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VOLUNTEER SYSTEM.

The excellent speech of MR. WHITBREAD, delivered in the House of Commons, on the 8th instant, upon the motion of MR. SECRETARY YORKE for leave to bring in a bill to consolidate the Volunteer Laws, is so well calculated to produce great and extensive good effect, that it has been thought proper to insert the following accurate report of it, in the Register, without loss of time. Mr. Whitbread is himself the commander of a Volunteer Corps; he appears to have been a careful observer of the nature and

effects of the system, and the result of his observations, conveyed with great force and perspicuity, cannot fail to be generally interesting and useful, while it may also serve as an answer to those viprous calumnies, which the ministerial writers are daily pouring forth against all those, who take the liberty to dissent from their employers.

Sir; if it had not been for the allusion made by my hon. friend (Mr. Sheridan) I should not, perhaps, have said any thing at present upon the subject now before the House, but I think it necessary to say a few words on the subject of the different corps chusing their own officers, as stated by the noble lord and the right hon. gent., particularly on that which has been stated by the right hon. gent, who has informed the House of the advice he should give to his Majesty, in the event of any military corps persisting in the choice of its own officers. And, Sir, I am the more desirous of adverting to the sentiments of the right hon. gent. as they came from himself, than to the explanation of the noble lord. The right hon. gent has said, that if any corps should persist in the right of recommending to his Majesty its officers to command them, that he should

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advise his Majesty to dismiss that corps; that he should advise his Majesty, in the first instance, not to listen to such recommendation; and, in the second, to dismiss such corps if they should persist in such recommendation This, Sir, I apprehend, is much too general. The terms of the corps which I have the honour to command were, that they should serve under officers specifically named by themselves; not only so, but also such as they may recommend hereafter to his Majesty, through the medium of the lord lieutenant of the county. Their services were accepted after they sent in these terms, nor were the terms in the least degree qualified when the service of this corps was accepted. If they had been told that they should not have this choice or recommendation, not only of their present commander but also of their other officers, or that they should not be allowed to continue to have that recommendation, I really apprehend, Sir, that no such corps would have been formed at all. Now I should like to ask the right hon. gent., whether he would think himself consistent if he attempted to take away from that corps the right of recommendation at all? As to the distinction between election and recommendation, I can hardly perceive it: they are in substance the same; for neither means any more, than to submit to the lord lieutenant the propriety of his transmitting to the Secretary of State, the names of the persons whom they wished to be commanded by; but, of course, the crown, acting on the advice of its ministers, would have the right of judging whether such persons were fit to be commanders or Upon this subject there can be no doubt. Now, in the corps to which I have the honour to belong, the terms of their services are such, that if any vacancy were to happen for an officer, I should apply to the corps to say who they would wish to fill it: undoubtedly I should feel myself bound to do so. Why, then, what is this but an election? And where is the evil of all this? The lord lieutenant has a right to say, I will not forward this recommendation to the Se

not.

cretary of State, for I do not think the person recommended is fit for the office, or if the lord lieutenant should forward it, the Secretary of State may say that it shall not take place, and advise his Majesty to that effect; then it will come back again to chuse another, and they must go on with their recommendations until they have hit upon somebody to whom neither the lord lieutenant nor the Secretary of State has any objection; so that no one can ever have a commission in any volunteer corps, without the approbation of the crown; and this is in itself, as it appears to me, desirable, for the men ought to know the character of the person under whom they are to serve. But the right hon. gent. adverted to volunteer corps under establishments, like those of the last war, or if not those of the last war, of establishments different from those under which the present volunteer corps were formed. They have hitherto, all enjoyed the power if not of electing, of recommending their officers: now I wish to know, whether this power was given to the volunteer corps by law, or by connivance of the crown? If by law, it must belong to them generally; if by connivance, I should like to ask the right hon. gent. whether he has found any mischief in the practice? If he has not, why should he now attempt to exclude the volunteers from that which they have hitherto enjoyed without any inconvenience to the public, and take from them that, for which they have much value, and without which, as I apprehend, not only would the volunteers become less numerous, but also less efficient, according to their number, than they now are. Where, I should like to ask, is the difference between the first choice and the second? In the first instance, the lot falls upon those generally who are the most known, who are the most remarkable for talents, or for some qualities or other that distinguish them, either for high station, or something that gives them a preference to others, and for which there are, generally, very good reasons for recommending them to his Majesty; and, is it reasonable to suppose, that the same motives which actuate the corps in the first instance, will not also influence them in the second, and that they will not continue to fill up vacancies, as they may happen in their corps, with the same propriety as they made the first choice? I do contend, that if the right hon. gent. acts up to the spirit of what he has said to-night, be will find himself in an error, which will be fatal to the whole volunteering system of this country. This, Sir, is my firm opinion, and I think it my duty to say so at once, and to

entreat ministers to be cautious in what they do upon this occasion. For my own part, had I offered my services as a private in any volunteer corps, I own I should be very anwilling to serve under any officer appointed by the Crown to command me without my own consent. The right hon. gent. has gone through the whole history of the volunteer service, in which I shall not follow the right hon. gent., but merely make a few ob servations on some points in the speech of the right hon. gent. to the House previous to his motion. He says, that ministers, finding they had no friends on the continent, it became us to look at home, and make the most of our internal strength, since we were at war. This system of volunteer service was resorted to, because we found ourselves at war without a friend on the continent to assist us. I should have thought it would have become ministers to look about them and to see, whether we should have any friend on the continent to assist us, before we entered into war; this would have been the course pursued by a wise politician; but our sagacious ministers thought proper to adopt a contrary system, they got first into the war, and afterwards inquired how it could be supported; they then adopted the system of a volunteer service. Now, I am ready to confess, that the system of volunteer service is not the best, either for economy, or for the purpose of making military efforts, such as might have been made under a different system of policy, and at the same time bringing forth all the energy of the people of England. But while I say this, I trust that neither the right hon. gent, or any other, will endeavour to bring upon me the odium of a desire to raise a clamour" against the volunteer system. Nothing would be more unjust than such an imputation; for there is not, I believe, a man in the country, who has exerted himself more than I have done, in support of the volunteer system, when I found it was to be resorted to, as the only means of our general defence: but I am still of opinion, that it is not the best system that could have been resorted to, for the general defence of the country in time of need. And here, Sir, I cannot help accusing ministers of wavering from day to day, in their system? proving thereby, that they had got into a path in which they had met with great difficulties and perplexities, and out of which, I am afraid they are not yet extricated. They first attempted to produce a General Defence Act, out of which arose the volunteer system all over the country. At that time they found, that 450,000 men had inrolled their names for the service

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of their country. Here I must beg to be understood, as not, in the slightest degree, wishing to depreciate those men, on the contrary, no one has a higher opinion of the goodness of their motives and principles, in thus rushing forward in defence of their country; but yet I cannot help thinking, that it is of essential importance to look back upon this matter, to examine into the question of what we had really to trust to, in this mass of 450,000 men; to see what was this great body, who are now the grand mass of the army of England. I am persuaded, that a great portion of this mass is such as could not be depended upon for effective strength. They were too indiscriminately accepted by government; persons of all ages and of all descriptions, without regard to infirmity or any unfitness, among whom were many who were not able to march, were received as volunteers. There certainly was a great enthusiasm, and all descriptions rushed forward as volunteers; this, undoubtedly, did honour to the zeal of the country, but it must not be disguised at the same time, that, among those who came forward, there were many who were quite incompetent to the carrying of arms: in some instances not above one-half of a whole district were actually fit for effective service. Then came the order of government to reduce their number to that of six times the amount of the militia. This sudden measure had a serious and alarming effect; it damped the ardour of the country so much, that it became a matter of considerable difficulty to bring men back again, and to persuade them to inrol their names when they found that their friends, with whom they had associated, were not to be allowed to go with them into the field. Now, after all this, and time being given us by the enemy, for he did not appear on our coast, although we all expected him, an explanation came forth from the ministers, the spirit of the people revived, and appeared again in its wonted lustre. Now, what was the intention of ministers at that time? Did they or did they not then intend to exempt the volunteers from the army of reserve? No, they did not; and so Lieformed the volunteers then raising, and which I have now the honour to command; and, to their immortal honour, every man entered as a volunteer, although he thought he would have been liable to the service of the army of reserve. I told them all, that there was not one of them who would have any exemptions by entering as a volunteer, yet every one of them entered, notwithstanding ha apprehension. But what was the effect of this? they were afterwards exem, teď both

from the militia and the army of reserve. And what was the further effect? Why, that neither the militia nor army of reserve could ever be properly filled up; it was utterly impossible that they should, for all the best men are serv ing already in the volunteers, as well as some of the most unfit; and I know it to be a fact, that there are not men who could be drawn to serve in the militia to the number intended to be raised of that body; the same may also be said with regard to the army of reserve. How then is the recruiting of the army to go on? I have no difficulty in saying, that, in the present state of things, it is impossible. Those who would have constituted the army of reserve and militia, are now filling up the ranks of the volunteers. Such being the effect of the volunteer system; and so, the best course now to be taken is, that to make the volunteer system as beneficial, and at the same time as palatable to the public as possible, and to bring them to as a good a state of discipline as is applicable to a force of that nature. Ministers then had recourse to the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor General, in order to get over another difficulty which they felt themselves under, and these learned gentlemen gave it as their opinion, that the volunteers were exempted from the army of reserve; after which came the ques tion whether a volunteer could resign or not? Sir, it always was my opinion, that a volunteer could resign whenever he pleased, and return his arms, if he had any (it was a long time before they could get any) but while a man remained in the corps there' were means of rendering him liable to pay fines for his non-attendance, and which fines were levied upon his goods if he had any. But here again the law stopt short, for if he had no goods, there was no way of imposing any other penalty on the vo lunteer, so that a man might walk out of the service when he pleased. But the right hon. gent. has, to my great surprise and joy declared, that if the Court of King'sBench had not decided the law to be that a volunteer could resign as it has done, her should have proposed to make the law so: now, I must confess that this struck me extremely, for it is to be remembered, that the right hon. geat. sent to all the lieutenants of the counties, who, in their turn again sent to all the magistrates, as the exposition of the law, the opinion of the two law officers of the crown, the Attorney and Solicitor General, and upon the strength of this, magistrates had acted all over the country, which opinion was, that a volunteer could not resign, and which opinion toned out no. to be law.

Without intending the least dis

bour for nothing but mere praise; men in middling circumstances cannot afford it. It is also worth while for ministers to remember, that the pay of these officers is only for 20 days, and now they are to be out 24 days; the additional 4 days ought to be paid for, or we shall find many persons remiss in their duty. I have taken the liberty of pointing out these things. I fear it will be found, that ministers have been getting from one error to another, and that they have now placed the country in a situation in which it has no choice, but must trust its main defence to the volunteer force; it, therefore, behoves them to render that system as little objectionable as possible. In my judgment, the augmentation of the militia has been carried on a little too much; and I am confirmed in this opinion by the conduct of ministers, by the enormous expense which has been occasioned in drawing men from the militia afterwards by bounty into the regular service, and also by the expense of raising the Army of Reserve, and at last being obliged to have recourse to the volunteer system, which is much more expensive than either. It is for the right hon. gentlemen, into whose hands his Majesty has thought proper to entrust the government of this nation at the present important moment, to consider the best means for providing for its general defence and safety it is for members of Parliament to speak their sentiments upon such means, and to shew the House the imperfection of such means, in order to bring them to the best state they are capable of. This is a liberty which I have taken to myself: it is not for me to point out what is better, it is my duty, as a member of Parliament, to shew to the House, what appears to me to be erroneous in the conduct of ministers, and which they ought now to rectify. I shall only add, that I trust the right hon. gent. will consider of allowing volunteers the practice of recommending their officers to the crown; will consider also of the ex pense of providing cloathing for the volunteers, and the pay to which I have alluded, and of the difficulty of procuring the attendance of officers who do not receive pay for the additional four days, now about to be proposed, without some allowance. Here, Sir, for the present, I shall leave the sub ject, recommending the whole of it to the most serious consideratich of his Majesty's government.

IRISH CATHOLICS.

SIR Permit me to request, that you will admit into your paper a remark or two

upon the correspondence between the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Earl of Fin gall, relative to the Catholics of that unhappy and distracted country.--Sure, there must be some mistake in the publi cation; for, how could so very accurate and learned a person as the Lord Chancellor, possibly write: "Irish Catholics have liberty of "conscience?" When he must very well know, that there are, at present, two striking cases in Ireland, which clearly prove, that the fact is otherwise. At this time the wills of the Earl of Beaulieu and of Lord Dunboyne are in litigation, on account of their being papists, and presuming to make those wills.This learned lord must likewise very well know, that the children of converts to the protestant religion dare not publicly profess the catholic religion, without incurring the severest penalties, by Queen Anne's Law, and other laws still in force. His law knowledge will likewise inform him, that, for soldiers or sailors to attend at mass makes them liable to great punishments, although they are, sometimes, allowed to attend mass without undergoing those punishments. other restrictions, his lordship must certainly mistake, if he says, that "the great por

From these and

tion of the Irish people are indifferent to "Catholic emancipation." They do, Sir, feel for their religion being proscribed; and, indeed, to suppose them not to feel, on this account, is to conclude, that they are most low and insen ible brutes, especially when it is considered, that they have before them the example of Scotland, which country, by its union with England, did not only make a full reservation of liberty of conscience, but took care to have the religion of the great body of the people (the presbyterian) made that of the state. As to the comparison of the Catholics with the Quakers (an inconsiderable sect sprung up but yesterday), I think that the making of it is no great compliment to the memory of our Edwards and Henries, or of those Bishops, who obtained Magna Charta from King John. I should be happy to see protestants and catholics unite as brethren, and surely this is a time that imperiously calls for such an union.--I am, Sir, &c. &c. CONCILIATOR.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-When we look round upon the apparent power which England now displays, and upon the vast resources on which she calculates, it behoves us to reflect how far they are likely to be so directed and applied,