HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
that one fifth only of the whole 
number of men that ought to have 
been raised by the act, had been 
procured by those persons, whose 
employment. in a service of this na- 
ture, as it constituted the chief no- 
velty, so, in the apprehension of 
the friends of the bill, it had formed 
the chief recommendation of the 
act. Such were the returys for the 
United Kingdom in general. But, 
if England and Wales were taken 
apart from Scotland and Ireland, 
the failure of the bill would appear 
still more remarkable. In England 
and Wales not one fourth of the 
“number of men had been raised, 
which ought to have been procured 
by the act, and not one seventh of 
their quotas had been raised"by the 
parishes themselves. But the act 
had not more egregiously failed in 
precuring men, than in attaining 
the other objects which were to 
have been accomplished by it. 
_ While the original provisions of the 
bill had been adhered to; while 
none but parish officers had beer 
employed in carrying it into effect, 
or, in case of their failure, regimen- 
tal recruiting parties; while the 
recruiting under the act had been 
confined within the districts pre- 
scribed by law, and the bounties 
had not exceeded the sum allowed 
by the act of patliament, the bill 
had been entirely, or almost entirely 
jmeficacious. The boasted im- 
provements which it had lately re- 
ceived, were owing to a departure 
from all the original provisions 
and restrictions of the bill. Crimps 
had been employed 10 recruit instead 
of parish-officers; the recruiting 
districts of the parishes had been 
enlarged ; and, instead of the small 
bounty prescribed by the act, large 
55 
bounties had been given, which had 
raised a competition against the re- 
cruiting of the regular army, and 
interfered with it to such a degree, 
as to threaten, if not speedily done 
away, its total destruction. As the 
parishes were liable to a fine of 201. 
for every man in which they were 
deficient, many parish officers were 
in the practice of taking credit for 
that sum, and adding to it the 
bounty of 121. allowed by govern- 
ment, they employed crimps to pro- 
cure men for them at any price, not 
exceeding 321. In consequence of 
these changes jn the manner of car- 
rying into aaehdbichn the act, it had 
become a partial and oppressive tax 
on the parishes, instead of being, as 
originally intended, a new and ef- 
fectual instrument for increasing the 
army. The friends of the bill 
boasted of the number of persons 
who enlisted in the army from the 
additional force. The wonder was, 
that every person who intended to 
enlist in the army, did not begin by 
first entering the other ; for, instead 
of the bounty of 161. the utmost 
given by the regular army, the sum 
of 121. might first be obtained -by 
enlisting in the additional force, and 
afterwards 101. more by enlisting 
out of the additional, force into the 
army. It had been one of the ar- 
guments for the bill, when first 
brought into parliament, that its 
operation would not interfere with 
the ordinary recruiting ; but expe. 
rience had shewn, that since the 
new mode of carrying it into effect 
had been adopted, the ordinary re- 
cruiting had sensibly declined, so 
that the whole number of disposable 
men procured for the army, had 
been little, if at all, increased since 
it came into operation, During the 
E4 last 
