object in fpeaking, but from public duty. He would not waste time in complimenting Minifters on the wisdom of their measures, having very little acquaintance with any of them, except from official correfpondence, and he did not even know who were their oppofers; he rose as an old volunteer, feeling it his indifpenfable duty to do justice to that fpecies of force, which upon every occafion had acted with honour and fpirit. He faid he could not but regret, that many reflections had been thrown out in fpeeches and ia publications against the volunteer fyftem (which term he fhould ufe notwithstanding it had been difapproved of by a noble Lord), fome from ignorance and folly, and others, he was afraid, from worfe principles. His Lordship was confident that the moft malicious infinuations would not raise a jealoufy between the volunteers and regular army; it was their joint honour and interest to fupport each other. The numerous body of volunteers all over this kingdom, certainly must appear to our enemies a formidable bulwark of defence of our King, our Conftitution, our Religion, and every thing dear to us. He had great experience laft war in raifing volunteers in the county where he has the honour to be Lord Lieutenant. He has at this time a very confiderable number, and might have had a great many more, had Government accepted of the offers; and he was proud to fay during all that period he never had occafion to make a complaint to the War Office but one, and that was of a captain returning a lieutenant prefent when abfent, and he was fuperfeded. His Lordthip was of opinion that the volunteers certainly had the power of refigning, but at the fame time he was fully convinced that they would never defire to exercise that right fo long as their country requi.ed their fervices; and he faid he fhould have regretted it extremely had any meafure been adopted which thould make any alteration in their voluntary and patriotic offers. He was happy to have this opportunity of complimenting a noble and learned Lord on a decifion which had done him great honour and given univerfal fatisfaction. At the fame time, with all the attachment which his Lordship faid he had to the volunteer system, he could never agree to allow the men the power of choosing their own officers: he had heard of the existence of such a practice, but in the part of the country he was connected with, it had never been heard or thought of; no practice appeared to him to be more dangerous. His Lordfhip coincided perfectly in the fentiments fo ably ftated by a Reverend Prelate. VOL. II. 1803-4.

which

which it was unneceffary for him to repeat.-He concluded by faying, that there were many claufes in the bill before the Houfe which he highly approved of, and therefore gave it his entire fupport.

Lord Grenville began by expreffing his fatisfaction that those who found it their duty to oppofe the bill, were not now fupposed to be enemies to the volunteer fyftem. It would indeed be strange, that those who had ufed the utmost exertions to confolida e that system, should for a moment be confidered as individuals who wished it to be diffolved, even under the prefent critical circumftances of the empire. No man, he would affirm, could entertain a higher idea than he did of the zeal, the energy and the fpirit of the people of England, and no idea could be more monstrous than to fuppofe that four hundred thoufand volunteers, who had ftepped forward in defence of the liberties and independence of their country, would not be found capable of the moft important fervices. It was not that he doubted of the courage of the volunteers of England, but it was keeping in view, that those whom they were to encounter were troops of undoubted courage, and who had enjoyed the advantage of a degree of difcipline obtained in not lefs than twelve campaigns, in which they were opposed to all the beft difciplined troops in Europe. With the knowledge of the enemy to be oppofed, it was undoubtedly the duty of Minifters to have directed their principal attention to that defcription of force which was to be encountered. In the prefent bill his Lordship declared that he faw not the flighteft evidence of a regular miFitary fyftem. Since the commencement of the war, he had hitherto feen no evidence of a system adequate to the crisis in which we were placed, the various parts of which had any reafonable degree of relation or connection. What he had principally to object to the volunteer fyftem, as it at present flood, was, that it had ftood in the way of every other department of the national defence. The recruiting not merely of the regulars, but the filling up of the militia, had been materially affected by the provifion which the bill now contained. A noble Lord oppofite had stated one fact, which effectually proved the affertion which he had fubmitted to their Lordships' confideration. The fact to which he referred was, that in the county of Kent, at the breaking out of the war, there were not more than thirty-feven individuals einbodied out of the whole quora required for that district. Could there, he defired to afk their Lordships, be a more de

cifive proof of the improvidence and culpable neglect of Minifters Was it not admitted that the peace was not confidered to be lafting? Was it not allowed by Minifters themselves that, during the thort interval of peace, the whole conduct of the enemy had been one uniform fyftem of violence and aggreffion? On what principle it was, then, that the Minifters difbanded the militia, or were fo back ward in reembodying them, he could not pretend to decide. Their conduct in this inftance, was hardly reconcilable to any of the ordinary principles of human affairs. It was a fubject of confiderable intereft to look to the fucceffive measures of Minifters for the defence of the country. The fift in any point of view calculated to fecure the augmentation of the regular army, was the bill for raifing the army of referve. But how was the operation of this act encouraged by fubfequent proceedings? The conduct of Ministers was characterised by their ufual confufion and irregularity. They immediately introduced the general defence act, and much time was enployed in reducing this measure to any degree of consistency. Hardly two days elapfed, before in two or three lines the whole meafure is rendered nugatory. Ministers take on themselves to hold forth that voluntary offers of fervice fhail be commuted for the provifions of the general training act. Not contented with this, they introduce a molt extenfive and unparalleled fyftem of exemptions. They go fo far as to introduce into a volunteer bill, provifions exempting not only from the ballots for the militia and army of referve, then in exiftence, but from all ballots which might afterwards be appointed by a folemn að of the Legislature. What the effect of fuch a fyftem was, he needed not to enlarge on. It must be obvious to every noble Lord who took the trouble to exercife his judgment on the subject, that fuch provifions were utterly incompatible with the exiftence of a regular army. He delived their Lordships to reflect on what had been done for the military defence of the country fince the commencement of the prefent feilion of Parliament.--About five months had already elapfed, and ali that had hitherto been brought forward to perfect our military fyftem was, to lay on the table of their Lordihips a bill which he mutt be forgiven in pronouncing altogether nugatory. It ftruck him that the bill was quite inefficient to any great object, not only from the absence of many important provifions, but from the prefence of others which were not only ufelefs, but, in his view, highly repre

henfible. How far the present objectionable claufes might be removed or amended he would not now pretend to decide, though he certainly had no very fanguine hope that even, after every effort to improve it, the bill could be rendered adequate to any great permanent object. Confidered as a feparate meafure, it was altogether inefficient. Viewed as a part of a whole, it was utterly incompatible with every other part of the fyftem applicable to the critis in which the country was placed. He was hardly required to repeat what he had faid at the outfet of his obfervations, that he had the most perfect reliance on the zeal and spirit of the volunteers in every part of the empire: at the fame time he could not help faying, that the fpecies of force most applicable to the national dangers was that which Ministers were in duty bound to bring forward with the leaft poffible delay. Of the courage of the volunteers it was impoffible to entertain a doubt; and after the previous experience which had been obtained of the fervice of the militia, no man would pretend that they were not to be confidered as a most important part of our national defence. Minifters, however, ought to have properly balanced the means of uniting and harmonizing the application of thefe different eftablishments, fo as in the leaft probable degree to interfere with the military force of the country. So far, however, from having purfued this fyftem, Minifters had facrificed the regular army to establishments undoubtedly highly ufeful in themselves, but not applicable to circumstances of extraordinary danger. Inftead of any encouragement beingheld out to the regular army, it had been thwarted, opposed and embarraffed. He allowed all due praife to the spirit of the volunteers and the militia, but he was defirous that they fhould be viewed on their proper footing. As to the army of referve, he faw them in no other light generally than as a depôt of recruits for the regular army. Some degree of triumph appeared to be entertained as to the present state of our military establishment. He could not imagine that the noble Lord oppofite would perfift in holding fuch language. As the best answer to any statement of that nature, he should wifh to be informed what augmentation. bad been gained for the regular army fince the commencement of the laft feffion. He did not at all mean to deny that the militia, as applicable to local fervice, might be viewed as to a confiderable degree efficient. He was fo far from withing to hold them up in any inferior light, that one of his great ob

jections

jections to the bill was, that the filling up of the quotas for the militia had, by the provifions of the bill, been materially retarded. What he objected to was, that, fervice in a volunteer corps protected not againft one ballot for the militia, but against all ballots, even before the militia were completed. He begged leave to fay, that the fyftem purfued by Minifters on this fubject was effentially different from that purfued during the late war. He did not deny that the volunteer eftablishment, during the late war, was one which admitted of exemptions from the militia ballots, but the exemption was given under quite different circumftances. During the late war the exemptions given to the volunteers fucceeded the embodying of the militia, whereas, as the exemptions now ftood, they accompanied and materially interfered with the filling up of the mili. tia. But he begged leave to ftate that this was not only the cafe during the late war, when the volunteers were first established, but after it was judged neceílary to extend their numbers. Previous to this augmentation, the fupplementary militia had been called for, and it was not tiit this additional force was filled up that further offers of voluntary fervice were accepted. The exemptions given to the volunteers were really far beyond any idea which was entertained on the fubject. Hardly two days elapied after the general training act had been paffed, before, by the fingle claufe of a commutation for voluntary fervice, the whole act was virtually refcinded. He believed that the public at large knew nothing of this moft extraordinary alteration. He could on his own behalf state, that though only at a distance of twenty-fix miles from the metropolis, he knew nothing of the matter, and that he firft was apprifed of this new bill while he was bufy in explaining the provifions of the general training act, and pointing out the fuperiority of voluntary offers of fervice. No fooner was it feen that a deficiency of volunteers was likely to be experienced than Minifters made known their views of thefe extended exemptions. The volunteer fyftem. unexpectedly increafed much beyond what they thought neceflary; and here again they ftepped in to check and enibarrals the exertions and enthufiafm of the people. The people were to be perpetually trifled with, and when volunteers did not appear in fufficient numbers, they were to be brought forward by threats of the general training bill. It was not at all his object to difpute, under particular circumftances, the right of the Sovereign to call out the population