if those whofe duty it is to provide for the defence of the country, for the mechanical part of it I fhould fay, had acted as they thould have done, they would have erected fortreffes in Kent, Suffex, Effex, Dorfeithire, Devonshire, Yorkshire, and the county in which Newcastle is placed. A competent garrifon in each of those forts would have occupied a confiderable portion of the enemy's troops, and if they could not have eventually maintained them, would have effected at leaft that which, in all military operations, is of the greateft confequence, namely, creating a great lofs of time to the attacking army. There is another measure in which I think there has been much fhameful and unneceffary profufion, I mean the article of barracks, in the construction of which two millions have been already expended, and to complete which nearly an equal expence must be incurred. The Government could have provided better for the accommodation and comfort of the foldier, at one-fixth the expence, had they reforted to the practice of hutting, fuch as was cuftomary during the American war. In fome places where they had determined on building barracks, they have abandoned the plan, and left them half conftructed, because they at length perceived that the fituations were too expofed, and that they were likely, in cafe of invafion, to prove rather an accommodation to the enemy than to our own troops. When I fpeak in approbation of that degree of difcipline which the volunteers have obtained, let it not be thought that I undervalue the exertions of an armed peafantry. I know from experience how formidable the attacks of an armed population, poffefling great local information, acquainted with every hedge, rivulet, and green lane, may be. When I commanded the brigade of guards in America, I was on more than one occafion compelled by the men in white fhirts (the militia of that country, or, as we would call them, the armed peafantry), and fometimes by an inferior number of them, to a precipitate, and not unfrequently a difficult retreat, and there was not a man under my command who would not have rather encountered the regulars of the American army, than that particular description of force. As to the ufe that may be made of bodies of men of that character and organi zation, I fully agree with an hon. Officer in another Houfe, with whom I have not the honour of being acquainted, and who, I hear with regret, is not employed. There is a noble friend of mine, I mean Lord Moira, to whom Government has at last thought proper to give a command; but how have they they treated that noble and excellent commander? Why, although he is invefted with the chief command of the northern part of the island, they have not thought proper to give him any of the privileges that ufually accompany it. They have been lavish where they thould have been parfimonious, and have been parfimonious where they thould have been liberal. When they had an opportunity of manifefling their fenfe of that noble Lord's fervices and great military talents, they neglected it, and conferred the command of two vacant regiments on junior officers. The only compenfation my noble Friend has had, during more than twenty years, for all his labours in fupporting the interefts and maintaining the honour of his country, has been a colonel's half pay, a paltry two hundred pounds a year. When he commanded the army at Southampton, he was reftricted, from what motives I cannot tell, as much in point of patronage as he is at prefent; and when he refigned that command, he was not less than ten thousand pounds out of pocket by the honour that had been conferred on him. Minifters may fay, and I know it has been faid, that there was no neceflity for the noble Lord to involve himfelf in fuch expence; but to this I will aufwer, that the liberal nature of my noble Friend could not bear to fee the poor emigrants, by whom he was furrounded, ftarving on the miferable allowance that they drew from Government; that his expences were incurred in feeding and Tupporting them, and that, therefore, it was not to be wondered at if his fortune, great as it was, was too little for his generous and compaffionate mind. I do not wish to trespass longer on your Lordthips' attention. I am aware that on a queftion of this delicate nature it may be urged, that confiderable confidence should be placed in the exertions and intentions of the Executive Government. I truft, my Lords, I am as little difpofed as any of you to entertain an improper distrust of those who are honoured with his Majefty's confidence; but I will not, through the rafhness of confidence, endanger the fafety of the country: I fay, my Lords, as the great and venerable Earl of Chatham did formerly in this Honfe: Confidence is a plant of flow growth in an aged bofom.' I shall not occupy any more of your Lordships' time, but move, That a Committee be appointed to provide for the defence of the country, and for inquiring into the preparations that have been made to meet the menaced danger. Lord. Hawkesbury-My Lords, I fhall occupy but a very fmall portion of your time, which, conceive, would be VOL. II. 1804-33 D much much better employed in difcuffing and perfecting that bill which forms part of our national defence, and the adjourned confideration of which is fixed for this day. If the noble Lord had urged one fingle reafon to justify the appointment of fuch a Committee as he has moved for, I thould have felt it my duty to ftate at large, to your Lordships, my rea fons for oppofing his motion, and the grounds upon which I have formed my conviction, that a parliamentary Committee is not the most practicable mode of obtaining those refults the noble Earl feems to aim at. The military defence of the country has been entrusted by a competent power to the care of the commander in chief; and if he be guilty of misconduct, he is as liable to cenfure and removal as any one of his Majefty's Minifters. He is refponfible for his conduct, and may be called to account for it. I am perfuaded the illuftrious perfon who fills that office does and will always avail himfelf of the advice and experience of those whom he fuppofes moft competent to give him information, and I conceive it would neither be prudent nor decorous in Parliament to interfere, except upon very extraordinary and unexpected circumftances indeed. I muft, therefore, my I ords, give my negative to the motion of the noble Earl, for the reafons I have before stated, that he has made out no cafe, and that he has affigned no good grounds for the appointment of fuch a Committee. The question was then put on Lord Suffolk's motion, and negatived without a divifion. VOLUNTEER REGULATIONS BILL. The Houfe having refolved itfelf into a committee to confider further of the above bill, feveral verbal amendments were agreed to. A difcuffion took place on the claufe which requires commanding officers to give to volunteers changing their refidence, or removing from one corps to another, certificates. An amendment was propofed by Lord Grenville, specifying the diftance, upon which a divifion took place. Contents 7Not contents 35-Majority against the amend ment 28. On the claufe which fubjects non-commiffioned officers. to military law, it was propofed by Lord Grenville to omit the word "farriers," as thofe perfons receive pay only when on the ground. On a divifion the contents were, 11 Not contents, 42.-Majority againft the amendment, 31. Lord. Lord Grenville objected ftrongly to the practice adopted by corps in general, of forming military committees; and thought it neceffary to propofe a claufe for removing fuch practice. After a few words from Lords Hawkesbury, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Winchelfea, Lord Hobart, and the Duke of Montrofe, it was underftood that fuch a claufe would be propofed on a future day in the Committee. Lord Walfingham was then directed to report progress, and the Houfe adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TUESDAY, APRIL 10. The bill for the improvement of the town and docks of Liverpool was read a fecond time, and ordered to be committed. Sir John Anderson brought up the report of the bill for the improvement of Temple-Bar and Snow-hill. The amendments were agreed to, and the bill ordered to be en-. groffed. Mr. Dickens, from the office of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, prefented at the bar copies of all orders from his Majefty's Exchequer in Ireland, affecting the half-pay of officers on the Irish establishment refident in Great Britain fince the union.-Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed. Adm. Berkeley feeing the Secretary at War in his place, availed himfelf of the opportunity to move for certain papers relative to the Barrack department. He trusted there would be no objection made to his motion, and the confequent production of the papers; but if there fhould, he for the prefent thould not prefs the fubje&t on the Houfe, farther than to give notice of his intention to make a motion to that effect on a future day. The Secretary at War declared he had every wish to put the House and the hon. Admiral in poffeffion of the fulleft and moft fatisfactory information on the fubject to which his motions referred, or on any other connected with the dif bursement of the public money, and fubmitted to the hon. Admiral the propriety of an alteration in the form of his original motions, in order to avoid crowding the table of the Houfe with an unneceffary accumulation of papers. After fome further converfation the following motions were put and agreed to: 3D 2 14. A ift. A copy of the contract entered into between Mr T. Neale and the Barrack Mafter General, for building the barracks at Chichester in the county of Suffex. 2d. An account of the different periods at which the feveral barracks were to have been completed, and of the penalties provided in cafe the fame fhould not be completed in the time and on the terms agreed on. 3d. A copy of the form and mode of iffuing the certificate by the proper officer of the barrack department.. 4th. An account of the number of barracks in the pof feffion of Government at the conclufion of the peace of Amiens, and of the number of men and horfes they could contain. Mr. I. H. Browne prefented the report of the Committee appointted under an act of Parliament for conducting the inland navigation between the Eastern and Western Scas, from Inverness to Fort William in Scotland. The report was ordered to be printed, and taken into confideration on Friday fe'nnight. Mr. Corry poftponed his motion relative to the circulating coin in Ireland to Thursday. IRISH MILITIA. Mr. Secretary Yorke moved the order of the day for the committal of the Irish militia voluntary offer bill. On the question being put that the Speaker leave the chair, Mr. William Elliot claimed the indulgence of the Houfe, while he stated briefly his opinion of the measure before it. In whatever view he confidered it, he could not regard it but as an impolitic, imperfect, and inadequate meature. In point of policy, it appeared to him only calculated to remedy a defect which had arifen from the mifconduct of his Majesty's Minifters. He recollected, that at the clofe of the late war, an order had been iffued by the adjutant general, for difcarding not embodying the Irifh militia, which order had been fanctioned by his Majefty's crown officers in Ireland. A short time after, however, it was deemed expedient to renew the militia eftablifhment in that country, and the meafure for that purpofe allowed a bounty of but two guinas per man, which proving infufficient, another act had been paffed about a year, fince, enlarging the bounty to four guineas, and at that time the bounty for general fervice was but five guineas. He and his friends had on that occafion oppofed the meafure, on the ground that |