remains no possible army but by consent of Parliament. This statute of Edward the Third, and the bill of rights, limit no power of the Crown which is consistent with the safety of the people, and give no power to the people dangerous to the Crown. It is most mischievous to attempt to raise a jealousy (if it were possible) on this ground, on which the power of the Crown, and the confidence and security of the people, have flourished with encreasing vigour for above a century. This well-balanced power has enabled the people to look up to the Crown for protection with love and affection untainted with fear and jealousy. The national force thus constituted cannot be used against the Crown, or the liberties of the people, but it may be exerted with undiminished vigour and energy against the common enemy of both. The noble lord on the other side says that the desertion, in consequence of limited service, will greatly encrease, for he lays it down as an incontrovertible maxim, that the more frequent recurrence of small bounties, after short limitations of service, must be irresistible, and repeated temptations to desertion; the very reverse of this is obviously true; the encreased magnitude of bounty is an unquestionable proof of the encreased disinclination to the service, which is to be surmounted; the desertion must bear an equal proportion to the disinclination measured by the bounties; if the service had no end but with life, nothing but desertion (in the soldier's power) can shorten it, and it is indifferent whether he is tempted by relief from endless hardship, or the prospect of acquiring new bounty by re-enlistment; it is impossible that either of these motives for desertion can operate so strongly in limited as in unlimited service; the supposition is, that the limited soldier deserts for the purpose of re-enlisting and obtaining the bounty, but he gets less for a limited time than the soldier for life can get-he will not therefore have so much temptation to desert, and if he will wait a short time he will receive without risk that bounty which the soldier for life will never get, without desertion and its risks. Another point has likewise been fallaciously urged; the noble lords have taken it for granted, that the termination for limited service, (if admitted) should have been on the conclusion of a war, and that this point was self-evident; to my mind, the reverse is clearly demonstrable: this term, the end of the war, would accumulate all the broken periods, and the whole army would expire with the war; peace would would disband at one moment all our forces, and leave us pacified foes not yet turned friends, to whom we should, with the confidence of ideots, expose our unarmed side. approve of the period fixed to the limitation by this bill, namely, seven years, which may be extended for three years, there is no fixed period from seven to ten; it gives ample scope to counteract the evils which must arise from the dissolution of the army at any given moment. The Duke of Montrose complained of the introduction of so important a measure in the shape of a clause in the mutiny bill, a measure which, he contended, ought to have been discussed substantially, and after having receiv ed the opinions of military officers upon the subject. The Duke of Gloucester warmly su ported the measure. Many officers of eminence and reputation with whom he had conversed, in those countries in which he had travelled, had given their opinion decidedly in favour of limited service, which they considered as productive of the most beneficial consequences to an army. He was also decidedly of the same opinion, and he considered such a mode of enlistment as peculiarly congenial to this country, where freedom was the birth-right of its inhabitants, where the love of freedom animated them in all their contests, and inspirited all their exertions. Nothing was more clearly convincing to his mind than that enlistment for a fixed term of years, as proposed in the present measure, would operate as a strong inducement to many who would not otherwise venture to culist; and when they returned to their homes, and related the battles in which they had been engaged, the glories which had been achieved, the laurels they had won, and the benefits they had received, it would be a still stronger inducement for their younger relatives to enter into a service where they had the same prospects of honour and reward, and returning in the same manner to their families. If only ten men in a regiment returned in this way to their families, the benefit to the army produced by this means would be incalculable. Earl Grosvenor said, that the plans hitherto tried had failed effectually to recruit the army. It was therefore necessary to resort to some new means of effecting that desirable object, and upon this principle he supported the present measure, which seemed to promise fair the accomplishment. of a purpose so much wished for. Earl Camden opposed the bill; as did also The The Earl of Limerick. He contended, that our colonial service was peculiarly incompatible with limited service, since before the soldier became seasoned to the climate, he might become entitled to his discharge; and thus our colonies might be perpetually supplied with raw soldiers, to whom the climate was peculiarly fatal. From his own experience he had found, that were a higher description of persons to enter the army, it would not contribute to its Subordination and discipline. He had found, that those who could read and write were often the most troublesome, and most inclined to faction. Besides, it was not to be supposed that those who had enjoyed the comforts of life would readily submit, without murmuring and discontent, to those privations to which the soldier must necessarily be exposed. Lord King observed, that it was not wished to introduce a higher class of men into the army, but only the more considerate and reflecting of that class, who now entered it as soldiers. This would add both to the numbers and discipline of the army. The Earl of Hardwicke stated, that during the lordHieutenantcy of the Marquis Cornwallis in Ireland, he made the experiment of enlisting for a limited period, but it did not by any means equal the expectations of those who had advised the trial even as a temporary expedient. The Earl of Buckinghamshire observed, that some noble lords seemed to imagine that the interference of Parliament in the enlisting of soldiers was an encroachment on the prerogative of the Crown. Did thist trench more on the Foyal prerogative, he would ask their lordships, than the annual mutiny bill in time of peace did on the popular right? The Earl of Rosslyn thought, that the only way of ren dering unnecessary the present high bounties, and of removing the odium under which the military life so generally laboured, was by ameliorating the condition of the soldier, and this the present clause was eminently calenlated to promote. High bounties were one great cause of the desertions which had so much prevailed of late, and if the eause were removed, which could only be done by some measure similar to the present, the effect would cease of course. At present, nothing but the event of his being disabled could give the soldier the hope of retirement; and it was not to be expected that considerate men, or indeed any 161 any but the thoughtless, or those driven by necessity, would prefer being tied up for life, to limited service. As to canvassing between the officer and soldier, he was confident that British officers would never degrade themselves by permitting any relaxation of discipline, to induce their men to continue in the service. They were convinced that the attachment of the soldier could only be gained by fair and liberal conduct, and by the strict and impartial exer cise of discipline. Lord Hawkesbury declared, that notwithstanding all he had heard from the noble earl who had spoken last, and the other noble lords who preceded him, (and the opinions of some of them he knew were entitled to considerable weight) notwithstanding all the arguments which he had heard so ably advanced, in support of the system which was to be founded on a clause in the bill now before their lordships, he had not heard reasons stated, which were ca pable of effacing from his mind the impression which it had previously received, namely, that this was, in its very essence, a most dangerous, and might possibly be in its consequences, an almost ruinous system. Artillery, cad valry, and infantry, foreigners and native subjects, White men and Blacks were all to be disbanded at the expiration of the term of seven years. He was well aware that it was utterly impossible that any thing like a general discharge could take place at any given time; but then it was with in the line of probability that great numbers would have completed their term of service nearly at the same time, and must necessarily be discharged just at the eye of the breaking out of a war. This would be such a case as would most seriously affect the interest (though he would always place the utmost confidence in the loyalty and bravery) of the nation, yet it was possible that the occurrence of such an event might endanger the safety of the country. It was wise and politic for statesmen to be guarded at all times against even a distant possibility of such danger, and he conceived it to be unwise and impolitic in ministers to make such an innovation on our military system as this was, during a period of war. The manner he thought peculi arly liable to censure, as by the system being introduced in the form of a clause in the mutiny bill, which was within ten days of expiring. Their lordships must either agree to this plan, or subject themselves to the painful feeling that VOL. III. 1805-6... Y they they had left the state without a mutiny bill at a period of war.. Lord Holland observed, that after the able and elegant speech which had been made in favour of the measure by the illustrious person whom he had in his eye (the Duke of Gloucester), a speech which must have made an indelible impression on the minds of all who heard it, he was surprised that the noble lords on the other side should have persisted in their objections. He then adverted to the necessity of increasing our army, in opposition to a noble lord who had said that our disposable force was already great enough. In order to attain this object we must now have recourse to a measure simple in itself, but likely to be most powerful in its effects, after all the nostrums which had been tried and had failed. This country ought to have more than its money to depend upon in order to secure it from danger, and to maintain its respectability. The effects of subsidies had already been seen. It had been said that this country was now in the zenith of its glory. It might be so, perhaps, for it was one of the effects of a burning sun to have no shadow, and certainly our sun had lately left no shadow of glory to those upon whom it had lately shone. A noble lord had compared our volunteers, for whom he certainly had the greatest respect, to the Macedonian's phalanx. The comparison was not a happy one, but we had undoubtedly lately followed the system of Phillip, and depended more on our gold than on the force of our arms. There was this difference, however, that his gold led to victory, ours to defeat. He denied that this was any infringement of the prerogative, which no one could be more anxious to defend than he would be, because he thought that its security was necessary for the safety of the liberties of the people. It had been said by some noble lords, that the present ministers had got into the Elysium, for which they had long been anxious, and that they could not conduct themselves with moderation. The noble lords on the other side were in the seats of sorrow and suffering ; but they were not, it appeared, without some consolation, for one of them had hinted a sort of hope that ministers might do something which would restore him to his fields again. When his friends therefore should be disposed to solicit his favour, he might, perhaps, console them as Falstaff did Justice Shallow, when in great anxiety about bis thousand pounds- Trust me, Master Shallow, I 7 shall |