vr> 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



lions vioiild now retire ; and the 

 real patriotic volunteers would find 

 themselves cliargcd as well at. othcrni 

 ;J"or this new force. 



Mr. Peter Moore knew of no mea- 

 sure in the history of the country 

 similar to this, except one, which 

 was proposed by James the second 

 to his parliament, for increasing the 

 standing army. Our ancestors, how- 

 ever^ disclaimed the justice of his 

 majesty's proposition, and refused 

 to grant it. He objected therefore, 

 on constitutiooal grounds, to a lar^e 

 permanent standing army, oOiccred 

 by the crown. 



Mr. M'Naghten saw no similarity 

 between the time of James the se- 

 cond and the present. Whatever 

 djinger there might formerly be sup- 

 posed to be in standing armies, they 

 were now necessary to defend the 

 coEstitution and tiie country from 

 an upstart usurper. The annual 

 mutiny bill was suflicient to put a 

 stop to such a force when it was no 

 longer necessary. 



Colonel Crawford opposed the 

 bill. He thought it was neither 

 one wliich could speedily increase 

 our defensive or our otTensive force. 

 Although it profest to be a perma- 

 nent measure, it would be so slow in 

 its operation, as to be hardly ap- 

 plicable to the present war. He 

 did not believe, that it would add 

 a single man to the army, who 

 could not be got as easily without 

 such a bill. He rejoiced, that the 

 ballot was done away, but he 

 must recollect that it was from 

 the suggestions of his right honour- 

 able friend (Mr. Windham), that 

 Mr. Pitt had been induced to aban- 

 don it. The present plan was vex- 

 atious and oppressive, although not 

 to such a degree as the ballot had 

 been. He was conTlnced, that if 



government would listen fo the 

 other suggestions of Mr. Windham, 

 re.spetting the removal of compe- 

 tition, the enlisting for a term of 

 years, and improving the condition 

 of the soldiers, there M'ould be no 

 occasion for any Compulsion to be 

 used in this country, to procure 

 regular troops. He considered this 

 plan as neither one thing nor the 

 other. There was compulsion enough 

 in it to be vexatious to the parishes, 

 but not enough to get men: nor was 

 there any additional inducement held 

 forth to encourage voluntary ser- 

 vices. As to training and arraying 

 the nation, so that it should be able 

 to act immediately, in case of inva- 

 sion ; in such a case, he thought 

 compulsion might be fairly used : 

 but as to the permanent means of 

 recruiting our regular army, he 

 tliought no degree of compulsion 

 should be h.-i7,ardcd, at least until 

 it had been fairly tried what could 

 be done by encouraging voluntary 

 enlisting. As to the principle that 

 men could be easier got to enlist 

 from limited service into the regu- 

 lars, he would not admit it. The 

 13,000 men who enlisted imfncdi- 

 ately from the army (if reserve would 

 probably have gone into the regular 

 army without it, and only entered 

 the army of re&erve in order to get 

 the bounties that were then given. He 

 thought the taking away the power 

 of chusing the regiment into which 

 they would enlist, would prevent 

 the enlisting much more, than the 

 attaching this new force to particu- 

 lar battalions would tend to promote 

 it. He conci iided by pressing strong- 

 ly tiie exempting the regular troops 

 trom AVest India service, and con- 

 tended for the adoi)tion of the sug- 

 gestions that had been frequently 

 made on that side of the house, for 



the 



