58] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



objections tv*hich he had previously 

 produced against the peace esta- 

 blishment. The arguments, in- 

 deed, were chiefly of the same 

 kind as those ah'eady emplo)'ed; 

 and it will be sufficient to notice 

 the motion with which the hon. 

 baronet concluded, which was, 

 the leaving out of 113,64'() men, 

 and insei'ting in their stead 103,610 

 men. 



Lord Pahnerston remarked, that 

 if what had passed that night in 

 the House was calculated to show 

 the necessity of a reform in par- 

 liament, he presumed it was the 

 veiy scanty attendance which the 

 opposite benches displayed on 

 the discussion of so important a 

 subject. He should think himself 

 fully justified were he to abstain 

 from making any reply to the 

 so often repeated arguments of 

 the hon. baronet, whose speech 

 was entirely made up of thread- 

 bare references to the establish- 

 ments of 1792. He could recog- 

 nize no one point by which any 

 identity could be established be- 

 tween the circumstances of the 

 two periods. The additional 

 charge upon the revenue was 

 created by the increased pay and 

 allowances : and he had not un- 

 derstood that any hon. member 

 was prepared to recommend a 

 reduction in those branched of 

 expenditure. 



Mr. Calcraft regretted as much 

 as the noble lord the thin attend- 

 ance given on all sides to a ques. 

 tion of so much interest as the 

 army estimates. He must con- 

 tend that no satisfactory answer 

 had been made to the objections 

 to the amount of the estimates for 

 the sen'ice of England and Ire- 

 land, and hf had no hesitation in 



declaring his belief that the re- 

 duction of 10,000 men was prac- 

 ticable. When measuring the 

 extent of an establishment, how 

 could the}' proceed without adopt- 

 ing some basis, and what better 

 one could they select than the 

 peace establishment of 1792? 

 But to this the noble lord replied 

 in a declamatory way, that the 

 year 1792 was not the year 1818, 

 and that therefore there could be 

 no similitude or point of compa- 

 rison between the two periods — 

 extraordinary logic for the repre- 

 sentative ot the university of 

 Cambridge ! He observed that the 

 security we derived from the army 

 of occupation in France had never 

 been adverted to, and yet he sup- 

 posed it would gradually return, 

 and could not be disbanded im- 

 mediately upon that event. The 

 situation of Ireland was now 

 one of complete tranquillity; but 

 in 1792 a large body of United 

 Irishmen were in correspondence 

 with the French government. He 

 had himself proposed reductions 

 in a former year, which had not 

 been assented to. In one instance 

 he had recommended a diminution 

 of 3,000 men on a foreign station, 

 for which he was described as an 

 ignorant prejudiced person, who 

 entirely misconceived the matter; 

 but a short time after, his coun- 

 sel was adopted, and the reduc- 

 tion took place. He trusted, 

 therefore, that similar recommen- 

 dations of retrenchment, though 

 opposed in the House, would be 

 attended to out of it. 



Mr, Peel accused the hon. gen- 

 tleman of misrepresenting what 

 he had said last night respecting 

 the state of Ireland. For although 

 he had stated it to be a source of 

 satisfaction 



