. fitted for the various purposes of war? No man on fuch an occafion will grudge to tranfact his bufinefs on foot; your Lordships will be proud to fet the example by walking down to this Houfe; and the fex, I fpeak it to their ho nour, will on fuch an occafion be content to stay at home. Do you want fhips? Why not hire all the merchantmen and fmall craft, which can be fpeedily fitted for your purpofe? As to large fhips, let our enemies build them, and let us truft to our gallant admirals and the tars of old England, to conduct them into the ports of Great Britain. Do you want money? Scruple not the impofition of taxes at this moment. Property is the creature of civil fociety; the State has a right to all individual property if it is wanted for the general fafety; and as the money, thus raised, will circulate amongst ourselves, wealth may chance to change hands, but the nation will not be impoverished. These or measures fuch as these, if brought forward with promptitude and executed with vigour, may, when modified by parliamentary wisdom, fave the country. I dread the genius, I dread the power, I dread the intrigue of the enemy, and above all, I dread the effect of that political paralyfis, with which, by his arms and by his intrigues, he has deadened the activity of every cabinet on the Continent-Yet I firmly rely on the courage, and on the unanimity of this country to repel an invafion. Of this country did Í fay? I certainly meant to include Ireland in my idea; the teftimony which the yesterday gave us, in his Majesty's message, of her attachment to us, warmed my heart; it put to flight from my imagination the terrors excited by the apprehenfion of an hundred thousand Frenchmen. No personal fervices, no privation of luxuries, no diminution of property ought to be complained of while we are struggling for our existence as a free people. For my own part I had rather live upon oat bread and water, and be fhod with the wooden clogs of Westmoreland for the reft of my life, as a free fubject of this limited monarchy, than be pampered with all the delicacies, cockered with all the luxuries of this luxurious town, as a flave of the French Republic. The Earl of Darnley made a variety of obfervations upon the measure under confideration. He condemned a great part of the conduct of Minifters with refpect to the volunteer fyftem; yet conceived, that under the prefent circumstances of the country, the bill contained some beneficial provifions which ought fpeedily to be carried into effect. There was little of fyftem, he obferved, in the conduct of Minifters relativ e relative to the fubject in queftion; and as to fome points, on which the idea of a breach of faith was held forth, he thought it could not well apply, when the many allowances, and the unlimited power of refignation were confidered. His Lordship animadverted upon fome of the detailed provifions of the bill refpecting niaintenance and difcipline, but obferved, there were many important confiderations connected with the bill, which could more regularly be discusfed in the Committee. Lord Romney entered into a general defence of the volunteer fyftem, and of the zeal, ardour, and courage of thofe who compofed it. He contended that a force had been raifed greater than ever had before been known in this country; and though they certainly had not the difcipline of complete regular troops, yet they were a defcription of force which would enable this country to look with contempt upon the attacks of the enemy. With refpect to this bill, he thought it contained many regulations which would tend to improve and meliorate that fyftem; and, therefore, he fhould give it his entire fupport." The Duke of Somerjet-My Lords, I mean to trouble your Lordships with but very few words upon this question. In giving my vote for the fecond reading of this bill, I would not be understood to give a full and unqualified approbation to the volunteer fyftem. My reafon for wifhing that fyftem to be continued is, that it has been carried fo far. I should think it dangerous to attempt to change it for any other, at a time when the enemy is fo near, and fo foon to be expected. As to the expediency of fubmitting to any burthen, or any meafure, however grievous, in preference to falling under French tyranny, I perfectly agree with the learned prelate. For me to enter into a difcuffion of the various topics connected with this question, after so much has been already faid upon it, would be to intrude upon your Lordships' time. My object in rifing, was merely to ftate my reafon for affenting to the fecond reading of this bill; and to restrict, in fome degree, the approbation which I fhall certainly give, to a continuation of the volunteer fyftem. The Earl of Fife faid, the question then before their Lordfhips was, that the bill be read a fecond time. He faid that he could not help obferving, there had been great irregularity in the debate, by almoft entirely departing from the question. He allured their Lordships that he fhould not take up much of their time. He was too far advanced in life to have any object object in speaking, 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 in publications against the volunteer fyftem (which term he should 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 most malicious infinuations would not raise a jealousy between the volunteers and regular army; it was their joint honour and intereft to fupport each other. The numerous body of volunteers all over this kingdom, certainly muft 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 railing 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 Lordship 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 required their fervices; and he said he should have regretted it extremely had any measure 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 Lordfhip faid he had to the volunteer fyftem, he could never agree to allow the men the power of choosing their own officers: he had heard of the existence of fuch 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 Lordship coincided perfectly in the fentiments fo ably stated 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 thofe who found it their duty to oppofe the bill, were not now fuppofed to be enemies to the volunteer fyftem. It would indeed be ftrange, that thofe who had ufed the utmost exertions to confolidate that fyftem, fhould for a moment be confidered as individuals who wifhed 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 most 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 oppofed 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 Lordthip declared that he faw not the flighteft evidence of a regular military fyftem. Since the commencement of the war, he had hitherto feen no evidence of a fyftem adequate to the crifis in which we were placed, the various parts of which had any reasonable degree of relation or connection. What he had principally to object to the volunteer fyftem, as it at present flood, was, that it had stood 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 provision which the bill now contained. A noble Lord oppofite had ftated 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 embodied out of the whole quota required for that district. Could there, he defired to afk their Lord hips, 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 Ministers 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 Ministers disbanded the militia, or were fo backward 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 subject of confiderable intereft to look to the fucceffive measures of Ministers for the defence of the country. The fi ft in any point of view calculated to fecure the augmentation of the regular army, was the bill for raising the army of ref rve. But how was the operation of this act encouraged by fubfequen' proceedings? The conduct of Minifters was characterised by their ufual confufion and irregularity. They immediately introduced the general defence act, and much time was employed in reducing this measure to any degree of confistency. Hardly two days elapfed, before in two or three lines the whole measure is rendered nugatory. Minifters take on themselves to hold forth that voluntary offers of service, fhall be commuted for the provifions of the general train-, ing act. Not contented with this, they introduce a moit 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 existence, but from all ballots which might afterwards be appointed by a folemn act 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 fubject, that fuch provitions were utterly incompati ble with the exiftence of a regular army. He detired their Lordships to reflect on what had been done for the military defence of the country fince the commencement of the prefent feffion of Parliament.--About five months had already elapfed, and all that had hitherto been brought forward to perfect our military fyftem was, to lay on the table of their Lordthips 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 abience of many important provifions, but from the prefence of others which were not only ufelefs, but, in his view, highly repre 002 henfible. |