securing our freedom against the influence and power of a large standing army, I would have our volunteers and militia aided by a due proportion of the regular army. The people of this country are competent to their own defence, and are ready to take the tone from those above them. They have regard for the high station which freemen may be supposed to feel; they have none of the slavish attachment to clans, but they look up to their superiors-and I use this word in its liberal sense they look up to you, their superiors, with confidence, because you do not look down on them with insult. Give, then, to such a people proper example and encouragement, and you will not have any occasion to look for a large standing army to defend your country. The people of England know the value of the objects for which they have to contend. They feel that, from the constitution of the society in which they live, there is nothing of honour, emolument, or wealth, which is not within the reach of a man of merit. The landlord, the shopkeeper, or mechanic, must be sensible that he is contending not merely for what he possesses, but for everything of importance which the country contains; and I would call on the humblest peasant to put forth his endeavours in the national struggle to defend his son's title to the great seal of England. Acting upon this plan, employing proper means to animate the country, would render it unnecessary to hire an army to defend us or to resist any enemy. It is because I am satisfied of this fact-because I know that in this important conjuncture, which so strongly demands the valour of the brave, the vigour of the strong, the means of the wealthy, and the councils of the wise, we could obtain all that is requisite by operating judiciously upon the character of the people, that I object to the frequent call for an increase of our regular army, as I know that such increase must invest the executive government with a power dangerous to the existence of liberty. I like an army of the people, because no people were ever found to commit a felo de se upon their own liberty; but I dislike a large standing army, because I never knew popular liberty in any state long to survive such an establishment. It is upon these grounds that I disapprove of the sentiments so often urged as to the augmentation of the regular army, and particularly by an officer whose information upon military subjects is, no doubt, entitled to the utmost respect; but, whatever may be his in

formation and experience upon military topics, if he had the ability of the Archduke Charles, until he shall look at the whole of the subject, until he shall examine it as a statesman, with a mixed attention to the rights of the people and the military defence of the country, I cannot defer to his opinions. With regard to the principles upon which the present administration is formed, I shall conclude with a few observations. The cause of the exclusion, which is so much and so justly complained of, we are all tolerably well able to conjecture; but it would be, I am aware, indecorous to describe it in this house. I know it would be unparliamentary to introduce into debate any particular allusion to this circumstance. Of the personage, however, to whom it refers, I cannot speak from any particular knowledge; but of him who is next in rank and consequence, I can say, that that illustrious personage whose name I know my duty too well to mention, who stood forward at the commencement of the war, displaying a noble example of his wish to promote unanimity, to rally all parties round the standard of the country, entertains no political prejudice against any public man-though, God knows, he has had much to forgive. Far, however, from indulging resentment, I am sure that he would be forward to accept, to call for the services of any political character who could contribute in this great crisis to the safety of the empire. For the motion 265; against it 223.

MARCH 6, 1805.

ADDITIONAL FORCE BILL.

MR. SHERIDAN said, I rise sir, in pursuance of the notice I took the liberty of giving on a former day, to move for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act of last session, intituled, " An act to provide for the better defence of the country, and for the gradual increase of our disposable force." I choose to read the whole title of this act, rather in compliment to the feelings of the right hon. gentleman, than to call it by its general denomination," Mr. Pitt's parish bill." It is impossible for me, before I proceed further not to observe shortly on the impression which seemed to have been produced upon the gentlemen on the other side, when I thought it my duty to give notice of this motion. Those gentlemen appeared to express surprise, not unaccom

panied by some disapprobation, that I should attempt to propose bringing forward such a motion. What excited that surprise I am rather at a loss to conjecture. Perhaps the right hon. gentleman over against me thought that the debate on this subject need not go on any further, conscious, no doubt, that the case stated by my right hon. friend on a former evening was but weakly supported; and that the answer of my right hon. friend who sits near him was quite sufficient, or rather that that answer contained matter so forcible and conclusive, argument and eloquence that overwhelmed us on this side of the house-that gave us such a shock that some time was necessary to enable us to meet it with any effect, to come fresh to the contest. Perhaps too, the disapprobation which was manifested proceeded from this, that it was deemed disrespectful to the right hon. gentleman to press upon him any further discussion of a subject, to the consideration of which he seemed so peculiarly unwilling to proceed. In truth, the right hon. gentleman did appear to be very bashful of this topic, and I am quite sure that he very reluctantly touches upon it at all. Another cause of the disapprobation I allude to, may be attributed to this, that my notice implied a doubt of the force of that reply which the friends of my right hon. friend have been so anxious to extol. It was evidently the supposition of the gentlemen on the other side that the hint should be taken from the disinclination shown by the right hon. gentleman to enter into this question, and that we should abstain from the performance of our duty. But regardless alike of the feelings of the right hon. gentleman himself upon this subject, as of the surprise or disapprobation of his advocates, I rise to bring forward this motion. It may be said, that any inquiry of mine into the military state of the country cannot be necessary, after the very able and comprehensive dissertation we have so recently heard from my right hon. friend on the lower bench on that subject. With those who argue so I should most cordially agree; but it will be recollected, that in the course of that masterly review of my right hon friend, he but incidentally noticed this act, which I conceive to be a disgrace to our statute book. It is natural that the gentlemen on the other side feeling this, aware that the act has utterly failed of its object, should disapprove of any attempt to ridicule its imbecility, or put a period to its existence. In endeavouring to accomplish this, some of those

common-place censures which are thrown out against men who attempt to oppose any measure for the defence of the country, may be applied to me; but I feel that they are entirely inapplicable, for I contend that the act, which it is my object to repeal, is not a measure for the defence of the country; the bill has no such character or tendency. To oppose its continuance, therefore, cannot subject any man to that outcry which it is the fashion to raise against the opponents of measures of a different description. If the proposition I mean to submit to the house had the remotest tendency to injure the spirit, to depress the heart and feelings of the country, in the present emergency, I trust I should be the last man to bring it forward. But satisfied that it is calculated to produce quite a contrary effect, I cannot be dissuaded from pursuing it. Again, I repeat, that I cannot conceive the reason why my notice was treated as I have described on a former evening, nor can I anticipate how my motion may be treated this night. To the speech of my right hon. friend on the lower bench, I remember that the right hon. gentleman on the opposite side thought proper to preserve a most resolute and dignified silence. He did not seem to think that it was such as to call for the reply of a minister, and that the answer which it received from my hon. friend was sufficient to content him. I have often heard that the right hon. gentleman was rather an unreasonable, discontented, expecting kind of man; but if he really was contented with the reply of my right hon. friend near him to the speech of my right hon. friend on the lower bench, I must say that he is the most easily contented man I ever heard of. I know that it has been asserted by the advocates of the right hon. gentleman, out of doors, that that reply was complete; but sure I am that no man in this house who heard it ever thought it so, and least of all was it so thought by my right hon. friend himself, who delivered it. I admire the talents of my right hon. friend as much as any man, yet, upon the occasion alluded to, I could not help observing the difficulty he had to struggle with; the embarrassed and staggering course he made; I was conscious that my right hon. friend felt that he had very little to say to the purpose; that he was sailing against wind and tide; that although the puff of a cheer from his friends sometimes produced a slight swell in his sails, he could make but little progress; that he raised his voice aloud, but produced

no impression; that he dropped argument and produced a noise; that, in fact, he made a fine catamaran speech (a laugh), plenty of noise, but little mischief to his adversary at least. What mischief he may have done to the system he would support I cannot pretend to say. Having said so much as to the conduct of the gentlemen on the other side on a former evening, I shall now take notice of some of the propositions of my right hon. friend. I shall confine myself entirely to the military argument. There were some points in the speech of my right hon. friend which I am now unwilling to take up. If I were to dwell upon them, I should have no doubt of being cheered by the right hon. gentleman on the other side. In the wide scope of my right hon. friend's general view, he advanced some opinions from which I differ. In his view of some points in our military defence, I certainly cannot agree with him; but the hon. gentlemen on the other side are much mistaken if they look for anything from that difference which can afford them any amusement.—Whatever occasional warmth I may have shown in animadverting on the opinions of my right hon. friend, I have always felt and acknowledged the grounds of his opinions to be substantially good, and ever disposed to treat them with due deference. Yet I never could bring myself, in some important questions, entirely to concur with him. The volunteer system, for instance, I have ever thought, and do still think, entitled to the highest admiration, and to the particular gratitude of the country. I really do believe that the existence, the number, and the spirit of the volunteers, had more power on the mind of the enemy, had more effect in making him shrink from attempting the execution of his menaced attack, than all our other force. I will not take upon myself to say that I have received any certain knowledge upon the subject, but I have enough to justify me in asserting, that the volunteers produced a most important effect on the resolutions of the French government, and particularly on the mind of Talleyrand; and this was naturally to be expected, for that gallant body served to dislodge the opinion which generally existed in France with respect to this nation. The volunteers showed most satisfactorily that the "shop-keeping, indolent, luxurious" people of this country were not disposed to loll on their couches in a time of public danger, and trust wholly to an hired army for their defence. Whether the