curred to him, was, what this new-raised force were to be? If they were to be an officered corps, then where were the officers to be found? It would be absurd to suppose that country gentlemen would be forward to embark in that situation, and he feared that it might be necessary to ballot for the officers as well as for the men. It was impossible that any gentleman could voluntarily chuse the employment of officering for twenty-four days a number of men collected in this manner; and as soon as these men had completed their year, another set of men would present themselves equally ignorant of the first rudiments of military discipline. This plan, instead of bringing forward a number of men for the defence of the country, did, in fact, (after a little trifling drilling) discharge them from the exercise of the royal prerogative, and in that respect, was much less efficient than the measure of his right honourable friend. If the enemy were to come before they were trained, it appeared as if there was nothing to oppose to them." The measure which was proposed appeared to him not only objectionable in a military point of view, but still more in a financial view. He conceived, that a more efficient military force could be procured for less money. When the former bill required, that those who were subject to the royal prerogative should be previously organized and trained, it by no means intended that this training should be attended with great expence to the country. It was an object which concerned the safety of those who were liable to be called out, as much as it did the security of the public; for it was evident, that men who should be utterly ignorant of military affairs, when they were called out for service, would be exposed to much more danger than if they had been previously organized and drilled. It certainly was intended, that those men who had no other support but their labour, might claim a shilling a day, when the day of exercise should fall on a day of labour; but it was never intended to give regular pay to men who were called on to learn that which would be necessary for themselves to have learned, previous to the time that they might be liable to be called upon by the royal prerogative. The expences of the present measure would be very serious; and he could venture to assert that, for less money, a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand men could be kept up, equal in discipline to what the militia are in time of peace, and which T12 would would be applicable to the defence of the country, in case of invasion. If the enemy were really to land in the country, he apprehended more of confusion than strength from the assistance of such a body of men; and he was really afraid, that the country would be completely disgusted by such a system. It appeared to him, that nothing could be worse policy, than to bring a plan forward which would completely disgust the country. It had been said by some, that we should be prepared for a long and arduous contest. He could not say whether this was the present opinion of his Majesty's ministers, but he, for his part, considered it a sound doctrine. If this were the fact, nothing could be worse, than to disgust the nation, generally with the war, and incline the minds of every one to prefer almost any sort of a peace to the continuance of a war, in which the honour and lasting interests of the country were concerned, On the ground of general policy, it appeared to him most extraordinary, that this nation should be advised to adopt such a loose description of force, precisely at the time when all the other nations were giving it up. Whatever might be said of the peasants of the Tyrol and Suabia, he was informed, that they had never been efficient, except against an army which had been routed. He had never heard of an armed peasantry being very effectual against a regular army in full force: However that might be, Austria now ap peared to place no dependance on such a description of force, and chose to organize a force resembling as nearly as possible our volunteer corps. The opinion of the French government was also pronounced on the comparative merits of the two systems; for, when Bonaparte was obliged to carry all the regular army of France into Germany, it was not on the peasantry, but it was upon corps similar to the volunteers that he called, and to whom he trusted the defence of the country. The system, however, which was now brought forward, was neither that of an armed peasantry, (for it appeared that the gentlemen on whom this bill was to operate were not to be trusted with the possession of arms), nor was it at all like a volunteer system. This system was not to be acted on without a breach of faith to those counties and districts to whom the royal assurance was given, that if they furnished their quota of volunteers, the training act should not be enforced. He could not perceive any necessity for this breach of faith, as the coun-try was infinitely stronger, and its danger from the enemy less, less, than at the time when the levy-en-masse act was passed. If there really existed any immediate danger, the country would submit to any plan that they could understand for repelling it; but he was really afraid the present plan originated rather from the desire of satisfying the military opinions of the right honourable secretary (Mr. Windham), and for the sake of redeeming that pledge, which he had somewhat indiscreetly given to the House. It did not appear to him, that the measure was at all called for from the relative situation of this country and the enemy. Mr. Martin could not conceive how it could with justice be called a wild theory, to discipline for twenty-eight days in the year, those persons who might be called upon to assist the regular army in the event of an invasion. It was too much to call every variation from the established rules, a mere experiment. Every amendment of old acts of Parliament, every new act of Parliament, might with equal justice be called an experiment. One honourable gentleman (Mr. Spencer Stanhope) seemed to consider that it was a great breach of faith, that those who had subscribed for volunteers should be liable to serve themselves. The present bill, however, would not go farther than the old militia laws, or oblige any one to serve that was past the age of forty-five years. The fines upon the parishes were by no means as severe as under the militia laws, and would only operate, when there was any contumacy in the parish refusing to proceed to the ballot. He was convinced the bill would not at all diminish the number of volunteers; but that, on the contrary, a great number of persons would be enrolled in those corps, in order to exempt them from this service. As to the insufficiency of twenty-eight days discipline, he begged leave to state, that the national guards. of France, that reinforced their armies in the first year of the revolution, had not more military experience; and, he believed, that at the celebrated battle of Jemappe, there were many who had not been trained for more than 28 days. Mr. Mathews commented on the language uniformly used by the right honourable author of this bill against the volunteers. That language, while the right honourable gentleman was in opposition, might be overlooked, as the sentiments of an individual, But now that he might be conceived to speak with the voice of government, his language must, and had created alarm and discontent among that gallant body. In any services which the volunteers might might render to the right honourable gentleman and his colleagues after such language, well might they exclaim in the terms of the insulted Jew, in the Merchant of Venice, "Yon spit on me," &c. The plan of the right honourable gentleman towards the volunteers must, in his judgment, tend ultimately to disband the volunteer corps. For such as were of the higher orders he would disgust by depriving them of their rank, such as were proud he would offend by talking lightly of their services and efficiency, and such as were of force he would disable from serving by depriving them of their pay. Sir William Young contended that the measure was per fectly constitutional, as every one must be convinced, who had read the history of the country. He looked on this as a permanent measure, and in that view he thought that the soldiers who would be discharged under a former bill, would be exceedingly useful in being officers for this force. This nation ought not to trust for ifs defence merely to the opinions and inclinations of individuals, as it must in a great measure do, if the volunteer system alone was depended on for that purpose. Whoever sat on the throne of France after Bonaparte, though a Bourbon, mustact and conduct himself as the head of a great military people, and there was no way of meeting this danger from our enemies, but by rendering this nation in some degree military, through the great mass of its population. He did not disapprove of drilling on Sundays, as he thought patriotism a religious duty. It was to the great attention paid to the training of the population, even from the earliest youth of the people, that the recovery of Jersey was owing, after the enemy had entered St. Helier's. The volunteer system would afford the gentleman an opportunity of avoiding being placed between his own groom and his father's chimney-sweeper, a circumstance so much dreaded by an honourable gentleman over the way. Mr. William Smith was of opinion that the volunteers saved the country, but that the system with respect to them was neither permanent nor intended to be so, and he saw no reason why persons in that situation should be offended, because their assistance was not sought in a way not suited to the nature of a temporary institution. A most singular objection had been made to this new project, because it had not this defect, and was permanent in its application : to him this was not an objection, but a motive for the adoption adoption of it; and the bill enabled his Majesty to draw from the robust part of the population, two or three hundred thousand men armed for the national defence. The plan of the military service which was concurrent with this measure, by throwing annually five or ten thousand disci plined men into the general mass of the inhabitants subject to this service, would provide the peasantry with instructors, who equally with their knowledge and their example, would contribute to give spirit and method to those levies. By the military education this bill was calculated to give to all orders of the community, in succession, these islands would not only be rendered impregnable, but the measure would preclude every attempt on our shores, by convincing the enemy, that against an armed nation all his efforts must be ineffectual. We should then hear no more of flotillas, no more of invasions; the enemy would say, Whatever success we may have in attacking our colonial possessions, Britain is herself invulnerable. What pretence could the noble lord (Castlereagh) have to say that this bill would be afflicting to this country? Could it be afflicting for men in habits of corporeal exertion daily, to be collected twenty-eight days in the year, for the purpose of training them to military duty? Parliament designed to give no cause of disgust to the volunteers: it only wished to avoid an expence inconsistent with the welfare of the country, and to provide other means not destructive of,but auxiliary to, the system under which arms were put, into their hands. Mr. Perceval had waited for a long time to see whether the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Windham) would have given any explanation of his bill, that we might know whether it was intended to operate the destruction of the volunteers, or to form a subsidiary to them-for both objects had been ascribed to it. He considered the measure as unconstitutional and dangerous to our liberties, as a breach of faith on the part of Parliament, and a breach of common sense. He ridiculed the idea of neglecting the interest of the present moment, and looking to a period of seven or fourteen years hence, when this force might be officered by discharged soldiers. The. object of the measure was to substitute a compulsory system instead of that of the volunteers, which latter was preferable in every point of view, and he thought that the good sense of the volunteers, though he had great confidence in it, would be |