to their clothing, he thought it much better that they should be drest like the regular soldiers, as the enemy, at a short distance, might take them for regulars. He then defended the general conduct of ministers in those -points which had been arraigned by Mr. Windham, and disapproved of the plan, suggested by him, of changing the period of service from life to a term of years; a change which would, in his opinion, disorganize the whole army.

Mr. Pitt did not chuse, upon the present occasion, to go into the conduct of government generally; but thought it sufficient to direct his attention prospectively to the measures which were now necessary, in order to establish a suitable national force, either for our own de-. fence, or the attack of our enemies; or for co-operating, if the occasion should offer, with other powers, for the purpose of securing the independence of Europe. He differed with his right honourable friend (Mr. Windham) in many points.Although he entertained as high an opinion as any man of the superiority of our regular troops, yet he was convinced that it was necessary to resort to some other subsidiary force, to defend the country at the present moment. The regular army would always be the rallying point of national defence; but, with the benefit of their example, and of their instruction, he was convinced that other descriptions of force could be brought forward with great advantage. He wished to see the volunteer forces of the country brought to the utmost possible pitch of perfection, in order that the regular army might be used to its full extent, in assailing the enemy wherever they were vulnerable, and

thus contribute to the deliverance of Europe from the tyranny and oppression under which it now groans. He approved of the volunteer system, and would have wished it to be carried to a much greater extent in the counties bordering upon the sea coast, in order that the enemy might be repulsed at the moment of his landing, and not allowed to get a footing in the country. He thought the volunteer system capable of being made a permanent, solid system of defence, and a great source of national energy. The improvements in the system, which appeared to him more immediately necessary, were the assembling the small companies into battalions, and giving to each battalion a field officer and an adjutant. He also considered the number of days appointed in the year for drills, as too small; and that instead of receiving pay for twenty, the volunteers should receive pay for forty or fifty days. These alterations would certainly cause an increase of expence, but it appeared to him, that it would be money well bestowed.

Mr. secretary Yorke objected to these proposed alterations, principally on the ground of economy, as they would bring on an increased expence of near £. 500,000, without producing, as it appeared to him, any equivalent advantage.

Mr. T. Grenville expressed surprise, that his right honourable friend and relation (Mr. Pitt) should seem to think, that this was a time only to look prospectively to measures to be adopted for the future. It appeared to him a proper time to enquire, also, what use ministers had made of those powers that were en. trusted to them during the last session. The regular army was alarm

ingly deficient: when stated by the secretary at war to amount to one hundred and twenty thousand, it must be recollected, that seventy thousand were to be deducted from that number for the militia, which would leave fifty thousand only, who deserved the name of regulars; and a great proportion of which was in the army of reserve. He, by no means, thought the volunteers likely to become, of themselves, such a force as the country could rely upon for its defence; and he thought government had been to blame, in applying themselves entirely to the increase of the volunteer force, instead of placing the regular army upon an effective footing.

Lord Castlereagh, at considerable length, defended the conduct of government in the measures that they had taken for securing the national defence. He said, that the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Windham) unjustly disparaged and de. preciated all the efforts the country had lately made. In condemning the high bounties that were given for the army, he had recurred to a favourite opinion of his, the not allowing the balloted man to serve by substitute. This would certainly be a measure of most extreme rigour. The fact, however, was that of the 35,000 men raised for the army of reserve, 7,500 had already entered for general service, within the short space of two months, and he therefore could not understand how it had injured the recruiting service. The next material objection made by that right honourable gentleman, (Mr. Windham,) was to the volunteer system, which he thought not only bad in itself, but highly injurious to other more effective descriptions of force.

He

must deny that objection. It never had been found, that it rendered persons less disposed to enlist for general service, they having been originally in another description of force; on the contrary, their military spirit was thus more ripened. There was nothing to prevent a volunteer from entering into the regular army, and it appeared to him that the military spirit of the nation would be much increased by the volunteer system. The state of the army of the united kingdom was this: there were 130,000 men in Great Britain, and 50,000 in Ircland on permanent pay; of this total of 180,000 men the militia amounted to 84,000, and the regulars to 96,000; of which 27,000 are for limited service, and 69,000 disposeable for general service. The volunteer force consisted of 340,000 in Great Britain, and 70,000 in Ireland, making a total of 410,000. The sea-fencibles were 25,000.— The gross force of the united kingdom might then be considered as 700,000 men in arms of which all that were reckoned the more regular part of the army, might be brought into the field against an enemy. The total force in Ireland consisted of i20,000 men all armed, and the number could be considerably increased. In Great Britain there were about 120,000 of the volunteers yet remained to be armed with muskets, the arms that could be spared having been first given to the volunteers of the metropolis, and of the counties on the sea coast. As to the navy, the number of ships of war amounted to 469, and an armed flotilla of small craft, to the amount of 800, could be speedily added. The ordnance and every other branch of the public service C 2

had

general array of the people when the country was in danger. He agreed to the objection that had been made to clothing the volunteers in red, which looked as if it had been the object of government to dress them up like soldiers, merely to frighten the French. He feared, indeed, the whole system was fit for little else than to be set upon a hill and looked at. He agreed with Mr. Pitt in the hope that we should not long confine ourselves to defensive operations only; but that we should be able to proceed on a system of vigorous offensive war. He thought that the proper measures were not taken for making the volunteer force speedily effective: a great deal of time was taken up in teaching them evolutions, which great military authorities were of opinion ought not to be practised in real action, and that, instead of learning the punctilio of parade, they would be better employed in learning how to fire. As for himself, he was not a volunteer, because his age disqualified him, and he would not undertake a task which he felt himself incompetent to fulfil; but when so much was said of the influence of example, and the ministers being all volunteers, he would ask what sort of an example would ministers set in case of an invasion? They would be the first to desert; for as they must either quit their ministerial situations or their corps, it would be easy to guess which they would prefer doing. The example of ministers then would only encourage others to frame excuses for quitting their corps in time of danger. He could by no means coincide in the praises given by the noble lord (lord Castlereagh) to ministers, for their exertions in increasing the

ordnance and the other military departments. As they profest to know that the peace of Amiens could not be lasting, and called those people "nature's fools" who thought otherwise, they should have made greater exertions, and have had more than 300,000 muskets ready. It was no surprising thing that the greater part of the nation should demand arms, when they were told the country was in danger. He thought it necessary that there should be a responsible military council, to govern the whole affairs of the war department; although he felt a great personal respect for the com mander in chief, he should not so far flatter him, as to say that he was alone capable of governing that department. It was evident, besides, that his high birth put him almost above responsibility. All the mili tary arrangements for the last year, appeared to him unsteady, vaccillating, and capricious. He could not avoid particularly mentioning the incomprehensible conduct of government to a relation of his (general Fox), who was removed from the chief command in Ireland, and almost immediately appointed to an important command in the vicinity of London. The Irish government appeared to him to be much more afraid of giving alarm, than of averting danger, and the reason they seemed to dread it so, was because it would give the lie to the assertions that were so constantly echoed in that house, of "all safe, all well." There was another subject in which he thought the military administration of this country were still more to blame.-The prince of Wales had very handsomely made an offer of his services, which were not only not accepted, but nothing was done