life, before they well know the nature of the engagements they are contracting. It is improper in a constitutional point of view, for it is right that those who fight for the constitution should have an opportunity of enjoying its benefits. What do they know of the constitution, according to our present military system? I do, indeed, believe that it is the best on the face of the earth; but it is so much the more unfortunate that our soldiers should be ignorant of its blessings. Suppose they were sent in their earliest years to a foreign country, and there told to fight for their country and constitution; they would be informed that they fought for the most glorious constitution, and the most excellent country in the world; but then they must be sensible that they are never to see it, and what in this case does its excellence signify to them? But if the soldiers were made sensible of the benefit of our constitution, and brought to indulge the hope of being permitted to enjoy its blessings; if they should be taught to look forward to the indulgence of one day sitting under the shade of this spreading tree, of being refreshed with the fragrance of its blossoms, and of tasting its fruit, then the great complaint of high bounties, and a want of men, would be done away. Now, sir, I would call the attention of one set of gentlemen particularly to this subject. I would request the country gentlemen to con sider it de novo, and say, whether they can submit to the unjust tax that is imposed by this measure on the landed property of the country. Next, sir, I would address another set of gentlemen, those who supported the predecessor of the right hon. gentleman, for their concurrence in the motion which I am now about to propose. I gave that noble lord my support, feeble as it was, from a conviction that he was pursuing those measures which were best calculated to promote the interests of the country, and because he kept the right hon. gentleman out of office. My support had nothing interested in it; of that the noble lord is himself convinced, and so is he from whom I could not separate without causing a schism in my own heart. But I call upon the noble lord's friends, those whom he headed in opposition to this very measure, to support me on the present occasion. I ask, then, if the noble lord himself had not been placed in the other house, if no reconciliation had taken place, is there a man among his adherents who would not vote with me on this occasion? This bill only operates as an impost tax. At

this moment, when taxes are so heavy, and when it is desirable that they should be borne with patience and willingness, care is to be taken that they be imposed in a just and impartial manner. have seen the day when the country gentlemen were more independent, and more powerful in the house. But there is another thing which is blamable in the conduct of the right hon. gentleman's administration. The country gentlemen have not only lost a great deal of their independence, but the peerage has been degraded. During the seventeen years in which the right hon. gentleman continued in administration, almost a moiety of the house of peers are of his creating. These, for the most part, were not created for any great public services, but merely for the convenience and assistance which they afforded to ministers. It is impossible that these things can go on much longer with safety to the constitution. I would not willingly dwell upon the circumstance of the preponderance which the right hon. gentleman has given to the commercial interests over the landed. I do not wish now to give any express opinion on that subject; but one thing is certain, that it has created an anomaly in this country-an assembly governing a large tract of territory (the East Indies), which is not subject to the people of this empire. I do entreat, that on this decision gentlemen will lift themselves above all considerations of party, and vote against this measure, which is found to be inefficient. This is the only way in which we may be sure of inspiring our friends with confidence, and our enemies with fear. This is the way in which we may expect to bring the present arduous contest with the most enterprising enemy with whom we ever had to contend, to a safe and honourable termination. The present question puts all this at If gentlemen vote with me on this occasion, then our country will have a proper confidence in our own exertions. Europe will be satisfied that the hands and the hearts of the nation are engaged in our measures. Foreign nations who may join us, will be confident of firm and active support; and we may then with boldness bid defiance to all the efforts and machinations of the most ambitious, the most savage, the most powerful, and most unprincipled foe that ever attempted to disturb the peace of the world, to overturn the unrivalled constitution, and destroy the unequalled blessings of a great, a free, and a happy people. Mr. Sheridan concluded with moving, "That

issue.

the additional force act should be read." This being ordered to be entered as read, he moved the repeal of the said act.

Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh replied.

Mr. Sheridan was not surprised that the noble lord had felt so forcibly that he and his friends had been called upon for some answer, and for their reasons for still supporting this bill. If they had given no answer, it might very fairly have been inferred that it was because they had nothing to say. In their answer, however, they took care to avoid the main objections, that it was unconstitutional in its principle, and that it had completely failed in its effect. The noble lord, however, conceived that the argument of the bill not having been fairly tried, was too strong for the great abilities of his hon. friend (Mr. Fox) to combat. He had forgotten, however, that the greatest part of that hon. gentleman's speech was entirely directed to this very point, and to prove that there was nothing to be hoped or expected from it. In Ireland, where it was said the bill had produced men, the fact was, that not a man had enlisted for general service, which was the professed object of the bill; and, in England, if the number raised by regimental recruiting was subtracted, it would appear that there had been no more than 787 men raised by the parish officers according to the provisions of the bill; and when it was considered that the promise went as far as raising 27,000 by this time. He then observed, that the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Pitt) had complained that he had used harsh and strong language towards him; although he was a warm speaker in the house, he never harboured much personal animosity against any man; he supposed, however, the right hon. gentleman meant to contrast his language with his own singular gentleness and meekness of manners, his moderation, and total abstinence from sarcastic or biting remarks. He had stated that he (Mr. Sheridan) had wandered entirely from the subject; that he appeared to know nothing of the bill, except its title; and that he appeared to have hoarded up a collection of jests and sarcasms to throw out upon him. If his speech, however, had been so very ignorant and unworthy of the serious attention of the house, there was no occasion for the right hon. gentleman to jump up immediately to reply to it himself:

"Nec Deus intersit, nisi Deo vindice nodus,"

was a maxim well understood by that gentleman. The right

hon. gentleman had attacked him for bringing charges against his colleagues, who were not in that house to defend themselves; he had taken up the glove for the first lord of the admiralty. For his part, he had really a respect for that noble lord as a man of business, that did not pretend to more talents than he possessed; but there were many differences between him and his predecessor in office; he had no occasion to be at his desk by four o'clock in the morning examining abuses; but, on the other hand, he went in a boat to superintend, or rather to judge with critical eye of the explosion of his own catamarans. At Walmer Castle, he and his right hon. friend had another Alexander's feast. Whether they had a Timotheus of their party report does not say; the jolly dog, however, was not absent. There, like Alexander, "they seized a torch with fury to destroy ;" and, if they did not succeed, perhaps it was because there was no Thais at Walmer Castle.-But (continued Mr. Sheridan) the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Pitt) has thought fit to charge me with insincerity in the support I gave to the late administration. I say that this charge is contrary to the fact; I gave my support to it with the utmost good faith, and I know that Lord Sidmouth has always been ready to acknowledge it. But, supposing I had not supported him with fidelity and firmness; what then? I never had professed to do so, either to that ministry or to this house. I approved of their measures, and I thought besides, that their continuance in office was a security against the right hon. gentleman's return to power, which I always considered as the greatest national calamity. If, indeed, I had, like him, recommended Mr. Addington to his Majesty and the public, as the fittest person to fill his high station, because it was a convenient step to my own safety, in retiring from a station which I had so grossly abused, and which I could no longer fill with honour or security; if, having done so from such unwarrantable motives, I should have tapered off by degrees, from a promised support, when I saw the minister of my own choice was acquiring a greater stability and popularity than I wished for; and if, when I saw an opening to my own return to power at a safer period than when I had left it, I had entered into a combination with others whom I meant also to betray, from the sole lust of power and office, in order to remove him; and if, under the dominion of these base appetites, I had

then treated with ridicule and contempt the very man whom I just before held up to the choice of my sovereign, and the approbation of this house and the public, I should, indeed, have deserved the contempt of all sound politicians, and the execration of every honest private man: I should, indeed, have deserved to be told not merely that I was hollow and insincere in my support, but that I was mean, base, and perfidious. For the motion 127; against it 267.

MAY 13, 1806.

REPEAL OF ADDITIONAL FORCE BILL.

Mr. Wyndham moved the order of the day, for the third reading of the additional force act repeal bill.

MR. SHERIDAN did not consider these constant insinuations of gentlemen on that side of the house, wishing to triumph over the measures or memory of a great man, who is now no more, as being at all justified by any part of their conduct. This was now the fourth debate which the house had had upon this bill. In the first, it seemed as if there had been a council held among the opposers of it, and that it had been resolved, "Let us attack all the measures that have been proposed or suggested, but let no man say a word about the bill." In that debate they therefore cautiously abstained from meddling with the bill itself. The second debate was began by a military general (Sir James Pulteney), certainly of very high consideration. That general, however, entirely abstained from the military view of the question, and confined himself to its civil operation. In the third debate, both the civil and military questions were declined, and the argument was principally about the clause of refunding, which was the chief subject of the right hon. gentleman's argument upon the present occasion. If the gentlemen on the other side of the house had been twenty months before they could understand their own bill, they were not to triumph much even if they should find any omission in the present. He did not think it quite decent of the learned gentleman (Mr. Perceval) to say, that his right hon. friend had not read the bill that he proposed to repeal. Since he had made that assertion, he thought himself warranted in saying, that the bill had been drawn up in a manner so confused and unintelligible, that he could not but