This was the connection which Minifters fhould ftudy to cultivate, and if fo there would not be much reafon to fear the Government of France, however apparently formidable, for there was a very material difference between the strength and durability, between the vigour and longevity of a Government, as well as of an individual. Even in the moment previous to diffolution, the one or the other might be in the plenitude of power. Such, perhaps, was the cafe with the French Government, and if proper means were taken, he did not fear it; but he would not rely on chance for the protection of this country; it ftruck him as a pufillanimous and retiring conduct in Minifters, to ftand back and look fo much to hope that fomething would turn up in their favour. It was alfo abfurd to indulge fuch fanguine expectations. He was often charged with being too fanguine; but that charge came from perfons who would not take the trouble of diftinguishing between the expreffion of his hopes and his withes. He was never inclined to despair, nor was ever very fanguine in his hopes as to the events of war, though he fometimes thought it preferable to peace; hut that was from a conviction that fuch peace afforded no ground for hope at all, white war afforded fome; yet if, in the war which accorded with his wifhes as neceffary, he faw no reason to hope, from the plan pursued, that the fecurity of the country could be improved, he of courfe would with rather a relapse into peace, with all its difadvantages, than fuperadd to their difadvantages the calamities of war, and he confeffed that he faw not that energy in Minifters which would juftify expectation. If he faw better hopes in war than he did in peace, he would be for war: but he feared he might fay with the poet

"Creatures that love night, love not fuch nights as these." So he might add,

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People that love wars, love not fuch wars as thefe." He would not, he faid, add any thing further on this head; but he thought the army eftimates clofely connected with it, and a want of vigour and energy may ruin every measure. They did not juftly appreciate the dangers of the country. They were proceeding by half measures, and perhaps would fo continue until invafion fhould actually come on them, and then, like the fhip in a storm, whofe officers thould be negligent and incapable, and whofe crew fhould be intoxicated and inattentive, the ftate would probably go down. Whereas, if the have a brave and active crew, good officers,

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and able pilots, there is every hope and expectation the fhip may get fafe into port. It feemed to him that we have a crew who make use of language that nobody undeiftands. They talk of the fpirit of the country, and that the people will rife to a man; but they do not tell us how they will be officered; and if we have no better pilots than they have hitherto proved themselves, we cannot flatter ourselves with faving our bark. The country he looked upon to be what it ever had been, and, if its refources were properly called forth, he had no fear; but our present Ministers were men"Who never fet a fquadron in the field, "Nor the divifion of a battle know, More than a spinster."

From fuch men, therefore, he could have no great reafon to hope extraordinary matters, and he thought it more peculiarly his duty to remind them and the Houfe of the extraordinary difficulties we had to encounter. In the high founding words which were fo often used by fome Gentlemen, he faw no ground for fecurity whatever: any measure of vigorous exertion would afford him much more fatisfaction; for, from lofty language which conveyed no distinct meaning, he believed no man could derive the hope of fafety. When, then, Gentlemen talked of the people of the country stopping an invading army, he confeffed that, though he admired the fpirit, and confided in the loyalty of his countrymen as much as any man, he could not help fmiling; for where, he would afk, was the precedent of a populace, without discipline or arrangement, oppofing with fuccefs the progrefs of a regular army? An experienced officer would apprehend little from that kind of refiftance; a Turenne, or a Marlborough would laugh at it; and if Ministers were to rely on its power and go on declaiming about it, without taking effective measures of refiftance and attack, the country would be without means or minds to meet the dangers which threatened. He faid attack; for he muft repeat that he would not be understood to approve of the confinement of our refources to mere defenfive operations. That would be to place us in a most unfortunate fituation indeed; for it must be obvious that the åffailant has al ways great advantage over the affailed, and the befieger over the befieged. He therefore deprecated the daftardly and imprudent policy of keeping our forces locked up in our own iland, waiting, as it were, until the French fhould come over to attack us.

Mr. Pitt faid, he fhould fay only a very few words upon this subject; he merely wished to afk, whether the force which it was now proposed to vote, included the whole of the regular force that was to be proposed, or whether they were to expect in the prefent feffion, any more fubftantial augmentation to that which certainly was an unusually large peace establishment? He was averse to difcuffing in that Houfe any question refpecting the amount of the force neceffary for the public fafety. That ought certainly to reft in the first inftance with Minifters, under the responsibility of their fituation. It was a confidence that Parliament ought to place in them, and if they did not poffefs that confidence they ought not to retain their situation. But he really did not apprehend that it was proper to difcufs in that House the diftribution of the public force, he therefore would not enter into any detail upon the fubject. If, however, he heard from Ministers, that this was all the force they meant to provide, it would give him real uneafinefs; however, he would not fay a word more upon that subject, until he knew whether that was the case or not.

The Secretary at War obferved, that although what the right hon. Gentleman had stated, was a very able military and political lecture, yet there were many of the topics into the detail of which he fhould not at prefent enter, becaufe this did not appear to him to be the feafon for fo doing; he fhould rather apply himself to the answer which he had to give to the question of his right hon. Friend, Mr. Pitt, and he had the fatisfaction of faying, that the attention of Ministers had been directed to the preparation of a plan which appeared to them to be effential for fecuring, not only the domeftic defence of the country, but also to enable us to put forth our arms in a manner that might be effectual for other objects; and here he could not help thinking that the right hon. Gentleman oppofite to him had, in fome measure, raised a phantom which he was afterwards to combat, for he had faid that all our force was to be purely a defenfive war. Where he found that out, and how he came to that conclufion, he did not know. He had alfo ftated, that every effort fhould be made for our defence at this important crifis; this was an affertion the truth of which nobody doubted; nor was this all, for it was proper that we should put ourfelves in a fituation that may become offenfive as opportunity may occur abroad; he did not think that we should confine ourfelves to ftrict defence, but that we fhould look at this war in a different view, to confider its nature and its character,

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and that we were not to be content with mere felf defence or domeftic fafety, but that we fhould hold ourfelves in readiness. to avail ourselves of the beft opportunity which might occur to inflict on the enemy the fevereft and moft effectual blow we may be able; thefe were the feelings of his Majesty's Minifters upon this most importat matter; but when vigour was talked of, he would obferve, that vigour did not confift in the use of high founding words, but on what may actually be done; and much had actually been done. He spoke of arrangements fubfequent to the Treaty of Amiens; we had been in that short period of peace active in many respects: we had placed our military force on a much stronger footing than it had been in any former period of peace, Our regular army was much more confiderable now than it had been at the commencement of any war; our militia in like manner was in a much better state for military purposes than it had been at any former period of the commencement of a war; we had in every refpect a much greater force than we ever had before at the beginning of hoftilities; but was he faying that this was therefore fufficient? No, he was not; but the energy of the country must be called forth, and there must be fuch a difpofal of that force as to fhew our enemies, ignorant as they are of this country, of the difpofition of its people, of its internal vigour, of its refources, and almost every thing about it, for very ignorant indeed were our enemies of all these things; there inuft be fuch a difpofal of our force and strength as may thew them how much they have been mistaken in this country; but it was not a vote for a large fum of money that would raise a large difpofable force, that would depend much more on the nature of the measures to be adopted for raifing fuch force, than upon the vote for paying them; and he flattered himfelf that the measures about to be propofed for that purpose would be efficacious; that the men would be furnished as they should be found to be neceffary, and they should be proposed to be under the command of officers of the regular troops, and intended to be as a fupplement to the regular army; and after this plan was completed, then there would remain to be done that which it would be in this country more eafy perhaps to do than the reft of it, namely, to find the money. The first and the main object was to have an effectual command of the men, and then it would not be difficult to raise the money. Voting a number of men, however great, and voting a sum of money, however large, to pay them, did not appear to him to be wife, until the plan

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for raifing the men fhould have been matured; because until that was done it was only raifing men upon paper, which was not what we wanted; neither did large votes, without a method of carrying them into effect, prove very useful. Having faid thus much generally, he would now take up a few of the points brought forward by the right hon. Gentleman oppofite to him, but not all of them, for of fome he could not help faying, that although they were like every thing delivered by that right hon. Gentleman, very ingenious, yet in this cafe, they did not appear to him to have an immediate reference to the queftion now before the Committee. Such, therefore, he should take the liberty, of paffing over, for the prefent, profeffing a readinefs to enter on their difcuffion when occafion might require. He could not help thinking that the right hon. Gentleman had given way a little too much to a tone of defpondency, as applicable either to the manner in which we were now preparing for war, or to the manner in which we concluded peace. He agreed, however, with the right hon. Gentleman, that it was right to ftate the fituation of this country fairly, to itate the poffible chance of an invafion, but he thought he might be permitted to fay that the right hon. Gentleman had confidered that fubject a little too acutely.

He thought that the question between the two Governments was now brought to this point, and it was high time that we should fhow, not by words, but actions, that we are not to be infulted by France-that we are not to be intimidated by any menace they may throw out-that it is not their fhowing themselves in large numbers oppofite to our coafts, which is to throw us into a panic.-"That they may throw a body of men into this country is certainly practicable " "It may be done certainly under favourable circumftances, that is, if they are not drowned in the attempt: but really, I think it would not be long before they would be made prifoners; and that very few of them would ever rettern. I think it is high time to fhow that we are not to be taunted in this way wi h invafion, or intimidated with the threat of it." There was another part of the fpeech of the right hon. Gentleman, which he fhould now fhortly notice: he feemed to fuppofe, that by the Treaty of Amiens, we had relinquished for ever all right to confider of the affairs of the continent; and he faid, that fince the peace we had gone very much to leeward: that was not fo. As to the Treaty of Amiens, he approved of it at the time, under all the circum

ftances