220] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



motion of the army. Temporary 

 rank signified an exception, and 

 was generally given to those who 

 raised men for raak, and for other 

 reasons which occasioned the 

 granting them high commissions. 

 It was also confined to particular 

 corps and services, but did not 

 give full brevet promotions with 

 the rest of the army, nor did it 

 confer half pay. His lordship 

 went on to state the different con- 

 ditions on which foreign corps were 

 serving in our army ; and said, 

 that the order, in fact, did not 

 apply to all the German officers, 

 but only to those of higher ranks 

 who had entitled themselves to 

 favour and reward. All these 

 officers, however, were serving un- 

 der a law which declared a limit 

 to their services ; and the order 

 could not be meant to operate in 

 defiance of the law. It was, he 

 conceived, clear, that when the 

 operation of the lawi ceased, the 

 commissions must fall to the 

 ground with that act in which 

 they originated. The advantage 

 they received from the order was, 

 that when the act expired, their 

 rank having been ordinary and 

 permanent, their names would be 

 printed in the army lists, in their 

 respective ranks, and they would 

 have their honours and titles re- 

 maining. His lordship then pro- 

 nounced an encomium on the Ger- 

 man legion, and concluded with 

 saying, that it would be well that 

 the new parliament should have 

 its opinion understood of the le- 

 gality and propriety of continuing 

 the present system of employing 

 every means of carrying on an 

 offensive warfare which offered it- 

 self in the preseat circumstances. 



Mr. Ponsonby particularly ob- 

 jected to the last part of the noble 

 lord's speech, and hoped that the 

 house would not on the present, 

 or any other occasion, express an 

 opinion on a subject not connected 

 with the motion that was before 

 them. He concurred in the 

 praises of the German corps, but 

 adhered to the opinion that parlia- 

 ment ought to look with a consti- 

 tutional jealousy to the employ- 

 ment of foreign soldiers, especially 

 within this realm. 



Lord Milton having alluded to 

 the conferring of the command of 

 a district in England on Baron 

 Linsingen, a german ; General 

 Stewart asked why, when foreign- 

 ers were intrusted with commands 

 against the enemy, they should not 

 be equally trusted in this country ? 

 But he was reminded by Mr. Can- 

 ning, that while he viewed the sub- 

 ject with a military eye, it was the 

 duty of the house to view it in a 

 constitutional light also ; and he 

 referred to the case of king William 

 and his Dutch troops, which par- 

 liament had obliged him to dis- 

 miss. In the further discussion, 

 some censure was pointed against 

 the present rage of Germanizing 

 and Frenchifying our troops in 

 their dress and equipments, and 

 various bad consequences of this 

 mode were pointed out. 



The motion was then put, and 

 negatived ; but three others were 

 agreed lo, relative to returns of the 

 foreign officers and soldiers em- 

 ployed in the British service. 



On Dec. 17, a message was sent 

 to both houses from the Prince 

 Regent, recommending the grant- 

 ing a relief to the suffering subjects 

 of his Majesty's good and great 



ally. 



