HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



99 



he found himself opposed, by a very 

 formidable majprily, he thought it 

 right to quit the helm, and he wish- 

 ed the present minister would act in 

 Ihe same manner, now he found 

 that his majorities were still smaller. 

 Mr. S. here entered, at considerable 

 length, and with much pointed sar- 

 casm, on the composition of the pre- 

 sent administration. As to this plan, 

 which was expefted to have come 

 forth as an armed Minerva from the 

 head of this great political Jupiter, 

 ■we found it, on the contrary, to 

 be a little puny, ricketty bantling, 

 •which, though, sent to the parish 

 nurse, had not the stamina to arrive 

 at manhood. The man that had 

 produced it, was always vaunting, 

 gigantic in promises, and trifling 

 and miserable in performance. The 

 obje6l of the bill was merely taxa- 

 tion, for it was ridiculous to sup- 

 pose it could produce men. lie ob- 

 jected to a great increase of the re- 

 gular army, because large armies were 

 always found destructive to civil li- 

 berty ; but, he approved of arming 

 the people, because there was no in- 

 stance of an armed people ading as 

 fclo cle seto the destruftion of their 

 own liberties. In this country, the 

 rights of the people were to be at- 

 tended to^ as much as the defence 

 of the country. 



The Chancellor of the \Exchcquer 

 (Mr. Pitt) said, the question might 

 be resolved into these two heads : 

 1st, whether we had a regular army 

 sufficient, under all the circum- 

 stances in which we are placed ; 

 and, 2dly, whether the present 

 measure is not the best for sujiply- 

 ing the deficiency? As to the iirst, 

 it was universally admitted, that 

 our regular army was not sufficient. 

 As to the second head, he must ob- 



serve, that he could not conceire 

 that it was at all unconstitutional to 

 keep up, in time of war, and with 

 the consent of parliament, what- 

 ever description of force might b» 

 considered most necessary for the 

 defence of the country. This was 

 a force, which would be no expence 

 in peace, and which might be spee- 

 dily brought forward upon any 

 emergency. There was, certainly, 

 no idea of keeping this force embo- 

 died in time of peace. He was 

 sure, that no better mode of re- 

 cruiting the regular army had, as 

 yet, been pointed out ; and, he 

 really believed, none better could 

 be pointed out. As to the kint^ 

 that had been kindly given to him 

 to resign, it was not broad enough 

 for him to take it. If even the pre- 

 sent bill was lost, he should regret 

 it, as he considered it would be the 

 loss of a measure likely to contri- 

 bute a great deal to the public ad- 

 vantage. But, even in that case, 

 he should not consider it his duty to 

 resign. Hii majesty had, undoubt- 

 edly, the prerogative of choosing his 

 own servants, and it was now too 

 evident, that the wish for a change 

 of ministers, had a great effeft in the 

 opposition to the present measure. 

 He was a little surprised at meeting 

 such decided opposition from many, 

 with whom he had been in the ha- 

 bits of cordially uniting for such a 

 length of time. He was surprised, 

 that a noble lord (lord Temple) and 

 his friends, who once were so par- 

 tial to him, as to say, " that if he 

 were once admitted into administra- 

 tion, their fears for the public 

 safety would be considerably abat- 

 ed," should now consider it their 

 duty to withhold their services from 

 the public, on account of the ex- 

 II 2 elusiea 



