HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



21 



general array of the people when 

 the country was in danger. He a- 

 greed to the obje6tion that had been 

 made to clothing the volunteers in 

 red, which looked as if it had been 

 the objeft of government to dress 

 them up like soldiers, merely to 

 frighten the French. He feared, 

 indeed, the whole system was fit 

 for little else than to be set upon a 

 hill and looked at. He agreed with 

 Mr. Pitt in the hope that we should 

 not long confine ourselves to de- 

 fensive operations only ; but that 

 we should be able to proceed on a 

 system of vigorous offensive war. 

 He thought that the proper measures 

 were not taken for raaking the vo- 

 lunteer force speedily etVeftive : a 

 great deal of time was taken up in 

 teaching tliem evolutions, which 

 great military authorities were of 

 opinion ought not to be praftised in 

 real action, and that, instead of 

 learning the punctilio of parade, 

 they would be better employed in 

 learning how to fire. As for him- 

 self, he was not a volunteer, because 

 his age disqualified him, and he 

 would not undertake a task which 

 he felt himself incompetent to fulfil ; 

 but when so much was said of the 

 influence of example, and the mi- 

 nisters being all vol unteers, he would 

 ask what sort of an example would 

 ministers set in case of an invasion ? 

 They would be the first to desert ; 

 for as they must cither quit their 

 ministerial situations or their corps, 

 it would be easy to guess which they 

 would prefer doing. The example 

 of ministers then would only encou- 

 rage others to frame excuses for 

 quitting their corps in time of dan- 

 ger. He could by no means coin- 

 cide in the praises given by the noble 

 lord (lord Castlcreagh) to ministers, 

 for their exertions in increasing the 



ordnance and the other military de- 

 partments. As they profest to know 

 that the peace of Amiens could not 

 be lasting, and called those people 

 " nature's fools " who thought o- 

 tTierwisc, they should have made 

 greater exertions, and have had more 

 than 300,000 muskets ready. It 

 was no surprising thing that the 

 greater part of the nation should 

 demand arms, when they were told 

 the country was in danger. He 

 thought it necessary that there should 

 be a responsible military council, 

 to govern the v/hole afiairs of the 

 war department : although he felt 

 a great personal respeft for the conv 

 mander in chief, he should not so 

 far fiatter him, as to say that he was 

 alone capable of governing that de- 

 partment. It was evident, besides, 

 that his high birth put him almost 

 above responsibility. All the mili- 

 tary arrangements for the last year, 

 appeared to him unsteady, vaccilla- 

 ting, and capricious. He could not 

 avoid particularly mentioning the 

 incomprehensible conduct of govern- 

 ment to a relation of his fgeneral 

 Fox), who was removed from the 

 chief command in Ireland, and al- 

 most immediately appointed to an 

 important command in the vicinity 

 of London. The Irish government 

 appeared to him to be much more 

 afraid of giving alarm, than of avert- 

 ing danger, and the reason they 

 seemed to dread it so, was because 

 it would give the lie to the assertions 

 that were so constantly echoed in. 

 that house, of " all safe, all well." 

 There was another subject in which 

 ho thought the military administra.* 

 tion of this country were still more 

 to blame. — The prince of AVales had 

 very handsomely made an offer of 

 his services, which were not only 

 not accepted, but nothing was done 

 C3 t« 



