ing the Morning Chronicle, asserted, that urged against that very act of Parliament SIR FRANCIS BURDETT had resolved never which authorized, and which still authoragain to enter the Houses of Parliament, izes, the King to make a will. Sir Francis and never again appear at a Public dinner. Burdett does not presume to say, that the The Public have already seen the proof of Prince is going to die; he knows that the the falsehood of these assertions; and, they Prince may live a great number of years; will not be long before they will see the but, he also knows, that he may die in a proof of as gross falsehood in the above week's or a day's time; and, anxious, as paragraph. Easy as it was to suppose, he has always shewn himself to be, to se that these hirelings would endeavour to at- cure the Crown in the enjoyment of all its tribute a bad motive to any act of this most just rights and prerogatives, he wishes, in formidable enemy of the whole tribe of case of that event, to provide against a rehirelings, it really does strike one with currence of those interregnums which we astonishment that any body should be at have before seen take place. It is, besides, once so foolish and so wicked as the author time that the people should begin to have of this paragraph appears to be.- -He their eyes fixed upon her who is to be their sets out with saying, that it would be to future Sovereign; it is time, that she should abuse common sense to offer a hint at the be introduced to her future people; and, motives of Sir Francis; and, the moment therefore, it is proper that a proposition of he has said that, he begins distinctly to as- this sort should be made and discussed.sert what those motives are; and, having We are told by this writer that the subject thus resolved to abuse common sense, he is of too delicate a nature to admit of pretells us that the motives are, to disturb the mature discussion. But, in what way is it country, to agitate the minds of men, and too delicate! I see nothing of great deli, to introduce confusion and disunion! cacy in it any more than in any other proAnd does the reader believe, that these ef- vision respecting a Regency. If, indeed, fects are to be produced by a timely and the Princess Charlotte were not the uns dispassionate discussion of the question of doubted heiress to the Throne; if there who ought to be Regent, in the event of were any other persons to dispute the title the Prince's death? Does he believe, that with her; if there were any apprehension the country will be disturbed, and that con- of rivals of any sort; then, indeed, to agifusion and disunion will arise, from a pro- tate the question, though very necessary position to settle the Regency of the King- even in that case, might tend to create disdom in the person of the undoubted heiress union; but, being, as she undoubtedly is, to the Throne, especially when it is consi- the only person in whose behalf, after her dered, that, as it is said, the young Princess Father, any claim can be raised to the posis endowed with extraordinary powers of session of the Throne, it is impossible, I mind for her age! Does the reader disco- think, for any one to believe, that disunion ver symptoms of disloyalty in a proposition can be created in the country by the in like this?The hireling talks of " in- tended motion.- -Yet has this hireling "flammatory speeches," and "endeavours the audacity to charge Sir Francis with a to disseminate base poison;" and by" treacherous design," and to call upon what means? Why, truly, by proposing, that the heiress to the throne shall come into the Regency as a matter of course, without any delays and debates, in case of her Father's death. It is very hard to see how such a proposition should give rise to ❝inflammatory speeches," or how it should serve as the vehicle of " base poison.”. This writer says that the measure is unnecessary, and that it is not within the calculation of human probability that it should become necessary. So, because we cannot calculate, with any degree of precision, how long the Prince will live, we are to make no provisions for the carrying on of the government in case of his death. The same argument might be urged against any man's making a will, and surely might have been those "who have more authority than him"self, to stifle it by manly resistance." Who it is that he means here as being pos sessed of such authority, I cannot tell; but I ain quite sure, that no such authority will be found to exist; and, indeed, it would be curious to hear any one in authority daring enough to attempt to stifle such a design. Treacherous, indeed! and towards whom? Towards the Crown it cannot be treacherous, because its necessary tendency is to inculcate in the minds of the people the doctrine of lineal succession. Towards the ministers and their master, it cannot be Treacherous, because it is openly avowed. It can, indeed, be Treacherous towards nobody; and it can be considered as hostile towards none but that oligarchy, whose in not say, carefully avoided expressing, at this time, any opinion at all upon the subject; but I trust the reader will be ready to acknowledge, that it was necessary to say thus much in answer to the malignant paragraph above quoted. terest it is to keep the Crown and all the members of the Royal Family as much as possible dependent upon its will. What do the people of England want but to see the succession to regal power clearly marked out? We all remember, the loud complaints, which were made only about two years ago against the ministers for having, GERMAN TROOPS.- The reader will as it was alleged, carried on the govern- bear in mind, that after the Battle of Salament for a considerable length of time, manca, an order was issued from the Horse without any one to exercise the functions of Guards, stating, that, in consequence of the Royalty. And, ought not provision, there- German Legion having frequently distinfore, to be made to prevent the recurrence guished itself during the war in the Peninof that reprobated state of things? Ought sula, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent not provision to be made for the preventing had been pleased to direct, that the Officers of a repetition of those scenes, which took of the corps of that Legion should HAVE place at the establishment of the present PERMANENT RANK IN THE ENGRegency? And ought an endeavour to ef- LISH ARMY.-—I observed at the time fect such a provision to be represented as of issuing the order, that this, if I underthe spreading of venom injurious to the stood the meaning of the words, was not "wholesome body of the state?"- -I do lawful, and that, to give effect to the Order, that the discussion of this proposi- an act of Parliament must be passed. tion may not give rise to the agilation of Since the new Parliament assembled, a dismatters of great delicacy, deeply interest-cussion has taken place upon this subject, ing to the Royal Parents of the Lady whose rights it is the principal object of the intended motion to secure. But, while I do not see the necessity of this; while I do not see its necessity, I am far from saying, and I am far from thinking, that such agitation would be, or could be, at all" injurious "to the wholesome body of the state;" seeing that, as it appears to me, the agitation of these matters, and that, too, with unlimited freedom, must take place sooner or later. The agitation of these matters has found its way into print. Out of print it cannot be put; the thing must make its appearance before the world; and the sooner it does so the better; because most of the parties, concerned in the matters in question, are now living; there are now the means of clearing up every thing to the satisfaction of the people and of the world; and in a few years, those means may no longer exist. Therefore, if even this consequence were to follow from the intended motion of Sir Francis Burdett, the motion would, in my opinion, be only rendered thereby the more proper. These observations I should have considered premature, had it not been for the publication of the article, out of which they have arisen. The subject is one of extreme importance, and, in all its stages of discussion, I shall not fail, I hope, to give to it all the attention which it merits, as well on account of the person who has brought it forward as on that of the parties more immediately interested in it. I should, therefore, have in consequence of a motion of Lord Folke- it departed from the act of Settlement in this respect, because, it sanctioned the putting of Foreigners into places of military trust in this kingdom. I must observe here, too, that this was a bill of indemnity; for the King, or rather his ministers, had actually raised the corps and appointed the officers before the act was passed, and by the act the Parliament indemnified them for having done so! However, the act was passed, and it became legal for the King to give military trust to Foreigners as Officers in these particular corps; but, that the act extended no farther, that it did not authorize the King to give them military trust any where else than in these corps, is quite clear from the preamble of the bill itself, which states, that the King shall be authorized to give Foreigners places of military trust in these corps, BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE AND MANNERS OF THE MEN OF WHOM THE CORPS ARE TO BE COMPOSED. -Under the sanction of this act, however, or, at least, since this act was passed, Foreign Officers have been put upon the General staff; they have had commands given them in the districts of England; they have commanded at reviews in England; they have had the command in England in some cases, where even regiments of militia have been under them; and, lastly, they have held commissions in English regiments; though it would seem strange that they should have been thus employed, seeing, that, at any rate, they are not likely to understand the language and manners of our men better than our native officers! -Still, however, there was one clause in the act of 1804, which it seemed impossible to get over; and that was, that the act should cease to be in force at the end of the war. Of course, when peace came, the commissions of these officers must all cease. -This I was well aware of, and, therefore, I said that the Order from the Horse Guards, if I understood it rightly, was illegal. Not so, the hireling writers of the London press. They applauded the Order, and the Courier news-paper in particular abused before-hand any one that should find fault with it, asserting, that any one who did, must be a friend of Buonaparte.--We now come to the debate in question, the whole of which, as published in the Courier news-paper of the 11th inst. I have inserted below, and every word of which I beg the reader to attend to, as being of the utmost importance to our liberties and our personal safety; aye, of much greater importance to those liberties than are the events in Spain and Portugal, and, perhaps, even those in Russia and Poland.Lord FOLKESTONE, as will be seen in the account of the debate, complained that the German officers were now to have permanent rank, and that they were shouldering out our own officers and taking the command of our own armies. Lord PALMERSTON, the Secretary at War, did not, it seems, think it proper to support the Order from the War-office, and explained it to mean, not that the German officers were to have real rank after the end of this war, as Lord Folkestone supposed, and as I supposed, and as Mr. Canning said he supposed, and as every body else supposed; but that the Order meant merely, that those officers should, after the war, have their names printed in the army list according to the rank which they had borne before the end of the war.-But, why was it not so expressed in the Order? Why did not the Order say this? The Order said no such thing; and, indeed, as far as words have a definite meaning, the Order said just the contrary. It said, "that those officers, now serving with TEMPORARY rank in the several regiments of that "corps, shall have PERMANENT rank in the British army." What could this be understood to mean other than that these officers were to come in and take their turn in all promotion in our army, and to remain in it with the same security for the duration of their commissions as that possessed by our own officers?-Lord Palmerston says, however, that this permanence related merely to the insertion of their names in the army list, after the war. If this had been the case, the Order was perfect nonsense; for, as the reader may see, if he looks back into the army lists, their names have, for a long time past, been inserted in that list. But, what a gross absurdity will that list present; what an egregious piece of folly, if it should contain the names of these officers after the war? After the war, they will, as we have seen, be no longer officers in our service; their commissions die with the war; like many others, peace would be death to their occupation and their hopes; their corps would be disbanded, and they themselves stript of all authority here, and put back into their former state of officers in the army of the Elector of Hanover.— With what propriety, then, would their names appear in the English army list; in the list of an army to which they would no more belong than they would to the army to transmit to me. BATTLE OF TALAVERA. German Legion lost, on an ave- lost Killed.Wound.Total 22 103 125 18 BATTLE ON THE DAY BEFORE. German Legion--Six battalions of One English Battalion (2d Bat- BATTLE OF BUSACO. Germans-4 Battalions and 2 de tachments English-1 Battalion 45th Regt. 91 109 33 123 156 27 137 164 10 25 31 BATTLE OF BARROSA. or wounded. 49 59 113 138 102 153 3 20 23 8 38 46 5 19 24 of the American States? It appears to me" few instances."His Lordship then to be something too absurd to be thought made the following comparative statement, possible, that this scheme should have been a copy of which he has done me the honour in contemplation. No: something more solid was, I am fully convinced, intended; and, it having been discovered, that the boon could not be granted without an act of Parliament, it became prudent to give the matter up. If the Order had gone into effect agreeably to the plain English of it, it is very clear that it would have operated greatly to the injury of the officers of our own army. For instance, an English colonel might have had twenty or thirty of these German colonels put, at once over his head, if there were that number whose commissions were of a date prior to his, which would have been extremely injurious to him, and, upon the supposition of his having purchased his commission, not less unjust than injurious; seeing that, when he purchased, he could not have had in contemplation the introduction of these -The matter, or any other foreigners.however, has now been explained, and with that explanation I should have been satisfied for the present, if other matters, connected with it, had not been introduced. While the order was, in the debate, explained not to mean that the Germans were to have rank permanently in our army, great pains were taken to inculcate the opinion, that such a favour would not have The been too great for their merits. praises bestowed upon them were unbounded; one member appears to have been understood as giving them the preference to English officers; and Lord Palmerston, rather indiscreetly, as it turned out, called upon Lord Folkestone to look at the GAZETTES, if he wished to know whether the Germans had, or had not, DISTINGUISHED themselves during the war. Lord Folkestone accepted the challenge, which was repeated by General Stewart. His Lordship said, "With respect to the "desire, or rather challenge, of the gal"lant Officer (Stewart) to look to the ga"zelles, in order to ascertain the achieve"ments of the German Legion, he (Lord F.) had taken occasion to review those 66 gazettes, because a similar desire had "been the night before expressed to him by others, and he was happy to find that in glory, as it appeared from the losses, the British army was not inferior, com"pared with those highly-applauded, those particularly-honoured Foreigners. For what was the comparison? Why, let "the House and the Country judge from a 86 on 20 175 195 45 296 341 16 127 143 44 322 366 148 1057 1205 ċers; that it was understood as giving them › a permanent situation in our army, is very clear, and, indeed, General Stewart de fended the Order in that sense of it. Lord Palmerston said, indeed, that the German Officers did not so understand it; and, in proof of the truth of his assertion, he said he had a letter to that effect from some 148 1067 1215 German Baron, who is a General; but,' upon a question being put to Lord Palmer ston by Lord Folkestorie, the former con14 106 121 fessed that the said letter was written after the latter had given notiec of his motion 0 10 10 Upon this occasion the old doctrines; that is to say, the doctrines of the last wris› ter, were advanced in defence of employing these foreigners in England, and Mr. · Ponsonby, the leader of the whigs, bega ged to be understood jas not participating in the "vulgar prejudices" which were said to exist against employing these foreigners in England. Sir H. Mildmay is also reported as having disclaimed such prejudices. They were well answered by Lord Milton, who said, that he must protest against any foreigner whatever, be ing appointed to commands in England, and that he could make no exception in favour of Hanoverians, for that they were not, and never had been subjects of the King of England.It was urged by Lord Palmerston and others, in defence of the employing of foreign troops, that Buonaparte did the same. This was urged once before, and it was once before observed in answer, that it ought to be shown, to make it a case in point, that Buonaparté employed foreign troops in France; that he gave them commissions in French regiments; that he gave them command of military districts in France; no part of which has ever been, and, in my opinion, ever can be, shown. That is, for each one English Battalion, more than the five German Battalions put together. Now, reader, English reader, when you have looked well at this, look once more at the ORDER in question, which said that, "In consideration of the King's German Legion having so frequently distinguished "themselves against the enemy, during the campaign, but particularly at the battle of Salamanca, His Royal Highness the "Prince Regent, acting in the name and behalf of His Majesty, has been "pleased to order that those Officers now "serving with temporary rank in the se"veral regiments of that corps, shall have permanent rank in the British army; "from the dates of their respective Com"missions." Here, then, are we all in a situation to judge. "Upon this review," added Lord Folkestone," the Country may decide which description of force encountered more danger, suffered more "loss, gained more glory, or was entitled "to more praise. To some persons he knew it would be absurd to appeal. From those who paid more regard to "their own will than to law or reason; "from those who could originate an order apparently designed, and since it was issued he would undertake to say notori❝ously conceived, to involve a direct vio-Besides, must we do a thing, or think lation of law, he could not expect due a thing right to be done, because he does "attention. But he looked to the consi-the like? What would be said of me if I "deration of the Gentlemen of that House, were to insist that we ought to abolish tithes, who must feel, that whatever difference for instance, because tithes have been abo"of opinion might prevail upon general lished in France? Nay, to come closer to questions, the explanation of this extra- the point, what was said, and what was ordinary order was calculated to do attempted to be done, to the editor of the "good."A great deal. of good, cer- Independent Whig, because he found fault tainly, and for which the country is in- with our Government for not treating our debted to Lord Folkestone, who by this one soldiers in the same manner that Buonaact, has, in my opinion, rendered greater parté treated his soldiers? This, suppo service to the country than would be ren- sing the cases to be perfectly similar, is no dered by the driving of the French out of justification at all of the measure. But Spain. That the Order was generally nothing can, in my opinion, be more dis understood as putting the Germans upon similar than the two cases, and the use of exactly the same footing as our own offi-the argument only tends to shew how des ડ 46 |