who were the objects of praise, had performed any gallant achievement, but because "the circumstances of the times requir"ed such a stimulus to action," and because, in case of future invasions, the greatest merit of the army to consist in their not having merited an ignominious death t The Colonel might have remarked, as to the instance of the French, that it was the lolunteers, and not the Regulars, amongst whom the defection began. It was with the former, and not with the latter, that the disloyal, base, bloody, insolent, and Regular Colocowardly Citizen Fayette, so often eulogiz. ed by Mr. Sheridan, hunted the Royal Family from place to place, led them prisoners to their capital, and finally effected their ruin together with that of the monarchy. posterity might have the benefit of example." -Mr. SHERIDAN, in exercising his privilege of replying, charged Colonel Craufard, whom he called the "Regular Colonel," with having said, that the volunteers ought not now to be thanked, because the Regulars were not thanked for their conduct during the mutiny, and drew a conclusion, that the greatest merit, which the Colonel appeared to be able to attribute to bis favourite sort of troops, consisted in their not baving merited an ignominious death. This having been pretty correctly stated by the newspaper publishers, who have taken care to leave out the explanation of Colonel Craufurd, it is a duty incumbent upon me, who heard the debate, to convey, to my readers at least, a true report of the matter. --Mr. SHERIDAN, as I have above ob served, did, in his opening speech, urge, as one reason why Volunteer Corps were preferable to regular regiments, that the latter, as in the case of the French regular army, were more likely to be corrupted, and to turn their arms against the government that employed them. An insinuation so injurious to the British army (for when I say army, I mean the regulars only) could not possibly be passed over in silence by any officer of that army, particularly by the honourable Colonel, who, therefore, called the recollection of the House to the conduct of the army during the mutiny in the fleet, when the Jacobins, taking advantage of the time, sent a circular letter to every regi. ment, on one and the same day, informing the soldiers of each regiment respectively, that those of every other regiment had already made a successful resistance to their officers. This temptation to mutiny, the Colonel observed, was resisted by every corps in the service; the whole army remained faithful and obedient; to that fide lity and that obedience, the kingdom owed its preservation from anarchy, devastation, and blood; and, therefore, against this army no suspicions ought to be thrown out, no imputation of being liable to be corrupted, no charge of resembling any army by whom a sovereign had been deserted and betrayed. This is the substance of what Colonel Craufurd stated; and, I leave the reader to say. whether he herein asked for a vote of thanks to the regular regiments for their conduct during the mutiny in the feet, and whether he appeared to regard -As to the fatal effects, which this vote of thanks will produce, I think they must be evident to every man. It does, as Mr. Windham observed, give a decided sanction to a system of Volunteer Corps, and such a sanction must inevitably nullify every provision that has been made, or that can, while this system exists, be made for the purpose of obtaining an efficient force of a magnitude equal to the exigencies of the case. To say that Volunteer Corps are the "natural force of the country," and that such a force is most "congenial to the constitution," is mere prattle. What is meant by" the natural force of a country?" Is it natural for pampered and effeminate persons to take the field, while the robust and hardy are left at home in the barns or the workshops? And, where, I should like to know, has Mr. SHERIDAN found a congeniality between a system of Volunteer Corps, and a constitution, which according to the very title of the last Defence Bill, fully authorizes his Majesty to compel every one of his subjects to come forth and fight in defence of the realm ?This vote of thanks destroys all thoughts of raising any sort of force except Volunteer Corps; Volunteer Corps in the technical sense of the word. Well, then, what will these corps consist of, what are the intentions and what will be the conduct of the persons of whom they are composed, and what will be their use, in case they could be called into the field?-The corps will consist chiefly of merchants, master manufacturers and mechanics, and their sons, in some cases their clerks. The farmers and their sons are already, for the most part, swallowed up in yeomanry cavalry; but, then, there are the master mechanics and their sons, together with the innumerable host of heroic shopkeepers, to which latter body Mr. SHERIDAN seems particularly anxious to make his court. There is no one of these corps but will have a fancy uniform, a suit of which will not cost, at the least farthing, less than seven or eight pounds. This, were there no other obstacle, would operate as an ef fectual bar to the enrollment of journeymen and labourers, whose exclusion is, indeed, one of the principal objects with those who have formed themselves into Volunteer Corps, but on whose arms, I am fully con vinced, this country must finally rely for its defence. The bones and sinews of the country being thus, in a great degree, ex cluded, the same cause next extends itself to the youth and the bealth of the country. The classification of the General Defence Bill, defective as it was, would have brought forward, in the first requisition, no man above thirty years of age; but, the Volunteer Corps system admits men of all ages from seventeen to fifty-five inclusive. In a former paper, written upon this subject, I stared my objections founded on the disparity of temper, habits, and prospects of men, some of whom would be thirty and others only seventeen years of age, some married and others single, some having houses and trading establishments, and others having none. That this objection was by no means futile bas, I believe, been allowed by every Member of Parliament; and, with how much greater force does it apply to a body of men including all ages up to fifty-five-The classification of the bill did, too, exclude persons having more than one child; but, the system now adopted makes no such exclusion: the more a man is loaded with cares, the more his heart leans towards home, the stronger and more numerous are the ligatures which bind him to a love of life, the more fit this system supposes him for chearfully marching on a distant and dangerous service! -But, are the persons composing the Volunteer Corps prepared so to march and so to adventure? Is it with any such intention that they have enrolled, or offered to euroll, themselves? Who that has observed the time of this enrollment, and that considers the propensities of the persons enrolled, will venture to answer these questions in the affirmative? The war has been declared nearly three months: the prospect of invasion was coeval with that declaration; yet not one of the 280,000 men, who are now said to have rushed forward for the defence of their country, ever dream of making such a movement, till a law was passed for enforc ing a general enrollment, and an immediate training of all men, with very few exceptions, under thirty years of age. Then, and not till then, did we perceive that patriotic spirit, with the praises of which Mr. SHERIDAN chooses to weedle the shop-keeping throng. Far be it from me to say, or to think, that none of the persons, who have enrolled themselves in Volunteer Corps, have so done from patriotic and gallant motives; far be it from me to affix such a stigma on my country as to suppose that 280,000 of her sons have assumed the name of Volunteers merely as a screen from the dangers of actual service; but, when I reflect on the propensities of the persons enrolled, and on the time of enrollment, I must bid adieu to my senses before I can believe, that any very considerable portion of them have taken the military habit with an intention of leaving their homes, and of venturing their lives in the field of battle. The motives of this species of volunteering are, 1. to keep out of low company. The merchant wishes to avoid the shopper, the shop-keeper to avoid the mechanic, and all of them to avoid the laboures and the servant; and, as the higher, or rather, the richer classes, can, by the means of regulations of expense, exclude those, with whom they dislike to associate, a subaltern aristocracy arises, an aristocracy of wealth, a loathsome ulcer that seldom makes its appearance till the body politic be already sinking under a complication of diseases. 2. To prevent journeymen, apprentices, labourers, and servants from being forced out to the drill. That the masters and their sons should step forward as volunteers, with no other view than that of saving their underlings from bearing the vexation and fatigue of drilling, would, indeed, be rather wonderful, if, by so doing, they did not keep the said underlings at work. The fact is, that, if a master, who does little more than look about him during the day, can, by going to drill himself, keep his apprentice, or his servant of any description, at home, his own time is very well employed. If he be a man, who works himself, drill is a relaxation when compared to labour of any sort, and, as the relaxation must be enjoyed either by his apprentice, his journeyman, his servant, or himself, it is by no means difficult to divine the party to whom his sense of justice will direct him to allot it.-3. Another motive for volunteering, is, not an eager desire to fight the French, but a desire of quite a contrary nature; and, the ministers may be well assured, that, for the great number of volunteers, who have already offered, they are considerably indebted to the notion, that volunteer-corps will never be marched out of their own districts, or, at quorst, never be pu: under martial law. Whether this latter be a false notion or not, I cannot pretend to say; for the law has been so often altered and amended, that, at last, nobody knows the meaning of it; but : this I do know, that, if it had been well un- to some persons, appear rather rude to ask on which I cannot help making one observation: either it was desirable to keep peace, or it was not; if it was, the ministers should have resigned their places to men, to whom Mr. Windham could not, or would not have imputed selfishness and pusillanimity; if it was not desirable to keep peace, then Mr. Windham is entitled to praise for having encouraged the enemy to pursue that line of conduct, by which it was finally broken. The position on which I am here observing, was explicitly stated, both by Mr. Addington and Mr. Sheridan; and, it does, I think, amount to an ample confession of that imbecility, of that want of political character, which Mr. Windham has always attributed to the ministers. What does it confess? why, that we owe the present war to the opinion which Buonaparté imbibed from the statements of Mr. Windham; and that, as the statements of the ministers were always in contradiction to those of Mr. Windham, that gentleman, though in a minority of twenty-six, had, as to the great question of peace or war, more influence than the ministry with their majority of six bundred- A 5th topic which I should have liked to dwell a little upon, was, that of peace. Mr. Sheridan, who as far as the opinions of the people are concerned, always endeavours to keep his dish even, having leant a little to the side of war, thought it necessary to bring himself up on that of peace. He approved the war-like attitude of the country, because it was the only one which could lead to peace; but, lest he should have gone rather too far on the peace side, he qualified his desire for that event, by declaring, that he himself would accuse, of high treason, any minister who should enter into negotiations for peace, while . . . ..While what, think you? While any part of an invading French army remained on British ground!!! Oh! valiant gentleman! If this be his projet, what will be his ultimatum? Ah! MK. SHERIDAN, Buonaparté will not believe you, I am afraid, so implicitly as he believed Mr. Windham. Low, cast-off English jests, though they set the stupid galleries in a roar, though they bring forth an eulogium from "the sitting part of Mr. Pitt," cut but a poor figure in translation. It is there that speeches find their true value, and accordingly, yours are seldom translated.—A 6th point, was the accusation brought against Mr. Windham for not having, during his administration, brought forward the measures of defence, which he now wishes to be adopted; and here I shall only remark, at present, that Mr. Sheridan and Lord Hawkesbury both declared, that the danger of the country, as to invasion, was greater in 1798, than it is at this moment; yet Mr. Sheridan, who now calls for perfect silence as to the conduct of ministers, because it is a crisis of so great peril, did, during 1799, during that time of greater peril, keep up a loud and incessant opposition, in which he was joined by all the Jacobins in the country. Lord Hawkesbury stated, that France had now more troops abroad than she had in 1798: she has, said he, "an army in Naples, another in Upper Italy, "another in Switzerland, another in the "North of Germany." There he stopped, or, to the other diversions of French force, he might have added, the army in Holland; which, though intended for the invasion of England, would have been cited with nearly as much propriety as the army which is employed in completing the conquest of our Sovereign's hereditary dominions. But there is much more to be said upon this topic an other time. A 7th point was, the question put to Mr. Sheridan, by Mr. Francis, relative to the Council of War, and also to the application of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Mr. Francis said, that he was glad to hear Mr. Sheridan call upon the House to join him in a cordial approbation and support of Ministers, because it must be thence concluded, that they had given him satisfaction on these two important subjects. Mr. Sheridan's reply was embarrassed and evasive. He said that, as to the Council of War, though he had supported and voted for the measure a few nights before, he had since heard from very high au thority, reasons which had changed his opi nion on the subject; and that, as to the application of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, though his respect and veneration for that illustrious personage were unalterable, yet, said he, "I am not to be told, that, unless the offer made by his "Royal Highness shall be treated in a man ner satisfactory to my honourable friend [Mr. Francis], I shall decline to support "His Majesty's government on this trying "occasion!" This was a sad limping retreat, and it fully confirmed what was be fore suspected, that his Royal Highness had, in the zeal of Mr. Sheridan, been supplanted by his more opulent rival, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I cannot say that I am sorry for this: his Royal Highness will no longer lie under the imputation of Mr. Sheridan's being what he has long affected to style himself, the Prince's Cabinet Counsel lor, an imputation on the effect of which it is not necessary to dwell. The treatment, which bis Royal Highness has received, ap pears to have excited astonishment amongst all those, who are not acquainted with the cause of it, and indignation amongst those, who are acquainted with that cause. Yet Mr. Sheridan, who is tremblingly alive to every word uttered against the ministry, who, upon the slightest insinuation against them, starts forth a volunteer, armed cap-àpie, can patiently put up with this outrage❤ ous insult upon the Heir Apparent to the throne. The manner, in which his Royal Highnesses has been refused, is the most insulting that could possibly have been adopted. No direct refusal; no reasons why the offer is not accepted; no apology of any : sort; nothing but neglect, the most insolent of all possible modes of expressing contempt. That Mr. Addington made some sort of answer to his Royal Highness there can be no doubt that answer might, too, be respectful enough; but, what does the nation and the world know of this? They are acquainted with nothing but the mortify. ing fact, that his Royal Highness made an earnest application to be employed in defence of his country and of the people who must one day be his subjec's, and that Mr. Addington and Lord Hawkesbury refused to permit him so to do. Thus stands the fact, in the eyes of the world; and, if it so remains, what will not the malice of that world say of His Royal Highness? The question universally asked is, what can be the REASON of this refusal? The answer varies according to the knowledge and dispositions of the person answering; but, it is easy to imagine the end to which such an inquiry must frequently lead; and 1 scruple not to assert, that the ministers, by this act, have done a mischief, to the family of their Royal Master, greater even than that which their administration has produced in Hanover. The 8th and last point, which it was my wish to investigate, was the charge preferred against Mr. Windham, of having endeavoured to procure unnecessary delay with respect to the measures required for the safety of Ireland. This charge, which had already been industriously circulated through the news papers, was, during the debate of the 10th, carefully revived by Mr. Archdall and Mr. Sheridan; the latter of whom observed, that it was no wonder that the Right Hon. Gentleman, who had required twenty-four hours to determine whether rebellion ought to be put a stop to in Ireland, should require six hours debate before he would consent to a vote of thanks to the Volunteers. As to the six hours debate Mr. Windham took up only about half an hour of it; and the allegation, with respect to his opinion relative to the address, in answer to the Message was no better founded. When the Message came before the House, he proposed, either to defer the consideration of it to the next day, according to the established usage of parliament, or to return an address, containing a general declaration of the sentiments of the House, and, then, to bring in a bill, or bills, after the House should be in possession of some official information as to the state of Ireland. And, let me ask any man of sense, whether this mode of proceeding would not have been the most proper. Mr. Windham had no objection to the suspension of the Ha beas Corpus Act, or to the introduction of Martial Law; but, was he to give his consent to these measures without possessing, as to the necessity of them, any other information than what had reached him through the news-papers? If that were the case, his office, as a member of parliament, would be rather worse than ridiculous. The precedent of the Irish Parliament, on the 22d of May, 1798, was cited; but there was very little analogy in the cases. The Lord Lieutenant then stated to the House," that the "city, at the request of the magistrates, "had been put under military authority, by "the 36th of His Majesty (Irish Act Parl.) 66 Intelligence had been received, that the "disaffected had for:ned a plan for attack"ing the capital in the present month; "every military precaution had been taken, "and a full communication had been made "to the magistrates for the direction of "their efforts." Even in an exigency so pressing, Lord Castlereagh, who brought down the message, thought it necessary to make a studied apology for the motion which he made for taking the message into consideration forthwith; and though it was well known to every member in the House, that government had intellegence, that an attempt on Dublin was intended to be made that very night, the only measure passed afterwards, during that evening, in consequence of the Message, was, a bill brought in by the Attorney General, not to introduce martial latu, but to authorize the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer to bold their sessions during the Term! How, then, let me ask, can this be cited as precedent in point? Observe, too, that even if a martial law bill had on that occasion, been passed the same evening, it by no means follows, that similar haste ought to have been yielded to in the present instance; because, though no official information, as to the state of Ireland and its capital, accompanied the message of May, 1798, yet it will be readily allowed, that a parliament sitting in the menaced capital itself, and composed entirely of Lords and Commons, having daily communication with every part of the country, must possess quite sufficient information, on the subject, to render it proper for them to proceed immediately to the passing or the rejecting of a martial law bill; whereas, the parliament at London, could know very little indeed of the state of Ireland; in fact, the members, generally speaking, could plead, as to the putting of that country under martial law, no other justification than what was to be found in the contradictory accounts, circulated through the diurnal |