50 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



and actually secretary at war. 

 Therefore, notwithbtanding the ac- 

 kuowlcdgcd talents and considera- 

 tion of the right honourable gentle- 

 man, when lie was seen to bring for- 

 ward measures as a member of a 

 cabinet, and, in a few years after- 

 wards, when out of power, severely 

 to censure the same measures, the 

 confidence of the country, in his 

 opinion, must be materially dimi- 

 nished. He totally disclaimed so 

 disgractful and abominable an idea, 

 as that of intending this for a money 

 bill. As to its operation, it did not 

 commence till the 1 4th of NoTcm- 

 ber, and therefore, looking to the 

 average of the three months since 

 elapsed, he found it to be 200 men 

 a week, or between nine and ten 

 thousand men a year. AVith such a 

 statement before them, he did not 

 think the house would consent to 

 the repeal of this measure, just at 

 the moment of its coming into 

 activity. The bill had hitherto 

 gone on under the greatest disad- 

 vantages, for (he house should con- 

 sider what had been the drain of 

 men upon ihe cotin(ry, for the Inst 

 eighteen mondis : first, tlie milida 

 ■was balloted for, immediately af- 

 terwards (he suijplcmenlary militia 

 MC/e raised, aud thru came the 

 army of reserve : so that, in (neat 

 Britain alone, above 100,000 men 

 were raised in the short s})ace of a 

 year and a half. If then, under all 

 the unfavourable operation of tljese 

 circumstances, it had been so 

 Successful, what may not be ex- 

 pected from it when (hese circum- 

 stances were removed. Having af- 

 terwards adverted to several of 

 the incidental points, introduced 

 l)y Mr. Sheridan, he concluded 

 with giving bis negative to the mo- 

 tion. 

 , Mr. "VVindhaui, in reply to the 



allusions made to him, observed, 

 that when he acted in concurrence 

 with that right honourable gentle- 

 man, (Mr. Pitt,) his ministerial 

 situation must have prevented him 

 from opposing what was agreed io 

 by the majority of the cabinet, and 

 as to his being secretary at war, at 

 the time of passing the bills alluded 

 to, in that capacity he had no more 

 to do with that circumstance, than 

 if he had been secretary to the 

 board of agriculture: but, at all 

 events, it would be subversive of 

 all moral feeling and principle, if, 

 V hen he saw the inadequacy and 

 mischievous tendency of any acts, to 

 the pa sing of w Inch he might have 

 been in any way accessary, he 

 should be bound up from alter- 

 wards declaring his change of opi- 

 nion, lie then stated various ob- 

 jections to the bill, its total failure, 

 and the oppressive and dangerous 

 practices which it was calculated to 

 encourage. Was it not a fact, that 

 a number of poor Irishmen, merry- 

 making at their own houses, had 

 lately been attacked, accused of the 

 w orst of crimes, committed to pri- 

 son, and afterwards, without trial,. 

 driven into exile by being sent to 

 sea; — the worst of all exiles, to 

 those who were not bred to it ? If 

 such then was the conduct of t'le 

 inferior magistrates of this metro, 

 polls, what was to be expected front 

 parish officers, when converted into 

 crimps ? The bill not or.ly did nOj 

 good itself, but, by increasing thes 

 bounties, did injury to the regular 

 VL'cruiting. Having treated the bill 

 with a good dead of ridicule, which, 

 he said, was peculiarly, in this \n- 

 stance, the test of truth, he declared 

 his radical objectioas to the bill t» 

 be so numerous and strong, that 

 he should have thought it a very 

 bad measure, «vcn if it had suc- 



c«e«Ied, 



