HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



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a, nation, who trusted tlieir protcc 

 tion to themselves, and the energy 

 and spirit of the inhabitants. lie 

 also confessed that he was no friend 

 to any material alteration of the mi- 

 litia system, knowing it to be a 

 tound and popular principle, to 

 vhich the opinions, and feelings, and 

 habits of the people, had been long 

 accustomed. What he had now to 

 do, was to shew the absolute failure 

 of a boasted experiment. In doing 

 this, he did not consider himself as 

 desponding, or dam ping the ardour of 

 tJie country, for the people knew 

 what was going on, and could not 

 be made to believe, that men 

 were raised by a bill which they 

 knew to have produced none. 

 There were three j)oints of view 

 under which he should consider it: 

 first, ilad this bill failed or not ? 

 secoiidly, If it had failed, was it 

 likely, by continuing in operation, 

 to atone for its failure by future 

 success ? Thirdly, \\'as the experi- 

 ment itself mischievous and dan- 

 gerous ? The failure was manifest, 

 for at the time the minister pro- 

 posed it, he said that the great 

 danger of the country was to be 

 calculated, not by weeks and 

 months, but days and hours, and 

 said that this bill would not only 

 gire us s])eedily (he means of re- 

 sisting with eflect all foreign clforts, 

 but also enable us to retort upon 

 the daring invader, the horrors with 

 which, in the intoxication of his in- 

 solence, he dared to threaten us : in- 

 stead of that, however, there was now 

 a positive decrease in that branch of 

 the military service, which it was 

 the peculiar and boasted object of 

 this bill to increase. If then, with 

 all the exertions that could be em- 

 ployed, it had hitherto miserably 

 failed, he would be glad to know, 

 Vol.. Xf.Vll. 



what hopes there could be of suc- 

 cess by giving it a longer trial ? lie 

 might be asked, what snbslitulc he 

 had to propose for this bill, alter it 

 was repealed. This question, how- 

 ever, did not fairly apply, because, 

 as a bill for raising men, by getting 

 rid of it nothing could be lost, and, 

 as a tax bill, any thing else mustb© 

 better. After expressing his full 

 approbation of the militia system, 

 and a qualified approbation of the 

 practice of recruiting lor rank, he 

 strongly recommended enlistment 

 for a hmited time, and concluded 

 with an appeal to members of all 

 descriptions, to support him in this 

 motion for a repeal. 



The Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 observed, that, in the compliments 

 which the house heard now paid to a 

 former speech of a right honourable 

 gentleman (Mr. Windham,) they 

 would be naturally led to conclude, 

 that there could be no difference of 

 opinion between these two gentle- 

 men, but scarcely had these compli- 

 ments been uttered, before the last 

 speaker went into a train of argu- 

 ment, calculated to destroy (he fun- 

 damental principles of that military 

 system, in which the other took so 

 lively and warm an interest. The 

 one wished to discard the variety 

 of our force, to discard the volun- 

 teer system, and to reduce the mili- 

 tia, all of which the other took 

 pride in defending and applauding. 

 It was no wonder, however, that 

 others should differ wit!) the right 

 honourable gentleman alluded to, 

 when hedilfcredso much from him- 

 self; for the augmentation of the 

 militia, the provisional cavalry, the 

 raising men for rank, and calling on 

 the parishes for their quotas, were 

 all measures adopted, when he was 

 himself a uaijQ^Jer of the cabinet. 



