1805.] Mr. Barrow’s Defence againft the Edinburgh Revigwer. 503 
it. The heavy Jofles our commerce in 
the Eaft has already futtained ; the dan- 
ger to which one of the moft valuable 
fleets that ever floated on the ocean has 
Jately been expofed, and to which many 
others of the fame kind mu continue to 
be expofed ; the conftant demand for 
frefh ‘troops to be fent out from this coun- 
try to India; the fupply of ftores and 
provifions required by {hips of war cruiz- 
ing in the Eaftern Seas ; and the refrefh- 
ments fo defirable to be procured on long 
voyores—all clearly and powerfully de- 
monitrate, that this commanding ftation 
eught not to have been refigned into the 
hands of an enemy. It was from a due 
fenfe of its importance, in thefe and other 
refpects, and a conviction that thofe who 
appear to have been fo eafily prevailed on 
to alienate it from Great Britain, had 
not fufficiently confidered the fubject, 
that, among other, confiderations, induced 
me to dilculs the queftion in a fzcond vo- 
lume; hoping, that by bringing it before 
the public, at an early ftage of the war, 
his Majelty’s late-minifters, who had juf- 
tified the furrender on no other ground 
than that of expence, would have feen the 
neceflity of recovering a fettlement which 
a miftaken economy urged. them to give 
up; and made it one of the firit miltary 
operations on the renewal of the war, It 
was on this account I hoped that the ap- 
plication of three months might not prove 
in vain, and not from any filly boaf?, or 
difre/pedt to tke public, as the Reviewer, 
with no great fhare of candour or good 
nature, has fuggefted. But to the point: 
To prove that this expence had been 
greatly exaggefated, I ftaced a few fimple 
facts, which I thought fufficient to etta- 
biith the point, without entering into mi- 
nute explanations. But as thefe facts 
have been totally perverted in the Edin- 
burgh Review, and more particularly as 
the expenditure at the Cape of Good 
Hope is likely to become a fubjeét of par- 
liamentary enquiry, I confider myfelf cail- 
ed upon to clear up, as far as I am able, 
any fufpiciors that toe interpretation gi- 
ven therein may have occationed on a point 
of fuch importance. 
Having ftated the expenditure in main- 
taining the garrifon of the Cape for feven 
years, I obferved, that certain favings 
made by government, and amounting to 
about 150,00901. oughit to be confidered as 
fo many deduétions from the total ex- 
pence. Thefe favings I have ftated to arife 
out of — 
1. Apremium borne by government bills. 
2. A profit on {pecie imported. 
3. Ditto on copper money imported. 
4. Intereft on paper money thrown into 
circulation. Befide a very confiderable 
faving on the rations iffued to the troops 
in confideration of a certain fum ftopped 
out of their pay. On this point the Re- 
viewer has thought proper to obferve, *« ff 
we rightly underftand him, government 
deducts as much from the pay of the 
troops, as would fubjiji them, in a dearer 
country, for example at home, and feeds 
them at the Cape fomewhat cheaper. The 
fairnefs of this practice depends exadly 
on the contract originally entered into 
with the men. If they ought to be paid 
2 money, and not iz kind, the gain is at 
their expence.” After having ftated, 
what indeed I fuppofed to be very gene- 
rally known, ¢* that on moft foreign ffa- 
tions the foldier could not pofibly Subp 
himfelf on bis pay; that government, 
‘‘therefore, for the accommodation of the fol. 
dier,deduéted a certain fum out of his pay, 
in confideration of his ration or fixed pro- 
portion of victuals ;”” it is a fingular per- 
verfion of the meaning to make me fay, 
“‘ that government deducted as much 
jrom the pay of the foldier at the Cape as 
would fubift him in a dearer country.”? If 
his whele pay is not adequate to his fub- 
fiftence on moft ftations, as I have fated 
to be the cafe, how could government de- 
duct as much from it as will fabiitt him? 
However, as it feems to have fuited his 
purpole to mifunderftand me, 1 will ftate 
the cafe more fully. The pay of a fol- 
dier, whether in England, at Gibraltar, or 
at the Cape of Good Hope, isa hhilling a 
day. Let us fuppofe the expence of his | 
ration, or what is fuificient to, feed him, 
to be one fhilling in England, eighteen- 
pence in Gibraltar, and five-pence at the 
Cape of Good Hope—it is clear that, at 
the Cape, he would not only fubfit, but 
fave money; that in England, he could 
barely fubfift ; and that,at Gibraltar, he 
could not fubfift at all, Now, as the 
fame individual foldier might ferve at all 
the three places in the courfe of a twelve- 
month, he would find himfelf very dif- 
fervently circumftanced at, the different fla- 
tions. To obviate the inconvenience that 
would neceflarily arife from this difparity 
in the price of food, government, for the 
accommodation of the foldier, deduéts the 
fum of fix. pence from his pay, and, in lieu 
‘thereof, fupplies him with his ration ;- fuf- 
fering, by fo doing, a lofs of fixpence a 
day in England, of a fhilling in Gibraltar, 
and effeéting a faving of one penny at the 
Cape of Good Hope ; but it is fufficiently | 
Clear, that this lofs to. government, in Eng - 
land 
