and there was no competition, yet no more had been obtained for general service last year than 7,294 men. From May to December this year, there were 6,791, of course the difference was only 503, which was one-fourteenth of the whole. Dr. Laurence was not satisfied with, this comparison, because it did not take exclusively the months of August, Sept. Oct. and Nov. in each of the years compared; because those were the months in which the Army of Reserve Bill was ballotted for, and when of course the high bounties for substitutes to serve in it operated. The Attorney General said, he should not make many observations on the speech of the right hon. gent. (Mr. Windham), although he should certainly make some. He did not mean to cast any censure on that right hon. gent., or say thing as if any speech could be intended by him to give any advantage to the enemy over us.-He was persuaded, that the right hon. gent. was one of the last in the House, who would use any curious expressions in argument for the sake of an advantage, or for an apparent advantage in debate. He was persuaded, that the right hon. gent. did not wish to give our enemies any such, or any other advantage whatever; but he had frequently had occasion to feel, that the views which the right hon. gent had of things that came under his consideration, and the consequent manner in which he expressed himself, had, although not so intended by him, a tendency to the great disadvantage of the country; for what he thought most useful, what he so thought, or he would not say it, the AttorneyGeneral thought, in many instances, most disadvantageous to the country. If the question, now before the House, was a new question, whether we should or should not, adopt a mode of defence by volunteer corps, there were hardly any limits of criticism, to which we should wish to stop the right hon. gent. from entering; but when the volunteer system had been adopted to such an extent as it had been, so that it must be in vain for any man to hope, that any observations could induce the House to abandon the system; then it did seem to him to be not a ve.y useful practice to dwell upon the de fects of such a system, but on the contrary, it appeared to him, that some mischief might result from such a practice. If the volunteers were not such a force as the House could desire, which he did not say was their description, but if, for the sake of argument, they were so allowed to be, could this sort of language respecting them be useful? On the contrary, he would ask, if it was not most prejudicial? The condition of the volunteers should be attended to, many suggestions had been made concerning them, and they were most valuable suggestions, highly deserving of great consideration, as every thing must be that tended to ameliorate the condition of three or four hundred thousand men armed and associated in defence of their country. But the effect of the argument of the right hon. gent. was to degrade the volunteers in their own eyes. He did not say it was the intention of the right hon. gent. so to do, but it was the tendency, and if assented to, would be the effect of his observations.No man could hear or read the words of the right. hon. gent. but must, if he gave credit to the observations, look upon the volunteer corps as a body of a very low estimation. But was that all? Let any one who heard the hon. gent. to-night, or indeed at any time this session, ask himself, whether, if the volunteers had that respect for the opinion of the right hon. gent., which his opinions in some other matters were entitled to, they would have confidence in themselves?Could they have any such confidence, if the language of Parliament, of these who had encouraged them to come out for the service of their country, was to be on the model of the right hon. gent., and Parliament were to say to them" At best you will be little better than a rabble-you may depend upon it, no useful service can be expected of you." -Now, as to the corruption of which the right hon. gent. spoke, as being found in the volunteer corps, the right hon. gent., in his predilection to finding fault with ali volunteer corps, might have been able to find out some of them who had behaved improperly. But was it fair to argue against the whole of such an immense body as this, on account of the conduct of a few who might have disgraced themselves? The persons to whom the right hon. gent alluded, had been a disgrace-to whom?-to themselves; but not to the whole corps of volunteers, who were as unconnected with those persons as possible, and stood as distinct from them, as they did from their faults. If the right hon. gent, took the character of the volunteer corps from the character of those who disgraced them, there was an end of every thing like reasoning upon human affairs: as well might the right hon. gent. go to the goal of Newgate, and insist upon taking out of the cells there, charac ters from which to form a general opinion of human nature. This was only an error of the right hon. gent, in his predilection to finding fault with the volunteer system-not that he himself would make a bad conductor of a volunteer system; on the contrary, A was persuaded, that if the right hon. gent. were to set his mind to it, no man would be more active, or heartily employed in forming a good volunteer corps than he would. But if he went and told them, "You have made me a captain, and you are going to make me a colonel; but if you ask me my opinion, I am of no use to you, nor have I any opinion of you. I know, indeed, that I am an Englishman, and that I will run against a bayonet certainly. You must run too against a bayonet, but that is all we can do; we have no skill to meet the enemy, we can only be destroyed." Why, if that was to be the language of the right hon. gent., it would not be wonderful if the corps were to say, "We do not like this gentleman;" for if a man became an officer of such a corps, he ought not to endeavour to make them think meanly of themselves, but to inspire them with spirit and with confidence, and that he could only do by shewing them that they were equal to what they had undertaken, and therefore this doctrine of the right hon. gent. was as injurious to the corps to which he was attached as it was to the general system of the volunteer service. For the right hon. gent. said, that they were not only unfit now for what they are intended for, but that they are totally incapable of becoming of any utility whatever; this, he said, arose from the democratic nature of their constitution; and, in support of this, he read the articles of one of these bodies. The learned gent. said, he really did not know exactly to what corps the right hon. gent. alluded; but, he said, he himself had been an unworthy member of a volunteer corps, to whom he did believe the right hon. gent. intended his observation to apply, but to which it did not apply with justice, namely, that not only the officers were chosen by the corps, but also that the whole of the military concerns of the corps were under the controul and management of a committee. If there was any strong objection to the formation or to the regulation of that corps, and if the constitution of it was upon a false or an improper foundation, that was not the fault of the present ministers, because that corps was approved of under the administration of the right hon. gent. himself; but this was an observation, that occurred so frequently on the objection which that right hon. gent. had been in the habit of making since he was out of administration, that he should not insist much upon it. But he must take the liberty of refuting the assertion of the right hon. gent., that these committees controled the mili tary concerns of the corps. The fact was, that these committees had nothing upon earth to do with the military affairs of the corps. They were a body who conduct their own expenses, and all they had to do was of a civil nature entirely. They did not, in the least degree interfere with the military authority of the officers, nor with any one thing that was of a military nature. With respect to the idea of the right hon. gent., in having what he called an armed peasantry, he would save the regular army nothing by that with regard to officers of experience, for the armed peasantry would as much require officers of experience as the volunteer corps. And as to the objection of the right hon. gent. to the volunteers, on account of their corrupting the regulars, because the volunteers would not be under martial law, that was an error in the right hon. gentleman's assertion, for the moment they joined the regular army they would be under martial law. The objection that the volunteer system tended to confusion of rank, was illfounded; for, generally speaking, men of rank and character were the objects of choice with the corps. The impediments this system threw in the way of recruiting, his noble friend had answered by a statement of facts. If there was any doubt whether a volunteer would enter into the regular service, the practice was in the affirmative; but if any doubt existed upon that matter, it was proper to remove such doubt by the bill which was now in the House, and stood for a second reading to-night upon the subject of Exemptions of Volunteers. But what he wished to submit to the House most of all was this-Did any gentleman really think that these armed peasantry ought to be resorted to, instead of the volunteers? Did the right hon. gent. himself mean to say, that if he could persuade the House of Commons and the other House of Parliament, and his Majesty to consent, that we should now abandon the volunteer corps, that he himself would propose the peasantry instead of that system, or had he any other system in his mind instead of it? If we had no volunteer corps there must be a compulsory levy, and that would be very difficult in comparisonto this system. If a ballot were to take place, it should be remembered, that great numbers of the volunteer corps would find deputies, and that would impede the army as much as the present system can do. Now, if the right hon. gent. had no plan instead of this system of the volunteer corps, he would, upon reflection, perhaps, doubt the wisdom of the opposition he gave it. Mr. Windham denied that he had meant an armed democracy, to the extent alleged. He only spoke of the mixture which might take place during the time when the volun teers were not under martial law. If he disapproved of the present plan, if it was not necesssary, as some had insisted, to propose another as a substitute or amelioration. He did not conceive it always requisite for those who opposed plans, to have others ready for adoption: but were that principle at this time strictly urged against him, those who did so might, by references to the suggestions of his former speeches in that House, discover a substitute for the present plan. He thus spoke his sentiments, as he did not conceive the present measure as yet fixed and immutable. The Secretary at War said, that in answer to a fact, which had been stated by a learned gentleman, that the operation of the army of reserve had injured recruiting for the regular service during the months it operated, he had to state, that upon a comparative view of the months from July to November, the recruiting for the regular army had been greater than in the year 1802, notwithstanding all the advantages of that year by the recruiting service having the monopoly of it then, and also that the two militia and Scotch fencibles had been discharged, and in the present year the army of reserve had so operated. The question was then put and carried, and all the resolutions of the Committee were read and agreed to. - [VOLUNTEER EXEMPTION BILL.] On the motion for the second reading of the Volunteer exemption Bill, Dr. Laurence said that some misapprehension existed about the exemptions with respect to the volunteers who had not been accepted before the 23d of July. They were told originally they could not have the exemption, and they gave their services without expecting them. But now, as the exemptions were given to others in their situation, it was fair they should have the option. Mr. Secretary Yorke said, that all volunteer corps, whose services had been accepted, at whatsoever time, and who conformed to provisions prescribed, we.e entitled to the exemptions, except those who expressly declared them in their offers. In answer to an observation from Mr. Rose, as to the number of days of exercise, Mr. Sec. Yorke said, he proposed to fill the blank with 24 days. The bill was read a second time, and committed for Monday. HOUSE OF LORDS. Tuesday, December 13. [MINUTES.]-The East India Bond Bill, the Seaman's Desertion Bill, and others, were read a third time and passed.-The Expiring Laws Bill, the Sugar Drawback I Bill, &c. &c. were committed and reported, [BANK RESTRICTION BILL.-Upon the motion for the third reading of the Bank Restriction Bill, Lord Grenville said, he had already expressed his surprise at this Bill having been read a second time, without notice, the day after it came up to that House. He thought, that on the whole, it was best at the present moment to continue the Bank Restric tion; but this was not a step to be taken with indifference, or to be forwarded as a matter of course through its various stages; it was, on the contrary, a great evil; necessary, perhaps, in such a crisis as the present, but well worthy of the most serious attention of Parliament. It had been first proposed as a measure merely temporary, to meet a momentary but very alarming danger; as such it had, he thought, been highly beneficial. But it had been attended with the mischier inseparable from all measures of the same description. The fundamental principle of all governments on this subject ought to be, that credit and circulation, if undisturbed by legislative interterence, will invariably find their own level. Whenever any temporary purpose (as must sometimes happen) induces a departure from this principle, the misfortune is, that the first deviation too commonly leads to the necessity of a second, and so necessarily, until it becomes almost impossible to tread back the same steps, or to revert to the only wise system of policy on the subject. So it happened in this case. The measure adopted in the first instance to meet a momentary purpose had afterwards been prolonged (perhaps unavoidably) till, the conclusion of that war; and even now, though he lamented the effects of that prolongation, be hardly ventured to decide that the opinion of Parliament had in that instance been wrong. Next came the peace, so very like war, that its authors themselves had been afraid to depart from the war system; nor had he himself then opposed its renewal, convinced as he was, that the pretended state of peace was a real state of war in every thing, except in the power of providing for self-defence, and for the protection of our own interest. To venture such a step in the present moment, at least with out much preparation, would doubtless be difficult and hazardous. But he was not equally convinced, that it was wise to declare beforehand that the restriction should continue during the whole of this war, entertaining, as he confessed he did, some doubt whether it ought to have been continued to the end of the last war, and still, more, whether it should be prolonged at the peace. He was afraid that there was now growing up in this country a most mistaken apathy on the subject. Many persons be lieved that the continuance of the restriction had hitherto produced no inconvenience, and that there was therefore no danger in prolonging it almost indefinitely. Both parts of this opinion were, he thought, extremely erroneous. Much evil, he was persuaded, had already been produced by the measure, however necessary at the time of its adoption; and every day's continuance augmented, in a rapid proportion, both the extent of the evil and the difficulty of its removal. That, during the continuance of this measure, our paper circulation, both Bank and private paper, had infinitely increased, no man was ignorant of. He was afraid it might be shewn, that this was a necessary consequence of the measure itself. The power of converting paper into cash at the will of the holder, was the only safe limitation that ever could exist upon the issue of paper, and, if left to its free operation, it was a limitation that might safely be relied on. All other limitations were arbitrary, depending on the uncertain speculations of individuals upon points. which no speculations ever can decide with accuracy. It was said that, if the Bank had not increased its circulating paper since the restriction, no mischief can have arisen from it. No position can be more fallacious. In the first place, the Bank paper has in fact increased; but, even if this had not happened, the argument would still be of no weight. If private paper has during that period been greatly augmented, it is plain that the whole proportion of paper to cash in circulation has been changed, and that this change has equally taken place, whether the increase has arisen in Bank paper or in private paper. The restraint upon the Bank must necessarily give some increased encouragement to the issue of pricash vate paper, because, for private paper, may legally be demanded, for Bank paper it cannot; and if, by these or any other means, the proportion of private paper be much increased, there must obviously be less room for the circulation even for the same quantity as before of Bank paper; and VOL. IV. there is therefore much more reason to ap- * Gg g lating medium? Already are we told from po instances the measure had immediately an nihilated the paper it was intended port. He had no fear that the same prin ciple, by whatever authority it had be countenanced, would be acted upon to the same extent in this country; but he must take the liberty to say, that, in so far as it was followed up, either in speech or action, exactly in that proportion the public credit was affected and injured by it. The danger of such a shock to private paper, as he had stated, in the case of invasion, was not to be guarded against by such language, which had no other tendency than to increase that danger. Neither was it one which, on the other hand, it was prudent or safe for us to overlook. The wretched policy of neglecting necessary precautions for fear of creating just alarm began now to be sufficiently understood. In every stance in which it was resorted to, it always would produce the same effects as had al ready been so fatally experienced from it. Yet, by the present bill, while we confess the nature of the danger, the slightest glance at the proportion which private pa per bears to that of the Bank will shew how far we are from providing for its extent. Those who at all understand the subject, know that the Bank paper possesses a sta bility not to be shaken but by such a total subversion of the country as no Englishman wishes to survive. Yet we think ourselves obliged to protect even this corporation, resting on such immutable pillars of secu rity, against the danger of sudden pressure from temporary alarm. Shall we then wholly overlook the private paper, so much greater in extent, and so much less secure in its stability? The ultimate security of the paper issued by the country banks now es tablished in every corner of this land might be as perfect as that of the Bank it self. The facility which they give in ordinary times to the commercial transactions of the country is unquestionable. But no man can look without the most serious ap prehension at the temporary effect which blameless, but |