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be gained: He recommended giving effect to the operation of friendly focieties, granting relief according to the number of children, preventing removals at the caprice of parish officers, and the advancing of fmall capitals, which might be repaid in two or three years; and pointed out several means by which the object fo much wanted, a pure execution of the laws, might be After a long converfation, in which many important arguments were adduced on both fides of the question, Mr. Whitbread's motion paffed in the nega

tive.

A fimilar fate attended the repeated efforts made by Mr. Lechmere to alleviate the prefent diftreffes of the poor.

The arguments of the chancellor of the exchequer on this fubject (if arguments they may be called) were evidently intended merely to get rid of a question which muft intereft every man who has any feeling of justice and humanity. That the wages of the labourer fhould bear a proper proportion to the price of the neceffaries of life, is a matter of right, a principle of justice, and in no refpect connected with the confideration of the poor laws, except in this, that if the wages of labourers were what they ought to be, the poor's rates would be diminished to almost a cipher. Indeed, in fuch a ftate, none would have a claim on the benevolence of the public but the aged and infirm; and even of thefe, many would be enabled to

lay up, in the days of youth and health, a fupply for their latter years; whereas, in the prefent ftate of things, it is evident that the labouring poor cannot gain a healthy fubfiftence, much lefs can they lay up any thing for age or adverfity.

The committee to confider of the high price of corn, in the mean time, entered into an engagement to reduce the confumption of wheat in their families one third, by every poffible expedient. This meafure, which provided no legiflative remedy for an evil of fuch magnitude, was pointedly animadverted upon by lords Lauderdale, Lanfdowne, and Thurlow, as "filly, futile, and even ridiculous." The engagement was, however, figned not only by the committee, but by feveral members of both houses.

Several important regulations were, however, made by the committee refpecting weights and fcales, the tolls of millers, &c. which formed the bafis of fucceeding acts of parliament. About the fame time fir John Sinclair brought forward a motion, founded upon the refolu-" tions of the board of agriculture, for the cultivation of the wafte lands. This was intended to prevent a recurrence of the diftreis at prefent experienced, and the neceffity of fuch measures as had been lately adopted. In confequence, therefore, it is fuppofed, of the recommendation from the board, a confiderable number of inclosure bills paffed the house in the course of the feffion,

CHA P. III.

Committee of Supply. Seamen and Marines voted. General M'Leod's Motion refpecting the Military Force of the Country. Army Estimates. Debate on that Subject. General Smith's Motion for recommitting the Report of the Army Eftimates. Difcuffion on the Weft-India Expedition and the Barrack Syftem. General Smith's Motion relative to Barracks. Negatived.

On the 4th November con

Arden moved, in the committee of fupply, that one hundred and ten thousand feamen fhould be employed for the fea service of the year 1796, including eighteen thoufand marines; and that four pounds a man per month, for thirteen months, fhould be allowed; both of which were accordingly voted. On the 4th of December, the committee granted a fum not exceeding 624,1521. 18. old. for the ordinary pay of the navy, including the marines, and 708,400l. for building and repairing fhips of war.

Previous to the production of the army estimates, general M'Leod moved for returns of all the military force of the country. Before the house voted away the money of their conftituents, it was, he obferved, their duty to inquire into its purposes, its application, the number of men paid, and the allowance granted to each. It was, befides, the duty of the house to watch the conduct of minifters, and to fee their projects and powers for their execution; to know alfo the means employed for the protection of the country, and the manner in which the levies had been conducted. The houfe ought likewife to fee how gallant and experienced officers had been neglected, and the truft committed to thofe who had neither age nor military skill to discharge it properly. This return the general

tember, but was induced to change that part of his motion to August, at the defire of the secretary at war, who thought it highly improper to make public the actual ftate of the force to the prefent time. Of the yeomanry, he ftated, there could be no return, as they had never received pay; but this part of his argument was oppofed by general M'Leod, as this defcription of perfons had been furnished with arms, and therefore the returns might be made at the ordnance, or fome other office. This motion being agreed to, the general proceeded to make two others, first, for a return of all the general and ftaff officers, whether British or foreign, who had been employed under the earl of Moira, with their pay, &c. and of thofe employed in the fervice of his majefty under the count d'Artois, prince of Condé, or any French general, with an account of their feveral allowances: both of which were agreed to.

The army eftimates were referred to the committee of fupply, in which the fecretary at war obferved that the whole land force of the kingdom was comprehended under two articles, that of guards and garrifons, and that of colonies and plantations. The amount of the firft was, he faid, by withdrawing the army from the continent, reduced to 49,219. In the colonies

there

there was an increase from 35,000 to 77,868, owing to the augmentation of the army in the Weft Indies. Upon the whole, there was a reduction to the amount of 28,000 upon the establishment of regular troops. The troops of every defcription, with the regular forces, amounted to 207,000. The Weft India ftaff was increased; but it comprehended the medical staff.

The general refult was, that the army, which was equal to every purpose of defence, had been reduced by 25,000, and formed a saving to the public of 800,000l. After recapitulating the feveral articles of force *, Mr. Windham moved his first refolution, “that 207,000 men be employed for the fervice of the current year."

Several of the articles stated by

the

-

The militia amounted to

In the fencible infantry there had been a reduction of 1700 men.
The whole amounted now to

The fencible cavalry had received an augmentation of 4000 men, and amounted to

The whole force, therefore, was as follows:

Guards and garrifons

Force in the colonies and plantations

42,000

13,000

10,000

49,219

77,868

Militia

42,000

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The other article of importance was the Weft India ftaff, in which was included the medical staff.

The general refult of the whole was, that the army to be kept on foot, in the enfuing year, was less than it had been last year by 25,369 men; the faving that accrued in confequence, was £.817,091, as would appear in the following fatement,

For 49,219 land forces for 1796, £.11,358,624. 2s. 9.. for their charge and cloathing. £1,666,900 for maintaining the forces in the plantations, Gibraltar, Corsica, and New South Wales, from the 25th of December, 1795, to 25th December, 1796.

£40,195. 4s. 9.4. for difference between the English and Irish establishment of fix regiments of foot, from December 25, 1795, to December 25, 1796.

£360,000 for recruiting and contingencies for 1796.

£120,000 for innkeepers, for increafed fubfiftence on quartering for 1796.

L.103,640. 15. 3d. for general and ftaff officers for 1796.

£9,259. 183. 6d. for pay of general and staff officers on an expedition under general Clark, for 1796.

£127,779. 14s. 11d. to fupernumerary officers and others, from December 25, 1795, to December 25, 1796

£143,490. 13. 5d. for paymaster-general, fecretary at war, &c. for 1796.

118,873. 18. 6d. for reduced officers of land forces and marines, for 1796.

126. 15. 64. for reduced troops of horfe guards, for 1796.

.1000 for officers late of the states-general, for 1796.

£52,500 on account of reduced officers of British American forces, for 1796. £7,500 for allowance to ditto, for 1796.

2.917,994. 14s. Id. for militia and fencible infantry, for 1796.

210,000 for contingencies for ditto, for 1796.

2.108,538. 17. 1d. for cloathing militia for 1796.

£476,636.

the fecretary at war were objected to by general Tarleton, who remarked a confiderable variation from the statement given in the preceding year, and thought the estimate much larger than might be expected in the prefent circumstances of the war. He particularly objected to the whole statement of the fencible cavalry, and the expences of the corps eftimated at 480,000l. and the increased number of general and staff officers, the estimate of which was 103,000l. The charge of American reduced officers was, he faid, equal to the former year, though this body of men was confiderably reduced. From the year 1792, to the end of 1794, the increase of expence had, he faid, accumulated in the extraordinary ratio of from one million to eleven.

The conduct of minifters, in not furnishing the Weft India troops with a proper fupply of medicines, was ftrongly animadverted upon by general M'Leod. They had, he itated, fent out only one fhip with medicines, which had been captured by Victor Hughes, though we had twenty-fix men of war and fourteen floops in thofe feas. The general alfo defired an explanation

refpecting colonel Beaumont's regiment, the horses for which were provided at the expence of 251. each; but, when the regiment was afterwards difmounted and fent a broad, were fold again for 81. per horfe. The fecretary at war and chancellor of the exchequer stated in reply, that immediate exertions were ufed for repairing the calamity of the lofs of medical stores, by the difpatch of medicines in all the first fhips that had failed to that quarter; and that with refpe&t to the horfes, they fhould enquire into that matter. General M'Leod pointedly animadverted on the prodigality of minifters refpecting ftaff offcers, obferving, that fir C. Grey, during his fervices in the West Indies, had only five generals under his command; whereas, the public were now called upon to provide for one thousand field and staff officers; there were thirty generals and field marshals, fixty-two lieutenantgenerals, two hundred colonels, and feven hundred majors. The general further objected to the large army of fencible cavalry, which could only act in repelling a foreign invafion, or in maintaining internal tranquillity. With refpect to the

£476,636. 10s. Sd. for fencible cavalry, for 1796. £115,000 for certain allowances to ditto, for 1796. £875,483. 14. 1d. for ordnance, for 1796.

279. 4s. 4d. for ordnance fervice previous to the 31 December, 1793. £45,656. Os. 5d. for ditto in 1794.

61,000 for ditto for fea fervice in 1794.

762,046. 13s. 6d. for ditto for land fervice in 1795.

£71,000 for civil establishment of Upper Canada, for 1796.

£5,415 for ditto for Nova Scotia.

4,530 for ditto for New Brunswick.

1,900 ditto for St. John's island.

£18,000 for civil cftablishment for Cape Breton.

£1,232. 10. for ditto for Newfoundland.

£4,200 for ditto of Bermuda inand, above prefent falaries.

580 for chief juftice of Bermudas.

.600 for ditto of Dominica.

5,241 for the civil establishment of New South Wales, £2,000,000 to pay off exchequer bills of last year. 2.1,500,000 to pay off other exchequer billa,

firft, fince our fleets had been fo triumphant, the idea of an invafion had never entered the head of even an old woman. The fencible corps, he conceived, were in fact "no further neceffary than to fupport the wickedness of the minifter's measures against the refiftance of the people." Our regular cavalry coming from Germany made it additionally unneceffary to keep up two bodies of thefe troops. The refolutions, though ftrongly objected to, were, however, all put and carried.

When the report of the committee of fupply on the army estimates was brought up, general Smith stated that the fum of 750,000l. was brought to account as the favings in 1794 and 1795: he thought it therefore time to afk whether the houfe would agree to fuch eftimates without inquiring whence fuch favings fhould arife. The eftimate for army extraordinaries for the enfuing year was larger beyond all comparison than any former

He ftrongly objected to the fencible corps, and to placing raw and unexperienced commanders over old officers, and thought it a proper object of inquiry how the emigrant corps were employed, and at what expence; in one regiment of only two hundred and feventy men, ninety ferjeants were enrolled. For various reafons connected with this fubject, the general moved to re-commit the report for more minute examination.

The secretary at war objected to the re-commitment as ufelefs, fince every neceffary information might be obtained without this measure. The cavalry, he contended, was not out of proportion to the reft of the army. In the fencibles, the troop which had confifted of eighty was diminished to fifty-five men.

With refpect to the Irish-brigade, concerning which the general withed to be informed, they were a body of troops lent to Ireland, and paid, in confequence of an arrangement, by this country. They were troops raifed in Ireland, deftined for general fervice, and, fo far as they exceeded five regiments, were to be paid by England. The nature of the fencible corps had, he contended, been overlooked by the general; the men received no bounty, nor had the officers half-pay and the other advantages afforded by the regular fervice. The employment of men of large fortune, in their refpective counties, was more conducive to the public fervice, as they cafily procured men. The emigrant corps had, he afferted, done very effential fervice, and were now embarked for the Weft Indies. The deficiency of men, in proportion to the officers, arofe from their having been formed during the heat of the campaign, and no provifion having been made for filling up thofe who were killed off.

The statement made by Mr. Windham was oppofed, as incorrect, by general M'Leod, who afferted that the mode in which troops had been raised during this war was unconflitutional, and unwarrantably expenfive. In contradiction to the statement of the fecretary at war, and of Mr. Jenkinfon, he afferted his ability to prove, that, in the fencible cavalry, a bounty had been given by government. The command of not only the fencible regiments, but of many upon the establishment, had, he contended, been given to members of both houfes of parliament, "for the difgraceful purpofe of patronage and corruption." Many of the officers were ftated by the general to be grofsly ignorant of their duty.

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