e 
50 
to those who had served fourteen 
years, the addition of a shilling a 
week of pay. No man, however, of 
those now inthe army, would been- 
titled to his discharge till after the 
expiration of twenty-one year’s 
service. 
After having stated the measures 
which he proposed toadopt for the 
improvement of the regular army, 
Mr, Windham proceeded next to 
enquire what should be done with 
that part of the population of the 
country, which does not existin the 
shape ofanarmy. Thissubject led 
him into a history of the origin aad 
progress of the volunteer system, in 
the course of which, whilehe did full 
justice to the.zeal and patriotism of 
the volunteers, he lamented bitterly 
that so much time and money had 
been fruitlessly expended,in attempt- 
ing to give to that species of force 
a degree of _ perfection, of which 
from its nature it was totally un- 
susceptible. His own opinion was 
that there ought to be no corps of 
volunteers, except those formed of 
persons in the better ranks of life, 
who would serve at their own ex- 
pence, with no other allowance 
from government but arms, and no 
other exemption but from service in 
other sorts of irregular force, which 
it might be advisable to constitute. 
But, as he found the volunteer sys- 
tem already established, he meant 
not rashly to put it down, but 
would content himself with reducing 
its exorbitant expences. It wasa 
fact, that in three years anda half 
the volunteer system had cost the 
government five millions,and as much 
more atleast had been expended in 
support of it by private individu- 
als. The total amount of the re- 
ductions which he proposed in this 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
establishment would produce te go- 
vernment an annual saving of more 
than £800,000 a year. Heshould 
reduce the number of days for train- 
ing from 85 to26. ‘The rank given 
to volunteer officers he considered 
to be a scandalous abuse, mostin- 
jurious to the regular army. He 
proposed, in future, that no vo- 
lunteer efficer should have a higher 
rank than that of captain; that is, 
that no oflicer of the line of a high- 
er rank than that of captain, nor 
any captain commanding a corps, 
should be commanded by an officer 
of volunteers. 
The peasantry, artisans,and other 
persons of the same class, he wished 
to see, not locked up in volunteer 
corps and vainly employed in adopt- 
ing the dress and imitating the evo- 
lutions of the troops of the line, but 
loosely trained under officers of the 
militia or of the regular army, so 
as to be qualified, under their direc. 
tion, to act as an armed peasantry 
and harass and impede the motions 
of the enemy if he accomplished a 
landing, or be prepared at least to 
take their place in the regular army, 
and repair whatever losses it might 
sustainin action. This training he 
meant to be compulsory, but it 
should last only for 24 days in the 
year. ‘The persons so trained should 
have no particular dress, nor be 
carried to a distance from their 
homes. For the days they were 
employed in training the same allow- 
ance should be paid to them as to 
the volunteers. As it would be im- 
possible to train the whole popula. 
tion of the country atonce, the 
persons liable to that duty might be 
limited to 200,000 men; and of 
these the government should select 
for actual training the proportion 
+ “whieh 
