state, that he still considered it as an injurious measure. If not for that, the whole shipping trading to the colonies would, in a year or two, be in the hands of this country. Not more than one sixth of the manufactures exported from this country was sent to Spanish America.

Lord Temple defended the American intercourse bill from the statement of the right hon. gent., who had gone so much out of his way to repeat his former opinion upon that measure. He should be happy to meet that hon. gent. on the subject, and was confident he could prove that the measure was highly beneficial to the colonies. The only difficulty that had arisen respecting it, was, that the colonies did not think it went far enough, and expected more than his majesty's ministers would or could concede.

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present administration for not having assisted the continent, he would hardly have abstained from making a single exertion to co-operate with our allies; or to prevent the French from carrying their troops from the Coast to the Vistula... Nothing had been done, with the exception of that enormous subsidy of £80,000 to Prussia, for which his majesty's ministers had even thought necessary to apologise. Fifteen or twenty thousand men had been sent on distant foreign service, and by that means the home defence had been much weakened. The volunteers also, that right arm of the public force, had been withered under the right hon. gent's superiptendance; and with respect to the Training bill, which was to bear down all before it, from the day that that bill had passed, nothing had been done, but making out the lists and Mr. Wilberforce was happy that this ques- apportionments, though a whole twelvetion had been brought under consideration month had elapsed. For all this deduction before the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition from the home defence, we might be consobill, because the distress complained of in the led, if the body of the force detached petition could not be imputed to that measure. abroad had been sent on objects of real imHe bad long regretted the extraordinary in-portance; but here the right hon. gent. was crease of capital employed in procuring colonial produce; but certainly should not object to any just consideration for the distresses complained of.-The petition was then referred to a select committee.

equally unfortunate.

At that moment,

20,000 men, the flower of the British army, were locked up in Sicily, remote from every thing that it was the interest of the country to endeavour to acquire. The conduct of [MUTINY BILL.] Mr. Hobhouse brought his majesty's ministers, with regard to South up the report of the committee on the America, had been equally vacillating, and mutiny bill. A desultory conversation en- equally unwise; not a step had been taken sued on the various clauses, in which Mr. by them till the negotiation at Paris had terBastard, the Secretary at War, Mr. Wind-minated. The noble lord animadverted ham, colonel Wood, Mr. Yorke, Mr. Canning, and sir John Doyle participated. All the clauses were eventually agreed to.-On the Speaker's inquiry, whether any amendments were proposed to be made in the body of the bill,

Lord Castlereagh rose. He considered the system of the right hon. secretary for the war department as too complicated to effect its own purpose. In the papers on the table was a case which satisfied his own mind that that system was wholly inadequate to maintain the necessary present force, and was calculated to involve the country in future hazard, unless some modification of it, such as that which it was his intention to propose, should be adopted by parliament. He contended, that since the defence of the country had been entrusted to the right hon. gent., it had been materially deteriorated. Indeed, the right hon. gent. seemed to admit that the home defence, was inadequate to its object; for otherwise, after having blamed the predecessors of the

with severity on the expedition under colo nel Craufurd, of whose destination, he bes lieved ministers themselves had no clear conception. With regard to the modification which he meant to propose, it was clear that the right hon. gent. could not allege that his measure had been adequate to the immediate necessities of the country; and if not so, it would be much less adequate to the waste which his system contained within itself; a waste, doubling the usual casualties of the army. The modifications he proposed would not, however, prevent the continuation of the right hon. gent's experi ment; it went merely to allow those recruits who wished to do so, to enlist for life. instead of a limited period, thus counteract ing the dangerous effects of the existing system. The documents on the table proved, that up to the first of January last, the right hon. gent's plan had not produced more than was formerly produced by the ordinary recruiting. Since that period, he was happy to find, that the nuinber raised was in

creasing, but this was owing to circumstances applicable to any system, and above all, to the notice given to officers of second battalions, that unless a certain number of men were raised within a limited period, those battalions would be reduced. He compared the right hon. gent's system with the Additional Defence act, and having argued at considerable length, in deprecation of the one, and in defence of the other, concluded by moving, as a proviso to that clause of the bill which related to the administration of oaths to recruits, that if any recruit should declare before a magistrate his intention of enlisting, but not for a limited time, on receiving such bounty as his majesty should think proper to offer, it should be lawful for the magistrate to take his oath for such extended service.

ertions. The noble lord complained, that his (Mr W's) bill had not done what it ne ver professed to do, namely, in seven months to cause an immense increase in the army. A measure intended to produce a régular, permanent, and increasing supply, was in-t capable of making a great and sudden access sion. He combated the comparison which the noble lord had instituted, between the present military system and the defence bill of the last administration, and contended, in contradiction to the noble lord, that the superiority was greatly on the side of the former. He shewed, from a comparison of the returns, that the produce of the regular recruiting, under the former system, was to the present only in the proportion of 214 men a week to 509. The desertions were under the former system; in the last six months of the year 1805, as 1 to 157; in the last six months of 1806, the proportion was as 1 to 268. The improvement in both these great points continued to increase to the present hour; and in proportion as the new measures began to be better understood, their operation would be more extensive, Their influence was founded on the fixed principles of human nature. It was not by affording the present means of debauchery that he sought to fill the army, but by hold

desirable that the minds of the people should be fixed; and, therefore, the amendment of the noble lord was to be deprecated, as going to undermine and unsettle the root they had already taken.

Mr. Secretary Windham said, he was glad to find that the noble lord, though not uniformly, had allowed that his plan had succeeded. The fact was, that the recruiting had increased, and the desertions had diminished. The general force of the country had been augmented, and as to the home defence, unless the enemy were to meet with greater successes than those of which we were at present apprised, it would be some time before any tremendous danger could be apprehended. The noble lord hading out prospective rewards, to which it was been perfectly safe in his observations on the expedition under colonel Craufurd, because he knew that it was unfit at present to divulge the object of that expedition. "But," says the noble lord, why not harass the enemy in some other place?" Would not this reduce the home defence of which the noble lord was so tenacious? As to activity, an injudicious and imprudent activity was more dangerous than indolence; for in military subjects he could not agree with the French proverb, which said, in the idiom of that language, "It is better to do nothings than nothing." The noble lord cried out for expeditions. What sort of a year. precedents of expeditions had the adminis- Colonel Shipley, from his experience in tration, of which the noble lord had formed his own regiment, assured the house that rew a part, afforded? Had not the noble lord,cruits were obtained in greater numbers and by sending out his expeditions, contrived to of better quality; not the debauched out drown a great many men in the English chan-casts of the manufacturing towns, but the nel, and to wreck a great many others on the enemy's coasts? As to the diminution in the energy of the volunteers, their zeal and activity had been called forth by the danger of the country; should the country again be in danger, he had no doubt that that zeal and activity would again be displayed, but at present there was no motive for their ex

Mr. Rose stated, that calculating the ex pense of recruiting parties, coupled with the bounty of 181. it made every man cost the country 381. by the time they joined. Calculating the increased expense of Chelsea, the expense was not less than 651. a man. The expense of Chelsea, on the present system, would amount, in time of peace, to between 700,000l. and 1,000,000l.

sons of the yeomanry, sent by their fathers to devote a part of their youth to the promo➡ tion of the glory of their country, in a war which was maintained for the preservation of the rights of mankind.

Colonel Barry bore testimony to the same satisfactory operation of the new measures with respect to his own regiment.

Sir James Pulteney repeated his former | sertions. He was sure, that however cold arguments against discharging men in the calculation might anticipate the possibility middle of a war, Great mischief would of the return of a large number of men at arise from that principle in the colonies, and the expiration of their periods, leaving our with all our naval superiority, it would be colonial service in a circumstance of great found extremely difficult to transport the exigency, there would always be found in men backwards and forwards, as often as it the bosom of British soldiers a spirit which would be necessary; he thought it unfair to would never permit them to return to their institute a comparison between the ordinary homes while the service of their country rerecruiting now, and what it was while the quired their service abroad. He cited the Additional Force act subsisted. It would instance of a Scotch regiment under Marquis appear, on examination, that as great a pro- Cornwallis, in India, which, though its peportion of recruits deserted now as under riod of service had expired, volunteered for the former system. an expedition then fitting out, with the exception of two men, who afterwards came back, and begged to be received, but whom the regiment, with a becoming esprit de corps, refused to receive. He also cited the instance of the new regiments raised for service, limited in point of space as well as of time, that volunteered to accompany sir Ralph Abercrombie in his expedition to Egypt, and argued for unlimited service both in time and space, in order to have their offers accepted. He saw all this, and felt and marked it as a proof of national honour, which would never admit a British soldier to avail himself of the expiration of his period of service, in order to retire, when his country should be in want of his arm, but on the contrary would prompt him to renew his engagement and to persevere till the danger was dissipated. Having set out with the intention to be brief, and having received frequent hints from gentlemen to that effect he would now sit down; for, though he had something more to say, he thought he could not leave the house under a better impression than what he had just said was calculated to produce.

Sir John Doyle rose, amidst a very general call for the question. If he had not been warned to be brief by the lateness of the hour, he should not be so stupid as not to take the hint gentlemen were so kind as to give him. (a laugh). He was against the amendment, as it went to mix limited and unlimited service. The very objection the gentlemen opposite urged formerly against his right hon. friend's plan was, that itbwould have this effect; and yet they now brought forward as an amendment a principle which would have the same effect permanently, and in a much greater degree. His right hon. friend's plan had been stigmatized as visionary, theoretic, and quixotic. Its theory was, that by accomodating the service to the feelings and principles of human nature, more men would be obtained, and of a better quality. The theory of the noble lord was, that by making the situation of the soldier worse, and binding him to it for life, he would enter into it more readily, and remain in it more contented. The regiment he had the honour to command had been twice filled up so as to exceed its compliment under the present plan, though it Mr. Perceval thanked the hon. general had at one time sent 250 men, and at ano- for his statement. Though not intended for ther 200 to the first battalion. There was that purpose, it fully corroborated many of a physical as well as a moral improvement in the predictions made by himself and his the quality of the recruits. (Here there friends respecting the consequences of the was a general coughing, which was stopped military plan introduced by the right hon. by a cry of order!) The hon. bart. said, he secretary. Frequently had he adverted to was happy to find that the coughing did not the inconveniencies and difficulties that must proceed from any indisposition in the health arise from that plan to the colonial service, of the house, though it might from an in- from the discharge of men in time of war, disposition to hear him (a laugh). The &c.; but it would seem that men now measure produced 500 men a week since Ja- crowded so thick to fill up the ranks, that Auary, which was in the proportion of all these inconveniences and difficulties 26,000 a year. If this measure was vision- would vanish before the magic operation of aryande quixotic, he wished we had more the new system. Yet he could not help of such quixotism..t The physical superioris wishing that the effects of this astonishing ty of the recruits now retained was evinced bill might be compared with those not onby the small proportion rejected; their moly of the recruiting, but also of the parish tal superiority by the reduced number of de- bill. It would then be seen (and he could

which his orders pointed out, he would be brought to a court-martial, to have his conduct cleared; or otherwise, that he would have to relate his story to " ungrateful mas"ters."

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Friday, March 13:

prove it even from the papers on the table) that the two months, namely February and March, of the year 1805, exceeded the returns of the two favourite months, set forth as so productive, under the influence of the new system. Even in the last stage of its Mr. Perceval again rose to explain, and existence, the parish bill produced 1265 declared, that he was likewise misunderstood men, a greater number than was now obtain by the hon. gent. who spoke last.-The ed from the full vigour of this new plan. As house then divided on the amendment. For to the volunteers, that system was acknow-it 60. Against it 179. Majority against it ledged to be at an end; for the danger of 119. The bill was then ordered to be eninvasion was said to be over, and that alone grossed.-The second reading of the Roman kept them together. It would therefore ap- Catholics' Army Service bill was deferred pear, even from the confession of the right till Tuesday next, after which the house adhon. gent. that those "depositories of pa- journed. "nic" only came forward in the hour of danger; that when danger shewed itself, then it is they flock to their standards. The hon. and learned gent. concluded by adverting to the expedition in which a gallant colonel (Craufurd) had been engaged, who so frequently detained the attention of the house by his observations upon military affairs. He trusted, that to whatever part of the globe he was destined, he carried with him the countenance of ministers. He hoped that his labours would be crowned with success, and that he would not have to report his triumphs to ungrateful masters (hear! hear!). That if he should be fortunate enough to secure for his country as great a conquest as the Cape of Good Hope, he would be at least entitled to the gratitude of this house, or be allowed to wear his hard-earned laurels, without obloquy and reproach (hear! hear!) It was an awful prospect for the country, it was an awful lesson for the naval and military gentlemen of the house, to reflect, that they were to earn their professional character and fame, by their service within these walls. (Loud cries of hear! hear !)

Mr. Windham begged to ask the learned gent. if he wished to insinuate that the hon. colonel (Craufurd) to whom he had alluded, had obtained his present appointment in consequence of any services he was supposed to have rendered government in that house?

Mr. Perceval disclaimed any such insinuation, and observed, that he must have been wholly misunderstood by the right hon. gent. Mr. Fawkes begged to be allowed to make a single observation. He did not pretend to know what was the destination of the hon. colonel so strangely alluded to; but whatever might be that destination, he trusted that should that honourable officer disregard his instructions, and divert to any other purpose the force entrusted to him, but that

[SCOTCH JUDICATURE BILL.] Lord Grenville moved the order of the day for the se cond reading of the Scotch Judicature bill. As on former occasions he had entered with some minuteness of detail into the nature of the circumstances which called for that regulation, and into the mode of carrying it into effect, he should not now trouble their lordships with a repetition of what must be so present to their recollection; but content himself with moving, that the bill be now read a second time.

The Duke of Montrose had several objections to certain provisions of the bill, but he should not enter into a statement of them at present, as they would come more regularly before the house in another stage of the question.

The Marquis of Abercorn . as by no means aware of the extent of the innovations which the bill seemed to have in contemplation, otherwise he would have entered his protest against it sooner. In many respects, more particularly in the creation of new places dependent upon the crown, it went to infringe not only the spirit, but the letter of the act of union.

The Earl of Lauderdale differed wholly from the noble marquis, and pledged himself, whenever their lordships thought proper to enter upon the question, not only to convince the house, but even that noble lord, that in no instance whatever did the measure proposed go to violate the spirit, or infringe the act of union; and that it did not provide for the creation of more places or offices than existed at that period, and subsequent to the time of the union between the two countries.-The bill was then read a second time, and ordered to be committed on Monday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

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Friday, March 13. [MINUTES.] Sir John Frederick obtained leave to bring in a bill for building a bridge over the Thames, at Vauxhall, and for making roads adjacent thereto.-The names of the defaulters on the Dublin Election ballot were read over, and lord Bruce was ordered to be taken into the custody of the serjeant at arms.-Lord Howick observed, that, when on the preceding evening he proposed that the second reading of the Roman Catholic Army and Navy Service bill should take place on Tuesday next, he was not aware of certain circumstances which would render it inconvenient to many members to attend on that day he therefore moved, that the second reading should stand for Thursday; which was ordered accordingly. -Mr. Gooch, from the select committee appointed to try and determine the merits of the petition of Wm. Morland, esq., complaining of an undue election and return for the borough of Taunton, informed the house, that the said committee have determined, that John Hammet, esq. and Alex. Baring, esq., were duly elected; and also, that the said committee have determined, that the petition of the said Wm. Morland, esq., did appear to the said committee to be frivolous and vexatious.-On the motion of the secretary at war, the Mutiny bill was read a third time, and passed.-Lord Henry Petty brought in two bills. The one was for charging 12,000,000l., part of the loan of the present year on the war taxes, and for continuing a certain portion of the war taxes beyond the war, with a view to that object; the other was for the further regulation of the sinking fund, according to the new financial plan. Both the bills were read a first time.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Monday, March 16. [SCOTCH JUDICATURE BILL.] On the order of the day being read for going into a committee on the Scotch judicature bill,

The Duke of Montrose expressed himself decidedly hostile to the measure in its present shape. He conceived the proposed division of the court of session into three chambers, with a superior .court of appeal, to be an infraction of the articles of union, inasmuch as the court of session would thus no longer be the supreme court of Scotland, but would be rendered inferior to another court, namely, the court of appeal. The

division into three chambers might also be productive of serious inconveniences; a case, for instance, decided by a majority of tén judges to four, might, by the operation of this bill, be again decided upon by four judges in one of these three chambers, and these four might happen to be the minority on the former decision. The chamber of review would, he thought, also defeat the object sought to be attained, namely, the more speedy administration of justice, by again narrowing the channel of that administration; and he had little doubt that this new court of appeal, if established, would soon be as much overloaded with appeals as that house was at present. He thought it would be much more advisable to divide the court of session into two chambers, consisting of eight judges, and seven, from each of which three judges might be detached into the outer house, to do the business there in a manner more complete than that now practised. The judges might take it in rotation every year to go into the outer house. If this mode was adopted, and the courts were empowered to give possession in consequence of judgment, and to order the payment of money, or to take good security in case of an appeal, and also, if in that house costs were given on appeals to the extent of the expence actually incurred, together with damages for any injury sustained, there would be no necessity for an intermediate court of appeal, and appeals to that house would become much less frequent. With respect to the introduction of trial by jury, he thought it an experiment replete with difficulty, and one that ought not to be tried without the most mature consideration, at least, the experiment ought to be confined, in the first instance, to the city of Edinburgh. In order, therefore, that there might be still further time given for the consideration of this very important part of the subject, he moved an instruction to the committee to divide the bill into two or more bills, in order to keep that part of the bill relating to the judicature, and that respecting trial by jury, perfectly distinct.-This motion was not put, the first question being on the committal of the bill.

Lord Redesdale considered the present measure as a breach of the act of union, as, if it was carried into effect, the court of ses sion would, in fact, no longer exist.

The Earl of Selkirk contended that it was perfectly consistent with the act of union to make regulations for the better administration of justice in Scotland, and this measure