was objected to by ministers on the ground, that the opinions called for were private and confidential communications from certain general officers to the com mander in chief, and that to lay them before the public would be unfair to those officers, and would tend to prevent such unreserved communications from being made in future. It appeared in the course of the debate, which was desul tory and uninteresting, that there was great diversity of opinion among the officers consulted with regard to limited service. Of 14 opinions given to the commander in chief, 7 were in favour of limited service, 6 against it, and one doubtful During this debate the house was reminded by general Walpole, that the experiment of recruiting for a limited term of years had been tried in the American war with the best effects to the recruiting service. On the same day the additional force repeal bill was read a first time. It was opposed by Mr. Percival on the ground, that the additional force bill had been gradually and progressively becoming more productive since the question was debated last year, and that it was now actually furnishing from 300 to 400 recruits a week. It was main. tained on the other side that not single man had been obtained for the army by the operation of this bill, who would not have been procured without its operation. The repeal bill was read a second time on the 30th of April. Before it was read, Mr. Canning moved as an amendment, that the second reading of the bill should be post poned till that day three weeks, in E3 order, order, as he said, that the new military plan might first be taken into consideration The house di vided on the question that the bill be now read; ayes 235; nocs 119; majority 116, He re equivalent for the present high This debate was distinguished on the side of opposition, by a very brilliant and able speech of Mr. Canning, which was, however, rather a general review and examination of Mr. Windham's military plans. than a defence of the additional force bill. In this speech Mr Canning argued at great length for the practice and policy of com. pulsory service in certain parts of our military establishment, and ex. pressed his fears, that if that principle were abandoned in the militia, as seemed to be in the contemplation of the right hon. secretary, that species of force would cease to be, what was intended by it, a constitutional check on the standing army. If limited service was a boon to the army, the right hon. gentleman contended, that the proposal of it should have come from the crown and not have originated with the commons. He had no dislike to the trial of limited service on a small scale, but he objected to the whole of our army being put upon that footing. He was no enemy to variety in our military establishments. He then enlarged on the danger of soldiers being entitled to have their discharge in time of war, on the inconvenience that must result from limited ser vice in our foreign and colonial possessions, on the discontents that were to be apprehended in the existing army, when they saw the new levies placed in a situation so infinitely preferable to their own. He ridiculed the additional six-pence a week that was to be given as an It was contended on the other side, that the bill the repeal of which was the only question then before the house, had failed to accomplish any of the objects for which it had been enacted. Instead of raising 41,415 men, in the whole United Kingdom, as by the several acts for raising the additional force it ought to have done,before the 1st of October, 1805, it had furnished only 12,925 men, on the 14th of March, 1806; that is, it had raised less than one third of the number which ought to have been procured by it six months before. Of the men obtained by its operation, only 8,975 had been raised really or nominally by the parishes, and the rest had been procured by regimental recruiting; so that that one fifth only of the whole number of men that ought to have been raised by the act, had been procured by those persons, whose employment in a service of this nature, as it constituted the chief novelty, 90, in the apprehension of the friends of the bill, it had formed the chief recommendation of the act. Such were the returns for the United Kingdom in general. But, if England and Wales were taken apart from Scotland and Ireland, the failure of the bill would appear still more remarkable. In England and Wales not one fourth of the number of men had been raised, which ought to have been procured by the act, and not one seventh of their quotas had been raised by the parishes themselves. But the act had not more egregiously failed in procuring men, than in attaining the other objects which were to have been accomplished by it. While the original provisions of the bill had been adhered to; while none but parish officers had been employed in carrying it into effect, or, in case of their failure, regimental recruiting parties; while the recruiting under the act had been confined within the districts prescribed by law, and the bounties had not exceeded the sum allowed by the act of parliament, the bill had been entirely, or almost entirely inefficacious. The boasted improvements which it had lately received, were owing to a departure from all the original provisions and restrictions of the bill. Crimps had been employed to recruit instead of parish-officers; the recruiting districts of the parishes had been enlarged; and, instead of the small bounty prescribed by the act, large bounties had been given, which had raised a competition against the recruiting of the regular army, and interfered with it to such a degree, as to threaten, if not speedily done away, its total destruction. As the parishes were liable to a fine of 201. for every man in which they were deficient, many parish officers were in the practice of taking credit for that sum, and adding to it the bounty of 121. allowed by government, they employed crimps to procure men for them at any price, not exceeding 321. In consequence of these changes in the manner of car. rying into execution the act, it had become a partial and oppressive tax on the parishes, instead of being, as originally intended, a new and effectual instrument for increasing the army. The friends of the bill boasted of the number of persons who enlisted in the army from the additional force. The wonder was, that every person who intended to enlist in the army, did not begin by first entering the other; for, instead of the bounty of 161. the utmost given by the regular army, the sum of 121. might first be obtained by enlisting in the additional force, and afterwards 101. more by enlisting out of the additional force into the army. It had been one of the arguments for the bill, when first brought into parliament, that its operation would not interfere with the ordinary recruiting; but experience had shew, that since the new mode of carrying it into effect had been adopted, the ordinary recruiting had sensibly declined, so that the whole number of disposable men procured for the army, had been little, if at all, increased since it came into operation. During the E 4 last |