feeling cannot be of long duration, because the connexion is hardly formed before it is dissolved. If, on the other hand, soldiers are dissatisfied with their commanders, they know that while indiscriminate volunteering is allowed, they have the speedy prospect of retiring from the control of men whom they may choose to detest and to calumniate. But, Sir, if the system I recommend were followed, all these evils would be done away. Knowing that their connexion with their officers was of a permanent nature, the men would learn both awe and regard; and the officers, firmly attached to their recruits, would spare no time to render them perfect in all the duties of a military life. The consequences that would result from this system are obvious. We should have the men in an intermédiate state more efficient for the

purposes of defence, and we should have them more disposed to enter into the regular disposable force of the country. If a thousand regular troops were wanted, we should have a thousand troops of the reserve perfectly qualified to supply their place for every purpose of internal defence. We might have men for limited service, but then they would be under officers of no limited views ; men who had seen service in every part of the globe, and who knew most perfectly to qualify men to advance into the field of battle, with that confidence which is the best pledge of success. Indeed, in a short time the whole of your defensive force would thus become as good and efficient as your regular force; by that means the men will, as it were, become worth double their num ber, with a view to the defence of the country; they will be changed in a short time to ready-made soldiers, while, at the same time, the plan of regular recruiting may be enlarged and made more effectual. It thus unites several advantages in every point of view, unless in so far as the mode in which it is to be raised may increase a competition. Considering, however, the numerous benefits to be derived by the adoption of such a plan, perhaps gentlemen may consent to admit of a certain degree of competition, seeing that it will be materially narrowed. It ap pears clearly to my mind,. that by the plan I have suggested, the disadvantageous competition in the recruiting of the regular army

will be avoided. As the ballot is now regulated, if it falls upon a person, whose engagements in life, or other circumstances, render it unfit that he should serve, he must find a substitute, and no limit is assigned to the sum he must give to procure one; he is to. sacrifice, perhaps, 401. or 50l. and expose himself and his family to numerous privations, not for the benefit of the state, but from the impolitic plan adopted to supply its exigencies. The effect is obvious: it has occasioned a species of subscription club, which converts the matter into a sort of parochial rate, by which the important military duty of recruiting is committed to parish officers, instead of being intrusted to officers who are competent to discharge it; and being in such hands, they bid against each other without limit or discretion, to the utter ruin of the service. What I have proposed requires, that if the person on whom the ballot falls will not serve, he shall pay a certain moderate fixed sum; but if he serves, then he shall receive the same amount he would otherwise pay. Another precaution in the scheme is, that the substitute should be found by the parish, and not by the individual; and further, the person so provided is to be taken from the hundred and not from the great market towns, unless under the predicament I shall presently explain. The bounty given will also, according to these arrangements, be examined by the magistrates of the respective counties, who will prevent any deviation from the limits prescribed by law. It will immediately occur on the review of this plan, that there will be no possibility of surpassing the bounty, and from the local limitation, that there will be no danger of interfering, in places of extensive population, with the recruiting of the regular army.

The next consideration to which I request the attention of the house is, the supply of the vacancy, or to provide for those cases where the hundred can procure no substitute; which inability may accrue from a great variety of causes. In such circumstances, the bounty is to be made over to the colonel, who is to pay the limited sum he so receives for the more limited service he requires; that is, that the recruiting parties he employs are to procure men for this particular service; and regulating the quantum

of bounty to the nature of the duty, no pernicious competition will arise, as the larger bounty will always be given for enlisting into the regular army. There must, in a country like this, where the sources of comfort and enjoyment in life are so well understood, be a great variety of persons who will enlist for a much smaller bounty into a temporary service, but who would not, for any emolument whatever, engage for life in a military occupation. Thus, I conceive, I leave undisturbed the mode of recruiting now employed, and I add a new mode which I will presume to be capable of doubling the supply from the ordinary

sources.

Such, Sir, is the nature of the plan; the tendency, I flatter myself, is to improve and enlarge the regular army, by presenting novel expedients for the purpose, and then to conduce essentially to the means of internal defence, and external warfare. It has been justly complained, that the measures for this purpose lately resorted to, so materially interfere with each other, that they successively obstruct whatever is adopted: it has been my endeavour to avoid this error, and to combine the several parts of this extensive system in such a way, that a mutual co-operation may be produced, and that what is good and eligible in itself may be rendered better and more desirable by this connexion. Objec. tions have been stated to the introduction, at this time, of any great scheme of improvement in the service; it is, however, true that the moment of public difficulty is often the crisis of public improvement; the sense of danger inspires men with a portion of zeal and enthusiasm which enables them to surmount the obstructions by which they are surrounded, and they are capable of performing what, under other circumstances, they could scarcely contemplate. What is now recommended seems to me beneficial, whether the country be exposed to the horrors of war, or is in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace. In the present circumstances of Europe, should hostilities terminate, the permanence of such a situation would depend upon the respectable state of your peace establishment, more than on any other cir-, cumstance: this I felt, and I recommended on a recent occasion,

the necessity of preserving a competent force. By the present proposal, this advantage would be secured; a body of men, with liberty to recruit into the regular army would be provided; and, without any ballot, 10 or 15,000 recruits would be ready to supply the ranks in the troops of the line, and able to act with them on the most difficult service, without disgracing their companions in the field of danger. If all or any of these benefits be unavoidably connected with the measure, the house, I am sure, will be disposed to give it an attentive consideration; but I am far from having exhausted all its merits. By the plan it appears, that the officers attached to those provisional troops would be those who are most capable of bringing their discipline to perfection, and in consequence they will be much more ready to act with the troops of the line, than the supplies from the militia, or from the army of reserve. It will not be necessary to abandon the sound maxims of state policy, by which the militias of Great Britain and Ireland are confined to their native territory, and the disposable force of the country may be dismissed to those situations where its gallantry and conduct will redound most to the advantage and glory of the country. I have, Sir, on all these grounds thought it right to resist your leaving the chair, to convert this house into a committee for the consideration of the propriety of suspending the bill of the army of reserve; and I hope it will not be thought that, on a question of this magnitude, I have intruded too much on your indulgence, Mr. Pitt's motion was rejected;

*This small majority in favour of the minister, was succeeded by an immediate change in his Majesty's government. The new administration was composed as follows:

June 18, 1804.

MR. PITT having moved the order of the day for the second reading of the amendments made in the additional force bill, and the amendments being brought up, read, and inserted in the bill, he then moved, "that the bill with its amendments be engrossed;"-Upon which a debate ensued.

As soon as Mr. Sheridan had sat down, Mr. PITT rose :

Sir-In the observations which I mean to offer to the house, I shall confine myself to the latter part of the speech of the