635 
Plan of National Defence, 
K'^cessary service, and by tlje skill and 
attention of their officers will deserve 
that character, which many volunteer 
corps obtained, of being fit to act with 
troops of the line. By these periodical 
returns of drill, the Jersey militia, com¬ 
prising every man in the inland from six¬ 
teen to forty-five years of age, ha.ve ac¬ 
quired such a degree of promptness, that 
a body of matrosses sent some years ago 
by government to in.struct them in the 
use of artillery, were obliged to confess 
their inferiority to the islanders, and to 
put themselves under their tuition. 
III. — Every regiment shall consist of a 
body of men greater or smaller according 
io the popalousness of the district^ so that 
no man shall he obliged to march to an in~ 
convenient distancefor the centrical place 
cf'meeting, 
IV. — Government shall appoint a Com- 
jfnanding officer^ an Adjutant, and a drill 
Serjeant, who shall receive full pay ; the 
other oficers shall be reconmiended by the 
corps to the Lord Lieutenant of the 
county, for his approbation, and shall 
rise by seniority. Those officers, Ser¬ 
jeants, and corporals, who have served in 
the army or militia, shall have the pre¬ 
ference,^ 
It is an object of primary importance 
that officers and men, who have been in 
regular service, should ,^e incorporated 
into the regiments of Defence. They 
will be the pivots, on which the w'hole 
establishment must turn. If they stand 
to their posts in the hour of trial, the 
body of the regiment will never give 
way. llaw inexperienced Hoops, left to 
themselves, will be discouraged when 
they find, at the onset of the attack, tlurt 
the first cl'.arge does not produce a deci¬ 
sive effect. 
They will not be convinced that suc¬ 
cess depends on steadiness and perse¬ 
verance unless they receive an example 
from the conduct of soldiers, in whom 
they will place the cor.fkience due to 
rheir experience. It vvas not until Ge¬ 
neral Pichegru had incorporated veteran 
soldiers and experienced oiheers into the 
new levies, that the French began to 
conquer, 'i'he campaigns of Flanders, 
Egypt, Spain, and Portugal, have given 
us a sufficient number of brave men and 
skilful officers to place at the head, and 
to consolidate the ranks, of the regiments 
of Defence. Nor can the imagination 
of danger to the liberties of the people 
be permitted to have one moment’s 
r^nge. From the present race of offi¬ 
cers, with their civil connexions and 
constitutional principles, the expectatio:^ 
of public benefit is certain, the appre¬ 
hension of danger is visionary. But in 
the present situation of affairs, the first 
object is, “That the state shall suffer 
no detriment,” and the most liberal con¬ 
fidence must be placed in the executive 
power. 
V. —The Defence shall be trained to 
the service of the light irfantry and rifle 
men ; to that service, which zoill be re- 
quired of them in case of an invasion, 
Above halt a million ot young men 
will thus be kept in a constant state of 
ready discipline. This force will, by the 
swiftness of its motion, instantly fly to 
every scene of action. It was by this 
celerity of movement that the French 
have achieved their most important con¬ 
quests. They boasted that they had de¬ 
feated the armies of Germany in 1805, 
“ not by their arms but by their legs,’** 
by that rapidity, which occupied every 
advantage, and seized every command* 
ing post, before the arrival of the heavy 
troops of their enemies, 
VI. — No member of the Defence shall 
be exempted from the ballot for the Mi- 
litia, or for any other levies, zohich may 
be necessary for the naval or military ser¬ 
vice of ike country. 
VII. — Every year, all young men, who. 
shall attain the age of seventeen, shall be 
enrolled ; and those who are entered into 
their twenty-eighth year shall be dis¬ 
charged. 
Thus, in a short time, the whole 
country will form a mass of military 
strength, unattackable; or, if attacked, 
invincible'. And thus every branch of a 
family protected by the active part of it, 
will securely enjoy the blessings ofperfect 
confidence. 
inti:RESTS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
Of all the Religious systems w-hich 
have been establislied on the principles 
of tiie Gospel, by the knowledge of the 
Scriptures, the wisdom of experience, the 
sincerity of truth, and the zeal of piety, 
none can be compared,—in the opinion of 
one, wlio has not been an inattentive ob¬ 
server of Christian sects,—to the church 
of England. That establishment was 
the result of long, deep, and severe, in¬ 
vestigation. It was not, as it has been 
often objected by the enemies of the 
Reformation, the casual effect of the 
passions of Henry VIIL The materials 
for tlie destruction of the system of cor¬ 
ruption in doctrine, and abuses in prac¬ 
tice, had been forming during many 
4 S 2 yearsj; 
