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St. John's; 2,1001. for Cape Breton; 2,130. for Newfoundland; 4,438/. for the Bahama Islands; 2,800l. for Bermudas; 680/. for Dominica; 6,000l. for the civil

establishment of New South Wales; 2,400l. for the trustees of the Bripurposes of enlarging the same. tish Museum, and 8,000l. for the

CHAT

ON

N the 15th day of February, the earl of Darnley made a motion in the house of lords, for the repeal of the “additional force bill," of the last year, which had, he said, after all the magnificent and gigantic promises made for it, been diminutive in performance, that, in one county where 1097 men were to have been raised by it, only fourteen were obtained, and the same proportion nearly held in most parts of the country. The inefficiency of the parish officers, for the discharge of the duty imposed upon them by this bill, could not be more strongly manifested, nor the inadequacy of individual influence better exemplified, than by a reference to the cinque ports, which raised no more than a single man, notwithstanding all the exertions which the lord warden (Mr. Pitt,) must be supposed to have made. His lordship took occasion to remark upon the singularity of now beholding at the head of his council the man, (lord Sidmouth,) whom the present minister, last year, branded as

the child and champion of incapacity itself, and yet whose military measures were strength and vigour, compared to the inefficiency of that which he now proposed to have repealed.

Lord Camden considered the speech of the noble lord as rather an attack upon his majesty's ministers, than the subject under consideration. He was sorry that the merits of the bill were so much confounded with the character of the administration, which, though far from being hostile to a ministry on a more extended and comprehensive scale, could not refuse their services when called upon by their sovereign, in a difficult and trying crisis. The bill indeed had not produced, as yet, all the effects expected, but further time was required to get it into more full operation. It could not now 'be relinquished without again recurring to the high and ruinous bounties introduced by the army of reserve act. It should be considered, that we had already 800,000 men in arms, and that, though the

present

former bill; but it would require great ingenuity to give a satisfactory reason why these should coalesce, who had pointedly differed upon every topic, and upon every principie. which had come under their consideration, since their political existence.

Earl Spencer said, that when this bill was proposed to the house, he stated his reasons for thinking that instead of assisting, it would be injurious to the service, and as all those reasons since proved to be too true, he must now cordially concur in the motion for its repeal. As a bill for raising men, it had totally failed, which no man in the kingdom had a better opportunity of knowing, than the right honourable gen tleman (Mr. Pitt), who was the father of it, in the district over which he presided; and as a bill for raising money, it was in the highest degree to be reprobated, as partial, unequal, and falling with an unexampled degree of weight and severity on the landed proprietors of the country. He was anxious to know how the new coalition would conform themselves on this occasion, and why some noble lords, who so trenuously opposed this last year, had since changed their opinion of it. For his own part, however he might have differed with others, for any length of time, ou one or more of the first and most important political questions, he felt himself justified, and even acting with the highest degree of consistency, if he cordially coincided and acted with them on a question, or questions, in which they all formed the same unanimous and decided opinion. It would be ridiculous to suppose that, because men had acted on contrary opinions, they should never

agree nor act together, when they happened to think exactly alike. Every parliamentary character was bound to co-operate with those, who, in his mind, were most forward in promoting the interests of his country, and should always act upon that principle; but when he should be found to abandon mea. sures which he had once supported, and to join with those who differed with him on those very measures, then he should be contented to be charged with inconsistency, or be said to have formed a coalition, or any other term which might be chosen to designate a dereliction of principle.

Lord Sidmouth rose, not, he said, to gratify the curiosity of the noble lord, but to discharge his pub. lic duty. If he had abandoned his opinions, on any public measure, the anticipated charge of the noble earl might apply; but as he had ever regulated his public conduct by the dictates of his conscience, he owed it to the approving sense of conscious integrity, to explain his sentiments with regard to the present measure. While sitting in another house, he was not unused to the charges of incapacity, inefficacy, and other illiberal epithets of the same nature, which had been applied with more profusion than decency, to him and the measures he proposed. Such as his talents were, they were always applied honestly and assiduously for the prosperity and security of his country, and to any charge of his neglecting to provide for the security of the state, he would reply by referring to monumental records of his hav ing, within six months after the commencement of the war, placed 800,000 men in arms, and in a pro

gressive

gressive state of discipline. As to the bill in question, the opinion he had expressed of its inefficiency, remained yet unaltered; but notwithstanding that, and though he had no sanguine hopes of its success, he thought no step ought to be taken to repeal it, before it could be ascertained whether it would be successful or not, or before some other more efficient measure was ready to be substituted for it. Thinking therefore that this was not the moment to repeal it, he would give his negative to the motion.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence heartily coincided with many of the sentiments of the noble lord who spoke last, and highly complimented the spirit of the volunteers, amongst whom he had the honour of being himself an officer. As to the present administration, he thought there was a great inconsistency in it. A great part of the present had charged the last with being imbecile, and incapable of carrying on the government well. The government was changed, and all their successors did, in confirmation of their mighty promises, was to produce this measure, which answered no one purpose for which it was intended. The late administration was charged with having neglected the volunteer force, but so far was it from being benefited by the attempts of a great volunteer colonel (Mr. Pitt) to remedy all defects, that, compared with what it had been, it was absolutely gone by; and if the attention of parlia ment was not speedily directed to it, it would shortly disappear. It was therefore the more requisite to attend to the military part of our defence, the regular army. His

royal highness then contended, that dividing it into its integral parts such as militia, cavalry, British an foreign, and artillery, it was in, th numbers of all of them alarming! deficient, but less so in the artillery than the other branches. Referring to the estimates, he stated that o 26,196 men, which the cavalry should consist of, it was 8000 de ficient: the infantry were 1865 les than in the last year; the deaths ir the infantry, since August, were up. wards of 2000, and the recruits only so much beyond that as made the increase no more than 110. Upon the whole, the total deficit in the infantry was not less than 86,363, a number which would constitute an immense army. Such was our military state at the moment that the ministers brought us into a new war, which they commenced with tarnishing the annals of our naval glory, by making the first efforts of our fleet consist of an act of piracy!They talked of disposable force, when they knew they had not any; though engaged with an enemy who possessed immense forces and resources, from the mouth of the Elbe to Malta. He asked how, with so glaring a deficiency, ministers could dare to send a single man out of the country? Looking, as he did, on this bill as the principal cause of that deficiency, he should certainly vote for its immediate repeal.

Lord Mulgrave said he knew but of three ways of raising a large military force: first, by conscription, which was contrary to the genius and habits of this free country.The second was by ballot, allowing a substitution for personal service; but this was resorted to, and already produced all the effect shat could be expected from it, in the army of re