5© 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 180^. 



present existence of such a force 

 must make it more difficult than 

 heretofore to raise recruits. yet,since 

 the last year, 28,000 men were 

 added to (he number of our troops, 

 of which 18,000 were for unlimited 

 •ervice. The bill had given au im- 

 portance to the recruiting:; service, 

 \vhich, if suffered to proceed, must 

 produce very beneficial effects, and 

 he therefore felt himself bound to 

 resist the motion for the repeal. 



Lord Suffolk supported the re- 

 peal, as the bill perhaps was not only 

 insuiTicient for its purpose, but 

 highly burthensomc and oppressive 

 to the counties. 



Lord King spoke in favour of the 

 repeal, as the object of the bill 

 seemed not to be so much for raising 

 men, as for raising money. The 

 unavoidable Aiilurc in raishig the 

 quotas Mas highly oppressive on 

 the counties. The fines for de- 

 ficiencics, in the county of Surry, 

 ■were 21,000/. which imi)oscd agreat- 

 er burden on the landed interest, 

 than even the property tax. Though 

 the ministers exclaimed, some time 

 since, that not a moment was to be 

 }ost in recruiting the rc;;ular'army, 

 their attention was wholly taken up 

 ■with catamarans and other futile ex- 

 periments, -while their military ])lan 

 was in almost a dormant state, not- 

 ■withstant?ing all the ctfcctthey pro- 

 mised themselves from zeal andiiull- 

 ■vidual exertions. As a proof of this 

 he observed, that, in the county of 

 Kent, where the indueuce of one 

 minister (lord Camden,) was very 

 powerful, only eleven men were 

 raised, and in the north riding of 

 Yorkshire, with which another 

 noble minister, (lord iMulgravc,^ 

 ■was peculiarly connected, not a 

 single man was obtained under (his 

 bill. 2 



His royal highness the duke of 

 Cumberland, rose to remark on an 

 expression, which dropped in the 

 course of the debate, and to protest 

 against the idea of any man being 

 trqranncd into the service. If he 

 thought the act would have such an 

 effect, he would have been one of 

 the first to vote against it. 



The earl of Westmoreland ob- 

 served, that the first operations of 

 this bill must have been necessarily ^ 

 impeded by the circumstance of 

 200,000 men having been added to 

 the force of the country, within fif- 

 teen months after the re-commence- 

 ment of the war, which suddenly 

 dried up ail the sources of recruit- 

 ing. The men alluded to were 

 raised under most enormous and 

 ruinous bounties, the effects of 

 which, time must be given to uissi- 

 pate. The meas.ure in (question was 

 proposed under the following recom- 

 racndations. 1st. It was to sus- 

 pend ail balloting. 2ndly. It Avas to 

 relieve the parishes and individuals 

 from an insupportable burden, and 

 Sdly. It was to raise a body of men 

 better disciplined, and in greater 

 numbers than under any former ex- 

 pedient. If it fullilledall, or any of 

 these purposes, as he contended it 

 had, and would do in greater pro- 

 portion in its progress, the ministers 

 were entitled to credit in having 

 proposed it for the benefit of the 

 service. Having stated that the 

 measure, for the last tventy weeks, 

 produced 600 men, or at the rate of 

 15,000 for the year, he observed, on 

 the allusions made to a coalition be- 

 tween some of the present ministers, 

 that it came with a very bad grace 

 from the other side of the house. 

 Political men, m ithout ranch hazard 

 of censure, might coalesce, who only 

 diliered respecting this or some 



former 



