50] 
classes, numbers of the ministerial 
people agreed to diminish, by one- 
third, the use of wheaten bread in 
their families ; a bill also was brought 
in, by sir John Sinclair, to eneou- 
rage the cultivation of waste lands, 
pursuant to the recommendation of 
the board of agriculture, established 
for that purpose, and the more ef- 
fectually to obviate the evil of scar- 
city in future. 
_ After these consultations, in what, 
mannerto provide for the immediate 
exigences of the country, the next 
object that occurred in parliament 
was the maintenance of the fleets 
and armies, requisite for the con- 
tinuance of the ware ‘To this end, 
lord Arden moved, on the fourth 
of November, that one hundred and 
ten thousand seamen, including 
eighteen thousand marines, should 
be voted for the sea-service of the 
year 1796,and Mr, Wyndham moved 
also, that two hundred and _ seven 
thousand men should be employed 
for the service at land. 
General Macleod took this occa- 
siou to censure heavily the conduct of 
administration, in passing by officers 
of experience, and promoting to rank 
and command youths and others who 
were not properly qualified for mili- 
tary employments. General Tarle- 
ton disapproved, at the same time, 
the statement of expences laid be- 
fore the house, as highly exorbi- 
tant: from the year 1792 to the elose 
of 1794, they had increased, he 
said, from one to eleven millions. 
Ministers were particularly re= 
prehended, by the former, for their 
inadvertence in not furnishing the 
troops, sent to the West Indies, with 
a sufficient quantity of medical stores, 
and for maintaining at present, with- 
out necessity, noless thana thousand 
staff-oflicers. Thentsmbers to which 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
the fencible cavalry amounted, he 
attributed to the ministerial plan of 
keeping the people in~ subjection 
and dread ; the regular cavalry, he 
said, was equal to every just and 
proper purpose, without loading 
the public with so much additional 
expence. 
In answer to these, and other 
strictures, Mr.Wyndham stated, that 
men of distinction and opulence * 
had been preferred to commands, in 
their respective counties, as more 
able to procure levies than others. 
The expences accompanying the 
fencible cavalry were considerably 
less than those of the regulars, as 
neither bounties nor half-pay were 
allowed them. An ample supply of 
medicines had been dispatched to 
the West Indies, but had unhappily 
fallen into the encmy’s Kands; an 
accident which was remedied with 
all possible diligence. The great 
expences of the war had necessarily 
been augmented, proportionably to 
the greatness of the national exer-~ 
tions; and the number of staff-offi- 
cers did not exceed that which was 
wanted for the duly conducting of 
the business of army and military af- 
fairs. To an observation made by ge-~ 
neral Smith, that the quantity of su- 
balterns had been out of all propor- 
tion in some regiments, Mr. Wynd- 
ham replied, that the men being rais- 
ed in the heat of the campaign, it 
bad been found impracticable to pro« 
vide a timely supply ‘* in the place 
of those that had been killed off.” 
This particular, expression was 
taken up with violent acrimony both 
in and out of parliament; it was 
represented as denoting no sense of 
feeling, in the speaker, for the cala- 
mities of war, and the loss of so 
many individuals fallen,in battle. 
This and some other expressions, 
3 uttered 
