Colonel Craufurd was of opinion that the House was about to bestow that reward on the volunteers, by a vote of thanks, to which they would be entitled if they had faved the ftate. The volunteers had undoubtedly come forward with zeal and promptitude; but in that they had only discharged a neceffary duty to the ftate, and a duty which they owed to their wives and families, for whose protection they were enrolling themselves against the greatest mifery and oppreffion that could befal a people. He therefore thould fay, that the thanks of the House fhould be reserved until they should have fome opportunity of meriting them, though no man, either in or out of the Houfe, thought more highly of the fpirit and courage of the people than he did. While Parliament was deliberating on the queftion of voting its thanks to a body of men, who performed but their duty in coming forward on the prefent occafion, and on the discharge of which their intereft, their honour, and their fecurity depended, an action of extraordinary gallantry had taken place, which perhaps was not of fufficient magnitude to merit the thanks of Parliament. He alluded to the capture of St. Lucia by General Grinfield, and he thought it would have a bad effect to accede to the prefent motion, if the gallant troops engaged in that expedition were to be paffed unnoticed. He thought also that it would have a very bad effect on the volunteers who had bravely refcued Dublin from the horrors of a brutal and ferocious banditti, to vote the thanks of the House to men who had come forward in their own defence against the greatest calamity that could befal a nation (its fubjugation by a French force), as from a fenfe of public duty, while fuch gallan: behaviour was fuffered to remain unrequited. Having faid this, he repeated again, that he thought as highly as any man of the fpirit and valour of the volunteers. As an hon. Friend had alluded to German tactics on a former occafion, and another allufion had been made that night to the German eye, he felt it neceffary, while on his legs, to make fome obfervations on the fubject. He had never faid, that German were fuperior to English troops; and though, from his having patled the early part of his life, where he had an opportunity of learning the German tactics, he may have been partial to it, he was, from additional experience, convinced that it was erroneous. He should much rather fee the infantry of the English army in the ftate in which it had been after the American war, tha trained after the German fyftem, wh ch he thought was carried to too great an extent. The great King of

Prusia,

Pruffia, who had invented that fyftem, had accommodated it to the extenfive plains of Silefia and Saxony, and from that fingle circumftance it must appear manifeftly ina pplicable to, the local fituation of the country. Having faid thus much, he hoped he thould never again hear himfelt ftiled the advo cate of German tactics. Many Gentlemen who heard him, had been wi nefes of brilliant actions and military operations in Flanders, and were perhas as much difpofed to be partial to Flemish as he was to German tactics. He had on a former occasion stared, that a great regular force was neceffary, and all that he had fince heard on the fubje&t had not induced aim to alter his opinion. But he could not help adverting to an obferva ion of the hon. Gentleman who opened the debate, that a regular army was more likely to be corrupted than any other.' He begged the Houfe to recollect what the country owed to the army. When the navy was in a ft te of mutiny, when the jacobins had employed every effort to feduce the army, and had on the fame day fent circular letters to all the regiments, informing them that the others had rife against the Government; when thefe letters had been given by the guards to their officers, the army had proved itfelf incorrup tible, and to it is the country indebted for its preservation and fecurity. He did not justify the army from any perfonal. feelings, but from a fenfe of that obligation which every impartial Member would admit the country wed to the army. Yet he was convinced that a large irregular force would be of the highest confequence to the defence of the kingdom. The Houfe had been feveral times cleared while he was on former occafions fpeaking, but no expreffion had ever fallen from him of fo delicate a nature, or fo likely to be injurious to the country by its publication to the enemy, as a paper, which he had feen from high authority, in the Morning Peft of that day, a letter from the Secretary of State to the Lord Lieutenant of the county of Suffex. In this, it was flated, that twenty five firelocks could only be iffied for each hundred men, which proved that training, not arming as the objc&t. When he had flated, that it there were not a fufficiency of arms to furnish the whole number, the principal gunfmiths of all parts of the kingdom fhould be employed in making them; it was treated as a ridiculous obfervation, and he now repeated, that if his Majelly's Minifters had omitted to give fuch directions, they had ben guilty of a criminal neglect of a most important duty. He thould likewife have more confidence in the irregular force, if it, fhould

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undergo

tion of offenfive opera ions; and that had in fome degree been the cafe, but that obfervation applied equally to the prefent cafe. In the broken and degraded ftate of the Continent, a war was not to be maintained with fuch

power as Great Britain without the poffibility at least of bringing on a continental war, and they muft neceffarily guard against it as an event likely to grow out of fuch a contett. The treaty of Campo Formio was concluded in 1797, after which the French kept a large force in the north of Italy. In 1798 they invaded Switzerland with a large army to act as a check on the Austrians, and, in the Spring of 1799, hoftilities were recommenced. During the period between the treaty and the renewal of the war, the French forces were stationed chiefly on the left bank of the Rhine, in Switzerland, and in the north of Italy. But at prefent they have an army not only in the north of Italy and in Switzerland, but a large army in the fouth of Italy, and an increafing army in the north of Germany; and, therefore, he contended, that fo far as related to the occupation of other countries, the danger was not fo great as at a former period. There was another circumflance, however, to which the hon Gentleman had not adverted, and which had confiderable influence on the question of invasion, the comparative state of the French navy. In 1797, there was a formidable fleet in the harbour of Toulon, as we afterwards found at Alexandria; and another at Brest, which rendered the danger of invafion confiderably greater then than at prefent. He could not discover any circumstance in either period, though both called for the vigorous exertions of the country, which would not apply to the past as the present. Thus much he had thought it neceffary to fay, as the comparison had been alluded to, and the obfervations had grown out of the difcuffion, in order that the Houfe fhould not be influenced by any improper impreffion. It was the duty of Minifters to make every poffible exertion for the fecurity of the country, without reference to any former period. Having faid this, he thould now fay a few words on the object of the motion. He was ready to admit that the thanks of the House thould not be given lightly, nor without great and adequate fervices being performed; but it was a fallacious reasoning to urge, that because the thanks of the Houfe had never been voted to the army till after fome brilliant fervice, the House thould not agree to the motion that was then before it. The country was now placed in a fituation in which na ordinary

ordinary means would be fufficient for its fecurity; in which neither the army nor the militia would be adequate for its defence. It was placed in a fituation in which great and extraordinary exertions were neceffary; exertions, which never before had been employed, except to a certain extent, during latt war; exertions which perhaps thould never be reforted to in ordinary wars, and we had witneffed the fpirit, unanimity, and zeal, with which all ranks had come forward; we had witneffed the patriotifm with which every thing the exigencies of the country required, had been accomplished. Under fuch circumftances, he thought it the duty of Parliament to record this vote as a monument of its feelings for the virtues and public fpirit of the people. He fhould afk whether, in fome future conteft, if the people fhould not be inclined to come forward with the fame zeal and enthufiafm, a glorious appeal may not be made to this record of Parliament, whether future legiflators may not fay to fuch a people, this was not the conduct of your ancestors, will you degenerate from their example, and thew lefs fpirit than they did? He thought the motion was founded in found policy, and that the Houfe ought to thank the hon. Gentleman for having brought it forward. It was not for any partial success of military operations, it was not for the fuccefs of an expedition, but it was for an unparalleled difplay of patriotifm and public fpirit, arifing out of the peculiar circumstances of the times, and would confirm the generous feelings already excited, as well as encourage future exertions.

Mr. W. Smith thought this motion premature, a kind of payment made in advance to men, which he hoped they would by future exertions deferve; but, if the contrary should be the cafe, which, however, he did not apprehend, this entry on the journals would have an aukward appearance indeed. As to the tenor of the levy en malle bill, he regretted that from the manner in which the volunteers were raised, he could not approve of it; many of the older claffes came forward from honeft loyalty and zeal, and were in fact made the jeft at drill, of idle worthlefs young fellows, who ought themfelves to be obliged to ferve.

Mr. Sheridan rofe to reply, and spoke in nearly the following terms: By the courtesy of this Houfe, any Member who brings forward a motion is allowed the right of replying to any arguments which may be offered against it; but of this right I fhould not on this occafion avail myself, if it were not for the very direct perfonal allufions which have been made

to

to me in the course of the debate. I confefs that I feel great furprise that the appeal I have thought it my duty to make to the Houfe for a vote of thanks to thofe gallant men who have stood forward fo gallantly in defence of all that is dearto us, thould have provoked a diffentient voice, or produced a difcuffion of fuch length-now not lefs than five or fix hours. This hefitation was not lefs furprifing than impolitic; but the conduct of the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Windham} did not by any means fur prife me. That the man who required 24 hours to confider of the propriety of putting down rebellion in Ireland, fhould wafte five or fix hours in investigating the policy of declaring our gratitude and admiration of the loyalty and exertions of those who stood forward to protect their country in the time of peril, was perfectly consistent; that he fhould have been feconded, however, by the gallant Officer behind him, was rather a matter of aftonishment. But before I proceed to remark on the obfervations of both thofe Gentlemen, I must take notice of the appeal which has been made to me by an hon. Friend of mine, namely, whether, before I confented to give my fupport to Ministers, I had obtained fatisfaction from them upon two points, and made those the conditions of my fupport; firft, as to the appointment of a council of war which I fupported the other night, upon the motion of another hon. Friend of mine. With refpect to this meafure I confefs that, though on the occafion I have alluded to, 1strongly advised its adoption, I have fince then, in confequence of information I received from the very highest authority, had my opinion very materially fhaken, if not altogether removed; for from this authority I have heard fuch arguments as completely fatisfied my mind that the eftablishment of this commiffion would be attended not only with disadvantage, but ferioufly injurious; I therefore am ready very fully and frankly to declare that the fentiments I held upon this fubject were erroneous.

The other point to which my honourable Friend referred, but not quite in the friendly tone to which he has been in the habit of addreffing himself to me, was with refpect to the offer of fervice from his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales. That, however, is a fubject of delicacy into the difcuffion of which I fhall not enter. I believe there is no man who knows me will doubt for an inftant the respeA, attachment, and veneration I entertain for the virtues and public fpirit of that illuftrious perfonage; but I am not to be tutored or fchooled by any man as to the way in which I should