HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



17 



waSj to brigade them, and make 

 them regular soldiers, which he con- 

 sidered utterly impradiicable. It 

 ■was, he said, out of the nature of 

 things, that persons, who were ol)lig- 

 ed to support themselves and fami- 

 lies by the exercise of professions 

 and trades, could acquire sufficient 

 expertness to equal regular soldiers, 

 or become fit to be put in line with 

 them. It would be like putting 

 frigates and sloops in the line of 

 battle witli three-deckers. lie him- 

 self was an advocate for a very great 

 volunteer force, but he did not 

 dream of making regular soldiers of 

 them. It was also known, that a 

 considerable part of the volunteers 

 had joined that system, to shelter 

 themselves from the militia, tlie army 

 of reserve, and other more efficient 

 service ; which services were in- 

 jured by the numbers that were ex- 

 empted as volunteers. He consider- 

 ed, that the total addition the mi- 

 nister had made to our effective 

 force, as an increase of 7000 men 

 to the regular army, and a levy of 

 25,000 men to what was called an 

 army of reserve. He also thought 

 they had been culpably remiss in 

 not erecting such works and fortifi- 

 cations as would obstrudt the enemy, 

 either in their landing, or in their 

 march upon the metropolis ; and 

 strongly recommended Maiiello tow- 

 ers for the defence of the coast. — 

 He thougiit, however, that the views 

 of this country should not be dire6t- 

 ed merely to its own defence, but 

 that it should also possess a disposc- 

 able force, Avith which it might an- 

 noy its enemies : for tliis objedt, 

 they should make the profession of 

 the soldier as attractive as possible ; 

 they should change the period of 

 service from life, to that of a term 

 of years. — They should adopt some 

 Vol. XLVi. 



plan for rendering service in the 

 West Indies less necessary and fre- 

 quent. Instead of such measures, 

 government appeared intent merely 

 on providing the means of defence, 

 and Iiad but added 7000 men to 

 tlieir regular force. 



Mr. secretary Yorke was not 

 afraid that the country would enter- 

 tain the same opinion, that the 

 right honourable gentleman had ex- 

 pressed of the incapacity of miiiis- 

 tcrs. In the last session of parlia- 

 ment, there Avere many good op- 

 position speeches, but, on the other 

 hand, there were of ministerial votes 

 the great majority of that house. — 

 As to the censure of the right ho- 

 nourable gentleman about disband- 

 ing the army, and dismantling the 

 fleets, he was convinced, they would 

 appear ill-founded, when it was re- 

 collected that we never had, at any 

 former period, a peace establish- 

 ment which could be at all compar- 

 ed to what we kept up daring the 

 late peace. The army had been 

 nearly doubled since the last session, 

 having been augmented from G0,C00 

 to nearly 120,000 men. As to the 

 system of tlie army of reserve, iA 

 was similar to that which was al- 

 most universally followed abroad, 

 that of having battalions of depot. 

 The militia were in excellent order, 

 and amounted to 70,000 men in 

 England, and 14,000 in Scotland. 

 The volunteers amounted to three 

 hundred and eighty thousand men, 

 three hundred and forty thousand of 

 whom were infantry, and were dis- 

 ciplined almost as well as it was 

 possible for any equal number of 

 men in the same time. Although 

 they might not be able to meet the 

 enemy in line, yet there were jnany 

 situations in which they might aid 

 with the greatest advantage. As 



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