After a long difcuffion of the raules of the farcity, they were found to be of fo complicated a nature, that it proved difficult to remote them. A bill was however brought in to prohibit the manufacture of ftarch from wheat and other grain; to lower the duties on its importation, to prevent the diftillg from it, and all obftructions to its free transportation through every part of the kingdom.

It appeared, in the mean time, from the information laid before the Committee of inquiry into the high price of corn, that, with an exception to wheat, the harvest had been ery productive: thus by mixing four of different grains good bread might be made; a leafure the more inli'pentible, that from a variety of taules no fufficient fupplies of corn fonid be expected from abroad; a borty of twenty fhillings was howver agreed to for every quarter imported from the Mediterranean, until the importation amounted to three hundred thousand; a bounty of fifteen fillings a quarter upon that from America, till it amounted to five hundred thoufand; and five fillings a quarter on Indian corn, till it amounted alfo to five hundred thousand.

The hardships incident to labourers, tradesmen, and manufacturers, were, on the twenty-leventh of Notember, brought before the confideration of the houfe by Mr. Whitbread, who obferved, that the highest extent of wages to hufbandmet was fixable by the magiftrate, but not the loweft. On the ninth December he brought in a bill to authorife juftices of peace to regulate the price of labour at every quarter feffion. Herein he was fupported by Mr. Fox, Mr. Jekyll, Mr. Honeywood, and other memVOL. XXXVIII.

bers; and oppofed by Mr. Burdon, Mr. Buxton, Mr. Vanfittart, and Mr. Pitt. The latter was of opinion, that in a matter of this kind the operation of general principles ought to be attended to, preferably to uncertain and precarious remedies. It was dangerous to interfere, by regulations, in the intercoufe between individuals, engaged in the various bufineffefs of fociety. Many of the diftrefles complained of originated from the abufes that had crept into the execution of the laws relating to the poor, which required much amendment. They did not fufficiently difcriminate between the unfortunate and the idle and diffipated. All application for relief fhould be founded upon unavoidable misfortune, and, if poffible, the relief fhould confift of employment, which would not only benefit the individual applying, but the community itfelf, by an increafe of la bour and induftry to the common stock. He recommended the inftitution of friendly focieties, to relieve poor families proportionably to the number of their children, and the loan of fmall fums, payable in two or three years. After a laborious difcuffion of this subject Mr. Whitbread's motion was negatived, as well as that which had been made for the benefit of the actual labouters, or cultivators of the foil, by Mr. Lechmere.

The opinion of the public did not coincide with that of miniftry. The wages of labourers and of workmen in all fituations ought, it was univerfally affirmed, to bear a due proportion to the price of the necefiaries of life. This alone would prevent diftrefs, and ultimately diminith the number of poor to be provided for according to law. In order to alleviate the wants of the indigent [E]

claffes,

claffes, numbers of the minifterial people agreed to diminish, by onethird, the ufe of wheaten bread in their families; a bill alfo was brought in, by fir John Sinclair, to encourage the cultivation of wafte lands, purfuant to the recommendation of the board of agriculture, established for that purpofe, and the more effectually to obviate the evil of fcarcity in future.

After thefe confultations, in what manner to provide for the immediate exigences of the country, the next object that occurred in parliament was the maintenance of the fleets and armies, requifite for the continuance of the war. To this end, lord Arden moved, on the fourth of November, that one hundred and ten thousand feamen, including eighteen thoufand marines, fhould be voted for the fea-fervice of the year 1796, and Mr. Wyndham moved alfo, that two hundred and feven thousand men fhould be employed

for the fervice at land.

General Macleod took this occafion to cenfure heavily the conduct of adminiftration, in paffing by officers of experience, and promoting to rank and command youths and others who were not properly qualified for military employments. General Tarleton difapproved, at the fame time, the statement of expences laid before the house, as highly exhorbitant: from the year 1792 to the clofe of 1794, they had increased, he faid, from one to eleven millions. Minifters were particularly reprehended, by the former, for their inadvertence in not furnishing the troops, fent to the West Indies, with a fufficient quantity of medical flores, and for maintaining at prefent, without neceffity, no less than a thousand ftaff-officers. The numbers to which

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the fencible cavalry amounted, he attributed to the minifterial plan of keeping the people in fubjection and dread; the regular cavalry, he faid, was equal to every juft and proper purpose, without loading the public with fo much additional expence.

In answer to these, and other ftrictures, Mr. Wyndham stated, that men of diftinction and oppulence had been preferred to commands, in their respective counties, as more able to procure levies than others. The expences accompanying the fencible cavalry were confiderably lefs than thofe of the regulars, as neither bounties nor half-pay were allowed them. An ample supply of medicines had been dispatched to the Weft Indies, but had unhappily fallen into the enemy's hands; an accident which was remedied with all poflible diligence. The great expences of the war had neceffarily been augmented, proportionably to the greatnefs of the national exertions; and the number of staff-officers did not exceed that which was wanted for the duly conducting of the bufinefs of army and military affairs. To an obfervation made by general Smith, that the quantity of fubal terns had been out of all proportion in fome regiments, Mr. Wyndham replied, that the men being raised in the heat of the campaign, it had been found impracticable to provide a timely supply "in the place of those that had been killed off."

This particular expreffion was taken up with violent acrimony both in and out of parliament: it was reprefented as denoting no fenfe of feeling, in the fpeaker, for the calamities of war, and the lofs of fo many individuals fallen in battle. This and fome other expreffions,

uttered

attered in the warmth of debate, and produced probably by hurry and inadvertence, and not from a defect of humanity, however, drew upon this gentleman a heavy load of cenfure, and rendered him extremely unpopular.

His itatements, on this occafion, I were warmly controverted by thofe in anfwer to whom he had made them. Members of parliament had, it was afferted, been placed at the head of the new raised regiments: this was creating a patronage of the moft corrupt and unwarrantable kind, as many of the officers thus promoted were fhamefully ignorant of their duty, and yet were allowed confcionable profits. A variety of other objections was brought forward by the oppofition, and repied to by miniftry; after which, the refolutions relating to the fleet and army, moved by lord Arden and Mr. Wyndham, were put and carried.

Other ftri&tures were then paffed pon the conduct of miniftry, in cher particulars: that concerning the erection of barracks underwent the most remarkable cenfure. The expenfive and unconftitutional natare of this measure was afferted by Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Courtney, and chers; and its propriety no lefs hemently fupported by Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wyndham, and Mr. Dundas. the courfe of this difcuffion, Mr. Whitbread moved to omit, in the fimate of neceffary expences, the as appropriated to the conftruc on of barracks: but the motion ras negatived, by feventy-four to venty-eight.

This bufinefs was not refumed the eight of April following, when general Smith moved for a

committee to inquire into the expenditure arifing from the barracks, and upon what authority the erection was founded: he affirmed, that one million four hundred thoufand pounds had been employed upon them. The patronage accruing from them to miniftry was the appointment of no less than fifty-fix officers for their management, with confiderable falaries. The number of barracks already constructed were fufficient for the reception of thirtyfour thousand men, which were more than a peace-establishment by fourteen thoufand. Did not fuch a meafure tend to impress the clearest and ftrongest conviction upon the public, that miniftry were determined, in the words of one of their principal members, to exert a vigour beyond the law?

Mr. Wyndham admitted the expences of the barracks to be great, but the importance of the object in view required them: their intent was to exonerate publicans, and people of that defcription, from the heavy charges to which they had fo long and fo unreasonably been liable, and of which they had so often and fo juftly complained. The neceffity of procuring public-houses for the reception of foldiers on their march occafioned fundry inconveniencies, which thefe barracks were calcu lated to remove: they would afford fhelter, and a temporary stay, when neceflary, without producing trouble and expence to innkeepers, and others, who kept places of accom modation on the roads. In the event of a peace, they need not contain any larger numbers than would be requifite for the ufual establishment; but while the war lafted, the indifpenbfile neceffity of holding men in readiness, in fuch

[E 2]

critical

critical times as the prefent, and the leffer expence at which they were kept together, with much more comfort and convenience to themselves, and utility to the public, than by the former method of quartering them, were, he prefumed, fufficient arguments in favour of barracks; nor would he omit the propriety of removing foldiers from the danger of being contaminated by the feditious difpofition of the lower claffes.

It was obferved, in anfwer, by Mr. Taylor, that a total feparation of the foldiery from the commonalty, were it practicable, would obliterate that union of character which rendered military men citizens as well as foldiers, and endeared both claffes to each other: when confcioufly united in one common intereft, their reciprocal attachment would produce the moft fignal advantages, through the fpirit and confidence they would act with, and the continual proofs of good will that would mutually arife between them.

Mr. Fox argued, with uncommon ftrength, against the fyftem of barracks, as tending directly to inculcate the blindeft and most abject obedience in the foldiery. He explicitly afferted, that unconditional obedience was neither the duty of an English citizen, or an English foldier: the conftitution of England refted on the mixture of citizens and foldiers in all the habits and occurrences of life; to part them from each other, in the manner propofed, by lodging the troops in barracks, would be to divide them into diftinct people, who, from various caufes, would quickly become inimical to each other. True it was, that barracks had been erected in England before this time, but they were few and inconfiderable; not

3

conftructed, as now, with the manifeft intention of fecluding the whole army from the nation, and cutting off, as much as in minifters lay, all intercourse between foldiers and citizens. To diffolve a con. nection, fo indifpenfible in a land of liberty for its prefervation, was a deed wholly unjuftifiable, and fhewed, without the neceffity of any farther argument, the real designs in agi ation.

Thele affertions were, by Mr. Pitt, reprefented as totally unfounded. The fyftem of barracks was neither new nor unconftitutional; it was of long ftanding, and only of late enlarged, on the mere principle of placing the troops upon a more convenient and useful footing. Parliament had given it a decided fanction; it had been carried on with all due diligence and economy, and could produce nothing that did not appear beneficial: foldiers would be better quartered, at a fmaller expence, and kept in more order without confining them from fociety in any cafes but thofe of confufion and tumult.

Mr. W. Smith, and Mr. Courtenay, fpoke in very adverse terms of the cafe in queftion: the former reprobated the fyftem of barracks, as incompatible with the genius and conftitution of the people of this country, and fit only to prove that was defpotically governed. The latter in a fuain of humour and pleafantry, expofed all thofe circumftances relating to the business, which could render it odious under the appearance of ridicule.

Mr. Grey cenfured the fyftem with great feverity. He demanded whether an addition of thirty-four thoufand men was to be made to the peace eftablishment in future, as the old barracks would contain

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