HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



65 



litary council, the members of which 

 were not upon oath, and wiHiout 

 I the ordinary formalities. 

 I Lord Castlcreagh, not perceiving 

 that the motion would lead to any 

 practical proceeding, moved the or- 

 der of the day upon it; but it af- 

 terwards appearing that it was in- 

 tended to lead to the attainder being 

 reversed, he agreed to withdraw his 

 motion, and that of Mr. Martin 

 was agreed to. 



On the second reading of the mi- 

 litia enlisting bill, in the house of 

 lords, on the4th of April, 



Lord Hawkcsbury, in moving the 

 order, took occasion to advert to 

 the present military force of the 

 I united kingdom, than which nothing 

 I could be more respectable, as far as 

 i regarded our national security : all 

 that was required now, was to have 

 an increase of our disposeable force, 

 particularly of infantry, and the 

 <luesfion was, whfthcr this bill 

 . aft'orded the best means of providing 

 I it? The present militia establish- 

 ment was made without any re- 

 i ferenec to the volunteer system. 

 ! The principle of reducing the mili- 

 ' tia had been last year, as well as 

 I frequently before, recognized by 

 I parliament; and that being the case, 

 I he did not see, consideiiiig the ex- 

 isting necessities of the country, that 

 there could be any material objec- 

 j tiou to the mode of doing so. 

 I The Marquis of Giu-kiiigliam and 

 the Ear! of Derby ridiculed the idea 

 , of procuring a great military force, 

 by robbing on-.- branch of the ser- 

 vice to Supply another. 



The i'.arl of Buckinghamshire 

 said, that as one of the professed 

 purposes of the defence bill, of last 

 year, was a gradual reduction of the 

 ntilitia, it was much better not to let 

 that reductiaa take place, witbont 



the oountry having the benefit of 

 the 17,000 men added to its dis- 

 poseable force. 



Lord Cawdor spoke against the 

 bill, and was replied to by the Earl 

 of Westmoreland. 



The Earl of Caernarvon spoke at 

 great length, and with uncommoa 

 animation, against the bill. It was, 

 he said, a gross fraud and injustice, 

 to hold out an unalienable defen- 

 sive militia, to be augmented at the 

 expence of the land occupiers, and 

 immediately to seduce them from 

 that into the general service, out of 

 the public purse; after which, % 

 change in circumstances may, in a 

 short time, justify another augmen- 

 tation to be made at the renewed 

 expence of the land occupier. Thus 

 was government suilty of making 

 parliament commit an iniquity 

 svhich, if practised by an individual 

 in private life, would cause him to 

 be scouted from society. After 

 som.e further debate, the house di- 

 vided on the second reading of th« 

 bill, contents 102, non-contents 54, 

 majority 48. 



On the 5th, I\Ir. Francis, in con- 

 sequence of a notice he had given, 

 cailod tiie attention of the iiousc to' 

 the stibject of the Mahratta war. 

 He introduced the subject by stat- ^ 

 ing the nature of his connection witb 

 India, when appointed by parlia- 

 ment to a seat in the supreme coun- 

 cil, and the high approbation that 

 parliament gave to his conduct. He 

 then took an historical view of our 

 intercourse with India, first by 

 commerce, and afterwards by con- 

 quest, which was c;radually extend- 

 ed through the whole peninsula of 

 India, from Delhi to cape Como- 

 rin, wifcri the exception of the Mah- 

 ratta country. With all this extent 

 aid variety of empire, he observed 



that 



