1^ 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



" Poor women have but two, 



" There's notliing good they iay, or 

 "right they "do." 



Ther who had declared the con- 

 duct of France, from the moment of 

 the signature of the treaty of Amiens, 

 to be " one continued series of vio- 

 lence, aggression, and insult," — who 

 declared that none but one of " na- 

 ture's fools " could suppose that 

 peace likely to be durable; Mith 

 such a conviction on their minds, 

 they ought to have commenced their 

 precautions immediately after they 

 had signed the treaty. Instead of 

 •which, they immediately began to 

 reduce the army, and dismantle the 

 navy ; they sold off the gun-boats at 

 the price of the old iron in them ; re- 

 fused men at five guineas bounty, 

 that they would be now glad to get 

 at fifty, and discharged others that 

 they could not now get at all ! ! ! — 

 From these causes it was, that, after 

 his majesty's message came down, 

 the means of war were to be col- 

 ie6lcd again, with as much difficulty 

 as if we had never possessed them. 

 He should, however, now only con- 

 sider their conduct since the eighth 

 of March last, when the peace might 

 be considered as at an end. The 

 population of this country was fif- 

 teen millions; its financial powers 

 almost unlimited. There was no- 

 thing that the country was not will- 

 ing to do in (he way of service, or 

 no sum that it was not content 

 to pay. When at length ministers 

 did make a call npon the country, 

 it came forward with an alacrity for 

 which they were unprepared. Mi- 

 nisters no sooner tried for this pub- 

 lic zeal, than the national feeling 

 rose so fast upon them, that they 

 were alarmed ; they no sooner be- 

 gan to sink their well, than the 

 •*vater came pouring in upon tliem. 



They could not therefore plead, that 

 the country had kept back its means. 

 — It now remained to be seen what 

 they did with them. The creation 

 of the volunteer army might cost 

 government one million, and it cost 

 the nation at least two more, from 

 individual contributions. Thusaforce 

 was collected which was imposing in 

 its sound. Five hundred thousand 

 men in arms appeared a formidable 

 host, but if we were to examine the 

 construction of the fabric and sec how 

 much was solid masonry, and how 

 much mere rubbish, or lath and 

 plaister, it would sink miserably in 

 our ideas. A very small portion 

 were regular troops ; a larger por- 

 tion were militia ; another consi- 

 derable portion was the new formed 

 army of reserve ; and by far the 

 most numerous portion was the levy 

 en tnasse, moulded into the form of 

 volunteer corps. Of the regular 

 troops he could not speak too high- 

 ly. The militia had arrived to as 

 great perfection as troops could do, 

 where neither officers nor soldiers 

 had the benefit of seeing actual ser- 

 vice. The army of reserve could 

 not for a considerable time be classed 

 Mith the regular soldiers ; and as for 

 the 400,000 volunteers, when he 

 felt it his duty to speak of them, he 

 hoped it would be understood that 

 it was of the volunteer system he 

 spoke, and not of the individuals 

 of which it was composed. He could 

 not indeed pretend to speak slight- 

 ingly of 400,000 individuals, con* 

 taining a great proportion of the 

 zeal, patriotism, and spirit of the 

 country ; but, he must say, that, 

 although such a number of men 

 could not be absolutely useless, yet 

 it must be allowed that they were 

 not at all fit for the services to vihich 

 they were destined. The attempt 



■was 



