HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



29 



CHAP. IV. 



Varliamentarii proceedings continued. — Motion of Lord Darnly, in ilte 

 House of Lordx, for the Repeal of the Additional Force Bill. — Debate 

 thereon — Speeches of the Earl of Camden — Suffolk — Lord King — Duke of 

 Cumberland — Earl Spencer — Viscount Sidmouth — Duke of Clarence — 

 Lord Mulgrave — Grcnville — Melville — Division — Motion Lost — Fro- 

 ceedinss in the House of Commons, on the Second Reading of the Bill for 

 the Suspension of the Irish Habeas Corpus Act. — Division thereon — Go- 

 ■cernmeiit Successful — Budget — Supplies — Jfai/s and Means — Nev) Taxes 

 — Short Discussion thereon. 



ON the 1 5th day of February, 

 the earl of Daiiilcy mads a 

 motion in the house oT lords, for the 

 repeal of the" additional force bill," 

 of the last year, uhich had, he said, 

 after all tiie magiiiliccnt and gigantic 

 promises made for it, been so 

 diiuiniitive in performance, that, in 

 one county where 10>)7 men were 

 to have been ' raised by it, only 

 fourteen were obtained, and tlie same 

 proportion nearly held in most parts 

 of the country. The inelTiciency of 

 the parish oiVicers, for the discharge 

 of the duty imposed upon them by 

 this bill, could not be more strong- 

 ly manifested, nor the inadequacy 

 of individual inlluence better exem- 

 plified, than by a reference tu the 

 cinque ports, which raised no more 

 than a single njan, notwithstanding 

 a\\ the exertions which the lord 

 warden (Mr. Pitt,) must be sup- 

 posed to base made- His lordship 

 took occasion to remark upon the 

 lingularity of now beholding at 

 the head of his council the maa, 

 (lord Sidmouth,) whom the present 

 minister, latt vcar. branded as 



the child and champion of incapa. 

 city itself, and yet whose military 

 measures were strength and vigour, 

 compared to the ineilicien(;y of that 

 T. hich he now proposed to have re- 

 pealed. 



Lord Camden considered the speech 

 of the noble lord as rather an attack 

 upon his majesty's ministers, than 

 the subject under consideration. He 

 w as sorry that the merits of the bill 

 \( ere so much confounded with the 

 character of the administration, 

 which, though far from being hostile 

 to a ministry on a more extended 

 and comprehensive scale, could not 

 refuse their service* when called 

 upon by their sovereign, in a diffi- 

 cult and trying crisis. The bill in- 

 deed had not produced, as yet, all tlie 

 effects expected, but further time 

 was required to get it into more 

 full operation. It could not novv 

 be relinquished without again re- 

 curring to the high and ruinous 

 bounties introduced by the army of 

 reserve act. It should be consi- 

 dered, that we had already 800,000 

 men in arms, and that^ though the 



present 



