;

yet he was happy to see that the honourable baronet was already so far recovered as to be able to attend all the debates of that House (a laugh). To Sir Andrew Hamond a successor (Captain Dickens) was appointed, in every point of view unexceptionable; but this gentleman being disquali fied by illness to act, Captain Nicholls, an officer of character equally unquestionable, was substituted for him. Of the other three new appointments made in the naval department, the noble lord declared that so far from having any view to patronage, the only desire was to procure per sons capable of an efficient discharge of duty in a branch of service where such efficiency was but too visibly wanted and of those who were appointed he had to state that not 'one was at all known to himself or any of his colleagues in any other way than from the report of their qualifications. There was a fifth appointment about to be made in his department to which, perhaps, some part of the right ho nourable gentleman's censure might be pointed; that was with regard to Sir Charles Saxton's office at Portsmouth; that officer's age unfitting him for his present station, was about to re ire, but required that which he thought it his duty to resist, namely, that he should be allowed to retain the whole of his salary, Upon the retirement of that honourable baronet, the noble lord stated his intention of recommending an officer (Captain Grey) to succeed him, his connection with whom should not prevent him from saying that he was fully qualified for the office. With respect then to the conduct of the navy, the noble lord felt that the right honourable gentleman's imputations were as unfounded as those which he had thought proper to direct against the proceedings of his noble friend, and the measure before the House.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

TUESDAY, JUNE 17.

Strangers were for some time excluded during a discussion in the committee of privileges.

After the doors were opened, the House proceeded further in the appeal "Graham v. the Countess Dowager of ́ Glencairn," during which Lord Ellenborough sat for the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Advocate of Scotland was

again, in part, heard for the respondent. Further hearing on Monday,

A person from Greenwich hospital presented several papers in pursuance of an order of the House, which were ordered to lie on the table and to be printed

The Irish malt duty bill, and the Dublin paving bill passed through committees, and were reported,

MUTINY BILL.

Lord Grenville moved the third reading of the mutiny .bill.

Lord Hawkesbury said, after the full discussion the bill had undergone, he would not detain their lordships by going over the same ground again. His object now was to move an amendment, which was calculated, in his opinion, to render the measure before the House less objectionable. Many of the arguments urged by noble lords against the bill still remained unanswered, and formed in his mind very strong objections to the measure. He was still of opinion, that if a choice was allowed to persons enlisting to enlist either for life or for seven years, that ninety-nine out of a hundred would prefer the former. The only fair way of trying the measure in this way would be to allow persons to enlist in either way, giving sixteen guineas bounty for enlistment for life, and twelve guineas for seven years. As it was, however, decided by the House, that enlisting for a limited period should become a general measure, it only remained to him to propose what he conceived would be a beneficial alteration of that period. He was of opinion that enlisting men for the short term of seven years would produce little benefit to the army, whilst at the same time it would not be any real advantage to the men enlisted.. He thought that twenty or twenty-one years would be a period much more likely to prove advantageous. Let a man serve for that period, and then, if he survived the contingencies of the service, be entitled to a pension for the remainder of his life. The army would, by this means, always have a certain number of experienced soldiers; the value of whom were well known to all military officers. On the other hand, it was to be feared that if men were enlisted for only seven years, they would become restless and unsteady, and the army not derive much benefit from soldiers of that description. The present bill rendered the period

of

of military service shorter in this country than it was in any other state in Europe, without, as he conceived, promising any adequate advantage. On the contrary, great inconve nience must necessarily arise from such a system in drafting regiments, and with respect to our colonial service. His lordship, after recapitulating some of the former arguments against the bill, concluded by moving to insert in the oath the period of twenty years, instead of seven.

The Earl of Lauderdale expressed his astonishment that such a motion should come from the other side of the House. On a former evening noble lords on the other side had arraigned his Majesty's ministers for trenching, as they alledged, on the King's prerogative, by the enactment relative to limited service contained in this bill, and now they themselves came forward to propose another limited period of service, which was as much an invasion of the King's prerogative, according to their own arguments, as the proposition made by his Majesty's ministers. He thought it wholly unnecessary to argue as to the superior inducement which there must be to every man to enlist for seven years rather than for life, as such a disposition was clearly deducible from the slightest experience of human nature. The same argument was equally applicable to an enlistment for seven, instead of twenty years. If noble lords on the other side were told that they must remain in a state of sorrowing and suffering, as it had been termed the other night, for twenty years instead of seven, they would doubtless declaim loudly against it, and endeavour to make the period of seven years still shorter. The opposition made to this. measure appeared to him very singular, as the principle of enlisting for a limited period had been applied by noble lords on the other side before they quitted office, to the marines, and it was from the success of this very measure that a very convincing argument was to be deduced in favour of the general application of the principle to the whole army. His lordship stated an order made on the Sd February, 1806, directing men to be enlisted for the marines for a limited period during the war, and read extracts of letters from General Campbell, to prove the success of the measure in obtaining recruits, but did not state the numbers enlisted. As to the objection taken by the noble lord, with respect to drafting, it was well known that when a regiment was ordered to a distant clime, or on foreign VOL. III. 1805-6. service,

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service, that there were always individuals belonging to that regiment, who, from age or other causes, were incapable of encountering the fatigue of a voyage, or the heat of the climate to which the regiment was destined, and who were, therefore, drafted into other regiments. If this measure was carried into effect, he did not believe that there would be at any time more men to draft on account of their terms of service being near expiring, than there were now for other causes. Another objection had been taken by the opponents of this measure, as to the expence with which it would be attended; and, he must say, that this had been most unfairly argued. Those who had argued on this ground, had included in their estimate the pensions given to disabled and retired soldiers, when it must be evident that these pensions were what soldiers disabled by wounds or age were jusly entitled to, as a provision for the remainder of their lives, and that they formed a strong inducement on the side of the recruiting service. He would not detain the House by entering into any further discussion of the subject, the arguments urged on the other side had already been fully and completely answered. He should therefore merely declare his determination to oppose the amendment.

Lord Hawkesbury, in. explanation, said he had no knowledge whatever of the order alluded to by the noble earl.

The Earl of Suffolk argued generally in favour of the bill, and objected to the amendment.

The Earl of Westmoreland repeated several of his former arguments against the measure, and denied any knowledge of the order to which the noble earl (Lauderdale) had alluded. He supported the amendment.

The question was then put, that the word "seven" stand part of the bill, which was carried. The bill was passed, and a message was sent to the House of Commons to acquaint them therewith.

The House resolved itself into a committee on the Chelsea allowances bill.

A long conversation ensued, in which the Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Hawkesbury, the Duke of Cumber land, and Lord Eldon requested information from noble lords on the other side as to the probable amount of the allowances to be issued, and contended that it was unprecedented to bring a bill of this nature before Parliament without

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without some previous estimate of the amount of the expence.

Lord Grenville, the Earl of Rosslyn, the Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Auckland, and the Earl of Lauderdale contended, on the other hand, that it was impossible to make an estimate of an expence, the amount of which must depend upon future casualties and contingencies, and that the only object of the bill was to give the soldier a legal title to receive those allowances which might be hereafter directed by his Majesty and sanctioned by a vote of Parlia

ment.

Lord Eldon complained that the bill was amazingly unintelligible.

Lord Grenville said, if noble lords on the other side would stay, he would endeavour, as far as his poor abilities would allow, still further to explain the bill.

-Lord Eldon said he would stay as long as the noble lord wished, if he could make the bill intelligible.

No further objection was made to the bill, which passed through the committee, and was reported without ainendment. Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TUESDAY, JUNE 17.

On the motion of Mr. Alderman Combe, the debate on the first reading of the globe insurance incorperation bill was resumed.

Sir John W. Anderson took an objection on the ground of there being two companies with exclusive rights for making marine insurances.

Sir Theophilus Metcalfe stated that the unexpected opposition brought forward in an unusual manner against the first reading of the bill in question, obliged him to trouble the House with a few words on the subject, and that he thought it necessary to explain to the gentlemen who were not in the House on Friday, how an adjourned debate took place upon a first reading. When the question was put on that day, an opposition started, and before any reply could be made, the more important business of a commission and conference with the Lords necessarily put an end to the debate. The objections then offered were the bringing forward the bill at so late a period of the sessions, and a desire of an Bb 2 honourable