vants and apprentices. Minifters, in his opinion, had done nothing to improve the volunteer fyftem laid down by the

late Ministers.

Sir J. Wrottefley was for the recommitment. He intimated a with to move for the introduction of a clause into the bill, for the better regulation of the number of days allotted to drill in corps in the country. He adverted to the Bumber of volunteers in the metropolis and its vicinity; their number, he underflood, was nearly 32,000, but out of that number, if he was rightly informed, nearly the half had engaged only to extend their fervices to the vicinity of the capital, even in cafe of invafion. It was his object that a claufe thould be introduced, taking away the exemptions from those whofe fervices were thus limited.

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Mr. Ald. Combe wished to explain to the hon. Baronet who had juft fat down, the nature of the fervice of that part of the volunteer force in and about the metropolis, which the city of London had furnished, amounting to about 12,000 men. It had been understood as the undoubted prerogative of the Crown, that in cafe of actual invasion, or the appearance of the enemy upon the coaft, his Majefty had the right to call forth the fervices of every man in the kingdom. The magiftrates of the city adopting that principle, had recommended it to their fellow citizens to affociate themfelves for the purpose of learning the military exercife, and afifting the civil power in cafe of tumult or infurrection,' thinking it would be a mockery to make an offer of fervices which, at a fit feafon, his Majefty could coinmand; and he was quite fure, that in the whole number, there was not one man who did not confider himself liable, in case of invafion, to be put under the command of a general officer, and marched to any part of the kingdom. There was one other matter refpecting the volunteers of the city, which he wished to ftate to the Houfe, which was this, that no one could doubt that their offers of fervice arofe from a pure patriotic public fpirit, becaufe as, by their charters, they were exempt from thofe military duties to which other parts of England are liable, they had no occafion to feek refuge from the ballots.

Mr. Pitt obferved, that under the prefent circumstances, he fhould vote against recommitting the bill. With refpect to the just expectations of the public from the measure, how far it conferred thofe fair benefits they were entitled to, he had already stated his opinion, he therefore thould not trou

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ble the Houfe with a repetition of it. The measure under confideration left many deficiencies in the fyftem; there was not a proper degree of encouragement held out with refpect to the important point of difcipline; neither was there a fufficient number of days allowed for the purpofe; and even when they had affembled, the means of instruction were not adequately afforded. At the fame time, he was of opinion that the bill, with reference to the confideration of immediate danger, had one beneficial feature in the inducement it held to corps to come immediately forward upon permanent duty, with a view to the improvement of difcipline, in its holding out a bounty; but even this, he feared, was in a degree that would not be fufficient for the purpofe; it was, however, under the prefent circumstances, and as far as it went, a valuable and important confideration, and should be an inducement to the Houfe to pass it without delay; he meant, with a reference to the expectation of a speedy invafion, against which they could not too foon be prepared. Though he could not avoid lamenting the imperfections of the bill, yet containing the provifion he had alluded to, it fhould fpeedily be paffed. There was another clause in the bill, which he thought likely to be of beneficial consequence, that which went to prevent the arrests of commanding officers while on service. With refpect to the remaining parts of the bill, it was little more than a regulation of conve niency, by confolidaying into one, what before had been feattered into two or three different acts. He was impreffed with the conviction of speedily paffing this bill, or that nothing in fact would have hitherto been done; it fhould be acted upon as foon as poffible. With refpect to the propofal of recommitting the bill, he faw no profpect of great or fubftantial improvement which could be derived from fuch a proceeding. In regard to the fubject of apprentices, the leave of abfence, and certain other points on which fome ftrefs had been laid, he thought the bill was not liable to any ferious objections on thofe heads. There were other topics upon which objections had been urged, but if these could not be effectually difcuffed upon the report, it would certainly be a reason for recommitting the bill; and he felt the impor tance of thefe points as much as any other perfon could do.

Mr. Sheridan was of opinion that whatever idea was entertained of the military fyftem of the country, this was not the moment for fuch a difcuffion. If Gentlemen thought this a matter fit for inquiry, they might move for a CommitVOL. II. 1803-4.

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tee on the fubject, and the difcuffion might regularly take place. At present the question was extremely fimple. It was merely whether certain amendments, the propriety of which was not denied even by the framers of the bill, fhould be introduced on the report or in a Committee for that specific purpofe. For fome time past he had, confif; tently with a principle which three years ago he had stated in that Houfe, felt it his duty to absent himfelf from his attendance in Parliament, and he had confequently not been prefent at the different difcuffions which had taken place on the previous stages of the bill. This, however, he knew, that the bill had already been in three Committees, and the queftion came to be, fhould it go to a fourth Committee to receive new amendments and improvements? If it was true, what was stated by an hon. and learned Gentleman (Dr. Laurence), that the bill as a whole had not been before the Committee, this would be the ftrongest argument which he had heard for the recommitment. If a right hon. Gentleman oppofite (Mr. Pitt) would rife and state that he had new claufes to propofe in the Committee, or if any other hon. Gentleman would make a fimilar declaration, he should certainly vote for the recommitment. Independent of fuch a declaration he really had heard no ground laid against proceeding to the confideration of the report. He was the more inclined to this opinion from seeing the candid defire of his Majesty's Minifters to make every fair conceflion (hert there was a general laugh). He thought the question quite important, and that the time of the Houfe would be much more ufefully employed in proceeding to the difcuffion of the report.

Mr. Pitt, in explanation, stated, that he had been mifunderstood by the hon. Member. He feemed to conceive that he was for the recommitment of the bill, whereas he was against it. Whatever the principle of the hon. Gentleman's abfence was, if he had been in his place he would have feen that the claufes which he wished to introduce, were not now wanting from any deficiency on his part in propofing them, but from his inability to perfuade the House to adopt them.

Mr. Windham rofe, he said, to trefpafs on the attention of the Houfe but for a few moments, although before he came down to his place that day he meant to enter very much at length into the merits and tendency of the volunteer fyftem, and particularly to reprobate two claufes which had found

their way into the bill under confideration, and which excited his aftonishinent in common with that of every man who valued good faith and justice towards the volunteers. Thofe claufes, however, having been abandoned by the framers of the bill, and the difcuffion having taken a turn extremely fingular in this ftage of the proceeding, a difcution which would more properly belong to a Committee, he felt that he could not enter upon the confideration of the general measure without great difadvantages. He therefore waved for the prefent the full delivery of his opinions upon the fubject, the more particularly as he could not but oblerve that the attention of the Houfe was nearly exhausted. He, however, could not forbear to say, in contradiction to the fentiments of the learned Gentleman on the Treafury Bench, that he conceived it quite impoffible to investigate the merits of the volunteer fyftem, which comprehended above three fourths of the public force, without alfo taking a view of the other means of our defence, to ascertain how far those means were corefpondent to each other, and calculated to act efficaciously together. This was a queftion, in his judgment, of infinite importance, and demanding the most attentive inquiry, inafmuch as it was the commencement of a fyftem, the effects of which would grow on us every day, for the more we advanced in fuch a fituation, the more difficult it would be to Change; and, therefore, the farther we proceeded, the stronger would the argument become which was relied upon fo much that night, namely, that we had gone too far to recede. For this reafon it was his anxious defire, that we should top, as Loon as poffible, the progrefs of a fyftem fo defective, fo radi cally inefficient. When arguing against this fyftem, he withed to correct an error that seemed to prevail in the minds of fome Gentlemen, that he and others who joined with him. meant that the volunteers fhould be difbanded. Nothing could be more erroneous than this idea, for on the contrary, the principal objections which he and the Gentlemen with whom he acted had to this measure, and which he hoped would not be confidered inconfiftent, were thefe, that it would produce the diffolution of the greater part of the volunteers, while it would go to render the volunteer fyllem permanent. -Wuh refpect to the motion immediately balore the House, he would admit the juft ce of the remark, that new claufes might be propofed and adopted withour recommitting the bill; but yet he was for going into the Committee, and for this plain reafon, that a Committee was the natural and proA a 2

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per place to difcufs fuch clauses. An hon. Gentleman (Mr. Sheridan) had urged that it was unneceffary to go into the Committee, as Ministers had manifefted fuch candour as left no room to doubt of their readinefs to accede to any neceffary amendment that might be proposed in this stage of the bill, and the hon. Gentleman had taken occafion to observe, that it was no wonder that candour in a Minifter fhould excite furprife in the Houfe, as the quality was rather new; but might it not be the cafe, as he suspected it was, that the furprife which the hon. Gentleman perceived in the House, did not arife from the circumstance that candour was a new quality in a Minifter, but that fuch a compliment from fuch a quarter was new? not the fact stated, but the ftater provoked the general 'mile upon which the hon. Gentleman had remarked. The hon. Gentleman, however, had probably experienced fuch candour in his Majefty's Minifters, in return for the candour which he had fhewn toward them for fome time back, as juftified, in his mind, the compliments he appeared fo ftrongly difpofed to pay them. Reverting to the motion before the Houfe, Mr. Windham ftated, that in order that the imperfections of the measure might as far as poffible be diminished, he would vote for the recommittal.

Colonel Baftard maintained that the volunteer fyftem did not militate fo much as its adverfaries afferted against the progrefs of the ballot for the militia, &c. As a proof of this, he stated that in the militia of the county to which he belonged (Devon), where volunteer corps were very numerous, the regiment of militia was not only complete, but had many fupernumeraries, although not more than ten guineas bounty had ever been given; and he was confident that if any men were wanting for that body, they could be had from among the volunteers themfelves, whose spirit, zeal, and military habits naturally difpofed them to enter, if neceffary, into regular military fervice. With refpect to the efficacy of the volunteers for the defence of the country, he referred to the fpeech of that gallant officer, that high military authority, Earl Moira, who declared at the Highland Society a few days fince, that with the volunteer force of Scotland, combined with the few regular troops in that country, he would undertake to defend it against any attack of the enemy. This opinion, with that of many other general officers of high character, was quite fufficient to fatisfy his mind of the fallacy of the objections fo often urged against the utility and ftrength of the volunteers. As to the

opinion